Exodus13:1–16

The same firstborn-law, repeated almost word for word verbal / quotation — confirmed

Exodus 13:2, 12-13 and Exodus 34:19-20 state the law of the firstborn in nearly identical Hebrew: the opener of the womb (peṭer) belongs to the LORD, the donkey is redeemed with a lamb or its neck broken, and the firstborn son is redeemed. The link is verbal and strong because peṭer (H6363) is rare — it occurs in only ten verses in the whole Bible — so its shared use is a genuine quotation-grade tie, not a coincidence of common words. bᵉkôwr (H1060, firstborn) reinforces it.

Exodus 34:19 · Exodus 34:20

basis: rare shared lexeme H6363 peṭer (in only 10 vv), plus H1060 bᵉkôwr and H7358 rechem; Verifier-computed for Exodus 13:2↔Exodus 34:20

The firstborn-law fulfilled and modified in Numbers verbal / quotation — confirmed

Numbers 18:15 and Numbers 3:12 carry the same law forward, sharing the rare peṭer (H6363) and adding pâdâh (H6299, "redeem") and ʼâdâm (H120, "man"). Numbers supplies what Exodus 13:13 leaves open — the price (five shekels) and the substitution of the Levites for the firstborn (so Barnes, Ellicott, Keil). The verbal overlap on the rare opener-of-the-womb term makes this a confirmed quotation-grade link, the later law citing the earlier.

Numbers 18:15 · Numbers 3:12

basis: rare shared lexeme H6363 peṭer (in 10 vv) + H6299 pâdâh + H1060 bᵉkôwr + H120 ʼâdâm; Verifier-computed for Exodus 13:13↔Numbers 18:15 and ↔Numbers 3:12

The leaven-ban, shared with the Passover legislation of ch. 12 verbal / quotation — confirmed

Exodus 13:7's prohibition — no ḥāmêṣ (leavened bread) and no śə·’ōr (leaven) to be seen — echoes Exodus 12:19 closely, sharing the genuinely rare śə·’ôr (H7603, only 5 verses) together with ḥāmêṣ (H2557, 13 verses). Because both lexemes are uncommon, the tie is verbal. The Pulpit Commentary reads ch. 13 here as deliberate "repetition... to deepen the impression" of the ch. 12 law.

Exodus 12:19 · Exodus 12:15

basis: rare shared lexeme H7603 sᵉʼôr (in 5 vv) + H2557 châmêts (in 13 vv); Verifier-computed for Exodus 13:7↔Exodus 12:19

The same two words turned to apostasy — Ezekiel 20:26 verbal / quotation — confirmed

Exodus 13:12's startling verb — wə·ha·‘ă·ḇar·tā (H5674, ʻâbar, "cause to pass over") applied to every pe·ṭer (H6363, opener of the womb) — recurs together in Ezekiel 20:26, where God indicts Israel for being defiled "in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that openeth the womb." The link is verbal because both peṭer (rare, 10 vv) and ʻâbar are shared, and it is theologically sharp: Ezekiel uses the very pair of words Exodus 13:12 uses, but for the Molech-perversion the law was meant to forestall. This hard lexical overlap is the strongest support for the reading that Exodus deliberately seizes the child-sacrifice formula and redirects it to redemption (so Cambridge); but note the interpretive claim about Exodus 13:12's intent remains contested (Poole reads the verb innocuously as "under the rod"). The verse-to-verse verbal tie is firm; the inference about authorial purpose is the synthesis layer's, offered as suggestive.

Ezekiel 20:26 · Exodus 13:12

basis: rare shared lexeme H6363 peṭer (in 10 vv) + H5674 ʻâbar — same opener-of-the-womb + cause-to-pass-over pair; Verifier-computed for Exodus 13:12↔Ezekiel 20:26. (Interpretive claim about Molech-reclamation is flagged in the body, not the lexical basis.)

Sign on the hand, frontlets between the eyes — the Shema's language structural / thematic — confirmed

Exodus 13:9 and 13:16 ("a sign upon thy hand... between thine eyes") reappear in Deuteronomy 6:8 and 11:18, sharing ʼôwth (H226, sign), bêyn (H996, between), ʻayin (H5869, eye), and yâd (H3027, hand). The shared words are common, so the Verifier rates this structural / thematic, not verbal: the link is a recurring formula and motif (the basis for the later tephillin), not a quotation of a distinctive phrase. The same commentators — Poole, Keil, Maclaren, Cambridge — debate whether all four passages are literal or figurative.

Deuteronomy 6:8 · Deuteronomy 11:18

basis: shared but common lexemes H226 ʼôwth, H996 bêyn, H5869 ʻayin, H3027 yâd — recurring formula, not a rare phrase; Verifier-computed for Exodus 13:9↔Deuteronomy 6:8

"House of bondage" — the Deuteronomic refrain for Egypt structural / thematic — confirmed

Exodus 13:3 and 13:14 call Egypt the "house of slaves" (bêṯ ʻăḇāḏîm). Deuteronomy 5:6 (the Decalogue prologue) repeats it, and Cambridge traces the phrase through Deuteronomy 6:12; 7:8; 8:14; 13:5,10 and Joshua 24:17. The Verifier finds only common shared lexemes (Mitsrayim, ʻebed, yâtsâʼ, bayith), so the connection is rated structural — a stock formula and shared motif of remembered slavery, not a verbal quotation of a rare expression.

Deuteronomy 5:6

basis: common shared lexemes H4714 Mitsrayim, H5650 ʻebed, H3318 yâtsâʼ, H1004 bayith — shared 'house of bondage' formula; Verifier-computed for Exodus 13:3↔Deuteronomy 5:6

"Every male that openeth the womb" — cited (not quoted) at the presentation of Christ flagged — verify source

Luke 2:23 invokes this very law ("Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") at the presentation of the infant Jesus. The Cambridge Bible records, with care, that "the law is cited (but not verbally) in Luke 2:23" — Luke paraphrases rather than quotes a fixed Greek text. Because this is a cross-Testament link (Greek New Testament ↔ Hebrew Torah), it cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers, and the Verifier returns no shared original-language lexeme; the connection is the citation of a law, established by Luke himself and by the commentators, not by verbal overlap. It is flagged because its precise textual basis is debated (which Old Testament passage — Exodus 13:2/12/15 — Luke has in view, and how loosely he renders it).

Luke 2:23 · Exodus 13:2 · Exodus 13:12

basis: cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): no shared Strong's possible; Verifier finds no shared lexeme. Cambridge: the law is 'cited (but not verbally) in Luke 2:23' — a debated, non-verbal citation, not a quotation

The firstborn redeemed by the blood of a lamb widely-held

The structural heart of vv.11-15 is substitution: the firstborn is forfeit to death (because God slew Egypt's firstborn), yet bought back — the donkey by a lamb, the son by a ransom-price. Gill makes the figural reading explicit on v.13: the firstborn "need redemption by the blood of the Lamb," and on v.2 he speaks of "the church of the firstborn... redemption of them to him by the price of his blood." Matthew Henry (on vv.1-10) reads the spared firstborn as those whose "lives were preserved through the ransom of the atonement, which in due time was to be made for sin." The pattern — firstborn owed to death, a lamb in his place — is the gospel's own shape, and the NT names Christ "the firstborn" (cf. Hebrews 12:23, to which JFB points on v.2) and "our Passover, sacrificed for us." This is the ancient, widely-held reading of the church.

Exodus 13:13 · Exodus 13:15 · Exodus 13:2

The presentation of the firstborn Son at the Temple widely-held

The redemption-rite of vv.13, 15 was literally enacted upon Jesus. Gill records on v.15 that this redemption "was used in Christ's time, and was observed with respect to him, Luke 2:27"; Luke 2:22-23 brings the infant Christ to Jerusalem "to present him to the Lord" precisely "as it is written... Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord" — citing this chapter's peṭer-law. The firstborn Son who fulfills the type is himself, in his infancy, brought under it: he is the redeemed firstborn and, on the church's reading, the redeeming Lamb. The link to the law is ancient and explicit in Luke; the figural identification of Christ as both redeemed and Redeemer is widely held.

Exodus 13:2 · Exodus 13:12 · Exodus 13:15

Unleavened bread and the purging of the old leaven widely-held

The seven-day ban on leaven (vv.6-7) becomes, in Paul's hands, a figure of the believer's life: "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven... but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:7-8). The Hebrew ḥāmêṣ carries a root sense of fermentation and figuratively of sourness/extortion, which the NT seizes for the corruption of sin. Matthew Henry draws the same arc — "Under the gospel, we must not only remember Christ, but observe his holy supper." This typological reading of leaven is ancient and widely held, though the Exodus text itself makes no such claim.

Exodus 13:6 · Exodus 13:7

The consecrated firstborn as living sacrifice and royal priesthood widely-held

The firstborn son, unlike the clean beast, is not slain but given living to God. Keil & Delitzsch draw out the figure on vv.11-15: the first-born were consecrated "not indeed in the manner of the heathen, by slaying and burning upon the altar, but by presenting them to the Lord as living sacrifices, devoting all their powers of body and mind to His service," so that "the whole nation was to consecrate itself to Jehovah, and present itself as a priestly nation in the consecration of the first-born." Gill says the same on v.2 — the redeemed are bound to "give up themselves to God, a holy, living, and acceptable sacrifice, which is but their reasonable service." The phrasing is Paul's almost word for word (Romans 12:1, "present your bodies a living sacrifice... your reasonable service") and Peter's (1 Peter 2:9, "a royal priesthood"; cf. Exodus 19:6). The redeemed-firstborn motif thus runs forward into the New Testament's vision of the whole ransomed people as a living, priestly offering. This is a cross-Testament typological/structural reading (Hebrew Torah ↔ Greek NT), so it rests on the shared figure, not on any shared original-language lexeme; the living-sacrifice and royal-priesthood readings are widely held, while the precise tie to Romans 12:1 is the synthesis layer drawing the line the commentators' own language invites.

Exodus 13:2 · Exodus 13:12 · Exodus 13:13