Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–4 Hebrew, stand to me.
Hebrew, stand to me.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Exo 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew…
Exo 34:1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon [these] tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
Ver. 1. Which thou brakest.] Not without a tincture of passionate infirmity, as some conceive. He that was the meekest upon earth, saith one, {a} in a sudden indignation abandons that which he would in cold blood have held faster than his life. But Augustine cries out, O ira Prophetica, et animus non perturbatus, sed illuminatus!
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{a} Dr Hall.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 The first tables were made immediately by God, who…
The first tables were made immediately by God, who of his own mere grace and good pleasure, and without man’s merit or contrivance, entered into covenant with Abraham and his seed. These tables must be made by Moses, partly in token of God’s displeasure for their sin, and partly to signify, that though the covenant of grace was first made without man’s care and counsel, yet it should not be renewed but by man’s repentance. And as the tables of stone signified the hardness of their hearts, so the hewing of them by Moses might signify the circumcision and ploughing up of their hearts, that they might be fit for the receiving of God’s mercies, and the performance of their duties.
The words that were in the first tables; to show God’s reception of Israel into his favour, and their former state, and that the law and covenant of God was neither abolished nor changed by their sin.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 The treaty that was on foot between God and…
The treaty that was on foot between God and Israel being broken off abruptly, by their worshipping the golden calf, when peace was made all must be begun anew, not where they left off, but from the beginning. Thus backsliders must repent, and do their first works, Rev 2:5.
I. Moses must prepare for the renewing of the tables, Exo 34:1. Before, God himself provided the tables, and wrote on them; now, Moses mus hew out the tables, and God would only write upon them. Thus, in the first writing of the law upon the heart of man in innocency, both the tables and the writing were the work of God; but when those were broken and defaced by sin, and the divine law was to be preserved in the scriptures, God therein made use of the ministry of man, and Moses first. But the prophets and apostles did only hew the tables, as it were; the writing was God's still, for all scripture is given by inspiration of God. Observe, When God was reconciled to them, he ordered the tables to be renewed, and wrote his law in them, which plainly intimates to us, 1. That even under the gospel of peace and reconciliation by Christ (of which the intercession of Moses was typical) the moral law should continue to bind believers. Though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet not from the command of it, but still we are under the law to Christ; when our Saviour, in his sermon on the mount, expounded the moral law, and vindicated it from the corrupt glosses with which the scribes and Pharisees had broken it (Mat 5:19), he did in effect renew the tables, and make them like the first, that is, reduce the law to its primitive sense and intention. 2. That the best evidence of the pardon of sin and peace with God is the writing of the law in the heart. The first token God gave of his reconciliation to Israel was the renewing of the tables of the law; thus the first article of the new covenant is, I will write my law in their heart (Heb 8:10), and it follows (Heb 8:12), for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. 3. That, if we would have God to write the law in our hearts, we must prepare our hearts for the reception of it. The heart of stone must be hewn by conviction and humiliation for sin (Hos 6:5), the superfluity of naughtiness must be taken off (Jam 1:21), the heart made smooth, and laboured with, that the word may have a place in it. Moses did accordingly hew out the tables of stone, or slate, for they were so slight and thin that Moses carried them both in his hand; and, for their dimensions, they must have been somewhat less, and perhaps not much, than the ark in which they were deposited, which was a yard and quarter long, and three quarters broad. It should seem there was nothing particularly curious in the framing of them, for there was no great time taken; Moses had them ready presently, to take up with him, next morning. They were to receive their beauty, not from the art of man, but from the finger of God.
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II. Moses must attend again on the top of mount Sinai, and present himself to God there, Exo 34:2. Though the absence of Moses, and his continuance so long on the mount, had lately occasioned their making the golden calf, yet God did not therefore alter his measures, but he shall come up and tarry as long as he had done, to try whether they had learned to wait. To strike an awe upon the people, they are directed to keep their distance, none must come up with him, Exo 34:3. They had said (Exo 32:1), We know not what has become of him, and God will not let them know. Moses, accordingly, rose up early (Exo 34:4) to go to the place appointed, to show how forward he was to present himself before God and loth to lose time. It is good to be early at our devotions. The morning is perhaps as good a friend to the graces as it is to the muses.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 And the Lord said unto Moses,.... Out of the…
And the Lord said unto Moses,.... Out of the cloudy pillar, at the door of the tabernacle, where he had been conversing with him in the most friendly manner, as related in the preceding chapter:
hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; of the same form, and of the same dimensions, and it may be of the same sort of stone, which perhaps was marble, there being great plenty of that kind on Mount Sinai. Now Moses being ordered to hew these tables, whereas the former were the work of God himself, as well as the writing, shows that the law was to be the ministration of Moses, and be ordained in the hand of him as a mediator, who had been praying and interceding for the people; and as a token of the reconciliation made, the tables were to be renewed, yet with some difference, that there might be some remembrance of their crime, and of their loss by it, not having the law on tables of stone, which were the work of God, but which were the work of man:
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and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest; the writing of these was by the Lord himself, as the former, shows that the law itself was of God, though the tables were hewn by Moses, and that he would have it known and observed as such; and the same being written on these tables, as on the former, shows the unchangeableness of the law of God, as given to the people of Israel, that he would have nothing added to it, or taken from it; and the writing of it over again may have respect to the reinscribing it on the hearts of his people in regeneration, according to the tenor of the new covenant: the phrase, "which thou brakest", is not used as expressing any displeasure at Moses for that act of his, but to describe the former tables; and the breaking of them might not be the effect of passion, at least of any criminal passion, but of zeal for the glory of God, and the honour of his law, which was broken by the Israelites, and therefore unworthy of it; and might be according to the counsel of the divine will, and the secret direction of his providence.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v1 Four instances of the return of God's favour we…
Four instances of the return of God's favour we have in this chapter.
I. The orders he gives to Moses to come up to the mount the next morning, and bring two tables of stone with him, ver. 1-4.
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II. His meeting him there, and the proclamation of his name, ver. 6-9.
III. The instructions he gave him there, and his converse with him forty days, ver. 10-28.
IV. The honour he put upon him when he sent him down with his face shining, ver. 29-35. In all which God dealt with Moses as a mediator between him and Israel, and a type of the great Mediator.
Moses must prepare for the renewing of the tables. Before God himself provided the tables, and wrote on them; now Moses must hew him out the tables, and God would only write upon them. When God was reconciled to them, he ordered the tables to be renewed, and wrote his law in them, which plainly intimates to us, that even under the gospel (of which the intercession of Moses was typical) the moral law should continue to oblige believers. Though Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet not from the command of it, but still we are under the law to Christ. When our saviour in his sermon on the mount expounded the moral law, and vindicated it from the corrupt glosses with which the scribes and Pharisees had broken it, he did in effect renew the tables, and make them like the first; that is, reduce the law to its primitive sense and intention.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v1 Moses is commanded to hew two tables similar to…
CHAPTER XXXIV
Moses is commanded to hew two tables similar to the first, and
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bring them up to the mount, to get the covenant renewed, 1-3.
He prepares the tables and goes up to meet the Lord, 4.
The Lord descends, and proclaims his name JEHOVAH, 5.
What this name signifies, 6, 7.
Moses worships and intercedes, 8, 9.
The Lord promises to renew the covenant, work miracles among
the people, and drive out the Canaanites, c., 10, 11.
No covenant to be made with the idolatrous nations, but their
altars and images to be destroyed, 12-15.
No matrimonial alliances to be contracted with them, 16.
The Israelites must have no molten gods, 17.
The commandment of the feast of unleavened bread, and of the
sanctification of the first-born, renewed, 18-29
as also that of the Sabbath, and the three great annual feasts, 21-23.
The promise that the surrounding nations shall not invade their
territories, while all the males were at Jerusalem celebrating the
annual feasts, 24.
Directions concerning the passover, 25;
and the first-fruits, 26.
Moses is commanded to write all these words, as containing the
covenant which God had now renewed with the Israelites, 27.
Moses, being forty days with God without eating or drinking, writes
the words of the covenant; and the Lord writes the ten commandments
upon the tables of stone, 28.
Moses descends with the tables; his face shines, 29.
Aaron and the people are afraid to approach him, because of his
glorious appearance, 30.
Moses delivers to them the covenant and commandments of the Lord;
and puts a veil over his face while he is speaking, 31-33,
but takes it off when he goes to minister before the Lord, 34, 35.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIV
Verse 1. Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first] In Ex 32:16 we are told that the two first tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God; but here Moses is commanded to provide tables of his own workmanship, and God promises to write on them the words which were on the first. That God wrote the first tables himself, see proved by different passages of Scripture at the end of Clarke's note at "Ex 32:35". But here, in Ex 34:27, it seems as if Moses was commanded to write these words, and in Ex 34:28 it is said, And he wrote upon the tables; but in De 10:1-4 it is expressly said that God wrote the second tables as well as the first.
In order to reconcile these accounts let us suppose that the ten words, or ten commandments, were written on both tables by the hand of God himself, and that what Moses wrote, Ex 34:27, was a copy of these to be delivered to the people, while the tables themselves were laid up in the ark before the testimony, whither the people could not go to consult them, and therefore a copy was necessary for the use of the congregation; this copy, being taken off under the direction of God, was authenticated equally with the original, and the original itself was laid up as a record to which all succeeding copies might be continually referred, in order to prevent corruption. This supposition removes the apparent contradiction; and thus both God and Moses may be said to have written the covenant and the ten commandments: the former, the original; the latter, the copy. This supposition is rendered still more probable by Ex 34:27 itself: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words (that is, as I understand it, a copy of the words which God had already written;) for AFTER THE TENOR ( al pi, ACCORDING TO THE MOUTH) of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." Here the original writing is represented by an elegant prosopopoesia, or personification, as speaking and giving out from its own mouth a copy of itself. It may be supposed that this mode of interpretation is contradicted by Ex 34:28: AND HE wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant; but that the pronoun HE refers to the Lord, and not to Moses, is sufficiently proved by the parallel place, De 10:1-4: At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first - and I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables - and I hewed two tables of stone as at the first - And HE wrote on the tables according to the first writing. This determines the business, and proves that God wrote the second as well as the first tables, and that the pronoun in Ex 34:28 refers to the LORD, and not to Moses. By this mode of interpretation all contradiction is removed. Houbigant imagines that the difficulty may be removed by supposing that God wrote the ten commandments, and that Moses wrote the other parts of the covenant from Ex 34:11 to Ex 34:26, and thus it might be said that both God and Moses wrote on the same tables. This is not an improbable case, and is left to the reader's consideration. See Clarke on Ex 34:27.
There still remains a controversy whether what are called the ten commandments were at all written on the first tables, those tables containing, according to some, only the terms of the covenant without the ten words, which are supposed to be added here for the first time. "The following is a general view of this subject. In chap. xx. the ten commandments are given; and at the same time various political and ecclesiastical statutes, which are detailed in chapters xxi., xxii., and xxiii. To receive these, Moses had drawn near unto the thick darkness where God was, Ex 20:21, and having received them he came again with them to the people, according to their request before expressed, Ex 20:19: Speak thou with us - but let not the Lord speak with us, lest we die, for they had been terrified by the manner in which God had uttered the ten commandments; see Ex 20:18. After this Moses, with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders, went up to the mountain; and on his return he announced all these laws unto the people, Ex 24:1-3, c., and they promised obedience. Still there is no word of the tables of stone. Then he wrote all in a book, Ex 24:4, which was called the book of the covenant, Ex 24:7. After this there was a second going up of Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, Ex 24:9, when that glorious discovery of God mentioned in Ex 24:10-11 took place. After their coming down Moses is again commanded to go up and God promises to give him tables of stone, containing a law and precepts, Ex 24:12. This is the first place these tables of stone are mentioned; and thus it appears that the ten commandments, and several other precepts, were given to and accepted by the people, and the covenant sacrifice offered, Ex 24:5, before the tables of stone were either written or mentioned." It is very likely that the commandments, laws, c., were first published by the Lord in the hearing of the people repeated afterwards by Moses; and the ten words or commandments, containing the sum and substance of the whole, afterwards written on the first tables of stone, to be kept for a record in the ark. These being broken, as is related Ex 32:19, Moses is commanded to hew out two tables like to the first, and bring them up to the mountain, that God might write upon them what he had written on the former, Ex 34:1. And that this was accordingly done, see the preceding part of this note.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v1 Exo 34:1. Hew thee two tables of stone like…
Exo 34:1. Hew thee two tables of stone like the first — Before, God himself both provided the tables and wrote on them; now, Moses must prepare the tables, and God would only write upon them. This might be intended partly to signify God’s displeasure on account of their sin; for though he had pardoned them, the wound was not, healed without a scar; and partly to show, that although the covenant of grace was first made without man’s care and counsel, yet it should not be renewed without man’s repentance. And as the tables of stone were emblematical of the hardness of their heart, so the hewing of them by Moses, and writing on them by the Lord, might denote that circumcision and renovation of their hearts by the ministry of God’s word, and the influence of his Spirit, which were necessary to prepare them for receiving God’s mercies and the performance of their duties. We may observe also, that although the first tables were broken, to show that there was no hope for mankind to be saved by their innocence, yet God would have the law to be in force still as a rule of obedience, and therefore, as soon as he was reconciled to them, ordered the tables to be renewed, and wrote his law on them. This plainly intimates, that even under the gospel (of which the intercession of Moses was typical) the moral law continues to oblige believers. For though Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, yet not from the command of it, but still we are under the law to Christ. When our Saviour, in his sermon on the mount, expounded the moral law, and vindicated it from the corrupt glosses with which the scribes and Pharisees had obliterated and broken it, he did, in effect, renew the tables, and make them like the first, that is, reduce the law to its primitive sense and intention. And by his writing it on our hearts by his Spirit, as he wrote it on the tables by his finger or power, we may be enabled to conform our lives to it.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v1 Hew thee - The former tables are called “the…
Hew thee - The former tables are called “the work of God;” compare Exo 32:16.
The words - See Exo 34:28.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Former. Deuteronomy x. 1, adds, and come up to…
Former. Deuteronomy x. 1, adds, and come up to me into the mount, and I, &c. Here.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 The New Tables of the Law for the People…
THIRD SECTION
The New Tables of the Law for the People prone to a Hierarchy. Clearer Revelation of God’s Grace. Sterner Prohibition of Idolatry. Stricter Commands concerning the Passover, the First-born, the Sabbath, and the Feasts. Return of Moses with the Tables. Moses’ Shining Face and his Veil
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Exo_34:1-35.
A.—The new stone tables for the divine writing
Exo_34:1-4
1And Jehovah said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these [the] tables the words that were in [on] the first tables, which thou brakest. 2And be ready in the morning, and come [go] up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in [on] the top of the mount. 3And no man shall come [go] up with thee, neither let any [and also let no] man be seen throughout [in] all the mount; neither let the flocks nor [also let not theflocks and the] herds feed before that mount. 4And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as Jehovah had commanded him, and took [him: and he took] in his hand the [hand] two tables of stone.
B.—Jehovah’s grand proclamation of Jehovah’s grace on mount sinai—henceforth an accompaniment of the tables of the law
Exo_34:5-10
5And Jehovah descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed 6the name of Jehovah. And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful [Jehovah, a God merciful] and gracious, long-suffering, 7and abundant in goodness [kindness] and truth, Keeping mercy [kindness] for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will [sin: but he will]1 by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children [of fathers upon children] and upon the [upon] children’s children, unto 8[upon] the third and to [upon] the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward [himself to] the earth, and worshipped. 9And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Jehovah, let my Lord [the Lord], I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 10And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of Jehovah: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
C.—The golden calf an occasion for a most stringent prohibition of intercourse with the heathen canaanites. The more definite establishment of the Israelitish commonwealth in its negative relations
Exo_34:11-17
11Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before [from before] thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for [become] a snare in the midst of thee: 13But ye shall destroy [tear down] their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves [Asherim]:2 14For thou shalt worship no other God: for Jehovah whose name is Jealous, is [Jehovah—his name is Jealous;he is] a jealous God: 15Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do [and] sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
D.—Leading positive features of the religious commonwealth of Israel. Supplementary laws likewise occasioned by the newly arisen necessity of emphasizing the distinctions
Exo_34:18-24
18The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee in the time [set time] of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. 19All that openeth the matrix [womb] is mine: and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male [all thy male cattle, the first-born of ox and sheep]. 20But 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 first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. 21Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing [ploughing] time and in harvest thou shalt rest. 22And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. 23Thrice in the year shall all your men-children 24[thy males] appear before the Lord God [Jehovah], the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations before [from before] thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go [goest] up to appear before Jehovah thy God thrice in the year.
E.—The three symbolic principal rules for theocratic culture
Exo_34:25-26
25Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven [leavened bread]; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 26The first of the first-fruits of thy land [ground] thou shalt bring unto the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not seethe [boil] a kid in his [its] mother’s milk.
F.—Moses’ lofty and inspired mood at the renewed giving of the law. Contrast between the present and the other descent from the mountain
Exo_34:27-35
27And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. 28And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant the ten commandments. 29And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of [of the] testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist [knew] not that the skin of his face shone3 while he talked 30[because of his talking] with him. And when [And] Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold [and behold], the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. 31And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with [spake unto] them. 32And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh; and he gave them in 33commandment all that Jehovah had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking [And Moses left off speaking] with them, he [and he] put a veil on his face. 34But when Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. 35And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo_34:7. The A. V. here entirely neglects the accentuation, and thus almost creates a paradox out of these antithetic clauses. By translating וְנַקֵּה as a relative clause (and that will, etc.), it makes the impression that the same construction is continued, whereas not only does the Athnach precede it, but, instead of the participle of the preceding clause, we have here a finite verb without the Relative Pronoun. The A. V., moreover, makes the chief division of the verse before “visiting,” contrary to the Hebrew accentuation, which, quite in accordance with the sense, connects the last clause with the declaration: “he will not clear,” etc.; the confusion of thought is thus made complete.—Tr.].
[Exo_34:13. The word אֲשֵׁרָה, here and elsewhere rendered “groves” in the A. V., always refers either to a heathen goddess or to images representing her—commonly the latter, especially when (as here and most frequently) it is used in the plural (אֲשֵׂרִים). It must denote the goddess, e.g. in 1Ki_15:13, whore it is said: “She had made an idol for Asherah” (A. V. “in a grove”). This goddess sometimes seems to be identical with Ashtaroth. For particulars vid the Lexicons and Encyclopedias. That the word cannot mean “grove” is sufficiently shown by such passages as 2Ki_23:10, where the Asherim are said to have been set up in every high hill and under every green tree; and 2Ki_17:6, where it is said that Josiah “brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord.”—Tr.].
[Exo_34:29. The verb קָרַן occurs only in this section in Kal; it is used once (Psa_69:31) in Hiphil, where it means “to have horns,” while the noun קֶרֶן ordinarily means “horn.” Hence originated the Latin translation of the Vulgate “cornuta,” “horned;” and this accounts for the notion, incorporated in art representations of Moses, that he had horns growing out of his face. The point of resemblance is in the appearance of the rays of a luminary shooting out like horns.—Tr.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This chapter contains the acme and bloom of the Mosaic revelation, and so, of the three middle books of the Pentateuch. In the first place, the renewed law is wholly removed into the light of grace by Jehovah’s grand proclamation of the significance of the name Jehovah—Jehovah’s own proclamation on Sinai itself concerning the very name Jehovah, that it means that He is “a God merciful, gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in grace and truth,” etc.:—all this most prominently; but for this very reason, next in prominence, and on account of His righteousness, that He is a punisher of all sin and guilt
Next, the Israelitish community is put on its guard against the danger of wrong intercourse with the Canaanites; and everything severe that is ordained against these is founded on a religious and moral ground. In contrast with the corruptions of the heathen worship the outlines of the worship designed for Israel are then summarily given, and finally the great blessing of peace secured by this worship is proclaimed. In this attempt to give the main features of the chapter a universal application, the specific precepts inserted in Exo_34:25-26, create a difficulty. We regard them as symbolic precepts, requiring a strict form of worship, sanctified culture, humane festivity free from luxury. The last section, however, presents unmistakably the real glory of the Mosaic covenant in Moses’ shining face (vid.2Co_3:7).
a. The New Stone Tables for the Divine Writing. Exo_34:1-4.
Exo_34:1. And Jehovah said unto Moses. Keil holds that Moses has already restored the covenant-relation through his intercession, according to Exo_33:14. But if we refer to the first ratification of the covenant, we find that it presupposed the preparation of the tables of the law and a covenant-feast. Since now nothing is said of a new covenant-feast, Keil’s assumption may in some sense be admitted. For the covenant is not simply restored; it is at the same time modified. The law is now made to rest on pardon, and is accompanied by Jehovah’s proclamation of grace; yet nevertheless in many of its provisions it is made stricter in this chapter. The relation between the tabernacle and the camp is made more hierarchical; and in relation to His form of revelation, Jehovah distinguishes more sharply between His face and the display of His essence. But with the notion of the face4 is introduced also a further development of revelation, as also with the proclamation of grace. Jehovah’s command, Hew thee two tables of stone, leads Keil to express the opinion that the first tables, both as to writing and material, “originated with God,” as contrasted with any co-operation from Moses, i.e. that they were made by God in an entirely supernatural way. This literalness of interpretation is made to receive support from the distinction between “tables of stone” (Exo_24:12; Exo_31:18) and “tables of stones” (Exo_34:1; Exo_34:4 of this chapter).5 Hengstenberg and Baum-garten have in a similar way vexed themselves with this variation of the letter. It is barely possible that the stony hardness of the law was meant to be more strongly emphasized in the second case than in the first.
Exo_34:3. And no man.—The sharp command not to approach the mountain is, it is true, substantially a repetition of the previous one; but it is to be considered that the mountain after the conclusion of the covenant had been made accessible up to a certain height to Aaron, his two oldest sons, and the seventy elders of Israel—nay, that they had been invited by Jehovah to celebrate there a feast. This is now changed since the sin in the matter of the golden calf.
Exo_34:4. And Moses hewed two tables of stone.—Was he obliged to do it himself, because he had broken the first, as Rashi holds? Or, was he not rather obliged to do it before the eyes of the people, in order by this act to give the people another sermon? The tables were designed for the ten words (Exo_34:1)—a truth which ought to be self-evident, though Göthe and Hitzig have conjectured that the precepts of Exo_34:12-26 are meant; vid. Keil’s note II., p. 239. The Epistle of Barnabas (Epistola XIV.) takes quite another view, and gives an allegorical interpretation of the difference between the first tables and the second. It was not till now that the ten words of the instruction (thorah, law), the angelic words (Act_7:53), really became words of stony ordinance.
*b. The grand Proclamation of Grace on Sinai, henceforth an Accompaniment of the Tables of the Law. Exo_34:5-10.
Exo_34:5. And Jehovah descended.—This is the heading. Then in Exo_34:6 first follows the fulfilment of the promise that He would let all His goodness pass before him. The narrative goes beyond this in the grandly mysterious expression, “Jehovah passed by before him.” Then follows the proclamation. Here much depends on the construction. Would Jehovah Himself call out “Jehovah, Jehovah?” This is a form of expression appropriate to human adoration, but not to the mouth of Jehovah Himself. We therefore construe thus: “and Jehovah proclaimed”—a rendering favored by the fact that we are thus obliged to make a decided pause after the words, “Jehovah passed by before him.”6 Jehovah, then, has expounded the name Jehovah on Mount Sinai; and what is the proclamation? It is not said, Jehovah is the Eternal one, but Jehovah as the Strong one (אֵל) is Lord of time, in that He remains the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, in His faithfulness. His loving-kindness (חֶסֶד) branches out in compassion (He is רַחוּם) on the miserable, grace (He is חַנּוּן) towards the guilty, long-suffering towards human weakness and perverseness. But He is rich in His loving-kindness and in the reconciliation of it with His truth, or faithfulness (אֱמֶת). His kindness He keeps unto the thousands (beginning with one pardoned man); in His truth He takes away (as Judge, Expiator, and Sanctifier) guilt, unfaithfulness, and sins; but He also lets not the least offence pass unpunished, but visits, in final retribution, the guilt of the transgression of fathers upon children and children’s children, upon the third and the fourth generation—grand-children and great-grand-children, vid. Exodus 20. As Elijah afterwards covered his face with his mantle at the still small voice, Moses at these words quickly prostrates himself on the ground. Thus the presentiment and the anticipation of the Gospel casts the strongest heroes of the law upon their faces in homage, vid. Luk_9:30-31. The petition which Moses feels encouraged by this great revelation of grace to offer is also a proof that the first covenant relation is not yet quite restored. He asks that Jehovah Himself, as the Lord (אֲדֹנָי) may go with them. This must mean, as a mighty, stern ruler of the stiff-necked people, in distinction from the angel of Jehovah’s face; this is one point. But he then asks that God, as the Lord, may go with them in the very midst of them, not merely go before them at a distance; this is the second point, little in harmony with the first. For it is again in a more definite form, as in the petition, “let me see thy face”—a petition for New Testament relations, a petition for the presence of Jehovah as the guiding Lord in the midst of the congregation. The addition, “for it is a stiff-necked people,” would be a poor reason for the request, were it not this time an excuse for the people’s sin on the ground of their natural slavery to sin, their inborn wretchedness, which makes it necessary that the personal presence of the Lord should be vouchsafed in order to overcome and control it. The thing aimed at in his petition is perfect fellowship; hence he says, “Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and make us thine inheritance.” He has in mind an ideal servile relation bordering on the N. T. idea of adoption, but one more likely to be realized in the N. T. hierarchy, just as the Platonic ideal state is realized in monasticism. Jehovah’s answer now does not point to a complete restoration of the violated covenant, but as little does it involve an immediate promise of the new covenant; He describes rather His future rule as a constant, continuous establishment of a covenant (הִנֵּה אֲנֹכִי כֹּרֵת, “behold, I am making a covenant”), a transition, therefore, from the old covenant, which already as a legal covenant has been violated, to a new covenant. And this is the means by which He will establish it: “Before all thy people I will do marvels.” The miracles are by this description put above all others that have been done in all the earth. “All the people in the midst of which thou art,” it is said in contrast with Moses’ desire that Jehovah should be in the midst of them, “shall see the work of Jehovah, how terribly great that is which I shall accomplish with thee.” Thus Moses himself is prominently elevated and appointed to be the animating soul of the people; the sublime and terrifying miracles of Jehovah are to proceed from Jehovah’s intercourse with him as the administrator of the law. Doubtless the sight which the people are to have of these miracles is designed to be a salutary one; but the strong expression indicates the decisive solemnity of the sight. Keil makes prominent among the terrible works of Jehovah the overthrow of all the powers that hostilely resist the kingdom of God.
Keil says: “This ‘sermon on the name of the Lord,’ as Luther calls it, discloses to Moses the inmost essence of Jehovah. It proclaims that God is love.” But in this way the old covenant is made the perfect new one. It is true, however, that here compassion, grace, and long-suffering are combined by means of kindness and truth—not merely in addition to kindness and truth—with holiness and justice, and that grace here appears in the foreground. Keil also rightly notices the collective expression, “it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity,” etc. Keil’s remark, moreover, that “the reference made to the natural ground of the sin mitigates the wrath,” is not Augustinian.
According to Knobel Jehovah is to call out His name to Moses only in order that he may by means of it recognize Jehovah’s appearance. Also he makes נַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּת mean, “He will not leave entirely unpunished.”7 Exo_34:9-28 he calls a repetition, and therefore ascribes to the “second narrator.”
*c. The Golden Calf an Occasion for a most Stringent Prohibition of Intercourse with the Heathen Canaanites. The more Definite Establishment of the Israelitish Commonwealth negatively considered. Exo_34:11-17
To the religion of the law, supplemented by the proclamation of grace, corresponds the religious community, destined to be the upholders of this religion. A more exact fixing of their relation than that laid down in Exo_23:23 has become necessary on account of the affair of the golden calf. In the paragraph before us this community is defined chiefly in a negative way. It has been already said, that Jehovah would drive out the Canaanites (vid. the names, Exo_23:23), but not all at once. This may well refer to a destruction of them in war, but not to a destruction of them in so far as they have submitted themselves to the civil law. We know how, as being strangers, they are even put under the protection of the law. But inasmuch as they may tend to ruin Israel with their heathenish abominations, all intimate alliances with them are forbidden at the outset. Religion is the thing here chiefly concerned. The signs of a public heathen worship, especially the wooden pillars of the voluptuous worship, as well as the images of Asherah, they are to extirpate; they are to destroy the seductive symbols wherever found. There is here no trace of a persecution of private religious opinions and devotions. Moreover, the reason for that severity is given in Exo_34:14 : it is to secure the adoration of the true God, who is jealous of His relation to Israel. Over against the dark, voluptuous religious worship is presented the pure image of conjugal fellowship between Jehovah and His people (vid. Keil II., p. 243)—a representation growing more and more definite all the way through the Scriptures to the Apocalypse, and introduced as early as Exo_20:5, where Jehovah is called קַנָּא [“jealous”] in the giving of the law—an expression which twice recurs here. As heathen idolatry is in itself to be regarded as whoredom, i.e. as apostasy from the living God, so the Canaanitish heathenism particularly has developed within itself the consequences of moral whoredom. But Israel may become involved in this double whoredom, especially in two ways. In the first place, by taking part in the seductive sacrificial meals of the heathen, to which they will be invited, as afterwards such participation became a snare to the people at Shittim (Numbers 25); but especially by intermarriages between Israelitish sons and heathen women, such as afterwards caused Solomon to fall. The dangerous influence of female bigotry on the religion of the men, the dangerousness, therefore, of mingling religions in marriage, is thus early expressed with the strongest words of warning. An impure marriage—often induced by lustful views of spiritual Asherah-images—easily works destruction to the archetype of pure marriage, the relation of Jehovah to His congregation. Therefore also the law here expressly treats of the setting up of molten gods, as being a transition to the lapse into complete idolatry. On the notion of whoredom in the religious sense, as well as on the names Asherah and Astarte, comp. especially Winer, Realwörterbuch. That the name Asherah denotes the idol-image of Astarte, the Syrian goddess, who was worshipped with voluptuous rites, is proved by the fact that it stands together with other monuments, and can be destroyed; but whether the form of it suggests Phallic worship is not determined; at all events the name might indicate something of the sort, as containing an allusion to lust.8 The LXX. and Luther [so A. V.] have rendered the word by “grove” (idol-grove).
d. Leading Positive Features of the Religious Commonwealth of Israel. Exo_34:18-24
The leading features of the theocratic commonwealth are sacred feasts, resting on the facts and doctrines which have given the community an organized existence. This section insists on the three chief feasts of Israel as essential to the life of the Israelitish commonwealth. But why is the first feast, which is a double feast, called the feast of unleavened bread rather than the Passover? The unleavened bread was the symbol of separation from Egypt and heathenism—a separation combined with abstemiousness; for this reason probably this idea is here made prominent, since the thing in point is to establish a perpetual opposition to heathenism. With this there is also united the fundamental law of the sacrifice of renunciation. With the claim actually made by Jehovah on all the male firstborn is asserted His right to all that are born, as being represented by the first-born; or, conversely, the entire dependence of the people, with all their possessions, on Jehovah. This consecration of the first-born has three leading forms. The first-born son is by birth a priest; he must therefore be released by an offering from the service legally required of priests. Also the first-born ass (this code of laws knows nothing of horses) must be either ransomed or killed. The first-born of cattle is the choicest offering; the calf, moreover, as an offering from among the larger animals, forms a suggestive contrast to the calf as an idol. It is then intimated, furthermore, that other offerings, besides those of the first-born, are to be brought, in the expression: “None shall appear before me empty.”
The first distinction between the people of God and heathendom involves renunciation of the world; the second, labor. In heathendom labor and holidays are confusedly blended; in the theocracy a clear contrast is made. Labor is marked by the time devoted to it, the weekdays. The Sabbath, as the seventh day, marks consecrated labor which has reached its goal in a holiday. After seven weeks, or seven times seven days, comes next the second feast, the feast of weeks, Pentecost. The grain harvest, which began after the Passover-Sabbath, is now finished; the feast of harvest is celebrated as the annual festival of the blessing of labor. The feast which embodies the highest form of theocratic enjoyment, the feast of the fruit-gathering and the vintage, or the feast of tabernacles, is here only briefly mentioned. It forms a contrast to the first feast of harvest; for Pentecost is the feast of the daily bread which is obtained by labor and at last by reaping, and two specimens of which are laid on the altar. The feast of tabernacles is the feast of the gathering up of the blessing poured out by God in gifts which contribute to joy and prosperity. This festival of joy and blessing is the real vital oil of the theocratic community. It is, however, a condition of the three feasts, that all the men (voluntary attendance of women and children not being excluded) must appear three times a year before Jehovah, i.e. at the sanctuary. There is something grand in the assurance of the security which the land will enjoy, in that no danger will accrue from the going up to the feasts. But never was the nation stronger and more warlike than when it had in this way obtained concentration and inspiration (vid. Exo_12:15; Exo_13:6; Exo_13:12; Exo_23:17; Leviticus 16, 23; Numbers 29). Knobel records only one contradiction in this section.
e. The Three Symbolic Principal Rules for Theocratic Culture. Exo_34:25-26
The first of these main rules requires first of all that the feast of unleavened bread shall be kept pure, and so stands for the duty of keeping worship in general pure; it is marked by the precept requiring all leaven to be removed before the time when the passover was slain, and not less by the requirement that the remains of the passover must be burnt, not desecrated by common use, and not allowed to pass over, as an element of desecration, into the abstemious season of unleavened bread.
The second main rule requires that labor and enjoyment shall be kept sacred, and is marked by the requirement to bring, first of all, the first-fruits into the house of Jehovah. It has a special relation to the second feast.
The third main rule requires that the enjoyment of food shall be kept sacred by the avoidance of inhuman and luxurious forms of it (vid. Exo_23:19; Deu_14:21). This indicates a special relation to the third feast.
f. Moses’ Lofty and Inspired Mood at the Renewed Giving of the Law. Contrast between the Present and the Former Descent from the Mountain. Exo_34:27-35
Here is to be observed, first of all, a difference in the law which is given. The ten commandments were originally addressed directly to Israel, and through Israel designed for mankind, as the immutable fundamental laws of morality, which are now also repeated on the new tables, Exo_34:28. But Moses received the fundamental laws of the Israelitish theocracy for Israel; before the conclusion of the covenant he received the outlines of the three-fold code of laws (Exo_20:22-23), which, it is implied, are also written down; but after the conclusion of the covenant he received the ordinance concerning the tabernacle, 25–31. Now, however, he is commanded to write down also the more minute regulations for the theocratic community, which have been shown to be necessary by the apostasy of the people, Exo_34:11-26. We may therefore distinguish three classes: (1) The general ethical law of the ten commandments; (2) the general legislation for the Jewish national theocracy; (3) the special regulations made necessary by the alteration of the covenant, in which connection it is not to be overlooked that the covenant is here defined as a covenant which Jehovah has made with Moses and with Israel; more positively than before, therefore, is the covenant now made dependent on the mediation of Moses. The stay of forty days and nights on the mountain is then only briefly mentioned. Observe, first, the sacred number of forty days, a repetition of the first forty days (Exo_24:18); next, the circumstance that Moses neither ate nor drank, one that recurs in the sacred history of the Old and the New Testament (1Ki_19:8; Matthew 4), and is to be conceived as indicating a total self-forgetfulness as regards the ordinary need of nourishment (vid. Comm. on Matthew, Exodus 4); finally, the specific statement that Moses again wrote the ten commandments on the tables—which, literally taken, may be understood as different from the first account of the writing, but, according to the spirit, as a supplementary interpretation of the first report. Keil makes “Jehovah” the subject of “he wrote” [in Exo_34:28], referring to Exo_34:1.
When Moses now came down from the mountain, his face shone, or beamed, without his knowing it. A strongly materialistic conception (such as Keil’s) may regard this as a reflection of the outward splendor of the glory that had appeared to him; but his face was covered by God’s hand. Doubtless the resplendence is a reflection of the divine splendor, produced through the agency of the soul, this splendor, together with the law, having passed through his soul, filled it, and put it into an elevated mood. Thus Christ in a higher sense came with divine power from the mount of beatitudes (Mat_8:1 sqq.); so, in some degree at least, preachers of the Gospel ought to come down from their pulpit eminence; but how far they fall short of it in many cases!
The great difference between the lofty standpoint of the Law-giver and that of the people at the foot of the mountain becomes evident in the fact that not only the common Israelites are terrified by the splendor, and fear to approach him, but even Aaron also; and that Moses is obliged to encourage him and the rulers of the congregation to come near to talk with him, and in this way to inspire the people also with courage to approach in order to hear Jehovah’s precepts.
After giving the message Moses puts a veil on his face, in order to make it possible to hold familiar intercourse with the people. This continued for a period of time not definitely stated; when Moses entered the provisional tabernacle and came out again to proclaim Jehovah’s directions, he uncovered his face, but afterwards he veiled it again. This, too, serves as a type for those who hold office in the New Testament Church. Christian people should not be frightened away by the splendor of the priest or preacher, and a separation thus effected between the officials and the congregation.
This narrative, however, became a symbol of two things: first, of the glory of the Mosaic law and covenant (2Co_3:7 sqq.); secondly, of the predominantly slavish fear of the people, which makes them unable, in the exercise of an enthusiastic devotion, to understand Moses’ mood and to get a view of the spiritual nature of his law. The veil remains even to-day, as in Paul’s time, on the face of Jews proper, and, in a degree, of Judaizing Christians—even on the face of those who imagine that they are far beyond the spirit of this law. In Moses’ case we cannot, with Keil, call it “a symbol of the veiling of the saving truths revealed in the Old Testament,” for Moses always took the covering away, after he had spoken to the people; but it is a symbol of the great distance between the Old Testament revelation and the popular Judaism—between two things which modern theology loves to identify. Knobel here records again several contradictions.
Footnotes:
[1][Exo_34:7. The A. V. here entirely neglects the accentuation, and thus almost creates a paradox out of these antithetic clauses. By translating וְנַקֵּה as a relative clause (and that will, etc.), it makes the impression that the same construction is continued, whereas not only does the Athnach precede it, but, instead of the participle of the preceding clause, we have here a finite verb without the Relative Pronoun. The A. V., moreover, makes the chief division of the verse before “visiting,” contrary to the Hebrew accentuation, which, quite in accordance with the sense, connects the last clause with the declaration: “he will not clear,” etc.; the confusion of thought is thus made complete.—Tr.].
[2][Exo_34:13. The word אֲשֵׁרָה, here and elsewhere rendered “groves” in the A. V., always refers either to a heathen goddess or to images representing her—commonly the latter, especially when (as here and most frequently) it is used in the plural (אֲשֵׂרִים). It must denote the goddess, e.g. in 1Ki_15:13, whore it is said: “She had made an idol for Asherah” (A. V. “in a grove”). This goddess sometimes seems to be identical with Ashtaroth. For particulars vid the Lexicons and Encyclopedias. That the word cannot mean “grove” is sufficiently shown by such passages as 2Ki_23:10, where the Asherim are said to have been set up in every high hill and under every green tree; and 2Ki_17:6, where it is said that Josiah “brought out the Asherah from the house of the Lord.”—Tr.].
[3][Exo_34:29. The verb קָרַן occurs only in this section in Kal; it is used once (Psa_69:31) in Hiphil, where it means “to have horns,” while the noun קֶרֶן ordinarily means “horn.” Hence originated the Latin translation of the Vulgate “cornuta,” “horned;” and this accounts for the notion, incorporated in art representations of Moses, that he had horns growing out of his face. The point of resemblance is in the appearance of the rays of a luminary shooting out like horns.—Tr.].
[4][Lange refers, in what is here said, more especially to the preceding chapter, Exo_34:14 sqq., where פָּנַי (literally “my face”) is rendered in A. V. “my presence.—Tr.].
[5][So according to the literal translation of the Hebrew.—Tr.].
[6][This change is secured by simply neglecting the Masoretic punctuation, and making the “Jehovah” following “proclaimed” the subject of the verb. But there seems to be hardly sufficient reason for the change. The repetition of the name is, on the contrary, natural and impressive, and need not in this connection be made to seem at all like an expression of mere awe.—Tr.]
[7][This seems like a very questionable translation, since the Absolute Infinitive in a negative clause strengthens, rather than weakens the negation. But there are some cases in which the reverse seems to be the case, e.g. Jer_30:11, where we have precisely the same phraseology as here in Exo_34:7, and where the A. V. translates, “Yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct tbee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished, וְנַקֵח לֹא אֲנַקֶּךָּ.” The context makes this translation natural, but not necessary. A more plausible case is Amo_9:8, “I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not utterly destroy (לֹא הַשְׁמֵיד אַשְׁמִיד) the house of Jacob.” Here it is necessary to give the Inf. Abs. a qualifying force; but hero the negative precedes the Inf. Abs.—Tr.]
[8][Gesenius finds no such meaning in the root אָשַׁר, or אֶשֶׁר, the radical significance of which he defines as “happiness,” “fortune.” Hence he regards אֲשֵׁרָה as = Fortuna. Fürst, however, assumes as the radical meaning “to be united,” sc. by love; and Lunge probably refers to this derivation.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–4 present thyself . . . to me in the…
present thyself . . . to me in the top of the mount--Not absolutely the highest peak; for as the cloud of the Shekinah usually abode on the summit, and yet (Exo 34:5) it "descended," the plain inference is that Moses was to station himself at a point not far distant, but still below the loftiest pinnacle.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 THE TABLES OF THE COVENANT RENEWED, Exo_34:1-35.
THE TABLES OF THE COVENANT RENEWED, Exo_34:1-35.
1. Hew thee two tables — The others were, in Exo_32:16, called “the work of God.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1–5. Moses is commanded to hew two tables of…
1–5. Moses is commanded to hew two tables of stone, similar to those which he had broken (Exo_32:19), and bring them up Sinai to Jehovah. The former tables are said (Exo_32:16) to have been themselves God’s handiwork: in the new tables only the writing is to be His.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 (1) Hew thee two tables.—Something is always lost by…
(1) Hew thee two tables.—Something is always lost by sin, even when it is forgiven. The first tables were “the work of God” (Exo_32:16). the second were hewn by the hand of Moses.
Of stone.—Literally, of stones—hewn, i.e., out of two separate stones, which could not be said of the first tables, since none knew how God had fashioned them.
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I will write.—It is quite clear, though some have maintained the contrary, that the second tables, equally with the first, were inscribed “with the finger of God.” (Comp. Deu_4:13; Deu_10:2; Deu_10:4.) It is also quite clear that exactly the same words were written on each.
Upon these tables.—Heb., upon the tables.
XXXIV.
PREPARATIONS FOR A RENEWAL OF THE COVENANT.
(1-4) Before the covenant could be formally reestablished, before Israel could be replaced in the position forfeited by the idolatry of the golden calf, it was necessary that the conditions on which God consented to establish His covenant with them should be set forth afresh. Moses had asked for the return of God’s favour, but had said nothing of these conditions. It is God who insists on them. “Hew thee two tables.” The moral law must be delivered afresh—delivered in its completeness—exactly as at the first (Exo_34:1), and even the ceremonial law must be reimposed in its main items (Exo_34:12-26), or no return to favour is possible. Hence Moses is summoned once more to the top of Sinai, where the Law is to be delivered afresh to him, and is ordered to bring with him tables of stone like the former ones, to receive their written contents from God’s hand.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Exodus 33 - 34
Exodus 33 - 34
Jehovah refuses to accompany Israel to the land of promise. "I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people; lest I consume thee in the way." At the opening of this book, when the people were in the furnace of Egypt, the Lord could say, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows." But now He has to say, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people." An afflicted people is an object of grace; but a stiff-necked people must be humbled. The cry of oppressed Israel had been answered by the exhibition of grace ; but the song of idolatrous Israel must be answered by the voice of stern rebuke.
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"Ye are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee that I may know what to do unto thee," It is only when we are really stripped of all nature’s ornaments that God can deal with us. A naked sinner can be clothed; but a sinner decked in ornaments must be stripped. This is always true. We must be stripped of all that pertains to self, ere we can be clothed with that which pertains to God.
"And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb." There they stood beneath that memorable mount, their feasting and singing changed into bitter lamentations, their ornaments gone, the tables of testimony in fragments. Such was their condition, and Moses as once proceeds to act according to it. He could no longer own the people in their corporate character. The assembly had become entirely defiled, having set up an idol of their own making, in the place of God - a calf instead of Jehovah. "And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation." Thus the camp was disowned as the place of the divine presence. God was not - could not - be there. He had been displaced by a human invention. a new gathering point was, therefore, set up. "And it came to pass that every one which sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp."
There is here a fine principle of truth, which the spiritual mind will readily apprehend. The place which Christ now occupies is "without the camp," and we are called upon to "go forth unto him." It demands much subjection to the word to be able, with accuracy, to know what "the camp" really is, and much spiritual power to be able to go forth from it; and still more to be able, while "far off from it," to act towards those in it, in the combined power of holiness and grace - holiness, which separates from the defilement of the camp; grace, which enables us to act toward those who are involved therein.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Moses exhibits a higher degree of spiritual energy than his servant Joshua. It is much easier to assume a position of separation from the camp, than to act aright towards those within.
"And Moses said unto the Lord, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me: yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight." Moses entreats the accompanying presence of Jehovah as a proof of their having found grace in His sight. Were it a question of mere justice, He could only consume them by coming in their midst, because they were "a stiff-necked people." But directly He speaks of grace, in connection with the mediator, the very stiff-neckedness of the people is made a plea for demanding His presence. "If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance." This is touchingly beautiful. a "stiff-necked people demanded the boundless grace and exhaustless patience of God. None but He could bear with them.
"And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." Precious portion! Precious hope! The presence of God with us, all the desert through, and everlasting rest at the end! Grace to meet our present need, and glory as our future portion! Well may our satisfied hearts exclaim, "It is enough, my precious Lord."
In Ex. 34 the second set of tables is given, not to be broken, like the first, but to be hidden in the ark, above which, as already noticed, Jehovah was to take His place, as the Lord of all the earth, in moral government. "And he hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first: and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with them there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third, and to the fourth generation." This, be it remembered, is God, as seen in His moral government of the world, and not as He is seen in the cross - not as’ He shines in the face of Jesus Christ - not as He is proclaimed in the gospel of His grace. The following is an exhibition of God in the gospel: "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself, by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself; NOT IMPUTING their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Cor. 5: 18, 19) "Not clearing" and "not imputing" present two totally different ideas of God. "Visiting iniquities" and cancelling them are not the same thing. The former is God in government, the latter is God in the gospel. In 2 Cor. 3 the apostle contrasts the "ministration" recorded in Exodus 34 with "the ministration" of the gospel. My reader would do well to study that chapter with care. From it he will learn that any one who regards the view of God’s character given to Moses, on Mount Horeb, as unfolding the gospel, must have a very defective apprehension, indeed, of what the gospel is. Neither in creation, nor yet in moral government, do I, or can I, read the deep secrets of the Father’s bosom. Could the prodigal have found his place in the arms of the One revealed on Mount Sinai? Could John have leaned his head on the bosom of that One? Surely not. But God has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. He has told out, in divine harmony, all His attributes in the work of the cross. There "mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Sin is perfectly put away, and the believing sinner perfectly justified "BY THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS." When we get a view of God, as thus unfolded, we have only, like Moses, to bow our head toward the earth and worship," - suited attitude for a pardoned and accepted sinner in the presence of God!
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Vers. 1-4. THE TWO TABLES RENEWED. The fervent and…
Vers. 1-4. THE TWO TABLES RENEWED. The fervent and prolonged intercession of Moses had brought about the pardon of the people; and that, together with their repentance and their prayers, (Exo_33:7) had been accepted as a renewal of the covenant on their part; but it remained for God to renew the covenant on his part The first step to this was the restoration of the tables, which were essential to the covenant, as being at once the basis of the law and of the ordained worship. To mark, however, that something is always forfeited by sin, even when forgiven, the new tables were made to lose one glory of the first they were not shaped by God, as the first were, (Exo_32:16) but by Moses.
Hew thee two tables of stone. Literally, "of stones two separate tables, i.e. , made of two separate stones. Moses is required to do this with strict justice, since it was by his act that the former tables were broken. (Exo_32:19) Upon these tables. Literally," upon the tables," which has exactly the same force. The words that were in the first tables. It is quite true that we have not yet been explicitly told what these words were. (see Exo_31:18 Exo_32:15, Exo_32:16, Exo_32:19) It has been left to our natural intelligence to understand that they must have been the "ten words" uttered in the ears of all the people amid the thunders of Sinai, as recorded in Exo_20:1-19, which are the evident basis of all the later legislation. We have, however, in ver. 28, and still more plainly in Deu_10:4, and 5:22, the desired statement. The fiction of a double decalogue, invented by Goethe and supported by Hitzig, and even Ewald, is absolutely without foundation in fact.
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Vers. 1-4. The second promulgation of the moral law, by the renewal of the two tables,
may teach us
I THAT ALL COVENANT WITH GOD MUST REST ON THE BASIS OF THE MORAL LAW. Moses had not asked for a renewal of the tables. He had requested the return of God"s favour and the renewal of God"s share of the covenant. It was God who made the restoration of the tables a condition. God, that is, will not divorce favour from obedience, privilege from the keeping of his law. Man desires the rewards that God has to bestow, but is not anxious to have the rewards tied to a certain course of action. God insists on the combination. He can only enter into covenant with those who accept his law as their rule of life. This is not for his own sake, but for theirs. They can only be fitted to enjoy his favour, and the rewards which he has to bestow on them, by leading a life in accordance with his law and acquiring the character which such a life forms in them.
II THAT THE MORAL LAW IS ETERNAL AND UNALTERABLE. The broken tables must be restored. In restoring them no change must be made. Their very form must resemble as nearly as may be the form of the preceding ones. This, of course, was typical. It foreshadowed the further not mere resemblance, but identity of the words that were to bewritten on the tables. From first to last, "the words were those that were in the first table" (ver. 1). There is no hint of any alteration. Even Christianity changes nothing in the law that is moral. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets," says our Lord; "I am not come to destroy but to fulfil". (Mat_5:17) No "jot or tittle" of the moral law is to pass away. Even with respect to the Sabbath, which verges upon positive law, nothing is changed but the day of the week, and to a small extent the method of observance. Apostolic writings show us the Decalogue as still binding. (Rom_13:9; Eph_6:2; Jam_2:11; etc.)
III THAT BREAKING THE MORAL LAW IMPOSES ON US FRESH OBLIGATIONS. "Hew thee literally, "hew for thyself tables of stone," said the Lord to Moses; repair the loss caused by thine own action. Repentance is no part of man"s original duty to God; but if he once break the moral law, it becomes obligatory on him. Every infraction involves this new duty; some infractions involve more. Fraud involves the duty of restitution; calumny, that of retractation; insult, that of apology; and the like. Each of our sins lays upon us as a new burthen, not only of guilt, but also of labour, to efface it. We had best refrain from evil, even in our own interest, or we may increase our burthen till we sink under it.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART Vers. 1-4.
The renewal of God"s covenant.
I THE FIRST EFFECT OF RECONCILIATION IS THE RE-WRITING OF THE LAW. Moses ascends that God may again inscribe his commandments upon the tables of stone; Jesus, that God may write them upon the fleshly tables of the heart. The sprinkling of the blood is "unto obedience." We are to be "zealous of good works.
II THE AWFULNESS OF GOD"S HOLINESS MORE EVIDENT IN THE RESTORATION THAN IN THE FIRST GIVING OF THE LAW. Formerly Moses had been accompanied so far by the elders, and further still by Joshua. Now he must go up alone. No man is to be seen throughout the mount. Neither flocks nor herds are to feed before it. The terrors of Sinai awe the heart less than the cross of him who treads the wine-press alone.
III THE REDEEMER"S ZEAL. "And Moses rose up early in the morning." He cannot loiter; for man"s life hangs upon the issue; the world"s cry rings in his ears. "For Zion"s sake I will not hold my peace,". (Isa_62:1)
IV THE MEDIATOR MUST MOULD THE HEART TO RECEIVE GOD"S LAW. "He hewed two tables of stone, like unto the first." The power of Christ"s love must cut between us and sin, and give again the form man wore when he came from the hands of God. We must experience the circumcision of Christ. Christ"s work may be measured by the heart"s tender receptivity for the re-writing of God"s law.
V THERE MUST BE UNION BY FAITH WITH CHRIST IN HIS RISEN LIFE. He "took in his hand the two tables of stone." We pass up with Jesus into the presence of God. That the law may be written upon the heart, our life must be hid with Christ in God. U.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-4. The second set of tables.
Jehovah graciously answered the supplications of Moses (Exo_33:12-23) so far as it was possible to answer them. Supplications may be very importunate, and, therefore, so far well pleasing to God, and yet at the same time they may be faulty in two respects: first, they may ask for things which it is impossible altogether to grant; and, secondly, they may omit from the field of view, certain other things which form a necessary accompaniment of every Divine gift. In all his supplications, Moses said nothing about these broken tables; it would be too much to say that they were never in his thoughts. But whether in his thoughts or not, they assuredly had to be considered and provided for. Moses had asked for the presence of God to go with Israel; and the presence of God meant for one thing the commandments of God. Furthermore, all the elaborate furniture of the tabernacle had for the centre around which it was gathered, these very tables of stone. When Moses broke them, he broke the holiest thing in all Israel"s belongings; these tables, appointed to rest within the ark, and underneath the cherubim. No word of censure indeed is uttered against Moses for having broken them; but it does not therefore follow that he is to be praised for having broken them. The action, so to speak, was one to be regarded neither with praise nor blame, but simply as an inevitable result of Moses" sudden and violent wrath. When Moses broke the tables, he was not in a mood of mind for considering anything but the monstrous transgression before his eyes. What had happened to the fragments we are not told; except this much, that they were no longer available. All that Jehovah does is simply to command from Moses the preparation of new tablets. As Moses prepares them, he may safely be left to his own thoughts. Whatever lesson he needed in respect of self-control, the opportunity was given him to learn. Opportunity was also given to learn the need of being continually on the watch for manifestations of human weakness and instability. If Moses was in so many things the type of Christ in respect of mediatorial office, it was, alas! also true that he was unlike Christ in respect of penetrating insight into human nature. Moses was not like Christ; it could not be said of him that he knew what was in man. Y.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-10, 28. Renewal of the tables, and fourth intercession.
One more mighty effort of intercession, and Moses will bear away the blessing which he seeks. It needs, however, that it be a mighty one. The covenant is not yet restored in its integrity. The people"s sin is not yet perfectly forgiven. God, indeed, has promised to go with them, but he has not said, as of old, "I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God". (Exo_6:7) The new relations are not those of perfected friendship. They are moreover, unstable. New transgressions of the people may at any moment upset them. Moses, accordingly, would not only have the covenant renewed restored in its old completeness and integrity the last trace of the Divine displeasure wiped away but would have God give him a pledge of grace beyond anything he has yet received a pledge that he will show great forbearance with the people: that he will not deal summarily with them, or cast them off, on account of backslidings which he now perceives to be inevitable (ver. 9). It was a high thing to ask: too high, Moses may have thought, for him to be able to attain to it. If he did, it could only be as the result of an earnestness, a perseverance, and a sublimity in intercesssion beyond everything of which he had yet felt himself capable. The strength he needed, however, was not to be withheld from him. He had already, though, probably, without this being present to his mind as a motive, put himself in the way of getting it, by asking for a vision of the Divine glory. From this would flow into his soul a spiritual might which would make "all things possible" to him (cf. Mar_9:23) By sheer power of prayer, he would obtain what he desired. Jehovah, on his side, was too well pleased with his servant"s zeal and devotion, too willing to be entreated of him, too entirely in accord with the object of his supplication, not readily to grant him the opportunity of pressing his request.
I JEHOVAH"S "COME UP HITHER" (vers. 1-4). 1. The command to hew out tables (ver. 1). Formerly, it was God himself who furnished the tables on which the law was written. (Exo_32:16) Now, the tables are to be provided by Moses. This may have had reference to the facts
(1) that it was Moses who had destroyed the former tables; (Exo_32:19) and
(2) that it was by the mediation of Moses that the covenant was being renewed. It was a suitable reward for his intercession, that God should give him this honour of supplying the tables on which the covenant terms were to be inscribed.
View the command to hew out tables as
(1) Retrospective. God had already promised that his presence should go with Israel. (Exo_33:14) This implied, on the part of the people, return to their obedience. The law is unalterable. God can walk with men only as they are willing to walk with him in the way of his commands. The tables testified to the unchangingness of the obligation.
(2) Anticipative. It had in view the fact that, through Moses" intercession, the covenant was about to be restored.
(3) Promissory. It gave Moses encouragement to entreat for its restoration.
1. The command to ascend the mount (ver. 2). The summons to ascend the mount was,
1. An answer to prayer me thy glory". (Exo_33:18)
2. A preparation for vision.
3. An opportunity for intercession.
0. The command to preserve the sanctity of the mount (ver. 3). This was to be done by keeping man and beast from approaching it. Moses was to ascend alone. The command a parallel to that in Exo_19:12-13 has for its end the warning back of intruders from what, for the timebeing, is "holy ground" (cf. Exo_3:5) Other reasons are, that there might be
(1) No interruption of communion.
(2) No distraction in intercession.
(3) No injury done by the manifestation of the Divine glory.
manifested glory of the Lord would so surely be followed by the destruction of man that even Moses needed to be protected before it". (Exo_33:21, Exo_33:22)
II THE NAME REVEALED (vers. 4-8).
(1) Jehovah "passed by before him" (ver. 5), i.e. , gave him the glimpse of his glory promised in Exo_33:22, Exo_33:23.
(2) He "proclaimed his namei.e. , made known to Moses the essence of his character. This was the higher revelation. The other is only alluded to; this is dwelt on and expanded (vers. 6, 7).
1. The name itself. Note here in regard to it
(1) It unites mercy and justice.
(2) The merciful attributes preponderate.
(3) The word which syllables it is "Love.
Love is the union of goodness and holiness. The history of revelation has been but the spelling out of this name. Christ is the perfect embodiment of it.
2. The effects on Moses.
(1) It awed him (ver. 8).
(2) It encouraged him. It gave iron a new ground of confidence in entreaty (ver. 9).
(3) It strengthened him. Cf. the chorus of the archangels in Goethe"s "Faust
Though none may fathom thee thy sight Upon the angels power bestows," etc.
III THE COVENANT RESTORED (vers. 9, 27, 28).
1. The intercession. This fourth and last intercession presents us with several noteworthy features.
(1) It was very prolonged. The account here is summary; but Moses tells us in Deuteronomy, (Exo_9:25) that he "fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights as at the first," and prayed earnestly that the people might not be destroyed (cf. ver. 28).
(2) It included intercession for Aaron. (Deu_9:20)
(3) It is marked by a deep perception of the root of depravity in the people"s nature. Moses has no longer the same optimistic views regarding them as when he disputed with God the necessity of giving them further warning about not approaching the mount. (Exo_19:23) Note how, in the first intercession, it is the people"s danger; in the second, the people"s guilt; and in the last, the people"s depravity, which is chiefly before the intercessor"s mind. He here pleads the innate tendency as a reason why God should deal mercifully with them (ver. 9). Human nature does not improve on closer inspection. But there is weakness as well as sin in its condition. The Divine ruler may be trusted to make the requisite allowances (cf. Gen_8:21)
(4) It is marked and this is the outstanding circumstance in connection with it by the degree in which Moses is now able to identify himself with the people for whom he intercedes. "Let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us .... And pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance" (ver. 9). More than ever he feels himself one with his nation. Intercession has perfected sympathy. But not intercession alone. It may be inferred that no act had more to do with this result than the supreme act of self-devotion, already considered, in which he expressed his willingness to die, and, if need be, to be blotted out of God"s book, for the salvation of the people. In that amazing act, the last traces of selfishness must have perished. He has given himself for Israel, and is thenceforth one with it. Subsequent intercessions can but develop, and give clearer and fuller expression to the sense of unity with his people born within him in that supreme hour in his experience. Sinful as the people are, accordingly, Moses, in his present entreaty does not shrink from including himself among them. "Our iniquity sin." The just takes part with the unjust. He makes their sin his, and pleads for its forgiveness. The worse they show themselves, the more earnestly he holds by them, and endeavours to sustain them by his prayers. If sympathy be a qualification for the task of mediation, Moses thus possesses it. His intercession, in this respect, throws striking lights on Christ"s.
2. The success. The prolonged, fervent, and sympathetic intercession of Moses did not fail of its reward. "The Lord," he tells afterward, "hearkened unto me at that time also". (Deu_9:19) Nothing was wanting to the completeness of his success. The last frown had. disappeared from the countenance of Jehovah. Covenant relations were perfectly restored. The people were reinstated in privilege. No wonder that the mediator"s face "shone" as he descended from the mount! We, too, have an intercessor whom the Father "heareth always". J.O. (Joh_11:42)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Hew thee two tables of stone.
Exo_34:1
Hew thee two tables of stone.
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The renewal of the two tables
I. That the moral law is perpetually binding. Having been broken, it must be renewed.
II. That the renewal of the moral law when broken entails duties unknown before. Hew thee two tables of stone; and he hewed two tables of stone. This fact is very typical and suggestive.
1. In the first inscription of the moral law upon mans heart, the preparation and the writing were exclusively the work of God. When our first parents awoke to consciousness, the fleshy tables were found covered with the oracles of God.
2. When those tables were defaced and those oracles transgressed, the work of preparation fell largely upon man. Ever afterwards man had to prepare himself by acts of penitence and faith--not excluding Divine help, of course--but nevertheless those acts are acts of man.
3. But this renewal of the Divine law is accomplished in such a way as to deprive man of all ground of glorying, and so as to ascribe all the glory to God. The tables were of plain stone, all their embellishments were by the Divine hand.
III. That when the moral law is broken, God graciously offers to renew it upon mans compliance with the revealed condition. So when man by repentance and faith puts off the old man and puts on the new, he is renewed in the image of Him that created him, on which the moral law is inscribed (Col_3:9-16).
IV. That these conditions should be complied with--
1. Speedily. Early in the morning.
2. Personally. This great work is a transaction between God and the individual particularly concerned.
3. Patiently. Moses waited again forty days and forty nights.
(1) Do not hurry the work over. What is being done is being done for eternity.
(2) Dont despond if the work is not progressing as rapidly as you might wish. If God is writing on your heart, let that be your comfort, and let God use His own time. Learn--
1. The value of the moral law.
2. The importance of having that law not only on stone or paper, but in the heart.
3. The necessity of a public and practical exhibition and interpretation of that law in the life. (J. V. Burn.)
God re-writing the law
Can you think of a course more merciful than this? Bring two tables of stone just like the first, and I will write it over again; I, God, will write over again the very words that were on the first tables that thou brakest in pieces. There is no mercy like the mercy of the Lord; I never find any tenderness like His tenderness. You remember some years ago George Peabody gave half a million of money to the London poor; and I think some eighteen thousand people are sheltered in the houses that have sprung out of that splendid charity. I remember that when Peabodys charity had awakened England to a sense of his goodness, the Queen of England rose equal to the occasion, and she offered this plain American citizen some title, and he declined the honour. And then she, with a womans delicacy of insight, and with more than queenly dignity, inquired if there was anything that Peabody would accept; and he said, Yes, there was, if the Queen would only write him a letter with her own hand; he was going to pay a last visit to his native land across the Atlantic, and he should like to take it to his birthplace, so that at any time, if bitterness should arise between these two nations, his countrymen could come and see that letter, and they would remember that Englands Queen had written it to a plain American citizen. The Queen of England said she would write him a letter, and she would do more than that--she would sit for her portrait to be painted, and he should take that with the letter; and she put on the Marie Stuart cap which, I think, she had only worn, perhaps, twice since the death of the Prince Consort, and she sat day after day in her robes of state, and the painter painted one of the finest portraits of the Queen that has ever been executed. When it was finished she presented it to Mr. Peabody, and he took it, with the Queens letter, away to his birthplace yonder. Now, suppose George Peabody, in some fit of forgetfulness, had torn the Queens letter up, and flung it into the fire, and dashed the portrait down and broken it to fragments; and suppose that, after that, somebody had told her Majesty that George Peabody was penitent, do you think she would have written him the letter over again? do you think she would have sat again for another portrait to be painted, just like the first one? Who can tell? Yet our Father in heaven, if you have broken the tables of your covenant with Him, bring your broken heart back again to His feet, and He will renew the covenant. (T. Guttery.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Exodus 34
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE VISION OF GOD.
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Exodus 34
It was when God had most graciously assured Moses of His affection, that he ventured, in so brief a cry that it is almost a gasp of longing, to ask, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory" (Exo_33:18).
We have seen how nobly this petition and the answer condemn all anthropomorphic misunderstandings of what had already been revealed; and also how it exemplifies the great law, that they who see most of God, know best how much is still unrevealed. The elders saw the God of Israel and did eat and drink: Moses was led from the bush to the flaming top of Sinai, and thence to the tent where the pillar of cloud was as a sentinel; but the secret remained unseen, the longing unsatisfied, and the nearest approach to the Beatific Vision reached by him with whom God spake face to face as with a friend, was to be hidden in a cleft of the rock, to be aware of an awful Shadow, and to hear the Voice of the Unseen.
It was a fit time for the proclamation which was then made. When the people had been righteously punished and yet graciously forgiven, the name of the Self-Existent expanded and grew clearer,--"Jehovah, Jehovah, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation." And as Moses made haste and bowed himself, it is affecting to hear him again pleading for that beloved Presence which even yet he can scarce believe to be restored, and instead of claiming any separation through his fidelity and his honours, praying "Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance" (Exo_34:10).
Thereupon the covenant is given, as if newly, but without requiring its actual re-enactment; and certain of the former precepts are rehearsed, chiefly such as would guard against a relapse into idolatry when they entered the good land where God would bestow on them prosperity and conquest.
As Moses had broken the former tablets, the task was imposed on him of hewing out the slabs on which God renewed His awful sanction of the Decalogue, the fundamental statutes of the nation. And they who had failed to endure his former absence, were required to be patient while he tarried again upon the mountain, forty days and nights.
With his return a strange incident is connected. Unknown by himself, the "skin of his face shone by reason of His speaking with him," and Aaron and the people recoiled until he called to them. And thenceforth he lived a strange and isolated life. At each new interview the glory of his countenance was renewed, and when he conveyed his revelation to the people, they beheld the lofty sanction, the light of God upon his face. Then he veiled his face until next he approached his God, so that none might see what changes came there, and whether--as St. Paul seems to teach us--the lustre gradually waned.
His revelation, the apostle argues, was like this occasional and fading gleam, while the moral glory of the Christian system has no concealments: it uses great frankness; there is nothing withdrawn, no veil upon the face. Nor is it given to one alone to behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and to share its lustre. We all, with face unveiled, share this experience of the deliverer (2Co_3:12, 2Co_3:18).
But the incident itself is most instructive. Since he had already spent an equal time with God, yet no such results had followed, it seems that we receive what we are adapted to receive, not straitened in Him but in our own capabilities; and as Moses, after his vehemence of intercession, his sublimity of self-negation, and his knowledge of the greater name of God, received new lustre from the unchangeable Fountain of light, so does all true service and earnest aspiration, while it approaches God, elevate and glorify humanity.
We learn also something of the exaltation of which matter is capable. We who have seen coarse bulb and soil and rain transmuted by the sunshine into radiance of bloom and subtlety of perfume, who have seen plain faces illuminated from within until they were almost angelic,--may we not hope for something great and rare for ourselves, and the beloved who are gone, as we muse upon the profound word, "It is raised a spiritual body"?
And again we learn that the best religious attainment is the least self-conscious: Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Exo_34:1. Hew thee two tables of stone]. A task…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_34:1. Hew thee two tables of stone]. A task which could not have failed to make Moses feel abashed, and to impress him with a sense of humility as he reflected on his breaking the first tables which God Himself had prepared for him. The former he had but to receive, these he must carry up the mount; and, besides, this time without being accompanied by Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy of the elders of Israel (Exo_24:9). That all this difference connected with his obtaining the second tables was calculated to make a designed impression upon him, is evident from the emphatic manner in which God referred him to the first tables, viz., “which thou hast broken” (Exo_34:1).
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_34:1-4
THE RENEWAL OF THE TWO TABLES
At the earnest intercession of the mediator God had consented to give another substantial revelation of His will. It was, however, to be connected with a substantial memorial of the people’s disobedience and God’s patience and goodness. On the former occasion, the materials, as well as the revelation, were prepared by God. The material must now be prepared by man. The circumstances under which the law was renewed were the same as those under which it was first given, see Exo_19:12, &c. The subject teaches us—
I. That the moral law is perpetually binding. Having been broken it must be renewed.
1. The revelation of the law, in the first instance, was but a repetition in detail of what had already been conveyed directly in the heart of, or by special injunctions to, man.
(1.) Generally (Exo_15:26; Gen_26:5; Gen_17:3).
(2.) Particularly, obedience (Adam and Eve); murder (Cain, and Gen_9:5); dishonour to parents (Gen_9:22). The spiritual worship of the true God (Gen_12:7; Gen_14:18); adultery and lying (Gen_12:14-19; Gen_20:2-16); adultery (Gen_39:9); lying (Gen_27:35); idolatry (Gen_35:2); the Sabbath (Exo_16:25-26).
2. The moral law was not abrogated by Christ (Mat_5:17-19). We are redeemed from its curse, not from its obligation.
3. The moral law is still binding (Rom_6:15; 1Co_9:21).
II. That the renewal of the moral law when broken entails duties unknown before. “Hew thee two tables of stone;” “and he hewed two tables of stone.” This fact is very typical and suggestive.
1. In the first inscription of the moral law upon man’s heart, the preparation and the writing were exclusively the work of God. When our first parents awoke to consciousness, the “fleshy tables” were found covered with the “oracles of God.”
2. When those tables were defaced and those oracles transgressed, the work of preparation fell largely upon man. Ever afterwards man had to prepare himself by acts of penitence and faith,—not excluding divine help, of course,—but nevertheless those acts are acts of man. “God commandeth man everywhere to repent.” “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel” (cf. Heb_8:10).
3. But this renewal of the divine law is accomplished in such a way as to deprive man of all ground of glorying, and so as to ascribe all the glory to God. The tables were of plain stone, all their embellishments were by the Divine hand.
III. That when the moral law is broken God, graciously offers to renew it upon man’s compliance with the revealed condition, Exo_34:1. So when man by repentance and faith “puts off the old man and puts on the new,” he is renewed in the image of Him that created him, on which the moral law is inscribed (Col_3:9-16).
IV. That these conditions should be complied with—
1. Speedily. “Early in the morning.”
2. Personally. This great work is a transaction between God and the individual particularly concerned. We may therefore argue that priestly intervention is
(1) unnecessary. The Being who could inscribe the precept on stone, can inscribe the principle on the fleshy tablets of the heart.
(2) Imposture. None but God could do the one, none but God can do the other. Vain, then, is the dependence on Baptism, Absolution, &c. If God has not written on the soul, no priest can ever trace the Divine handwriting there.
3. Patiently. Moses waited again forty days and forty nights.
(1.) Do not hurry the work over. What is being done is being done for eternity. Distrust spasm and mere excitement, no man ever became great in Christianity or anything by paroxysm.
(2.) Don’t despond if the work is not progressing as rapidly as you might wish. If God is writing on your heart, let that be your comfort, and let God use His own time. Paul had to say, Php_3:12-14. Learn—
1. The value of the moral law.
2. The importance of having that law not only on stone or paper but in the heart.
3. The necessity of a public and practical exhibition and interpretation of that law in the life.—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Law-Lights! Exo_34:1-35. Pressense says, that whatever opinions men may hold as to the integrity of that primitive witness, all must own that it contains pages in which one beholds, as it were, the reflection of the lustre which caused Moses’s face to shine when he held converse with God. It has ever been the pious mind which has through the eyes beheld the chain of revelation and the long series of Divine manifestations gradually unwind themselves. Just as they that watch for the morning gaze out from the height of the tower, longing with inexpressible desire for the approach of dawn; so does religious consciousness cast glances of fire upon the horizon as she looks out for the Divine Sunrise. The whole of the Old Testament pants and throbs with this Divine yearning, and it also shows us the finger of God writing in the heart of man the great preparation for the Gospel. The angels ever
“Draw strength from gazing on its glance,
Though none its meaning fathom may;
The Word’s unwithered countenance
Is bright as at Mount Sinai’s day.”
—Goëthe.
Sun-Splendours! Exo_34:1-7. Countless and ceaseless as are the benefits which are imparted to us by the bright orb of day, the human eye cannot look upon his undimmed noonday face, without being blinded. We cannot look upon him in his full brightness; but when he is passing away, we can, as it were, enjoy and wonder at the beauty he has, or the splendour he leaves behind. A gorgeous canopy of clouds—glowing in every tint of gold, scarlet, and purple over the evening sky, alone remains to bear witness to the passing sun’s magnificence. As we enjoy the vanishing glory of the sun, so did Moses exult in the vision of the Divine glory. He could not look upon the face of God; but when the Lord had passed by then he could behold and delight in the shaded vision of Jehovah’s back parts. And what sweet beauties did his eyes descry—emblems of those invisible beauties which the soul in communion with God beholds—
“The vivid brilliant streaks
Of crimson disappear, but o’er the hills
A flush of orange hovers, softening up
Into harmonious union with the blue
That comes a-sweeping down.”
—Carrington.
Written-Revelation! Exo_34:1.
(1.) The stream which flows through many soils takes a bitter taste from one, and a dusky tint from another. Even so the true faith could not be kept alive by tradition. Man’s memory was too treacherous to be entrusted with a matter so distasteful to his fallen spirit as the true character of God. Hence the need of a written revelation.
(2.) And even where there was a traditional theology, in its transmission from race to race it was found that the oral revelation grew dark and offensive. In this stagnant swamp, weltering with reptiles and fuming with pestilence, who can recognise the stream which bounded from the Alpine crag, pure as the melted snow and salubrious as Heaven’s own precipitate. Hence the need of a written revelation.
“The which, in waves which clear as crystal seem,
Spreads like a swelling sea o’er earth’s dry ground,
Mirror’d therein heaven’s halls of azure gleam,
And gold and pearls amid its sands are found.
Hast thou not of this heaven-bright river heard?
There dip thy cup; it is Truth’s Holy Word.”
—Geroh.
Morning-Communion! Exo_34:2. Fuller quaintly says, “Spill not the morning—the quintessence of the day—in recreation; for sleep is itself a recreation. Add not, therefore, sauce to sauces.” Beecher says, “Let the day have a blessed baptism by giving your first waking thoughts into the bosom of God. The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day.” Boerhaave says, “Nothing more effectually restrains the passions, and gives spirit and vigour through the business of the day, than early meditation and prayer.” Swain says, “It is the early blackbird that catches the worms; and it is the early riser who sees the sun rise. Morning prayer brings bounties to the soul; and the Christian, who betakes himself betimes, beholds the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings!” Green says, “When the morning breaketh forth in crimson, the beauteous flowers of the field spread wide their odorous cups to drink the blooming influence of the rising genial sun. We should get us early to the hill of supplication, and catch the bright effulgence of the Saviour’s face.”
“That as the light, serene and fair,
Illumines all the tracts of sin,
His sacred Spirit so may rest
With quick’ning beams upon thy breast,
And kindly cleanse it all within
From darker blemishes of sin,
And shine with grace until we view
The realm it gilds with glory too.”
—Parnell.
Beatific-Vision! Exo_34:2. Another morning came, so different from that other august occasion when a quaking multitude surrounded a thundering mount. This time there was neither blackness nor tempest, nor sound as of a trumpet; but, with his two stone tablets, the Lawgiver ascended in the clear, cool day-spring. He ascended and sought the appointed place, and as there in the cleft of the rock he waited, a cloud drew nigh—a cloud like that which floated above the Tabernacle. And as the Lord passed by, and spake, Moses bowed his head and worshipped. During the protracted interview of the forty following days, perfect love cast out fear; and from the pavilion of this friendly presence and its rapt communion, Moses came down with that shining face, which only reappeared on the Mount of Transfiguration.
“Never the ken of mortal eye
Can pierce so deep, and far, and high,
As the eagle vision of hearts that dwell
In the lofty sunlit citadel
Of Faith that overcomes the world.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Exo 34:5-8, Exo 34:29-35
Exo 34:5-8, Exo 34:29-35
This was the transfiguration of Moses. Let us consider the narrative as a spiritual parable, and try to read in it some of the conditions and privileges of exalted communion with God. Communion with God is the highest prerogative of spiritual beings. It is the instinctive craving of human souls; it is the supreme privilege and joy of the religious life; it is the inspiration and strength of all great service. God redeems us and saves us by drawing us to Himself. By mysterious voices He solicits us; by irrepressible instincts He impels us; by subtle affinities He holds us; by ineffable satisfactions He makes us feel His nearness and fills us with rest and joy.
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Notice:—
I. We are admitted to fellowship with God only through propitiatory sacrifice. Moses builds an altar under the hill, offers sacrifices upon it, and sprinkles the blood thereof before he ascends the holy mount to commune with God. We must seek fellowship with God through the one propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Not only is the sacrifice of Christ the medium through which the forgiving love of God becomes possible; it is the supreme expression of it.
II. We are qualified for our highest intercourse with God by the spiritual grace of our own souls; Moses was qualified for this revelation of the supreme glory of God by his peculiar magnanimity and self-sacrifice. When God admits us to intercourse with Himself, what we see will depend upon our capability of seeing. Only the pure in heart can see God.
III. We are admitted to visions of the higher glory of God only when we seek them for the uses of practical religious duty. If selfishness be a disqualification, so is mere sentiment. A man who seeks God for his own religious gratification merely may see God, but he will not see God’s supreme glory. Our chief reason for desiring to know God must be that we may glorify Him in serving others.
IV. The most spiritual visions of God, the closest communion with God, are to be realised only when we seek Him alone. In our greatest emotions we seek solitude instinctively. Human presence is intolerable to the intensest moods of the soul. No man can be eminent either in holiness or service who does not often ascend to the mountain-top, that he may be alone with God and behold His glory.
V. The supreme revelation of God to which we attain through such fellowship with Him is the revelation of His grace and love. When a man sees this, the glory of God has passed before him.
VI. The revelation of God’s glorious goodness transfigures the man who beholds it.
H. Allon, The Vision of God, p. 41.
Exo 34:6-7
There were thirteen names, or thirteen attributes, which went to make the names, as God showed Himself on Sinai, of which thirteen nine were mercy, two were power, two were justice, (1) The Lord. There we lay our basis. Unless we are prepared to admit the sovereignty of God, we can go no further, we shall see no more. (2) The Lord God. There we put the two names in combination. The word God in its root means kindness. We put the infinitude of His sovereignty in combination with the boundlessness of His affection, and we say, "The Lord, the Lord God." (3) We come next to the goings forth of that wonderful mystery of Godhead to man in mercy. The strict meaning of the word "mercy" is, a heart for misery. The first thought here is the Lord God stooping down to the wretched, going forth to the miserable. (4) And why merciful? Because gracious. Grace is the free flowing of undeserved favour. In two things especially God shows His grace: in the pardon of sin and the gift of the Holy Ghost. (5) "Long-suffering." We now come to a wonderful part of the character of God—patience. The end of this world is stayed because "the longsuffering of God leadeth men to repentance." This is the most marvellous part of the character of God—His patience; it contrasts so strongly with the impetuosity, the haste, the impulsiveness, of man. (6) "Abundant in goodness and truth." Abundant is enough and something over, cup so full that it mantles. He is abundant in (7) goodness and (8) truth. (9) "Keeping mercy for thousands." There are many people who do not see their mercy, for whom God is now keeping it in reserve. He is holding it till His own appointed time, till His own season comes. (10) "Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." This brings us more and more into the work of Christ. All God’s attributes met that He might pardon sin. (11) "By no means clear the guilty." The word "guilty" is not in the original; it is simply "by no means clear." He will not clear any one whom He has not pardoned. God’s mercy is infinite in its own bounds, but it keeps within these bounds most strictly. (12) "He visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children," etc. This is an ever-standing, visible proof and monument of God’s holiness and justice. He visits sin from generation to generation. There are inherited dispensations, inherited calamities, inherited evils.
J. Vaughan, Meditations in Exodus, p. 97.
References: Exo 34:6.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 217. Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 325; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 3rd series, p. 173. Exo 34:14.— Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 502; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 169. Exo 34:20.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 291; W. M. Taylor, Limitations of Life, p. 219. Exo 34:27, Exo 34:28.—R. Lee, Sermons, p. 388. Exo 34:28, Exo 34:29.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 116.
Exo 34:29
"He wist not that the skin of his face shone." Few and simple as these words are, there could be none grander written to the memory of a hero. The noblest and loftiest character is assuredly that of the man who is so absorbed in the Divine nature of his calling, and so conscious of the need of those for whom he labours, that he becomes forgetful of the beauty in his character which others recognise, and almost unconscious that he is himself the worker.
I. There are many unconscious believers and workers in the world still, who may gather helpful thoughts from this fact concerning Moses. Much time and ability has been devoted to discussing the question of "Christian assurance." To say that if we do not feel that we are saved, we are not saved, is to lose sight of what salvation really means. It is nowhere stated in Scripture that an assurance of that salvation which is a gradual matter, a day-by-day struggle and deliverance, is either universal or necessary. God may think it best that some of us should not have assurance, as on that great day He kept Moses unconscious that the skin of his face shone.
II. Perhaps some of us may feel that there were moments of such bright and hopeful experience once, but they are past now, and that seems to us the saddest thought of all. Still we need not despair. We should go back as Moses did to the mount where God had spoken to him, to the source of the old enthusiasm and the former faith. If we go back and stand face to face with the crucified Christ, our life will glow anew with the radiance of His love, even though we ourselves are unconscious of it.
III. This holds good also regarding our work for God. Many a splendid silent work is done on earth, and the doer is perhaps unconscious of it, and may remain unconscious till the great day of the Lord shall reveal it.
T. Teignmouth Shore, The Life of the World to Come, p. 159.
Reference: Exo 34:29-35.—H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 115.
Exo 34:30
(with Act 6:15)
In reading the account of Stephen’s death and of the supernatural light that flushed over his face, one is led to think of a similar scene in the life of Moses, and to put the two together for the sake of comparison. The more attentively we study the two incidents, the more we shall find that they have much in common, as both men belong to the same Divine mould, and yet much in contrast, as they belong to ages and dispensations wide apart.
I. We may compare that view of God which is reflected on the face of each of them. The vision that Moses saw was what is termed (Exo 33:18, Exo 33:22) "God’s glory." It revealed the purity of God, but had no distinct features; it promised mercy, but the way of pardon was not made plain. The object presented to the eye of Stephen was "Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of God." The purity which in the day of Moses had no distinct features has formed itself into the countenance of the Son of God, and the mysterious mercy descends from God’s throne by a new and living way, in the person of the Mediator.
II. We may compare the effect of the view on the immediate witnesses. In the case of Moses the effect was mainly an external brightness; the beauty of his face had something of terror with it. The beauty of Stephen’s face consisted more in Divine expression than in supernatural brightness. Its appearance did not outdazzle or overawe the beholders. The one transfiguration was bright, but formless, the shadow of the shechinah on him who sees it; the other was the beauty of the soul that has beheld Christ.
III. We may compare the crisis of life in which each of these transfigurations occurred. Moses was in the fulness of his power and success as a Divine messenger; Stephen was placed as a criminal before those who sat in Moses’ seat, and was charged with breaking in pieces the law which Moses gave.
IV. We may compare the effects on the surrounding spectators. In the case of Moses the impression made soon passed away; in the case of Stephen the ashes of the martyr became the seed of the Church.
V. We may compare the permanence of the transfigurations in the subjects of them. The brightness on the face of Moses faded away as he receded from the great vision. Moses was descending the hill of God with a brightness which was continually dying; Stephen was ascending the higher mount with a glory growing to all eternity.
J. Ker, Sermons, p. 170.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Renewal of the Covenant
The Renewal of the Covenant
In token that the people are forgiven, God renews His covenant relation with them. The conditions are the same as before. The Decalogue is inscribed on two fresh tables, and the main provisions of the ceremonial law are repeated.
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1. Which thou brakest] There is no reproach in these words. Moses is nowhere blamed for his righteous indignation. He was 'angry and sinned not.'
3. See on Exo_19:12, Exo_19:13.
5. See on Exo_33:19. On the name of The Lord see on Exo_3:13.
6. RV 'The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth': this is perhaps the highest utterance of revelation, and is frequently quoted by OT. writers: see e.g. Neh_9:17; Psa_86:15; Psa_103:8; Psa_145:8; Joe_2:13; Jon_4:2, also Num_14:18. The divine attributes here proclaimed are not God's dread majesty and power, but His mercy and truth. He is merciful, but He cannot overlook transgression.
7. That will by no means clear the guilty] i.e. will not allow the guilty to pass unpunished. The same words are rendered in Exo_20:7; 'will not hold him guiltless,' and in Jer_30:11; 'will not leave unpunished.' Visiting the iniquity of the fathers] see on Exo_20:5.
12-17. The warning against idolatry is solemnly repeated, and the people are forbidden to make covenant or intermarry with their idolatrous neighbours in Canaan. See on Exo_23:32-33 and on Num_25:16-18.
13. Images] RV 'pillars,' or 'Obelisks': see Exo_24:4. Groves] i.e. 'things graven', RV 'Asherim.' The Canaanitish shrine contained an altar, near which stood a stone pillar and an Asherah (plur. Asherim). The latter was a wooden pole or stump of a tree planted in the ground: see Jdg_6:26; 1Ki_15:13; 2Ki_17:10; 2Ki_23:7, and on 1Ki_14:15. Immoral rites were practised at these shrines in honour of the reproductive forces of nature.
14. Whose name is Jealous] on name, see on Exo_3:13, and on Jealous, on Exo_20:5.
15. Whoring after their gods] The covenant bond between Jehovah and Israel is frequently compared with a marriage (see e.g. Jer_3:14; Hos_2:19-20), and idolatry, which is unfaithfulness to Jehovah, is regarded as adultery, a view all the more natural seeing that idolatry and immorality so frequently went together (see on 'groves' Exo_34:13 and on Lev_19:29). For this conception of idolatry, see e.g. Lev_17:7; Num_14:33; Jer_3:1-20; Jer_13:27; Hosea 2 (especially Exo_34:13, Exo_34:16) Eze_20:30, Eze_20:31. In NT. the Church is called the Bride of Christ. See Eph_5:23-32; Rev_19:7-9; Rev_21:2, Rev_21:9, Rev_21:17.
18-26. See on Exo_23:12-19.
21. Earing] i.e. ploughing. At these busy and critical seasons there would be a special temptation to work upon the sabbath day.
24. Desire thy land, when thou shalt go up] i.e. take advantage of your absence to despoil your homes. God will protect their property while they are worshipping Him.
28-35. Moses descends from the Mount with the new Tables.
28. Similar fasts are recorded of Elijah (1Ki_19:8) and of our Lord (Mat_4:2): see on Exo_2:21. He wrote] The subject is God: see Exo_34:1.
29. Wist not] knew not. Shone while he talked with him] RV 'shone by reason of his speaking with him.' His face was lit up with a radiance which was the reflection of the divine glory, and served to attest the message he delivered to the people. Compare what is said of our Lord at His Transfiguration (Mat_17:2) and of Stephen at his martyrdom (Act_6:15; Act_7:55). The present instance is a fine illustration of the power of unconscious influence. The Heb. verb rendered 'shone' in this passage is derived from the word meaning 'horn,' which is used figuratively to denote rays or flashes of light proceeding from a luminous object (see e.g. Hab_3:4 with mg.). The Vulgate (Latin version) accordingly says of Moses' face that it was cornuta, which has led to the curious representation of Moses with horns, as seen in early art.
33. Till Moses had done speaking with them] RV 'when Moses had done speaking with them.' Moses usually wore the veil, only putting it off when he entered the presence of God or spoke to the people. An interesting reminiscence of this is said to be seen in the Jewish synagogue, where the priest, in pronouncing the Aaronic benediction (Num_6:24-26), veils his face with his tallith (see on Num_15:37-41), 'lest the utterance of the words should bring up the glory that shone in the face of Moses and strike the people dead.' St. Paul refers to this incident in 2Co_3:7-18, and evidently understands that Moses wore the veil in order to hide the fading of the glory in his face (see Exo_34:7, Exo_34:13). He accordingly sees in Moses' action an illustration of the inferiority of the Jewish dispensation as compared with the Christian. The glory of the former was fading, transitory, and partly obscured; that of the latter is permanent, unobstructed, ever increasing, and shared by all.
Exo_35:1-3. The Sabbath Law. See Exo_31:15, and on Exo_20:8-11.
3. Kindle no fire] an act involving work. This law is observed by pious Jews at the present day. They have fires in their houses on the sabbath, but they employ a gentile to light and tend them: see on Exo_12:16.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 (See Scofield "Exo 20:4").
Hew
(See Scofield "Exo 20:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 34 The Result: The Second Covenant and the…
CHAPTER 34 The Result: The Second Covenant and the Glory
1. The command to hew two tables of stone (Exo 34:1-4)
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2. The proclamation of Jehovah (Exo 34:5-7)
3. Moses’ worship and prayer (Exo 34:8-9)
4. The covenant restated (Exo 34:10-26)
5. The second tables written (Exo 34:27-28)
6. The glory upon the face of Moses (Exo 34:29-35)
The command is given to Moses to hew two tables of stone like the first, which Jehovah Himself had hewn and which were broken by Moses. The first were hewn of one stone; the second of two stones. Moses was permitted to furnish the material for the second tables, while the Lord had furnished it for the first. The second tables were given as the result of the intercession of Moses. But God wrote the words on the second tables of stones as He had done on the first.
The manifestation of Jehovah recorded in this chapter is deeply interesting. In chapter 33:21-23 the Lord promised Moses a vision. This is now fulfilled. Jehovah came down from heaven in a cloud and stood with him there; He proclaimed the name of Jehovah. This reminds us of Exo 19:24. What Moses saw is not stated. The Lord had come down to him and the descended Lord made known the name of the Lord. It is a most blessed hint on the incarnation of Jehovah and the manifestation of the name of Jehovah through Him, who is Jehovah. “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (Joh 1:17). The descended Lord makes known grace, but also divine righteousness. The full manifestation of grace could not be then made known; only in the cross of Christ, where God’s righteousness is revealed, grace shines forth in all its marvelous glory. In the gospel of Jesus Christ the justification of the ungodly is announced as well as the glorious inheritance of eternity for justified believers. Of this the law had nothing to say, for it could not give righteousness and God never meant to give to man eternal glory by keeping the commandments.
Moses worshipped and bowed his head toward the earth. His prayer to Jehovah is that He might come among them. He confessed the sinful condition of the people and asks for pardon. He includes himself. In chapter 33:5 Jehovah called the people stiff-necked. Moses then did not use this word; but here when Jehovah speaks of grace he pleads this charge of Jehovah for forgiveness and mercy. This is a blessed foreshadowing of the gospel of grace. But there is another lesson here. Moses realizes that the presence of Jehovah who had uttered such gracious words, if He were among them, would result in their forgiveness. The Holy One of Israel will some day be in the midst of His earthly people, then He will forgive their sins and remember them no more, and they will be His inheritance.
In the statements of the renewed covenant the separation of the people from the inhabitants of Canaan is made prominent. They were to have nothing to do with the impure and abominable idolatries of these nations. He called His people unto holiness. Moreover, they were to destroy their altars, their images and their groves. The word groves is “asherah.” It was an image used for the most lascivious practices, commonly known as the phallic worship. It flourished among all the ancient nations, but was especially used by the Canaanites. When Israel later fell in with these abominations, the judgment fell upon them. The commandments concerning the feasts, the Sabbath, and the firstfruits are repeated.
The conclusion of this chapter is used in 2 Cor. 3.
When Moses was on the mountain the first time to receive the first tables of stone no glory was seen on his face, because the covenant was altogether legal and not a ray of glory can come from that. The second time, because grace and mercy were mingled with it, glory shines from the mediator’s face. But they could not look upon that glory. He had to cover his face with a vail. Thus grace and glory are covered in the law. This vail is done away in Christ. In Him grace and glory in the most perfect splendor shine forth. And it is a glory which does not wane, but increases. “But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2Co 3:18).
Of Israel it is written, “But their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their hearts. Nevertheless, when it shall turn unto the Lord, the veil shall be taken away” (2Co 3:14-16). And that glorious day is coming, when they will believe.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 The Glorious Vision
The Glorious Vision
v. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, which the Lord Himself had fashioned: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. Moses was familiar with the form and workmanship of the original tables, and could therefore make the second set after that pattern.
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v. 2. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me in the top of the mount. The covenant relation between God and the people having been restored by the Lord’s pardon, the giving of the covenant ordinances could now be resumed.
v. 3. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before the mount, that Isaiah anywhere in its neighborhood. The entire mountain was again shut off to the people, as before the giving of the Law. Exo 19:12-13; Exo 19:20-23.
v. 4. And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first. And Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone, all ready for the engraving by the hand of God.
v. 5. And the Lord descended in the cloud, in the pillar in which His glory usually was hidden, and stood with him there, outside the cloud, and proclaimed the name of the Lord, called out and explained the name Jehovah. All this while He covered Moses with His hand. as the latter stood in the cleft of the rock.
v. 6. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, delivered His great sermon on the name of the Lord, as Luther says. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
v. 7. keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. That is the one side of the Lord’s essence: Jehovah, the mighty God. the same yesterday and today and forever. whose loving-kindness is shown in compassion on the miserable. in grace toward the repentant sinners, in patience toward human weakness. in truth and faithfulness in the keeping of His gracious promises. But the other side is also brought out: And that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children’s children unto the third and to the fourth generation. To those that reject His mercy the Lord proves Himself a stern Judge, who does not let the least offense go unpunished, but avenges the insults to His holiness not only upon the fathers. but also upon the children that follow in the footsteps of their wicked parents. and that down to the great-grandchildren. Cf Exo 20:5. This proclamation of the goodness, the mercy, the grace, the truth and faithfulness of God continues throughout the period of the New Testament; it is a testimony of the living God, who, however, states, on the other hand, as well: He who rejects His grace will receive everlasting condemnation.
v. 8. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped, overcome by the glory of the vision. What he saw is not described in detail, for it is beyond human understanding, even as Paul heard words which no man can utter. God here gave to Moses a taste of the future glory which will be revealed to all those who remain faithful to the end.
v. 9. And he said, If now I have found grace in Thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; he pleaded for the personal presence of God in the midst of the people; for it is a stilf-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance. Note that Moses includes himself with the people, placing himself under their guilt, in order to make his prayer all the more fervent. The Lord should once more regard Israel as His peculiar people, to consider and to treat them as His own. He wanted to make assurance doubly sure, for the sake of the Messianic promise. Such clinging trust should be found in the Christians at all times, for that is the power which vanquished even the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 tablets of stone
tablets of stone
"flat slabs of stone." See how you translated this in Exodus 31:18
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translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Sinai
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v1 34:1-35 God granted Moses’ request (33:18), showed Moses his…
34:1-35 God granted Moses’ request (33:18), showed Moses his goodness (34:1-9), and renewed the covenant (34:10-35). This renewal was a unilateral statement by God. God would indeed go with his people, maintaining his covenant promises even though they had broken the covenant (32:1-6) and deserved nothing better than death and abandonment.
34:1-3 God called Moses to come back up Mount Sinai with two new stone tablets. The restrictions for the rest of the people are like those made at first (see 19:12-13, 21-25).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.