Exodus

The second book in the Bible is, like Genesis, a rather strange collection of myths that tradition holds was written by Moses. There's no indication in the book itself that Moses wrote a word of it. In fact, the internal evidence appears to point to a much later author - one who was more acquainted with Jewish historical traditions and legends than with the actual history of Egypt, its language or customs. As such, I think it has much to teach us, but not really much about history. It also contains a wealth of harmful, awful stuff.

Ex 1:5-10 - The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land."
Later, in the book of 1 Chronicles, we see the claim that Moses was born in the fourth generation after the 70 Hebrew family members entered Egypt. I don't think that even rabbits on fertility drugs could breed enough to grow from 70 people to a group rivaling a powerful nation's population in just 4 generations!

Ex 1:15,16 - The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live."
This is interesting as it's the common myth of "the dangerous child." The legends surrounding the birth of many religious heroes have this sort of story of a king trying to kill "dangerous" rivals while they were babies - Moses, and Jesus in the Bible, Abraham, Krishna and Horus are others.

Ex 2:10 - When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."
Here's an interesting little blunder in the inspired word of God. What is being said here is that the daughter of Pharaoh named the baby using a play on Hebrew words. I doubt that any royal children in the ruling family of ancient Egypt could be bothered with learning Hebrew. Any word-play would have been likely to be Egyptian. For instance, the name Ra-mses means "Son of Ra." Using this, we could see that the name "Moses" could very easily mean "son of" with no parental name attached; in other words, "Sonny."

Ex 2:18-21 - When they returned to their father Reuel, he said, "How is it that you have come back so soon today?" They said, "An Egyptian helped us against the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock." He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why did you leave the man? Invite him to break bread." Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage.
It looks like we have a good little bit of Bible trivia here (once again for future reference). The name of Moses' father-in-law is given here as "Reuel."

Ex 2:23-25 - After a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.
God had to be reminded of his promises that he made repeatedly to the patriarchs? What sort of creature was this "perfect" deity?

Ex 3:1 - Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
We just saw a couple of verses ago that Moses' father-in-law was Reuel! Did Moses marry more than one wife?

Ex 3:13,14 - But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.' "
This is rather interesting, in light of the fact that this phrase "I am who I am" translated into the Egyptian language as "Nuk pu Nuk," the title given to the greatest Egyptian deity. I can imagine Moses' message would have gone over really well, if he'd told people he was from a god who called himself the name most commonly associated with Osiris!

Ex 3:18 - They will listen to your voice; and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, "The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; let us now go a three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God."
Now, you know and I know (well you'd know if you've seen "The Ten Commandments," that is!) that this wasn't the plan. Moses was supposed to take the people of Israel out of Egypt completely. In other words, God is ordering Moses to lie.

Ex 3:19-22 - "...I know, however, that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders that I will perform in it; after that he will let you go. I will bring this people into such favor with the Egyptians that, when you go, you will not go empty-handed; each woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman living in the neighbor's house for jewelry of silver and of gold, and clothing, and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters; and so you shall plunder the Egyptians."
The rough ride of Exodus begins. God doesn't just want to get his people out of their bad situation, he wants to show off his power and make his people into plunderers.

Ex 4:1-9 - Then Moses answered, "But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, 'The Lord did not appear to you.' " The Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff." And he said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw the staff on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses drew back from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Reach out your hand, and seize it by the tail"-so he reached out his hand and grasped it, and it became a staff in his hand- "so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." Again, the Lord said to him, "Put your hand inside your cloak." He put his hand into his cloak; and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. Then God said, "Put your hand back into your cloak"-so he put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his body- "If they will not believe you or heed the first sign, they may believe the second sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or heed you, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground; and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."
This is just great! God has a few tricks available to impress any possible skeptics, including some back-ups in case one trick isn't enough. I'd be willing to bet that any charlatan contemporary with Moses could do just as well, if not better, so the proposed credentials should have been useless for convincing any reasonable person.

Ex 4:11 - Then the Lord said to him, "Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"
I think this is just an awful thing. This tells us that God causes people to have physical infirmities, I suppose as a way of telling us about God's power. The bad part comes when in other parts of the Bible, we're told that we must love this same God, or he'll make life REALLY miserable for us!

Ex 4:21-23 - And the Lord said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son. I said to you, "Let my son go that he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son.' "
This is pretty bad - the idea here is that in advance, God planned to make the ruler of Egypt refuse to let the Hebrews leave, just for the purpose of having an excuse for killing the king's son.

Ex 4:24-26 - On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him and tried to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, and said, "Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!" So he let him alone. It was then she said, "A bridegroom of blood by circumcision."
You never see such things mentioned in the movies about Moses! Why God would go about trying to harm Moses is a mystery that the writer has no intention of informing us about, but more importantly, we see that it appears that mutilating his son is a good, magical way for Zipporah to end the attack. The message: spill blood and appease God's inscrutable anger. Which is, oddly enough, the exact same message found in all other religions in that part of the world in those days! This incident is also a rather interesting reference to those who wonder why Moses' life was so similar to Jacob's? Both were on their way back from exile at God's command from working as shepherds for their fathers-in-law when they were attacked by God!

Ex 6:2,3 - God also spoke to Moses and said to him: "I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name 'The Lord' I did not make myself known to them. "
Well, this is just not true, and "The LORD" should know better! In Genesis, the name YHWH (which is the source of the term "the LORD") appears quite often, and in Genesis, chapter 4, it says that people started calling that name!

Ex 6:6-8 - Say therefore to the Israelites, "I am the Lord, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.' "
I looked at this and saw a curious little difference between this and other "promises" made from God to his people. Here, God doesn't mention descendants, he specifically promises to give the land today known as Israel to the Israelites contemporary with Moses. Of course, we know that this promise was never fulfilled, in spite of the fact that it was unconditional!

Ex 6:28-30 - On the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, he said to him, "I am the Lord; tell Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am speaking to you." But Moses said in the Lord's presence, "Since I am a poor speaker, why would Pharaoh listen to me?"
It looks here as though the omniscient, all seeing LORD is a little confused. He seems to think that Pharaoh is a proper name, and adds the title "king" after it. In case you're wondering, I checked the original Hebrew text, and both words are in the base text.

Ex 7:8-13 - The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "When Pharaoh says to you, 'Perform a wonder,' then you shall say to Aaron, "Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake.' " So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord had commanded; Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff, and they became snakes; but Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs. Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
From the looks of it, this only shows that Moses had better tricks than the Pharaoh's court magicians. The writer certainly believed that the enemy sorcerers were able to make this supernatural transformation, and that the only difference was that Moses' snake/staffs were stronger than the others.

Ex 8:5-7 - And the Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, "Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, the canals, and the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.' " So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts, and brought frogs up on the land of Egypt.
I read this (also never mentioned in most Moses movies I've seen) and wondered what the heck was supposed to be going on here? Why would Pharaoh's sorcerers want to create the exact same plague as Moses' God did? I also wonder how anyone could tell which frogs belonged to which magic? Were they like the laser blasts in "Star Wars," color coded (green for God, brown for Osiris?)

Ex 8:13-18 - And the Lord did as Moses requested: the frogs died in the houses, the courtyards, and the fields. And they gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart, and would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, "Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, so that it may become gnats throughout the whole land of Egypt.' " And they did so; Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and gnats came on humans and animals alike; all the dust of the earth turned into gnats throughout the whole land of Egypt. The magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, but they could not. There were gnats on both humans and animals.
Things appear to have taken a turn to God's favor, as he was finally able to find a trick the other gods were unable to do. Of course, I wonder about one thing: If there were heaps of dead frogs lying around all over the countryside, and the place was stinking so badly, wouldn't you naturally expect there to be swarms of gnats and flies all over the place? I wonder (once again) how these people were able to tell the difference between God's gnats and the ones that would have been there anyway?

Ex 9:2-4 - For if you refuse to let them go and still hold them, the hand of the Lord will strike with a deadly pestilence your livestock in the field: the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But the Lord will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing shall die of all that belongs to the Israelites.
This must be one of the oddest arrangements I've ever heard of! I always thought that slaves were defined as humans that were property. I wonder how they ended up owning livestock? It also makes one wonder what other trappings of freedom these "slaves" enjoyed?

Ex 9:6 - And on the next day the Lord did so; all the livestock of the Egyptians died, but of the livestock of the Israelites not one died.
I'll bet that killing all of a nation's domesticated animals (see the list from above) would have put an awful crimp in Egypt's economy, not to mention leading to mass starvation!

Ex 9:12 - But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
It looks like there's no free will going on for Pharaoh at this time. God seems to be controlling the poor dope's mind, and we're officially leaving any ghost of a chance that justice will be done, since God is making Pharaoh make the decisions he otherwise might not have.

Ex 9:15,16 - For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But this is why I have let you live: to show you my power, and to make my name resound through all the earth.
Here's a fine attitude! God wants to be famous all over the earth, and he's willing to make an entire nation suffer in order to achieve that goal. I don't know, but this sounds pretty sick and (at the very least) childish to me.

Ex 9:18-20 - Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. Send, therefore, and have your livestock and everything that you have in the open field brought to a secure place; every human or animal that is in the open field and is not brought under shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them.' " Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried their slaves and livestock off to a secure place.
Hold the fort here! Didn't we just see a few verses back that God had already killed all the Egyptian livestock? I wonder where these officials of pharaoh were able to get this new set of animals for God to kill off? You figure they bought them from the slaves?

Ex 10:1,2 - Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his officials, in order that I may show these signs of mine among them, and that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I have made fools of the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them-so that you may know that I am the Lord."
When a person goes to great lengths to make an opponent look bad, hoping to make himself look good in others' eyes, we say that such a person is foolish and immature by normal human standards. What does such behavior, as seen here, say about this God?

Ex 10:13-15 - So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night; when morning came, the east wind had brought the locusts. The locusts came upon all the land of Egypt and settled on the whole country of Egypt, such a dense swarm of locusts as had never been before, nor ever shall be again. They covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was black; and they ate all the plants in the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left; nothing green was left, no tree, no plant in the field, in all the land of Egypt.
This sounds pretty definite, here. Now there are no plants left alive in Egypt, to match the deaths of all domesticated animals. Looks like Egypt will most definitely starve to death. That's one powerful God, I suppose!

Ex 11:4-6 - Moses said, "Thus says the Lord: About midnight I will go out through Egypt. Every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the female slave who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the livestock. Then there will be a loud cry throughout the whole land of Egypt, such as has never been or will ever be again."
Let's look at things one at a time here. God wanted to show the world just how great and powerful he was, so he decides to magically kill all the firstborn beings in the country. Earlier, he stated that he planned to kill Pharaoh's oldest child, but now, as a bonus, he decides to kill even slave children (presumably non-Hebrew slaves, that is!). That's hardly a morally good thing to do, in my opinion! Another issue that I find interesting is that God plans to kill the firstborn of the livestock! I'm starting to wonder how many times the writer thought the livestock ought to die before God was finished?

Ex 12:3-6 - Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.
If the Hebrew people had grown to a population of a million people in just 4 generations, as the Bible states, they must have also had some pretty prolific livestock to match! I thought it was pretty strange that such pastoral people as these slaves considered yearling goats to be the same as sheep!

Ex 13:11-13 - "When the Lord has brought you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your ancestors, and has given it to you, you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your livestock that are males shall be the Lord's. But every firstborn donkey you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. Every firstborn male among your children you shall redeem."
It appears here that God is ordering an awful lot of death in order to celebrate birth! Imagine carrying out the order to break the neck of a newborn donkey foal, just because you don't have an appropriate animal to kill in its place!

Ex 13:17,18 - When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was nearer; for God thought, "If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt." So God led the people by the roundabout way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of the land of Egypt prepared for battle.
Now this is purely puzzling to me! Since God decided that these people wouldn't be willing to face war, I wonder why they left, all ready for it? It's also quite interesting that a whole nation, brought up in slavery, with hardly any males (since the two midwives had been ordered to kill all male babies) should suddenly be ready for battle!

Ex 14:1-4 - Then the Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall camp opposite it, by the sea. Pharaoh will say of the Israelites, "They are wandering aimlessly in the land; the wilderness has closed in on them." I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them, so that I will gain glory for myself over Pharaoh and all his army; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so.
Apparently, God's desire to kill hasn't abated any after the killing of firstborns, all livestock and all plants. Now, He's going to pull Pharaoh along into the wilderness to kill another crowd of people!

Ex 14:9 - The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, his chariot drivers and his army; they overtook them camped by the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
Isn't that interesting? Pharaoh had a contingent of horses left over from God's earlier killing sprees (some could have been killed as many as 3 times, so far), and decided to put them at hazard yet again. Didn't they even try to flow-chart this story?

Ex 15:24-26 - And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" He cried out to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. He said, "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you."
Well, the honeymoon appears to be over! The people ask for a valid requirement - water in the middle of a very arid place. God apparently thinks of this as "complaining" and sets some conditions for any further help for these people. I'll bet this wouldn't leave people feeling optimistic about their future!

Ex 16:18-20 - But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, "Let no one leave any of it over until morning." But they did not listen to Moses; some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul. And Moses was angry with them.
Here's a common misconception - that food when left over a period of time, will breed worms or maggots. It took the work of scientists, able to question common wisdom, to determine that this is not the case. It would surprise me if I found that this discovery was not opposed on the grounds that it would invalidate even this tiny corner of the Bible!

Ex 16:32-35 - Moses said, "This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, in order that they may see the food with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.' " And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord, to be kept throughout your generations." As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the covenant, for safekeeping. The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
It appears that this was done without feeling it was necessary to say that God would preserve the easily-putrefied manna for the long period of time it was supposed to sit in the jar (remember, it wasn't safe to keep the stuff overnight!). What I find amusing is that here, in chapter 16, we see Moses instructing Aaron to place the jar of manna in front of the covenant, long before Moses ever even got the thing!

Ex 17:4-6 - So Moses cried out to the Lord, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." The Lord said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Did you catch that!? God was planning to be standing on a particular rock, showing Moses where he could get water for the people! It doesn't say if Moses was the only one who could see God on the rock, but I rather think this whole thing sounds extremely odd.

Ex 17:8-13 - Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some men for us and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword.
We're back into some pretty strange magical thinking, here. There's supposed to be some sort of supernatural activity going on here, obviously (unless the Hebrews were being aided by Moses underarm odor - nah! Forget I mentioned that!). So if it's God who was helping in the battle, I wonder why it might be that Moses' hand position might have controlled this magic? This passage is one that supports a theory I recently read about that says Moses might actually have been a character made up to replace an earlier Semetic Sun-god in this legend of the Exodus.

Ex 18:1-4 - Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. After Moses had sent away his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro took her back, along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, "I have been an alien in a foreign land"), and the name of the other, Eliezer (for he said, "The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh").
Well, the possibility that Moses had more than one wife can, I think, be safely discounted. This means that two names have been given for Zipporah's father - Jethro and Reuel. Interestingly, in Judges 4:11, his name is also given as "Hobab"!

Ex 19:9-13 - Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after." When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses: "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows; whether animal or human being, they shall not live.' When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain."
Lots of questions here. For instance, did the writer know much about mountains? How could a person tell, just by looking, where the "edge" of a mountain was? According to this, it was a life-or-death issue! Next, I wonder how God felt about killing any animal that happened to be living on this mountain. Last of all, I think it rather amusing, considering the rest of the story of the Exodus, that God's whole purpose in this visit was to ensure that Moses would be followed and trusted forever after.

Ex 19:21-25 - Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people not to break through to the Lord to look; otherwise many of them will perish. Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves or the Lord will break out against them." Moses said to the Lord, "The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai; for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.' " The Lord said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord; otherwise he will break out against them." So Moses went down to the people and told them.
I wonder, first of all, why there was talk of Jewish priests here, well before the laws are even presented to these people, let alone the establishment and "ordination" of a group of priests! Then again, it could be that we're just looking at the establishment of a myth that certain places can be deadly for anyone but a priest - a very useful myth from the priests' point of view!

Ex 20:1-4 - Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
As one would expect, the very first commands coming from God concern making sure that religion is of greatest importance. Note that there is no mention of the non-existence of other gods - only that YHWH must be first in line. It really looks to me that the "second commandment" is really a continuation of the first, rather than a separate item. And we get a little bit of the flat-earth ideas here, when talking about water being "under" the earth.

Ex 20:5,6 - You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
This is a good, moral attitude! If someone steps out of line, that person will be punished, along with his children, and so on for four generations, regardless of any changes that may occur in the lives of any who are concerned! I also wonder about the validity of this statement of showing "steadfast love" for a thousand generations. As we've seen, that love turned out to be highly conditional, and far from "steadfast"!

Ex 20:7 - You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
And here we have an unforgivable sin! All it takes to get eternally and unforgivably on the wrong side of this guy is to say YHWH in the wrong way. Since we have no idea what is the "right" way to say this name, it's safest to never say it, which is how I understand the Jews actually handled this issue!

Ex 20:18,19 - When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die."
Interesting how a neat precedent was set here, allowing Moses and those who followed him to talk for God. Now, all a person needs to do is say he's been chosen to talk for God, and no one is able to prove him wrong, since God only talks to select people and his voice kills those who aren't "holy" enough! Later, in Deuteronomy, we'll see an attempt to address this problem, but it won't be very effective.

Ex 20:23-26 - "You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you. But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones; for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it. You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it."
This God appears to be a very nature-loving sort of guy, except that he really needs to have animals killed in his honor for some reason. An interesting point to make here is that in Jeremiah chapter 8, we're told by God that he didn't request animal sacrifices when he brought the people out of Egypt. Kind of makes you wonder which verse could be true?

Ex 21:1-8 - These are the ordinances that you shall set before them: When you buy a male Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, but in the seventh he shall go out a free person, without debt. If he comes in single, he shall go out single; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's and he shall go out alone. But if the slave declares, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out a free person," then his master shall bring him before God. He shall be brought to the door or the doorpost; and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him for life. When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed; he shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt unfairly with her.
Well, the statutes from God continue, and they go straight into defining how people should go about owning slaves. It certainly looks like God had no problem with this barbaric practice. In fact, I thought that the "slave-for-life" ceremony was a particularly nasty touch!

Ex 21:17 - Whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death.
There appears to be no room here for argument. It doesn't look like the actions of the parents should be considered, so that if they're abusive, or neglectful or engage in any sort of harmful activity, children would still be subject to death if they said anything against their parents.

Ex 21:20,21 - When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner's property.
There's a little bit of confusion here. I wonder why immediate death for a "piece of property" should require punishment (though not death), while a day or two of suffering before death merits no reaction at all? This is a horrible set of laws, so far!

Ex 21:26,27 - When a slaveowner strikes the eye of a male or female slave, destroying it, the owner shall let the slave go, a free person, to compensate for the eye. If the owner knocks out a tooth of a male or female slave, the slave shall be let go, a free person, to compensate for the tooth.
I'm sure being set free would make a half-blind ex-slave feel OK about such an injury - don't you?

Ex 22:2,3 - If a thief is found breaking in, and is beaten to death, no bloodguilt is incurred; but if it happens after sunrise, bloodguilt is incurred.
This is a rather silly rule! Depending on the time of day, killing is called a murder or not! Might as well say it depends on the weather at the time, or how much loot the thief had in his hands!

Ex 22:7-11 - When someone delivers to a neighbor money or goods for safekeeping, and they are stolen from the neighbor's house, then the thief, if caught, shall pay double. If the thief is not caught, the owner of the house shall be brought before God, to determine whether or not the owner had laid hands on the neighbor's goods. In any case of disputed ownership involving ox, donkey, sheep, clothing, or any other loss, of which one party says, "This is mine," the case of both parties shall come before God; the one whom God condemns shall pay double to the other. When someone delivers to another a donkey, ox, sheep, or any other animal for safekeeping, and it dies or is injured or is carried off, without anyone seeing it, an oath before the Lord shall decide between the two of them that the one has not laid hands on the property of the other; the owner shall accept the oath, and no restitution shall be made.
Now we see God is going to take part in court proceedings. How? I think it was planned that the religiously-trained judges would use holy dice (called Thummin and Munnin) to determine if a person was "condemned by God." Also, the idea that taking an oath would ensure that justice was served is quite laughable to me.

Ex 22:16,17 - When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. But if her father refuses to give her to him, he shall pay an amount equal to the bride-price for virgins.
I imagine that this means that the seducer should pay this bride-price, which effectively makes these virginal daughters into prostitutes if their fathers refuse to hand the daughters over. This is hardly a good practice so far as the beginning of a marriage is concerned. But, whoever said that marriage was about living happily with a spouse?

Ex 22:18 - You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live.
Oh terrific! Now, we get into orders for murdering women from any religious tradition not acceptable to the Jewish authorities. This hardly bodes well for the followers of wicca!

Ex 22:22-24 - You shall not abuse any widow or orphan. If you do abuse them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry; my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children orphans.
These are dire words of certain doom for any widow's oppressor. I wonder why it is, though, that widows were avenged in such a poor manner that the oppressors never thought that they ought to steer clear of bothering them?

Ex 22:28 - You shall not revile God, or curse a leader of your people.
I wonder why these two commands were placed side-by-side? Do you think maybe it's because the leaders of the people were keen on having themselves thought of as close to God in the peoples' minds as they could? It's quite like the way the Egyptian Pharaohs identified themselves with their gods, though not quite so intimately. At least, not yet!

Ex 23:19 - The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
Later, in Ezekiel, you'll see that these choicest fruits were destined for the tables of the priests. Of course, this sort of practice was done by all the other religions in that part of the world. In those days, Judaism was just another parochial, nomadic religion. Too bad it didn't stay that way! On another front, I wonder what could possibly be so harmful about boiling a baby goat in one sort of milk as opposed to another?

Ex 23:20-26 - I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my name is in him. But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. When my angel goes in front of you, and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, or worship them, or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces. You shall worship the Lord your God, and I will bless your bread and your water; and I will take sickness away from among you. No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
Well, we have quite a mixed bag here. God's representative (other than Moses) will be in charge, an angel who will carry the authority of God. Of course, if people were willing to accept that substitution, going another step to accepting the godly authority of a human substitute was no big leap. And look at the potential rewards of going along with the charade! God promised to make life easy as could be - just so long as the "correct" religion was followed in the correct manner, that is!

Ex 24:7,8 - Then he took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient." Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, "See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."
Remember, this was supposed to be happening in the presence of all the people who had left Egypt! I can imagine how much animal blood would be needed to get even a couple of drops on every person in a crowd of over a million people.

Ex 24:9-11 - Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. God did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; also they beheld God, and they ate and drank.
Well, here's a new development that Jesus must have missed! A whole crowd of people saw God, and they were able to remember all sorts of details about their meeting!

Ex 25:1-8 - The Lord said to Moses: Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me. This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece. And have them make me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them.
The Hebrew people, when they left Egypt, were told to pick up all sorts of cool loot from the people of Egypt. Now, God's turning around and taking these things, just so he can have these people make him a place to live in? How weird is that? I'd think the loot picked up by a whole nation would be far more than enough to make a tent (which is what they did, according to this book), and one wonders what the priests did with the left-overs?

Ex 28:1 - Then bring near to you your brother Aaron, and his sons with him, from among the Israelites, to serve me as priests-Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Now here's a pretty tall order! Only these people are named to act as priests to this whole wandering nation! These five guys must have had their hands full, what with the daily rituals of animal slaughter for every person in the nation.

Ex 28:33-35 - On its lower hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, all around the lower hem, with bells of gold between them all around- a golden bell and a pomegranate alternating all around the lower hem of the robe. Aaron shall wear it when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord, and when he comes out, so that he may not die.
I'll bet old Aaron was a really impressive sight with his "High Priest" costume! I have to wonder who thought up that idiot idea of the bells on the hem needing to tinkle when he walked, in order to keep him from being killed when he walked into the "holy of holies"!

Ex 29:8-14 - Then you shall bring his sons, and put tunics on them, and you shall gird them with sashes and tie headdresses on them; and the priesthood shall be theirs by a perpetual ordinance. You shall then ordain Aaron and his sons. You shall bring the bull in front of the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull, and you shall slaughter the bull before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and all the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. You shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and turn them into smoke on the altar. But the flesh of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
Here's an example of a description of the sorts of rituals for sacrificing animals to God. It's a pretty nasty affair, wasteful, and hardly one that could be construed as being beneficial to the people in any way. The only effect I could see from doing this would be to make the people think they were doing something to please the supernatural forces that they superstitiously believed to be controlling the world.

Ex 30:10 - Once a year Aaron shall perform the rite of atonement on its horns. Throughout your generations he shall perform the atonement for it once a year with the blood of the atoning sin offering. It is most holy to the Lord.
I wonder if the writer here meant what this says when translated into English? It appears to be saying that Aaron will be around to perform this ceremony for as long as the Hebrew people exist!

Ex 30:12-16 - When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, at registration all of them shall give a ransom for their lives to the Lord, so that no plague may come upon them for being registered. This is what each one who is registered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. Each one who is registered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord's offering. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you bring this offering to the Lord to make atonement for your lives. You shall take the atonement money from the Israelites and shall designate it for the service of the tent of meeting; before the Lord it will be a reminder to the Israelites of the ransom given for your lives.
Imagine that! God orders something that is (apparently) against his own law, and he expects the people (who just left their slavery behind them, and are in the middle of the DESERT) to cough up a half-shekel of money each. This goes for the rich (how could they have gotten rich, I wonder) and the poor. There's some logical problems here, but apparently, it never bothered many of the people who wrote or copied or preached from it!

Ex 30:26-29 - With it you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the covenant, and the table and all its utensils, and the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its stand; you shall consecrate them, so that they may be most holy; whatever touches them will become holy.
Now there's something you'd need to guard closely! A set of objects that can make any old thing holy! And instead of just letting everyone get a touch of these things, the priests ended up keeping them away from regular people. It was useful to them to make the people feel that they belonged in subservient positions - kept the rabble in their places!

Ex 31:2-6 - See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft. Moreover, I have appointed with him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may make all that I have commanded you...
I think the people who are so keen on talking about how people have "free will" are not very fond of passages like this. Here, God picks out people and pours learning and skills into their heads, magically making them able and (presumably) willing to perform the work being ordered by God. Since God was so good at making people do the work, I wonder why he couldn't just as easily just made the things himself? That way, there'd be no doubts as to who was really the creator. After all, a carpenter who suddenly becomes a slightly more skilled carpenter is nowhere near as convincing as a house that suddenly exists, popping into thin air before one's eyes!

Ex 31:13,14 - You yourself are to speak to the Israelites: "You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among the people."
This passage struck me as being a little extreme. After all, what harm could it do to do a little work on Saturday? It certainly couldn't harm God, I would think. Yet, such a person is supposed to be killed!

Ex 32:9-14 - The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation." But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.' " And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Now I find this quite a fascinating passage! Moses took it on himself to cajole God out of his decision to zap all the "evil" Hebrews. His main argument appears to be mainly a matter of "What will the neighbors think?" That appears to have stopped God in his tracks. The statement Moses made about God's promise to multiply Abraham's descendants is a moot point, since Moses was supposed to be one, and God was all ready to go with him as the new patriarch. Another interesting thing about scene is that it is repeated, word for word, in the book of Numbers!

Ex 32:19,20 - As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
Rather than washing out their mouths with soap, Moses performs something of a miracle, breaking the evil calf-idol into a metallic powder and mixing it up into a drink to force (apparently) all the people to take the concoction internally. This is a strange punishment.

Ex 32:25-29 - When Moses saw that the people were running wild (for Aaron had let them run wild, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. He said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.' " The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day. Moses said, "Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day."
Once again, we see a horrible precedent set. God orders, according to Moses, that those who are true followers should be willing to kill even their own family members in response to sins committed, even those done in complete ignorance. According to this, those who carried out this slaughter earned the right to be considered ordained ministers, and to be called blessed!

Ex 32:33-35 - But the Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; see, my angel shall go in front of you. Nevertheless, when the day comes for punishment, I will punish them for their sin." Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf-the one that Aaron made.
There's a few interesting issues here. First, I think Aaron would be included in the list of people to be zapped from God's list-book, especially since he supposedly made the offending idol. The next thing I thought about was this idea that God plans to punish the people who sinned at some unspecified future date. I wonder what could possibly be gained by putting it off? Immediately after saying this, God sends a plague. If that wasn't the punishment, what might it have been? If it was the punishment, was a second punishment also planned?

Ex 33:11 - Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.
This is one of my favoritest beefs I have with fundamentalists - they have the nerve to say that there are no contradictions in the Bible. Well, here's one neat little contradiction: look at this verse, then check out the book of John, where Jesus says that no one has seen God.

Ex 33:18-23 - Moses said, "Show me your glory, I pray." And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, "The Lord'; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live." And the Lord continued, "See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."
This sort of thing lends credence to the theory that several writers provided material for the Torah, and at some later time it was jammed together in a rather haphazard manner. Just up in the prior verse, we learn that Moses and God spoke face-to-face, then only a few verses later, we learn that Moses would have been killed by the sight of God's face!

Ex 34:6,7 - The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
Talk about contradictions! It says here that God forgives iniquity and so on, yet will not clear the guilty! This is the very essence of the religious experience - the necessity of being able to simultaneously believe two diametrically opposed ideas is the heart of what makes religion both wrong and harmful.

Ex 34:12-16 - Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you. You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles (for you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God). You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice. And you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.
This sounds pretty stringent and straightforward. The plan is to exterminate all who already live in the place promised to the Hebrews, and only allow marriages to fellow Jews, in order to preserve the purity of the religion. Interestingly enough, this plan was never followed - there was also no attempt by God to protest a lack of adherence to it), and there were laws recorded in Deuteronomy that allow Hebrews to marry foreigners. This really looks like a much later addition, put in by xenophobic priests who were far more likely to be called "Jealous" than any real god.

Ex 34:17-28 - You shall not make cast idols. You shall keep the festival 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 of Abib you came out from Egypt. All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest. You shall observe the festival of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will cast out nations before you, and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year. You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the passover shall not be left until the morning. The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk. The Lord said to Moses: Write these words; in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
This passage is usually a big shock to believers, as they rarely hear of it. Why is it a shock? Because it is the only passage that specifically states it's "the ten commandments." It's far different from the usual list you see from chapter 20. It sort of makes me wonder why this issue isn't debated more in theological circles!

Ex 34:30-35 - When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Here's another idiotic myth - that Moses glowed and had to wear a veil all the time, rather than frighten the people around him in between his interviews with God. Imagine how much fun it would be to hear about that in Sunday School! I have read an article that theorizes that this passage, along with many others, indicates the last stage in a long-term transformation of Moses from a sun-god into a human heroic figure.

Ex 35:1,2 - Moses assembled all the congregation of the Israelites and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do: Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
It looks like these people were pretty much fixated on this idea that anyone who might do any work on Saturdays should be killed. They certainly repeated this idea often enough! By the way, I'm emphasizing this because it has a definite relevance later, in Numbers, chapter 15.

Ex 35:29 - All the Israelite men and women whose hearts made them willing to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.
I have to wonder exactly how free this freewill offering really was. It sounds rather like God made everyone want to give their stolen goods for this project.

Ex 38:9-13 - He made the court; for the south side the hangings of the court were of fine twisted linen, one hundred cubits long; its twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. For the north side there were hangings one hundred cubits long; its twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. For the west side there were hangings fifty cubits long, with ten pillars and ten bases; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. And for the front to the east, fifty cubits.
I understand that the measure of a cubit was about 18 inches - 1.5 ft. This means that this "tent" was about half a football field long! Can you imagine any group of people carrying such a thing through the desert? It might be interesting to see if this feat could actually be done, using the technology of the day.