Exodus 20:22

_AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, THUS THOU SHALT SAY UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, YE HAVE SEEN THAT I HAVE TALKED WITH YOU FROM HEAVEN._ The Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel. The supplementary legislation which is recorded in the following section, extending from this verse to Exodus 23:33, naturally sprang from the transactions at Sinai, and it embraces the most prominent points in the covenant relating, first, to the style of divine worship in Israel (20:22-26); secondly, to the maintenance of the personal, domestic, and social rights of the people, (Exodus 21:1; Exodus 23:13); thirdly, to the stated times of religious observance ...

22-26 Moses having entered into the thick darkness, God there spake in his hearing all that follows from hence to the end of chap. 23, which is mostly an exposition of the ten commandments. The laws in these verses relate to God's worship. The Israelites are assured of God's gracious acceptance of their devotions. Under the gospel, men are encouraged to pray every where, and wherever God's people meet in his name to worship him, he will be in the midst of them; there he will come unto them, and will bless them....

Verse Exodus 20:22. _I HAVE TALKED WITH YOU FROM HEAVEN._] Though God manifested himself by the _fire_, the _lightning_, the _earthquake_, the _thick darkness_, c., yet the _ten words_, or _commandments_ were probably uttered from the _higher regions of the air_, which would be an additional proof to the people that there was no _imposture_ in this case for though strange appearances and voices might be counterfeited on earth, as was often, no doubt, done by the magicians of Egypt; yet it would be utterly impossible to represent a voice, in a long continued series of instruction, as proceeding from heaven itself, or the higher regions of the atmosphere. This, with the earthquake and repeated thunders, (see on Exodus 20:18), would put the _reality_ of this wh...

Nothing could be more appropriate as the commencement of the book of the covenant than these regulations for public worship. The rules for the building of altars must have been old and accepted, and are not inconsistent with the directions for the construction of the altar of the court of the tabernacle, Exodus 27:1 (compare Joshua 22:26)....

EXPOSITION THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT, (Exodus 20:1. Exodus 20:22, to Exodus 22:1.Exodus 22:23). The Decalogue is followed by a series of laws, civil, social, and religious, which occupy the remainder of Exodus 20:1. and the whole of the three following chapters (Exodus 21:1; Exodus 22:1. and 23.). I

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... When Moses was come near the thick darkness where God was: THUS THOU SHALT SAY UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; at his return unto them, and which he was to deliver in the name of God, and as his words: YE HAVE SEEN THAT I HAVE TALKED WITH YOU FROM HEAVEN; descending from heaven on Mount Sinai in a cloud and fire, he talked with them out of the cloud and fire, and delivered to them with an audible voice the above ten commands; the cloud and fire they saw with their eyes, and the words expressed from thence they heard with their ears; or heaven may mean the air on the top of Sinai, from whence Jehovah spoke....

CHAPTER 20 THE COVENANT REVEALED _ 1. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1)_ 2. Jehovah's gracious provision (Exodus 20:18) This law covenant is now stated. It was given three times. First orally here, when God spake all these words. Then in Exodus 31 Moses received the tables of stone, “written with the finger of God,” the same finger which later wrote on earth in the sand (John 8). The first tables were broken and Moses was commanded to hew two tables of stone upon which Jehovah again wrote the Ten Commandments (Exodus 34:1). This law was given to Israel exclu

EXODUS 20:22 E. LAWS OF WORSHIP. This begins the Book of the Covenant, a small collection of religious and moral laws. The reference to God as talking with the people from heaven (Exodus 20:22_ b)_ was probably added after the insertion of the Decalogue. In Exodus 20:23 the pl. ye shows that this was not part of the Horeb book, in which thou is used. The RV seems to be right (against LXX) in making Exodus 20:23 a a doublet of Exodus 20:3. Perhaps it ran, Ye shall not serve (make) along with me other (silver) gods. In any case, it is over-costly images on

THE LORD. [Hebrew. Jehovah] said. See note on Exodus 3:7, and compare note on Exodus 6:10....

_Thus thou shalt say_ Cf. Exodus 19:3. _from heaven_ As their position in the Heb. shews, these are the emphatic words in the sentence: their intention is to shew that the Israelites" God is exalted far above the earth, and that consequently (_v._23) no material gods are to be venerated by them. Cf. Deuteronomy 4:36....