Bible Commentaries

And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon [these] tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

Which thou brakest. — Not without a tincture of passionate infirmity, as some conceive. He that was the meekest upon earth, saith one, Dr Hall. in a sudden indignation abandons that which he would in cold blood have held faster than his life. But Augustine cries out, O ira Prophetica, et animus non perturbatus, sed illuminatus!

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And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

In the morning. — A sign of mercy. Psalms 90:14 ; Psalms 30:5 ; Psalms 5:3

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And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.

Neither let any man be seen. — See Trapp on " Exodus 19:12 "

Neither let the flocks. — Moses comes alone to God, and leaves the flocks. Jacob ferrieth over all belonging to him on the other side of the river, before he wrestleth with God. Abraham leaveth the servant and asses at the foot of the hill, … Men must lay aside all, and prepare, before they draw nigh to God in holy duties.

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And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

And he hewed two tables. — Moses hewed them. The first tables were hewn out of the sapphire of the throne of God’s glory, say the Jewish doctors.

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And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

And proclaimed the name of the Lord. — In answer to Moses’s prayer. Exodus 33:18-19

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And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

The Lord, The Lord God. … — These glorious titles and attributes are those back parts of God. Exodus 33:23 None can see more than these and live: and we need see no more than these that we may live.

Longsuffering. — Heb., Wide of nostrils; not apt to snuff at small matters, but bearing with men’s evil manners. This Averroes, the atheist, made use as an argument against the providence of God, and to prove that he meddled with nothing below the moon, because of his slowness to anger.

In goodness and truth. — God’s goodness, though great, yet here and elsewhere it goes bounded with his truth.

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Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth [generation].

Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, — i.e., All sorts of sin. It is natural to him as here. None like him for this. Micah 7:18 It is the comfort of saints, that they have to do with a forgiving God, Nehemiah 9:31 that can multiply pardons, as they multiply sins. Isaiah 55:7

Keeping mercy for thousands. — The Hebrew word here rendered Keeping, is written with a greater letter Nun rabbath Masor. than ordinary, to note the extraordinary greatness of God’s promise to his people and their posterity. Psalms 25:10 Hebrew Text Note God is here said to keep mercy, to forgive sins of all sorts: as if his mercy were kept on purpose for pardoning poor sinners.

Clear the guilty. — This last letter in God’s name must still be remembered. So must all the rest: since there is enough in this sweetest text to answer all our objections. It is said of Leonard Lessius, that, a little before his death, he finished his treatise concerning the fifty names or attributes of God: and that he oft affirmed, that he found more spiritual light and delight in that last little work of his - at such time as he was grievously tortured with the stone, whereof also he died - than in all his large Commentaries upon Thomas Aquinas’s Sums.

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And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

And Moses made haste. — It was time for him. The more any man sees of God, the lower he falls in his own eyes: as he that hath looked intently upon the sun, sees little when he looks down again.

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