30:1–31:17 Supplement to the Ritual Legislation—This section contains important additions to the directions given in chh 25–9. As it follows the conclusion (29:43–46) it is obviously and addition but not necessarily made by a different author.
§ i 30:1–10 37:25–28 The Altar of Incense—It was made of the same materials as the Table, had a similar moulding on top and similar rings and staves for transport, was a cubit in length and breadth and two cubits in height. It was called the golden altar as distinguished from the bronze altar of holocausts, and like it had four horns. It was in the Holy Place before the veil and at its centre where it was in line with the Propitiatory. As the incense, offered morning and evening, was intended for the Holy of Holies, which it entered through the opening above the veil provided by the sloping roof, it belonged to the Holy of Holies (Heb 9:4) just as the incense-altar, in Solomon’s temple, belonged to the Debir (3 Kg 6:22). The order given (10) is ignored in the ritual of the Atonement-day (Lev 16). Offerings of incense, mentioned Lev 10:1; Num 16:6–7, were made with censers. It would seem therefore that an altar of incense was not prescribed in the original plan of the tabernacle. That does not mean however that it was not a Mosaic institution, much less that it is a postexilic invention. Incense altars were used in Mesopotamia in the third millennium b. c. and have been found in Canaan at Megiddo and Ta‘anak (8th cent. b.c.) and Tell Beth Mirsim (10th cent. b.c.). There is no reason therefore to exclude even from Solomon’s temple the incense-altar mentioned by the texts, notably 3 Kg 6:20; 7:48.
§ j 11–16 The Poll-tax—The ancient Hebrews like the Romans considered a census an encroachment on God’s domain (2 Kg 24:10). The Poll-tax however of half a shekel (about is. 3d.), imposed alike on rich and poor and devoted to the upkeep of the sanctuary, would legitimate it. The narrative implies the Mosaic origin of the poll-tax, but was written after the construction of the tabernacle, since the census is that of Num 1:1 ff. The plague (D1808V ‘scourge’, 12) is not necesssarily a reference to 2 Kg 24, but is based on the same belief.
§ k 17–21 38:8 The Bronze Laver—It is not described and is clearly a later institution since it was made form the bronze mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tabernacle and is not numbered among the bronze objects (38:29–31). A constant supply of water for the priests’ ablutions would be difficult to procure in the desert.
§ l 22–38 37:29 Anointing Oil; and Incense—The holy oil consisted of pure olive oil, mixed in fixed proportions with four spices—myrrh, calamus, cinnamon and cassia. Myrrh was an Arabian gum exuding from the balsamodendron myrrha and is described as flowing, interpreted by some, spontaneously exuding, by others, of choicest quality. The three other spices were obtained from odoriferous shrubs indigenous to south-eastern Asia and imported by Sabaean merchants. The oil thus prepared was restricted in its use to the sacred persons and objects mentioned, but its ingredients could be used singly or mixed in different proportions for profane purposes. The incense, a gum imported by the Sabaeans, was also mixed with other ingredients, stacte, onyx and galbanum, and was seasoned with salt. The stacte and galbanum were gums exuding from trees indigenous to Palestine. The onyx was provided by a shell-fish found in the Red Sea. The mixture was reduced to powder, burned on the altar of incense, morning and evening, and only used for sacred purposes. The mention of the altar of incense and the laver shows that the passage is part of the later addition.
§ m 31:1–11 Beseleel and Ooliab—The chief constructors of the tabernacle and its furniture are here introduced. Beṣalʾēl means ‘in the protection of God’, ʾOhʾlîāḇ ‘father’s tent’. This passage is also late since the sacred objects enumerated include those of ch 30. 5. ‘And in the hewing of stone for setting and in the hewing of wood for construction—in all kinds of work.’ In 10, ‘the finely wrought vestments, namely the holy vestments’, the conjunction is explicative, not connective.
§ n 12–17 35:1–3 The Sabbath—Previous legislation on the Sabbath is here emphasized and amplified. As the passage has no connection with the tabernacle and its furniture it seems a later insertion. Originally therefore 18 followed 28:42, the conclusion of the directions given to Moses, after which he received the two tables of stone containing the decalogue.
§ 181a 32:1–35 33:1–6 The Golden Calf—The sin of the people is shown by their demand: ‘make us Elohim who shall go before us’. Elohim means ‘God’, when construed with a singular verb, but ‘gods’ when the verb is plural, except in a few cases which may be textual errors. Here the meaning ‘gods’ is determined by the plural verb and still more by the plural pronoun, these (4b), otherwise inexplicable. By asking for gods in the form of idols to lead them they show their abandonment of the leadership of Yahweh. Aaron weakly compromises. He makes an image of a young bull, like the Egyptian Apis and the Canaanite Baal, but by proclaiming a feast to Yahweh shows that he regards it as an image of Yahweh. Though he only made one image, he (LX1809X, not ‘they’ M1810T) said: These are thy gods (4b), meaning: this is my answer to your demand for gods. He remained loyal to Yahweh, but really debased him to the level of a pagan deity and led the people astray by violating the precept of 20:23.
§ b 1a. Read around for ‘against’. § c 4a. Read with a graving tool for ‘by founder’s work’. God informs Moses on Sinai of the sin of the people. 8. The action and words of Aaron are attributed to the people since he carried out their demand. 9b. Read I see for ‘see’. 10. God proposes to destroy the people and make of Moses a great nation, but in a manner (let me alone) which invites the intercession of Moses on their behalf. 11–16. Moses pleads for mercy to the people as required for the promotion of God’s glory on earth and for the fulfilment of the promises made to the Patriarchs. Having obtained his request he descends from the mount with the two tables of stone, rejoins Josue and approaches the camp. 17–18. The noise heard suggests fighting to Josue to whom Moses replies: ‘It is not the sound of the cry of might, and it is not the sound of the cry of defeat; the sound of singing I hear’. 19–24. The anger of Moses on seeing the calf and the breaking the two tables of stone and burning the calf which is ground into powder mixed with water to be drunk by the people. He reproaches Aaron, who pleads the wickedness of the people and repeats the facts narrated above. 25. ‘And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose; for Aaron had let them loose for a whispering among their enemies.’ He realized that the issue was between the worship of Yahweh from whom they had revolted and the worship of strange gods and that immediate action and severe measures were necessary if the worship of Yahweh was to prevail. § c26–29. The Levites show their zeal for Yahweh and execute the orders of Moses, who says: ‘You have consecrated yourselves [LX1811X, not ‘consecrate yourselves’ M1812T] to-day to Yahweh, yea each man with his son and with his brother, that he may give you to-day a blessing’. The subsequent choice of the Levites to minister in the sanctuary (Num 3:6 ff.) is here fore-shadowed, and the victims of their zeal are likened to the sacrifices offered at their installation (Num 8:8). § d 30–35. Next day Moses intercedes for the people with Yahweh and manifests his wish to die—not, however, to be anathema like St Paul (Rom 9:3)—if pardon be refused. Yahweh refuses to accept the offering of his life or to remit entirely the sin of the people, but shows at least that he still regards them as his people by ordering Moses to lead them to the land of promise. The punishment of their sin is not remitted but postponed; not Yahweh himself but an angel will guide them. 33:1–6. Yahweh reiterates his refusal. The people show their grief and repentance by ceasing to wear their ornaments from some of which the golden calf had been made. Yahweh still refuses to lead them on the march: ‘If I go up in the midst of you for one moment I shall destroy you’, approves of their repentance and implies that its continued manifestation may render him more propitious towards them. The text of 33:1–6 is not in good order, but the general sense is clear.
§ e 33:7–11 The Tent of Meeting or Oracle Tent—This tent was in constant use. And Moses used to take the tent of meeting, etc., where the tense of the verbs is frequentative. It is also mentioned Num 11:16 ff.; 12:4 ff. and probably Deut 31:14 ff. It differs from the tabernacle or tent of testimony in its location outside, not in the centre of the camp; in its minister Josue the Ephraimite, not the Levites.; in its small size since Moses, helped perhaps by Josue, carried and pitched it, while many Levites and wagons were required for the transport of the tabernacle; in its use for meeting Yahweh and obtaining administrative and judicial decisions from him, not for ritual functions like the tabernacle. The tent was therfore not a ceremonial, but an oracle tent, where Yahweh manifested himself and gave his decisions to Moses. It must have preceded the erection of the tabernacle but was not immediately superseded by it, as its object was different and such changes are usually gradual. The early Christians frequented the Jewish temple even after they possessed meeting-places of their own. Verses 7–11 have no connection with the context, which they interrupt, and record an isolated tradition of no little interest and value.
§ f 12–23 Moses’ Final Intercession and Request to see God—Moses renews his request that Yahweh himself and not one of his angels accompany the people in their march. The last words of 5 left the matter doubtful, but gave an opening for further intercession. The words Thy face (13) mean ‘thou thyself’ and are so rendered (15). Moses first pleads on his own behalf and then on behalf of the people that he and they may be distinguished from (D1813V ‘glorified by’) all the people on the face of the earth by God’s presence. The granting of his request emboldens him to a further demand to see the glory or the face of God. Such a vision, reserved for the future life, cannot be granted. But the figurative language of 21–23 indicates that a special knowledge of God was accorded to Moses superior to that given to other prophets, as we learn also from Num 12:7–8. 19b. ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be merciful’ means that man has no claim to the gratuitous gifts of God, such as the favours accorded to Moses and the forgiveness accorded to the people, which he gives to whom he wills. St Paul cites this text to prove that the Jewish nation had no claim to the gratuitous gift of an efficacious call to the faith of Christ (Rom 9:15).
§ g 34:1–28 The Renewal of the Sinaitic Covenant—Moses is ordered to ascend the mount for the last time bringing with him two tables of stone on which Yahweh will write the ten commandments to be preserved in the Ark of the Covenant. When Yahweh appears in a cloud it is Moses who invokes him by name (5), but it is Yahweh who passes before Moses and proclaims who he is in one of the finest passages of the OT (6–7). 9. Moses makes three requests: reassurance of the favour already granted (33:14) that Yahweh will accompany the people notwithstanding their rebellious character, forgiveness of their sin, their reinstatement as the chosen people of Yahweh. Yahweh grants his requests by renewing the broken covenant. 10–11. He states first his own engagements briefly but comprehensively. 12–26. He then repeats the cultual obligations of the people taken from the Book of the Covenant, since it was in this matter they had sinned. 27–28. Finally he orders Moses to write down the words of the renewed covenant and he himself similarly renews the legislation of the decalogue by writing the ten commandments on the tables of stone.§ h The sequence of thought is clear and consistent but the conclusion of narrative is obscured by a gloss or corruption in the text. 28c. M1814T reads: And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments, The tables and the ten commandments naturally refer to the writing of Yahweh (1), the words of the covenant to the writing of Moses (27), but he wrote indicates only one writer, apparently Moses. The conclusion seems to be that either the original text, chronicling both writings, was abbreviated and obscured or that 28c is an unskilful gloss, since the execution of the promise (1) and the command (27) might well be taken for granted by the narrator. The critics have concluded from 28c, contrary to the manifest requirements of the context, that the laws of 12–26 were originally a cultual decalogue, the earliest form of the Book of the Covenant. They are not agreed, however, as to the original form of this decalogue and cannot explain why the original book of the covenant, like the decalogue which it develops, should not contain both social and cultual laws.
§ i 12–16. The law prohibiting the worship of strange gods or religious harlotry, since Israel was the bride of Yahweh, is especially inculcated. Canaanite altars and the stone pillars representing Baal as well as the wooden poles (D1815V ‘groves’) symbolizing his consort, Asherah, erected before them, must be destroyed and there must be no alliances or intermarriages with the Canaanites to avoid the danger of religious contamination. Asherah, the goddess of fecundity, mentioned 3 Kg 15:13; 18:19; 4 Kg 21:7; 23:4 (D1816V ‘grove’), and supposed to be a textual error for Astarte by many critics, is now well known from the the Rās-Shamra tablets. The development of the law of the firstborn (20), taken from 13:13 and not in the Book of the Covenant, and the homiletic comment on the law of the annual pilgrimages (24) seem to be later additions.
§ j 29–35 The Horns and the Veil—Horns are lightning flashes which accompany a theophany (Hab 3:4) and similarly here indicate not excrescences but rays of light. St Paul explains the phenomenon as meaning that the brightness of the face of Moses, produced by his intimate and prolonged intercourse with Yahweh, was insupportable to the Israelites and had to be concealed by a veil which he only removed when he spoke with God (2 Cor 3:7). The religious lesson conveyed is that the greater our union with and knowledge of God the more like to him we become (2 Cor 3:18).
§ k 35–40 Execution of the Ritual Precepts—This section narrates the execution of the commands given in chh 25–31. The order is different and there are additions, discussed when important in the preceding commentary. LX1817X has an order of its own and some omissions of which only the incense-altar is noteworthy. As the version is by a new and perhaps less careful translator, these omissions may be accidental, but the different order suggests that there were different forms of the Hebrew text in the 3rd cent. b.c. Unsettlement in the order of a text does not affect its general authenticity but may expose it to minor interpolations. There seems to be one such in this section (38:25–28)) which begins: And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation. A voluntary contribution for the erection of the tabernacle (25:2 f.) is here identified with an obligatory poll-tax for the upkeep of the sanctuary (30:16) based on a census made after the tabernacle was erected (Num 1:1 ff.) and computed at a population figure several times greater than that of Ex 12:37. This evaluation of the silver is manifestly inaccurate and must have been substituted for the original one similar in character to the gold and bronze evaluations (38:24; 29–31).
The book concludes magnificently with the manifestation of the glory of Yahweh in the newly erected tabernacle where he dwells among his chosen people and directs them on their march to the promised land.