Exodus 34:6-7 - Exposition

The Lord passed by before him . God did as he had promised in Exodus 33:22 , Exodus 33:23 . He made his glory pass by, Moses, as he stood in a "clift of the rock," and "covered him with his hand as he passed by," and, when he had passed, "took away his hand," and allowed Moses to look after him, and see a glorious and transcendent vision—a vision so bright and radiant, and so real , that the light which streamed from it settled on Moses face, and remained there ( Exodus 33:20 ). And proclaimed . In his passage God proclaimed his name; not however, as in the burning bush, an actual name contained in a single word—but a description in many words of his essential nature—a description setting forth especially his three qualities of mercy, truth, and justice, but dwelling most upon the first of the three—perhaps, as most essential, for" God is love" ( 1 John 4:8 )—certainly, as moot needing to be prominently set forth at the time, when his favour had been justly forfeited, and but for ]]is mercy could not have been restored. Note the accumulation of terms that are nearly synonymous—

1 . Merciful (or pitiful);

2 . Gracious;

3 . Long-suffering;

4 . Abundant in goodness;

5 . Keeping mercy for thousands: and

6 . Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin

an accumulation for the purpose of emphasis—to assure Moses, and through him mankind at large, of the reality of this attribute, on which the possibility of our salvation depends, and which had never hitherto been set forth with anything like such fulness. That will by no means clear the guilty . Some critics take this clause in an entirely different sense, translating "who in destroying will not wholly destroy" (Maimonides, Pool, De Dieu, Patrick), or, "who acquits even him who is not innocent" (Geddes); but the rendering of our translators (which agrees with the LXX .], is approved by Rosenmuller, Gesenius, Kalisch, Keil, and others. It seems to have been also the meaning assigned to the passage by the prophet Nahum, who quotes it ( Nahum 1:3 ) when he is threatening Nineveh. Visiting the iniquity. See above, Exodus 20:5 . While setting forth his attribute of mercy in all its fulness, God will not have his attribute of justice forgotten ( Exodus 20:8 ).