Exodus 13:2 - Exposition

Sanctify unto me . Not by any positive ceremony, but by regarding it as "set apart unto the Lord" ( Exodus 13:12 )—made over to him, that is, as his own. All the first-born . The Hebrew word used is masculine, and by its proper force limits the command to the first-born males , who alone had been in danger from the tenth plague. Whatever openeth the womb . This clause added definiteness, showing that "first-born" did not contain any reference to any later Birth, and that it applied to every case where a woman's first child was a male. It is mine. Or, "it shall be mine." I claim it.