Psalms 105:36
“He struck also all the firstborn in their land, the first fruits of all their manhood.”
What does Psalms 105:36 mean?
This verse recalls one of the ten plagues God sent on Egypt before the exodus, when the firstborn son in every Egyptian household died in a single night. The "firstfruits of all their manhood" describes not just children, but the promise and future those families represented, making this judgment devastatingly complete. For readers today, this can feel heavy and confusing. The psalmist is celebrating God's power to liberate enslaved people, but the cost was immense suffering on the other side. Many find it helpful to remember that this ancient poem is expressing what liberation felt like to the oppressed, even as we wrestle with the hard reality that freedom sometimes came through tragedy for others. It invites us to hold both truths: God cares deeply about the suffering and enslaved, and the cost of justice in a broken world is sometimes painful.