Exodus 34:17

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.

(17) Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. —It is just possible that the Israelites when they worshipped the golden calf may have conceived that they were not breaking the second commandment, which forbade the adoration of any “graven image.” An express law was therefore made against “molten images.”

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 .

17 . Molten gods thou shalt not make thee ] Cf. Leviticus 19:4 (H) ‘And molten gods ye shall not make you ’; also, for the general thought, Exodus 20:23 . Vv. 18–26 agree, for the most part verbally, with Exodus 13:13-14 ; Exodus 23:12 ; Exodus 23:15-19 . The agreements and differences will be seen most clearly, if the two recensions are printed in parallel columns, with the differences in 34 marked either by italics or, where anything is omitted, by a space in the text. Exodus 23:10-11 . (The fallow year.) Exodus 23:12 . Six days shalt thou do thy work: but on the seventh day thou shalt desist: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy bondmaid, and the sojourner, may be refreshed. Exodus 34:21 . Six days shalt thou labour; but on the seventh day thou shalt desist: in plowing time and in harvest thou shalt desist . Exodus 23:13 . And in all things that I have said unto you take ye heed: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard upon thy mouth. Cf. Exodus 34:14 a. For thou shalt not worship any other god . Exodus 23:14 . Three times ( regâlim ) thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. Exodus 23:15 a. The feast of unleavened cakes shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened cakes, according as I commanded thee, at the appointed time in the month of Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt; Exodus 34:18 . The feast of unleavened cakes shalt thou keep.

Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened cakes [ Exodus 13:6 a], as I commanded thee, at the appointed time in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib thou camest out from Egypt. Exodus 23:12 . And thou shalt cause to pass over all that first openeth the womb unto Yahweh: and all that first openeth [the womb], the casting of beasts that thou shalt have, the males (shall be) Yahweh’s: Exodus 34:19 . All that first openeth the womb is mine : and all thy cattle that is male, that which first openeth [ the womb ] of ox and sheep : Exodus 23:13 . and all that which first openeth [the womb] of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb [ or kid]; and if thou dost not redeem it, thou shalt break its neck: and all the first-born of men among thy sons thou shalt redeem. Exodus 34:20 . and that which first openeth [the womb] of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb [ or kid]; and if thou dost not redeem it, thou shalt break its neck: all the first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem. [Cf. Exodus 22:29 b The first-born of thy sons thou shalt give unto me.] Exodus 23:15 b … and none shall appear before me empty. And none shall appear before me empty. Exodus 23:16 … and the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours which thou sowest in the field; and the feast of ingathering at the going out of the year, when thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field. Exodus 34:22 .

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.