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The BibleTexts.com Bible Commentary Copyright 1996-2005 Robert Nguyen Cramer THE BOOK OF EXODUS |
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Moses’ Egyptian upbringing does not extinguish his identification with his people, and when he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he slays the assailant. Now sought by Pharaoh as a criminal, he flees eastward into the desert and comes to the land of Midian, east of the Gulf of Aqabah or Elath in northwestern Arabia.
The region south and east of Israel, which included Paran, Teman, and southern Edom or Seir, was regarded as sacred by the Israelites throughout the early biblical period. Horeb, the mountain of God, was here (3:1), and from here the God of Israel was said to march on behalf of his people (cf. Deut. 33:2; Judg. 5:4; Hab. 3:3, 7). Many scholars believe that the origins of Yahwism are to be sought in the vicinity of Midian, and it may be noteworthy in this regard that Moses’ father-in-law is a “priest of Midian” (v. 16; cf. 3:1; 18:1) who in chap. 18 invokes, praises, and sacrifices to Yahweh. A distinctive culture, which archaeologists have tentatively designated Midianite, flourished in this region at the end of the second millennium b.c. Elsewhere in the Bible, the Midianites, though said in Gen. 25:2 to be descended from Abraham, are depicted as foreigners, sometimes regarded with hostility by the Israelites (e.g., Num. 31). In the Gideon story (Judg. 6-8) they are presented as camel-riding nomads, but the “Midianite” culture known from the archaeological record was largely sedentary.
Having rescued seven sisters from a group of hostile shepherds, Moses is befriended by their father, who takes him into his home and gives him Zipporah, one of his daughters, as a wife. She bears Moses a son, Gershom, whose name provides an occasion for wordplay involving the Hebrew term ger, “sojourner.”
In this passage Moses’ father-in-law is called Reuel. In Exod. 4:18, however, his name is Jethro (cf. chap. 18). The situation is further complicated by Judg. 4:11, where Moses’ father-in-law is called Hobab and is said to have been a Kenite rather than a Midianite. Finally, Num. 10:29 speaks of “Hobab the son of Reuel, the father-in-law of Moses.” Apparently there were at least two variants in this part of the tradition about Moses. According to the first, which was probably older, Moses’ father-in-law was the Midianite Jethro. According to the second, which may have developed later in Judah, his father-in-law was Hobab the Kenite. Unless the name Reuel represents yet a third traditional variant, it must have arisen as an error based, perhaps, on the name of the father of Hobab or Jethro.
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Moses leads his father-in-law’s sheep to Mount Horeb, where he is astonished to see a bush that is burning but not consumed. He does not realize that what he has encountered is a messenger or angel of Yahweh in the form of a flame until, approaching the bush, he hears a divine voice speaking in the fire. Knowing that it is fatal for a human being to see a god (cf. 33:20), he covers his face and listens.
Horeb is another name for Sinai, the mountain at which the Israelites will assemble after their departure from Egypt (cf. v. 12). The name Sinai is probably hinted at by the designation of the burning bush in Hebrew as sene, as if Sinai meant “the mountain of the sene-bush” (cf. the designation of Yahweh as “the one who dwells in the sene-bush” in Deut. 33:16). The names Horeb and Sinai may derive from originally distinct traditions about the mountain of Yahweh, but in the present form of the story they are identical. The exact location of Mount Horeb is unknown; indeed, it had probably been forgotten by the time of the composition of most of the biblical literature. The present episode argues strongly for locating it in northwestern Arabia.
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Chapter
20 ==> Ten
Commandments
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Deu 5:6
To explore verses and other writings where more than one commandment is referenced within the same passage browse http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/10commandments.htm#all.
To explore a comprehensive list of biblical and other references, browse http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/10commandments.htm#1.
To explore a comprehensive list of biblical and other references, browse http://www.bibletexts.com/terms/10commandments.htm#2.
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Copyright
1996-2005 Robert Nguyen Cramer
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