Exodus 13:14

13:14 ¹ In the future, ²  when your son asks you ³  ‘What is this?’ ⁴  you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand ⁵  the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the land of slavery. ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 31:10-13

31:10 He ⁷  commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, ⁸  at the Feast of Temporary Shelters, ⁹  31:11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, you must read this law before them ¹⁰  within their hearing. 31:12 Gather the people – men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages – so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law. 31:13 Then their children, who have not known this law, ¹¹  will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Psalms 78:5-6

78:5 He established a rule ¹²  in Jacob;

he set up a law in Israel.

He commanded our ancestors

to make his deeds known to their descendants, ¹³ 

78:6 so that the next generation, children yet to be born,

might know about them.

They will grow up and tell their descendants about them. ¹⁴ 

[13:14]  ¹ sn As with v. 8, the Law now requires that the children be instructed on the meaning of this observance. It is a memorial of the deliverance from bondage and the killing of the firstborn in Egypt.

[13:14]  ² tn Heb “tomorrow.”

[13:14]  ³ tn Heb “and it will be when your son will ask you.”

[13:14]  ⁴ tn The question is cryptic; it simply says, “What is this?” but certainly refers to the custom just mentioned. It asks, “What does this mean?” or “Why do we do this?”

[13:14]  ⁵ tn The expression is “with strength of hand,” making “hand” the genitive of specification. In translation “strength” becomes the modifier, because “hand” specifies where the strength was. But of course the whole expression is anthropomorphic for the power of God.

[13:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “house of slaves.”

[31:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[31:10]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.

[31:10]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.

[31:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “before all Israel.”

[31:13]  ¹¹ tn The phrase “this law” is not in the Hebrew text, but English style requires an object for the verb here. Other translations also supply the object which is otherwise implicit (cf. NIV “who do not know this law”; TEV “who have never heard the Law of the Lord your God”).

[78:5]  ¹² tn The Hebrew noun עֵדוּת (’edut) refers here to God’s command that the older generation teach their children about God’s mighty deeds in the nation’s history (see Exod 10:2; Deut 4:9; 6:20-25).

[78:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “which he commanded our fathers to make them known to their sons.” The plural suffix “them” probably refers back to the Lord’s mighty deeds (see vv. 3-4).

[78:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in order that they might know, a following generation, sons [who] will be born, they will arise and will tell to their sons.”