Reading for August 8th

Moses prepares to construct the tabernacle
In 35.1-36.7: This section begins an extensive unit dealing with the actual construction of the tabernacle (chs 35-40).
The tabernacle is the tangible and mobile sign of God's presence in the midst of the Israelites as they leave Mount Sinai and travel through the wilderness to Canaan.
The instructions for building the tabernacle were first given in chs 25-31.
The golden calf crisis (ch 32) had endangered the tabernacle project.
However, the resolution and new covenant in chs. 33-34 enabled the tabernacle construction to move forward.
The construction obediently follows the instructions that were given previously.
The detailed nature of the instructions and process for building the tabernacle resembles the detailed account of the building of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 6-8) and detailed character of Ezekiel's promise of a new Temple in Jerusalem (Ezek 40-43).

Read Exodus 35.1-35
In verse 2-3: Just as the sabbath law had concluded the instructions for building the tabernacle (31.12-17), the sabbath law now introduces the actual work of construction.
In verses 22-29: the people offer willingly what they have for the tabernacle.
Presumably some it included the gold, silver, jewelry, and clothing that the Egyptians gave them when they fled Egypt (12.35-36).
In verses 30-35: The passage about Bezalel and Oholiab elaborates 31.1-5.
The divine spirit gives them knowledge in every kind of craft (v. 31) as in 31.3.
Additionally, the spirit of God inspired them to teach others their skills (v.34).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 7th

Read Exodus 34.17-35

In verses 19-20: On redeeming the firstborn, see comment on 13.13.

In verse 24: To covet refers to the inner yearning and strong desire to take something that rightfully belongs to others, especially the poor and less powerful.

In verse 29: Moses' unique and close relationship with God caused some of God's divine radiance or light to pass onto Moses.

Thus, the skin of his face shone.

In verse 33: Just as the cloud veiled the deity's fiery radiance or glory (24.15-18), so Moses put a veil on his face to shield the people from his own shinning radiance.

Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 6th

God reveals the divine character and makes a new covenant.
In 34.1-35: This chapter represents a significant turning point in exodus.
Worship of the golden calf threatened Israel's relationship with God.
However Moses urges God to provide a deeper revelation of God's character.
This deeper revelation (vv. 6-7) enabled a new covenant to be restored (vv. 10-11, 27-28).
The new covenant repeats a number of laws given earlier in exodus with an emphasis on not worshipping other gods and laws relating to the exodus and the sabbath (vv. 12-26).

Read Exodus 34.1-16
In verse 4: Moses had broken the former tablets or stone when Israel worshiped the idol of the golden calf.
Their idolatry threatened to destroy their relationship with God (32.19).
In verses 6-7: These verses reflect important differences in the description of God's character when compared to a similar description in 20.5-6.
The changes place more emphasis on God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness while still retaining the element of God's punishment for disobedience.
In verse 13: Pillars of stone and sacred poles ("asherim") of wood were used in native Canaanite fertility religion in worshipping the gods Baal and Aserah (Judg 6.25).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 5th

Read Exodus 33.1-23
In 33.1-33: Moses seeks assurance of God's presence with Israel.
In verses 2-3: The Lord promises to send an angel, a subordinate divine messenger.
However, God's own presence cannot go with Israel lest God's own holiness come in contact with and consume the stiff-necked people of Israel.
In verse 5-6: The stripping of Israel's ornaments involves letting go of the jewelry Israel had stripped from the Egyptians (12.35-36).
In verse 7: The tent of meeting reflects an older tradition of a tent or shrine in which the deity delivers oracles.
Although the tent of meeting probably preceded the tabernacle tradition, the two became associated with each another ((27.19-21).
Moses pitches the tent of meeting far off from the camp rather that at its center in this interim time while God decides what to do with Israel (v. 5).
The tent will eventually be located in the middle of the Israelite camp (Num 2.2).
In verse 14: God's words in Hebrew are literally "My presence will go" (not "with you"), God will go to Canaan but not "with" or "in the midst" of Israel.
In verse 16: Moses asks that God not only go to Canaan (v. 14), but Moses insists that God go with us or "in our midst."
In verse 17, God relents and agrees to Moses' request.
In verse 19: On the divine name Lord, see comment on 3.13.15.
This verse and God's character revealed to Moses in 34.6-7 add new dimensions by accenting God's compassion and mercy.
In 3.13-15, the Lord's name is "I will be who I will be."
Here the name is "I will be gracious to whom I will be."
In verses 20-23: A human could not look directly into the deity's face, for it would cause death (v. 20, see 3.6; Isa 6.5).
However, Moses will see more of God than before; he will see God's back (v. 23).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for August 4th

Read Exodus 32.15-35
In verse 15: On the two tablets of the covenant, see comment on 31.18.
In verse 17: Joshua is Moses' young assistant (24.13).
In verse 19: Moses broke the stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments (vv. 15-16).
The act dramatized Israel's severe disobedience, which broke the formal relationship between God and the people.
In verses 21-23: In contrast to Moses, who takes responsibility and pleads with God on behalf of the people, Aaron blames the people in order to escape his own responsibility for the rebellion.
In verse 24: Aaron's version of the story suggests that the golden calf emerged by itself miraculously out of the fire.
The earlier account clearly tells the real story: Aaron himself was responsible for making the golden calf (v. 4; see vv. 25, 35).
In verses 26-29: the members of the tribe of Levi obey Moses.
Thus, Moses ordained or set them apart for service of the Lord as priests.
The ordination of the Levites occurs in Num 8.
Numbers 16-18 suggest that the Levites will be subordinate to Aaron and the priests in his line.
In verse 34: The Lord promises to send my angel, to lead Israel into Canaan (23.20, 23).
The question will become whether, in addition to the angel, God's own divine presence will go in the midst of Israel to lead them (33.2-3).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 3rd

Israel's worship of the golden calf

In 32.1-35: Israel makes an idol in the form of a golden calf and worships it.

This deed violates the important prohibition in the Ten Commandments against worshiping other gods and making idols (20.3-4).

The story has a parallel in a later account about King Jeroboam, who sets up golden calves at two worship sites in northern Israel (1 Kings 12.25-33).

Read Exodus 32.1-14

In verses 2-3: the gold rings presumably come from the gold jewelry given tot he Israelites by the Egyptians when they fled Egypt (12.35-36).

In verse 4: The calf or young bull was a common image for certain Canaanite gods.

In verse 7: The Lord tells Moses that now the Israelites are your people.

They are no longer God's people.

In verse 10: The Lord plans to consume or completely destroy the Israelites for their disobedience.

The Lord will then take Moses alone and make him a great nation.

That is the same promise God first made to Abraham (Gen 12.2).

In verses 11-14: Moses pleads to God that they are your people (vv. 11, 12; see 33.13).

To destroy Israel would do harm to the Lord's international reputation (v. 12).

It would also violate God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (v. 13; see 6.2-8).

God swore or made a promise to each of  the ancestors in genesis: Abraham (Gen 13.14-25), Isaac (Gen 26.3), and Jacob/Israel (Gen 28.13).

Remarkably, Moses succeeds.

The Lord changed his mind about destroying Israel.

Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 2nd

Read Exodus 31.12-18
In 31.12-18: God gives a concluding reminder of the sabbath commandment.
Reference to work on the tabernacle in the preceding section (31.1-11) occasions the reminder about the regular need to rest from work on the sabbath day (20.8-11).
Like the tabernacle that sets apart a sacred space in the community, the sabbath sets apart sacred time in the ongoing life of the community.
In verse 18: This action fulfills the promise God made to Moses in 24.12.
The two tablets of stone will figure prominently in the next story of the golden calf.
They will become signs of the breaking of the old covenant (32.15-16, 19) and the making of a new covenant (34.14).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 1st

Read Exodus 30.1-31.11
In 30.1-31.11: The Lord gives instructions for other matters related to the priests and the worship sanctuary.
In verse 10: Once a year would be the Day of Atonement as specified in greater detail in Lev 16.
In verses 11-13: the act of taking a census or counting the people for military or administrative purposes was believed to arouse the deity's anger, thereby bringing on a plague (2 Sam 24.10).
Thus each person had to pay a ransom or fee of half a shekel in order to ward off the plague.
Numbers 1.17-47 records the first census taken of the Israelites in the wilderness.
In 31.2-6: The divine spirit (v. 3) fill the two skilled workers, Bezalel (v. 2) and Oholiab (v. 6), with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in their particular skills of artistry and construction.
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 31st

Instructions for the ordination of priests
In 29.1-46: these instructions for ordination are carried out when Aron and his sons are formally set apart as priests in Lev 8-9.
Blood is considered a sacred substance with power to purify and make holy (Lev 17.11).
Thus, blood plays an important role in purifying the priests and the altar throughout this section.

Read Exodus 29.1-49
In verses 33-37: To consecrate the priests means to set them apart in a formal ceremony for special service.
In verse 40: A measure is an ephah, which is equivalent to about 20 liters.
A hin is one-sixth of an ephah, about 3 liters.
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 30th

Read Exodus 28.1-43
In 28.1-43: The Lord gives guidelines for making the priestly garments.
In verse 6: The ephod is a long priestly robe; it was sometimes used to obtain an oracle or message from the deity (1 Sam 23.9-12).
In verses 15-30: The breastplate of judgment functioned as a means to obtain divine messages and guidance.
It was a pouch, containing the Urim and Thummim, light and dark stones used to determine the deity's will in a given situation (v. 30).
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 29th

Constructing the altar, the court, and the lamps.
In 27.1-21: These instructions pertain to items and areas outside and surrounding the tabernacle itself.

Read Exodus 27.1-21
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 28th

Instructions concerning the tabernacle frame and curtains.

In 26.1-37: The description of the tabernacle includes some parallels to the description of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 6) and the vision of the new Temple in Ezek 40-43.

Read Exodus 26.1-37

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 27th

Read Exodus 25.31-40
No comments available.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 26th

Furnishings for the tabernacle

In 25.1-40: This unit begins with an extended section on instructions for building and furnishing the portable sanctuary or shrine called the tabernacle (25.1-31.18).

The tabernacle is to be the vehicle of God's presence as they leave God's dwelling place of Mount Sinai and set off on the journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

The tabernacle will not be built until after the golden calf rebellion (ch. 32) and the renewal of the covenant (chs. 33-34).

Read Exodus 25.1-30

In verse 3; The gold and silver and other finery derive presumably from what Egyptians gave to the Israelites as they fled Egypt (12.25-36).

In verse 7: On the ephod see comment on 28.6.

In verse 10: The wooden ark is a container that fictions as a throne or footstool for the divine presence.

In verse 16: The two tablets of stone that contain the Ten Commandments are the covenant that will be carried in the ark.

In verses 17-22: Cherubim are half-human and half-animal creatures with wings.

The head is human, and the body is usually a lion or bull.

They guard holy areas as well as kings.

The mercy seat is the throne for the deity's presence.

In verse 21: On the covenant, see comment on v. 16.

In verse 30: The bread of the Presence is set out on the table as a sign of hospitality to the deity, but the priests actually eat the bread (Lev 24.5-9).

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 25th

Read Exodus 24.1-18
In 24.1-18: the Lord, Moses and the people formally enter into a covenant relationship.
In verse 1: Nadab and Abihu are two sons of Aaron who serve as priests (see 6.23).
In verses 6-8: The altar represents God's presence (v. 6).
Sprinkling blood on the altar and then the people signifies their binding together in relationship.
The book of the covenant is presumably some form of the laws and commandments in chs. 20-23.
In verse 9: On Nadab and Abihu, see comment on v. 1.
In verse 14: Hur is a leader from the Israelite tribe of Judah (17.10; 31.2).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 24th

Read Exodus 23.20-33

In 23.20-33: God gives promises and instructions regarding Israel's future entry in Canaan.

In verse 20: The Lord promises to send an angel as a divine representative to protect and fight for the Israelites (see v. 23 and 14.9).

Discussion about the angel continues in 32.4 and 33.2.

The angel will reappear in Josh 5.13-15 and Judg 2.1-5.

In verse 31: The sea of the Philistines is the Mediterranean Sea to the west of Canaan.

The boundaries correspond roughly to the size of Israel under King Solomon (1 Kings 4.21).

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 23rd

Read Exodus 22.31-23.19

In verse 15: On the festival of unleavened bread, see 13.3-10.

In verse 19: The prohibition against boiling a young goat or kid in its mother's milk involves the ritual purity of crossing the boundary between life and death.

The mother's milk gives life, but using it to boil meat mixes it with death.

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 22nd

Read Exodus 22.1-30
In verses 21-24: Israel's experience of being aliens in the land of Egypt motivated these laws against oppressing a resident alien or other marginal people in the community (see 23.9).
Israel also knew firsthand the power of the oppressed who cry out to arouse God's saving action (see 2.23-25).
In verse 30: The seven days of waiting is the time required for the mother and the baby to become ritually clean after the birth (Lev 12.2-3).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 21st

Read Exodus 21.15-36
In verses 23-24: The principle of a life for a life seeks to limit the extent of any revenge.
The principle also means that simply paying money to a victim or victim's family cannot compensate for the loss of a priceless life or limb.
In verse 28: The ox shall be stoned and not eaten because it has become ritually impure by causing the death of a human.
Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 20th

Additional laws in the Book of the Covenant.
In 20.22-23.19: Most scholars consider this group of laws to be the oldest of all the legal collections of the Bible.
These biblical laws have several parallels in subject matter and form to ancient Babylonian law codes.
The laws alternate between religious concerns and criminal, social, and economic matters.

Read Exodus 20.22-21.14
In verse 26: The concern for stairs and the exposure of nakedness implies that those doing the sacrificing at the altar wore robes that were open at the bottom.
In 21.6: The blood on the doorpost from the pierced ear was a sign of the permanent attachment of the slave to the household.
In verse 8: The case deals with a husband taking a slave as a wife or concubine through whom he may have children (Gen 21.10-13).
In verses 13-14: Accidental killers could flee to designated "cities of refuge" where they could live protected from family members of the victim who would seek revenge (Num 35.9-28).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 19th

The Ten Commandments

In 20.1-21: These ten rules form the core of Israel's obligation in its relationship with God.

Moses repeats these Ten Commandments in slightly altered form to a new generation in Deut 5.6-21.

God is the one who writes the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets (31.18).

The commandments are central element of the faith of Judaism and Christianity.

Read Exodus 20.1-21

In verse 4; The description assumes a three level universe: heaven above, earth beneath, and water under the earth.

See Gen 1.6-10.

In verse 7: The prohibition against the wrongful use of the name of the Lord is aimed particularly at violating oaths made in the deity's name (Lev 19.12).

In verse 8: The root meaning of the sabbath is "to stop, to rest."

To keep holy signifies setting the seventh day apart different from all other days of the week.

In verse 11: In the creation story in Gen 1, God created the world is six days and rested on the seventh (Gen 2.1-3).

In verse 12: The commandment concerning parents may have originally been aimed especially at the care of elderly parents.

In verse 13: Murder refers to any killing not sanctioned by the community, including personal acts of revenge.

In verse 16: The Prohibition of false witness involves false testimony in judicial cases and disputes.

In verse 17: To covet refers to the inner yearning and strong desire to take something that rightfully belongs to others, especially the poor and less powerful.

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 18th

Israel prepares for the covenant with the Lord.
In 19.1-25: This chapter begins a major new section within the book of Exodus, 19.1-24.18.
God initiates a formal relationship or covenant agreement with Israel.
This covenant includes lists of obligations for Israel in the form of the Ten Commandments (20.1-17) and the laws in the Book of the Covenant (20.22-23.19).
Israel will remain encamped i this area at Sinai until Num 10.11-12.

Read Exodus 19.1-25
In verse 1: The wilderness of Sinai in the Sinai peninsula east of Egypt contains many mountains.
The exact location of Mount Sinai is not known.
The mountain is traditionally located in the south-central area of the Sinai Peninsula.
In verse 4: The image of God leading Israel out of Egypt like an eagle is expand in Deut 32.11.
In verse 6: Israel as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation implies that God has set Israel apart from other nations.
Israel has a higher standard of holiness and a mission to mediate between God and other nations.
In verses 12-13: The mountain is holy because of God's presence.
Holiness and ritual impurity cannot mix.
Unless a person is properly prepared, any human contact with the realm of God's holiness leads to death (vv. 21-24).
In verse 15: Sexual relationships render a person ritually unclean for a day (1 Sam 21.4).
In verse 16: Ancient Israel and its neighboring cultures often portrayed the appearance of the deity with accompanying storm of thunder, lightning, and thick cloud  (Ps 29; 68).
In verses 21-24: On the danger of crossing the boundary of Holiness, see comment on vv. 12-13.
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 17th

Jethro gives administrative advice.
In 18.1-27: Alternative versions of this story in which Jethro is not involved in Num 11.10-30 and Deut 1.9-18.

Read Exodus 18.1-27
In verse 1: The name of Moses' father-in-law is Jethro here, but the name varies in other biblical traditions.
His name is sometimes Reuel (2.18) or Hobab (Num 10.29; Judg 4.11).
In verse 2: Moses' Medianite wife Zipporah (2.21-22) went with Moses from Midian to Egypt (4.20).
At some point, Moses had sent away his wife.
Now Jethro brings her and the two sons back to join Moses (vv. 5-6).
In verse 3: On Gershom, see comment on 2.22.
In verse 4: The name Eliezer means "My God [is] help."
In verse 5: The mountain of God is Mount Horeb, otherwise known as Mount Sinai (3.1).
In verse 21: These numbered divisions of the population most often appear in military contexts (2 Sam 18.1)
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 16th

Read Exodus 17.8-16

In 17.8-16 Amalek attacks Israel, but Israel defeats them.

In verse 8: Amalek is a desert tribe from the nation of Edom (Gen 36.12) that lives in the wilderness around Kadesh (Num 13.29).

In verse 9: This is the first mention of Joshua.

Joshua is Moses' young assistant (24.13; 33.11) and Israel's military commander.

Joshua becomes leader of all Israel after Moses' death (Num 27.12-23; Josh 1.1-11).

In verse 10: Hur is a leader in the Israelite tribe of Judah (24.14; 31.2).

In verses 11-12: Moses' raised hands are a sign of divine power that aids the Israelites in their battle against Amalek.

In verse 14: Write ... in a book: This is the first reference to Moses' writing in a book or scroll.

1 Chronicles 4.41-43 recounts the final defeat of Amalek during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

In verse 15: The word banner ("nas") puns on the verb "test" ("nash," v. 7).

In verse 16: War with Amalek continues for many generations (1 Sam 15.1-9; 30.1-20).

Comments or Questions...

Reading for July 15th

Read Exodus 16.9-17.7

In verse 15: The phrase What is it? ("man hu") is a pun on the name of the food "manna," (v. 31).

In verse 16: An omer is a unit of dry measure, less than a gallon.

See v. 36 where the omer is defined as one-tenth of an "ephah."

An "ephah" is about 20 liters.

In verse 34: The covenant refers to the two stone tablets on which the Ten commandments were written.

The tablets were carried in an ornate container called the "ark" or "art of the covenant" (25.16).

Arron placed the jar of manna into the same ark.

In verse 35: The transition from manna to the produce of Canaan occurs in Josh 5.12.

In 17.7 Massah means "Test" and Meribah means "Quarrel."

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 14th

Israel complains and God responds.
In 15.22-17.7 God provides water and food in response to the legitimate complaints of Israel as they enter into the dry desert of the Sinai Peninsula.
Similar complaints about food and water later (see Num 11.1-9, 31-35; 20.1-13) provoke God's anger and punishment.

Read Exodus 15.22-16.8
In verse 23: The place name Marah means "Bitterness," a wordplay on the bitter water there.
In verse 25: Traditional cultures believed that certain kinds  of wood or trees had the ability to "heal" poisonous water and make it sweet and drinkable.
In 16.1: The wilderness of Sin is in the Sinai peninsula just off the west of Egypt.
In verse 5: They gather together twice as much on the sixth day in order that they may rest on the seventh day.
The seventh day is the day of sabbath rest when no work is to be done (vv. 22-30; see the commandment in 20.8-11).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 13th

Moses and Miriam sing songs of victory

In 15.1-21: These songs of Moses and Miriam represent some of the earliest traditions of the Bible.

The elevated language of Hebrew poetry in the songs  contains many examples of parallelism, or doubling of thoughts and images in consecutive lines.

A recurring image in the poem is the stone.

Israel's enemy sinks or freezes in fear like a lead stone (vv. 5, 10, 16) in contrast to the eternal security of God's stone mountain sanctuary (vv.17-18).

The song of Moses (vv. 1-18) retells the story of ch 14 with some differences in details.

For example, Israel's crossing the sea on dry land (14.22) is not described in the song.  

Read Exodus 15.1-21.

In verse 3: The Lord is a warrior: see comment on 14.14.

In verse 4: On the Red Sea, see comment on 11.13.

In verse 11: Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? 

This question assumes that the Lord is the one superior god above a number of other lesser gods gathered in a heavenly council.

This theme occurs in other in other ancient biblical poems ( (Ps 86.8; 89.6-8).

In verse 13: The poem turns from victory against the Egyptians and describes God leading Israel to the land of Canaan.

In verses 14-16: Philsta (v. 14), Edom, Moab, and Canaan (v. 15) are nations in and around the promised land land of Canaan whom Israel will encounter on the way there.

In verse 17: The mountain may be a reference tot he much later establishment of the Lord's Temple on Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem (Ps 48.1-3) or to the hill country of Canaan in general (Ps 78.54) 

In verses 20-21: The prophet Miriam may have been the original bard or singer in an earlier version of the tradition.

It was women who typically sang victory songs after military victories in ancient Israel (Jug 11.34; 1 Sam 18.6-7).

Comments or Questions.. 

Reading for July 12th

Read Exodus 14.15-31

In verse 17: On the hardening of the heart, see comment on 4.21.

In verse 19: The angel is an alternative way of describing the presence of the Lord (v. 24).

Comments and Questions..

Reading for July 11th

Read Exodus 14.1-14

In 14.1-31: Israel crosses the Red Sea, and God defeats the Egyptians.

As Pharaoh had tried to drown Israel's children in the Nile River (1.22), so Pharaoh and his army will drown in the Red Sea.

The sea crossing is one of the central events in ancient Israel's collective memory.

In verse 2: Pi-hahhiroth, Migdol, and Baal-zephon appear here as sites on the western boundary of Egypt, just before Israel crosses into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula.

In verse 4: On Pharaoh's hardened heart, see comment on 4.21.

In verse 8: On Pharaoh's hardened heart, see v. 4 and comment on 4.21.

The Egyptians ... you shall never see again recalls Moses' words to Pharaoh in 10.28-29.

In verse 14: The image of the Lord as a divine warrior who will fight for you is a frequent biblical theme (15.3; Ps 24.8; Isa 42.13).

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 10th

Read Exodus 13.17-22

In 13.17-22: Led by the pillars of cloud and fire, Israel begins to leave Egypt.

In verse 17: The Philistines were a people who lived on the western border of Canaan near the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

Their territory would have been the most direct route from Goshen (the Nile Delta region of Egypt) to Canaan.

However, the reference to the Philistines here may represent a later tradition since the Philistines settled this region sometimes later than the traditional date for Israel's exodus (after 1200 BCE).

In verse 18: Some scholars argue that the Red Sea ("yum suf") is too far south and too large a body of water to have been the sea Israel would eventually cross (14.21-28).

Thus, some prefer to call it the "Sea of Reeds" and assume it was a shallow body of water farther north in Egypt near the Mediterranean Sea.

However, later readers in ancient Israel may have known only about the larger Red Sea.

In verse 19: See Gen 50.24-26.

In verse 20: The place name Succoth in Hebrew means "Booths" or temporary shelters.

The locations of Succoth and Ethan are uncertain, except that they are on the eastern border of Egypt.

In verse 21: The two pillars or columns of cloud and fire are apparently one and the same (14.24-25).

The cloud by itself is visible by day.

At night, only the fire within the cloud visible.

The cloud and fire are visible signs of God's presence among the Israelites.

Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 9th

Read Exodus 13.1-16

In 13.1-16: Unleavened Bread and first born: God provides instruction for life in Canaan.

The death of Egypt's first born (12.29) prompts the Lord to instruct Israel concerning the dedication or consecration of Israel's firstborn to God (vv. 1-2, 11-16).

 The instructions for Passover (12.1-28, 43-51) also prompt God to provide laws for celebrating a closely related festival, the festival of Unleavened Bread (vv. 3-10).

Both obligations will begin later, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites (vv. 5, 11).

As such, the laws function as a promise for the future.

In verse 4: On the month of Abib, see comment on 12.2.

In verse 5: This listing of peoples- Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and Jebusites- is a traditional list of the native inhabitants of the promised land of Canaan (Gen 15.19-21; Duet 7,1).

In verse 9: Sign on your hand and reminder on your forehead indicate ornaments that came to be worn in worship in remembrance of the Exodus.

In Jewish practice, they are called phylacteries.

See v.16 and Deut 6.8.

In verse 13: The donkey is ritually unclean (Lev 11.3).

Therefore, a ritually clean animal (a sheep) must be offered to redeem or purchase back the first born donkey from God.

If the owner does not redeem the donkey with a sheep, the owner must break its neck and kill it since it cannot be ritually slaughtered as a clean animal.

The firstborn donkey belongs to God and cannot be used by humans without redeeming it.

Every firstborn male child must be redeemed or purchased back from God, either with money (Num 18.16; five shekels) or the substitution of a member of the priestly tribe of Levi (Num 3.11-13).

On the meaning of redeem, see comment 6.6.

In verse 16: See comment on v. 9.

Comments or Questions..