Exodus 23:22-33

The Book of the Covenant

This section comprises a number of laws designed to regulate the life of an agricultural community living under comparatively simple conditions. The laws are mainly of a civil order with a small admixture of rudimentary religious enactment (see e.g. Exodus 20:23-26; Exodus 23:10-19;). The principle of their arrangement is not clear, but the three sections Exodus 21:23-36; Exodus 22:1-27; Exodus 23:1-8 seem to be amplifications of the sixth, eighth, and ninth commandments of the Decalogue respectively. The Book of the Covenant occupies an intermediate position between the brief and general principles enunciated in the Decalogue and the minute and detailed legislation set forth elsewhere in the Pentateuch. For the relationship between the legislation of Moses and that of earlier civilisations, see Intro. § 2, and art. ’Laws of Hammurabi.’

23. RV is preferable, ’Ye shall not make other gods with me; gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you.’ This is a repetition of the first and second commandments.

24. An altar of earth] i.e. of the simplest form and material, as a precaution against idolatrous representations: cp. Exodus 20:25 Deuteronomy 27:5, Deuteronomy 27:6. On the different kinds of sacrifice see Leviticus 1-7, and on Leviticus 18:12. Record my name] lit. ’cause my name to be remembered,’ by some special manifestation of power or grace. A plurality of sacrificial places is here expressly sanctioned, and the historical books of OT. record numerous instances of altars being erected and sacrifice offered in many different places down to the reformation of king Josiah, which took place in the year 621 b.c. In the book of Deuteronomy a plurality of sacrificial places is condemned, and worship restricted to a central sanctuary: see on Deuteronomy 12:4, Deuteronomy 12:13.;

25. See on Exodus 20:24.

26. With the same object, to prevent exposure of the person, it is afterwards prescribed that the priests be provided with linen drawers while officiating at the altar: see Exodus 28:42, Exodus 28:43. The top of the altar of burnt offering, which was four and a half ft. high, was reached, according to tradition, by means of a sloping ramp of earth: cp. Exodus 27:5, and see on Leviticus 9:22.