SDMB Weekly Bible Study (SDMBWBS)-Week 53 Exodus 34

Cafe Society
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Welcome to the SDMB weekly Bible Study (SDMBWBS). This week we will be discussing Exodus 34, which contains The New Stone Tablets. Since the discussion can turn into a very broad and hijackable thread, we would like the following rules to be adhered to:
[ol]
[li]These SDMBWBS threads are to deal with the books and stories in the Bible as literature. What we hope to achieve is an understanding of the stories, the time in which they were written, their context, and possibly their cultural relevance. [/li][li]While it is up to the individual to choose to believe or disbelieve any portion, that is not to be the discussion of the thread. If you must, please choose to witness/anti-witness in Great Debates. [/li][li]The intention is to go through the Bible from front to back in order. While different books are needed to be referred to in order to understand context, please try and keep the focus on the thread’s selected chapter(s)/verse(s).[/li][li]Since different religions have chosen which books to include or omit, the threads will use the Catholic version of 46 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books. It’s encouraged to discuss why a book was included/omitted during the applicable threads only. BibleHub, as far as I know, is a good resource that compiles many different versions of the verses into one page. (The SDMB Staff Reports on “Who Wrote the Bible” are also a good overview). Please feel free to use whatever source you want, including–and even more helpfully–the original language.[/li][li]Hopefully, we can get through these threads with little to no moderation. As a gentle reminder, if a poster comes in and ignores these rules, please use the “report post” function instead of responding.[/li][/ol]

Links to previous threads:
[ul]
[li]Genesis Threads[/ul][/li]
[ul]
[li]Exodus 1[/li][li]Exodus 2[/li][li]Exodus 3[/li][li]Exodus 4[/li][li]Exodus 5-6[/li][li]Exodus 7-10[/li][li]Exodus 11-12[/li][li]Exodus 13[/li][li]Exodus 14-15[/li][li]Exodus 16-18[/li][li]Exodus 19-20[/li][li]Exodus 21-23[/li][li]Exodus 24[/li][li]Exodus 25-27[/li][li]Exodus 28-30[/li][li]Exodus 31[/li][li]Exodus 32[/li][li]Exodus 33[/li][/ul]

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[Exodus 34](Exodus - The Israelites Oppressed - These are - Bible Gateway 34&version=NIV) – New International Version (NIV)

The New Stone Tablets

34 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. [SUP]2[/SUP]Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. [SUP]3[/SUP]No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

[SUP]4[/SUP]So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. [SUP]5[/SUP]Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. [SUP]6[/SUP]And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, [SUP]7[/SUP]maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

[SUP]8[/SUP]Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. [SUP]9[/SUP]“Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

[SUP]10[/SUP]Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. [SUP]11[/SUP]Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. [SUP]12[/SUP]Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you. [SUP]13[/SUP]Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.[SUP][a][/SUP] [SUP]14[/SUP]Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

[SUP]15[/SUP]"Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. [SUP]16[/SUP]And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

[SUP]17[/SUP]"Do not make any idols.

[SUP]18[/SUP]"Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

[SUP]19[/SUP]"The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock. [SUP]20[/SUP]Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons.

"No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

[SUP]21[/SUP]"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

[SUP]22[/SUP]"Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.[SUP]**[/SUP] [SUP]23[/SUP]Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. [SUP]24[/SUP]I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.

[SUP]25[/SUP]"Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.

[SUP]26[/SUP]"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

[SUP]27[/SUP]Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” [SUP]28[/SUP]Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant - the Ten Commandments.

The Radiant Face of Moses

[SUP]29[/SUP]When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD. [SUP]30[/SUP]When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. [SUP]31[/SUP]But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. [SUP]32[/SUP]Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.

[SUP]33[/SUP]When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. [SUP]34[/SUP]But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, [SUP]35[/SUP]they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

Footnotes:

[LIST=a]
[li]Exodus 34:13 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah[/li][li]Exodus 34:22 That is, in the autumn[/li]
[/LIST]

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Dex’s Notes

CH 34

Moses is to come back up the mountain to renew the covenant. Back in Ch 24, the elders and Aaron were with him. Now, he’s alone. Aaron’s exclusion is a reminder of his role in the golden calf.

V 5: The verb is again “station”, like in 33:21, but now it’s God standing at attention. Moses proclaims the Four-Lettered Name, analogous to saying “Here I am.” God passes before him (the second time) and proclaims His attributes. Arguably, this is the answer to Moses’ question about “How do you rule the world?” The answer might be read as: I will no longer destroy because of sin, but I will remember. The cycle of sin and destruction that we’ve seen in Genesis and Exodus – the Flood, Tower of Babel, Sodom, Egypt, etc – has now drawn to an end. In future, God’s attribute of compassion will be to the fore, overtaking His attribute of justice.

Verses 6 – 7 are an important part of Jewish liturgy, called the Thirteen Attributes of God, used when asking God’s forgiveness. The focus here is on God’s kindness and mercy, rather than His judgments. Jewish mystics interpret these in, well, mystical ways.

The line “punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation” seems harsh to us, but it’s frankly a fact of life. Our children pay for our errors.

Verse 8: God can now go back in the midst of the people, because sin need not be punished with death. God then sets forth the relationship with Israel: one God, one people, and the imagery again is very much that of husband and wife.

Verses 12 – 16 indicate ways of violating the exclusive relationship between God and Israel: marrying idolaters, eating with them, and worshiping their idols. The dietary laws of Israel are designed to prevent too much socializing with non-Israelite peoples, which can lead to accepting their idolatrous ways. The emphasis here is on the sin that broke the first tablets: idolatry.

Because they just set up a festival for the golden calf, the second part of the new pact sets out a calendar and festivals.

Moses is on the mountain for forty more days and nights, without bread or water. Forty, of course, represents a generational break, a new world (forty days of flood, forty years in wilderness to come, etc.) Bread and water are part of the desert experience; Moses is now with the Source of Life, and doesn’t need these things. And this is the real reason he later will be unable to enter the Promised Land: he is no longer part of mankind, he lives in the clouds, mountains, light, and heaven. In Genesis 2:18, it is not good for man to be alone. Moses is called “good” at his birth (Ex 2:2), but Moses is now alone, he lives with God, not with his wife and children, not even with humanity.

Verse 30: The word for radiate in Hebrew is karan and the word for horn is keren. This misreading is the reason that so many Renaissance artists (the famous Michelangelo statue, for instance) depict Moses with horns.

Moses now hides his face, as God hid His face.

MULTIPLE AUTHORS (Documentary Theory):
For those who believe in multiple authors, most of Chapter 32*[?]* is usually attributed to the J-source, the southern kingdom. Verses 29 – 35 are usually attributed to the P-source (“Priestly”) which tends to be pro-Aaron and anti-Moses; note the implication that Moses is disfigured and so must be veiled.

Not sure if that’s supposed to be Chapter 34.

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It looks like god was willing to supply tablets the first time but if you break them you have to replace them so Moses had to chisel his own set this time.

v6 Since this is god talking about himself, the repetition of the “the Lord” reads better to me if it is translated as “I Am What I Am”, which is closer to the original meaning. Since this is where God starts talking this description acts as a preamble on the tablets.

Given the course of events it sounds like God is rethinking his relationship with the Hebrews to be kinder and more forgiving but some formulations of the documentary hypothesis has this as a continuation from chapter 19. The more judgmental sections in between would have been written later.

The description can be read as universal to humankind and can apply at a personal and family level. There is nothing specific to any single group of people or method of worship. What is promised in the covenant which follows is at the national level. God will do wonders specific to the Hebrew people and their neighbors will be impressed. Also, specific nations will be driven out before them.

It seems to me that the first commandment starts at v12 but most translations I have seen do not put a paragraph break there.
.
v14 “the LORD, whose name is Jealous” sounds like an idiomatic expression that doesn’t translate to English very well.

v17 Other translations say no **molten **gods.

v24 I always wonder about the practicality of rules that demand a significant portion of the male population to be away from their property at predictable times. Here we get a promise that no one will take it while they are making the pilgrimage. It sounds as if God is committed here to messing with the decisions of non-Hebrews (similar to hardening the heart of Pharaoh) at least three times a year.

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That’s far from settled. It’s not the same word used for that phrase back in 3:14. “I Am That I Am” is Ehyeh asher ehyeh. Some scholars think that YHVH comes from the same root as Ehyeh, but it’s far from certain.

The first two sections of this Wikipedia article are pretty good about it. “I AM” is a name for God, but it’s not necessarily the one used here.

The word LORD is always a translation of YHWH.

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Why did God want to mess so much with the Canaan neighbors? Obviously from the Israelites’ point of view, having God behind them justified their attacking and destroying their neighbors, especially for their idolatry and justified their keeping to themselves and worshipping how they wanted, but God doesn’t seem to have much peace with these guys, though he does get to be worshipped

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Something I just noticed: Moses in verse 8 avoids using The Name when talking to God. He uses “Lord,” or Adonai. He hasn’t had any trouble saying His name before, so it seems interesting. Maybe it’s because God has just declared His name so triumphantly that it feels wrong to say it.

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New thread on 35-38