X.
(1) At that time the Lord said unto me.—The forty days of intercession alluded to in the previous chapter followed this command (Exodus 34:28).
Hew thee two tables of stone . . . and make thee an ark.—The command to make the ark was given in the former period of forty days (Exodus 25:10); the command to hew the two tables was given after Moses had seen the glory of God (Exodus 33) from the cleft in the rock, but before the forty days spent in intercession. Rashi, the Jewish commentator, thinks there were two arks: one to go out to war, and the other to remain in the tabernacle. But there is no foundation for this statement. There may, of course, have been a temporary receptacle for the tables made by Moses (like the temporary tabernacle mentioned in Exodus 33:7), to receive them until the completion of the ark which Bezaleel was to make. This was not put in hand until after Moses descended with the second pair of tables. (See Exodus 35 &c.)

(2) And I will write on the tables.—It is a common error to suppose that Moses wrote the Law the second time. The mistake arises from the change of person in Exodus 34:28, where the same pronoun “he” refers first to Moses, and then to Jehovah. But there is no doubt as to the fact or its spiritual meaning. The tables of stone represent the “fleshy tables of the heart” as St. Paul teaches us in 2 Corinthians 3:3. The first pair of tables were like the heart of Adam, which came fresh from the hand of his Maker, with the word of the Law written on them. But this perished by the fall, beneath the mountain of the Law. The humanity which ascended to receive the Spirit for us was prepared by the Mediator on earth. The “second man” receive “the new covenant,” “not the letter, but the Spirit,” which puts God’s laws in men’s minds, and writes them in their hearts, making them God’s temple. Thus the ark and the tabernacle which received the Law are a figure of God’s human temple, and of the renewed heart of man.

(4) According to the first writing, the ten commandments.—The words written on the second tables were the same which had been written on the first.
In the day of the assembly.—Or, in New Testament language, “the day of the Church.” The Pentecost of the Old Testament was the day when “the letter” was given; the Pentecost of the New Testament was the day of the “Spirit that giveth life.” Each of these aspects of God’s covenant produced a Church after its kind.

(5) I . . . put the tables in the ark which I (had) made; and there they be.—Or, and they were there, or they continued there. According to the narrative in Exodus, the ark in which the tables ultimately remained was made afterwards. The English reader must not be misled by the word “had” in “I had made.” There is no pluperfect in Hebrew. The time of an action is determined not so much by the form of the verb as by its relation to the context. “I put the tables in the ark which I made, and they remained there,” is the literal sense. “I made” may very well mean “I caused to be made,” and refers to the ark which Bezaleel constructed under Moses’ directions.

(8) At that time—i.e., at Sinai, after Moses’ second descent from the mount, not at the time of Aaron’s death. Yet the death of Aaron and the separation of the tribe of Levi are similar events in their way: both alike lose territorial inheritance through bearing the burden of the Law.
To bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name.—A recent critic has said that the writer of Deuteronomy knows no distinction between priests and Levites. (See on this point Deuteronomy 11:6.) Rashi’s note on this verse is better: “To bear the ark (He separated)—the Levites; to stand before Jehovah to minister to Him, and to bless in His name—the priests.”

(9) The Lord is his inheritance.—As He was the inheritance of Aaron, Moses’ brother, whom he had recently taken to Himself, and to whose death Moses had just referred.

(11) And the Lord said unto me, Arise, take thy journey before the people, that they may go in.—“Although ye had turned aside from following Him, and had erred in the (matter of the) calf, He said to me, Go, lead the people” (Rashi).

(12) And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee.—“Although ye have done all this, still His tender mercies and His affection are set upon you, and after all that ye have sinned before Him, He doth not ask anything of you but to fear,” &c. (Rashi). The Rabbis have drawn this exposition from hence: “Everything is in the hand of Heaven (to bestow), save only the fear of Heaven.” But it is written elsewhere, “I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” (Comp. also Micah 6:8; Matthew 23:23.)

(15) Only.—“The whole world belongs to Jehovah, and for all that He chose thy fathers above all people.”

(16) Circumcise . . . your heart.—“For circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:29). The verse literally runs thus: Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and ye will harden your neck no more. It is the same line of thought as St. Paul’s (Galatians 5:16) “Walk in the Spirit, and (then) ye will not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”
(17,18) A great God, a mighty, and a terrible . . . he doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow.—“Behold (says Rashi) His might! And close beside His might thou mayest find His humility.” It is not otherwise in later passages of Scripture: “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names.”

(18) And loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.—An inclusive expression. The whole substance of Jacob our father was included in the prayer for this. “If God will . . . give me bread to eat and raiment to put on” (Rashi).

(19) For ye were strangers.—“The blemish which is upon thyself thou shalt not notice in thy neighbour” (Rashi). The provision made for the stranger throughout the Old Testament Scriptures has another cause besides: “For I was a stranger, and ye gathered me in.” (See a Sermon on “The Stranger” in Silver Sockets, and other Shadows of Redemption.)

(20) Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve.—In the New Testament, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” It was our Lord’s last answer to the tempter in the wilderness. The order of the Hebrew gives the emphasis. “Jehovah thy God shalt thou fear, Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave;” “and (adds Rashi) after all these qualities are established in thee, then thou shalt swear by His name.” At least His name would not be profaned in such a case.

(22) Thy fathers went down.—The simple and natural form of this allusion conveys a strong impression of the truth of the facts. If the marvellous increase of Israel in the time allowed by the sacred narrative presents a difficulty, we must remember that the Bible consistently represents the multiplication as the fulfilment of a Divine promise, and not purely natural. But the testimony of the First Book of Chronicles must not be overlooked. The genealogy of Judah, given in the second and fourth chapters of that book, discloses a very extensive multiplication, a good deal of which must lie within the period of the sojourning in Egypt. The family of Hezron is particularly to be noticed. Of a certain descendant of Simeon it is written (1 Chronicles 4:27), “And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply like to the children of Judah.” (!) Modern calculations are perhaps not quite adequate to deal with such a rate of increase as this. (See also the Note on Deuteronomy 32:8.)