Exodus 34:33

34:33 When Moses finished ¹  speaking ²  with them, he would ³  put a veil on his face.

Exodus 3:6

3:6 He added, “I am the God of your father, ⁴  the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look ⁵  at God.

Exodus 28:25

28:25 the other ⁶  two ends of the two chains you will attach to the two settings and then attach them ⁷  to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front of it.

Exodus 28:27

28:27 You are to make two more ⁸  gold rings and attach them to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces on the front of the ephod, close to the juncture above the waistband of the ephod.

Exodus 34:6

34:6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: ⁹  “The Lord, the Lord, ¹⁰  the compassionate and gracious ¹¹  God, slow to anger, ¹²  and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, ¹³ 

Exodus 34:30

34:30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone; ¹⁴  and they were afraid to approach him.

Exodus 39:18

39:18 the other ¹⁵  two ends of the two chains they attached to the two settings, and they attached them to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front of it.

Exodus 39:20

39:20 They made two more ¹⁶  gold rings and attached them to the bottom of the two shoulder pieces on the front of the ephod, close to the juncture above the waistband of the ephod.

Exodus 34:29

The Radiant Face of Moses

34:29 ¹⁷ Now when Moses came down ¹⁸  from Mount Sinai with ¹⁹  the two tablets of the testimony in his hand ²⁰  – when he came down ²¹  from the mountain, Moses ²²  did not know that the skin of his face shone ²³  while he talked with him.

Exodus 34:35

34:35 When the Israelites would see ²⁴  the face of Moses, that ²⁵  the skin of Moses’ face shone, Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord. ²⁶ 

[34:33]  ¹ tn Heb “and Moses finished”; the clause is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next clause.

[34:33]  ² tn The Piel infinitive construct is the object of the preposition; the whole phrase serves as the direct object of the verb “finished.”

[34:33]  ³ tn Throughout this section the actions of Moses and the people are frequentative. The text tells what happened regularly.

[3:6]  ⁴ sn This self-revelation by Yahweh prepares for the revelation of the holy name. While no verb is used here, the pronoun and the predicate nominative are a construction used throughout scripture to convey the “I am” disclosures – “I [am] the God of….” But the significant point here is the naming of the patriarchs, for this God is the covenant God, who will fulfill his promises.

[3:6]  ⁵ tn The clause uses the Hiphil infinitive construct with a preposition after the perfect tense: יָרֵא מֵהַבִּיט (yare’ mehabbit, “he was afraid from gazing”) meaning “he was afraid to gaze.” The preposition min (מִן) is used before infinitives after verbs like the one to complete the verb (see BDB 583 s.v. 7b).

[28:25]  ⁷ tn Here “the other” has been supplied.

[28:25]  ⁸ tn Here “them” has been supplied.

[28:27]  ¹⁰ tn Here “more” has been supplied.

[34:6]  ¹³ tn Here is one of the clearest examples of what it means “to call on the name of the Lord,” as that clause has been translated traditionally (וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָה, vayyiqra’ vÿshem yÿhvah). It seems more likely that it means “to make proclamation of Yahweh by name.” Yahweh came down and made a proclamation – and the next verses give the content of what he said. This cannot be prayer or praise; it is a proclamation of the nature or attributes of God (which is what his “name” means throughout the Bible). Attempts to make Moses the subject of the verb are awkward, for the verb is repeated in v. 6 with Yahweh clearly doing the proclaiming.

[34:6]  ¹⁴ sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 439) suggests that these two names be written as a sentence: “Yahweh, He is Yahweh.” In this manner it reflects “I am that I am.” It is impossible to define his name in any other way than to make this affirmation and then show what it means.

[34:6]  ¹⁵ tn See Exod 33:19.

[34:6]  ¹⁶ sn This is literally “long of anger.” His anger prolongs itself, allowing for people to repent before punishment is inflicted.

[34:6]  ¹⁷ sn These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.

[34:30]  ¹⁶ tn This clause is introduced by the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh); it has the force of pointing to something surprising or sudden.

[39:18]  ¹⁹ tn Here “other” has been supplied.

[39:20]  ²² tn Here “more” has been supplied.

[34:29]  ²⁵ sn Now, at the culmination of the renewing of the covenant, comes the account of Moses’ shining face. It is important to read this in its context first, holding off on the connection to Paul’s discussion in 2 Corinthians. There is a delicate balance here in Exodus. On the one hand Moses’ shining face served to authenticate the message, but on the other hand Moses prevented the people from seeing more than they could handle. The subject matter in the OT, then, is how to authenticate the message. The section again can be subdivided into three points that develop the whole idea: I. The one who spends time with God reflects his glory (29-30). It will not always be as Moses; rather, the glory of the Lord is reflected differently today, but nonetheless reflected. II. The glory of Yahweh authenticates the message (31-32). III. The authentication of the message must be used cautiously with the weak and immature (33-35).

[34:29]  ²⁶ tn The temporal clause is composed of the temporal indicator (“and it happened”), followed by the temporal preposition, infinitive construct, and subjective genitive (“Moses”).

[34:29]  ²⁷ tn The second clause begins with “and/now”; it is a circumstantial clause explaining that the tablets were in his hand. It repeats the temporal clause at the end.

[34:29]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in the hand of Moses.”

[34:29]  ²⁹ tn The temporal clause parallels the first temporal clause; it uses the same infinitive construct, but now with a suffix referring to Moses.

[34:29]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and Moses.”

[34:29]  ³¹ tn The word קָרַן (qaran) is derived from the noun קֶרֶן (qeren) in the sense of a “ray of light” (see Hab 3:4). Something of the divine glory remained with Moses. The Greek translation of Aquila and the Latin Vulgate convey the idea that he had horns, the primary meaning of the word from which this word is derived. Some have tried to defend this, saying that the glory appeared like horns or that Moses covered his face with a mask adorned with horns. But in the text the subject of the verb is the skin of Moses’ face (see U. Cassuto, Exodus, 449).

[34:35]  ²⁸ tn Now the perfect tense with vav consecutive is subordinated to the next clause, “Moses returned the veil….”

[34:35]  ²⁹ tn Verbs of seeing often take two accusatives. Here, the second is the noun clause explaining what it was about the face that they saw.

[34:35]  ³⁰ tn Heb “with him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.