What Does Exodus 13:12 Mean?
And you shall pass over to the LORD every opening of the womb, and every firstborn young of a beast which is yours; the males shall be the LORD's.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the matrix, and every firstling that cometh of a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the LORD’s.THE KEY
The Hebrew describes setting apart as a crossing: the womb’s first opening passes into the LORD’s claim.
THE MEANING
The first male offspring belongs to the LORD as soon as it opens the womb; its claim precedes its value to the household. The verse makes the moment of emergence a threshold where life is named as belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that what first comes from my household is automatically mine to keep is undone: the firstborn is named as the LORD’s.
THE ROOT
הַעֲבַרְתָּ
haʿavartā
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ר
ʿ-b-r
to pass over, cross, or go across; in this form, to cause something to pass over or transfer it
Beneath “set apart” is הַעֲבַרְתָּ (haʿavartā, “you shall cause to pass over”), from עָבַר (ʿāvar, “cross”). The first opening is pictured as crossing into the LORD’s claim: consecration is a movement across a boundary of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass over or cross
עָבַר
The verse’s act of setting apart carries the image of passing across into a new claim.
maʿavār: a passage or crossing
מַעֲבָר
This branch names the transition that the verse gives to the first opening.
פֶּטֶר רֶחֶם
peter rechem
GROWS FROM
פ־ט־ר
p-ṭ-r
to open or release, to let out
“every opening of the womb” in this verse is peter rechem. In “openeth the womb,” פֶּטֶר (peter, “opening”) carries the sense of releasing what was held within. The first offspring is both opening and release: life appears by being let out, and that opening becomes the sign of belonging.
ALSO GROWS
peter: an opening; the first issue from the womb
פֶּטֶר
This is the verse’s name for the firstborn, linking birth directly to the act of opening.
pāṭar: to release or let go
פָּטַר
This verbal branch shows the release already present in the image of the womb opening.
THE PATTERN
The opening of life marks the firstborn as belonging to God before it becomes ordinary household property.
Set apart to me every firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, of humankind and of beast; it is mine.Every firstborn male born in your herd and in your flock you shall set apart to the LORD your God. You shall not make the firstborn of your ox serve, nor shear the firstborn of your sheep.As it is written in the instruction of the LORD, Every male that opens the womb will be called set apart to the LORD.THE THREAD
Set apart to me every firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, of humankind and of beast; it is mine.The phrase “openeth the womb” repeats פֶּטֶר (peter, “opening”) from this verse, while Exodus 13:2 states the claim plainly: “it is mine.” Together, they show the opening itself as the sign by which the firstborn’s belonging is recognized.
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