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Exodus (in the Greek, Latin, and English versions) means “a going out,” referring to the seminal event of the liberation of Israel from Egyptian bondage through the wondrous acts and power of God. The book celebrates and memorializes this great saving event in song and story and also the awesome revelation and covenant at Mt. Sinai. The contents of the book may be summarized thus: (1) Israel in Egypt, (2) the Exodus and wanderings, (3) the Covenant at Sinai, (4) the apostasy of the people and renewal of the Covenant, and (5) the instructions on building the Tabernacle and their execution.
Redemption and revelation
Significant in the early chapters is God’s special concern for the Hebrew slaves, his reference to them as “my people,” and his revelation to Moses, the rebel courtier whom he has picked to be their leader, that he is YHWH, the God of their fathers, an abiding presence that will rescue them from their misery and bring them into Canaan, the land of promise. This assurance is repeated at the critical moments that follow (e.g., “And I will take you for my people, and I will be your God”). In the series of frustrations, obstacles, and redeeming events that are narrated, God’s special causal power and presence are represented as being at work. God hardens the Pharaoh’s heart, sends plagues that afflict the Egyptians but spare the Hebrews, causes the waters to recede in the Sea of Reeds (or Papyrus Marsh) to permit passage to the fleeing Israelites and then to engulf the pursuing Egyptians (“the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea”), and gives the people guidance in their wandering in the wilderness. The cryptic “name” that God gives to himself in his revelation to Moses (ʿehye ʿasher ʿehye), often translated “I am that I am” or “I will be what I will be,” may also be rendered “I will cause to be that which I will cause to be.” In either case, it is a play on, and an implied interpretation of, the name YHWH.
The constancy of God’s directive power and concern is displayed notably in the period (40 years) of wilderness wandering (on the eastern and southern borders of Canaan), when Israel is tested and tempered not only by hardship but also by rebellious despair that looks back longingly to Egyptian bondage (see also below Numbers). God sends the people bread from heaven (manna) and quail for their sustenance (J and P strands) and, through Moses, brings forth hidden sources of water (JE strand). When the Amalekites (a nomadic desert tribe) attack, Moses, stationed on a nearby hill, controls the tide of battle by holding high the rod of God (a symbol of divine power), and when the enemy is routed he builds an altar called “The Lord is my banner” (E strand). Also inserted here is the account (E) of the visit of Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, a priest of another people (Midianite) who, impressed by YHWH’s marvellous deliverance of Israel, blesses, extols, and sacrifices to him—under the name Elohim, but in the context the same God is clearly meant.
God’s power and presence manifest themselves impressively in the culminating account of the Covenant at Mt. Sinai (or Horeb). The people, forewarned by God through Moses, agree beforehand to carry out the terms of the Covenant that is to be revealed, because God has liberated them from Egypt and promises to make them his special holy people; they purify themselves for the ensuing Covenant ceremony, according to God’s instructions. Yahweh appears in fire and smoke, attended by the blare of a ram’s horn at the top of the mountain, where he reveals to Moses the terms of the Covenant, which Moses then passes on to the people below. Here follow in the text the Ten Commandments and the so-called Covenant Code (or Book of the Covenant) of lesser, specific ordinances, moral precepts, and cultic regulations, accompanied by a promise to help the people conquer their enemies if they will serve no other gods. After this comes the Covenant ceremony with burnt offerings and the sacrifice of oxen, with the blood of the animals thrown both on the altar and on the people to sacramentally seal the Covenant, followed by a sacral meal of Moses and the elders at the mountaintop, during which they see God. Many modern scholars hold that this is presented as the initial form of a Covenant renewal ceremony that was repeated either annually or every seven years in ancient Israel.
There are certain problems and apparent discrepancies in this account that are explained by critical scholarship as deriving from the combination of different sources, mainly J and E, traditions, or emphases. In the opening portion (chapter 19) the people are gathered at the foot of the mountain so as to hear and meet God, and Moses himself brings down to them God’s words. In a later portion (24:12–18, also 32:15–20), after the sacral meal, Moses goes up on the mountain to receive “the tables of stone, with the law and commandments,” inscribed by God himself, and returns with two stone tablets written on both sides by the hand of God—which he breaks in anger at the people’s worship of the molten calf that has developed in his absence. Later (chapter 34), at God’s command, Moses cuts two new stone tablets, upon which after hearing God’s various promises and exhortations, he writes “the words of the covenant, the ten commandments”; finally, he brings the new tablets down to the people and tells them what YHWH has commanded. There seem to be two parallel accounts of the same event, woven together by the skillful redactor into a continuing story. There also seem to be two distinct strands in the account of the sealing of the Covenant in the first 11 verses of chapter 24. According to one, the elders are to worship from afar, and only Moses is to come near YHWH; in the other strand, as noted, the elders eat the sacred meal on the mountaintop in the direct presence of God.
Legislation
The book of Exodus includes not only the narrative and celebration of God’s redemptive action in the Exodus and wanderings and his revealing presence at Mt. Sinai but also a corpus of legislation, both civil and religious, that is ascribed to God and this revelation event. The Covenant Code, or Book of the Covenant, presented in chapters 20–23, immediately following the Decalogue (Ten Commandments), opens with a short passage on ritual ordinances, followed by social and civil law applying to specific situations (case law), including the treatment of slaves, capital crimes, compensation for personal injuries and property damage, moneylending and interest, precepts on the administration of justice, and further ritual ordinances. Scholars generally date this code in the later agricultural period of the settlement in Canaan, but some hold that it is analogous to more ancient Near Eastern law codes and may go back to Moses or to his time. In any case, it seems to be a compilation from various sources, inserted into and breaking the flow of the narrative.
Instructions on the Tabernacle
Also interspersed in the story (chapters 25–31) are God’s detailed instructions to Moses for building and furnishing the Tabernacle, the clothing and ordination of priests, and other liturgical matters. According to this segment (evidently P in inspiration), an elaborate structure is to be set up in the desert, in the center of the camp, taken apart, transported, and assembled again, like the simple “Tent of Meeting” outside the camp, where Moses received oracular revelations from God. Indeed, the two concepts seem to have fused and the Tabernacle is also called the Tent of Meeting. Its prime function is to serve as a sanctuary in which sacrifices and incense are offered on altars and bread presented on a table; it is also equipped with various other vessels and furnishings, including a wooden ark, or cabinet, to contain the two tablets of the Covenant—the famous ark of the Covenant. It is, moreover, to be the place of God’s occasional dwelling and meeting with the people. Scholars believe that the elaborate details and materials described stem from a later, Canaanite, period but that the essential concept of a tent of meeting goes back to an earlier desert time. An account of the execution of the instructions for the building of the Tabernacle is presented in chapters 35–40 (following the apostasy, tablet breaking, and Covenant-renewal episodes), which duplicates to the letter the instructions in chapters 25–31. After the Tabernacle is completed and consecrated, it is occupied by the “glory,” or presence, of YHWH, symbolized by a cloud resting upon it. It is on this note that the book of Exodus ends.
Leviticus
The cultic and priestly laws presented in Exodus are expanded to take up virtually the whole of Leviticus, the Latin Vulgate title for the third of the Five Books of Moses, which may be translated the Book (or Manual) of Priests. With one exception (chapters 8–10), the narrative portions are brief connective or introductory devices to give an ostensibly narrative framework for the detailed lists of precepts that provide the book’s content. The source of Leviticus, both for the legal and narrative passages, is definitely identified as P; it is the only book in the so-called Tetrateuch to which a single source is attributed. Apparently the book consists of materials from various periods, some of them going back to the time of Moses, which were put together at a later date, possibly during or after the Babylonian Exile. Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the ancient origin of much of the material, as opposed to the previous tendency to ascribe a late, even post-exilic date. Despite its content and its dry, repetitive style, many interpreters caution against taking Leviticus as merely a dull, spiritless manual of priestly ritual, holding that it is strictly inseparable from the ethical emphasis and spiritual fervor of the religion of ancient Israel. It is in Leviticus that the so-called law of love, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” first appears. The rituals set forth drily here probably presuppose an inward state in offering to God, as well as humanitarian and compassionate ethics.
The book may be divided thus: chapters 1–7, offerings and sacrifices; chapters 8–10, inauguration of priestly worship; chapters 11–16, purification laws; chapters 17–26, holiness code; chapter 27, commutation of vows and tithes.
Offerings, sacrifices, and priestly worship
The first verse attributes these regulations to YHWH, who speaks to Moses from the Tent of Meeting, beginning with the rules for offerings by the individual layman. These include burnt, cereal, peace, sin, and guilt offerings, all described in precise details. The prescription for priestly offerings is about the same, with some slight differences in the order of actions, and is presented much more briefly. In chapters 8–10 the narrative that was interrupted at the end of Exodus is resumed, and the ordination of Aaron and his sons by Moses, before the people assembled at the door of the Tent of Meeting is described, as are various animal sacrifices by Aaron and his sons under Moses’ direction and the subsequent appearance of God’s “glory” to the people. Aaron’s two older sons are burned to death by fire issuing forth from God because they have offered “unholy fire.” This story apparently emphasizes the importance of adherence to the precise cultic details, as does also the account (at the end of the chapter) of Moses’ anger at Aaron’s two remaining sons for not eating the sin offering. These stories were apparently used by the priestly authors to buttress the authority of the Aaronic priesthood.
Purification laws
With chapter 11 begin the regulations on ritual cleanness and uncleanness, starting with animals and other living things fit and unfit to eat—the basis of the famous Jewish dietary laws. Then come the uncleanness and required purification of women after childbirth, skin diseases, healed lepers, infected houses, and genital discharges. Chapter 16, which belongs in the narrative flow immediately after chapter 10, describes the priestly actions on the Day of Atonement, the culmination of ritual cleansing in Israel. It is a chapter rich in details on Israelite ritual and bound up with the salient religious theme of atonement.
