Exodus 22:30
in Exodus 22You shall do likewise with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but on the eighth day you are to give them to Me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with its dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.
KJV
Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.
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This verse in Exodus 22
Commentary
5 notes on this verseScripture says, "At least grant the offspring to its mother for its first seven days." For if nothing comes to be without reason and milk flows in the mothers for the nourishment of the offspring, then in taking the offspring away from the providential endowment of milk, a person is doing violence to nature. So Greeks and anyone else who runs the law down ought to blush for shame if the law is generous over irrational beasts, whereas they actually expose human offspring to die.
This site's exposition
You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats
on Exodus 22:29-30
The firstborn thread returns from Exodus 13:2, where the firstborn spared in Egypt are consecrated, and 13:13, where a son is redeemed. The claim stands bare here, “You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons,” with the redemption assumed from the earlier chapter.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep,....
Let not young people delay to offer to God the first-fruits of their time and strength, lest their delays come, at last, to be denials, through the deceitfulness of sin, and the more convenient season they promise themselves never arrive.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Seven days it shall be with his dam - For the mother’s health it was necessary that the young one should suck so long; and prior to this time the process of nutrition in a young animal can scarcely be considered as completely formed. Among the Romans lambs were not considered as pure or clean before the eighth day; nor calves before the thirtieth: Pecoris faetus die octavo purus est, bovis trigesimo - Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. viii.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֵּֽן־ | ken- | thus | H3651 → | 771 times |
| תַּעֲשֶׂ֥ה | taaseh | you will do | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| לְשֹׁרְךָ֖ | leshorekha | to ox your | H7794 → | 79 times |
| לְצֹאנֶ֑ךָ | letzonekha | to sheep your | H6629 → | 274 times |
| שִׁבְעַ֤ת | shivat | seven | H7651 → | 394 times |
| יָמִים֙ | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| יִהְיֶ֣ה | yihyeh | it will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| עִם־ | ʾim- | with | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| אִמּ֔וֹ | ʾimo | mother its | H517 → | 220 times |
| בַּיּ֥וֹם | baiyom | on the day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| הַשְּׁמִינִ֖י | hashemini | <the> eighth | H8066 → | |
| תִּתְּנוֹ־ | titenov- | you will give it | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| לִֽי׃ | li | to <the> me |
כֵּֽן־thus
ken-H3651 →771 times
תַּעֲשֶׂ֥הyou will do
taasehH6213 →2628 times
לְשֹׁרְךָ֖to ox your
leshorekhaH7794 →79 times
לְצֹאנֶ֑ךָto sheep your
letzonekhaH6629 →274 times
שִׁבְעַ֤תseven
shivatH7651 →394 times
יָמִים֙days
yamimH3117 →2304 times
יִהְיֶ֣הit will be
yihyehH1961 →3559 times
עִם־with
ʾim-H5973 →1050 times
אִמּ֔וֹmother its
ʾimoH517 →220 times
בַּיּ֥וֹםon the day
baiyomH3117 →2304 times
הַשְּׁמִינִ֖י<the> eighth
hasheminiH8066 →
תִּתְּנוֹ־you will give it
titenov-H5414 →2011 times
לִֽי׃to <the> me
li
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Leviticus 12:3And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised.
it leads to
- Luke 2:21
When the eight days until His circumcision had passed, He was named Jesus, the name the angel had given Him before He had been conceived.
- Luke 1:59
On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah.
- John 7:22–23
But because Moses gave you circumcision, you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath (not that it is from Moses, but from the patriarchs.)
- Genesis 17:11–12
You are to circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and this will be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
- Luke 2:21
Through
Exodus 13:12you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.
it leads to
- Numbers 18:15
The firstborn of every womb, whether man or beast, that is offered to the LORD belongs to you. But you must surely redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals.
- Exodus 34:19
The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males among your livestock, whether cattle or sheep.
- Leviticus 27:26
But no one may consecrate a firstborn of the livestock, because a firstborn belongs to the LORD. Whether it is an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD’s.
- Numbers 18:15
Through
Deuteronomy 15:19You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to…
it leads to
- Exodus 13:2
“Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”
- Exodus 13:2
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies14
About Exodus

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
