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, Ex. 34:1–4 where the Lord proclaimed his name, and caused his glory and his goodness to pass before him, Ex.

And the Lord said unto Moses Out of the cloudy pillar, at the door of the tabernacle, where he had been conversing with him in the most friendly manner, as related in the preceding chapter: hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; of the same form, and of the same dimensions, and it may be…

And be ready in the morning This was, according to the Jewish chronology [[4]], on the twenty eighth day of the month Ab or July: and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai; the same mount where he had been before: and present thyself there to me on the top of the mount; where the pillar of cloud…

And no man shall come up with thee Before, Aaron and his two sons, and the seventy elders of Israel, went up with Moses, though they did not go so near the Lord as he did; but now having sinned in the matter of the golden calf, though a reconciliation was made, they were not allowed to go with him,…

And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first Which may be an emblem of the ministry of men, which God makes use of in hewing of his people, and bringing them to a sense of their sins, the breach of his law, and repentance for them, : and Moses rose up early in the morning: which, according…

And the Lord descended in the cloud The same with the cloudy pillar, which was now gone up from the door of the tabernacle, and was on high in the air over the mount, and on which the Lord now descended in it, as he had before, (Ex. 19:9, Ex. 19:16, Ex.

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, (Ex. 33:19, Ex.

Keeping mercy for thousands In his own heart, in his purposes and decrees, in his counsels and covenant, in his Son, with whom he keeps it for ever, and for all in him, and they are many who are ordained to eternal life, for whom Christ gave his life a ransom, and for whom his blood was shed for…

And Moses made haste Perceiving the voice ceased, and the Lord was passing on, lest he should be gone, and he lose the favourable opportunity he had: and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped; threw himself prostrate upon it, and in the most humble manner put up his requests to God, which…

And he said, if now I have found grace in thy sight Or “seeing now”, for he could have no doubt upon his mind but that he had found grace and favour in the sight of God, since he had caused his goodness and glory to pass before him, and made such a proclamation of his grace and mercy to him; but he…

And he said, behold, I will make a covenant Or renew the covenant before made the people had broke; which on his part was, that he would, as Moses had entreated, forgive the sin of the people, go along with them, and introduce them into the land of Canaan, and drive out the inhabitants of it before…

Observe thou that which I command thee this day Which words are either said to Moses personally, as Aben Ezra thinks, as a direction to him to observe what had been said to him, and declare them to the children of Israel; or rather to the children of Israel, and respect the commands which are…

Take heed to thyself This is said not to Moses, but to the people of Israel, as a caution to them when they should enter the land of Canaan, and possess it: lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest: enter into a league and alliance, to live friendly and…

But ye shall destroy their altars On which they had sacrificed to their idols; since, if they were allowed to continue, they might be temptations to offer sacrifice thereon, contrary to the command of God: break their images: of gold or silver, wood or stone, which they made for themselves, and…

For thou shall worship no other god Than the Lord their God, the one only living and true God, which was the first command given to the people of Israel, and binding upon all men: for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God; his name and nature answer to one another; he admits of no rival…

Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land A marriage covenant, taking their daughters in marriage to their sons, and “vice versa”, as the following words show; here the caution is to be understood and the words supplied from and inserted and connected thus, “take heed to thyself,…

And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons That is, marry them to them, which explains what is meant by making a covenant with them, entering into such a near relation, and joining families, and thus intermixing with one another; and their daughters go a whoring after their gods; the worship of…

Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. ] Made of a melted liquid, whether gold, or silver, or brass, poured into a mould; and though graven images are not mentioned, they are included, a part being put for the whole, as appears not only from the injunction to break images in general, whether graven…

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep Which was instituted at the time of their coming out of Egypt, and on that account, and then observed, (Ex. 12:15, Ex. 12:18, Ex. 12:19) (Ex. 13:6, Ex.

All that openeth the matrix is mine Or “the womb”, and therefore to be sanctified, and set apart for his use: this also was declared, and the law concerning it given, at the time of their coming out of Egypt, and here repeated, (See Gill on Ex. 13:2), (See Gill on Ex. 13:12).

Every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem This goes along with the former, (See Gill on Ex. 13:13): and none shall appear before me empty; at the grand festivals, the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, (See Gill on Ex. 13:15).

Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest This is the law of the seventh day sabbath, which is after repeated, to fix it in the minds and memories of the people, see and here it is added, which has not been mentioned before: in earing and in harvest thou shall rest; that is,…

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks The feast of Pentecost, called the feast of weeks, because seven sabbaths or weeks, or fifty days, were to be reckoned from the day in the passover feast, on which the sheaf of the wave offering was brought, (Lev. 23:15, Lev.

Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God At the three above mentioned feasts, (See Gill on Ex. 23:17) here it is added, the God of Israel; who had chosen them to be his special people, had redeemed them out of Egypt, and done great things for them since; had made a…

For I will cast out the nations before thee Who are particularly mentioned, and therefore they need not be in any fear of them, when they should go up to the appointed place, and appear before the Lord; for to this they were not obliged, until they were come into the land of Canaan, and the…

Thou shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven That is, not kill the passover, while there was any leaven in their houses; so the Targum of Jonathan, (See Gill on Ex.

The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring, &c.] This, and another law in this verse, concerning not seething a kid in his mother’s milk, are repeated from . (See Gill on Ex. 23:19).

And the Lord said unto Moses Being still with him on the mount: write thou these words; expressed in the preceding verses, from , as he before had written in a book all those laws, contained in (Ex. 21:1–23, Ex. 21:33) called the book of the covenant, (Ex. 24:4, Ex.

And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights These were other forty days and nights, besides those he had been with the Lord, when he came down and broke the two tables in his hand, on sight of the idolatry of the people; yea, not only the Jewish writers think that he was on the mount…

And it came to pass, when Moses came down Mount Sinai, &c.] Which was on the day of atonement, according to Jarchi, that is, the tenth of Tisri, or September; and so the Jewish chronologers [[15]] fix his descent on this day: with the two tables of testimony in Moses’s hand; the two tables he…

And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, &c.] Who very probably met him at the bottom of the mount; these Israelites with Aaron were the princes, as Aben Ezra seems rightly to interpret it, and as appears from the following verse; for Moses could not well be seen by the whole body…

And Moses called unto them Who, as it appears by what follows, on sight of him were so terrified, that they did not proceed on to meet him, but went back, and therefore he called unto them to return and come forward: and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him; knowing him by…

And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh That is, after Aaron and the rulers had had a conversation with Moses, then the whole body of the people by turns were admitted to come before him, and hear the laws of God from him: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with…

And till Moses had done speaking with them Not when he had done, as the Septuagint version, for then there would have been no occasion for it; but when he first began to speak to Aaron and the “rulers”, and continued to speak to the congregation until he had finished what he had to say; even he did…

But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, &c.] Went into the tabernacle to converse with him, to pray unto him, and inquire about any matter of difficulty respecting the people of Israel he was concerned for, which he often did: he took the vail off until he came out: and so when…

And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’s face shone That is, not only when he came down from the mount, but whenever he came out of the tabernacle, where he had been inquiring of God, and conversing with him: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he…