Exodus 20:22

And the Lord said unto Moses,.... When Moses was come near the thick darkness where God was: thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel; at his return unto them, and which he was to deliver in

And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. The Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel.

Ye have seen, i.e. heard, as . He may use the word seen here, to intimate that this was all they could see of God, to wit, his voice and speech, and that they saw no image of him, as is expressed in a parallel place, and therefore should make no resemblances of him, as it here follows. From heaven, i.e. from the lower heaven, to wit, the air, or the clouds, which were over the top of mount Sinai, ; and so the word heaven is oft understood, as . And so this place may be reconciled with , where this is said to be spoken upon earth.

Exodus 20:22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.Ver. 22. From heaven.] For wheresoever God is, heaven is: as where the king is, there is the court.

THE BOOK OF THE .(22-26) In the remainder of Exodus 20, and in the three chapters which follow, we have a series of laws delivered by God to Moses, immediately after the delivery of the Decalogue, which constituted the second stage of the revelation, and stood midway between the first great enunciation of abstract principles in the Ten Commandments and the ultimate minute and complicated elaboration of rules to meet all cases which fills the three Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This intermediate revelation appears to have been at once committed to writing, and in its written shape was known as “the Book of the Covenant “ (Exodus 24:7), and regarded with special veneration. “The Book of the Covenant” is wanting in system and arrangement, but is not wholly unsystematic. It commences with some laws concerning the worship of God (Exodus 20:22-26), proceeds from the Divine to the human, and treats in its second section (Exodus 21:1-32) of “the rights of persons,” then concerns itself with “the rights of property” (Exodus 21:33 to Exodus 22:15), and, finally, winds up with “miscellaneous laws” (Exodus 22:16 to Exodus 23:19), partly on things Divine, partly on things human—the things Divine being reserved to the last, so that the end of the legislation is in close harmony with the beginning. Altogether, the enactments contained in the short space of three chapters are some seventy; and the “Book of the Covenant” is thus no mere tentative sketch; but a very wonderful condensation of the essence of all the more important matters which Moses afterwards put forth by Divine inspiration in the long space of nearly forty years.

Verse 22. I have talked with you from heaven.] Though God manifested himself by the fire, the lightning, the earthquake, the thick darkness, c., yet the ten words, or commandments were probably uttered from the higher regions of the air, which would be an additional proof to the people that there was no imposture in this case for though strange appearances and voices might be counterfeited on earth, as was often, no doubt, done by the magicians of Egypt; yet it would be utterly impossible to represent a voice, in a long continued series of instruction, as proceeding from heaven itself, or the higher regions of the atmosphere. This, with the earthquake and repeated thunders, (see on Exodus 20:18), would put the reality of this whole procedure beyond all doubt; and this enabled Moses, Deuteronomy 5:26, to make such an appeal to the people on a fact incontrovertible and of infinite importance, that God had indeed talked with them face to face.

Chapters Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 23:33 The Book of the Covenant The ‘Book of the Covenant’ (see Exodus 24:7 in explanation of the name) is the oldest piece of Hebrew legislation that we possess. The laws contained in it are spoken of in Exodus 24:3 as consisting of two elements, the words (or commands) and the judgements: the judgements (see on Exodus 21:1) are the provisions relating to civil and criminal law, prescribing what is to be done when particular cases arise, and comprised in Exodus 21:2 to Exodus 22:17; the words are positive injunctions of moral, religious, and ceremonial law, introduced mostly by Thou shalt or shalt not, and comprised in Exodus 20:23-26, Exodus 22:18 to Exodus 23:19 : Exodus 23:20-33 is a hortatory epilogue, consisting chiefly of promises intended to suggest motives for the observance of the preceding laws. The laws themselves were doubtless taken by E from some already existing source: the ‘judgements’ in Exodus 21:2 to Exodus 22:17 seem to have undergone no alteration of form: but the ‘words’ which follow can hardly be in their original order; moral, religious, and ceremonial injunctions being intermingled sometimes singly, sometimes in groups (see the following summary), without any apparent system (notice also Exodus 23:4 f., evidently interrupting the connexion between vv. 1–3 and 6–8); and in parts (as Exodus 22:21-22; Exodus 22:24, Exodus 23:9 b, Exodus 23:23-25 a, Exodus 23:31-33 : see the notes) slight parenetic additions have probably been made by the compiler of J E. The laws themselves may be grouped as follows: i. Enactments relating to civil and criminal law: 1. Rights of Hebrew slaves (male and female), Exodus 21:2-11. 2. Capital offences, viz. murder (in distinction from manslaughter), striking or cursing a parent, and man-stealing, Exodus 21:12-17. 3. Penalties for bodily injuries, caused (a) by human beings, Exodus 21:18-27, (b) by animals (a vicious ox, for instance), or neglect of reason able precautions (as leaving a pit open), Exodus 21:28-36. 4. Theft of ox or sheep, and burglary, Exodus 22:1-4. 5. Compensation for damage done by straying cattle [but see note], or fire spreading accidentally to another man’s field, Exodus 22:5-6. 6. Compensation for loss or injury in various cases of deposit or loan, Exodus 22:7-15. 7. Compensation for seduction, Exodus 22:16-17. ii (a). Regulations relating to worship and religious observances: 1. Prohibition of images, and regulations for the construction of altars, Exodus 20:23-26. 2. Sacrifice to ‘other gods’ to be punished with the ‘ban,’ Exodus 22:20. 3. God not to be reviled, nor a ruler cursed, Exodus 22:28. 4. Firstfruits, and firstborn males (of men, oxen, and sheep), to be given to Jehovah, Exodus 22:29-30. 5. Flesh torn of beasts not to be eaten, Exodus 22:31. 6 & 7. The seventh year to be a fallow year, and the seventh day a day of rest (in each case, for a humanitarian motive), Exodus 23:10-12. 8. God’s commands to be honoured, and ‘other gods’ not to be invoked, Exodus 23:13. 9.

Nothing could be more appropriate as the commencement of the book of the covenant than these regulations for public worship.

THE BOOK OF THE , Exodus 20:22 to Exodus 23:33. Here follows a collection of sundry laws which were compiled by Moses, and doubtless represent the oldest written legislation of the Pentateuch.