Book of Exodus
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Template:Books of Torah Exodus is the second book of the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Old Testament. The major events of the book concern the Exodus, a departure of Hebrew slaves from Egypt under the leadership of Moses.
Jews call the book by its first words Ve-eleh shemot (Hebrew: ואלה שמות) (i.e., "And these are the names") or simply "Shemot" (שמות). The Septuagint designates the second book of the Pentateuch as "Exodus" (Greek: Ἔξοδος), meaning "departure" or "out-going". The Latin translation adopted the name, which passed into other languages.
The book is generally broken into six sections:
- The account of the growth of the Israelites into a people and their enslavement in Egypt
- The birth, exile and call of Moses
- Moses' ministry, the plagues, and the Passover
- The journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai (13-18)
- The formation of a covenant between God and the people, and its associated laws (19-24)
- Intricate instructions for the construction of a tabernacle, priestly robes, and other ritual objects (25-31)
- The episode of the golden calf, and the regiving of the law (32-34)
- The construction of the tabernacle, priestly robes, and other ritual objects (35-40)
A major Chiastic structure runs throughout the second half of Exodus, centered on the episode of the golden calf.
Summary
The story of the Exodus is both inspiring and fearsome. It is also interspersed with editorial interpretations, genealogies, and long lists of priestly regulations, moral codes, and building instructions for the portable religious sanctuary, or tabernacle, which the Israelites carried through the wilderness. The basic outline of the story is as follows:
The Israelites' enslavement in Egypt
The later chapters of Genesis describe a great famine which had struck the Promised Land, causing the Hebrews to relocate to Egypt. Their kinsman Joseph had risen to a position of great power there. Thanks largely to his administrative skills, food in Egypt remained plentiful. Joseph persuaded his entire extended family to come live under his protection so that he can support them for the duration of the famine. Once the famine ends, however, the Hebrews do not return to the Promised Land. Rather, they proceed to settle down in Egypt and remain there for many generations.
The Book of Exodus opens as a new Pharaoh, who knew not Joseph, becomes concerned about the military implications of the large increase in the Israelite population. He enslaves them and allows them only manual labour, ordering the Hebrew midwives to kill all male babies.
The birth, exile, and call of Moses
A Levite woman, later Jochebed, the wife of Amram (6:20), avoids this fate for her son by placing him in a reed basket that she floats down the Nile. A daughter of the king of Egypt finds the infant, calling him Moses (translated as drawn out, from Hebrew but also related to the Egyptian word for "son). After his own mother serves as wet nurse to the child, Moses is brought up as an Egyptian prince. When he becomes a man, he takes sympathy for one of the Hebrew laborers that is being whipped by his overlords. Moses kills the Egyptian oppressor and buries his body in the sand. Worse, the Hebrews themselves view his act as a threat and begin to spread the news of his deed.
To escape from Pharaoh, who seeks his life, Moses flees the country. Moses' exile takes him to Midian, where he becomes shepherd to the priest Jethro (here called Reuel) and marries his daughter, Zipporah. As he feeds the sheep on Mount Horeb, God beckons Moses from a burning bush. In one of the Bible's most memorable scenes, God reveals his true name of Yahweh, and orders Moses to return to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from Pharaoh. Moses at first demurs, saying the Israelites will not believe him, but and gives him the power to perform miraculous signs to show his authority. Moses still hesitates, and God's "anger burned against Moses." Aaron, mentioned now for the first time and identified as Moses' older brother, is appointed to assist him. On his return to Egypt, apparently still angry, tries to kill Moses, but Zipporah circumcises Moses' son, thus saving Moses' life.(2-4)
Moses' ministry, the plagues, and the Passover
Moses meets with the Egyptian ruler and asks permission to go a on a three day piligrimage into the desert to offer sacrifice to Yahweh. The king refuses Moses' request and oppresses the people still further, ordering them to gather their own straw to make their daily quota of bricks without diminishing the quota. God sends a series of miraculous but horrendous plagues onto Egypt, sometimes giving the Eyptian king a warning first. In cases where Aaron performs the miracle, the Egyptian priests are duplicate it. The plagues are removed through Moses' entreaty to God. The king (called "Pharaoh") repents on occasion, but God intentionally "hardens Pharaoh's heart" in order to demonstrate his power.
As the plagues continue, the king begins to negotiate with Moses. He agrees to let the men make their pilgrimage to offer sacrifice but not the Israelite women and children. Eventually he agrees to let everyone go, but not their animals. Finally, God send a truly horrendous plague, killing all the Egyptian firstborn. Yahweh passes over the houses of the Israelites, recognizing them by lamb's blood that Moses has ordered painted on each Hebrew home's door post. This story provides the background for the holiday of Passover. The king finally truly relents and allows the Israelites to make their three-day pilgrimage. The Egyptians send them on their way with gifts of gold and jewelry. (11-12)
The journey to Mount Sinai (13-18)
The Exodus thus begins as a temporary journey only, and the Israelites leave to go to Succoth to make their sacrifices to Yahweh. The nobles of Egypt complain, so Pharaoh gathers together a large army to chase after the Israelites, who have by this point reached what is referred to as the "Reed Sea" (Yam Suph — often mistranslated as the Red Sea). Fortunately for the Israelites, they are divinely guarded, and are able to cross over the sea on dry land as Moses causes the waters to part. The waters collapse once the Israelites have passed, defeating Pharaoh and drowning his armies. The Israelites joyfully sing the Song of the Sea (13-14).
The Israelites continue their journey into the desert, and once in the Wilderness of Sin, they complain about the lack of food. Listening to their complaint, God sends them a large quantify of low-flying Quail, and subsequently provides a daily ration of manna. Once at Rephidim, the thirst torments the people, and water is miraculously provided from a rock. Here the Amalekites carry out a sneak attack on the Israelites. The newly emergent military hero Joshua manages to vanquish them, God still orders an eternal war against Amalek (15-17). (The Amalekites are a tribe unknown to history outside of the Bible.) Zipporah's father Jethro hears of Moses' approach and visits him. Although not an Israelite, he "offers sacrifices to God and eats a sacred meal with "elders of Israel in God's presence." (18:12) Jathro alsoMoses to appoint judges to assist in the administration tribal affairs, and "Moses listend to his father-law and did everythng that he said to do. (18:24)
The Covenant and its Laws (19-24)
In the third month the Israelites arrive at Mount Sinai, and God announces, via Moses, that the Israelites are God's people, because he has liberated them by his omnipotence. The Israelites accept this call, and so, with thunder and lightning, clouds of smoke, and the noise of trumpets, God appears to them at the top of Mount Sinai (19).
God then announces a summarised moral law, the Ethical Decalogue (20). A more detailed Covenant Code is subsequently provided, concerning both ritual and civil law, and God promises Canaan to the Israelites if they obey, but warns against the paganism of its inhabitants (21-23). God calls Moses up into the mountain to receive a set of stone tablets containing the law, and further instructions (24).
The Tabernacle, vestments, and ritual objects (25-31)
While Moses is on the mountain, Yahweh gives him detailed instructions regardomg the construction of a tabernacle, so that God can dwell permanently among the Israelites (25-28), including:
- The Ark of the Covenant, to contain the tablets
- A mercy seat, with two gilt cherubim on either side, serving as a throne for Yahweh
- A menorah, never to be extinguished, and its oil
- A portable but substantial structure to contain these things.
- An outer court, involving pillars on bronze pedestals.
Instructions are also given for the garments of the priests (28):
- A shoulder-band (ephod), containing two onyx stones, each engraved with the names of six of the tribes of Israel.
- A breastplate (possibly part of the ephod) containing Urim and Thummim for divination.
- Golden chains for holding the breastplate set with twelve specific precious stones, in four rows.
- A robe with bells and pomegranates around the seam
- A coat and girdle.
- A mitre with a golden plate with the inscription Holy to the Lord.
Following these instructions God specifies that ritual to be used to ordain the priests, including robing, anointing, and seven days of sacrifices. Instructions are also provided for morning and evening offerings of a lamb (29). Additional tabernacle instruction follow involving the making of a golden altar of incense, laver, anointing oil, and perfume (30). Bezaleel and Aholiab are identified, by God, as the appointed craftsmen to construct these things (31).
The golden calf (32-34)
Whilst Moses is up the mountain, the people become impatient and urge Aaron fashion an icon for their worship. He collects their golden jewelry and fashions a bull-calf, proclaim "Here is God, who brought you out of Egypt." (The word used is elohim, normally translated as God, but here often translated as "gods.") The Israelites worship with joy. Yahweh, however, is offended and informs Moses that the people have become idolatrous. He threatens to abandon Israel, but Moses intercedes. However, when he comes down with tablets in hand Moses become enraged and smashes the two tablets of the Law. After pronouncing judgment upon Aaron and the people, Moses again ascends to God to implore forgiveness, and is successful (32-33). Moses consequently is commanded to make two new tablets on which God will personally write the commandments. God then gives the Ritual Decalogue, writing the ten commandments onto the tablets. Moses then returns to the people, who listen to him in respectful silence (34). Moses slayed those who worshiped the golden calf (Exod 32:27) to rid himself of the doubters and dissenters.
The Construction of the tabernacle (35-40)
Moses collects the congregation, enjoins upon them the keeping of the Sabbath, and requests gifts for the sanctuary. The entire people respond willingly, and under the direction of Bezaleel, and Aholiab, they complete all the instructions, for making the tabernacle, its contents, and the priestly robes, and the Israelites put it together on the first day of the second month (35-40). This section largely copied for word copy of Chapters 25-31.
Authorship
As with for the other books of the Torah, both Orthodox Judaism and Christianity hold that the text of Exodus was dictated to Moses by God Himself. Modern biblical scholarship, however, regards the text as being compiled either the Kingdom of Judah (7th c. B.C.E.) or post-exilic times (6th or 5th c. BCE). This does not preclude the possibility, scholars admit, that some of the material in Exodus is quite old.
The documentary hypothesis postulates that there were several, post-Moses, authors, whose stories have been intertwined by a later redactor. The three main authors of the work are said, in this hypothesis, to be the Yahwist, Elohist, and Priestly source. In addition, the poetic Song of the Sea and the prose Covenant Code are thought to have been originally independent works one of the above writers included.
A particularly interesting episodes is the revelation of God's name, Yahweh, to Moses for the first time in Edodus --------. This story, thought to be from "P," contradicts the earlier Yahwist affirmation that the patriarchs called about "the name of Yahweh." Some scholars speculate that the two versions of the 10 commandments included in Exodus....
The Elohist is identified as uniquely responsible for the episode of the golden calf, and the priestly source as uniquely responsible for the instructions about creating the tabernacle, vestments, and ritual objects. The Elohist with the Covenant Code, the Priestly source with the Ethical Decalogue, and the Yahwist with the Ritual Decalogue.
The other parts of the book are believed to have been constructed by intertwining the Yahwist, Elohist, and Priestly, versions of each of the stories. Deconstructions of the stories into these sources identify heavy variations between stories. For example, the Priestly Source never provides a warning to Pharaoh about the plagues and always involves Aaron — the archetype of priesthood. The Elohist always provides a warning to Pharoah and hardly ever portarys Aaron in a positive light.
Historicity
The time-span in this book, from the death of Joseph to the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness, covers about one hundred and forty-five years, on the supposition that one computes the four hundred and thirty years (12:40) from the time of the promises made to Abraham (Gal. 3:17).
There have been several attempts to fix the date of the events in the book to a precise point on the Gregorian Calendar. These attempts generally rest on three considerations
- Who the unnamed pharaoh was
- The dates for non-biblical accounts of large numbers of semitic people leaving Egypt
- The date that archaeology implies Jericho was destroyed
Generally, fixing the identification of the Pharaoh is considered the key, and two dynasties are usually suggested:
- Ramses II or Merneptah of the 19th Dynasty, around 1290 B.C.E., favoured by the large majority of both religious and secular scholars, although this contradicts several key aspects of the biblical account, and neglects several recent archaeological discoveries in Tel el-Dab'a and Jericho. See Ramesses II#Pharaoh of Exodus.3F.
- Thutmose III or Amenhotep II of the 18th Dynasty, around 1444 B.C.E., favoured by a large minority of mostly religious scholars, since it precedes the destruction of Jericho, although some doubt surrounds the archaeological evidence supporting the Exodus and Canaanite conquest dating. However it should be noted that Egypt still dominated the Canaan at that period in history [1], making such a date less plausible. The carbon-dating tests at Jericho are also disputed in age.
- Akhenaton of the 18th Dynasty, around 1340 B.C.E. The link to Akhenaton is that, like Moses, this pharaoh was struggling to convert the people to monotheism. The brother of Akhenaton was named Tuth-Moses, and while it is often assumed that this Tuth-Moses died young Professor Cyril Aldred shows that he was the commander of the king's chariot forces. [1] The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius similarly records that Moses was an Egyptian prince and army commander (Antiquities 2:232, 2:241). [2]
- Many others have been suggested, such as Dudimose, the Hyksos expulsion, and others. See Dudimose and The Exodus Decoded.
See also
|
Book of Exodus Portal |
- The Exodus
- Moses
- Tabernacle
- Torah portions in Exodus: Shemot, Va'eira, Bo, Beshalach, Yitro, Mishpatim, Terumah, Tetzaveh, Ki Tisa, Vayakhel, and Pekudei
- Film adaptations of the Book of Exodus
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Colin J. Humphreys, The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist’s Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories 2003, HarperSanFrancisco
- W. F. Albright From the Stone Age to Christianity (2nd edition) Doubleday/Anchor
- W. F. Albright Archaeology and the Religion of Israel (5th edition) 1969, Doubleday/Anchor
- Encyclopedia Judaica, Keter Publishing, entry on "Population", volume 13, column 866.
- Y. Shiloh, "The Population of Iron Age Palestine in the Light of a Sample Analysis of Urban Plans, Areas and Population Density." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR), 1980, 239:25-35
- Exploring Exodus: The Origins of Biblical Israel Nahum Sarna, Shocken Books, 1986 (first edition), 1996 (reprint edition), chapter 5, "Six hundred thousand men on foot".
- "Those Amazing Biblical Numbers: Taking Stock of the Armies of Ancient Israel" William Sierichs, Jr.
- "The Rise of Ancient Israel : Symposium at the Smithsonian Institution October 26, 1991" by Hershel Shanks, William G. Dever, Baruch Halpern and P. Kyle McCarter, Biblical Archaeological Society, 1992.
- The Biblical Exodus in the Light of Recent Research: Is There Any Archaeological or Extra-Biblical Evidence?, Hershel Shanks, Editor, Biblical Archaeological Society, 1997
- Secrets of the Exodus: The Egyptian Origins of the Hebrew People", by Messod Sabbah, Roger Sabbath, Helios Press, 2004
External links
Online versions and translations of Exodus
Arabic translations
Jewish translations
- Exodus at Mechon-Mamre (Jewish Publication Society translation)
- Exodus (The Living Torah) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's translation and commentary at Ort.org
- Shemot - Exodus (Judaica Press) translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org
- Shmot (Original Hebrew - English at Mechon-Mamre.org)
Christian translations
- Exodus Douay-Rheims Bible
- Exodus New American Bible
- Online Bible at GospelHall.org
- Exodus at The Great Books (New Revised Standard Version)
- Exodus King James Version (English)
- Exodus at Wikisource (Authorized King James Version)
Translations identifying sources
- Book of Exodus article (Jewish Encyclopedia)
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