A Covenant Codicil Containing Ten Ritual Requirements Which Will Confirm Their Faithfulness to Their Overlord As Selected from Chapter s 20-23 (Exodus 34:17-26).
In counteracting the temptation to idolatry Yahweh now pronounces what are seemingly ten reminders of what His ritual requirements concerning Himself in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:1 to Exodus 23:33) were. The thought is that temptation is best fought by positive action rather than simply by rejection of the sin. The one who is busy about the Lord's work will not have the time to be busy with sin.
Ten was a regular number used for lists, although the number word is not mentioned. Compare the ten Patriarchs in Genesis 5 and in Genesis 11 (paralleled elsewhere in lists). The ten plagues in Egypt. The ten ‘words' in Exodus 20. It will be noted that apart from the first, the eighth and the tenth statements they are all ritual requirements, and that the first and last form an inclusio referring to idolatry.
But it must be admitted that the numbering of the instructions as ten may simply be due to the commentator, for the eighth may in fact be a continuation of the seventh (it is negative), which then means that we have only nine in the list, whilst the same may be true of the third which may be a continuation of the second (note that it is not a positive command). Exodus 34:13 may also need to be included among the commands. Thus it may well be argued that we do not have ten.
a 1). “You shall make yourself no molten gods.”
b 2). “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib. For in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.”
c 3). “All that opens the womb is mine, and all your cattle which are male, the firstlings of ox and sheep. And the firstling of an ass you will redeem with a lamb, and if you will not redeem it then you shall break its neck.
d 4). “All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty.”
e 5). “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In ploughing time and in harvest you shall rest.”
e 6). “And you shall observe the feast of sevens, even of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year end.”
d 7). “Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. Nor will any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh your God three times in the year.”
c 8). “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with unleavened bread, nor shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to the morning.”
b 9). “The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of Yahweh your God.
a 10). You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.”
Note the parallels. In ‘a' the making of molten images is forbidden, and in the parallel pagan practises with regard to idolatry are forbidden. In ‘b' the command is to keep the feast of unleavened bread and in the parallel the bringing of the first of the firstfruits to Yahweh is commanded. It was on the first day of unleavened bread that a sheaf of the firstfruits was presented before Yahweh (Leviticus 23:10-11), ‘the first of the firstfruits', a symbol of all the firsfruits offered to Him. In ‘c' all beasts that opened the womb were to be offered to Yahweh as an offering, (without having been tainted by work), and in the parallel the blood of sacrifices was not to be offered with unleavened bread, nor was the feast of the Passover to be left until the morning. The holiness of all must be preserved. The offering of firstlings was closely connected with Passover (Exodus 13:1), as was unleavened bread. We note also that these are the only two instructions which are not positive commands. In ‘d' the firstborn of sons had to be redeemed, and no one was to appear before Yahweh empty. In the parallel all males were to appear before Yahweh three times a year. In ‘e' they must work for six days and rest in the seventh day in both ploughing time and harvest, and in the parallel they must observe the feast of sevens, even of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year end, the former a rest day and the latter including rest days, both connected with harvest.
It should be noted that these ritual requirements closely parallel those in Exodus 20-23. The first one parallels Exodus 20:4. The second closely resembles Exodus 23:15. And the chiasmus there which includes it, and of which extracts are included below, confirms that Exodus 23 is primary.
“You shall make yourself no molten gods.”
This stands as a direct command by itself and briefly parallels Exodus 20:4. Compare also Leviticus 19:4. It may, however, also be looked at as a tailpiece to the previous verses and has very much in mind the molten calf and the similar images they will find among the Canaanites. They are not to ape their previous sad behaviour with the molten calf (Exodus 32:8) when they arrive in the land, by making Baal-like images.
Having hopefully saved them from Canaanite religion Yahweh now outlines rather the positive things they should do, and there now follow a number of provisions whereby they will reveal themselves as true to Yahweh, and truly His people. Compare for these Exodus 23:14-19. These involve keeping the feast of unleavened bread; offering to Yahweh all that opens the womb, i.e. the firstborn; keeping the Sabbath day; observing the feast of weeks; the threefold appearance before Yahweh in order to maintain tribal unity; not to offer leavened bread with their sacrifices; not to leave anything of the feast of Passover until the morning; the requirement that they bring the firstfruits of their harvests to the house of Yahweh their God; and the command to avoid the magical practise of seething a kid in its mother's milk. Most of these have been dealt with previously and simply sum up the things that reveal a good Israelite. Some are almost exact repetitions of what is in the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 23:14-19). Yahweh is therefore indicating that He now looks on them as good Israelites again.
“You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib. For in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.”
Compare for this Exodus 12:15-20; Exodus 23:15. Here also it is linked with the deliverance from Egypt. The unleavened bread would remind them of the haste with which they left Egypt because Yahweh was delivering them. It may well have been a regular feast before that, but in Egypt its significance had been changed. (The observing of the Passover is spoken of later, Exodus 34:25).
“All that opens the womb is mine, and all your cattle which are male, the firstlings of ox and sheep. And the firstling of an ass you will redeem with a lamb, and if you will not redeem it then you shall break its neck.”
Compare here Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12-13 from which this command is constructed (although it is not strictly a command. It may well be that this is simply to be appended to 2).), especially as in Exodus 23:15 the final phrase is linked with the feast of unleavened bread above. Thus all firstborns must be either offered to Yahweh sacrificially, ransomed, or have their necks broken if unclean. Usually an ass would be worth more than a lamb, and would thus be redeemed, but there would be cases where the ass was deformed or otherwise not valuable, then the alternative would be to break its neck. It could not be sacrificed because it was ‘unclean'. See for the whole Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12-13; Exodus 22:29-30.
“All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty.”
The male firstborn of humans must be redeemed. This was a specific requirement. There must be no child sacrifice among the Israelites. They required redeeming because Yahweh had spared them in the night of judgment at the Passover. They therefore especially belonged to Him.
“ None shall appear before me empty.” This distinctive phrase is all embracing. See Exodus 23:15 where it comes after describing the feast of unleavened bread and Deuteronomy 16:16 where it follows mention of the three feasts. It is either a promise that such will be the fruitfulness of the land that ‘emptiness' will be unknown, or an injunction to ensure that they bring their gifts to Yahweh. Here then it is either again a promise of many lambs and kids or a reminder that they must not come with empty hands. Their loyalty to Yahweh must be constantly demonstrated in gratitude for provision made.
“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In ploughing time and in harvest you shall rest.”
The newly founded Sabbath must be observed, even when it was ploughing time or harvest. Nothing must prevent the Sabbath rest which is for all. Even the most urgent of tasks must not interfere with it, the exception being in order to deal with their beasts daily needs. See Exodus 20:8-11; Exodus 23:12; Exodus 35:2-3. It was a specific sign that they were Yahweh's (Exodus 31:13).
“And you shall observe the feast of sevens, even of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year end.”
These two feasts are mentioned together, in order to prepare, along with the feast of unleavened bread, for the next verse. See also Exodus 23:16 where both feasts are spoken of together. Both are harvest festivals, one for wheat and the other for vintage. As a competent leader Moses would have made himself aware of what weather conditions were like in Canaan, and what harvests there were, and God obviously knew.
“ The year end.” That is, looking from the point of view of the farmer who would see the final harvest as the end of his agricultural year as the ‘year end' agriculturally, after which all must begin again with the coming rains. Or it may signify that the yearly round of three feasts is over. Or indeed both. Israel had been told that they must officially observe the festal year commencing with Abib (Nisan), the time of the Passover (Exodus 12:2). But all farmers would also see their agricultural year as naturally ending at the vintage harvest. There were no calendars on the walls or methods of enforcing calendars in those days. Agriculturally vintage was the ‘year end'. That later this was so is evidenced by what was possibly a schoolboys' tablet of about 10th century BC discovered at Gezer which outlines an agricultural calendar.
“Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders. Nor will any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh your God three times in the year.”
Compare Exodus 23:17. The three feasts were to be times when all Israelite adult males came together to renew covenant, to worship together, and to hear the reading of parts of the Law. This was what would keep them united and keep Yahweh's requirements before them. And there major intertribal decisions would then be reached. It would be necessary because once they were in the land they would be spread wide. God would enlarge their borders.
The assurance was also given that when they were engaged in these festivals Yahweh would ensure that no one from outside would look with ‘desire' on their land and invade it (compare Proverbs 16:7). This promise is made uniquely here.
“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with unleavened bread, nor shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to the morning.”
This is the only negative command in the list, and it may therefore be that it should be seen as a continuation of Exodus 34:23-24. For this instruction compare Exodus 23:18. ‘My sacrifice' here is presumably referring to the Passover sacrifice, as the second clause suggests. The point behind it is that the Passover sacrifice must be offered without anything being added, and that therefore excludes offering with it a cereal offering of unleavened bread (compare Leviticus 2:4-10), or the unleavened bread which was a part of the seven day feast which followed Passover. It must be offered on its own. It stood uniquely as a reminder of the deliverance of the firstborn (compare Exodus 34:19, the connection is made in the chiasmus). All leavened bread will have been removed from their houses prior to that feast so that it is not saying that it can be offered with leavened bread. The offering of leavened bread was forbidden altogether (Leviticus 2:11-12) apart from with peace offerings (Leviticus 7:13). It suggests that He saw the Passover sacrifices as a special and unique bond between Him and His people, not to be intermingled with the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was the prime reminder of the great deliverance on which His covenant was based. Both the blood of that sacrifice and the remnants after feasting were especially holy to Yahweh. But there is also here a parallel with verse 19 (see analysis), which also refers to offerings, and originated at the time of the Passover.
“The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of Yahweh your God.”
Compare Exodus 23:19 a. The first of the firstfruits probably refers to the sheaf of the firstfruits brought to Yahweh on the first day of unleavened bread. But it may mean, and certainly symbolises, the choicest of the firstfruits or literally what ripens first. The point was that Yahweh would receive His portion before His people received theirs as an acknowledgement that what they received came from Him and belonged to Him. The firstfruits that grew were to be dedicated to Yahweh and would, in fact, be available to the priests. These were to be tokens of their gratitude for His provision. ‘The house of your God' refers to the Dwellingplace. Wherever God revealed Himself could be called ‘the house of God' (Genesis 28:17), for it meant a dwelling-place, where God had revealed Himself. Here it therefore meant the place where God was approached, the Tent of Meeting and later the Dwellingplace (Tabernacle).
“You shall not seethe a kid in its mother's milk.”
Compare Exodus 23:19 b. Elsewhere among the nations kids were quite possibly boiled in their mother's milk so that the resulting magical mixture could be sprinkled on the fields hoping to produce fertility. This has been claimed as witnessed to, for example, in The Birth of the Gods, a Ugaritic text, but it is probable that the text was misunderstood. It was a practise forbidden to Israel. The fact that it is paralleled here (see analysis) with not making a molten image, and is included in this list of ritual requirements would seem to confirm its idolatrous connections.
So all these provisions are extracted from earlier enactments and repeated so as to re-establish the covenant.