1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,Dirty things first: we get two references to the "house of bondage." I googled up 108,000 pages with that phrase, and not all of them were biblical. But most of them were. Which ones you find creepier is between you and your master.
2 Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
3 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.
4 This day came ye out in the month Abib.
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.
6 Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the LORD.
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.
8 And thou shalt shew 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.
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.
10 Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year.
11 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as he sware unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee,
12 That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD's.
13 And 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.
14 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:
15 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.
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.
17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way 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:
18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.
19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for 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.
20 And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
Then there's the matter of the "matrix." I hadn't known that it derived from mom words. Ah mater!
Speaking of creepy, how about the Lord saying that the first (male) one to pass through each womb is his!? I thought that claiming-the-firstborn stuff was the province of the devil (or was it Rumpelstiltskin?). Well, I guess it beats the old Passover Treatment he treated the Egyptians to.
Again the promised land of the -ites is said to flow with milk and honey, and the unleavened bread PSA keeps repeating ad nauseam. Still, makes one hungry for a nice nosh, maybe with a schmeer.
There are also continued calls to mark the blessed day of baby- and lamb-killing.
Today's vocabulary word is "frontlet," meaning forehead (especially of an animal) or jewelry worn on same.
Exodus 13:13 is a freakshow. According to the more user-friendly God's Word translation, it means:
It will cost you a sheep or a goat to buy any firstborn donkey back from the LORD. If you don't buy it back, then you must break the donkey's neck. You must also buy every firstborn son back from the LORD.Hell, I didn't want to be a hypnotized homophobic misogynist, but when I see the logic and virtue of a passage like that, it really makes me want to join the choir. Also, what happens if you don't buy your firstborn son back?
In the end, God decides to be a super-cool and rather unreliable GPS, (mis)leading the way as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.
There's talk of a war that God is trying to hide from the Israelites. Not sure what that's about just yet....
5 comments:
"House of bondage" = "place of slavery" = Egypt, in this context.
In Hebrew, the ritual of the buying the firstborn son is "Pidyon haBen" ("Ben" means "son", thus "Joshua ben Nun"="joshua, son of Nun"; "ha" means "the") - roughly "redemption of the firstborn". Its still carried out in Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, and according to Jewish Oral Law (which was written down in the 2nd century as the "Talmud") it referred to the firstborn of the woman - if a man fathered children by different women, he would need to redeem the first son of each woman.
In Judaism, the firstborn of anything belongs to Yahweh. Scholars think that originally they were all sacrificed; later there was a restriction against this sort of sacrifice "to Moloch"/"as a Molk" (scholars aren't quite sure what "M-L-K" means in this context, but are sure it doesn't mean king - "melech" - which is the usual meaning). Rather sinister archaeological evidence for this emerged in the last century; there are children's bodies deliberately embedded as part of the foundations of many buildings from the 11th century BC and earlier. The "redemption" of firstborns by donating money to the church developed as a way to avoid this fate by substituting money in place of the firstborn.
"Frontlets" is the translation of the Hebrew term "totafot", which refers to "tefillin" - little leather boxes, with small parchments inside them on which four particular Bible verses were written; scholars think that "tefillin" were originally tattoes on the head.
Land of "milk and honey" is a reference to prosperity, not literally to rivers made from milk and honey. The "milk" in question is goat and sheep milk; cows were rare, due to the terrain.
Verse 5. Jebusites are the occupants of Jerusalem (formally named Jebus), "Hivites" means "tent dwellers", the others are the major historic groups known by those names.
Verse 17 is about the fact that there were roads which the Egyptian army could use to rapidly and easily travel the distance to catch up. Ironically, despite the biblical account, at the time the story is traditionally thought ot be set Canaan was part of the Egyptian Empire - so the Israelites were only escaping to another part of Egypt, but the bible's authors didn't realise that.
verse 19 is about the fact that Joseph is traditionally buried at Shechem (its a tradition that itself arose to justify the fact that Shechem was already a sanctuary); Shechem eventually fell into ruins, and the Greeks founded "Neapolis" - now "Nablus" - in its place, which is why Nablus is so important to modern Israel and the Palestinians (Joseph is also revered in Islam). The account of Joseph mainly living and dying in Egypt would contradict his burial in Shechem, so the bible's authors needed to add verse 19 to solve the problem.
Verse 20 is another part of that stations list document I mentioned in a post about the previous chapters.
If you think Exodus 13:13 is a freakshow, wait until you get to Leviticus.
...if a man fathered children by different women, he would need to redeem the first son of each woman.
Jerry Springer would have had a field day with these people...
ex 13:13
the ass reps. u and me
the lamb/christ one in the same
because we need 2 b redemed
The account of Joseph mainly living and dying in Egypt would contradict his burial in Shechem, so the bible's authors needed to add verse 19 to solve the problem.
Burial in Shechem became a "problem" to be solved because of what? Some kind of tension between greeks and jews? Palestinians and jews?
So you're thinking this part of the bible was written approximately when? 1945?
Isn't it simpler to assume the text is a bit older than the "problem" you're seeing? Maybe there never was a problem?
I don't get your logic here :)
The "redemption" of firstborns by donating money to the church developed as a way to avoid this fate by substituting money in place of the firstborn.
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