Exodus 34:6 Komentář

God having in the foregoing chapter intimated to Moses his reconciliation to Israel, here gives proofs of it, proceeding to settle his covenant and communion with them. Four instances of the return of his favour we have in this chapter: - I. The orders he gives to Moses to come up to the mount, the next morning, and bring two tables of stone with him (Exo 34:1-4). II. His meeting him there, and the proclamation of his name (Exo 34:5-9). III. The instructions he gave him there, and his converse with him for forty days together, without intermission (v. 10-28). IV. The honour he put upon him when he sent him down with his face shining (Exo 34:29-35). In all this God dealt with Moses as a public person, and mediator between him and Israel, and a type of the great Mediator.

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 34 In this chapter Moses has orders to hew two tables of stone, that God might write on them the ten commands, and bring them up with him to the mount, Exo 34:1 where the Lord proclaimed his name, and caused his glory and his goodness to pass before him, Exo 34:5 when Moses took this favourable opportunity that offered to pray for the people, that God would forgive their sin, and go along with them, Exo 34:8 upon which he made a covenant with them, which on his part was to do wonders for them, and drive out the inhabitants of Canaan before them; and on their part, that they should have no confederacy and communion with these nations, and shun their idolatry, and everything that might lead unto it, Exo 34:10 and he repeated several laws before given, and urged the observance of them, which Moses was to acquaint the people with, Exo 34:18 and after a stay of forty days and forty nights on the mount, he came down with the two tables of the law; and the skin of his face shone so bright, that the people of Israel were afraid to come nigh him, and therefore he put a vail over his face while he conversed with them, Exo 34:28.

And the Lord passed by before him,.... Or caused his Shechinah, his divine Majesty, and the glory of it, to pass before him, as the Targums; his glory and goodness, which he had promised should pass before him, Exo 33:19 and it is but a transient passing view the greatest of men, God's peculiar favourites, have of him in this life: and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God; the Jerusalem Targum wrongly paraphrases the words as a prayer of Moses thus, "and Moses prayed, and said, O Lord, Lord"; and so the Vulgate Latin version; but it is quite clear, and beyond all doubt, from Num 14:17 that what follow are the words of God, and not of Moses: the sense is, that the Lord, as he passed by Moses, to raise and fix his attention, declared it was Jehovah that passed by; which is repeated the more to excite his attention, and is the name by which he had made himself known to Moses, even when he sent him into Egypt; for "I am that I am" is an explanation of this name, see Exo 3:14 and the word "El", translated "God", signifies mighty and powerful, and is true of all the three divine Persons, to whom respect may be had in the use of these three words. What is proclaimed or declared concerning God is, that he is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; first "merciful", and he is so in the most tender and affectionate manner; he is rich and plenteous in mercy, freely giving it, delights in bestowing it, constantly shows it to his people; it is manifested and displayed in Christ, the mercy seat; and it lays a foundation for faith and hope, and is the spring of all good things in time, and to eternity: and he is also "gracious", good and kind to men, without any merit or desert of theirs, but bestows good things on them freely, of his own free grace, favour, and good will, as appears by various acts of his; in the eternal choice of them to everlasting happiness; in providing a Saviour for them, and giving all grace and spiritual blessings to them in him; by giving Christ to them, and for them, justifying them freely by his righteousness, pardoning their sins according to the riches of his grace, regenerating, calling, preserving, and saving them by it: likewise "longsuffering"; both towards wicked men, the vessels of wrath, by whom his patience and longsuffering are abused and despised; and towards his elect, on whom he waits to be gracious, not willing that any of them should perish, but all be brought to repentance; and his longsuffering is their salvation: and it follows, "abundant in goodness and truth"; in providential goodness to all men; in special goodness to his chosen people, which he has laid up, and wrought out for them, and shown them in Christ; in his truth and faithfulness, in fulfilling his promises, both with respect to the mission of his Son into the world, to be the Saviour of it, and with respect to all other things promised, whether relating to this life, or that to come, to grace or glory; he never suffers his truth and faithfulness to fail; his promises are all yea and amen in Christ.

Moses is commanded to hew two tables similar to the first, and bring them up to the mount, to get the covenant renewed, Exo 34:1-3. He prepares the tables and goes up to meet the Lord, Exo 34:4. The Lord descends, and proclaims his name Jehovah, Exo 34:5. What this name signifies, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7. Moses worships and intercedes, Exo 34:8, Exo 34:9. The Lord promises to renew the covenant, work miracles among the people, and drive out the Canaanites, etc., Exo 34:10, Exo 34:11. No covenant to be made with the idolatrous nations, but their altars and images to be destroyed, Exo 34:12-15. No matrimonial alliances to be contracted with them, Exo 34:16. The Israelites must have no molten gods, Exo 34:17. The commandment of the feast of unleavened bread, and of the sanctification of the first-born, renewed, Exo 34:18-29; as also that of the Sabbath, and the three great annual feasts, Exo 34:21-23. The promise that the surrounding nations shall not invade their territories, while all the males were at Jerusalem celebrating the annual feasts, Exo 34:24. Directions concerning the passover, Exo 34:25; and the first-fruits, Exo 34:26. Moses is commanded to write all these words, as containing the covenant which God had now renewed with the Israelites, Exo 34:27. Moses, being forty days with God without eating or drinking, writes the words of the covenant; and the Lord writes the ten commandments upon the tables of stone, Exo 34:28. Moses descends with the tables; his face shines, Exo 34:29. Aaron and the people are afraid to approach him, because of his glorious appearance, Exo 34:30. Moses delivers to them the covenant and commandments of the Lord; and puts a veil over his face while he is speaking, Exo 34:31-33, but takes it off when he goes to minister before the Lord, Exo 34:34, Exo 34:35.

And the Lord passed by - and proclaimed, The Lord, etc. - It would be much better to read this verse thus: "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed Jehovah," that is, showed Moses fully what was implied in this august name. Moses had requested God to show him his glory, (see the preceding chapter, Exo 33:18 (note)), and God promised to proclaim or fully declare the name Jehovah, (Exo 33:19); by which proclamation or interpretation Moses should see how God would "be gracious to whom he would be gracious," and how he would "be merciful to those to whom he would show mercy. Here therefore God fulfils that promise by proclaiming this name. It has long been a question, what is the meaning of the word יהוה Jehovah, Yehovah, Yehue, Yehveh, or Yeve, Jeue, Jao, Iao, Jhueh, and Jove; for it has been as variously pronounced as it has been differently interpreted. Some have maintained that it is utterly inexplicable; these of course have offered no mode of interpretation. Others say that it implies the essence of the Divine nature. Others, that it expresses the doctrine of the Trinity connected with the incarnation; the letter י yod standing for the Father, ה he for the Son, and ו vau (the connecting particle) for the Holy Spirit: and they add that the ה he being repeated in the word, signifies the human nature united to the Divine in the incarnation. These speculations are calculated to give very little satisfaction. How strange is it that none of these learned men have discovered that God himself interprets this name in Exo 34:6,! "And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed יהוה Yehovah the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." These words contain the proper interpretation of the venerable and glorious name Jehovah. But it will be necessary to consider them in detail. The different names in this and the following verse have been considered as so many attributes of the Divine nature. Commentators divide them into eleven, thus: - 1. יהוה Jehovah. 2. אל EL, the strong or mighty God. 3. רחום Rachum, the merciful Being, who is full of tenderness and compassion. 4. חנון Channun, the gracious One; he whose nature is goodness itself; the loving God. 5. ארך אפים Erech Appayim, long-suffering; the Being who, because of his goodness and tenderness, is not easily irritated, but suffers long and is kind. 6. רב Rab, the great or mighty One. 7. חסד Chesed, the bountiful Being; he who is exuberant in his beneficence. 8. אמת Emeth, the truth or true One; he alone who can neither deceive nor be deceived, who is the fountain of truth, and from whom all wisdom and knowledge must be derived. 9. נצר חסד Notser Chesed, the preserver of bountifulness; he whose beneficence never ends, keeping mercy for thousands of generations, showing compassion and mercy while the world endures. 10. נשא עון ופשע וחטאה Nose avon vaphesha vechattaah, he who bears away iniquity and transgression and sin: properly, the Redeemer, the Pardoner, the Forgiver; the Being whose prerogative alone it is to forgive sin and save the soul. ינקה(לו) נקה לא Nakkeh lo yenakkeh, the righteous Judge, who distributes justice with an impartial hand, with whom no innocent person can ever be condemned. 11. פקד עון Poked avon, etc.; he who visits iniquity, who punishes transgressors, and from whose justice no sinner can escape. The God of retributive and vindictive justice. These eleven attributes, as they have been termed, are all included in the name Jehovah, and are, as we have before seen, the proper interpretation of it; but the meaning of several of these words has been variously understood.

THE TABLES ARE RENEWED. (Exo. 34:1-35) the like unto the first--God having been reconciled to repentant Israel, through the earnest intercession, the successful mediation of Moses, means were to be taken for the restoration of the broken covenant. Intimation was given, however, in a most intelligible and expressive manner, that the favor was to be restored with some memento of the rupture; for at the former time God Himself had provided the materials, as well as written upon them. Now, Moses was to prepare the stone tables, and God was only to retrace the characters originally inscribed for the use and guidance of the people.

the Lord passed by before him--in this remarkable scene, God performed what He had promised to Moses the day before. proclaimed, The Lord . . . merciful and gracious--At an earlier period He had announced Himself to Moses, in the glory of His self-existent and eternal majesty, as "I am" [Exo 3:14]; now He makes Himself known in the glory of His grace and goodness--attributes that were to be illustriously displayed in the future history and experience of the church. Being about to republish His law--the sin of the Israelites being forgiven and the deed of pardon about to be signed and sealed by renewing the terms of the former covenant--it was the most fitting time to proclaim the extent of the divine mercy which was to be displayed, not in the case of Israel only, but of all who offend.