Discovery BoxExodus 12:5 
Context12:5 Your lamb must be 1 perfect, 2 a male, one year old; 3 you may take 4 it from the sheep or from the goats.
Exodus 13:2
Context13:2 “Set apart 5 to me every firstborn male – the first offspring of every womb 6 among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.” 7
Exodus 21:27
Context21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant 8 go free as compensation for the tooth.
Exodus 21:32
Context21:32 If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner 9 must pay thirty shekels of silver, 10 and the ox must be stoned. 11
Exodus 34:19
Context34:19 “Every firstborn of the womb 12 belongs to me, even every firstborn 13 of your cattle that is a male, 14 whether ox or sheep.
1 tn The construction has: “[The] lamb…will be to you.” This may be interpreted as a possessive use of the lamed, meaning, “[the] lamb…you have” (your lamb) for the Passover. In the context instructing the people to take an animal for this festival, the idea is that the one they select, their animal, must meet these qualifications.
2 tn The Hebrew word תָּמִים (tamim) means “perfect” or “whole” or “complete” in the sense of not having blemishes and diseases – no physical defects. The rules for sacrificial animals applied here (see Lev 22:19-21; Deut 17:1).
3 tn The idiom says “a son of a year” (בֶּן־שָׁנָה, ben shanah), meaning a “yearling” or “one year old” (see GKC 418 §128.v).
4 tn Because a choice is being given in this last clause, the imperfect tense nuance of permission should be used. They must have a perfect animal, but it may be a sheep or a goat. The verb’s object “it” is supplied from the context.
5 tn The verb “sanctify” is the Piel imperative of קָדַשׁ (qadash). In the Qal stem it means “be holy, be set apart, be distinct,” and in this stem “sanctify, set apart.”
sn Here is the central principle of the chapter – the firstborn were sacred to God and must be “set apart” (the meaning of the verb “sanctify”) for his use.
6 tn The word פֶּטֶּר (petter) means “that which opens”; this construction literally says, “that which opens every womb,” which means “the first offspring of every womb.” Verses 12 and 15 further indicate male offspring.
7 tn Heb “to me it.” The preposition here expresses possession; the construction is simply “it [is, belongs] to me.”
8 tn Heb “him”; the referent (the male or female servant) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the owner) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 sn A shekel was a unit for measure by means of a scale. Both the weight and the value of a shekel of silver are hard to determine. “Though there is no certainty, the shekel is said to weigh about 11,5 grams” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:181). Over four hundred years earlier, Joseph was sold into Egypt for 20 shekels. The free Israelite citizen was worth about 50 shekels (Lev 27:3f.).
11 sn See further B. S. Jackson, “The Goring Ox Again [Ex. 21,28-36],” JJP 18 (1974): 55-94.
12 tn Heb “everything that opens the womb.”
13 tn Here too: everything that “opens [the womb].”
14 tn The verb basically means “that drops a male.” The verb is feminine, referring to the cattle.
