What Does Exodus 13:14 Mean?
And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What is this? Then you shall say to him, By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
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
And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage:THE KEY
The house of bondage is not the end of the sentence: the verb names an exit, and the memory of that exit is handed to the next generation.
THE MEANING
When you ask, “What is this?” the verse gives your question a living answer: the LORD brings you out from constriction and from the house of compelled service. The family remembers the exit together, so bondage can be named without being mistaken for the place that owns you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the house of bondage is your permanent home: the verse treats it as a place you are brought out from.
THE ROOT
הוֹצִיאָנוּ
hotsi'anu
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out; in the causative form, to bring out.
“brought us out” in this verse is hotsi'anu. The Hebrew makes this an act of bringing: the LORD causes the family to go out. The verb turns Egypt from a place that holds them into a place they leave.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To leave or emerge from a place.
יָצָא
The root holds both the movement out and the exit the verse remembers.
yetsi'ah: The act of going out or departing.
יְצִיאָה
The family’s story is organized around a departure from bondage.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or confine; this root family carries the image of constriction.
The name מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, Egypt) echoes צַר (tsar, narrow), with its -ayim ending carrying the image of two narrows. So being brought out from Egypt also pictures movement out of constriction.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow or tight; also a place of distress.
צַר
It gives the place named in the verse a word-picture of confinement.
metzar: A constricted passage or distressing narrow place.
מֵצַר
The exit from Egypt becomes an image of leaving a narrow place.
עֲבָדִים
avadim
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
To work or serve; here, the plural names people held to another’s service.
“house of bondage” in this verse is avadim. The Hebrew says “house of slaves,” giving bondage the shape of a household built around compelled service. The root can name work or service more broadly, but here that service belongs to a house the family is brought out from.
ALSO GROWS
eved: A person who serves, including a slave.
עֶבֶד
It makes the people inside the house visible, rather than leaving bondage as an abstraction.
avodah: Work or service rendered.
עֲבֹדָה
It shows the labor at the center of the house the verse names.
THE PATTERN
A remembered act stays alive when its meaning is asked about, named, and passed on.
And it shall be, when your children say to you, “What is this service to you?”We will not hide them from their children, recounting to the generation that follows the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonders that he has done.And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.The root יצא (yatsa, to go out or bring out) links the promise in Exodus 6:6 to the remembered answer in Exodus 13:14. The child’s question makes the promise’s fulfillment a story the next generation can carry.
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