Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine.”
Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten. Today you go out in the month Abib. It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Yahweh. Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and no leavened bread shall be seen with you. No yeast shall be seen with you, within all your borders. You shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘It is because of that which Yahweh did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ It shall be for a sign to you on your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that Yahweh’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand Yahweh has brought you out of Egypt. You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
“It shall be, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and will give it you, that you shall set apart to Yahweh all that opens the womb, and every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have. The males shall be Yahweh’s. Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and you shall redeem all the firstborn of man among your sons. It shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall tell him, ‘By strength of hand Yahweh brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of livestock. Therefore I sacrifice to Yahweh all that opens the womb, being males; but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be for a sign on your hand, and for symbols between your eyes; for by strength of hand Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.”
When Pharaoh had let the people go, God didn’t lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and they return to Egypt”; but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had made the children of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones away from here with you.” They took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, didn’t depart from before the people.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 21 To signify that they had not leisure to leaven…
To signify that they had not leisure to leaven their bread.
Hebrew, house of servants.
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Where they were in most cruel slavery.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Exo 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 13:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] God hath a saying to such as he hath saved: and what it is, see Exo 13:2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 Sanctify unto me, to my use and service, in…
Sanctify unto me, to my use and service, in manner as I shall hereafter explain. And sanctify, i.e. command all the people to sanctify, as Moses did, Exo 13:12.
All the first-born, viz. if they be males, as it is limited, Exo 13:12.
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Whatsoever openeth the womb; every child which is the first-born of his mother: so that if a man had many wives, either together or successively, his first child by every one of these was a first-born. Whether clean or unclean, though in different manner; whereof see Num 18:13,15,17. It is mine, by special right and title; as being by my singular care and favour preserved from the common destruction, and therefore I challenge a peculiar interest in them, and do hereby require that they be devoted to me.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 11, 17 Care is here taken to perpetuate the remembrance,
Care is here taken to perpetuate the remembrance,
I. Of the preservation of Israel's firstborn, when the firstborn of the Egyptians were slain. In memory of that distinguishing favour, and in gratitude for it, the firstborn, in all ages, were to be consecrated to God, as his peculiars (Exo 13:2), and to be redeemed, Exo 13:13. God, who by the right of creation is proprietor and sovereign of all the creatures, here lays claim in particular to the firstborn of the Israelites, by right of protection: Sanctify to me all the firstborn. The parents were not to look upon themselves as interested in their firstborn, till they had first solemnly presented them to God, recognized his title to them, and received them back, at a certain rate, from him again. Note, 1. That which is by special distinguishing mercy spared to us should be in a peculiar manner dedicated to God's honour; at least some grateful acknowledgment, in works of piety and charity, should be made, when our lives, or the lives of our children, have been given us for a prey. 2. God, who is the first and best, should have the first and best, and to him we should resign that which is most dear to us, and most valuable. The firstborn were the joy and hope of their families. Therefore they shall be mine, says God. By this is will appear that we love God best (as we ought) if we are willing to part with that to him which we love best in this world. 3. It is the church of the firstborn that is sanctified to God, Heb 12:23. Christ it the firstborn among many brethren (Rom 8:29), and, by virtue of their union with him, all that are born again, and born from above, are accounted as firstborn. There is an excellency of dignity and power belonging to them; and, if children, then heirs.
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II. The remembrance of their coming out of Egypt must also be perpetuated: "Remember this day, Exo 13:3. Remember it by a good token, as the most remarkable day of your lives, the birthday of your nation, or the day of its coming of age, to be no longer under the rod." Thus the day of Christ's resurrection is to be remembered, for in it we were raised up with Christ out of death's house of bondage. The scripture tells us not expressly what day of the year Christ rose (as Moses told the Israelites what day of the year they were brought out of Egypt, that they might remember it yearly), but very particularly what day of the week it was, plainly intimating that, as the more valuable deliverance, and of greater importance, it should be remembered weekly. Remember it, for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out. Note, The more of God and his power appears in any deliverance, the more memorable it is. Now, that it might be remembered,
1. They must be sure to keep the feast of unleavened bread, Exo 13:5-7. It was not enough that they remembered it, but they must celebrate the memorial of it in that way which God had appointed, and use the instituted means of preserving the remembrance of it. So, under the gospel, we must not only remember Christ, but do this in remembrance of him. Observe, How strict the prohibition of leaven is (Exo 13:7); not only no leaven must be eaten, but none must be seen, no, not in all their quarters. Accordingly, the Jews' usage was, before the feast of the passover, to cast all the leavened bread out of their houses: they burnt it, or buried it, or broke it small and scattered it in the wind; they searched diligently with lighted candles in all the corners of their houses, lest any leaven should remain. The care and strictness enjoined in this matter were designed, (1.) To make the feast the more solemn, and consequently the more taken notice of by their children, who would ask, "Why is so much ado made?" (2.) To teach us how solicitous we should be to put away from us all sin, Co1 5:7.
2. They must instruct their children in the meaning of it, and relate to them the story of their deliverance out of Egypt, Exo 13:8. Note, (1.) Care must be taken betimes to instruct children in the knowledge of God. Here is an ancient law for catechising. (2.) It is particularly of great use to acquaint children betimes with the stories of the scripture, and to make them familiar to them. (3.) It is a debt we owe to the honour of God, and to the benefit of our children's souls, to tell them of the great works God has done for his church, both those which we have seen with our eyes done in our day and which we have heard with our ears and our fathers have told us: Thou shalt show thy son in that day (the day of the feast) these things. When they were celebrating the ordinance, they must explain it. Every thing is beautiful in its season. The passover is appointed for a sign, and for a memorial, that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth. Note, We must retain the remembrance of God's works, that we may remain under the influence of God's law. And those that have God's law in their heart should have it in their mouth, and be often speaking of it, the more to affect themselves and to instruct others.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–22 And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... When he and…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... When he and the Israelites were at Succoth:
saying; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22 In this chapter we have,
In this chapter we have,
I. The commands God gave to Israel,
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1. To sanctify all their first-born to him, ver. 1, 2.
2. To remember their deliverance out of Egypt, ver. 3, 4. and in remembrance of it to keep the feast of unleavened bread, ver. 5-8.
3. To transmit the knowledge of it to their children, ver. 8-10.
4. To set apart to God the firstlings of their cattle, ver. 11-13. and to explain that also to their children, ver. 14-16.
II. The care God took of Israel when he had brought them out of Egypt.
1. Chusing their way for them, ver. 17, 18
2. Guiding them in the way, ver. 20-22. And their care of Joseph's bones, ver. 19.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 God establishes the law concerning the first-born, and
CHAPTER XIII
God establishes the law concerning the first-born, and
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commands that all such, both of man and beast, should be
sanctified unto him, 1, 2.
Orders them to remember the day in which they were brought
out of Egypt, when they should be brought to the land of
Canaan; and to keep this service in the month Abib, 3-5.
Repeats the command concerning the leavened bread, 6, 7,
and orders them to teach their children the cause of it, 8,
and to keep strictly in remembrance that it was by the might
of God alone they had been delivered from Egypt, 9.
Shows that the consecration of the first-born, both of man
and beast, should take place when they should be settled in
Canaan, 10-12.
The first-born of man and beast to be redeemed, 13.
The reason of this also to be shown to their children, 14, 15.
Frontlets or phylacteries for the hands and forehead commanded,
16.
And the people are not led directly to the promised land, but
about through the wilderness; and the reason assigned, 17, 18.
Moses takes the bones of Joseph with him, 19.
They journey from Succoth and come to Etham, 20.
And the Lord goes before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by
night in a pillar of fire, 21,
which miracle is regularly continued both by day and night, 22.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Verse 1. The Lord spake unto Moses] The commands in this chapter appear to have been given at Succoth, on the same day in which they left Egypt.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 21, 22 Exo 13:2. Sanctify — That is, command all the…
Exo 13:2. Sanctify — That is, command all the people to sanctify; unto me — To my use and service, in a manner I shall hereafter explain; all the firstborn — That are males, as the command is limited, Exo 13:12; whatsoever openeth the womb — That is, every child which is the firstborn of his mother: so that if a man had many wives, either together or successively, his first child by every one of these was a firstborn, and, if a male, was claimed by the Lord. But if a female came first, and afterward a male, that male was not devoted to God, because it was not the firstborn. Hence the parents were not to look upon themselves as having an interest in their firstborn, if males, till they had first solemnly presented them to God, and received them back from him again. It is mine — By special right and title, as being by singular favour preserved from the common destruction. The firstborn of man, if males, were claimed for the sacred ministrations of the priestly office. But after the Jewish commonwealth was formed, the Levites were chosen to officiate in their stead, Num 3:12; and the firstborn were to be redeemed at a certain rate, which was part of the priest’s maintenance, Num 18:15-16. And of beast — Which was to be offered to God, if a male: only an ass was to be redeemed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 9, 13, 18, 20, 21 Sanctify unto me - The command is addressed to…
Sanctify unto me - The command is addressed to Moses. It was to declare the will of God that all firstborn were to be consecrated to Him, set apart from all other creatures. The command is expressly based upon the Passover. The firstborn exempt from the destruction became in a new and special sense the exclusive property of the Lord: the firstborn of man as His ministers, the firstborn of cattle as victims. In lieu of the firstborn of men the Levites were devoted to the temple services.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22 Sanctify unto me every first-born. Sanctification in this place…
Sanctify unto me every first-born. Sanctification in this place means, that the first-born males of the Hebrews should be deputed to the ministry in the divine worship: and the first-born of beasts to be given for a sacrifice. (Challoner) --- Sanctify, set apart. (Menochius) --- Openeth, the first male fruit of the womb. If a female was born the first, none of the children were to be redeemed. (Luke ii. 23.) Jesus Christ submitted to this law; though many of the fathers have asserted that, on account of his miraculous conception and birth, he was not subjected to it; while others maintain the contrary. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v17 Direction of the Exodus. The Pursuit. The Distress. The…
FOURTH SECTION
Direction of the Exodus. The Pursuit. The Distress. The Red Sea. The Song of Triumph
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Exo_13:17 to Exo_15:21
A.—Direction of the march. The distress. Passage through the Red Sea. Judgment and deliverance
Exo_13:17 to Exo_14:31
17And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through [by] the way of the land of the Philistines, although [for]2 that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the [Lest the] people repent, when they see war, and they return to Egypt: 18But God led the people about through [by] the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up harnessed 19[armed] out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he had straitly [strictly] sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. 20And they took their journey [they journeyed] from Succoth, and encamped in Etham in 21[on] the edge of the wilderness. And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud [of cloud], to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. 22He took not away the pillar of the cloud [of cloud] by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Chap. Exo_14:1-2 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn [turn back] and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against [before] Baal-zephon; before [over against] it shall 3ye encamp by the sea. For [And] Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled [bewildered] in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. 4And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall [and he will] follow after them, and I will be honored [get me honor] upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that [and] the Egyptians may [shall] know that I am Jehovah. And they did Song of Solomon 5 And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this [What is this that we have done], that we have let Israel go from serving us? 6And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him. 7And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every 8one [all] of them. And Jehovah hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, 9and he pursued after the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with an [a] high hand. But [And] the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots [chariot-horses] of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon. 10And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians [Egypt] marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto Jehovah. 11And they said unto Moses, Because [Is it because] there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou [that thou hast] taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with [what is this that thou hast done to] 12us, to carry [in bringing] us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell [spake unto] thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been [is] better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. 13And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will shew to [work for] you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall 14see them again no more forever. Jehovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold 15your peace. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak 16unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But [And] lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine [thy] hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will get me honor upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 18And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have gotten [get] me honor upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19And the angel of God, which [who] went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud [of cloud] went [removed] from before their face 20[before them], and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them [and darkness], but it gave light by night to these [it lightened the night]:3 so that [and] the one came not near the other all the night. 21And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and Jehovah caused the sea to go back [flow] by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land [bare ground],4 and the waters were divided. 22And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 23And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 24And it came to pass that in the morning watch Jehovah looked unto [looked down at] the host of the Egyptians through [in] the pillar of fire and of the cloud [of cloud], and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 25And took off [turned aside] their chariot wheels, that they drave them [and made them drive] heavily: so that [and] the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for Jehovah fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 26And Jehovah said unto Moses, Stretch out thine [thy] hand over the sea, that the waters may come again [back] upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 27And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength [to its course] when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and Jehovah overthrew [shook] the Egyptians in [into] the midst of the sea. 28And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen and [of]5 all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them [of them not even one]. 29But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a 30wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. Thus [And] Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 31And Israel saw that [the] great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared Jehovah, and believed in Jehovah and his servant Moses.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo_13:17. “For that was near.” A. V., Murphy, Kalisch, Gesenius, Glaire, Alford retain the rendering “although” for כִּי in this sentence. But such a meaning for כִּי cannot be well substantiated. Psa_49:10, adduced by Fürst, is certainly not an instance of such use. Psa_116:10 is more plausible. The A. V. rendering: “I believed, therefore [כִּי] have I spoken,” is incorrect. But it is not necessary, with some, to translate: “I believed, although I speak.” The particle here probably has the meaning “when.” In Psa_49:19, adduced by Gesenius (Thesaurus), it means “because,” the apodosis following in Exo_13:20. The same may be said of Gen_8:21; Job_15:27-29; Zec_8:6. The rendering “when” suffices in Jer_4:30; Jer_30:11; Jer_49:16; Jer_50:11; Jer_51:53; Mic_7:8; Psa_27:10; Psa_21:12. The rendering “for” suffices in Hos_13:15; Nah_1:10; Deu_18:14; Deu_29:19; Jer_46:23; Psa_71:10; 1Ch_28:5. The rendering “ where as,” or “while,” may be adopted in Mal_1:4; Ecc_4:14. Probably these comprise all the passages in which the meaning “though” can with any plausibility be maintained. כִּי can be assumed to have the meaning “although” only as being equivalent to גַּם כִּי, “even when.” Even though this should be assumed sometimes to occur, still the case before us is not of that sort. The true explanation of such constructions is to assume a slight ellipsis in the expression: “God led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, [as might have been expected], seeing that was near.” Or: “for that was near [and return to Egypt in case of danger would be more readily resorted to].”—Tr.]
[Exo_14:20. וַיְהִי הֶעָנָן וְהַחשֶׁךְ וַיָּאֶר אֶת־הַלָּיְלָה. The construction is difficult. The only literal rendering is: “And it was (or, became) the cloud and the darkness, and it illumined the night.” The difficulty is gotten over by Knobel and Ewald by altering וְהַחשֶׁךְ into וְהֶחֱשִׁיךְ, reading: “And it came to pass us to the cloud, that it made darkness.” But even with this conjectural change, it is no less necessary to assume an ellipsis of “to the one” and “to the other,” or “on the one side” and “on the other,” as is done by A. V. and the great majority of versions and commentators. The article may be explained as pointing back to Exo_13:21 : “And it was the cloud and the darkness which have been already described.” Or it is even possible to take מַלאַךְ (Exo_14:19) as the subject of the verb: “And he became the cloud and darkness; but he illumined the night.”—Tr.]
[Exo_14:21. The Hebrew word here used, חָרָבָה, is different from the one rendered “dry ground” in the next verse; and there is a clear distinction in the meaning, as is quite apparent from a comparison of Gen_8:13, where it is said, that on the first day of the first month the ground was חָרֵב, with Exo_14:14, where it is said, that on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was יָבֵשׁ. The first means: free from water, drained; the second means: free from moisture, dry. The distinction is generally clear, though sometimes not exactly observed.—Tr.]
[Exo_14:28. The preposition לְ certainly cannot here be rendered “and;” but it may have a sort of resumptive force, equivalent to “even,” “namely,” “in short.”—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Exo_13:17. Not by the way of the land of the Philistines. Decidedly wise, theocratic policy on the part of Moses, rightly ascribed to God. The people, disheartened by servitude, could not at once maintain a conflict with the warlike Philistines, without being driven back to Egypt. They must first acquire in the wilderness the qualities of heroes. And that, according to Goethe, was accomplished in a few years! On the exodus, comp. Introduction; Keil, II. p. 42; Knobel, p. 131.
Exo_13:18. Led the people about. It is a question whether the round-about way spoken of has reference simply to the absolutely direct route through the Philistine country, or to another more direct one which they had already begun to take, but which they were to give up. According to Exo_14:2, the latter is to be assumed. Moreover, reference is made not only to the small distance to the Red Sea, but to the whole distance through the wilderness along the Red Sea, first southward along the Gulf of Suez, then along the Elanitic Gulf northwards, (see Knobel, p. 131). For we have here to do with an introductory and summary account. It was natural that nothing but the prophetic divine word of Moses should have the control of the march, inasmuch as the people would have rushed impetuously towards the old caravan road of their fathers. Moses himself was further influenced by his former journey to Sinai and the revelation there made to him. “From Raemses to the head of the Gulf would be a distance of some 35 miles, which might easily have been passed over by the Israelites in three days” (Robinson I., 80). The deviation from the direct way must, however, be taken into consideration, even though it may have added little to the distance. On the three routes from Cairo to Suez, see Robinson, p. 73.—Of the Red Sea. See the Lexicons, Travels, Knobel, p. 131, sqq.6—Especially as the children of Israel went up armed for battle. So we understand the force of the ו before חֲמֻשִׁים. A march in order of battle would have looked like a challenge to the Philistines. Moreover, חָמַשׁ signifies, among other things, to provoke to anger.7
Exo_13:19. The bones of Joseph. Another testimony to the tenacity with which the Israelites retained moral impressions and old traditions. The vow, 480 years old, and the oath which sealed it, were still fresh. Vid. Gen_1:25. On the fruitfulness of the land of Goshen, see Robinson, p. 76. “From the Land of Goshen to the Red Sea the direct and only route was along the valley of the ancient canal” (Ibid. p. 79).
Exo_13:20. From Succoth. Inasmuch as they had already, according to Exo_12:37, gone from Raemses to Succoth in battle array, Succoth (Tent-town, or Booths) would seem to designate not the first gathering-place of the people (Keil), but the point at which the first instinctive movement towards the Philistine border was checked by the oracle of Moses, and by the appearance of the pillar of fire and of smoke. While they at first wished to go from Succoth (say, by the northern extremity of the Bitter Lakes, or even farther on), directly to Palestine, they now had to go along on the west side of the Bitter Lakes towards the Red Sea. Thus they come from Succoth to Etham. “Etham lay at the end of the wilderness, which in Num_33:8 is called the wilderness of Etham; but in Exo_15:22, the wilderness of Shur, that is, where Egypt ends and the desert of Arabia begins” (Keil). “Etham is to be looked for either on the isthmus of Arbek, in the region of the later Serapeum, or the south end of the Bitter Lakes. Against the first view (that of Stickel, Kurtz, Knobel), and for the second, a decisive consideration is the distance, which, although Seetzen went from Suez to Arbek in eight hours, yet according to the statement of the French scholar, Du Bois Aymé, amounts to 60,000 metres (16 hours, about 37 miles), a distance such that the people of Israel could not in one day have traveled from Etham to Hahiroth. We must therefore look for Etham at the south end of the basin of the Bitter Lakes, whither Israel may have come in two days from Abu Keisheib, and then on the third day have reached the plain of Suez between Ajrud and the sea” (Keil). Abu Keisheib is Heroopolis near Raemses; Ajrud is thought to be identical with Pi-Hahiroth. Vid. Num_33:5 sqq.8
Exo_13:21. And Jehovah went before them. According to Keil this first took place at Etham; but it is to be observed that the decisive movement began at Succoth. Keil says indeed that in verse 17 it reads that Elohim [God] led them, not till here that Jehovah went before them. But Jehovah and Elohim are not two different Gods. Jehovah, as Elohim, knew the Philistines well, and knew that Israel must avoid a contest with them. God, as Jehovah, was the miracle-working leader of His people.—By day in a pillar of cloud.—“This sign of the divine presence and guidance has a natural analogue in the caravan fire, viz. small iron vessels or stoves containing a wood fire, which, fastened on the tops of long poles, are carried as way-marks before caravans, and according to Curtius (de gestis Alex. mag. Exo_5:2; Exo_5:7), in trackless regions, are also carried before armies on the march, the smoke indicating to the soldiers the direction by day, the flame, by night. Comp. Harmar, Observations II., p. 278, Pococke, Description of the East, II., p. 33. Still more analogous is the custom (mentioned by Curtius III. 3, 9) of the ancient Persians, who carried before the marching army on silver altars a fire quem ipsi sacrum et æternum vocant. Yet one must not identify the cloudy and fiery pillar of the Israelitish exodus with such caravan or army fires, and regard it as only a mythical conception or embellishment of this natural fact” (Keil). He opposes Köster’s view, that the cloud was produced by an ordinary caravan fire, and became a symbol of the divine presence, thus setting aside also Knobel’s theory (Comm., p. 134) of a legend which was derived from this usage. Here too Keil is concerned about supernaturalism in the abstract, and about something purely outward, so that we do not need here to move in the sphere of faith, of vision, of symbol, and of mystery. The internal world is left out of consideration, while the inspired letter has to serve as evidence for the miraculous appearance. According to him the phenomenon was a cloud which inclosed a fire, and which, when the Israelites were on the march, assumed the form of motion [“a dark pillar of smoke rising towards heaven,” Keil], but, when the tabernacle rested, “perhaps more the form of a round ball of cloud.” It was the same fire, he says further, in which the Lord revealed Himself to Moses out of the bush (Exo_3:2), and afterwards descended upon Sinai amidst thunder and lightning. He calls it the symbol of the divine fiery jealousy. Even the Prophets and Psalms are made to share in this literalness (Isa_4:5 sq.; Isa_49:10; Psa_91:5 sq.; Psa_121:6). A sort of solution is cited from Sartorius in his Meditations, to the effect that God, by special action on the earthly element, formed out of its sphere and atmosphere a body, which He then assumed and permeated, in order in it to reveal His real presence. But is not that Indian mythology as much as is the modern theological doctrine of the κένωσιζ? We leave the mystery in its uniqueness suspended between this world and the other, only observing that the problem will have to be solved, how, in later times, the smoke of the offering which rose up from the tabernacle was related to the pillar of cloud. Likewise the question arises: What was the relation between the light of the perpetual lamp, or the late expiring and early kindling fire of the burnt-offering, and the pillar of fire? Vid. Exo_29:39; Num_28:4. The burnt-offering derives its name from the notion of rising; comp. especially Jdg_13:20. The ark, as the central object in the tabernacle, which generally preceded the host, retired in decisive moments behind the host, according to Jos_4:11; so the pillar of cloud here, Exo_14:19. Rationalism finds nothing but a popular legend in the religious and symbolic contemplation of the guidance of the living God; literalism seeks to paint the letters with fantastic, golden arabesques. Assumption (ascension) of a cloud in the form of a ball whose interior consists of fire!
Exo_14:2. Turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth.9—In Num_33:8 Hahiroth; Pi is the Egyptian article. This camping-place is identified by many with the place named Ajrud or Agirud, “now a fortress with a well two hundred and fifty feet deep, which, however, contains such bitter water that camels can hardly drink it, on the pilgrims’ road from Cairo to Mecca, four hours’ distance northwest of Suez, comp. Niebuhr, Reise I., p. 216; Burckhardt, Syria, p. 626, and Robinson, Researches I, p. 68. From Ajrud there stretches out a plain, ten miles long and as many broad, towards the sea west of Suez, and from the foot of the Atakah to the arm of the sea north of Suez (Robinson I., p. 65). This plain very probably served the Israelites as a camping-place, so that they encamped before, i.e. east of Ajrud towards the sea. In the neighborhood of Hahiroth (Ajrud) must be sought also the other places, of which thus far no trace has been discovered” (Keil). On Migdol and Baal-zephon, vid. Keil II., p. 43. Since the names Migdol and Baalzephon are without doubt designed to mark the line of travel, it is natural to assume that they indicate the whence and the whither of the route. According to Robinson (I., p. 64) a rocky defile called Muntula leads to the region of Ajrud (Pi-hahiroth) on the left, and Suez on the right, on the Red Sea. Strauss (Sinai und Golgotha, p. 122) called the defile Muktala, and identifies Baal-zephon with Suez. The question about the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea is obscured by theological bias in both directions. It is regarded as a natural event, raised by legendary tradition into a miracle, by Knobel, p. 135 sq., where the historical remarks on the Red Sea and the analogies of the passage are very noteworthy. Karl von Raumer, on the contrary (Palästina, p. 478, under the head, Zug der Israeliten aus Egypten nach Kanaan). regards as rationalistic even the view of Niebuhr, Robinson and others, that the passage took place at Suez or north of Suez, quoting the opinion of Wilson and other Americans (p. 480). He adopts the view of Schubert, Wilson and others, that the Israelites marched south of Suez by Bessantin to the Red Sea. Robinson’s remark, that the hypothesis that the Israelites passed over from the plain of Bede (Wady Tawarik) is overthrown by the circumstance that there the sea is twelve miles wide, and that the people did not have but two hours for the passage, Von Raumer overthrows by means of a dictum of Luther s concerning the miraculous power of God. Von Raumer also will not hear to any natural event as the substratum of the miracle. “The Holy Scriptures,” he says, “know nothing of a N. N. E. wind, but say that an east wind divided the waters, that they stood up on the right and the left like walls; there is nothing said about an ebb, hence the duration of the ebb is not to be taken into account.” He seems even to be embarrassed by the fact that there is an alternation of ebb and flood in the Red Sea; and in places where others also, in individual cases, at the ebb-tide have ridden through, he holds that the passage could not have take place, e.g. where Napoleon in 1799 crossed the ford near Suez, and thus endangered his life (Robinson I., p. 85). Even the co-operation of the wind, he holds, can be taken into account only in the interest of the magnified miracle, although it is designated not only in Exo_14:21 as the cause of the drying of the sea, but the like fact is also referred to in Moses’ song of praise (Exo_15:8; comp. Psa_106:9 and other passages). Hence, too, he holds, the east wind must not be understood as being, more exactly, a north-east wind.10 Similar biblical passages are given by Knobel, p. 139. The objection that north of Suez there is not water enough to have overwhelmed Pharaoh’s host, is removed by the observation of Stickel and Kurtz, that, according to travellers, the Gulf of Suez formerly extended much farther north than now, and in course of time through the blowing in of sand has become shorter, and hence also more shallow (Knobel, p. 140). Also Strauss (Sinai und Golgotha, p. 123) regards the hypothesis that the passage took place as far south as below the mountain Atakah, where the sea is nearly twelve miles wide, as inadmissible, although he insists, on the other hand, that natural forces are insufficient to explain the event. While the subject has been very carefully examined in this aspect, two principal factors of the miracle have been too little regarded: (1) the assurance and foresight of the prophet that in the moment of the greatest need a miracle of deliverance would be performed; (2) the miraculously intensified natural phenomenon, corresponding to the harmonia præstabilita between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of nature, such that an extraordinary ebb, by the aid of a continuous night-storm which blew against the current, laid bare the whole ford for the entire passage of all the people of Israel with their flocks, and that an equally violent wind from the opposite direction might have made the flood, hitherto restrained, a high tide, which must have buried Pharaoh. He who in all this sees only a natural occurrence will of course even press the letter of the symbolic expression, that the water stood up on both sides like a wall.11
Exo_14:3. For Pharaoh will say.—We must here remember the law regulating the writing of theocratic history, according to which, as the record of religious history, it puts foremost the divine purpose, and passes over the human motives and calculations, by means of which this purpose was effected, yet without leaving, in the spirit of an abstract supernaturalism, such motives out of the account. Here, accordingly, Moses cannot from the first have had the intention, in marching to the Red Sea, of alluring Pharaoh to the extreme of obduracy, and thereby into destruction. But he may well have anticipated that Pharaoh, pursuing him on the highway around the sea, might be quite as dangerous to him as a collision with the Philistines. As one long acquainted with the Red Sea, he saw only a single means of deliverance, viz., the taking advantage of the ebb for his people, who then by means of the returning flood could get a long distance ahead of Pharaoh, in case he should follow them. So far human calculation could reach; but it received a splendid transformation through the Spirit of revelation, who disclosed to the prophet, together with the certainty of deliverance, the ultimate object of this form of deliverance, viz, the final judgment on Pharaoh, which was yet to be inflicted.—They are bewildered in the land.—The round-about way from Etham to the sea might seem like an uncertain marching hither and thither.—The wilderness hath shut them in.—They cannot go through, and are held fast. The section Exo_14:1-4 is a comprehensive summary.
Exo_14:5. That the people fled.—This statement probably preceded Pharaoh’s judgment, that the people wished to flee, but were arrested. So much seemed to be proved, that they were not thinking only of a three days’ journey in the wilderness in order to hold a festival.—The heart of Pharaoh … was turned.—Pharaoh may have been stirred up alike by the thought of a fleeing host, and by that of one wandering about helplessly. For they seemed to be no longer a people of God protected by God’s servants, but smitten at the outset, and doomed to slavery. But the king and his courtiers needed to use an imposing military force in order to bring them back, seeing they were at least concentrated and armed. All the more, inasmuch as his pledge, their right, and the consciousness of perjury, determined the tyrant to assume the appearance of carrying on war against them. Whatever distinction may in other cases be made between camping places and days’ journeys, the three stations, Succoth, Etham and Pi-hahiroth, doubtless designate both, that there may be also no doubt concerning Pharaoh’s injustice.12 Useless trouble has been taken to determine when Pharaoh received the news, and pursued after the Israelites; also where he received the news, whether in Tanis or elsewhere. According to Num_33:7 they pitched in Pihahiroth; but this was probably not limited to an encampment for a night. Here then after three days’ journey they were to celebrate a feast of Jehovah in the wilderness in a much higher sense than they could before have imagined.
Exo_14:6-7. And he made ready his chariot.—The grotesque preparations made by heathen powers are described in detail, as if with a sort of irony. So the arming of Goliath, 1 Samuel 17, comp. also 2 Chronicles 32; Daniel 4, 5. Knobel, in a droll manner, puts together Pharaoh’s army, from the several narratives of the Elohist and the Jehovist—שָׁלִישִים, “Three men.” “On the Assyrian chariots one and two persons are represented, but sometimes three (Layard, Nineveh, Fig. 19, 51)” [Knobel].
Exo_14:8. And Jehovah hardened.—Not a repetition of Exo_14:4. There we have the summary pre-announcement, here the history itself. Over against Pharaoh’s obduracy (which here also is represented as effected by Jehovah, because occasioned by Israel’s seemingly bewildered flight, because Jehovah by the appearance of the impotence of Israel brought this judgment of blindness upon him) is raised the high hand of Jehovah; the divine sovereignty, which Pharaoh, to his own destruction, failed to recognize, has decided in favor of Israel’s deliverance.
Exo_14:10-12. The children of Israel lifted up their eyes.—Their condition seemed to be desperate. On the east, the sea; on the south, the mountains; on the north-west, the host of Pharaoh. True, they cried unto the Lord; but the reproaches which they heap upon Moses show that the confidence of genuine prayer is wanting, or at least is disappearing.—No graves in Egypt.—As Egypt was so rich in sepulchral monuments and worship of the dead, this expression has a certain piquancy; it also expresses the thought that they saw death before their eyes.—Is not this the word?—Here he has the foretoken of all similar experiences which he is to encounter in leading the people. The exaggeration of their recollection of a doubt formerly expressed reaches the pitch of falsehood.
Exo_14:13-14. Over against the despondent people Moses appears in all the heroic courage of his confidence.
Exo_14:15. Wherefore criest thou unto me?—The Israelites cried to Jehovah, and Jehovah did not hear them. Moses outwardly was silent; but Jehovah heard how he inwardly cried to Him. The confidence, therefore, which he displayed to the people was founded on a fervent inward struggle of spirit. While therefore Jehovah’s word is no reproof, there is something of a contrast in what follows: Speak unto the children of Israel, etc. That is: No further continuance of the spiritual struggle; forward into the Red Sea!
Exo_14:16. And lift thou up thy rod.—The miraculous rod is for the present still the banner of the people. It marks the foresight of Moses, his confidence, and the sacramental union of the divine help with this sign. Or shall we take this also literally: “while Moses divides the water with his rod” (Keil)?
Exo_14:17. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians.—The obduracy which spread from Pharaoh over the whole host was brought on by the strong fascination of overtaking a fugitive people and by the miraculous condition of things on the sea.—I will get me honor.—God’s miraculous sway was to become manifest as His just judgment.
Exo_14:19. The angel of God.—He is the angel of Elohim for the Egyptian heathen. The invisible movement of the angel was recognized in the visible motion of the pillar of cloud.
Exo_14:20. Darkness, but it lightened the night.—What the pillar of cloud at other times was alternately, it was this time simultaneously: darkness for the one, light for the other. The direction of the smoke under the north-east wind is not sufficient to explain the symbolically highly-significant phenomenon. That which gives light to the believers constitutes nocturnal darkness for the unbelievers; and that is the irremovable barrier between the two. The Egyptians are unable for the whole night to find the Israelites; all night long the east wind blows, and dries the sea, and in the same night the passage of the Israelites through the sea began, and was finished in the morning.
Exo_14:21. East wind.—The east wind, קָדִים, under which term the south-east and north-east wind may be included, inasmuch as the Hebrew language has developed special terms only for the four cardinal points. The notion that a simple east wind could have divided the waters to the right and left, as Von Raumer and Keil hold, implies that the wind itself was a simple product of miraculous power. A mere natural east wind would have driven the water which remained against the Israelites. And this all the more, the more the wind operated, as Keil says, “with omnipotent power;” but, apart from that, it would, merely as an opposite wind, alone have made it almost impossible for the Israelites to proceed. The notion of such a wind enables us to hold fast the literal assertion that the water stood up on the north side also like a wall, although in regard to the phrase “like a wall” religious poetry and symbolism must be allowed to have a word. Keil’s quotations from Tischendorf and Schubert point to the natural substratum of the miracle. See also Knobel, p. 149. “How wide the gulf was in the places made bare, cannot be exactly determined. At the narrowest place above Suez it is now only two-thirds of a mile wide, or according to Niebuhr 3450 [German] feet, but was probably formerly wider, and is also at present wider farther up, opposite Tell Kolzum (Robinson, p. 81 and 71). The place where the Israelites crossed must have been wider, since otherwise the Egyptian army with more than six hundred chariots and many horsemen could not have been overtaken and destroyed by the return of the water” (Keil). According to Tischendorf (Reise I., p. 183), it is the north-east wind which still serves to increase the ebb-tide. When a strong north-west wind drives the floods southward, one can cross the gulf; but if the wind changes to the south-east, it drives the water northward, so that it then rises to a height of from six to nine feet (see Schubert, Reise II., p. 269; Döbel, Wanderungen II., p. 12; Knobel, p. 149).
Exo_14:24-25. Out of the pillar of cloud and fire.—Without this addition, we should have to understand the effect to be purely supernatural. But since it is said: out of the pillar of cloud and fire, this must in some way have been made by Jehovah a token of terror to the Egyptians. It may be conjectured that, instead of cloudy darkness, the pillar of fire, when the further shore was reached, appeared to the Egyptians as a lofty body of light, and brought confusion into the Egyptian ranks, especially by its movement. So Keil. Josephus (Ant. II. 16, 3) and Rosenmüller understand thunder and lightning to be meant, according to Psa_77:18. Keil regards a thunder-shower as something too slight in comparison with the fiery glance of Jehovah. But compare Psalms 18 and Psalms 29. Here, however, only the pillar of smoke and fire is spoken of. Fear now arises with the confusion, and with the fear new confusion, as so often happened in the history of the enemies of Israel. Comp. Jdg_7:21 sqq.; 1Sa_14:20; 2Ki_3:20 sqq.
Exo_14:26. Stretch out thy hand.—Again the prophetico-symbolic action, with an opposite result. And again is the wind in league with Israel, this time to destroy the Egyptians. Vid. Exo_15:10. That can only mean that the wind, in accordance with God’s sovereign control, changed to the south, in order miraculously to increase the flood now released. According to Keil, the wind now blew from the west. But if the east wind made a dry path for the Jews, without reference to the ebb, we should expect that the west wind would have made a path for the Egyptians. According to Keil, we are also to assume that the host perished “to the last man.” But generally in this sphere of dynamic relations the important point is not that of absolute universality, but that of thorough effectiveness.
On the traces of the passage through the Red Sea in heathen legends and secular history, especially in Diodorus of Sicily (III. 39), in Justinus (Exo_36:2), in Artapanus, quoted by Eusebius, see the monograph of K. H. Sack, “Die Lieder in den historischen Büchern des Alten Testaments,” p. 51.13
Footnotes:
[1][Keil says: “ In what way they were to consecrate their life to the Lord depended on the Lord's direction, which prescribed that they should perform the non-sacerdotal labors connected with the sanctuary, and so be the priests’ servants in the sacred service. Yet even this service was afterwards transferred to the Levites (Numbers 3); but in place of it the people were required to redeem their first-born sons from the service which was incumbent on them, and which had been transferred to the Levites who were substituted for them, i.e., to ransom them by the payment to the priests of five shekels of silver for every person, Num_3:47; Num_18:16.” Num_3:12, above referred to as confuting keil's view, says simply that the Levites were substituted for the firstborn, but does not say that the first-born were originally destined to be priests. Lange's statement, therefore, seems to be unwarranted.—Tr.].
[2][Exo_13:17. “For that was near.” A. V., Murphy, Kalisch, Gesenius, Glaire, Alford retain the rendering “although” for כִּי in this sentence. But such a meaning for כִּי cannot be well substantiated. Psa_49:10, adduced by Fürst, is certainly not an instance of such use. Psa_116:10 is more plausible. The A. V. rendering: “I believed, therefore [כִּי] have I spoken,” is incorrect. But it is not necessary, with some, to translate: “I believed, although I speak.” The particle here probably has the meaning “when.” In Psa_49:19, adduced by Gesenius (Thesaurus), it means “because,” the apodosis following in Exo_13:20. The same may be said of Gen_8:21; Job_15:27-29; Zec_8:6. The rendering “when” suffices in Jer_4:30; Jer_30:11; Jer_49:16; Jer_50:11; Jer_51:53; Mic_7:8; Psa_27:10; Psa_21:12. The rendering “for” suffices in Hos_13:15; Nah_1:10; Deu_18:14; Deu_29:19; Jer_46:23; Psa_71:10; 1Ch_28:5. The rendering “ where as,” or “while,” may be adopted in Mal_1:4; Ecc_4:14. Probably these comprise all the passages in which the meaning “though” can with any plausibility be maintained. כִּי can be assumed to have the meaning “although” only as being equivalent to גַּם כִּי, “even when.” Even though this should be assumed sometimes to occur, still the case before us is not of that sort. The true explanation of such constructions is to assume a slight ellipsis in the expression: “God led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, [as might have been expected], seeing that was near.” Or: “for that was near [and return to Egypt in case of danger would be more readily resorted to].”—Tr.]
[3][Exo_14:20. וַיְהִי הֶעָנָן וְהַחשֶׁךְ וַיָּאֶר אֶת־הַלָּיְלָה. The construction is difficult. The only literal rendering is: “And it was (or, became) the cloud and the darkness, and it illumined the night.” The difficulty is gotten over by Knobel and Ewald by altering וְהַחשֶׁךְ into וְהֶחֱשִׁיךְ, reading: “And it came to pass us to the cloud, that it made darkness.” But even with this conjectural change, it is no less necessary to assume an ellipsis of “to the one” and “to the other,” or “on the one side” and “on the other,” as is done by A. V. and the great majority of versions and commentators. The article may be explained as pointing back to Exo_13:21 : “And it was the cloud and the darkness which have been already described.” Or it is even possible to take מַלאַךְ (Exo_14:19) as the subject of the verb: “And he became the cloud and darkness; but he illumined the night.”—Tr.]
[4][Exo_14:21. The Hebrew word here used, חָרָבָה, is different from the one rendered “dry ground” in the next verse; and there is a clear distinction in the meaning, as is quite apparent from a comparison of Gen_8:13, where it is said, that on the first day of the first month the ground was חָרֵב, with Exo_14:14, where it is said, that on the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was יָבֵשׁ. The first means: free from water, drained; the second means: free from moisture, dry. The distinction is generally clear, though sometimes not exactly observed.—Tr.]
[5][Exo_14:28. The preposition לְ certainly cannot here be rendered “and;” but it may have a sort of resumptive force, equivalent to “even,” “namely,” “in short.”—Tr.]
[6][Knobel after a learned discussion comes to the conclusion that the Hebrew name for the Red Sea, יַס־סוּף (literally “sea of sedge”) was probably derived from some town on the sea, named from the abundance of sedge growing near it. He takes this view in preference to the one which derives the name of the sea directly from the sedge, for the reason that the sedge is not a general feature of the sea, and from the uniform omission of the article before סוּפ.—Tr.].
[7][It is hardly possible to translate the simple conjunction ו by “especially as.” If any such connection of thought had been intended כִּי would more probably have been used. Besides, such a statement would be almost contradictory of that in the preceding verse. The fact that they were armed, would make them less likely to be afraid of war than if they were unarmed. The remark that חָמַשׁ signifies, among other things, to provoke to anger, has little force in this connection, for the reasons: (1) that it is doubtful whether that is its etymological significance; (2) that, even if this were its etymological significance, it is a meaning nowhere found in actual use; (3) that this meaning cannot possibly have any application here, since the participle is passive, and we should have to translate, “went up provoked to anger.”—Tr.].
[8][Notice may here be taken of a theory of the Exodus propounded by Brugsch at the International Congress of Orientalists in London, Sept. 1874, also published at Alexandria in French (“La Sartie des Hebreux d’ Egypte et les monuments Egyptiens”). The theory is stated and criticised by Dr. J. P. Thompson in the Bibliotheca Sacra for Jan. 1875. In brief it is as follows: Rameses he identifies with Zan, the Zoan of the Scriptures, situated near the moath of the Tanitic branch of the Nile. Succoth is identified with Thukut, a place mentioned on the Egyptian monuments as lying to the right of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile. Etham is found in the place known by the Egyptians as Khatom, east of Lake Menzaleh. Migdol is identified with the town called Magdolos by the Greeks, a fortress on the edge of the desert, not far from the Mediterranean. Thus Brugsch holds that the line of the journey lay much farther north than is commonly assumed. And the sea which the Israelites crossed was, according to him, not the Red Sea, but Lake Serbonis, between which and the Mediterranean the Israelites marched in their flight from Pharaoh, and in which the latter with his host was destroyed. The principal objections to this theory are stated by Dr. Thompson: (1) In order to reach their rendezvous, the Israelites, according to Brugsch, must have travelled nearly twenty miles north, crossing the Pelusiac branch of the Nile; and then on the next day must have recrossed it—a great improbability. (2) It would have been a blunder in strategy for Moses to have led the people into the treacherous Serbonian bog. (3) The sacred narrative plainly declares that the Israelites were commanded not to go by the way towards the Philistine country (Exo_13:17), whereas this way led directly towards it. (4) The Scriptures declare that it was by the way of the Red Sea that the Israelites were to go (Exo_13:18). and that it wast the Red Sea through which they passed (Exo_15:4).—Tr.].
[9][The significance of the term שׁוּב, used here and in Num_33:7, is generally overlooked or unwarrantably modified by the commentators. Knobel (on Exo_5:22 and here) argues that it means here only to turn; but the passages he adduces (among them one, Psa_35:11 (Psa_35:13?), in which the word does not occur at all) are none of them in point. The word uniformly means to turn back, return, especially when physical motion is intended. If merely turning aside had been meant, סוּר or פָּנָה would have been used. The use of this word is conclusive against the hypothesis, that Etham lay on the west of the Bitter Lakes. Ewald (Hist. of the People of Israel, II. p. 68) argues that the use of it also disproves the more current view of Robinson and others, that it lay south of the basin of these lakes. Possibly, however, this is not necessary; for Etham, being in the “edge of the wilderness,” may have been just east of the line of the Gulf or canal (as Robinson suggests); and if Pi-hahiroth is to be found in the present Ajrud, the people may, indeed, in going from Etham thither, have had to turn “back.” Still there is no conclusive evidence that Etham may not have been north or north-east of the Bitter Lakes, and that, in stead of passing down on the east side of the basin, they turned back, and went along the west side. So, among others, Canon Cook (in the Speaker’s Commentary).—Tr.]
[10][Hengstenberg also, History of the Kingdom of God, II. p. 292, while agreeing with Robinson, against Wilson, Von Baumer, etc., in regard to the place of the passage, rejects the theory of an. ebb tide, aided by a northeast wind, assenting that קַדִים never denotes anything but an east wind.—Tr.]
[11][This seems at first sight almost self-contradictory. Those who see in the events described only natural occurrences would seem to be just those who, disbelieving in anything supernatural, would not press, or would reject, the Biblical statement, that the water stood up as a wall on both sides. But probably Lange means that the literal, prosaic cast of mind which could not discern the supernatural element in the apparently natural phenomena, would also be unable to discern in the Biblical style the poetico-symbolic element, and so, whether accepting the Biblical statements or not, would understand them only in their most literal, prosaic sense.—Tr.].
[12][I.e. Pharaoh must be supposed to have set out within the three days through which the furlough extended. But this is an unsafe and inconclusive mode of reasoning. Moreover, Pharaoh may in any case have begun to make his preperations for pursuit before the three days had expired, even though it may have been longer than that before he actually pursued the fugitives.—Tr.].
[13][“Diodorus of Sicily, who had been in Egypt shortly before the birth of Christ, tells of a saying prevalent among the Ichthyophagi, a people on the east of the Arabian Gulf, to the effect that the whole gulf once became dry, and that there then followed a violent flood. Justinus, the Roman historian, who drew from an older source, relates that the Egyptians pursued Moses and the Israelites, but were forced to return by a violent thunder-shower. Eusebius, the Christian Church historian, in his Preparatio Evangelica ix. 27, quotes from Artapanus, a Greek writer, who flourished some time before the birth of Christ, who reports that the priests at Memphis had a saying about Moses being acquainted with the ebbs and floods, and that the priests at Heliopolis had one about Moses miraculously smiting the waters with his rod, and the consequent destruction of the Egyptians.” Sack, l. c.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 MEMORIAL OF THE PASSOVER. (Exo 13:3-10)
MEMORIAL OF THE PASSOVER. (Exo 13:3-10)
Moses said unto the people, Remember this day--The day that gave them a national existence and introduced them into the privileges of independence and freedom, deserved to live in the memories of the Hebrews and their posterity; and, considering the signal interposition of God displayed in it, to be held not only in perpetual, but devout remembrance.
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house of bondage--literally, "house of slaves"--that is, a servile and degrading condition.
for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place--The emancipation of Israel would never have been obtained except it had been wrung from the Egyptian tyrant by the appalling judgments of God, as had been at the outset of his mission announced to Moses (Exo 3:19).
There shall no leavened bread, &c.--The words are elliptical, and the meaning of the clause may be paraphrased thus:--"For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place, in such haste that there could or should be no leavened bread eaten."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 11, 17, 19, 20, 21 PROMULGATION OF THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN, AND OF…
PROMULGATION OF THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN, AND OF THE FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD, Exo_13:1-16.
1, 2. In these verses Jehovah announces to Moses the law concerning the firstborn, and in Exo_13:3-16 Moses repeats this law to Israel, and also repeats to them the law concerning the feast of unleavened bread which had been given to Moses before they started upon their march, as recorded in Exo_12:15-20. The great importance of these two feasts, and of the law respecting the firstborn, which was so blended with the passover, led to the double mention of each — once as announced by Jehovah to Moses, and again as proclaimed by him to the people. The readers of Homer are familiar with such repetitions as characteristic of an early and simple style of narrative.
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The firstborn males of man and beast were to be forever consecrated to Jehovah as a memorial through all generations of the final judgment-stroke which gave Israel freedom. Thus in their homes and in their daily toils were they to be perpetually reminded of the providence of Jehovah. The flower of the Egyptians were cut down for their deliverance, and the flower of their families, flocks, and herds, were to be devoted to God.
So the “Firstborn of all creation” (Col_1:15) was sacrificed for our deliverance, “bruised for our iniquities,” by the judgment-strokes which a guilty world invokes, and which he caught upon his own heart; and, in return, our firstborn, the choice of our homes, our substance, and our powers, are to be consecrated to God.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 1, 2. P’s law of the sanctity of the…
1, 2. P’s law of the sanctity of the firstborn. The firstborn in Israel, both of men and cattle, were sacred to Jehovah. Here the principle is stated in its most general form: special details, not always consistent, are given elsewhere. In the ‘Book of the Covenant’ (E), see Exo_22:29 b, 30: in Exo_13:12 f. (|| Exo_34:19 f.: both J), it is provided that only firstborn males are to be Jehovah’s, that the firstborn among men are to be redeemed, and the firstling of an ass (as an unclean animal) to be either redeemed by a lamb or killed; other firstlings are sacrificed to Jehovah (v. 15). In Deu_15:19-23, the firstling males of the herd and of the flock, if free from defect, are to be sacrificed at the central sanctuary, and the flesh eaten by the owner and his household at a sacred meal (cf. Exo_12:6 f., 17 f., Exo_14:23): in Num_18:15-18 (P) the firstborn of men and unclean beasts generally are to be redeemed, the former at 5 shekels a head; the firstling of ox, sheep, or goat is to be sacrificed, the flesh being—not the owner’s, as in Deu_15:19-23, but—the perquisite of the priests: the two laws evidently reflect the usage of two different periods of the history (see the writer’s Deut. p. 187). According to the (unhistorical) representation of P, the Levites, at the first census in the wilderness, were taken by Jehovah in lieu of the firstborn of the other tribes, Num_3:11-13; Num_3:40-51; Num_8:16-18. Both J (or RJE) and P assign as the ground of the custom the fact that Jehovah slew the firstborn of the Egyptians, both man and beast (Exo_12:12; Exo_12:29), at the Exodus,—the former (ch. Exo_13:15) making it a memorial of the event, and the latter stating that Jehovah then ‘sanctified’ to Himself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast, Num_3:13; Num_8:17 (P). On the question whether this was the real origin of the custom, see p. 409 f.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (2) Sanctify unto me all the firstborn.—It was a…
XIII.
SANCTIFICATION OF THE FIRSTBORN, AND LAW OF REDEMPTION.
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(2) Sanctify unto me all the firstborn.—It was a reasonable demand that the existing firstborn of Israel, spared by God when the Egyptian firstborn were destroyed, should be regarded thenceforth as His, and set apart for His service. The extension of the demand to existing beasts was also reasonable, since they too had been spared. God’s further requirement, that henceforth all the future firstborn should also be His, was intended to perpetuate the memory of the recent deliverance, and to help to fix it in the mind of the nation. The substitution of a redemption in the case of unclean beasts was necessitated by the circumstances of the case, since they could not be sacrificed; and the redemption of the firstborn sons naturally followed when the Levitical priesthood was established, and their services were no longer necessary. (See Num_3:40-51; Num_18:16.) The Jews still observe the ordinance, so far as the children are concerned, and redeem the son which has “opened the womb” on the thirtieth day after the birth.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Exodus 13
Exodus 13
In the opening verses of this chapter, we are taught, clearly and distinctly, that personal devotedness and personal holiness are fruits which redeeming love produces in those who are the happy subjects thereof. The dedication of the firstborn and the feast of unleavened bread are here set forth in their immediate connection with the deliverance of the people out of the land of Egypt. "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten." And again, " Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days: and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee: neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters."
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Then we have the reason of both these significant observances laid down. "And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt." And, again, "It shall be, when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem."
The more fully we enter, by the power of the Spirit of God, into the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, the more decided will be our separation, and the more whole-hearted will be our devotedness. The effort to produce either the one or the other, until redemption is known, will prove the most hopeless labour possible. All our doings must be "because of that which the Lord hath done," and not in order to get anything from Him. Efforts after life and peace prove that we are, as yet, strangers to the power of the blood; whereas the pure fruits of an experienced redemption are to the praise of Him who has redeemed us. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works lest Any man should boast; for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2: 8, 10) God has already prepared a path of good works for us to walk in; and He, by grace, prepares us to walk therein. It is only as saved that we can walk in such a path. Were it otherwise, we might boast; but seeing that we ourselves are as much God’s workmanship as the path in which we walk, there is no room whatever for boasting.
True Christianity is but the manifestation of the life of Christ, implanted in us by the operation of the Holy Ghost, in pursuance of God’s eternal counsels of sovereign grace; and all our doings, previous to the implantation of this life, are but "dead works," from which we need to have our consciences purged just as much as from "wicked works." (Heb. 9: 14) The term "dead works," comprehends all works which men do with the direct object of getting life. If a man is seeking for life, it is very evident that he has not yet gotten it. He may be very sincere in seeking it, but his very sincerity only makes it the more obvious that, as yet, he has not consciously reached it. Hence, therefore, everything done in order to get life is a dead work, inasmuch as it is done without life - the life of Christ, the only true life, the only source from whence good works can flow. And, observe, it is not a question of "wicked works;" no one would think of getting life by such. No; you will find, on the contrary, that persons continually have recourse to "dead works," in order to ease their consciences, under the sense of "wicked works," whereas divine revelation teaches us that the conscience needs to be purged from the one as well as the other.
Again, as to righteousness, we read that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." It is not said that "all our wickednesses," merely, "are as filthy rags." This would, at once, be admitted. But the fact is, that the very best fruit which we can produce, in the shape of religiousness and righteousness, is represented, on the page of eternal truth, as "dead works," and "filthy rags." Our very efforts after life, do but prove us to be dead; and our very efforts after righteousness do but prove us to be enwrapped in filthy rags. It is only as the actual possessors of eternal life and divine righteousness that we can walk in the divinely-prepared path of good works. Dead works and filthy rags could never be suffered to appear in such a path. None but "the redeemed of the Lord" can walk therein. It was as a redeemed people that Israel kept the feast of unleavened bread, and dedicated their firstborn to Jehovah. The former of these observances we have already considered; as to the latter, it contains a rich mine of instruction.
The destroying angel passed through the land of Egypt to destroy all the firstborn; but Israel’s firstborn escaped through the death of a divinely-provided substitute. Accordingly, these latter appear before us, in this chapter, as a living people, dedicated to God. Saved by the blood of the lamb, they are privileged to consecrate their ransomed life to Him who had ransomed it. Thus it was only as redeemed that they possessed life. The grace of God alone had made them to differ, and had given them the place of living men in His presence. In their case, assuredly, there was no room for boasting; for, as to any personal merit or worthiness, we learn from this chapter that they were put on a level with an unclean and worthless thing. "Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck; and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem." (Ver. 13) There were two classes, the clean and the unclean; and man was classed with the latter. The lamb was to answer for the unclean; and if the ass were not redeemed, his neck was to be broken; so that an unredeemed man was. put upon a level with an unclean animal, and that, moreover, in a condition than which nothing could be more worthless and unsightly. What a humiliating picture of man in his natural condition! Oh! that our poor proud hearts could enter more into it. Then should we rejoice more unfeignedly in the happy privilege of being washed from our guilt in the blood of the Lamb, and having all our personal vileness left be hind for ever, in the tomb where our Surety lay buried.
Christ was the Lamb - the clean, the spotless Lamb. We are unclean. But for ever adored be His matchless name! He took our position; and, on the cross, was made sin, and treated as such. That which we should have endured throughout the countless ages of eternity, He endured for us on the tree. He bore all that was due to us, there and then, in order that we might enjoy what is due to Him, for ever. He got our deserts that we might get His. The clean took, for a time, the place of the unclean, in order that the unclean might take for ever the place of the clean. Thus, whereas, by nature, we are represented by the loathsome figure of an ass with his neck broken; by grace we are represented by a risen and glorified Christ in heaven. Amazing contrast! It lays man’s glory in the dust and magnifies the riches of redeeming love. It silences man’s empty boastings and puts into his mouth a hymn of praise to God and the Lamb, which shall swell throughout the courts of heaven during the everlasting ages.*
{*It is interesting to see that by nature we are ranked with on unclean animal; by grace we are associated with Christ the spotless Lamb. There can be nothing lower than the place which belongs to us by nature; nothing higher than that which belongs to us by grace. Look, for example, at an ass with his neck broken; there is what an unredeemed man is worth. Look at "the precious blood of Christ;" there is what a redeemed man is worth. "Unto you that believe is the preciousness." That is, all who are washed in the blood partake of Christ’s preciousness. As He is "a living stone," they are "living stones;" as He is "a precious stone, they are "precious stones." They get life and preciousness all from Him and in Him. They are as He is. Every stone in the edifice is precious, because purchased at no less a price than "the blood of the Lamb." May the people of God know more fully their place and privileges in Christ!}
How forcibly is one here reminded of the apostle’s memorable and weighty words to the Romans, " Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Rom. 6: 8-14) We are not only ransomed from the power of death and the grave, but also united to Him who has ransomed us at the heavy cost of His own precious life, that we might, in the energy of the Holy Ghost, dedicate our new life, with all its powers, to His service, so that His worthy name may be glorified in us according to the will of God and our Father.
We are furnished, in the last few verses of Exodus 13 with a touching and beautiful example of the Lord’s tender consideration of His people’s need. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." (Psalm 103: 14) When He redeemed Israel and took them into relationship with Himself, He, in His unfathomed and infinite grace, charged Himself with all their need and weakness. It mattered not what they were or what they needed, when I AM was with them, in all the exhaustless treasures of that name. He had to conduct them from Egypt to Canaan, and we here find Him occupying Himself in selecting a suitable path for them. "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the may of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt: but God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea." (Ver. 17, 18)
The Lord, in His condescending grace, so orders for His people, that they do not, at their first setting out, encounter heavy trials which might have the effect of discouraging their hearts and driving them back. "The way of the wilderness" was a much more protracted route; but God had deep and varied lessons to teach His people, which could only be learnt in the desert. They were, afterwards, reminded of this fact, in the following passage: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee, these forty years, in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know, that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." (Deut. 8: 2-4) Such precious lessons as these could never have been learnt in "the way of the land of the Philistines." In that way, they might have learnt what war was, at an early stage of their career; but "in the way of the wilderness," they learnt what flesh was, in all its crookedness, unbelief, and rebellion. But I AM was there, in all His patient grace, unerring wisdom, and infinite power. None but Himself could have met the demand. None but He could endure the opening up of the depths of a human heart. To have my heart unlocked anywhere, save in the presence of infinite grace, would plunge me in hopeless despair. The heart of man is but a little hell. What boundless mercy, then, to be delivered from its terrible depths!
"Oh! to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be;
Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee!"
"And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: he took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." Jehovah not only selected a path for His people, but He also came down to walk with them therein, and make Himself known to them according to their need. He not only conducted them safely outside the bounds of Egypt, but He also came down, as it were, in His travelling chariot, to be their companion through all the vicissitudes of their wilderness journey. This was divine grace. They were not merely delivered out of the furnace of Egypt and then allowed to make the best of their way to Canaan. Such was not God’s manner toward them. He knew that they had a toilsome and perilous journey before them, through serpents and scorpions, snares and difficulties, drought and barrenness; and He, blessed be His name for ever, would not suffer them to go alone. He would be the companion of all their toils and dangers; yea, "He went before them." He was "a guide, a glory, a defence, to save from every fear. Alas! that they should ever have grieved that Blessed One by their hardness of heart. Had they only walked humbly, contentedly, and confidingly with Him, their march would have been a triumphant one from first to last. With Jehovah in their forefront, no power could have interrupted their onward progress from Egypt to Canaan. He would have carried them through and planted them in the mountain of His inheritance, according to His promise, and by the power of His right hand; nor should as much as a single Canaanite have been allowed to remain therein to be a thorn in their side. Thus will it be, by and by, when Jehovah shall set His hand, a second time, to deliver His people from under the power of all their oppressors. day the Lord hasten the time!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 Vers. 1-16. SANCTIFICATION OF THE FIRSTBORN. In connection with…
Vers. 1-16. SANCTIFICATION OF THE FIRSTBORN. In connection with the deliverance from death of the Israelite first-born by the blood of the lamb, and still further to fix the remembrance of the historical facts in the mind of the nation, Moses was commissioned to declare all the firstborn of Israel for all future time, and all the firstborn of their domesticated animals "holy to the Lord." There was, perhaps, already in the minds of men a feeling that peculiar dignity attached to the first-born in each family; and this feeling was now strengthened by the assignment to them of a sacred character. God claimed them, and also the first-born of beasts, as His own. The clean beasts became his by sacrifice; but the unclean ones could not he similarly treated, and therefore had to be "redeemed" (verse 13) by the sacrifice of clean animals in their place. The first-born of men became at the first institution of the new ordinance God"s ministers; but as this system was not intended to continue, it was announced that they too would have to be "redeemed" (verses 13, 15). The exact mode of redeeming them was left to be settled afterwards, and will be found in Num_3:40-51 Num_18:16.
On the true grammatical nexus of this verse, see note on Exo_12:51. The injunctions of verse 2, and probably those of 3-15 were given to Moses on the very day of the setting-forth, most likely, atSuccoth in the evening.
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HOMILETICS.
Vers. 1-16. The Dedication and Redemption of the First-born.
In commemoration of the great mercy whereby their first-born sons were spared, when all those of the Egyptians were slain, God required the Israelites to do two things:
(1) To dedicate all their first-born sons, not only of the existing but of all future generations, to himself; and,
(2) to redeem them, or buy them back for the purposes of secular life, by a money payment. It is analogous to this
I THAT CHRISTIAN PARENTS ARE REQUIRED TO DEDICATE, NOT THEIR FIRST-BORN SONS ONLY, BUT ALL THEIR CHILDREN, TO GOD IN BAPTISM. All have deserved death. All have been in danger of it. All have been spared by the mercy of God, on account of the atoning blood of Christ. All therefore are to be dedicated by their parents to God"s service brought to the font, and presented to him to be his faithful soldiers and servants until their life"s end. All are to receive a species of consecration, whereby they become "priests to God", (Rev_1:6) and may have boldness to approach him without the intervention of a human mediator. But all are not to be ministers. The ministry is for such as have a special call, which cannot be known in infancy, or indeed until persons are well advanced towards manhood.
II THAT CHRISTIAN PARENTS HAVE, AFTER DEDICATING THEM, TO TAKE THEIR CHILDREN BACK, AS IT WERE, TO SECULAR LIFE. Hannah gave her son up to God from the time that she weaned him, took him to the Temple, and left him with the priests. Christians cannot do this. Though some of their sons may ultimately have a call to the ministry, this will not be the case with all, and they must act as if it would not be the case with any. They must take their children back to their houses, give them a secular education, and prepare them in most instances for secular life. But they have not to buy them back. This arises from the difference between the two dedications, the one having been a dedication to the ministry and the other not. Christians do not need to retract the dedication of their children by any subsequent act. They may and should maintain it. Laymen may lead lives as truly sanctified as clergymen. They may serve God as well, though in a different way. They may be, and should be "holy to the Lord." Who would not desire his children to be such?
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-3, 11-17. The sanctification of the first-born.
This command has its basis in the fact that on the night when God executed his tremendous judgment against Egypt, the first-born of Israel was spared. Because this great mercy had been shown to Israel, the first-born of man and beast were ever afterwards to be reckoned as specially belonging to Jehovah. The first-born of the generation then living was his by direct purchase; all later first-borns were to be his by grateful dedication. It was required, in addition, that the first-born of man, as well as of unclean beasts, should be "redeemed." This may have been designed to teach that the lives of these later first-borns were as truly forfeited by sin as were those of the original first-born, on the night of the exodus; and that the nearer the relation in which the individual stands to God, the more pressing becomes the need for atonement.
I REDEMPTION IS BY SUBSTITUTION. This is well illustrated by the law for the redemption of unclean animals. (ver. 13; cf. Num_18:15) The firstling of an ass, being unclean, could not be offered on the altar. It was, therefore, to be redeemed by the substitution of a lamb. If not thus redeemed, its neck was to be broken. This teaches the further lessonunredeemed life must die. It was on the same principle that the lamb was substituted for the first-born on the night of the exodus. This law does not specify the mariner of the redemption of the first-born of male children, but it was probably originally by a lamb also. The redemption was subsequently effected by a money-payment of five shekels. (Num_18:16) This gave prominence to the idea of a ransom, already implied in the use of the word "redeem." The principle of the redemption was still the substitution of life for life, the money-payment pointing back to the lamb or other victim of which it was the price. Jesus has fulfilled the type under both its aspects. He has redeemed us by the substitution of his holy life for our sinful ones. (Heb_9:26-28) His life has been given as a ransom for many. (Mat_20:28; 1Ti_2:6)
II REDEEMED LIFE BELONGS TO GOD (vers. 1, 12, 15). As all later generations of Israel were represented in that first one, so all later firstborns were represented in those of the night of the exodus. By redeeming them from death, God purchased the firstborn of Israel in a peculiar manner to himself. What held true of the first-born, held true, in-a wider sense, of the nation as a whole, and holds true now of all believers. They are God"s, because God has redeemed them. We must not seem to lessen the natural claim which God has upon our service. All souls are God"s; and no moral being has a right to use his powers otherwise than for the glory of him who gave them. But in a special manner Jehovah claims redeemed life for himself. "I have redeemed thee, thou art mine". (Isa_43:1) "Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God"s". (1Co_6:20)
III THE ANIMAL CREATION SHARES IN MAN"S RUIN AND REDEMPTION. First-born of man and beast. J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART Vers. 1, 2. The consecration of the first-born.
I THE MEANING OF THE TYPE.
1. Man"s first-born the type of the first-born of God, in his authority andpriestly function among his brethren, and as the object of the father"s love and trust.
2. In Egypt"s and Israel"s first:born we find the two-fold type of Christ and his people. Egypt"s die, Israel"s are saved. The death of Egypt"s first-born bursts the bends of Israel, the death of God"s first-born, the bonds of his people.
II GOD"S DEMAND.
1. His claim upon the saved life: "It is mine.
(1) His right to our service. He has bought us with a great price.
(2) His delight in us. We are a treasure and a joy to him. Because he loved us he gave Christ to die for us.
2. The life which Christ has redeemed is to be set apart for God. (Rom_12:1)
(1) With full purpose of heart.
(2) Under the power of Christ"s love: "the love of Christ con-straineth us.
(3) With unceasing prayer for the Spirit"s indwelling. Ver. 3-16.
I BY THE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS MERCIES.
How to declare God"s salvation.
1. "Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt.
(1) The Lord"s Supper is an ordinance of remembrance: "Do this in remembrance of me.
(2) The remembrance of deliverance extends over the Christian"s whole life: "unleavened bread is eaten.
2. The celebration of the Passover awoke inquiry among those who hadnot witnessed God"s deeds (ver. 8). True gratitude, heartfelt thanksgiving, will make the reality of God"s love to be felt by those who have not known him.
(1) The place and use of the Lord"s Supper in the Christian Church.
(2) The power of love in the Christian life.
(3) Of true praise and worship in the congregation. To make God something to others, he must first be something to ourselves.
II BY THE DOING OF HIS WILL. The Israelites, in sacrificing or redeeming the first-born, woke again the question, "What is this?" (vers. 14, 15). Our obedience to tile good and holy will of God, our consecration to his service will show the reality of his salvation and awaken in many hearts the question whence this consecration flows and the desire to share it. "Let your light so shine". U. (Mat_5:16)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19, 21 Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn.
Exo_13:1-2
Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn.
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The sanctification of the firstborn to the Lord
I. That the good are required to sanctify their firstborn unto the Lord. All the firstborn--that is to say, the most excellent of their possessions, the most valuable, and that which is viewed with the greatest regard.
1. This sanctification of the firstborn was required by the Divine commandment.
2. This sanctification of the firstborn was a grateful acknowledgment of the Divine mercy in sparing the firstborn from the midnight destruction. Heaven never asks more than it gives, or more than is consistent with the gratitude of a devout heart to bestow.
3. This sanctification of the firstborn was to be associated with the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt.
II. That the good, is sanctifying their firstborn unto the Lord, are not called upon to give up the sole use of their property, but to redeem and to put it to a lawful use. Who would not desire his firstborn to be the Lords?
III. That the good are required to connect the sanctification of their firstborn with sacrifice. And all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem (Exo_13:14). This redemption was to be by sacrifice. Parents need reminding of this duty.
1. Because they are liable to forget the service which past mercy requires of them.
2. Because they are apt to be selfish in the use of their property.
3. Because they are not sufficiently spiritually minded to see God in their property, and therefore forget His claims.
4. Because they do not like to pay the redemption price.
IV. That the good are to teach the right of God to the firstborn, to their posterity (Exo_13:14-15). Children are very inquisitive. They will ask questions, even about religious matters. At such times they should be carefully and solemnly instructed in Divine truth. The family is the best school for the young. They should early be taught the meaning of self-sacrifice, and the moral grandeur of giving to the Lord. Even the young have their firstborn, which they can be taught to give to the Lord; and if they grow up in the spirit of this obligation they will in after days, impart to it a truer meaning, and give to it a more solemn influence than before they were capable of. Lessons:
1. That the good must sanctify their best things to the Lord.
2. That this can only be done by the redemption of the Cross.
3. That the young must be early taught their obligation to the Lord. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn
1. A command.
2. A duty.
3. A privilege.
4. A benediction.
5. A prophecy. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The man-tithe
I. Observe the first rule: Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn of man. As the redemption of the firstborn of the more valuable animals was graciously commuted by the sacrifice of less valuable ones, so there was a commutation for the firstborn of man; not indeed by inferior substitutes as in the former case, but by his fellowman--by the institution of a priesthood, sanctifying, or setting apart, the whole tribe of Levi in place of the firstborn of all Israel. But as this arrangement had not yet transpired at the period of the text, the explanation was deferred till then, that in the meanwhile the whole nation might fully realize the amount and weight of their liability to God; and further, that when Levi was sanctified, the whole Levitical priesthood--a priesthood of their brethren, bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh--might symbolize the High Priesthood of the Mediator who was in all things made like unto His brethren, that He too might also make intercession for the sins of the people. This lies at the root of the Levitical principle, the layagency in the church of God. Admirable is the advice of Jethro to his son-in-law, and incidentally it bears upon this subject. This thing, that is, the whole burthen of the work, is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone . . . Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Thus the work of religion, benevolence, and rule was divided, subdivided, and redivided still, from considerable districts down to classes of tens, as we should desire to see the work of God among ourselves distributed among our lay deacons and elders, district visitors, collectors and Sabbath-school teachers, who in their respective ministries should act on the suggestion of Jethro, The hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
II. Secondly, the text presents the rule of consecrated wealth--Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn of beasts. On this point there is some difficulty. All the firstborn of cattle were given to the Lord by sacrifice; and yet in the forty-fifth verse of the third chapter of Numbers the whole of the cattle of the Levites were considered as a substitute for the firstlings of the general cattle, just as all the men of the Levites were accepted as the substitute for all the firstborn of men from the rest of the tribes. Possibly the cattle firstlings were redeemed, as the excess of human firstborn over the number of the firstborn of the Levites were, by the half-shekel atonement for each, which was payable at the census or periodical numbering of the people. It is probable that Davids omission of this payment was the sin which incurred Gods heavy displeasure in that unseasonable numbering of the people, which, in omitting the soul-tax for atonement, seemed numbered for David himself, and not for God. Be this as it may, the Lord claimed all the firstborn of their beasts, which were the staple property in the ruder forms of society.
III. The text presents its demand for consecrated time. We need not dwell upon the Sabbath, or the Divine claim upon the sevenths of our time. Assuming we are all agreed that this, the minimum of Gods requirement, is due from every man, we may deplore the manner in which, for the most part, even this holy debt is discharged. The abuse of the Sabbath and insubordination to its constantly recurring, bounden, and emphatic law, lies at the root of the national irreligion. There is a significancy in the proportion of the Divine demand of only a tenth of all other things, but a seventh of our time. (J. B. Owen, M. A.)
The Divine right to the best things of man
It is Mine. This is the language of God in reference to each one of us. It is Mine.
I. Because I created it.
II. Because I preserved it.
III. Because I endowed it with everything that makes it valuable. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The first born, types of Christ
I. As they were Gods peculiar.
1. By common nature,
2. By common grace.
3. By a special right.
(1) In His nature, Christ is Firstborn, as Son of God.
(2) In His office, by special prerogative.
(a) For the kind, in that He was Mediator, God and Man in unity of person, and the only Redeemer of His Church.
(b) For undertaking of His office.
(c) For the accomplishing His office, in His resurrection. He is called the First-begotten, or Firstborn of the dead, two ways:
(i) In respect of His Father, who first begot Him from the dead;
(ii)
In regard of Himself, whose privilege it was to raise up Himself from the dead by His own power.
II. The firstborn of Israel was the second, and next to the father of the family, yea, after the father instead of the father. So is Christ to His family, the Church; He performs all offices of a careful and tender father, and takes on Him, not the affection only of a father, but even--
1. The name of a father (Isa_9:6).
2. The office of a father.
(1) He supplies the means of spiritual life, as they of natural.
(2) He nurtures and teacheth His Church.
(3) He provides for the present, and bestows the inheritance of eternal life.
III. The firstborn had the pre-eminence among the brethren, and were chief in office and authority, rulers in the house after their fathers, and priests in the family, before the Levitical order was established. Herein they were special types of Jesus Christ; who in all things must have the pre-eminence, as first in time, in order, in precedency, and in the excellency and dignity of His person.
IV. The firstborn had a double portion in goods (Deu_21:17). Signifying--
1. The plenitude of the spirit and grace in Christ, who was anointed with oil of gladness above His fellows.
2. The pre-eminency of Christ in His glorious inheritance, advanced in glory and majesty incomprehensible by all creatures. Use--
(1) Out of the occasion of the law of the firstborn, learn that the more God doth for any man, the more he ought to conceive himself to be the Lords, and the more right and interest the Lord challengeth in him.
(2) If Christ be the true firstborn, of whom all they are but types, we must give Him the honour of His birthright.
(3) Here is a ground of much consolation.
(a) In that Christ being the truth of the firstborn, from Him the birthright is derived unto us believers, as it was from Reuben unto Judah, and we partake of the same birthright with our head. For here is a difference between the type and truth of the firstborn. They had all their privileges for themselves: but Christ not for Himself but for us.
(b) Being Gods firstborn throughout, we are dear unto God.
(c) God takes notice, and avenges all wrongs done to the saints, because they are His firstborn.
(4) Seeing in Christ the firstborn we attain the birthright; let every Christian beware of profaneness, and passing away his birthright as Esau, who sold his birthright for pottage (Heb_12:16).
(5) Learn to grow in conformity with our Elder Brother Christ, with whom we cannot be equal, but like as brothers. We must be like Him in affection, like Him in affliction, like Him in the combat, and like Him in the crown. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Consecrated to the Lord
When Bishop Selwyn spoke to Sir John Patteson, then a widower, of the desire of his splendidly gifted son, Coleridge, to join him in the New Zealand Mission, the fathers first exclamation was: I cannot let him go! but he immediately added, God forbid I should stop him! And he closed the conversation by saying: Mind, I give him wholly, not with any thought of seeing him again. I will not have him thinking he must come home to see me.
A consecrated child
A young man was about to enter the foreign missionary work. A gentleman said to the young mans father, Its hard to give up the boy. Yes, replied the father, but its just what weve been expecting. How so? inquired the friend. When he was a little baby, answered the father, his mother and I went to a missionary meeting. An appeal, most earnest and touching, was made for men to become missionaries. We ourselves could not go. When we returned home the baby lay asleep in his crib. We went to the crib. His mother stood on one side, I on the other. We together laid our hands on his forehead, and prayed that it might be Gods will for him to become a foreign missionary. We never spoke to him of what we did. But all through these twenty-five years we have believed that our prayer about him would be answered, and answered it now is. Yes, it is hard to give up the boy, but its what weve been expecting.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER XIII.
THE LAW OF THE FIRSTBORN.
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Exo_13:1-22.
Much that was said in the twelfth chapter is repeated in the thirteenth. And this repetition is clearly due to a formal rehearsal, made when all "their hosts" had mustered in Succoth after their first march; for Moses says, "Remember this day, in which ye came out" (Exo_13:3). Already it had been spoken of as a day much to be remembered, and for its perpetuation the ordinance of the Passover had been founded.
But now this charge is given as a fit prologue for the remarkable institution which follows--the consecration to God of all unblemished males who are the firstborn of their mothers--for such is the full statement of what is claimed.
In speaking to Moses the Lord says, "Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn ... it is Mine." But Moses addressing the people advances gradually, and almost diplomatically. First he reminds them of their deliverance, and in so doing he employs a phrase which could only have been used at the exact stage when they were emancipated and yet upon Egyptian soil: "By strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place" (Exo_13:3). Then he charges them not to forget their rescue, in the dangerous time of their prosperity, when the Lord shall have brought them into the land which He swore to give them; and he repeats the ordinance of unleavened bread. And it is only then that he proceeds to announce the permanent consecration of all their firstborn--the abiding doctrine that these, who naturally represent the nation, are for its unworthiness forfeited, and yet by the grace of God redeemed.
God, Who gave all and pardons all, demands a return, not as a tax which is levied for its own sake, but as a confession of dependence, and like the silk flag presented to the sovereign, on the anniversaries of the two greatest of English victories, by the descendants of the conquerors, who hold their estates upon that tenure. The firstborn, thus dedicated, should have formed a sacred class, a powerful element in Hebrew life enlisted on the side of God.
For these, as we have already seen, the Levites were afterwards substituted (Num_3:44), and there is perhaps some allusion to this change in the direction that "all the firstborn of man thou shalt redeem" (Exo_13:13). But yet the demand is stated too broadly and imperatively to belong to that later modification: it suits exactly the time to which it is attributed, before the tribe of Levi was substituted for the firstborn of all.
"They are Mine," said Jehovah, Who needed not, that night, to remind them what He had wrought the night before. It is for precisely the same reason, that St. Paul claims all souls for God: "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your bodies and with your spirits, which are God's."
And besides the general claim upon us all, each of us should feel, like the firstborn, that every special mercy is a call to special gratitude, to more earnest dedication. "I beseech you, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom_12:1).
There is a tone of exultant confidence in the words of Moses, very interesting and curious. He and his nation are breathing the free air at last. The deliverance that has been given makes all the promise that remains secure. As one who feels his pardon will surely not despair of heaven, so Moses twice over instructs the people what to do when God shall have kept the oath which He swore, and brought them into Canaan, into the land flowing with milk and honey. Then they must observe His passover. Then they must consecrate their firstborn.
And twice over this emancipator and lawgiver, in the first flush of his success, impresses upon them the homely duty of teaching their households what God had done for them (Exo_13:8, Exo_13:14; cf. Exo_12:26).
This, accordingly, the Psalmist learned, and in his turn transmitted. He heard with his ears and his fathers told him what God did in their days, in the days of old. And he told the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and His strength, and His wondrous works (Psa_44:1, Psa_78:4).
But it is absurd to treat these verses, as Kuenen does, as evidence that the story is mere legend: "transmitted from mouth to mouth, it gradually lost its accuracy and precision, and adopted all sorts of foreign elements." To prove which, we are gravely referred to passages like this. (Religion of Israel, i. 22, Eng. Vers.) The duty of oral instruction is still acknowledged, but this does not prove that the narrative is still unwritten.
From the emphatic language in which Moses urged this double duty, too much forgotten still, of remembering and showing forth the goodness of God, sprang the curious custom of the wearing of phylacteries. But the Jews were not bidden to wear signs and frontlets: they were bidden to let hallowed memories be unto them in the place of such charms as they had seen the Egyptians wear, "for a sign unto thee, upon thine hand, and for a frontlet between thine eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in thy mouth" (Exo_13:9). Such language is frequent in the Old Testament, where mercy and truth should be bound around their necks; their fathers' commandments should be tied around their necks, bound on their fingers, written on their hearts; and Sion should clothe herself with her converts as an ornament, and gird them upon her as a bride doth (Pro_3:3, Pro_6:21, Pro_7:3; Isa_49:18).
But human nature still finds the letter of many a commandment easier than the spirit, a ceremony than an obedient heart, penance than penitence, ashes on the forehead than a contrite spirit, and a phylactery than the gratitude and acknowledgment which ought to be unto us for a sign on the hand and a frontlet between the eyes.
We have already observed the connection between the thirteenth verse and the events of the previous night. But there is an interesting touch of nature in the words "the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb." It was afterwards rightly perceived that all unclean animals should follow the same rule; but why was only the ass mentioned? Plainly because those humble journeyers had no other beast of burden. Horses pursued them presently, but even the Egyptians of that period used them only in war. The trampled Hebrews would not possess camels. And thus again, in the tenth commandment, when the stateliest of their cattle is specified, no beast of burden is named with it but the ass: "Thou shalt not covet ... his ox nor his ass." It is an undesigned coincidence of real value; a phrase which would never have been devised by legislators of a later date; a frank and unconscious evidence of the genuineness of the story.
Some time before this, a new and fierce race, whose name declared them to be "emigrants," had thrust itself in among the tribes of Canaan--a race which was long to wage equal war with Israel, and not seldom to see his back turned in battle. They now held all the south of Palestine, from the brook of Egypt to Ekron (Jos_15:4, Jos_15:47). And if Moses in the flush of his success had pushed on by the straight and easy route into the promised land, the first shock of combat with them would have been felt in a few weeks. But "God led them not by the way of the Philistines, though that was near, for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent them when they see war, and they return to Egypt" (Exo_13:17).
From this we learn two lessons. Why did not He, Who presently made strong the hearts of the Egyptians to plunge into the bed of the sea, make the hearts of His own people strong to defy the Philistines? The answer is a striking and solemn one. Neither God in the Old Testament, nor God manifested in the flesh, is ever recorded to have wrought any miracle of spiritual advancement or overthrow. Thus the Egyptians were but confirmed in their own choice: their decision was carried further. And even Saul of Tarsus was illuminated, not coerced: he might have disobeyed the heavenly vision. He was not an insincere man suddenly coerced into earnestness, nor a coward suddenly made brave. In the moral world, adequate means are always employed for the securing of desired effects. Love, gratitude, the sense of danger and of grace, are the powers which elevate characters. And persons who live in sensuality, fraud, or falsehood, hoping to be saved some day by a sort of miracle of grace, ought to ponder this truth, which may not be the gospel now fashionable, but is unquestionably the statement of a Scriptural fact: in the moral sphere, God works by means and not by miracle.
A free life, the desert air, the rejection of the unfit by many visitations, and the growth of a new generation amid thrilling events, in a soul-stirring region, and under the pure influences of the law,--these were necessary before Israel could cross steel with the warlike children of the Philistines; and even then, it was not with them that he should begin.
The other lesson we learn is the tender fidelity of God, Who will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able to bear. He led them aside into the desert, whither He still in mercy leads very many who think it a heavy judgment to be there.
THE BONES OF JOSEPH.
Exo_13:19.
It is certain that Moses, in the days of his greatness, must often have mused by the sepulchre of the one Israelite before himself who held high rank in Egypt. The knowledge that Joseph's elevation was providential must have helped him at that time, now many years ago, to think rightly of his own. And now we read that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. In the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_11:22) it is recorded as the most characteristic example of the faith of the patriarch, that instead of desiring to be carried, like his father, at once to Canaan, he made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones. To him Egypt was no longer an alien land. There only he had known honour without envy, and happiness without betrayal. There his bones could rest in quiet; but not for ever. Personal elevation, which had not rent the cord between him and his unworthy family, could still less sever the bands between him and the sacred race. Let him sleep in Egypt while his grave there was honoured: let the remembrance of him be kept fresh, to protect awhile his kindred; and when the predicted days of evil came, let his ashes share the neglect and dishonour of his people, if only they would remember his remains when the Lord would lead them forth. This confidence in their emancipation was his faith--which meant, here as always, not a clear view of truth, but an assuring grasp of it. He had straitly sworn the children of Israel saying, "God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you."
Many a Christian might well envy a confidence so practical, so thoroughly realised, entering so naturally into the tissue of his thoughts and calculations. And their actual remembrance of him goes to show that the tradition of his faith had never completely died out, but was among the influences which kept alive the nation's hope.
And as the people bore his honoured ashes through the desert, these being dead spoke of bygone times, they linked the present and the past together, they deepened the national consciousness that Israel was a favoured people, called to no common destiny, sustained by no common promises, pressing toward no common goal.
If Israel had been wise, they would have thought of him, the Israelite in heart, though glittering in the splendours of Egypt; and would have considered well that as little as men detected his secret life from his appearance, so little could theirs be judged. To the eye, they were free from the foreign trammels in which he was seemingly entangled, yet many of them in heart turned back to all which strove in vain to bind his affections down. The lesson holds good today. Many a modern religionist looks askance at the "worldliness" of high office and rank and state; little dreaming that the "world" he censures is strong in his own ambitious and self-asserting spirit, and is overcome by the gentle and tranquil spirit of hundreds of those whom he condemns.
Bearing this hallowed burden, which might easily have become an object of superstitious regard, the nation moved from Succoth to Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And with them a Presence moved which rebuked all others, however venerable. The Lord went before them. It has already been pointed out that throughout the early history of this nation, just come out of an idolatrous land, and too ready to lapse back into superstition, God never reveals Himself except in fire. To Abraham and to Jacob He appeared in human form, and again to Joshua; but in the interval, never. So now they see Him by day in a pillar of cloud to guide them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. The glory of the nation was that manifested Presence, lacking which, Moses besought Him to carry them up no farther. Nothing in the Exodus is more impressive, and it sank deep into the national heart. Many centuries afterwards, the ideal of a golden age was that the Lord should "create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night" (Isa_4:5).
But it has been well observed that, amid the various allusions to it in Hebrew poetry, not one treats it as modern literature has done, with an eye to its marvellous sublimity and picturesque effects:
"By day, along the astonished lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow:
By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery column's glow."
The Hebrew poetry is vivid and passionate, but all its concerns are human or divine--God, and the life of man. It is not artistic, but inspired. "The modern poet is delighting in the scenic effect; the ancient chronicler was wholly occupied with the overshadowing power of God."[24]
FOOTNOTES:
[24] Hutton's Essays, Vol. ii., Literary: The Poetry of the Old Test.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 17, 20 Exo_13:4. The month Abib.]—The “month of the ear-time, according…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_13:4. The month Abib.]—The “month of the ear-time, according to tradition the month Nisan in the later Hebrew, corresponding to April” (Fürst).
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Exo_13:16. Token.] The same as “sign” in Exo_13:9. Frontlets.] “Bands” or “fillets” (Gesenius, Fürst, Davies). Probably explanatory of the more general word “memorial” in Exo_13:9. It seems equally unwarranted either, on the one hand, to assert that these passages (Exo_13:9; Exo_13:16, with Deu_6:8; Deu_11:18), were intended to bear an exclusively metaphorical meaning; or, on the other hand, to make them a warrant for the elaborate phylacterial ceremonialism developed by Hebrew tradition. Why should not injunctions of this nature be left just where Divine wisdom has left them! If they point to external memorials, well: these need not be indiscriminately condemned. But if God has left time, manner, and degree unordained, why should human authority step in and bind what God has left free! Hence, when Kalisch says, “Tradition has made the most extended use of the liberty left to it with regard to the Tefillin by the indistinctness of the text, and has compiled very minute precepts concerning their arrangement and their use,” we admit the fact of the “extended use,” but we altogether demur to the assumed justification of it from “the indistinctness of the text.” The indistinctness of general divine laws, when rightly construed, means the FREEDOM OF THE SUBJECT from any “minute precepts” as to the precise method of obeying. How sad that Christians as well as Hebrews should be so slow to learn this lesson! We are surprised that even Davies (Heb. Lex. under טוטפת) should draw upon Hebrew tradition for his explanation of this Biblical term. We agree with Tregelles, in Gesenius’ Heb. Lex. (Bagster), that “it requires proof that the Jewish phylacteries are here intended by these fillets or bandages.” Those who care to know what the Jewish phylacteries were, how they were worn, what virtues were ascribed to them, and about the best things to be said in their favour, should by all means consult Kalisch’s long and interesting note on this chapter. Above all, let any, disposed to ultra-ritualism, ponder well the woes denounced in Mat_23:21.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_13:1-16
THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE FIRST-BORN TO THE LORD
The Israelites are now marching out of Egypt. It was a great exodus, and Moses would not have undertaken the leadership of it but for the consciousness which he had that God was with him. This was the appropriate time to remind the children of Israel of their moral obligation to the Divine Being who had so wonderfully and mercifully delivered them from a condition of degrading slavery. Hence we find in the commencement of this chapter that God spoke through Moses to the emancipated nation, imposing upon them ordinances and duties suitable to their new condition of life. All the deliverances of the soul are associated with religious duties and obligations expressive of gratitude and devotion.
I. That the good are required to sanctify their first-born unto the Lord. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto Me all the first-born, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is Mine.” Thus it is the duty of the good to separate unto the Lord the first-born, that is to say, the most excellent of their possessions, the most valuable, and that which is viewed with the greatest regard.
1. This sanctification of the first-born was required by the Divine commandment. God told Moses that the Israelites were to sanctify their first-born unto Him. It was not left to their option. It was not the outcome of human device. It was not the unauthorised suggestion of a grateful heart. It was commanded by heaven, otherwise it would never have occurred to man to sanctify his best things to the Lord; and if it had, he would probably have resisted the idea as antagonistic to his temporal welfare. This duty is founded upon the Divine Creatorship, and needed to be clearly and authoritatively revealed, or it would have been misunderstood and neglected. Men do not like religious duties to make demands upon their property; they prefer a cheap religion, and many would rather do without any than sanctify their first-born to the Lord. The Divine command to man is that he give the best of his possessions—territorial, physical, domestic, mental, moral, and spiritual—to the Lord.
2. The sanctification of the first-born was a grateful acknowledgment of the Divine mercy in sparing the first-born from the midnight destruction. The first-born of the Israelites had been mercifully preserved from the stroke of the Destroying Angel, which had inflicted death upon the first-born of Egypt in the silent midnight hour. Hence what more reasonable than that the life that had been thus spared should be separated unto the Lord. God does not arbitrarily and unjustly demand the property of men; He only requires what He has given, and what He has preserved from the grave. And those who refuse to devote their best things to the service of the Lord show that they are insensible to the richest mercy, and therefore to the highest claims. Heaven never asks more than it gives, or more than is consistent with the gratitude of a devout heart to bestow. All its requirements are based upon the bestowment of past mercy.
3. The sanctification of the first-born was to be associated with the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt (Exo_13:15). By the separation of the first-born unto the Lord an Israelite would have many and varied memories awakened within him; he would be reminded of the eventful night on which death visited every Egyptian family, of the departure of his nation from a cruel bondage, and of the wondrous power and providence of God. And even when the multitude that came out from Egypt were dead, in the history of the nation of Israel, the separation of the first-born would always be associated with the idea of national deliverance. And so with the good, the gift of their best things and most excellent property to God is always connected with their soul-deliverances. They are glad to dedicate their first-born to the Lord in remembrance of the hour of their moral freedom. They regard this duty as a memorial of the past.
II. That the good in sanctifying their first-born unto the Lord are not called upon to give up the sole use of their property, but to redeem and to put it to a lawful use. “But all the first-born of My children I redeem.” The Israelites were not required to give up their first-born literally to the Lord, to His service in the Temple. They were to dedicate them to the Lord by sacrifice. And in this we have set forth a sublime truth, namely, that a true sanctification of property does not altogether consist in giving it literally to God, but in using it for Him, and thus, in a higher sense, giving it to Him through the sacrifice of the cross. If men were literally to give their first-born to the Lord, much of the commerce and activity of the world would be interrupted; but by the redemption of the cross the giving consists in the using what we have for the highest moral purposes of life. Who would not desire his first-born to be the Lord’s? God is worthy of the best we can give Him.
III. That the good are required to connect the sanctification of their first-born with sacrifice. “And all the first-born of man among thy children shalt thou redeem (Exo_13:14). This redemption was to be by sacrifice. Thus we find that Hannah, presenting Samuel unto the Lord, brought a sacrificial offering with her, that he might be accepted (1Sa_1:24). So with the mother of our Lord. That which is born in sin cannot become the Lord’s but by this constitution of mercy, everywhere set forth, and having its fulfilment in Christ. St. Peter contrasts the redemption of the first-born under the law with the redemption which is by Christ (1Pe_1:18-19). If the first-born died there was to be no redemption. Christ seeks our life. He wants no dead thing in His service. Such provision was made for Israel even from infancy; what an encouragement to present our children unto the Lord in early life! But parents need reminding of this duty.
1. Because they are liable to forget the service which past mercy requires of them.
2. Because they are apt to be selfish in the use of their property.
3. Because they are not sufficiently spiritually minded to see God in their prosperity, and therefore forget His claims.
4. Because they do not like to pay the redemption price.
IV. That the good are to teach the right of God to the first-born, to their posterity (Exo_13:14-15). Children are very inquisitive. They will ask questions, even about religious matters. At such times they should be carefully and solemnly instructed in Divine truth. The family is the best school for the young. These questions must not be evaded. Their true explanation must be given, and in an interesting manner. Children should be brought up to the ordinances of the Lord, and to the obligations of religion. They should early be taught the meaning of self-sacrifice, and the moral grandeur of giving to the Lord. Even the young have their first-born, which they can be taught to give to the Lord; and if they grow up in the spirit of this obligation they will, in after days, impart to it a truer meaning, and give to it a more solemn influence than before they were capable of. LESSONS:
1. That the good must sanctify their best things to the Lord.
2. That this can only be done by the redemption of the cross.
3. That the young must be early taught their obligation to the Lord.
THE ORDINANCES OF THE LORD. Exo_13:5-16
We read that Moses had previously instituted the Passover, and had made known to the people all the duties connected therewith. This repetition was, however, quite necessary. Men are dull students of the Divine requirements; they are very liable to forget the mercies of God, and their consequent duty. They need to be constantly reminded thereof. God bestows great care on the moral instruction of the Church. Let us strive to be more mindful of the ordinances of Jehovah.
I. That the ordinances of the Lord must be observed in the times of prosperity. “And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month” (Exo_13:5). In the wilderness the Israelites could not keep this feast, as they were fed with manna, and had neither leavened nor unleavened bread at their command. But there was a danger lest when they got into the fruitful country they should forget the estate from whence they had come, and therefore Moses, in anticipation of better days for the nation, again enjoins this service as obligatory. The changing fortunes of Israel were to be no impediment to the celebration of the Passover. How many people in meagre temporal circumstances attend well to all the ordinances of the Lord, who in times of prosperity are altogether unmindful of them! They forget God and the mighty deliverance He has wrought for them in the splendour and plenty of their success. Prosperity sometimes leads to atheism. The land flowing with milk and honey ought to lead men nearer to God in thought, ought to render them more grateful to Him, and ought to find them more willing to celebrate the glory of His wondrous name. The sacrament of the Lord should not be neglected in the prosperous days of life. The soul needs Jehovah then as much as heretofore.
II. That the ordinances of the Lord must be observed with great sincerity of heart. “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters” (Exo_13:7). And so those who attend to the solemn ordinances of the Lord must do so with sincerity of heart, without reservation or duplicity of motive. They must purge out the hidden corruption of the soul. They must avoid the appearance of evil; no leavened bread must be seen with them. And those who come to the sacramental table of the Lord must be sincere in their desire to be pure, must be reverent in their disposition as they commemorate His death, and they must be truly grateful for their deliverance from the bondage of sin. Their entire life must be in sympathy with the service they are anxious to keep worthily.
III. That the ordinances of the Lord must be observed with true intelligence. “And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exo_13:8-9). The ordinances of the Lord are to be intelligently observed. They are to be thoroughly understood by the Church, in their intellectual and moral significance. It may be to the advantage of some to surround their Church rites with the supposed glory of mystery, but this is more allied to heathenism than to Christianity. Superstition can render but scant worship. The sacraments of Christianity are simple and intelligible; all may understand their import, and ought to do before they venture to observe them. They have interesting associations. They are allied to the most eventful histories and experiences of the soul.
IV. That the ordinances of the Lord must be observed with parental solicitude. “And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Exo_13:14-15). Parents should studiously seek to instruct the young in the rites and ceremonies of their religion, and in the reasons on which they are founded (Psa_78:5-8). Children should early know the stories of sacred writ, and should be taught their moral significance. The honour of God demands this. The good of the youthful soul requires this. God has appointed the family the moral nursery of the young. LESSONS:—
1. To attend to all the ordinances of the Lord.
2. To attend to them at the most appropriate time.
3. To attend to them in right spirit and temper.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo_13:1-2. In the day of deliverance God judgeth meet to give ordinances to the Church.
Jehovah must Himself be the Author of all ordinances tending to His service.
God by His ministers may make known His ordinances to His Church.
The first-born are God’s proper portion in the world, and He will have them holy.
“Sanctify unto Me all the first-born.”
1. A command.
2. A duty.
3. A privilege.
4. A benediction.
5. A prophecy.
THE DIVINE RIGHT TO THE BEST THINGS OF MAN
“It is Mine.” This is the language of God in reference to each one of us. It is Mine:—
I. Because I created it.
II. Because I preserved it.
III. Because I endowed it with everything that makes it valuable.
DAYS TO BE REMEMBERED
Exo_13:3. “And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day.” There are certain days in the history of each one of us which are worthy of pre-eminent remembrance, because they are influential in our history, and will be to our destiny. Such was the case with the Israelites; the day on which they were delivered from Egyptian bondage was memorable.
I. There are days in the history of individuals which ought to be celebrated. As the day of Israel’s freedom would be remembered, so the day of the soul’s freedom from the captivity of Satan should be celebrated. It is well to observe as a joyous festival the day on which the soul found peace with God. The returning of the day should be marked by a return of the first enthusiasm and devotion of the soul.
II. There are days in the history of Churches which ought to be celebrated. There are days in the history of every vigorous Church in which it came out of some bondage, in which it emerged into new life, in which it entered upon some great enterprise, and these are worthy of remembrance. The very commemoration of such times would awaken glad memories and beget new strength.
III. There are days in the history of nations which ought to be celebrated. There are days when the nation came out of stern bondage, when it entered upon an improved civilized life, when a spirit of devotion seemed to possess the national heart; such times ought to be remembered.
Exo_13:5-7. Future times of God’s mercy must be times for Israel’s duty.
The Canaanites shall be abolished, and Israel shall flourish.
It is well to consider God’s oath to His Church for all good promised.
The Church has a good portion in store.
Exo_13:8-10. The instruction of children is a duty upon parents.
God commands the celebration of ordinances, and that children shall be instructed in them.
The reasons of Divine ordinances must be understood by parents and children.
Sacramental signs, and memorials of God, He is pleased to give His Church.
God would have His signal memorials at hand, and before the eyes of His people.
The Passover was a true sacramental sign and seal of God’s covenant.
By sacraments rightly used God’s covenant is confirmed on hearts and in profession.
God’s mighty and gracious redemption is a just cause of such memorial.
It is God’s prerogative to make anniversary memorials of His mercies.
Exo_13:11-13. Jehovah is the beginning and end of His own ordinances.
All that God requires must His people make to pass from them to Him.
God has a property in all creatures, be they ever so unclean.
God has ordered redemption for unclean by putting the clean in their stead.
A price has God set for man’s redemption to gain a Church for the first-born.
The law of the first-born has its truth and accomplishment in Christ Jesus (Col_1:15).
Exo_13:14-16. Ancient ordinances may be justly questioned in succeeding ages to know the meaning of them.
Reason is to be given of our religion to such as reasonably demand it.
Redemption mercies are to be recorded and reported as just ground of God’s ordinance.
Oppositions against redemptions are justly declared to make the work glorious, and God’s people obedient.
God’s redeeming mercies ought to work in the Church eternal memorials of Him.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Exodus-Symbolism! Exo_13:4. This was a new life for Israel. As it had its new scenes, new wants, new duties, and new occupations, so does the “new life” of John
3. The world’s fair and alluring landscape, with its great cities, fruitful fields and gardens, were left behind; while the sandy waste and wild mountain fastnesses of the pilgrim path to the Heavenly Canaan take their place. But they were FREE. When the great patriot and martyr-president of the United States contemplated the liberation of the African slaves in the Southern States, he was met by the argument that by freedom the negroes would lose much worldly comfort and pleasure conferred on them by their masters. His response was brief: “They will be free.” Though Israel lost the vision of fertile vales, of sacred sycamore groves, of richly-laden fruit orchards, &c., they gained their freedom. Liberty was more sweet, more priceless than the splendours and luxuries of Egypt. Christian freedmen prefer the bleak and barren pilgrim-path to the “pleasures of sin; and, like Israel, they look forward to the climax of liberty, that rest which remaineth for the people of God. When the Church has reached the ultima thule of her wilderness-way, then in the Celestial Canaan—
“The jubilant bell
Will ring the knell
Of slavery for ever.”
—Whittier.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Exo 13:14-17
Exo 13:14-17
The Book of Exodus introduces that new epoch in the scriptural history of sacrifices when they began to be regulated by fixed laws, to be part of a national economy.
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I. The offering of the firstborn was the dedication and consecration of the whole Jewish nation. The firstborn represented its strength, its vitality, its endurance. This act signified that its strength lay only in its dependence on God’s strength, that its vitality came from the life which is in Him, that it would endure from generation to generation, because He is the same and His years fail not.
The calling of the Israelites was the calling to confess a Redeemer of Israel, a righteous Being who had brought out their fathers from the house of bondage.
II. Moses taught the people that by looking upon themselves as beings surrendered and sacrificed to the God of truth, the Deliverer of men, by feeling that they held all the powers of their minds and bodies as instruments for the great work in which He is engaged,—thus they might be a nation indeed, one which would be a pattern to the nations, one which, in due time, would break the chains which bound them to visible and invisible oppressors.
III. When once we understand that we are witnesses for God, and do His work, self-sacrifice can never be an ambitious thing—a fine way to get the reputation of saints or the rewards of another world. It will be regarded as the true ground of all action; that on which all the blessed relations of life stand; that which is at the same time the only impulse to and security for the hard and rough work of the world.
F. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice deduced from the Scriptures, p. 49.
References: Exo 13:17, Exo 13:18.—J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 83; W. Landels, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 184; G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 6. Exo 13:17-19.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 316. 13:17-14:4.—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vi., p. 448.
Exo 13:18
These words expound to us a whole philosophy of life. The way of the wilderness has become a household word in Christendom, and this decision of Jehovah is the proclamation of the law of man’s earthly life. God leads none of us by the rapid and easy path to knowledge, fortune, or happiness. The short way might bring us to rest and glory sooner, but the rest would relax and the glory blind us. We travel by a longer, harder path; that muscle may be disciplined by toil, courage assured by conquest and self-government, studied in many a season of shame and pain. Then the crown will fit us, rest will be calm and noble activity, and glory we shall wear like kings.
Among the special reasons why the Israelites were guided by the way of the wilderness, the following may be noted:—
I. They had been sated with the magnificence of man’s works; God led them forth into the wilderness to show them His works in their native grandeur, and to refresh their exhausted hearts and spirits by the vision of the splendour of His world.
II. God led them forth by the way of the wilderness that He might reveal not nature only, but Himself. He led them into the wilderness, as He leads us, that He might meet with them, speak with them, reveal Himself to them, and teach them to know themselves in knowing Him.
III. God led them into the wilderness that He might there cultivate their manly qualities,, and fit them to hold the possessions they might win.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Soul’s Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 58.
References: Exo 13:19.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 316. Exo 13:21.—J. Jackson Wray, Light from the Old Lamp, p. 309. Exo 13:21, Exo 13:22.—J. Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 154. Exo 13:22.—J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 391. 13—Parker, vol. ii., p. 82. 14—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. v., pp. 281, 442, vol. vi., pp. 232, 448. Exo 14:10.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 92.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v9
Exodus
THOUGHT, DEED, WORD
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Exo 13:9.
The question may be asked, whether this command is to be taken metaphorically or literally. No doubt the remembrance of the great deliverance was intrusted to acts. Besides the annual Passover feasts, inscriptions on the door-posts and fringes on the dress were appointed for this purpose. And the Jews from a very early period, certainly before our Lord’s time, wore phylacteries fastened, as this and other places prescribe, on the left arm and on the forehead, and alleged these words as the commandment which they therein obeyed. But it seems more probable that the meaning is metaphorical, and that what is enjoined is rather a constant remembrance of the great deliverance, and a constant regulation of the practical life by it. For what is it that is to be ‘a sign’? It is the Passover feast. And the ‘therefore’ of the next verse seems to say that keeping this ordinance in its season is the fulfilment of this precept. Besides, the expression ‘for a sign,’ ‘for a memorial,’ may just as well mean ‘it shall serve as,’ or ‘it shall be like,’ as ‘you shall wear.’ So I think we must say that this is a figure, not a fact; the enjoining of an object for thought and a motive for life, not of a formal observance. And it is very characteristic of the Jew, and of the universal tendency to harden and lower religion into outward rites, that a command so wide and profound was supposed to be kept by fastening little boxes with four slips of parchment containing extracts from the Pentateuch on arm and forehead. Jewish rabbis are not the only people who treat God’s law like that. Even if literal, the injunction is for the purpose of remembering. Taking that meaning, then, the text sets forth principles that apply quite as much to us. You will observe ‘hand,’ ‘eyes,’ ‘mouth’; the symbols of practice, knowledge, expression; work, thought, and word. Observe also that there is a slight change in construction in the three clauses; the two former are to be done in order that the latter may come to pass. Then the memorial of the great deliverance is to be ‘on the hand’ and ‘before the eyes,’ in order that ‘the Lord’s law’ may be ‘in the mouth.’ Keeping these points in view-
I. God’s great deliverance should be constantly before our thoughts.
It is more than an accident that both Judaism and Christianity should begin with a great act of deliverance; that that act of deliverance should constitute a community, and that a memorial rite should be the centre of the ritual of both. The Lord’s Supper historically took the place of the Passover. It was instituted at the Passover and instead of it. It is precisely the same in design, a memorial feast appointed to keep up the vivid remembrance of the historical fact to which redemption is traced; and not only to keep up its remembrance, but to proclaim the importance of extending that remembrance through all life.
Notice the peculiarity of both the Jewish and the Christian rite, that the centre point of both is a historical fact, a redeeming act. Judaism and Christianity are the only religions in regard to which this is true to anything like the same extent or in the same way. Christianity as a revelation is not so much the utterance in words of great religious thoughts as the history of a life and a death, a fact wrought upon the earth, which is at once the means of revelation and the means of redemption. This is a feature unshared by other religions.
This characteristic determines the principal object of our religious thought. The true object for religious thought is Christ, and His life and death.
All religious truth flows from and is wrapped up in that: e.g. theology, or the nature of God; anthropology, or the nature of man; soteriology, morality, etc. All truth for the individual and for the race has its source in God’s great redeeming act. Religious emotion is best fed at this source, e.g. thankfulness, wonder, love: all these transcendent feelings which are melted together in adoration. Here is where they are kindled. You cannot pump them up, or bring them into existence by willing, or scourge yourself into them, any more than you can make a seed grow by pulling at the germ with a pair of pincers, but this gives the warmth and moisture which make it germinate.
The clear perception of this truth is valuable, as correcting false tendencies in religion, e.g. the tendency to be much occupied with the derived truths, and to think of them almost to the exclusion of the great fact from which they come; the tendency to substitute melancholy self-inspection for objective facts; the tendency to run out into mere feeling.
The command requires of us a habitual occupation of mind with the great deliverance.
And the habitual presence of this thought will be best secured by specific times of occupation with it. Let every Christian practise the habit of meditation, which in an age of so many books, newspapers, and the distractions of our busy modern life, is apt to become obsolete.
II. The great deliverance is to be ever present in practical life.
The ‘hand’ is clearly the seat and home of power and practical effort. So the remembrance is to be present and to preside over our practical work.
How it is fitted to do so.
{a} It gives the law for all our activity.
The pattern. The death as well as the life of Christ teaches us what we ought to be.
The motive. He died for me! Shall I not serve Him who redeemed me?
{b} That remembered deliverance arms us against temptations, and lifts us above sinking into sin.
How blessed such a life would be! How victorious over the small motives that rule one’s life, the deadening influence of routine, the duties that are felt to be overwhelmingly great and those that are felt to be wearisomely and monotonously small! How this unity of motive would give unity to life and simplify its problems! How it would free us from many a perplexity! There are so many things that seem doubtful because we do not bring the test of the highest motive to bear on them. Complications would fall away when we only wished to know and be like Christ. Many a tempting amusement, or occupation, or speculation would start up in its own shape when this Ithuriel spear touched it. How it would save from distractions! How strong it would make us, like a belt round the waist bracing the muscles tighter! ‘This one thing I do’ is always a strengthening principle.
How far is this possible? Not absolutely, but we may approximate very closely and indefinitely towards it. For there is the possibility of such thought blending with common motives, like a finer perfume in the scentless air, or some richer elixir in a cup. There is the possibility of its doing to other motives what light does to landscape when a sudden sunbeam gleams across the plain, and everything leaps into increased depth of colour. Let us try more and more to rescue life from the slavery of habit and the distractions of all these smaller forces, and to bring it into the greatness and power of submission to the dominion of this sovereign, unifying motive. Our lives would thus be greatened and strengthened, even as Germany and Italy have been, by being delivered from a rabble of petty dukes and brought under the sway of one emperor or king. Let us try to approach nearer and nearer to the fusion of action and contemplation, and to the blending with all other motives of this supreme one.
This command supplies us with an easily applied and effective test. Is there any place where you cannot take it, any act which you feel it would be impossible to do for His sake? Avoid such. Where the safety-lamp burns blue and goes out, is no place for you.
It is a beautiful thought that Jesus does for us what we are thus commanded to do for Him. The high priest bore the names of the tribes on his shoulders and in his heart. ‘I have graven thee on the palms of my hands.’ We bear Him in our hands and in our hearts. ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.’
III. The great deliverance is to be ever on our lips.
The three regions here named are the inward thought, the outward practice, and the testimony of the lips. Note that that testimony is a consequence of thought and practice.
1. The purpose of the deliverance is to make ‘prophets of His law.’ Such was the divine intention as to Israel. Such is God’s purpose as to all Christians. The very meaning of redemption is there. He has ‘opened our lips’ that we ‘should show forth His praise.’ He has regard to ‘His own name.’ He desires to make us vocal, for the same purpose for which a man strings a harp, to bring sweet music out of it. Words of testimony are a form of love.
2. The other two are incomplete without this vocal testimony.
3. The utterance of the lips, to be worth anything, must rest on and follow the other two. How noble, then, and blessed, how strong and calm and simple our lives would be, if we had this for the one great object of our thoughts, of our practical endeavour, of our words, if all our being was sustained, impelled, made vocal, by one thought, one love!
O my brother, see to it that you give yourself to Him. That great Light will gladden your eyes, will guide your activity, and, like the sunrise striking Memnon’s voiceless, stony lips, will bring music. Thought will have one boundless home of ‘many mansions.’ Work will have one law, one motive, its consecration and strength; and as in some solemn procession, all our steps and all our movements will keep time to the music of our praise to ‘Him who loved us.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Consecration of the Firstborn. The March to Etham
The Consecration of the Firstborn. The March to Etham
1-16. The Consecration of the Firstborn.
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All Israel was holy unto the Lord: see on Exo_19:5, Exo_19:6. But the firstborn of man and beast were specially consecrated to Him, as the part representing the whole. There was a special fitness in the consecration of the firstborn, seeing they had been spared in the destruction which overtook the Egyptians. The firstborn of mankind were to be consecrated to the service of Jehovah as priests; the firstborn of animals were to be offered in sacrifice, if clean animals; if not, they were to be redeemed at a price. Afterwards the whole tribe of Levi was consecrated to the priestly service in lieu of the firstborn: see Num_3:40-51. The firstfruits of the field were also claimed by Jehovah: see e.g. Exo_22:29.
2. Openeth the womb] What is claimed is the firstborn male. 8. See on Exo_12:26.
9. A sign upon thine hand] a figurative expression meaning that they were never to lose sight of this duty. In later times the Jews understood this injunction literally, and to this day at times of prayer they attach to their left arm and forehead small cases containing pieces of parchment inscribed with certain passages of the Law. These cases are called in NT. 'phylacteries': see further on Deu_6:8.
12. Matrix] the womb.
13. The ass is here mentioned as a representative of 'unclean' domestic animals (see Lev_11:2.) which could not be offered in sacrifice. For such, a lamb was to be substituted; if not, its neck must be broken. This would ensure its redemption, as every one would prefer parting with a lamb to losing an ass. Human sacrifices are strictly forbidden, hence firstborn males must be redeemed. The tribe of Levi was substituted for them, and in addition the sum of five shekels was paid as the redemption price of each firstborn male: see Num_8:6; Num_18:15, Num_18:16. To this day the Jews solemnise the 'redemption of the firstborn' on the thirtieth day after birth. This was the rite performed by Joseph and Mary on behalf of the child Jesus as recorded in Luk_22:2, Luk_22:23.
17-22. The March to Etham.
17. The most direct route to Canaan from Raamses in the Eastern Delta where the host had mustered, would have been northeastwards along the Mediterranean coast. This would have implied a journey of not more than 150 or 200 miles. But it would immediately have brought them into collision with the Philistines, a very warlike tribe inhabiting the southwestern part of Canaan, and would have been too great an obstacle for the people's strength and faith. Accordingly the route of march was deflected southeastward into the peninsula of Sinai. The further object of leading the people to Mt. Sinai to be instructed in the Law is not expressly stated here, but neither is it excluded.
18. Harnessed] RV 'armed' in organised array: see on Exo_6:26.
19. See Gen_50:25; Jos_24:32.
20. Succoth] see on Exo_12:37. Etham] not identified. It was probably one of the frontier fortifications. The wilderness is probably that of Shur (cp. Exo_15:22, and see on Gen_16:7). In Num_33:8 it is called the 'wilderness of Etham.'
21. There was only one pillar, which in daylight had the appearance of smoke and by night glowed with fire: see Exo_14:20, Exo_14:24. It was the symbol of the divine presence with the host (see on Exo_3:2), and was their signal and guide on the march: see Exo_40:34-38, and cp. Num_9:15-23. It is clearly understood here to be miraculous. It was usual to carry fire signals at the head of an army on the march in early times. Go by day and by (RV) night] It is suggested that the Israelites marched during part of the night as well as by day: cp. Num_9:21.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv4, 13, 17 First month, i.e. April.
Abib
First month, i.e. April.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On vv1, 17 CHAPTER 13:1-16 The Sanctification of the Firstborn
CHAPTER 13:1-16 The Sanctification of the Firstborn
1. The separation commanded (Exo 13:1-2)
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2. Remember this day: the memorial (Exo 13:3-10)
3. The separation of the firstborn (Exo 13:11-16)
The firstborn had been delivered in a special manner in Egypt and because Jehovah had delivered them they were to be sanctified unto Him. There is an inseparable connection between redemption and holiness. What the Lord has redeemed He claims for Himself. Here we have a definition of sanctification; it is separation unto God. But let us notice that salvation out of the house of bondage is the foundation of all. The same order is more fully revealed in the New Testament. In Romans 3-5:11 we read of our salvation corresponding to the type in Exodus 12 and that is followed by the exhortation to holiness, separation unto God (chapter 6). We are saved unto holiness. The blood of atonement has sanctified us unto God. The more we realize this great redemption by blood, the more we shall yield ourselves and our members unto God.
Upon Exo 13:9 and Exo 13:16 as well as Deu 6:4-9; Deu 11:13-21 the Hebrews have built their ordinance of the phylacteries. They use leather strips with Scripture verses contained in a small box. These they put at certain times when they pray upon their hand and forehead. Thus they try to fulfill these words literally. It is only an outward ceremony and corresponds to certain usages in ritualistic Christendom. They were to retain those commandments in their hearts and practise them as well. The ass is especially mentioned. Why? It is an unclean animal and used here to show that unredeemed man is on the same level with the ass and must either be redeemed or die.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 11, 17 Concerning the Feast of Unleavened Bread
Concerning the Feast of Unleavened Bread
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
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v. 2. Sanctify unto Me all the first-born, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast; it is Mine. This is not said of the general sanctification of the people as God’s own nation, but of the consecrating, of the setting apart, of the first-born, both of men and of animals, for the specific service of Jehovah. They were the Lord’s not only by virtue of creation, but because He spared them in the great slaughter in Egypt. The first-born sons were to serve the Lord as priests, until this right was vested in the descendants of Levi, when they were obliged to redeem themselves by payment of a sacrifice of exemption; the first-born beasts were to be sacrificed to the Lord.
v. 3. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. The Lord here repeats His ordinance respecting the Feast of Unleavened Bread with impressive solemnity, His name for Egypt being "house of slaves"; for that was the relation in which they had stood to Pharaoh and to all the Egyptians, that of practical slavery. For by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. The expression is more emphatic than the usual "by a strong hand. " There shall no leavened bread be eaten, not only during the present days, but also at every anniversary of the occasion.
v. 4. This day came ye out, in the month Abib, the fifteenth day of the first month of the church-year.
v. 5. And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month. Thus the Lord formally instituted the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with the usual detailed description of the Land of Promise and the corresponding reference to the fruitfulness of this country.
v. 6. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. Cf Exodus 12, 16. on the seventh day there was to be a special assembly for the purpose of worship.
v. 7. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters. All foods in whose preparation leaven was used were prohibited so strictly that their very presence in the house was not tolerated.
v. 8. And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt. The use of the singular here places the duty upon every individual father and parent, for the children were not only to take part in the public services, but also to be instructed at home concerning the great miracles of the Lord.
v. 9. And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord’s Law may be in thy mouth; for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt. These are proverbial expressions denoting that the Israelites should keep the facts of their deliverance in their memories always, as the people of many nations wore bracelets and frontlets to remind them of certain religious duties. The redemption of the Lord and His ordinance concerning it was to be accepted with believing hearts and to be fulfilled with faithful hearts, with hearts conscious of the debt of gratitude which all Israelites owed to the Lord.
v. 10. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year, as often as these days recurred. Thus we Christians are ever mindful of the fact that we have been delivered from sin’s and Satan’s house of slavery through the redemption of Jesus, and that our debt of gratitude toward Him demands our purging out the old leaven of sinfulness and consecrating our lives to Him.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19 Set apart to me ... every firstborn male
Set apart to me ... every firstborn male
God requires that every firstborn male child be set apart for him.
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translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
set apart
firstborn
Israel
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 5, 9, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 13:1-16 Like the Passover celebration, the practice of dedicating…
13:1-16 Like the Passover celebration, the practice of dedicating the firstborn memorialized what God did in the Passover event. Because he spared the firstborn, they now belonged to him and must be redeemed. The annual sacrifice and eating of the lamb symbolized what God would do in providing a substitute in his Son, Jesus Christ; we who deserve death must be redeemed with a price, the life of the Son.
13:1-10 This rehearsal of the customs surrounding Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread sets the stage for discussing the dedication of the firstborn (13:11-16).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.