The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.
The Israelites had just made a calf and called it a feast; now God prescribes His own feasts to guard them from that snare. Serious godliness is a continual feast, and joy in God always. Even in harvest's press, the Sabbath must not yield; the work will prosper better for honoring it than for abandoning it.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 34:18-27
And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks,.... The feast of Pentecost, called the feast of weeks, because seven sabbaths or weeks, or fifty days, were to be reckoned from the day in the passover feast, on which the sheaf of the wave offering was brought, Lev 23:15 and which was also called the feast of the first fruits of wheat harvest, to distinguish it...
But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem [him] not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. (f) Without offering something.