Firstborn

The firstborn is a claim Yahweh makes before any human family arranges its own. The opener of the womb — of cattle, of sheep, of the sons of Israel — is set apart to him; and the same word that names the dedicated son in Israel names the heir of double portion at home, the king who outranks his brothers, and at length the Son who stands first over creation and first out of the dead. The biblical material runs from the night the firstborn of Egypt died, through the Levite-for-firstborn substitution that paid for them, to the New Testament's "firstborn of all creation" and "firstborn from the dead."

The Plague on the Firstborn of Egypt

The exodus turns on a stroke against the firstborn. Yahweh announces it through Moses: "and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of cattle" (Ex 11:5). The execution comes at midnight: "And it came to pass at midnight, that [the Speech of] Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle" (Ex 12:29). The judgment is not blind violence but a contest among gods — "For [by my Speech] I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yahweh" (Ex 12:12) — a point Numbers underscores when the Israelites march out "while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom Yahweh had struck among them: on their gods also [the Speech of] Yahweh executed judgments" (Num 33:4).

All That Opens the Womb is Mine

From the night of the plague forward Yahweh treats the firstborn of Israel as his own personal property. "Sanctify to me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine" (Ex 13:2). The reasoning is given as the law is rehearsed in the next breath: "for all the firstborn are mine; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed to me all the firstborn in Israel, from man to beast; they will be mine: I am Yahweh" (Num 3:13). The same claim returns at every level of the legislation. "All that opens the womb is mine; and you will separate the males of all your cattle, the firstborns of cow and sheep" (Ex 34:19). "The firstborn of your sons you will give to me. Likewise you will do with your oxen, [and] with your sheep: seven days it will be with its dam; on the eighth day you will give it to me" (Ex 22:29-30). "Only the firstborn among beasts, which is made a firstborn to Yahweh, no man will sanctify it; whether it is ox or sheep, it is Yahweh's" (Lev 27:26). "All the firstborn males that are born of your herd and of your flock you will sanctify to Yahweh your God: you will do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock" (Deut 15:19). And after the return: "also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborns of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God" (Neh 10:36).

Redemption of the Firstborn

Because Yahweh's claim leaves no remainder and the human firstborn cannot be slaughtered, the law writes a redemption price into the same paragraph. "And every firstborn of a donkey you will redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you will break its neck: and all the firstborn of man among your sons you will redeem" (Ex 13:13). The fuller form is given in Exodus 34: "And the firstborn of a donkey you will redeem with a lamb: and if you will not redeem, then you will break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you will redeem. And none will appear before me empty" (Ex 34:20). Leviticus extends the principle to unclean beasts at large: "And if it is of an unclean beast, then he will ransom it according to your estimation, and will add to it the fifth part of it: or if it is not redeemed, then it will be sold according to your estimation" (Lev 27:27). Numbers fixes the price for human firstborn: "Everything that opens the womb, of all flesh which they offer to Yahweh, both of man and beast will be yours: nevertheless the firstborn of man you will surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean beasts you will redeem. And those that are to be redeemed of them from a month old you will redeem, according to your estimation, for the silver of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is twenty gerahs). But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you will not redeem; they are holy: you will sprinkle their blood on the altar, and will burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savor to Yahweh" (Num 18:15-17).

The Levites in Place of the Firstborn

The redemption money is one mechanism; the Levite tribe is the larger one. Yahweh tells Moses: "And I, look, I have taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of all the firstborn that opens the womb among the sons of Israel; and the Levites will be mine" (Num 3:12). The exchange is then numbered out — the firstborn males are counted (22,273), the Levites are counted (22,000), and the surplus 273 are bought back at five shekels apiece, the redemption-silver going "to Aaron and to his sons" (Num 3:40-51). The substitution is restated for the Levites' own consecration: "I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the sons of Israel" (Num 8:18) — and Yahweh gives the reason in the verses immediately preceding: "For all the firstborn among the sons of Israel are mine, both man and beast: on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself" (Num 8:17).

The firstborn animals were eaten as a feast before Yahweh — "You will eat it before Yahweh your God year by year in the place which Yahweh will choose, you and your household" (Deut 15:20) — but anything blemished was disqualified, and the blood was poured out on the ground (Deut 15:21-23). Deformations of the rite were a different matter altogether: when Israel offered firstborn to other gods, Yahweh records the practice as a defilement, "and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through [the fire] all that opens the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am Yahweh" (Ezek 20:26).

The Right of the Firstborn at Home

In the household the firstborn carries weight that cannot be dissolved by parental favoritism. "If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him sons, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated; then it will be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn: but he will acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his" (Deut 21:15-17). The deference shows up in domestic detail too: when Joseph seats his brothers in Egypt, "they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marveled one with another" (Gen 43:33). Royal succession runs along the same line. Jehoshaphat divides his estate among his sons "with fortified cities in Judah: but the kingdom he gave to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn" (2Chr 21:3); and Adonijah, claiming his place in the order of birth, says of Solomon's accession, "You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: nevertheless the kingdom has turned about, and has become my brother's; for it was his from Yahweh" (1Ki 2:15).

Birthrights Lost and Reordered

Yet the line of birth is regularly overruled. Esau, hungry from the field, sells his to Jacob for a pot of lentils. "And Jacob said, First sell me your birthright. And Esau said, Look, I am about to die. And what profit will the birthright be to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me first. And he swore to him. And he sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. And he ate and drank, and rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright" (Gen 25:31-34). The blessing that should have followed it is taken later by the same hand. Jacob, dressed in his brother's clothes, lies to his father: "I am Esau your firstborn; I have done according to as you bade me: arise, I pray you, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me" (Gen 27:19). When the deception comes out Esau cries, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright; and, look, now he has taken away my blessing" (Gen 27:36). Hebrews seals the scene as a warning: "lest [there be] any whore, or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his own birthright" (Heb 12:16).

Reuben loses the right by his own act. Jacob's blessing names him plainly — "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The preeminence of dignity, and the preeminence of power" — and then takes it away in the same breath for the bed of Bilhah. The Chronicler later writes the loss into the genealogy: "And the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (for he was the firstborn; but, since he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel; and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brothers, and from him came a leader; but the birthright was Joseph's)" (1Chr 5:1-2). At Joseph's house Manasseh's own firstborn status — "Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For, [he said], God has made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house" (Gen 41:51) — is reversed when Israel crosses his hands at the blessing. Joseph protests: "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." Israel's reply holds: "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great: nevertheless his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations" (Gen 48:18-19). Even within Davidic Hebron, where "his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Jezreelitess" (2Sa 3:2), and within the Levite gatekeepers, where Hosah's "Shimri the chief (for though he was not the firstborn, yet his father made him chief)" (1Chr 26:10), the firstborn slot is something fathers, mothers, and Yahweh repeatedly redirect.

Israel My Firstborn

Out of this matrix the title is given to a people. To Pharaoh: "Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my firstborn" (Ex 4:22). The exodus plague is the public collection of that claim — Pharaoh's firstborn for Yahweh's. Sirach echoes the title — "Have mercy upon the people called by your name, Israel whom you surnamed Firstborn" (Sir 36:12) — and traces it back through Jacob, on whom "a blessing rested on the head of Israel; And he gave him the title of Firstborn, And gave him his inheritance" (Sir 44:23). The Davidic king is set in the same place: "I also will make him [my] firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth" (Ps 89:27). And in the prophets the figure is reattached to the returning northern tribe — "for [my Speech is] a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn" (Jer 31:9).

The Firstborn of All Creation

The New Testament gathers these threads onto Christ. He is the firstborn over creation: "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Col 1:15). He is the firstborn out of the dead: "And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Col 1:18); and in John's salutation, "from Jesus Christ, [who is] the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth" (Rev 1:5). He is the firstborn of a family — "For whom he foreknew, he also preappointed [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Rom 8:29). And he is the firstborn whom angels are commanded to worship: "And when he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, And let all the angels of God worship him" (Heb 1:6). The redeemed are gathered under the same word: those who come to Mount Zion come "to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven" (Heb 12:23).

The line that began with a pot of lentils, a midnight cry in Egypt, five shekels by the priest, and a tribe taken in exchange for a generation of sons closes here — at a Son who is first by inheritance, first out of the grave, and first over a household of brothers redeemed.