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| Chapter XIX.
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Chapter XIX.
Moses reported these
words of God to the people, and placed an altar of twelve stones at the
foot of the mountain. Then he again ascended the mountain on which the
Lord had taken his place, bringing with him Aaron, Nabad, and seventy
of the elders. But these were not able to look upon the Lord;
nevertheless, they saw the place283
| 283 The Hebrew text is
here different. | in which
God stood, whose form is related to have been wonderful, and his
splendor glorious. Now, Moses, having been called by God, entered the
inner cloud which had gathered round about God, and is related to have
remained there forty days and forty nights. During this time, he was
taught in the words of God about building the tabernacle and the ark,
and about the ritual of sacrifice-things which I, as they were
obviously told at great length, have not thought proper to be inserted
in such a concise work as the present. But as Moses stayed away a long
time, since he spent forty days in the presence of the Lord, the
people, despairing of his return, compelled Aaron to construct images.
Then, out of metals which had been melted together, there came forth
the head of a calf. The people, unmindful of God, having offered
sacrifices to this, and given themselves up to eating and drinking,
God, looking upon these things, would in his righteous indignation,
have destroyed the wicked people, had he not been entreated by
Moses’ not to do so. But Moses, on his return, bringing down the
two tables of stone which had been written by the hand of God, and
seeing the people devoted to luxury and sacrilege, broke the tables,
thinking the nation unworthy of having the law of the Lord delivered to
them. He then called around himself the Levites, who had been assailed
with many insults, and commanded them to smite the people with drawn
swords. In this onset twenty-three thousand284
| 284 Curiously enough,
our author here reads, “twenty-three thousand,” in
opposition alike to the Greek and Hebrew text, both of which have
“three thousand.” |
men are said to have been slain. Then Moses set up the tabernacle
outside the camp; and, as often
as he entered it, the pillar of cloud was
observed to stand before the door; and God spoke, face to face, with
Moses. But when Moses entreated that he might see the Lord in his
peculiar majesty, he was answered that the form of God could not be
seen by mortal eyes; yet it was allowed to see his back parts; and the
tables which Moses had formerly broken were constructed afresh. And
Moses is reported, during this conference with God, to have stayed
forty days with the Lord. Moreover, when he descended from the
mountain, bringing with him the tables, his face shone with so great
brightness, that the people were not able to look upon him. It was
arranged, therefore, that when he was to make known to them the
commands of God, he covered his face with a veil, and thus spoke to the
people in the words of God. In this part of the history an account is
given285
| 285 Halm here reads
“referetur,” but “refertur,” another reading,
seems preferable. | of the tabernacle, and the building of
its inner parts. Which having been finished, the cloud descended from
above, and so overshadowed the tabernacle that it prevented Moses
himself from entering. These are the principal matters contained in the
two books of Genesis and Exodus.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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