The Bible Difficulties and Answers Podcast

Exodus 34:20 – The Donkey Dilemma: Redeem, Sacrifice, or Break Its Neck?

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Episode 180 unpacks Exodus 34:20 and the curious law about firstborn donkeys—why a lamb can substitute, when the donkey must be killed, and how later law allows monetary redemption.

Host Lance Smith explains the theological principle that the firstborn belong to God, explores historical and practical reasons for the changing method from livestock to silver, and connects the ritual to themes of substitutionary redemption and devotion.

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  1. Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas Howe. The Big Book of Bible Difficulties. Baker Books, 1992. Available at: https://a.co/d/7shn4hI 
  2. Fraser, Andrew. "Exodus 34: Covenantal Ethnotheology and the (Re-)Birth of the First Holy Nation." The Occidental Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, Fall 2016, pp. 71-80.
  3. Frankel, Rabbi Dr. David. "Laws of the Firstborn: How They Were Connected to the Tenth Plague." TheTorah.com, 2023. https://www.thetorah.com/article/laws-of-the-firstborn-how-they-were-connected-to-the-tenth-plague
  4. Danam, Gnanadas. "The Sacrifice of the Firstborn in the Hebrew Bible." PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2018. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/21729/1/The%20Sacrifice%20of%20the%20Firstbron%20in%20the%20Hebrew%20Bible.pdf
  5. "Exodus 34:20." StudyLight.org Commentary. https://www.studylight.org/commentary/exodus/34-20.html
  6. "Morning Musing: Exodus 34:19-20." The-Nexus.blog, October 22, 2024. https://the-nexus.blog/2024/10/22/morning-musing-exodus-3419-20/
  7. "Meaning of Exodus 34:20." Bible.art. https://bible.art/meaning/exodus-34:20
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