Deuteronomy 9:9

9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there ¹  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing.

Exodus 32:10-14

32:10 So now, leave me alone ²  so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

32:11 But Moses sought the favor ³  of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 32:12 Why ⁴  should the Egyptians say, ⁵  ‘For evil ⁶  he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy ⁷  them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger, and relent ⁸  of this evil against your people. 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants ⁹  like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about ¹⁰  I will give to your descendants, ¹¹  and they will inherit it forever.’” 32:14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ¹²  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ¹³ 

Exodus 34:2

34:2 Be prepared ¹⁴  in the morning, and go up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and station yourself ¹⁵  for me there on the top of the mountain.

Exodus 12:16

12:16 On the first day there will be a holy convocation, ¹⁶  and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you. You must do no work of any kind ¹⁷  on them, only what every person will eat – that alone may be prepared for you.

Psalms 106:23

106:23 He threatened ¹⁸  to destroy them,

but ¹⁹  Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him ²⁰ 

and turned back his destructive anger. ²¹ 

[9:9]  ¹ tn Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[32:10]  ² tn The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be.” It is a directive for Moses not to intercede for the people. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 567) reflects the Jewish interpretation that there is a profound paradox in God’s words. He vows the severest punishment but then suddenly conditions it on Moses’ agreement. “Let me alone that I may consume them” is the statement, but the effect is that he has left the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded – that is what a mediator is for. God could have slammed the door (as when Moses wanted to go into the promised land). Moreover, by alluding to the promise to Abraham God gave Moses the strongest reason to intercede.

[32:11]  ³ tn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 351) draws on Arabic to show that the meaning of this verb (חָלָה, khalah) was properly “make sweet the face” or “stroke the face”; so here “to entreat, seek to conciliate.” In this prayer, Driver adds, Moses urges four motives for mercy: 1) Israel is Yahweh’s people, 2) Israel’s deliverance has demanded great power, 3) the Egyptians would mock if the people now perished, and 4) the oath God made to the fathers.

[32:12]  ⁴ tn The question is rhetorical; it really forms an affirmation that is used here as a reason for the request (see GKC 474 §150.e).

[32:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “speak, saying.” This is redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[32:12]  ⁶ tn The word “evil” means any kind of life-threatening or fatal calamity. “Evil” is that which hinders life, interrupts life, causes pain to life, or destroys it. The Egyptians would conclude that such a God would have no good intent in taking his people to the desert if now he destroyed them.

[32:12]  ⁷ tn The form is a Piel infinitive construct from כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”) but in this stem, “bring to an end, destroy.” As a purpose infinitive this expresses what the Egyptians would have thought of God’s motive.

[32:12]  ⁸ tn The verb “repent, relent” when used of God is certainly an anthropomorphism. It expresses the deep pain that one would have over a situation. Earlier God repented that he had made humans (Gen 6:6). Here Moses is asking God to repent/relent over the judgment he was about to bring, meaning that he should be moved by such compassion that there would be no judgment like that. J. P. Hyatt observes that the Bible uses so many anthropomorphisms because the Israelites conceived of God as a dynamic and living person in a vital relationship with people, responding to their needs and attitudes and actions (Exodus [NCBC], 307). See H. V. D. Parunak, “A Semantic Survey of NHM,” Bib 56 (1975): 512-32.

[32:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “your seed.”

[32:13]  ¹⁰ tn “about” has been supplied.

[32:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “seed.”

[34:28]  ¹² tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.

[34:2]  ¹⁴ tn The form is a Niphal participle that means “be prepared, be ready.” This probably means that Moses was to do in preparation what the congregation had to do back in Exod 19:11-15.

[34:2]  ¹⁵ sn The same word is used in Exod 33:21. It is as if Moses was to be at his post when Yahweh wanted to communicate to him.

[12:16]  ¹⁶ sn This refers to an assembly of the people at the sanctuary for religious purposes. The word “convocation” implies that the people were called together, and Num 10:2 indicates they were called together by trumpets.

[12:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all/every work will not be done.” The word refers primarily to the work of one’s occupation. B. Jacob (Exodus, 322) explains that since this comes prior to the fuller description of laws for Sabbaths and festivals, the passage simply restricts all work except for the preparation of food. Once the laws are added, this qualification is no longer needed. Gesenius translates this as “no manner of work shall be done” (GKC 478-79 §152.b).

[106:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he said.”

[106:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”

[106:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”

[106:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”