Ver. 1. Which thou brakest.] Not without a tincture of passionate infirmity, as some conceive. He that was the meekest upon earth, saith one, 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! Dr Hall.
Ver. 2. In the morning.] A sign of mercy. (Psalms 90:14 30:5 5:3)
Ver. 3. Neither let any man be seen.] [See Trapp on “Ex 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, &c. Men must lay aside all, and prepare, before they draw nigh to God in holy duties.
Ver. 4. 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.
Ver. 5. And proclaimed the name of the Lord.] In answer to Moses’s prayer. (Exodus 33:18,19)
Ver. 6. The Lord, The Lord God. &c.] 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.
Ver. 7. 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 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. Nun rabbath Masor.
Ver. 8. 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.
Ver. 9. Let my lord, I pray thee.] [See Trapp on “Ex 33:12”]
Ver. 10. Behold, I make a covenant,] i.e., I re-establish it with this backsliding people. God receiveth returning sinners with much sweetness “He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.” His mercy, to us, is greater than his justice, though in themselves they are equal, yea, the same. I will do marvels.] See this fulfilled and recorded in Joshua 10:12,13.
Ver. 11. Observe thou.] This is the condition of the covenant on man’s part to be performed. With others God makes a single covenant only, that they shall observe that which he commands them: but with his elect he makes a double covenant; to perform both parts, to “work all their works in them,” and for them, to “put his fear into their hearts, and to cause them to keep his commandments.” (Isaiah 26:12 Jeremiah 32:40)
Ver. 12. With the inhabitants.] They were devoted to destruction, as having filled the land from one end to another with their uncleanness. (Ezra 9:11)
Ver. 13. Break their images.] The Popish historians have blurred and blasted those zealous emperors, Zeno and others, that were Iconomachi and Iconoclastai, as sacrilegious. Berne was the first town that, after the Reformation, was purged of images; which Augustine saith cannot be placed in churches, Sine praesentissimo idololatrioe periculo, without extreme danger of idolatry. Epiphanius saith, It is utterly unlawful and abominable to set up images in the churches of Christians. Irenaeus reproveth the Gnostics, for that they carried about the picture of Christ in Pilate’s time, after his own proportion: using also, for declaration of their affection toward it, to set garlands upon the head of it. Aug., in Psalm cxiv.
Ver. 14. No other god.] In the Hebrew word Acher, rendered Other, there is a large R, to show the greatness of the sin of serving any other God. [Hebrew Text Note]
Ver. 15. And one call thee.] Any one of the idolatrous rout, if he do but hold up his finger to thee, thou wilt easily follow him. Cereus in vitium flecti. Horat.
Ver. 16. And make thy sons.] Satan still works upon Adam by Eve. Omnes haereses ex gyneeceis. It is the guise of heretics to abuse the help of women to spread their poisonful opinions. Satan per costam, tanquam per scalam ad cor ascendit. Satan climbs up by the rib to the heart. Greg.
Ver. 17. No molten gods.] As the golden calf was. Goodly gods that are molten! Olim truncus eram. Horat.
Ver. 18. In the month Abib.] So called from the new fruits, or ears of corn, then first appearing. See Exodus 12:1 13:4. God here repeateth divers laws. It was a token of reconciliation to the people after their apostasy, in that he treats with them again, after their repentance, about his solemn worships. So, for a testimony of his reconciliation to Peter after his foul fall, he sets him to work in the ministry. (John 21:15) So he commendeth his spouse afresh, after her drowsy decays, every whir as amiable as she was before her fall. (Song of Solomon 6:5 5:10,11-16)
Ver. 19,20. See on Exodus 13:12,13.
Ver. 20. [See Trapp on “Ex 34:19”]
Ver. 21. In earing time and in harvest.] Though most busy times, you may not make bold with God.
Ver. 22. And thou shalt observe.] See Exodus 23:16.
Ver. 23. Thrice in the year.] See Exodus 23:14,17.
Ver. 24. Neither shall any man desire.] A wonderful providence, since Judea was compassed about with such warlike adversaries, that they should not watch and catch at such opportunities. Pompey besieging Jerusalem, made his strongest batteries on the Sabbath day, whereon he knew the superstitious Jews would not make their defence—and took it. Dio Cass.
Ver. 25. Thou shalt not offer.] See Exodus 23:18,19,
Ver. 26. In his mother’s milk.] See on Exodus 23:19.
Ver. 27. I have made a covenant.] We also have the covenant, the seals, ministers, &c. But, alas! are not these blessings amongst us as the ark was amongst the Philistines, rather as prisoners than as privileges? Rather in testimonium et ruinam quam in salutem? Rather for our ruin than reformation?
Ver. 28. Forty days and forty nights.] Moses, Elias, and Christ—those three great fathers met glorious in mount Tabor. Abstinence merits not, but prepares the best for good duties. He wrote.] That is, God wrote, as some will have it. Weems. Exer.
Ver. 29. The skin of his face shone.] God hereby assuring the people that he had inwardly enlightened him for their better instruction.
Ver. 30. And they were afraid.] This was another manner of brightness and majesty than that which piercing gaze from the eyes of Augustus and Tamerlane; whose eyes so shone, as that a man could hardly endure to behold them without closing of his own: and many in talking with them, and often beholding of them, became dumb: which caused them ofttimes with a comely modesty to abstain from looking too earnestly upon such as spake unto them, or discoursed with them. Turk. Hist., fol. 236.
Ver. 31. And Moses called unto them.] Having first vailed his face, as in Exodus 34:33.
Ver. 32. And he gave them in commandment.] Rabbi Menahem telleth us, that the former ancients of Israel, at the reading of the book of the law, covered their faces and said, “He that heareth from the mouth of the reader is as he that heareth from the mouth of Moses.” The Jews at this day, in their synagogues, put on each man his Taleth or square vestment, turning it back about their necks, that so they may hear and pray with more attention and reverence. Leo. Modena.
Ver. 33. He put a vail on his face.] And had more glory by his vail than by his face. How far are those spirits from this Christian modesty, which care only to be seen and wish only to dazzle others’ eyes with admiration, not caring for unknown riches! This vail signifieth the law’s obscurity and our infidelity.
Ver. 34. But when Moses went in.] Hypocrites on the contrary show their best to men, their worst to God; God sees both their vail and their face; and I know not whether he hates more their vail of dissimulation or face of wickedness.