Bible: Exodus

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Chapters 1–12

The book of Exodus begins with a roll call of tribal names (from which the book derives its traditional Hebrew name Shmot, meaning “names”) and then proceeds to lay out the background of the Exodus story: a new pharaoh (unnamed) has come to the throne of Egypt, whose attitude toward the Israelites living in Egypt is the very opposite of that of Egypt’s previous ruler; he fears the Israelites have become “too numerous,” that they pose a threat to the state and that therefore they must be enslaved and their numbers reduced. To ensure the latter, he orders Israelite midwives to kill all male babies by throwing them into the Nile. One of those babies survives by secretly being plucked from the water by Pharaoh’s daughter, who then names the baby “Moses” and raises him as her own, thus ensuring that the hero of the Exodus story will have an Egyptian name and an Israelite identity.

Moses’ discovery of that true identity and his encounter with the Israelites’ deity—identified as the God of the Patriarchs of the book of Genesis (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) occurs in the land of Midian, to which he has fled after killing an Egyptian overseer. A disembodied voice speaks to him out of a burning bush and informs him that he is the “God of your fathers” and that Moses is to return to Egypt and inform the Israelites that this same God will obtain their release from Egyptian slavery. Moses is initially reluctant to assume the burden of leadership, but the God of the burning bush, whose name is subsequently given as YHWH (often translated into English as “Lord”), convinces him that he will empower Moses to carry out his mission.

What follows is a series of contests of power between Pharaoh and Moses—assisted by his brother, Aaron—in which YHWH enables Moses to perform a series of miraculous acts designed to break Pharaoh’s will and persuade him to release his Israelite slaves. Each of these ten miraculous acts, such as turning the waters of the Nile into blood or loosing a swarm of locusts upon the land, is presented as a “plague,” which increases the misery of the Egyptian people. The last and most terrible of these plagues—the killing of all of the first-born Egyptian children—finally persuades Pharaoh to submit to Moses’ demands, and the Israelites’ are suddenly free to leave and follow their new leader into the desert wilderness of the Sinai.

Chapters 14–19

It is at this point in the narrative that two extraordinary events occur: first, the Israelites’ crossing of the “Reed Sea” (often translated into English as the “Red Sea”) and then the fateful encounter with the God of the Exodus at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is there, amid smoke and fire, that a thunderous divine voice speaks to Moses and reveals to him a series of commandments, the most important being a set of absolute commands commonly referred to today as the “Ten Commandments.” Chief among these commandments is the deity’s insistence that the Israelites worship “no other god before me,” thus establishing the basis for a monotheistic religious culture that will distinguish the Israelites from every other people in the ancient world. The Israelites, YHWH insists, are to think of themselves as a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation,” dedicated to serving with complete obedience and faithfulness.

Chapters 20–30

In addition to these overarching ten commands, however, YHWH also lays out a longer collection of sacred laws that are designed to govern practically every aspect of life, from the status of slaves and of strangers residing in the land to the responsibility of caring for the poor and establishing a religious calendar. Finally, they are instructed on the precise dimensions of a “tabernacle,” or sacred hut, where the one God is to be worshipped by a community of priests, taken from the tribe of Levi, under Aaron’s supervision.

Chapters 32–34

While Moses is away on Mount Sinai receiving tablets on which the Ten Commandments are to be inscribed by YHWH, the Israelites rebel against his leadership and compel Aaron to carve a statue of a bull calf, which they then proceed to worship in place of their unseen God. When Moses discovers what the people have done, he becomes enraged, and in his anger he smashes the tablets YHWH has just given him. His anger is nothing compared with the anger of the deity, who threatens to wipe out the Israelites entirely by allowing his rage to "burn against them." At this dramatic juncture, Moses pleads with YHWH on behalf of the Israelites, thus saving them from sure destruction, but it is only after Moses ascends Mount Sinai once again, assuring the deity that the Israelites’ are truly repentant for their act of apostasy, that the people are finally forgiven.

At the conclusion of this critical episode, Moses asks one last favor of YHWH—that he be allowed to see the deity face to face. YHWH politely refuses to grant Moses’ request, instead allowing him a glimpse of his “back” while insisting that no one can glimpse God’s face and live. Moses is then instructed to carve yet another set of tablets to replace the ones he smashed. When he has done so, the deity appears before him in a cloud, assuring him that he is both a compassionate and a judgmental God, forgiving sins yet also visiting the sins of earlier generations on their descendants. Having thus revealed himself to Moses, YHWH renews the promise of a covenant between himself and the Israelites, warning them at the same time not to worship the gods of the nations that surround them.