Exodus 13:9

9 It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.

Exodus 13:9 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 13:9

And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a
memorial between thine eyes
These are not the words of God or of Moses to the children of Israel, but of an lsraelitish parent to his son, telling him that this feast of unleavened bread would serve the same purpose to refresh his memory with what God did for his people of old, as the tying of a thing on the hand, or placing it before the eye, is to a person to bring anything to his remembrance, to which the allusion is; the like figurative phrases may be observed in ( Proverbs 1:9 ) ( 3:3 ) , the Jews understand this literally, and hence the use of phylacteries among them, which they bind upon their left hand, and place upon their foreheads between their eyes, of which (See Gill on Matthew 23:5), but such a practice could be of no use to answer the end next mentioned: that the Lord's law may be in thy mouth;
for surely this cannot be taken literally, but the sense is, that being instructed by the observance of the above feast, and being taught the meaning of it, they might be able to speak of it to their children, and so transmit it from age to age to their latest posterity: for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt;
(See Gill on Exodus 13:3).

Exodus 13:9 In-Context

7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen in your possession, and no leaven shall be seen among you in all your territory.
8 You shall tell your child on that day, "It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.'
9 It shall serve for you as a sign on your hand and as a reminder on your forehead, so that the teaching of the Lord may be on your lips; for with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt.
10 You shall keep this ordinance at its proper time from year to year.
11 "When the Lord has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your ancestors, and has given it to you,
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.