Exodus 34:5-9

34:5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. ¹  34:6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: ²  “The Lord, the Lord, ³  the compassionate and gracious ⁴  God, slow to anger, ⁵  and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, ⁶  34:7 keeping loyal love for thousands, ⁷  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ⁸  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

34:8 Moses quickly bowed ⁹  to the ground and worshiped 34:9 and said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, let my Lord ¹⁰  go among us, for we ¹¹  are a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

[34:5]  ¹ tn Some commentaries wish to make Moses the subject of the second and the third verbs, the first because he was told to stand there and this verb suggests he did it, and the last because it sounds like he was worshiping Yahweh (cf. NASB). But it is clear from v. 6 that Yahweh was the subject of the last clause of v. 5 – v. 6 tells how he did it. So if Yahweh is the subject of the first and last clauses of v. 5, it seems simpler that he also be the subject of the second. Moses took his stand there, but God stood by him (B. Jacob, Exodus, 981; U. Cassuto, Exodus, 439). There is no reason to make Moses the subject in any of the verbs of v. 5.

[34:6]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn See Exod 33:19.

[34:6]  ⁵ sn This is literally “long of anger.” His anger prolongs itself, allowing for people to repent before punishment is inflicted.

[34:6]  ⁶ 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.

[34:7]  ⁷ tn That is, “for thousands of generations.”

[34:7]  ⁸ sn As in the ten commandments (20:5-6), this expression shows that the iniquity and its punishment will continue in the family if left unchecked. This does not go on as long as the outcomes for good (thousands versus third or fourth generations), and it is limited to those who hate God.

[34:8]  ⁹ tn The first two verbs form a hendiadys: “he hurried…he bowed,” meaning “he quickly bowed down.”

[34:9]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” two times here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[34:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “it is.” Hebrew uses the third person masculine singular pronoun here in agreement with the noun “people.”