Keluaran 23:21

23:21 Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name ¹  is in him.

Keluaran 34:7

34:7 keeping loyal love for thousands, ²  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ³  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

Keluaran 34:1

The New Tablets of the Covenant

34:1 ⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out ⁵  two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write ⁶  on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.

1 Samuel 3:14

3:14 Therefore I swore an oath to the house of Eli, ‘The sin of the house of Eli can never be forgiven by sacrifice or by grain offering.’”

1 Samuel 3:2

3:2 Eli’s eyes had begun to fail, so that he was unable to see well. At that time he was lying down in his place,

1 Samuel 1:16

1:16 Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, ⁷  for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”

Yesaya 27:11

27:11 When its branches get brittle, ⁸  they break;

women come and use them for kindling. ⁹ 

For these people lack understanding, ¹⁰ 

therefore the one who made them has no compassion on them;

the one who formed them has no mercy on them.

[23:21]  ¹ sn This means “the manifestation of my being” is in him (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 247). Driver quotes McNeile as saying, “The ‘angel’ is Jehovah Himself ‘in a temporary descent to visibility for a special purpose.’” Others take the “name” to represent Yahweh’s “power” (NCV) or “authority” (NAB, CEV).

[34:7]  ² tn That is, “for thousands of generations.”

[34:7]  ³ sn As in the ten commandments (20:5-6), this expression shows that the iniquity and its punishment will continue in the family if left unchecked. This does not go on as long as the outcomes for good (thousands versus third or fourth generations), and it is limited to those who hate God.

[34:1]  ⁴ sn The restoration of the faltering community continues in this chapter. First, Moses is instructed to make new tablets and take them to the mountain (1-4). Then, through the promised theophany God proclaims his moral character (5-8). Moses responds with the reiteration of the intercession (8), and God responds with the renewal of the covenant (10-28). To put these into expository form, as principles, the chapter would run as follows: I. God provides for spiritual renewal (1-4), II. God reminds people of his moral standard (5-9), III. God renews his covenant promises and stipulations (10-28).

[34:1]  ⁵ tn The imperative is followed by the preposition with a suffix expressing the ethical dative; it strengthens the instruction for Moses. Interestingly, the verb “cut out, chisel, hew,” is the same verb from which the word for a “graven image” is derived – פָּסַל (pasal).

[34:1]  ⁶ tn The perfect tense with vav consecutive makes the value of this verb equal to an imperfect tense, probably a simple future here.

[34:1]  sn Nothing is said of how God was going to write on these stone tablets at this point, but in the end it is Moses who wrote the words. This is not considered a contradiction, since God is often credited with things he has people do in his place. There is great symbolism in this command – if ever a command said far more than it actually said, this is it. The instruction means that the covenant had been renewed, or was going to be renewed, and that the sanctuary with the tablets in the ark at its center would be built (see Deut 10:1). The first time Moses went up he was empty-handed; when he came down he smashed the tablets because of the Israelites’ sin. Now the people would see him go up with empty tablets and be uncertain whether he would come back with the tablets inscribed again (B. Jacob, Exodus, 977-78).

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “daughter of worthlessness.”

[27:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “are dry” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[27:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “women come [and] light it.” The city is likened to a dead tree with dried up branches that is only good for firewood.

[27:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for not a people of understanding [is] he.”