Keluaran 13:2

13:2 “Set apart ¹  to me every firstborn male – the first offspring of every womb ²  among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.” ³ 

Keluaran 13:12

13:12 then you must give over ⁴  to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. ⁵  Every firstling ⁶  of a beast that you have ⁷  – the males will be the Lord’s. ⁸ 

Keluaran 22:29

22:29 “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. ⁹  You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

Bilangan 18:15-17

18:15 The firstborn of every womb which they present to the Lord, whether human or animal, will be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn sons you must redeem, ¹⁰  and the firstborn males of unclean animals you must redeem. 18:16 And those that must be redeemed you are to redeem when they are a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel (which is twenty gerahs). 18:17 But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow or a sheep or a goat; they are holy. You must splash ¹¹  their blood on the altar and burn their fat for an offering made by fire for a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Yehezkiel 44:30

44:30 The first of all the first fruits and all contributions of any kind ¹²  will be for the priests; you will also give to the priest the first portion of your dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house.

Lukas 2:23

2:23 (just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male ¹³  will be set apart to the Lord” ¹⁴ ),

[13:2]  ¹ tn The verb “sanctify” is the Piel imperative of קָדַשׁ (qadash). In the Qal stem it means “be holy, be set apart, be distinct,” and in this stem “sanctify, set apart.”

[13:2]  sn Here is the central principle of the chapter – the firstborn were sacred to God and must be “set apart” (the meaning of the verb “sanctify”) for his use.

[13:2]  ² tn The word פֶּטֶּר (petter) means “that which opens”; this construction literally says, “that which opens every womb,” which means “the first offspring of every womb.” Verses 12 and 15 further indicate male offspring.

[13:2]  ³ tn Heb “to me it.” The preposition here expresses possession; the construction is simply “it [is, belongs] to me.”

[13:12]  ⁴ tn The unusual choice of words in this passage reflects the connection with the deliverance of the firstborn in the exodus when the Lord passed over the Israelites (12:12, 23). Here the Law said, “you will cause to pass over (וְהַעֲבַרְתָּ, vÿha’avarta) to Yahweh.” The Hiphil perfect with the vav (ו) provides the main clause after the temporal clauses. Yahweh here claimed the firstborn as his own. The remarkable thing about this is that Yahweh did not keep the firstborn that was dedicated to him, but allowed the child to be redeemed by his father. It was an acknowledgment that the life of the child belonged to God as the one redeemed from death, and that the child represented the family. Thus, the observance referred to the dedication of all the redeemed to God.

[13:12]  sn It was once assumed by some scholars that child sacrifice lay behind this text in the earlier days, but that the priests and prophets removed those themes. Apart from the fact that there is absolutely no evidence for anything like that, the Law forbade child sacrifice, and always used child sacrifice as the sample of what not to do in conformity with the pagans (e.g., Deut 12:31). Besides, how absurd would it be for Yahweh to redeem the firstborn from death and then ask Israel to kill them. See further B. Jacob, Exodus, 371.

[13:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “every opener of a womb,” that is, the firstborn from every womb.

[13:12]  ⁶ tn The descriptive noun שֶׁגֶר (sheger) is related to the verb “drop, cast”; it refers to a newly born animal that is dropped or cast from the womb. The expression then reads, “and all that first open [the womb], the casting of a beast.”

[13:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “that is to you.” The preposition expresses possession.

[13:12]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text simply has “the males to Yahweh.” It indicates that the Lord must have them, or they belong to the Lord.

[22:29]  ⁹ tn The expressions are unusual. U. Cassuto renders them: “from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses” (Exodus, 294). He adds the Hittite parallel material to show that the people were to bring the offerings on time and not let them overlap, because the firstfruits had to be eaten first by the priest.

[18:15]  ¹⁰ tn The construction uses the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of the verb “to redeem” in order to stress the point – they were to be redeemed. N. H. Snaith suggests that the verb means to get by payment what was not originally yours, whereas the other root גָאַל (ga’al) means to get back what was originally yours (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 268).

[18:17]  ¹¹ tn Or “throw, toss.”

[44:30]  ¹² tn Heb has in addition “from your contributions,” a repetition unnecessary in English.

[2:23]  ¹³ tn Grk “every male that opens the womb” (an idiom for the firstborn male).

[2:23]  ¹⁴ sn An allusion to Exod 13:2, 12, 15.