Exodus 13

Consecration of the Firstborn

13The Lord said to Moses, ^2o“Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

The Feast of Unleavened Bread

³Then Moses said to the people, ^p“Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, ^qfor by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. ^rNo leavened bread shall be eaten. ⁴Today, in the month of ^sAbib, you are going out. ⁵And when the Lord brings you into ^tthe land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which ^uhe swore to your fathers to give you, a land ^vflowing with milk and honey, ^wyou shall keep this service in this month. ^6xSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. ⁷Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory. ^8yYou shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ ⁹And it shall ^zbe to you as a sign on your hand and as ^aa memorial ^zbetween your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt. ^10bYou shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.

¹¹“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, ^cas he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, ^12dyou shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. ^13eEvery firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every ^ffirstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. ^14gAnd when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ^h‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of ⁱslavery. ¹⁵For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the ^jLord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but ^kall the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ ^16lIt shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for ^mby a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”

Pillars of Cloud and Fire

¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God did ⁿnot lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people ^ochange their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸But God ^pled the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. ¹⁹Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph¹ had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ^q“God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” ²⁰And ^rthey moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. ²¹And ^sthe Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. ²²The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.