Bible Strands
Exodus 12:26
When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses instructs the Israelites on the night of the Exodus, directing them to prepare future descendants for questions about the upcoming Passover observance once they enter the land God promised.
The words — The verse centers on בְּנֵיכֶם (be.nei.khem), literally "your children," and הָעֲבֹדָה הַזֹּאת (ha.'a.vo.dah ha.zot), literally "this service."
The thread — The same instructional pattern appears in Exodus 13:14, Deuteronomy 32:7, and Psalm 145:4, where each generation is commanded to transmit the memory of God’s acts to the next.
Why it lands — The text requires parents to formulate direct answers to children’s inquiries about ritual practice, making intergenerational explanation a fixed obligation rather than an optional tradition.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service?
Cross-references
- Exodus 13:14 In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you are to tell him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
- Deuteronomy 32:7 Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you.
- Psalms 145:4 One generation will commend Your works to the next, and will proclaim Your mighty acts—
- Joshua 4:6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’
- Joshua 4:21 Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What is the meaning of these stones?’
- Psalms 78:3 that we have heard and known and our fathers have relayed to us.
- Isaiah 38:19 The living, only the living, can thank You, as I do today; fathers will tell their children about Your faithfulness.
- Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
- Exodus 10:2 and that you may tell your children and grandchildren how severely I dealt with the Egyptians when I performed miraculous signs among them, so that all of you may know that I am the LORD.”
- Exodus 13:8 And on that day you are to explain to your son, ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’