Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Dear Kevin,

That's the problem with translations. From verses 12-13 it is clear, that
the Israelites are to sacrifice the firstborn male of every animal, and to
redeem firstborn male humans. So it should be: "Therefore, I sacrifice to
the LORD all the firstborn of every womb, the males, but every firstborn of
my sons I redeem."

"To redeem" means to give something in its place (in this case 5 shekels of
silver).

Yigal

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin Graham" <kevlds AT hotmail.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 2:19 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Ex 13:15 "Firstborn of my sons"


>
> Ex 13:15 "It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go,
that
> the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn
of
> man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the
> males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I
> redeem."
>
> This seems to imply that by sacrificing his firstborn, that Moses redeems
> (delivers, saves, rescues) his future firstborn grandsons. Now I've been
> told that the Hebrew phrase translated "firstborn of my sons" simply means
> "my firstborn sons."
>
> Is this true? If so, I wonder why most Bible translations retain the
> ambiguity - as far as I can tell only the NIV and NLT have changed it.
>
>
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