Exodus 24:12

And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

The Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there - i:e., remain there, as the verb "be" often signifies, (Genesis 2:18; Genesis 4:8; Isaiah 7:23: cf. 1 Timothy 4:15, Gr.) The summons of the leader to the sacred presence on this new occasion was for a special and important purpose-namely, that of receiving an authentic copy of the Decalogue. Although the ten commandments had been promulgated from Sinai by the voice of God Himself, amid circumstances fitted to inspire the greatest solemnity and awe, yet the awful impressions which that scene had produced would ere long have worn away, and even the 'ten words' which God had spoken been forgotten, unless means had been taken to perpetuate the remembrance of them. They were inscribed, therefore, for greater durability, on stone, which had been miraculously prepared, and the writing of which was also of divine execution. They were thus authenticated and honoured above the judicial or ceremonial parts of the law; and Moses was now called up to receive the divine transcript from the hands of the Lawgiver Himself, to serve as the basis, the fundamental principles, of the national legislation.

Rationalist writers maintain that nothing more is meant than that the ten commandments were to be again in that mountain solitude rehearsed to Moses, who was to write them upon a stone tablet, according to the direction of God; but the language of this passage is so explicit, and repetitions of the fact related are so numerous and so pointed, that either the historical testimony of Moses must be rejected altogether, or his narrative be received in its literality, that "tables of stone" on which the precepts of the Decalogue had been recorded by the Divine Hand were given him as a permanent mode of preserving them for the instruction of the people (see further the notes at Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:15; Deuteronomy 10:1).

Jewish writers have founded the authority of the oral law on this passage. Maimonides, the greatest of their rabbies since Gamaliel, asserts this in the plainest and most positive terms at the commencement of his great work; for in reference to the words, "I will give thee tables of stone, and a law and commandments," he says the word х hatowraah (H8451)], 'the law,' signifies the written law, and the word х hamitswaah (H4687)], 'the commandments,' signifies the oral law; and thus maintains, on the alleged authority of God Himself, that He gave the oral law at that time;-so that the oral had the same origin as the written law, and the Talmud, in which the traditions are preserved, possesses equal authority with the Bible.

This interpretation, however, is totally inadmissible, because it is expressly said Moses was called to receive 'what God had written;' and therefore the word "commandments" cannot be applicable to the instructions given (Exodus 25:1; Exodus 26:1; Exodus 27:1; Exodus 28:1; Exodus 29:1; Exodus 30:1; Exodus 31:1), for they were written on tables of stone (Exodus 31:18; Exodus 34:28). Besides, in the original text the words are, 'the law' and 'the commandment.' Mitsevah is frequently used in a collective sense with reference to the Decalogue (Deuteronomy 5:28; Deuteronomy 5:31; Deuteronomy 6:1; Deuteronomy 8:1; Deuteronomy 17:20; Deuteronomy 27:1); and therefore the true rendering of the clause is, 'I will give thee tables of stone, and (containing) the law, even the commandment, or commandments.'