Open English Translation EXO Chapter 13

13 Then Yahweh told Mosheh, 2 “All firstborn offspring are to be consecrated to me—the first product of every womb, whether human or animal, belongs to me.”[ref]

3 Then Mosheh told the people, “Always remember this day, that you went out of Egypt, rescued from slavery, because Yahweh used his power to bring you out from there. And nothing with yeast in it can be eaten when you celebrate this. 4 Today you are leaving in the month of Aviv, 5 and when Yahweh brings you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and the Jebusites (which he swore to your fathers to give to you—a land flowing with milk and honey) you must observe this ceremony in this same month. 6 You must eat only flat bread for seven days, and then on the seventh day, it will be a festival to honour Yahweh. 7 Again, you must only eat flat bread for seven days—not only that you must not even have any risen bread, nor must you have any yeast within any of your borders. 8 On that festival day, you must tell your children, ‘This is because of what Yahweh did for us when we left Egypt.’ 9 It’ll be like a reminder written on your hand and a prompt in front of your eyes, so that you’ll remember to pass on Yahweh’s instructions because he used his power to bring you out of Egypt. 10 So you must follow those instructions at the appointed time year after year.

11 Later, when Yahweh brings you into the land of the Canaanites as he promised to you and your ancestors, and he gives it to you, 12 then hand over to Yahweh all oldest children, and all the oldest animal offspring that are yours. The males are for Yahweh.[ref] 13 In the case of the oldest donkey foal, you must buy it back by killing a lamb instead of it. If you don’t buy it back, you must kill the donkey by breaking its neck. You must buy back every one of your oldest sons, 14 and in the future when your son asks you, ‘What’s that about?’ then you must tell him, ‘We were enslaved in Egypt, but Yahweh used his incredible power to bring us out. 15 And so it was that when Far’oh was too stubborn to let us go, then Yahweh struck all of the oldest sons and oldest male animals in Egypt. That’s why we offer all the oldest offspring to Yahweh, and why we need to buy back all our oldest sons.’ 16 So you must place a reminder on your hand and hanging on your forehead that Yahweh used his incredible power to bring us out of Egypt.”

17 When Far’oh released the people, God didn’t lead them through the land of the Philistines, although that way was shorter, because he said, “It’s best if the people don’t have to face war immediately, or they might change their minds and then want to return to Egypt.” 18 So God caused the people to take the path going towards the wilderness and the Red Sea.[fn] The Israeli left Egypt in formation as if ready for battle.

19 Mosheh ensured that the bones of Yosef were taken with them, because many years back Yosef had made the Israelis vow, saying, “God will certainly take notice of you all, and you must take my bones up with you from here.”[ref]

20 The people travelled on from Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. 21 During the day, Yahweh went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on the way, and at nighttime, he went in a pillar of fire to be light to them, so they could travel both in the daytime and at night. 22 The daytime pillar of cloud and the nighttime pillar of fire didn’t ever leave their place in front of the people.