Keluaran 33:1

33:1 The Lord said to Moses, “Go up ¹  from here, you and the people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land I promised on oath ²  to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ ³ 

Keluaran 34:15

34:15 Be careful ⁴  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ⁵  they prostitute themselves ⁶  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ⁷  you will eat from his sacrifice;

Keluaran 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ⁸  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ⁹ 

[33:1]  ¹ tn The two imperatives underscore the immediacy of the demand: “go, go up,” meaning “get going up” or “be on your way.”

[33:1]  ² tn Or “the land which I swore.”

[33:1]  ³ tn Heb “seed.”

[34:15]  ⁴ tn The sentence begins simply “lest you make a covenant”; it is undoubtedly a continuation of the imperative introduced earlier, and so that is supplied here.

[34:15]  ⁵ tn The verb is a perfect with a vav consecutive. In the literal form of the sentence, this clause tells what might happen if the people made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land: “Take heed…lest you make a covenant…and then they prostitute themselves…and sacrifice…and invite…and you eat.” The sequence lays out an entire scenario.

[34:15]  ⁶ tn The verb זָנָה (zanah) means “to play the prostitute; to commit whoredom; to be a harlot” or something similar. It is used here and elsewhere in the Bible for departing from pure religion and engaging in pagan religion. The use of the word in this figurative sense is fitting, because the relationship between God and his people is pictured as a marriage, and to be unfaithful to it was a sin. This is also why God is described as a “jealous” or “impassioned” God. The figure may not be merely a metaphorical use, but perhaps a metonymy, since there actually was sexual immorality at the Canaanite altars and poles.

[34:15]  ⁷ tn There is no subject for the verb. It could be rendered “and one invites you,” or it could be made a passive.

[34:28]  ⁸ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.