32:15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with 5 the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides – they were written on the front and on the back.
1 sn The “Testimony” is a reference to the Ark of the Covenant; so the pot of manna would be placed before Yahweh in the tabernacle. W. C. Kaiser says that this later instruction came from a time after the tabernacle had been built (see Exod 25:10-22; W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:405). This is not a problem since the final part of this chapter had to have been included at the end of the forty years in the desert.
2 tn “for keeping.”
3 tn The traditional expression is “within the veil,” literally “into the house (or area) of the (special) curtain.”
4 tn Or “the Holy of Holies.”
5 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) serves here as a circumstantial clause indicator.