Exodus 21:10

21:10 If he takes another wife, ¹  he must not diminish the first one’s food, ²  her clothing, or her marital rights. ³ 

Exodus 34:14

34:14 For you must not worship ⁴  any other god, ⁵  for the Lord, whose name ⁶  is Jealous, is a jealous God.

[21:10]  ¹ tn “wife” has been supplied.

[21:10]  ² tn The translation of “food” does not quite do justice to the Hebrew word. It is “flesh.” The issue here is that the family she was to marry into is wealthy, they ate meat. She was not just to be given the basic food the ordinary people ate, but the fine foods that this family ate.

[21:10]  ³ sn See S. Paul, “Exodus 21:10, A Threefold Maintenance Clause,” JNES 28 (1969): 48-53. Paul suggests that the third element listed is not marital rights but ointments since Sumerian and Akkadian texts list food, clothing, and oil as the necessities of life. The translation of “marital rights” is far from certain, since the word occurs only here. The point is that the woman was to be cared for with all that was required for a woman in that situation.

[34:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “bow down.”

[34:14]  ⁵ sn In Exod 20:3 it was “gods.”

[34:14]  ⁶ sn Here, too, the emphasis on God’s being a jealous God is repeated (see Exod 20:5). The use of “name” here is to stress that this is his nature, his character.