Commentaria in Exodum
ONCE I SHALL COME UP, AND SHALL DESTROY THEE.—“I shall destroy thee” is a grave saying.
NOW PRESENTLY LAY ASIDE THY ORNAMENTS.—Hence it is plain that the Hebrews a little before, in verse 4, had not laid aside their ornaments, but that it is said there by anticipation; for otherwise they would not afterwards in this verse be commanded to lay aside their ornaments, if they had already laid them aside. These ornaments were the clean and festive garments which they had put on when about to receive the law on Sinai, chap. 19, verse 10, and till now had not laid aside, since God was still speaking with them through Moses. Whence the Septuagint render, take off the robes of your glories. So Oleaster and others. The Chaldee, however, explains it thus: Lay aside thy ornaments, that is, thy weapons of war.
Hieronymus Prado on Ezech. 24, p. 312, and others add, as I said on chap. 32:25, that by ornament are here understood the golden or linen crowns which the Hebrews had set upon themselves at Sinai, to be a symbol of their betrothal with God. Whence the Hebrew word signifies rather robes, veils, silken mantles, necklaces, crowns, and the like ornament which is fastened and applied to garments, than the garments themselves adorned, that is, elegant, precious and festive.
Note: As a master commands a sinning servant whom he has determined to scourge to be stripped, so here God willed that Israel should as it were strip himself, and present himself naked to God to be scourged, that by this garb of humility and penance he might obtain pardon. So those who of old did public penance in the Church, laying aside their ornament and clothed in sackcloth, offered themselves to the priests as culprits for punishment and discipline.
THAT I MAY KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THEE.—That, having seen thy penance, I may decide what penalty, whether light or heavier, I ought further to inflict upon thee.
6. SO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL LAID ASIDE THEIR ORNAMENTS,—both from their own spontaneous mourning, and stirred by the Lord’s command. Here again the conversation of God with Moses is interrupted by a historical narration of what God had commanded: for this laying aside of ornaments happened after forty days, when Moses returned from the mount and from God to the people.
BY MOUNT HOREB—at mount Horeb (it is an enallage of preposition), namely standing near Horeb or Sinai, where God, offended on account of the calf, appeared.
7. MOSES ALSO TAKING THE TABERNACLE, PITCHED IT WITHOUT THE CAMP.—Note that this too, and what follows up to verse 12, is said by anticipation, and ought to be inserted in its own order after chap. 34. That it is so is plain first from the fact that these things are joined to the preceding laying aside of ornaments, as though done at the same time: but the laying aside of ornaments happened after the fortieth day, when Moses had come down from the mount. For Moses wished to narrate and join these together, as signs of penitence by which the people showed they repented of their idol. For by the very fact that the tabernacle was pitched outside the camp, the camp was stripped of its chief glory, and seemed as it were excommunicated. The same is plain, secondly, from the fact that it is said that at that time this tabernacle was called the tabernacle of the covenant, namely from the second tables of the law, by which the covenant was anew confirmed, which Moses laid up in this tabernacle, as in the dwelling of God. For it is certain that Moses did not receive these second tables, confirmers of the covenant, before the fortieth day just mentioned. Thirdly, because Moses went up the second time into the mount in the preceding chapter, verse 34, and remained there forty days continuously, as is plain from the next chapter, verse 28. Therefore what is here interjected happened after these forty days, when Moses had already come down from the mount; unless thou say that these forty days were interrupted by one day, on which Moses came down from the mount, and dealt with the people in the matters here narrated from verse 4 to 12. But this is not likely: for Moses, in the next chapter, verse 28, indicates sufficiently that he was with God in the mount for forty continuous days and nights. So Abulensis.
THE TABERNACLE.—This tabernacle was not that which the Lord commanded to be made in chap. 26, and which is narrated to have been made and erected afterwards in chap. 40, in which the urn with the manna, the ark and the Cherubim were laid up: for none of these existed at this time; but this tabernacle was a small tent of Moses, as being leader of the people: whence the elders were wont to assemble there to hold council with Moses; upon this tabernacle also rested the pillar of cloud, which was the guide of the journey. Finally, God showed himself to be seen by a cloud at the door of this tabernacle, and there conversed with Moses in the sight of the people, and gave answers, as is here said. When this tabernacle was made is uncertain. From what has been said it is credible that it was made about the same time at which the pillar of cloud was given by God to the camp of the Hebrews, chap. 13:21. The use of this tabernacle ceased when that other splendid one was made, which the Lord commanded to be made in chap. 26, and which was made and erected in chap. 40.
8. AND WHEN MOSES WENT FORTH TO THE TABERNACLE, ALL THE PEOPLE ROSE UP,—as if by rising and standing showing reverence to God, and to Moses who held the place of God, and to their head and ruler.
9. AND HE SPOKE WITH MOSES,—namely the pillar of cloud which went before, that is, the angel who was covered by the pillar of cloud, and here held the place of God. Whence in verse 11 the Lord is said to have spoken, namely not by himself, but by this angel presiding in the pillar. This was done that the people might revere Moses, and know that he brought forth not his own commands, but God’s.
10. AND WORSHIPPED AT THE DOORS OF THEIR TENTS,—as if to say: Each worshipped God standing, or rather kneeling at the door of his tent, turning himself toward the tabernacle of Moses, in which the angel in the place of God spoke with Moses through the pillar of cloud.
11. AND THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES FACE TO FACE.—The Chaldee: word to word; the Septuagint: face to face, present to present. Wherefore it is likely that this angel appeared to Moses in a bodily and human form, and conversed with him, whom nevertheless Moses, recognising to be not a man but an angel holding the place of God, heard with the greatest humility and reverence, and answered him.
Tropologically, St. Jerome on Psalm 133: The Lord Jesus has, he says, those who minister to him as it were before his face, namely monks and virgins; he has others serving him as it were in the fields, namely seculars.
HIS MINISTER JOSUE, THE SON OF NUN, A YOUNG MAN, DID NOT DEPART FROM THE TABERNACLE.—Josue is here called “a young man,” not by age; for he had already led the war against Amalec, chap. 17; but by obedience, innocence and discipline: for he was a disciple of Moses, and was being trained by him as his future successor in the government of the people. So everywhere in Scripture disciples and servants are called boys, because they are less and inferior to the master or lord; and conversely lords and masters are called fathers. So Eliseus calls Elias father, saying: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel (thou art) and the driver thereof”; so the servants of Naaman call him father, 4 Kings 5:13; so Abraham’s servant is called boy, Gen. 24:2; so Giezi is called the boy of Eliseus; so David speaks to his boys, that is, his servants, and everywhere in the books of Kings servants are called boys.
Josue therefore did not depart from the tabernacle, to keep the sacred place, as it were, in the absence of Moses, and to guard the tables of the law; at the same time, meanwhile, he gave himself to prayer and contemplation.
For the tropology of Moses’ withdrawal from the tabernacle to the camp see St. Gregory, part 2 of the Pastoral, chap. 5: “Those,” he says, “who are set over others ought often to consult the Lord, yet not so to seek the Lord in contemplation as not also to descend in compassion to his members below.” Whence the Chaldee calls this tabernacle the house of doctrine, because in it Moses was taught by God in the affairs and causes on which he consulted him.
12. AND MOSES SAID TO THE LORD.—Scripture returns to the interrupted narration of the Lord’s conversation with Moses; therefore these things must be connected with verse 5.