Exodus 34:6-8

Description of the theophany promised in Exodus 33:19-23. The theophany consists essentially in a proclamation of the glories of Jehovah's moralnature, developed with special reference to the occasion giving rise to the theophany, and emphasizing the predominance of the Divine attributes of mercy above those of judgement. Echoes of this great declaration of Jehovah's moral nature occur frequently in the later literature: Numbers 14:18 (a quotation), Jeremiah 32:18; Nahum 1:3 a, Nehemiah 9:17; Nehemiah 9:31; Joel 2:31; Jonah 4:2; Psalms 86:15; Psalms 103:8; Psalms 111:4 b, Psalms 112:4 b, Psalms 145:8; 2 Chronicles 30:9. It is also probably the source of the explanatory comments on the second commandment in Exodus 20:5 b, Exodus 20:6.

Vv.6 9 are not really connected with their present context: cf. McNeile, 217, 30 (a), 36 Vv.1a, 2 5, 10 28 form one connected whole (p. 364 f.); and Exodus 33:1; Exodus 33:3-4; Exodus 33:12-13, Exodus 17-23, Exodus 34:6-9; Exodus 33:14-16 (see p. 361) form another.