THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES (CONTINUED) 6. By the mount Horeb] RV 'from mount Horeb onward': this implies that they ceased wearing their ornaments. Their humiliation was lasting. Horeb] i.e. Sinai: see on Exodus 3:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
MOSES TOOK THE TABERNACLE] RV 'Moses used to take the tent,.. and he called it, The tent of meeting': see on Exodus 25:22. The tent here is most probably not the Tabernacle whose construction is prescribed in Exodus 25-31. The words describe the practice of Moses before its erection, the account of... [ Continue Reading ]
DESCENDED] from the top of the mount. After the erection of the Tabernacle the cloud rested upon it: see Exodus 40:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
WORSHIPPED] bowed themselves to the ground.... [ Continue Reading ]
FACE TO FACE] A peculiar privilege: cp. Exodus 19:9; Numbers 12:6; Deuteronomy 34:10; Exodus 33:23 shows that the expression 'face to face' is not to be pressed literally, but to be understood as distinct from a revelation by means of dreams or visions: see especially Numbers 12:6. JOSHUA] see on Ex... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST NOT LET ME KNOW] The whole of this passage from Exodus 33:7 may be independent of what goes before (cp. the expression 'used to take' in Exodus 33:7). Otherwise we must suppose that Moses has not clearly understood the meaning of the promise 'I WILL SEND AN ANGEL before thee' in Exodus 33:... [ Continue Reading ]
THY WAY] thy purpose. THY PEOPLE] see on Exodus 32:7; Exodus 32:11... [ Continue Reading ]
MY PRESENCE] lit. 'my face.' The expression is equivalent to 'myself in person': cp. e.g. 2 Samuel 17:11, where the words are literally 'and that thy face go into battle.' The 'angel of God's presence' (cp. Isaiah 63:9) is not the angel that stands in the presence of God but in whom the personal pre... [ Continue Reading ]
SEPARATED] see on Joshua 19:4; Numbers 23:9. 18-23. A divine manifestation asked and promised.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHEW ME THY GLORY] What Moses asks, not out of curiosity but as a confirmation of the promise in Exodus 33:14, is impossible. No man can look upon God's unveiled glory and live (Exodus 33:20 : see on Exodus 19:9; Exodus 24:9). Even the angels cannot do so (Isaiah 6:2).... [ Continue Reading ]
MY GOODNESS] A revelation is vouchsafed, but it is one accommodated to human capacity. It is not further described, but probably consisted in the proclamation in the following chapter, Exodus 33:6; Exodus 33:7. This gracious veiling of the ineffable glory and the revelation of God in mercy are both... [ Continue Reading ]
MY BACK PARTS] Not the full manifestation of the divine radiance, but its afterglow. The most that human faculties can comprehend of God even in their exalted moments is a faint reflection of His essential glory: cp. 1 Corinthians 13:12.... [ Continue Reading ]