Exodus 20:22

The Altar

20:22 ¹ The Lord said ²  to Moses: “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.

Exodus 32:34

32:34 So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See, ³  my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” ⁴ 

[20:22]  ¹ sn Based on the revelation of the holy sovereign God, this pericope instructs Israel on the form of proper worship of such a God. It focuses on the altar, the centerpiece of worship. The point of the section is this: those who worship this holy God must preserve holiness in the way they worship – they worship where he permits, in the manner he prescribes, and with the blessings he promises. This paragraph is said to open the Book of the Covenant, which specifically rules on matters of life and worship.

[20:22]  ² tn Heb “and Yahweh said.”

[32:34]  ³ tn Heb “behold, look.” Moses should take this fact into consideration.

[32:34]  ⁴ sn The Law said that God would not clear the guilty. But here the punishment is postponed to some future date when he would revisit this matter. Others have taken the line to mean that whenever a reckoning was considered necessary, then this sin would be included (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 957). The repetition of the verb traditionally rendered “visit” in both clauses puts emphasis on the certainty – so “indeed.”