For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and animal. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself.
Parallel translations
- KJV For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.
- BSB For every firstborn male in Israel is Mine, both man and beast. I set them apart for Myself on the day I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
- NKJV For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them to Myself.
- NASB For every firstborn among the sons of Israel is Mine, among the people and among the animals; on the day that I fatally struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for Myself.
- NLT For all the firstborn males among the people of Israel are mine, both of people and of animals. I set them apart for myself on the day I struck down all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Every Israelite firstborn belongs to God because He spared them when He struck Egypt's firstborn at Passover. His claim rests on redemption.
Overview
God grounds His ownership of the firstborn in the night of the tenth plague, when He sanctified Israel's firstborn by passing over them. This redemptive claim anticipates the gospel, where God's people belong to Him because they have been spared judgment through the blood of the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Exod 13:2“Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of animal. It is mine.”
- Luke 2:23(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”),
- Exod 13:12–15that you shall set apart to Yahweh all that opens the womb, and every firstborn which you have that comes from an animal. The males shall be Yahweh’s.
- Heb 11:28By faith, he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them.
- Heb 10:29How much worse punishment do you think he will be judged worthy of who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
- Exod 12:29At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of livestock.
- Ps 105:36He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.
- Lev 27:14–15“‘When a man dedicates his house to be holy to Yahweh, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as the priest shall evaluate it, so shall it stand.
- Exod 29:44I will sanctify the Tent of Meeting and the altar: Aaron also and his sons I will sanctify, to minister to me in the priest’s office.
- Ps 78:51and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.
- John 17:19For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
- Ezek 20:12Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies them.
- Ps 135:8Who struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and animal;
- Jas 1:18Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
- Lev 27:26“‘Only the firstborn among animals, which is made a firstborn to Yahweh, no man may dedicate it; whether an ox or sheep. It is Yahweh’s.
- John 10:36do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’
- Num 3:13for all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I made holy to me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and animal. They shall be mine. I am Yahweh.”
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 8:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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