Exodus 13:2

Summary

Exodus 13:2 records a divine command to consecrate every firstborn male to God. The verse specifies that this applies to the firstborn that "opens the womb" among the Israelites, covering both humans and animals, and closes with the declarative statement that this firstborn "belongs to me."

Key words

• ka.desh ("consecrate", H6942H) — piel imperative, second person masculine singular; the piel stem gives an intensive/causative sense ("make holy" / "set apart"), and the imperative form marks this as a direct command.
• Pe.ter ("the firstborn of", H6363A) — masculine singular construct noun, literally referring to that which "breaks open" or "opens" (the womb); it stands in construct relationship with re.chem ("womb", H7358), forming the phrase "opener of every womb."
• khol ("every", H3605) — appears twice (positions 4 and 7) as a construct noun meaning "all/every," each time governing the following noun to express totality ("every firstborn," "every womb").
• Hu' ("it/he", H1931) — third person masculine singular personal pronoun, placed at the end of the clause after li ("to me", H9005 + H9030), forming the predicate "it is mine" or "mine it is."
• be.he.Mah ("livestock", H0929) — feminine singular noun, paired with 'a.Dam ("humankind", H0120G) via the conjunction u ("and", H9002) to express the merism "human and animal."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the imperative verb ka.desh ("consecrate") followed immediately by the prepositional phrase li ("to me"), establishing the addressee of the consecration as the speaker (God). The object of consecration is expressed through a chain of construct phrases: khol-be.Khor ("every firstborn") is further specified by Pe.ter kol-re.chem ("the opener of every womb"), a construct chain that defines "firstborn" specifically as the one who first opens the womb, rather than by birth order among surviving children.

The phrase bi-v.Nei Yis.ra.'El ("among the sons of Israel") locates this command within the community of Israel, and the following pair ba-'a.Dam u-va-be.he.Mah ("among humankind and among livestock") extends the scope of "firstborn" to both human and animal offspring, each noun preceded by the preposition ba with the definite article. The verse closes with a short nominal clause, li Hu' ("to me it [is]"), repeating the pronoun li from the opening imperative and thereby framing the entire verse with the theme of belonging to the speaker; the pronoun Hu' functions as the subject of this final declarative clause, distinct from the imperative structure of the verse's opening.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Pe.ter kol-re.chem ("the opener of every womb") as πρωτογενὲς διανοῖγον πᾶσαν μήτραν ("firstborn, opening every womb"), adding πρωτότοκον ("firstborn") explicitly alongside πρωτογενές, producing a doubled description not structurally present in the Hebrew's single construct chain. The Vulgate's quod aperit vulvam ("that opens the womb") corresponds closely to the Hebrew construct sense of Pe.ter. The Vulgate adds enim ("for") in mea sunt enim omnia ("for all are mine"), an explanatory connector not present as a distinct lexical item in the Hebrew li Hu' ("to me it [is]").