Exodus 34:16

34:10-17 The Israelites are commanded to destroy every monument of idolatry, however curious or costly; to refuse all alliance, friendship, or marriage with idolaters, and all idolatrous feasts; and they were reminded not with idolaters, and all idolatrous feats; and they were reminded not to repeat the crime of making molten images. Jealously is called the rage of a man, Pr 6:34; but in God it is holy and just displeasure. Those cannot worship God aright, who do not worship him only.

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 whom they have been trained up in from their infancy, and therefore hanker after them, and commit whoredom in a spiritual sense with them: and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods; by the means of tempting and drawing them into idolatrous practices, as the wives of Solomon were a snare to him.

An expansion of Exodus 34:12 . The unfaithfulness of the nation to its covenant with Yahweh is here for the first time spoken of as a breach of the marriage bond. The metaphor is, in any case, a natural one, but it seems to gain point, if we suppose it to convey an allusion to the abominations connected with pagan worship, such as are spoken of in Numbers 25:1-3 .

16 . and thou take , &c.] Intermarriage with Canaanites is forbidden, for the same reason, in Deuteronomy 7:3 f.; cf. Joshua 23:12 (D2[221]), and Jdg 3:6 (where disregard of the prohibition is said to have been followed by the same consequences which are here apprehended). [221] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings. Exodus 34:16

9, 10. he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us—On this proclamation, he, in the overflowing benevolence of s heart, founded an earnest petition for the Divine Presence being continued with the people; and God was pleased to give His favorable answer to Moses' intercession by a renewal of His promise under the form of a covenant, repeating the leading points that formed the conditions of the former national compact.

To recall the duties of the covenant once more to the minds of the people, the Lord repeats from among the rights of Israel, upon the basis of which the covenant had been established (ch. 21-23), two of the leading points which determined the attitude of the nation towards Him, and which constituted, as it were, the main pillars that were to support the covenant about to be renewed. These were, first, the warning against every kind of league with the Canaanites, who were to be driven out before the Israelites ( Exodus 34:11-16 ); and, secondly, the instructions concerning the true worship of Jehovah ( Exodus 34:17-26 ). The warning against friendship with the idolatrous Canaanites ( Exodus 34:11-16 ) is more fully developed and more strongly enforced than in Exodus 23:23 . The Israelites, when received into the covenant with Jehovah, were not only to beware of forming any covenant with the inhabitants of Canaan (cf. Exodus 23:32-33 ), but were to destroy all the signs of their idolatrous worship, such as altars, monuments (see Exodus 23:24 ), and asherim, the idols of Astarte, the Canaanitish goddess of nature, which consisted for the most part of wooden pillars (see my Comm. on 1 Kings 14:23 ), and to worship no other god, because Jehovah was called jealous, i.e., had revealed Himself as jealous (see at Exodus 20:5 ), and was a jealous God.

This was commanded, that the Israelites might not suffer themselves to be led astray by such an alliance; to go a whoring after their gods, and sacrifice to them, to take part in their sacrificial festivals, or to marry their sons to the daughters of the Canaanites, by whom they would be persuaded to join in the worship of idols. The use of the expression "go a whoring" in a spiritual sense, in relation to idolatry, is to be accounted for on the ground, that the religious fellowship of Israel with Jehovah was a covenant resembling the marriage tie; and we meet with it for the first time, here, immediately after the formation of this covenant between Israel and Jehovah. The phrase is all the more expressive on account of the literal prostitution that was frequently associated with the worship of Baal and Astarte (cf. Leviticus 17:7 ; Leviticus 20:5-6 ; Numbers 14:33 , etc.). We may see from Numbers 25:1 . how Israel was led astray by this temptation in the wilderness.

(16) The testimony which I shall give thee. —The two tables of stone were called “the Testimony” (comp. Exodus 16:34 ), as being God’s witness against sin ( Deuteronomy 31:26 ). As containing them, the ark was called “the ark of the testimony” ( Exodus 25:22 ; Exodus 26:34 ; Exodus 30:6 ; Exodus 30:26 , &c.; Numbers 4:5 ; Numbers 7:89 ; Joshua 4:16 ).