EXODUS 13:15 — KING JAMES VERSION 0 0
“And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the matrix, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.”
When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons. The explanation connects the firstborn consecration directly to the night of the tenth plague. The stubbornness of Pharaoh — the very stubbornness described throughout Exodus 7–11 — is part of the liturgical narrative Israel will tell its children. The answer to why we consecrate the firstborn includes the story of why God struck Egypt's firstborn. The causal chain is theological: Pharaoh refused, God struck Egypt, God spared Israel, Israel consecrates what God spared. Every firstborn son redeemed and every firstborn animal offered is a lived retelling of that causal chain. The ritual makes memory inhabitable.
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