Exodus 34:5

5. Descended… stood… proclaimed There was also, according to the next verse, a movement of the sublime theophany as of one passing by . This was the fulfilment of the promise recorded in Exodus 33:19-23, and was, says Clarke, “the second revelation of the name of the God of Israel to Moses . The first revelation was of Jehovah as the Self-existent One, who purposed to deliver his people with a mighty hand, (Exodus 3:14;) this was of the same Jehovah as a living Saviour, who was now forgiving their sins. The two ideas that mark these revelations are found combined, apart from their historical development, in the second commandment, (Exodus 20:5-6,) where the divine unity is shown on its practical side, in its relation to human obligations . Both in the commandment and in this passage the divine love is associated with the divine justice; but in the former there is a transposition to serve the proper purpose of the commandments, and the justice stands before the love . This is strictly the legal arrangement, brought out in the completed system of the ceremonial law, in which the sin offering, in acknowledgment of the sentence of justice against sin, was offered before the burnt offering and the peace offering. But in this place the truth appears in its essential order; the retributive justice of Jehovah is subordinated to rather, it is made a part of his forgiving love.” Speaker’s Commentary.