Bible Strands
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.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses commands Israel to instruct their sons on the specific day of the Exodus festival. The directive occurs within the immediate context of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The words — הִגַּדְתָּ (hi.gad.Ta) means "you will tell," and בַּיּוֹם הַהּוּא (ba.Yom ha.Hu') translates literally as "on that day."
The thread — The command to explain the Exodus to the next generation appears in Exodus 13:14, where a son’s question triggers a response about God’s mighty hand. The same pedagogical pattern occurs in Exodus 12:26 regarding the Passover service, though the specific "mighty hand" explanation belongs only to Exodus 13:14-16.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to verbally recount God’s deliverance from Egypt to the next generation. It establishes a direct link between remembering historical redemption and transmitting that memory through explicit instruction.
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 thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.
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.
- Exodus 12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this service mean to you?’
- Psalms 44:1 For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.
- 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.”
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 4:9 Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.
- Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath; instead, bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.