Exodus 13

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

² ‘Consecrate all the first-born to me, the first issue of every womb, among the sons of Israel. Whether man or beast, this is mine.’

³ Moses said to the people, ‘Keep this day in remembrance, the day you came out of Egypt, from the house of slavery, for it was by sheer power that Yahweh brought you out of it; no leavened bread must be eaten.

⁴ On this day, in the month of Abib, you are leaving Egypt.

⁵ And so, in this same month, when Yahweh brings you to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, the land he swore to your fathers he would give you, a land where milk and honey flow, you are to hold this service.

⁶ For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a feast in honour of Yahweh.

⁷ During these seven days unleavened bread is to be eaten; no leavened bread must be seen among you, no leaven among you in all your territory.

⁸ And on that day you will explain to your son, “This is because of what Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt”.

⁹ The rite will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a memento on your forehead, and in that way the law of Yahweh will be ever on your lips, for Yahweh brought you out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

¹⁰ You will observe this ordinance each year at its appointed time.

¹¹ ‘When Yahweh brings you to the land of the Canaanites – as he swore to you and your fathers he would do – and gives it to you,

¹² you are to make over to Yahweh all that first issues from the womb, and every first-born cast by your animals: these males belong to Yahweh.

¹³ But every first-born donkey you will redeem with an animal from your flocks. If you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. Of your sons, every first-born of men must be redeemed.

¹⁴ And when your son asks you in days to come, “What does this mean?” you will tell him, “By sheer power Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹⁵ When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the first-born in the land of Egypt, of man and of beast alike. For this I sacrifice to Yahweh every male that first issues from the womb, and redeem every first-born of my sons.”

¹⁶ The rite will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a circlet on your forehead. for Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.’

¹⁷ When Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not let them take the road to the land of the Philistines, although that was the nearest way. God thought that the prospect of fighting would make the people lose heart and turn back to Egypt.

¹⁸ Instead, God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness to the Sea of Reeds. The sons of Israel went out from Egypt fully armed.

¹⁹ Moses took with him the bones of Joseph who had put the sons of Israel on solemn oath. ‘It is sure that God will visit you,’ he had said ‘and when that day comes you must take my bones from here with you.’

²⁰ From Succoth they moved on, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness.

²¹ Yahweh went before them, by day in the form of a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and by night in the form of a pillar of fire to give them light: thus they could continue their march by day and by night.

²² The pillar of cloud never failed to go before the people during the day, nor the pillar of fire during the night.