Exodus Chapter 34    

“went up on Mount Sinai.” This was Moses’ seventh and final time up Mount Sinai before Israel left the area. On this trip, Moses took two stone tablets that he had chiseled out of stone to replace the ones he had broken that God had made. God wrote on the tablets (Exod. 34:28), but Moses had to chisel them out of rock and bring them to God.

As with Moses’ fifth time up Mount Sinai, Moses was there for 40 days and 40 nights (Exod. 34:28), but this time when Moses was gone the Israelites at the bottom of the mountain obeyed God and waited patiently for Moses to come down. Then, when Moses finally did come down, his face radiated (Exod. 34:29).

[For more information on Moses’ seven trips up Mount Sinai, see commentary on Exod. 19:3.]

“visiting the iniquity of the fathers.” See commentary on Exodus 20:5.

“kneeled and bowed down.” This kneeling preceded bowing down to the ground. The two actions, kneeling and then bowing to the ground blended into one act of homage or worship. The common biblical way of bowing down before people or God was to fall to one’s knees and bow the upper body and face to the earth. Also, instead of “kneeled and bowed down,” the text could be translated, “bowed down and worshiped,” with “kneeling” being understood as part of the process of bowing down, and “bowing down” was the act of worship. The same Hebrew verb, shachah (#07812 שָׁחָה), is translated as both “bow down” and “worship;” traditionally “worship” if God is involved and “bow down” if people are involved, but the verb and action are the same, the act of bowing down is the worship.

[For more on bowing down, see commentary on 1 Chron. 29:20.]

“the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.” All of these tribes except the Perizzites are descended from Ham’s son Canaan, and are thus included when “Canaanites” is used in its wider sense (and even then the Perizzites might be generally included as inhabitants of the land of Canaan. Genesis 10 says, “Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn)[thus the Phoenicians], Heth [thus the Hittites], the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite” (Gen. 10:15-18).

“Perizzite.” A tribe of unknown origin in that by the time of Joshua lived in the hill country of Judah and Ephraim. See commentary on Joshua 9:1.

“dash in pieces their sacred standing-stones.” Standing-stones would often be set up as part of the worship of pagan gods. But God has no tolerance for idols. They are harmful in many different ways. They are to be destroyed.

[For more on standing-stones, see commentary on Gen. 28:18. For more on idols being harmful, see commentary on Deuteronomy 7:5.]

“worship” A common way of worship was to bow down before the god. Thus, the Hebrew word for this bowing down, shachah (#07812 שָׁחָה), was also the word translated as “worship.” Often, “prostration” was to fall to one’s knees and bow the upper body to the earth, such bowing was an act of worship.

[For more on prostration, see commentary on 1 Chron. 29:20.]

“Feast of Weeks.” That is the Feast of Pentecost.

“Feast of Ingathering.” That is the Feast of Booths, often called the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles. Today it is often referred to as “Sukkot” (alternatively spelled “Succoth”).

“ten commandments.” The Hebrew text is “the ten words,” using “words” like we do for a sentence or message (cp. Deut. 4:13; 10:4).

“when Moses came down from Mount Sinai.” This was Moses’ seventh and last time down Mount Sinai. He had been up on the mountain with God for 40 days and nights (Exod. 34:28), the second time he had spent 40 days and nights on Mount Sinai (cp. Exod. 24:18). After this seventh time on Mount Sinai, Moses assembled all the material for the Tent of Meeting and had it set up, and it was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year of the wilderness journey, so Israel had been in the wilderness for just short of a year when it was set up (they had left Egypt on the fifteenth day of the first month of the year before).

[For more information on Moses’ seven trips up Mount Sinai, see commentary on Exod. 19:3.]