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.”
Parallel Translations
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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.”
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And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.
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And it shall be for a sign upon thy hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes; for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.'
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Exodus 13:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 13:9 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.
- Deuteronomy 11:18 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
- Exodus 13:14 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.
- Deuteronomy 6:7-9 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.
- Exodus 12:13 The blood shall be to you for a token on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 26:8 Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders;
- Matthew 23:5 But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Or, signs of remembrance.
Or, signs of remembrance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 13:16 And it shall be for a token…
Exo 13:16 And it shall be for a token upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.
Ver. 16. Frontlets.] Phylacteries. See on Mat 23:5-6. The right use of them was memorative: the superstitious use, preservative against the power of sin.
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 For frontlets; instead of frontlets. The sense is, This…
For frontlets; instead of frontlets. The sense is, This practice shall make your deliverance from Egypt as fresh and evident to you, and to your children, as any thing which you see hanged or written upon one another’s foreheads. See Eze 9:4. It seems strange to me, that they that understand the sign on the hand, and the memorial between the eyes, Exo 13:9, metaphorically, should understand the
frontlets between the eyes in this place properly, seeing the phrase is perfectly the same; only here is a more particular allusion to the custom of the Egyptians, which used to wear some devices upon their foreheads, which probably they called totaphoth, which were memorials of their idols, or of something relating to them. And therefore it seems unlikely that he should here prescribe the use of the same things to the Jews; and the more probable meaning of the phrase is only this, that this practice would be as effectual and useful a remembrancer of this mighty and glorious work of God in bringing them out of Egypt, as those contrivances were to the Egyptians of their idols.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it shall be for a token upon thine…
And it shall be for a token upon thine head, and for frontlets between thine eyes,.... These laws observed concerning the setting apart the firstlings of their beasts, the redemption of the firstborn of unclean ones, and of the firstborn of men, will bring the reason of it, the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt, and the preservation of the firstborn of Israel, as fresh to remembrance as any token upon the hand, put there to bring things to mind; and it will be as easily and as clearly discerned as anything upon a man's forehead may be seen by another:
for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt: which is often mentioned, that it might be observed; it being the signs and wonders which the omnipotent hand of God wrought, especially the last, which worked upon Pharaoh, to let the people of Israel go; and their posterity, in all succeeding ages, would speak of this affair as if personally concerned in it, they being then in the loins of their ancestors, and represented by them, as well as they reaped and enjoyed all the benefits of that wonderful deliverance, the possession of the land of Canaan, and the blessings of it, as well as many other privileges both of a civil and religious kind. And so Maimonides (k) says,"in every age a man is obliged to consider himself as if he in himself now went out of the bondage of Egypt, as it is said, "and he brought us forth from thence", &c.''
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(k) Hilchot Chametz Umetzah, c. 7. sect. 6.
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 For frontlets between thine eyes - As conspicuous as…
For frontlets between thine eyes - As conspicuous as any thing fixt to thy forehead, or between thine eyes.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. It shall be for a token, &c.]…
Verse 16. It shall be for a token, &c.] See Clarke on Ex 13:9.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 13:16. For frontlets between thine eyes — As…
Exo 13:16. For frontlets between thine eyes — As conspicuous as any thing fixed to thy forehead, or between thine eyes. That is, they were constantly to retain such a sense of their deliverance as if they had it before their eyes.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain It. This ordinance shall cause thee never to forget…
It. This ordinance shall cause thee never to forget the goodness of God. (Haydock)
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).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16. Like Maẓẓoth (v. 9), the redemption of the…
16. Like Maẓẓoth (v. 9), the redemption of the firstborn is to serve the same purpose as a ritual mark, or badge, in reminding Israel constantly of what Jehovah had done for them.
frontlets] Heb. ṭôṭâphôth (properly, perhaps,—from the Arabic ṭâfa, to make a circuit,—circlets or headbands1[137]): Deu_6:8; Deu_11:18 †. The word takes the place of the ‘memorial’ in v. 9. Originally, as the comparative study of religions makes probable, the ‘frontlet’ was some kind of badge worn upon the forehead as a mark of belonging to the national Deity, by which he might know who were his, and (like an amulet) guaranteeing them his protection, and also reminding those who bore it of their ceremonial duties towards him. Here it is merely said that the redemption of the firstborn is to be for (i.e. to serve the same purpose as) a ‘sign,’ or ritual mark (see on v. 9) upon the head, and ‘frontlets’ on the forehead, in reminding Israel of its duties towards Jehovah. In Deu_6:8; Deu_11:18, where the same two expressions are used, but the reference is to words, it has been generally supposed that material objects are meant (see, however, against this view the strong arguments of A. R. S. Kennedy, art. Phylacteries in DB. p. 871 f.: it is not clear that ‘these words’ in Deu_6:6 refer to vv. 4, 5 alone; cf. Deu_11:18[138]); and the later Jews gave effect to this interpretation of the passage by inscribing Deu_13:1-16, Deu_6:4-9; Deu_11:13-21 on small scrolls of parchment, which were enclosed in cases, and bound with leathern thongs to the forehead and left arm. These are the tephillin, ‘prayers,’ of the later Jews, the φυλακτήρια (i.e. preservatives against demons, amulets: cf. Targ. on Son_8:3, where protection against demons is expressly said to be the object of binding on the tephillin), mentioned in Mat_23:5 (see further DB. l.c.).
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[137] This meaning is not certain; but the sense drop, jewel (worn as an amulet) does not seem established by Shabb. vi. 1, 5, quoted for it by Kennedy (DB. iii. 872) Ṭôṭépheth certainly denotes there something worn by women; but the Gemara ibid. interprets of a band ‘going round from ear to ear.’ The word is extremely rare: Levy (NHWB. s.v.) states that he knows no other occurrence in post-Bibl. Heb. literature. In 2Sa_1:10 Targ. it is used of the armlet worn by Saul.
[138] LXX. also (in Dt. as well as in Ex.) interpret figuratively, ἀσάλευτον πρὸὀφθαλμῶν σου, i.e. ‘something immoveably fixed before [not ‘between’] thine eyes,’ ever present to thy thoughts.
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 (16) It shall be for a token.—See the comment…
(16) It shall be for a token.—See the comment on Exo_13:9. The “frontlets” (totaphôth) of this passage, and of Deu_6:8, were called tephillin in Chaldee, both words signifying properly “bands” or “circlets.” The injunctions on the subject which are here given might undoubtedly be explained as metaphorical; but those in Deu_6:6-9 seem to have been intended, and were certainly understood, literally.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain A sign frontlets. See the comment on verse 9.…
A sign frontlets. See the comment on verse 9. It is the custom among the Jews to write this entire passage Exo_13:1-16 on two of the four strips of parchment contained in the tephillin. The others have inscribed on them Deu_6:4-9, and Deu_11:13-21.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 13:16 Like the annual Passover celebration (13:9), dedicating the…
13:16 Like the annual Passover celebration (13:9), dedicating the firstborn to the Lord was like a mark, a visible way to identify oneself as the Lord’s possession.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.