v.2: I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the home (or house) of slavery.

Transcription

1 Exodus 20 v.1: Then God spoke all of these words, saying: v.2: I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the home (or house) of slavery. v.2: The word bet (בית) can be a place, or a literal, physical house; it can also refer to a family or an extended family, like a clan. Here we use home in the sense of being a geographical place where slavery was practiced. v.3: For you there shall be no other gods upon My face. v.3: My face is al panay פני).(על This could be rendered on top of My face through the use of the word al (on top of, on). v.4: You will not make a carved or metal idol for yourself, or a copy of anything in Heaven above, or that is on earth below, or in the sea underneath the land. v.4: It is noteworthy that the use of you in yourself is in the singular form throughout chapter 20. This would indicate that God was addressing the entire people as one whole nation, you or yourself referring to all Israel (in today s Hebrew, we would say, klal yisrael ). The word pesel Heaven, indicates a wooden or metal idol. In copy of anything in (פסל) the word temunah is used for copy. This word is translated also as picture, likeness or representation. Copy expresses the idea being talked about very well: to paraphrase this, You will not make a (false) copy of anything in Heaven. In other words, Israel was not to try and make its own religious system like the nations did, instead, Israel was to follow the instructions that truly came from Heaven (The Torah). v.5: Don t prostrate yourself before them, and don t serve them, because I am Adonai your God, a jealous God, allowing the influence of the Torah transgressions of the fathers upon the sons, upon the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, v.5: The word used here is poqed,(פקד) allow to influence, and can also mean to show up or report for duty when used in its hitpa el verb

2 form. The gist of the grammar and vocabulary is that the Torah transgressions of one generation can influence the next generation(s). v.6: and carrying out covenant love to thousands who love Me, and who guard over My instructions. v.7: "Do not lift up/carry (continually) the Name of the Lord (the Name) your God for emptiness for the Lord (the Name) will not clean who has lifted up/carried His Name for emptiness." v. 7: The text uses the word lo,(לא) meaning no, and then the action is in the imperfect; so we can understand God as saying: you will not... "You will not lift up/carry (continually) the Name of the Lord (the Name) your God for emptiness for the Lord (the Name) will not clean who has lifted up/carried His Name for emptiness." Emptiness is the word leshav.(לשווא) Often translated vainly, in vain or emptily. Clean is naqeh,(נקה) the normal word for cleaning something off from dirt. This word is used as a pictorial image here, meaning to wipe clean or cleanse from transgression. The text in Exodus 20 uses the word lo ( no ) continually; and then the action is in the imperfect so we can understand God saying: "You will not murder, You will not commit adultery, You will not steal..." Keep in mind the first of The Ten Words, For you there shall be no other god upon My Face. Following the First of The Ten Words we can understand Abba s words to us. With only His Face upon His Face, it is that Face that is our true mirror to know ourselves created in His image. If we take His Face as our foundational reference from which to walk out our lives, we will not murder, we will not commit adultery, we will not steal... v.8: Remember the Sabbath day, to separate it out. v.8: The word lekadsho,(לקדשו) to separate it out, means to set something apart in order to use it for a special purpose. This is the background of the word holy in English, which is the translation of the.(ק-ד-ש) q-d-sh Hebrew root

3 v.9: Six days you will carry out wage earning work, and do all your creative work, v.9: The word ta avod (תעבוד) generally means to toil, work, labor, including all wage earning work; in contrast, melakah is creative work that is carried out by the hands of men. v.10: And the seventh day is Sabbath for Adonai your God; don t do any creative work you, your son, your daughter, your male worker, your female worker, your domestic animals, the convert who is at your gates, v.10: for Adonai is l Adonai ;(לה ) literally it is a preposition, meaning to Adonai; but it is an idiom meaning for the purposes of Adonai. Thus an alternative translation could be: And the seventh day is the Sabbath, for the purposes of Adonai The phrase, at your gates is one possibility, if the convert is coming to one s town for refuge. Or in your gates is another possibility, if the convert is already living in one s town, or is at the town gates seeking a legal judgment from the tribal elders. v.11: because Adonai made the Heavens and the earth in six days: the sea, and all that is in them; and He ceased on the seventh day. Based upon this, Adonai blessed the Sabbath day and He set it apart. v.11: The idiom al ken כן) (על is translated Based upon this, Adonai blessed the Sabbath day and He set it apart. It is literally on top of this. v.12: Give weight to your father and your mother, so your life will be long on the ground that Adonai your God is giving you. v.13: Do not commit murder. v.14: Do not commit adultery. v.15: Do not steal. v.16: Do not answer your neighbor with a false testimony.

4 v.17: Do not deeply desire your neighbor s home, your neighbor s wife, his male worker, his female worker, or his bull, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. v.17: Home, bayit, could again, be the neighbor s physical home, or beyond that, his extended family and possessions, which are then mentioned in the remainder of the verse. The male worker mentioned in this verse, eved (עבד) may refer to the indentured worker that is mentioned in Leviticus 25: The neighbor, re a (רע) being referred to is not simply one s next door neighbor, but this is a word that includes every citizen. Yeshua commented upon this same word, re a, in Luke 10:25 37, when asked Who is my re a? (the Greek word plesion is used in the Luke text, which parallels the Hebrew word re a). v.18: So all the people saw the voices and the torches, the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking. They saw it and they shook in fear, so that they stood far off. v.18: The phrase shook in fear is vayanu u.(וינועו) It means to move, to sway or to shake. The language could bring up images of different actions that the people took, but we translated it as shook in fear, as it is a literal and logical meaning. v.19: Then they said to Moshe: You speak with us; we will pay attention and take action; but God shouldn t speak with us, or we will die! v.20: So Moshe spoke to the people: Don t be afraid, because it is to try you that God has come; and in order for His fear to be before you, so you won t transgress the Torah. v.20: Moses speaks to the people in this verse in the second person plural, meaning that he uses you to refer to all the individuals who made up the people of Israel. The word for try you is nasot.(נסות) It is the same word as an experience in Hebrew. So, a paraphrase of this verse may be that God has come to give experiences to the people that will build their faith, establish the fear of God, and help them to follow the instructions of life that is their life, The Torah. Won t transgress the Torah is l bilti teheta u לבלתי תחטאו) ), literally, so not to miss the mark, on a target.

5 v.21: And the people stood far away, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was present! v.22: Then Adonai said to Moshe: You will say this to the sons of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken with you from Heaven. v.23: Don t make of me gods of silver and gods of gold; don t do this to yourselves. v.23: The vocabulary of the sentence ( of me ) is that God has forbidden the making of metal idols, literally, with me. However, God is not involved in making the idols; instead, this refers to possible attempts by men to portray the One True God as an idol. This is what is forbidden. The verse refers to the purposeful act of changing Who God is, to appease people and to fit our image of him. v.24: Make an altar of earth for me, and offer your olah offerings on it, and your peace offerings; your flock, and your cattle. In every place where I remember My name, I will come to you and will bless you. v.24: An olah offering (עולה) is the whole, burnt offering. v.25: But if you make an altar of stones for Me, don t build them from hewn stone, since you will bring out your cutting tool for it, and pervert it. v.25: Hewn stone, gazit,(גזית) is rock that was quarried or otherwise cut or trimmed by human hands. Bring out a cutting tool here is to literally wave around, henafta,(הנפת) a cutting tool. v.26: And don t go up my altar on stairs, so that your impropriety will not be known on it. v.26: The vocabulary in this verse makes it a bit difficult to understand. Building and walking up stairs onto the top of the altar is forbidden, that much is clear. The phrase your impropriety will not be known is an idiom, with a number of possible meanings. One meaning is that the impropriety, or improper action, of using stairs would be seen by all people present. Another meaning is that the improper action of climbing stairs would be seen by God, and thus the offering would become pegul (the rabbinic category for an invalid offering). Lastly, the word for

6 impropriety or improper action is ervah ;(ערוה) in Deuteronomy 24:1 it is used to mean sexual impropriety. This could be its meaning here, though its specific connotation is not evident in the text.