The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 127

brought thee out of the land of Egypt. God Rnce with nncient history or even with the does not appeal to his authority 118 creator, present condition of mnn ir, savage or h"ck- but to his mercy o.nd kindness as protector ward countries, renders it apparent that there nnrl deliverer. He would be obeyed by his i8 a subtle fascination in su,.h material f•mns, people from a sentiment of love, not by Fear. and that imperfectly developed minrls will Out of the house of bondage. Compare rest in them not as mere er,blems of di\'JnitY, eh. xiii. 3, 14 ; and for the ground of the but as actually possessed ,.f Divine powPr, expression, see eh. i. 14; vi. ll. The protest raised by the 3econd cornrnawl- Ver. 3.-Thou ahalt have. The use of ment is still as necessary a, ever, not only in the second person singular is remarkable the world, but in the very Christian Churc!i when a covenant wll8 being made with the itself, where there exists eve'! at lhe present peopls ( eh. xix. 5). The form indico.tcd tho.t day a superstitious regard for images and -ea.eh individuo.l of the nation was addressed pictures, which is not only irrational, but severe.lly, and was required himself to obey which absorbs the religious feelings that the law, a mere genero.l national obedience should have been directed to higher objects. being insufficient. No one can fail to see how Any graven image. Perhaps it would be much the commands go.in in force, through all better to translate ·• any image," for the term time, by being thus addressed to the in- used (pesel) is applied, not only to "graven ·• dividunl conscience. No other gods before but also to "molten images " (Is. xl. 19 ; me. "Before me "-literally, "before my xliv. 10: Jer. x. B; etc.), since these last face," is a Hebrew idiom, and equivalent to were in almost every instance finishe,I "beside me," "in addition to me." The by the graving tool. Or any likeness of commandment requires the worship of one anything that is in heaven above--i.e., "any God alone, Jehovah-the God who had in likeness of any winged fowl that /lietb in tb,, so many ways manifested himself to the air." Compare Deut. iv. 17. Thewaterll.llder Israelites, and implies that there is, in point the earth. See Gen. i. 6, 7. The triple of fact, no other God. A belief in the unity division here and elsewhere made, is intendeu of God is said to lie at the root of the esoteric to embrace the whole material universe. Egyptian religion; but Moses can ece.rcely Much of the Egyptian religion consisted in have derived his belief from this source, since the worship of animals and their images. the Egyptian notions on the subject were Ver. 5.-Thou shalt not bcw d,wn thyself tinged with pantheism and materialism, from to them. Every outward sign of honour was which the religion of Moses is entirely free. shown to images in the ll.DC1ent world. They Outwardly the Egyptian religion, like that were not regarded as emblem.;, but as actual of the nations of Western Asia generally, embodiments of deity. There was a special was a gross polytheism; and it is against rite in Greece (TheopClla) by means of which polytheistic notions that the first command- the gods were inducted into their st.atues, and ment raises a protest. made to take up their abodes in them. Sene~a Ver. 4. As the first commandment asserts says of the Romans of his own day-" They the unity of God, and is a protest against pray to these images of the gods, implore polytheism, so the second asserts his spirit- them on bended kneP., sit or stand long days uality, e.nd is a protest age.inst idolatry and before them, throw them money, and sacrifice materialism. Verses 4 and 5 a.re to be taken beasts to them, so treating them with deep together, the prohibition being intended, not respect, though they despis~ the roan who to forbid the arts of sculpture and painting, made them" (Ap. Lact. ii. 2). I, the Lord or even to condemn the religious use of them, thy God am a jealous God. God " will uot but to disallow the worship of God under give his glory to another" (Is. xiii. 8; xhi,i. material forms. When the later Jews con• 11), will not suffer a rival near his throne. demoed all representations of natural objects He is not "jealous," as the Greeks thought (Philo, De Qrao. 29; Joseph. Ant. Jud. viii. (Herod. vii. 10, § 5), of mere success, or gre,n- 7, § 5), they not only enslaved themselves to a ncss; but he is very jealous of his own literalism, which is alien from the spirit of honour, and will not have the respect and both covenants, but departed from the pro.ctice reverence, which is his due, bestowed on other of more primitive times-representations of beiD"S or on inanimate objects. Compam such objects having had their place both in with"' the present passage eh. X-'<xiv. l -le; the tabernacle (eh. xxv. 31-34; xxviii. 38, Deut. iv. 2-1; v. 9; vi. 15; Josh. X-'<iv. l!I: 34) and in the first temple (1 Kings vi. 18, 29, etc. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers 32, &c.). Indeed, Moses himself, when he upon the children. Exception has been takeu erected the "brazen serpent" (Nurn. xxi. 9) to the plain meaning of this p11SSage by :i. made it clear that representations of natural multitude of writers, who dread the reproach objects were not disallowed by the law. To of thA sceptic, that the God of the Old TeshL- moderns incivilizedcountries it seems almost in- ment is a God careless of justice and hen t credible that there should ever have been any- upon revenge. But neither does society, nor whore a real worship of imagos. B11t ucq.ue.int- does civil justice itself, regard th.-visiting of I'- n -  'l'HE BOOK OF EXODUS. [ou. n. 6-10.