The Hewing of New Tables of Stone and the Making of the Ark The account of the former is extracted verbally from Exodus 34:1-4, JE, which adds other details, but has now no mention of the making of the Ark. It is, however, more than probable and -practically certain" that D derived his words about... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first_ So Exodus 34:1 _a_, JE. _and come up unto me into the mount_ So probably in the original E; J has, _come up in the morning unto Mt Sinai and present thyself to me_, etc., followed by a command to keep the Mount free of men and cattle, Exodus 34:2-3... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I will write … which thou brakest_ So exactly Exodus 34:1 _b_, E; cp. above Deuteronomy 5:22, and _tables of the covenant_, Deuteronomy 9:9; Deuteronomy 9:11. _and thou shalt put them in the ark_ Not now in E for the reasons given above. Hence D's name, _the ark of the covenant_. See above on... [ Continue Reading ]
_So I made an ark of acacia wood_ Not now in JE, see above. P, Exodus 25:10; Exodus 37:1, _Beṣal'el made the ark of acacia wood_. _acacia wood planks of shiṭṭim_, the plur. of the tree _shiṭṭah_= _shinṭah_, Ar. -sant," a name given to several species of the thorny acacia; in Egypt to -A. (mimosa) Ni... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he wrote on the tables … the ten_ WORDS] Exodus 34:28, J. This adds _the words of the covenant_, for which D has _according to the first writing_, cp. Deuteronomy 9:10. _the ten_ WORDS] See above p. 81. _in the mount out of the midst of the fire_ Above Deuteronomy 9:10. _in the day of the as... [ Continue Reading ]
_And I turned and came down from the mount_ So Deuteronomy 9:15 and Exodus 32:15, E, but of Moses" first descent with the tables. _and put the tables in the ark_ This also certainly from the original form of E; see above, general note on Deuteronomy 10:1. P, Exodus 40:20 has _put the testimony in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_children of Israel_ Non-deuteronomic; see on Deuteronomy 4:44. _Beeroth Bene-jaakan] Wells_of the tribe so-called; in P, Numbers 33:31, the place name is simply that of the tribe, without _wells_. -Aḳan, Genesis 36:27 = Ya- a ḳan, 1 Chronicles 1:42, was a Ḥorite tribe. The place would probably be... [ Continue Reading ]
Interruption of the address by a piece of narrative, recording certain stations of Israel with Aaron's death and Eleazar's succession, in which Israel are spoken of in the 3rd pers., and the phraseology is not deuteronomic. Obviously the fragment of an old itinerary. Although the names it contains a... [ Continue Reading ]
_From thence they journeyed_ E's formula, Numbers 21:12-13. _Gudgodah to Jotbathah_ P, Numbers 33:32 f.; Hor-haggidgad and Yoṭbathah unknown. Both names are possibly derived from the character of the landscape. Ar. -gadgad" is hard, level ground; and Yoṭbah, or Yoṭbathah, is probably goodliness or... [ Continue Reading ]
_At that time_ Cp. Deuteronomy 9:20; Deuteronomy 10:1. If, as we have seen to be most probable, Deuteronomy 10:6 are a later intrusion and out of place where they stand, _that time_is not that of the sojourn at Yoṭbathah after Aaron's death (though the editor who inserted Deuteronomy 10:6 may have m... [ Continue Reading ]
The setting apart of the tribe of Levi to bear the Ark and perform other priestly functions. It is not wholly certain whether this passage belongs to the address itself or is another intrusion; yet with its opening clause (cp. Deuteronomy 10:1) the deuteronomic phraseology is resumed, and the appoin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore_ i.e. because of God's separation of the tribe to Himself. _Levi hath no portion nor inheritance_ Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 14:27; Deuteronomy 14:29; Deuteronomy 18:1 f. In P of Aaron Numbers 18:20. _the Lord is his inheritance_ What this means is defined in Deuteronomy 18:1, _they... [ Continue Reading ]
These _vv_. present no little difficulty alike by their position, their language and their substance. They are separated from the historical retrospect by Deuteronomy 10:6. They are in the Sg. address, while it is in the Pl. Do they belong to it, or to Deuteronomy 10:12 ff., which continue the horta... [ Continue Reading ]
_And now_ in conclusion; in the same way opened the concluding stage of the first discourses, Deuteronomy 4:1. _What doth … require of thee what is … asking of thee_. Cp. Micah 6:8, _seeking from thee_. The force of the question lies in this, that it is nothing impossible or extraordinary or compli... [ Continue Reading ]
Deuteronomy 10:12 to Deuteronomy 11:32. Final Exhortations, Introductory to the Laws Enforced by the preceding Retrospect, the discourse continues to urge its practical conclusions of full fear and love to God, by worshipping and obeying Him (Deuteronomy 10:12-13); because, though all heaven and ea... [ Continue Reading ]
sum up once more the main demand of the discourses.... [ Continue Reading ]
This and the next _v_. state motives for the _fear_and _love_just enjoined: for _fear_, because He is the greatest God, to whom all things belong; for _love_because, though He is such, He yet loved Israel's fathers and chose their posterity, even those whom Moses is addressing. _the heaven_, etc.]... [ Continue Reading ]
_Only_ Heb. _raḳ_. The use of this restrictive adverb with disjunctive force a sharp word with the sound of a wrench in it is found in many O.T. writings, but is particularly frequent in Deut., occurring no less than 20 times, and in deuteronomic passages elsewhere. It is prefixed to clauses which l... [ Continue Reading ]
_Circumcise the foreskin of your heart_ The same metaphor in Jeremiah 4:4 (cp. Deuteronomy 9:25); whether it is original to the prophet or to D is impossible to determine. In view of the style of Jeremiah's earlier discourses, in which abrupt and unrelated metaphors are frequently conjoined, and of... [ Continue Reading ]
The form of address changes to Pl., and a qualification is made of the great statement just given. Though God has elected (for reasons of His own) to love Israel's fathers and to choose their posterity after them out of all peoples to be His peculiar people, He is not one that regards persons, but a... [ Continue Reading ]
_God of gods, and Lord of lords_ Heb. idiom for the highest God and Lord (cp. Deuteronomy 10:14, _heaven of heavens_). _the great God, the mighty, and the terrible_ The Heb. can also mean, as in A.V., _a_great God, etc.; or the superlative, _the God, the greatest, most mighty, and terrible_. This i... [ Continue Reading ]
_fatherless, widow, and stranger_ i.e. the foreigner sojourning in Israel. See on Deuteronomy 24:17. The three are combined there and in Deuteronomy 24:19-21, also in Exodus 22:21-22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Love ye the stranger_ This carries the principle further than it is expressed in Exodus 22:21, and even almost as far as Christ carried it. Cp. P, Leviticus 19:33. _for ye were strangers_ So Exodus 22:21 (editorial) and frequently in D. 20 11:1. Resumption of the Sg. address in possible, but not n... [ Continue Reading ]
See on Deuteronomy 6:13, which this repeats (with LXX, Sam., read, as there, _and him_) but adds another clause, _and to him shalt thou cleave_ This verb _dabaḳ_is used in J of close and warm affection from man to woman (Genesis 2:24; Genesis 34:3), and in J and D of the adhesion of evil (Genesis 19... [ Continue Reading ]
_He_ in an emphatic position. _thy praise_ Either the object of thy praise (cp. Psalms 109:1, _God of my praise_), or cause of thy fame, thy renown, viz. by the deeds He has done for thee, Jeremiah 17:14. _great and terrible things_ Deuteronomy 4:34 _great terrors_; cp. Deuteronomy 6:22; Deuterono... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy fathers went down_, etc.] A.V. and R.V. miss both the emphatic order of the original and an idiom in it. Translate, _Seventy persons did thy fathers go down into Egypt, but now_, etc. The number is found elsewhere only in P, Genesis 46:27; Exodus 1:5, and this verse is regarded as derived from... [ Continue Reading ]