JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

exodus, book of
to be the point of the juxtaposition of chapter 18 to chapter
17 – a contrast whose historical consequences are depicted in
I Samuel 15:6 (see at length David Kimḥi on Judg. 1:16).
H. THE THEOPHANY AT MT. SINAI AND THE DECALOGUE
(19:1–20:21 (18)). On the first of the third month after the Exodus
(i.e., 1 Sivan, in later terms) Israel arrives at Sinai. Moses
ascends to the mountaintop where God descends, and messages
concerning God’s proposal to contract a covenant with
Israel are carried by Moses to and from the people. Upon their
acceptance in principle of God’s proposal, Moses prepares the
people for the theophany (divine manifestation). On the third
day, amid lightning and thunder, God manifests Himself on
the mountain and speaks the *Decalogue. Terrified, the people
fall back and beg Moses to be their intermediary with God.
Moses approaches the cloud “where God was” to receive the
rest of the commandments.
The details and order of the narrative in chapters 19 and
20 are perplexing. Weighty matters crowd together in a barely
intelligible sequence. The number of Moses’ ascents and descents
is unclear. The stated aim of the theophany in 19:9 (to
let the people overhear God’s dialogue with Moses so that they
might believe him forever) has no sequel – except perhaps in
the unspecified dialogue alluded to in verse 19b. The people
are strictly barred from approaching the mountain – a wholly
unnecessary precaution. The order to return with Aaron (verse
24) has no sequel (unless it be 24:1); and what Moses said to
the people (19:25) is left unsaid.
The Decalogue – a self-contained entity – is only loosely
related to the context (see *Decalogue). The terror of the people
(19:18–20) seems to follow upon God’s speaking the Decalogue
(as in Deut. 5:20ff.), but it has long been felt (especially
since no reference to God’s speech occurs in the passage) that
it belongs properly to the pre-Decalogue situation described
in 19:16ff. (cf. Naḥmanides).
The extraordinary complexity is best explained as the
result of the interweaving of parallel narrations; the author
appears to have been reluctant to exclude any scrap of data
relevant to this momentous occasion.
I. RULES AND ADMONITIONS (20:22 (19)–23:33). The further
stipulations of the covenant are told to Moses, to be transmitted
by him to Israel. These consist of cultic regulations, civil
and criminal laws, and socio-moral exhortations, arranged as
follows: (a) rules concerning access to God in worship (20:22
(19)–26 (23)); (b) the emancipation of Hebrew slaves (21:1–11);
(c) homicide and assault (21:12–27); (d) the homicidal ox
(21:28–32); (e) injury to property, i.e., to animals (including
theft; 21:33–22:3) and to crops (22:4–5); the responsibility of
bailees and borrowers (22:6–14); seduction (22:15–16 – from
the vantage point of the father’s interest, i.e., the bride-price);
(f) a miscellany of religio-moral admonitions and commandments
(22:17–23:13); (g) a cultic calendar (23:14–19). Admonitions
to obey the accompanying angel of God and to keep
strictly apart from the society and worship of the Canaanites
serve as the epilogue to the section (contrast Lev. 26 and
Deut. 28 with their clear-cut blessings and curses, the formally
proper epilogue to a law collection; cf. Hammurapi’s Laws,
Pritchard, Texts, 178ff; COS II:335–53). These “utterances of
YHWH” and “rules” (usually understood as the categorical and
casuistic statements, respectively (cf. Ibn Ezra on 21:1)) appear
to constitute the “*Book of the Covenant” that Moses is said
(24:7) to have written down and read to the people; hence the
section is conventionally named “the (larger) Book of the Covenant”
(to distinguish it from the “smaller”: 34:11–26, on which
see below). It is made up of heterogeneous elements, including
prior entities – note the title of 21:1; or the interrupted series
of participial clauses concerning capital crimes in 21:12, 15–17.
Sets of five clauses are discernible: the slave laws, the homicidal
ox, theft. A general design is evident: the section begins
and ends with cultic-religious admonitions and commands; in
between these the impersonal casuistic laws appear (note the
transition in 21:2, “If you buy”) – their environment bestowing
on them its character of a divine address and commandment.
A fairly clear principle of association and gradation is
discernible from (c) through (e); the precedence given to (b)
is conditioned by the situation – limitation of slavery among
Hebrews being the chief boon that their liberator conferred
upon them. Indeed the very gradation referred to betrays a
clear hierarchy of values (contrast the arrangement of laws
in the Babylonian collections of Eshnunna and Hammurapi
(Pritchard, Texts, 161–177; COS II (332–53)). Notable is the
recognition of the slave as a person in his own right in 21:20,
26–27, unparalleled in ancient law (though still holding him
less than a free man; cf. 21:21, 32). Ibn Ezra’s summary of the
section merits quotation:
The essence [of the laws] is that one should not do violence
to or coerce a weaker man. First, subjugation of the person is
taken up – namely, enslavement… Assault is dealt with for the
sake of the law on injuring slaves… And talion is dealt with in
order to distinguish the case of maiming a free man from that
of a slave… The goring ox is mentioned to stipulate the rule in
the case of the killing of a slave… Violence to property is the
next topic. First field and vineyard are taken up, for they constitute
the essence of property; next, crops – produced by the
earth; and then bailees and the borrower. And next, the seducer
who coerces a minor… The resident alien is mentioned
because he is helpless, and similarly the widow and orphan and
the poor debtor.
Afterward the violence that may be perpetrated covertly
is taken up: cursing God, which one would fear to do openly;
or delaying payment of the sacred dues of wine and oil… and…
purveying false reports… Judges are addressed in the injunction
against perverting justice – which is violence that can be
done covertly… And the reason for mentioning the fallow year
is to declare the yield forfeit to the poor, and the Sabbath, so
that servant and alien may rest… The intention of 23:13 is to
reinforce the second commandment [against worship of other
gods]; and that is the reason for the three pilgrimage festivals,
namely, the assemblage of all Israel to worship God…
This ingenious, if somewhat one-sided, view of the continuity
of the section has the merit of highlighting the extraor-
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