Dual Panel1The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
2“Every firstborn, the first birth of every womb among the Israelites, you must dedicate to me, both man and beast; it belongs to me.”
3Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, the day on which you have come out of Egypt, the land of slavery, because the LORD by the strength of his hand has brought you out. Nothing leavened may be eaten this day,
4for today, in the month of Abib, is the day of your exodus.
5When the LORD has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, the land which he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, then in this same month you must observe this rite:
6for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a pilgrim-feast of the LORD.
7Only unleavened bread is to be eaten during the seven days; nothing fermented or leavened must be seen throughout your territory.
8On that day you are to tell your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
9You must have the record of it as a sign upon your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead to make sure that the law of the LORD is always on your lips, because the LORD with a strong hand brought you out of Egypt.
10This is a statute to be kept by you at the appointed time from year to year.
11“After the LORD has brought you into the land of the Canaanites and given it to you, as he swore to you and to your forefathers,
12you are to make over to the LORD the first birth of every womb; and of all firstborn offspring of your animals the males belong to the LORD.
13Every firstborn male donkey you may redeem with a kid or lamb, but if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. Every firstborn among your sons you must redeem.
14“When in time to come your son asks you what this means, say to him, ‘By the strength of his hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
15Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, and the LORD killed all the firstborn in Egypt, both man and beast. That is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first birth of every womb if it is a male, and why I redeem every firstborn of my sons.
16You must have the record of it as a sign on your hand, and as a phylactery on your forehead, because by the strength of his hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.’”
17WHEN Pharaoh let the people go, God did not guide them by the road leading towards the Philistines, although that was the shortest way; for he said, “The people may change their minds when war confronts them, and they may turn back to Egypt.”
18So God made them go round by way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. Thus the fifth generation of Israelites departed from Egypt.
19Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph had exacted an oath from the Israelites: “Some day”, he said, “God will show his care for you, and then, as you leave, you must take my bones with you.”
20They set out from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
21And all the time the LORD went before them, by day a pillar of cloud to guide them on their journey, by night a pillar of fire to give them light; so they could travel both by day and by night.
22The pillar of cloud never left its place in front of the people by day, nor did the pillar of fire by night.