Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Moses, having restored the tablets, returns to the mountain; God passes before him; Moses sees the back or rear of God. Hence, second, at verse 10, God renews the covenant with the Hebrews, and repeats His laws. Third, at verse 28, God inscribes the Decalogue on the tablets brought by Moses. Fourth, at verse 29, Moses returns with horned face and the tablets to the people; they are afraid and flee: hence Moses veils his face, and thus he speaks veiled with the people, and the people with him.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 34:1-35
1. And afterward: Cut for yourself, He said, two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write upon them the words that were on the tablets which you broke. 2. Be ready in the morning, that you may go up immediately to Mount Sinai, and you shall stand with Me on the top of the mountain. 3. Let no one go up with you, nor let anyone be seen throughout the whole mountain: neither let oxen nor sheep graze nearby. 4. He therefore cut two tablets of stone such as had been before; and rising in the night, he went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, carrying the tablets with him. 5. And when the Lord had descended in a cloud, Moses stood with Him, invoking the name of the Lord. 6. And as He passed before him, He said: The Ruler, Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and of great mercy, and true, 7. who keeps mercy unto thousands, who takes away iniquity, and wickedness and sins, and no one is innocent of himself before You. Who repays the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation. 8. And Moses quickly bowed down prostrate to the earth, and worshipping 9. said: If I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, I beseech You to walk with us (for the people are stiff-necked), and take away our iniquities and sins, and possess us. 10. The Lord answered: I will enter into a covenant in the sight of all; I will do signs which have never been seen upon earth, nor in any nation: that this people, in whose midst you are, may behold the terrible work of the Lord which I am about to do. 11. Observe all the things which I command you this day: I Myself will drive out before your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12. Beware that you never make friendship with the inhabitants of that land, which would be your ruin; 13. but destroy their altars, break their statues, and cut down their groves: 14. do not worship a strange god. The Lord, His name is Jealous; He is a jealous God. 15. Do not make a covenant with the men of those regions: lest, when they shall have committed fornication with their gods, and shall have worshipped their idols, someone invite you to eat of the sacrifices. 16. Nor shall you take a wife from their daughters for your sons: lest, after they themselves have committed fornication, they make your sons also commit fornication with their gods. 17. You shall not make for yourself molten gods. 18. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the time of the month of new things: for in the month of the spring season you came out of Egypt. 19. Everything of the male sex that opens the womb shall be Mine. Of all animals, both of oxen and of sheep, it shall be Mine. 20. The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a sheep: but if you will not give a price for it, it shall be killed. The firstborn of your sons you shall redeem; nor shall you appear in My sight empty-handed. 21. For six days you shall work; on the seventh day you shall cease from plowing and reaping. 22. You shall observe the feast of weeks for yourself at the first-fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast when, at the returning time of the year, all things are gathered in. 23. Three times a year every male of yours shall appear in the sight of the Almighty Lord God of Israel. 24. For when I shall have removed the nations from before your face, and enlarged your borders, no one will lie in wait for your land, when you go up and appear in the sight of the Lord your God three times a year. 25. You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice upon leaven, nor shall any of the victim of the solemnity of the Passover remain until morning. 26. The first-fruits of the produce of your land you shall offer in the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk. 27. And the Lord said to Moses: Write these words, by which I have struck a covenant both with you and with Israel. 28. He was there therefore with the Lord forty days and forty nights: he ate no bread, and drank no water, and he wrote upon the tablets the ten words of the covenant. 29. And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he held the two tablets of testimony, and he did not know that his face was horned from the fellowship of the Lord's speech. 30. And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the horned face of Moses, were afraid to come near. 31. And being called by him, they returned, both Aaron and the princes of the Synagogue. And after he had spoken to them, 32. all the children of Israel also came to him: and he commanded them all things which he had heard from the Lord on Mount Sinai. 33. And having finished speaking, he put a veil upon his face. 34. And when he went in to the Lord and spoke with Him, he took it off until he came out, and then he spoke to the children of Israel all things that had been commanded him. 35. And they saw that the face of Moses when he came out was horned, but he covered his face again whenever he spoke to them.
Verse 1: Cut for Yourself Two Tablets of Stone
1. AND AFTERWARD, — supply: God spoke to Moses, and continuing His discourse, He finally completed it with the inscription of the second tablets.
CUT (in Hebrew dola) FOR YOURSELF TWO TABLETS OF STONE. — The first tablets God had given, and had inscribed with the Decalogue; but because the Hebrews had violated and broken them by making the golden calf, here God as punishment for their sin commands that they themselves prepare these second ones, and offer them to God for inscription, and humbly request that the law be written for them anew by God.
Verse 2: Be Ready in the Morning
2. BE READY IN THE MORNING, THAT YOU MAY GO UP IMMEDIATELY TO MOUNT SINAI. — Hence it seems that God said this to Moses on the day before the ascent around morning time, and that Moses then immediately descended from the mountain to the camp, and there cut and shaped through craftsmen two stone tablets, and commanded the people that no one should approach the mountain; then on the following night he again ascended the mountain, so that the next morning he might present himself to God with the tablets, so that God might inscribe the Decalogue on them with His own hand; which God also did on that same day, which was the fortieth from Moses' ascent of the mountain; whence it follows that on the preceding day, which was the thirty-ninth, Moses had descended from Sinai to cut the tablets of the law and bring them to God, as God here commands him. So Abulensis.
Verse 3: Neither Let Oxen nor Sheep Graze Nearby
3. Neither let oxen nor sheep graze nearby, — in the region of the mountain. God willed all these things so that He might instill fear and reverence of Himself in this hard and rude people.
Verse 5: And When the Lord Had Descended in a Cloud
5. AND WHEN THE LORD HAD DESCENDED IN A CLOUD, MOSES STOOD WITH HIM. — "He stood," namely Moses, enclosed in the cavern, and covered by the cloud in which God was descending, so that it might cover him while He passed, lest Moses see the face but only the back of the Lord, as God had promised Moses at the end of the preceding chapter.
Verses 5 and 6: Invoking the Name of the Lord
5 and 6. INVOKING THE NAME OF THE LORD. AND AS HE PASSED, HE SAID: RULER, LORD GOD, MERCIFUL, etc. — "He said" — who? It is uncertain whether Moses or the Lord. The Hebrew can be applied to either: for thus the Hebrew reads word for word: and the Lord descended in a cloud, and stood with him, and called upon the name of the Lord (which our translator understood of Moses: for he rendered it, Moses stood with Him invoking the name of the Lord), and the Lord passed before his face, and cried out: Lord, Lord, etc.
But it is better to apply these words to the Lord, so that the Lord Himself cried out, saying: "Ruler, Lord," etc. Hence in the Hebrew and Septuagint the words are in the third person, not the second, although our translator rendered them in the second person for the sake of clarity. For that the Lord cried out and said these things is clear from the preceding chapter, verse 19, where the Lord said: "I will call upon the name of the Lord," that is, I will cry out the name of the Lord, saying: "Ruler, Lord," etc. The same is clear from Numbers chapter 14, verse 17, where it is said: "As You swore, saying: The Lord is patient, and of great mercy." Where did God say this, if not here? Hence also Moses here at verse 8, finally after these words of the Lord, falling to the ground, began to pray to the Lord. So Abulensis, Oleaster, Vatablus, Cajetan, and Lipomanus.
Therefore what our translator rendered, "as He passed, He said;" He said, understand: the Lord, and this according to the custom of the Hebrews, who do not always take as the subject of the verb the substantive which is nearest, but often refer back to a more remote one, as we shall see in this chapter, verse 28, and elsewhere.
The Lord therefore cried out to Moses, saying: Ruler, Lord, as the Septuagint translates; or as our translator more clearly renders it: Ruler, Lord — not as though God were invoking or praying to Himself, but so that He might hand down to Moses the formula for invoking Him; just as Christ did with the Apostles when He said: "Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father, who art in heaven," etc. In the same way God acted here with Moses, as if to say: Thus shall you with your people invoke Me, thus shall you beseech Me: "Ruler, Lord, who keeps mercy unto thousands," etc. So Abulensis.
Second, if you wish to take the words of our translator as spoken by Moses, say that God passing before Moses first uttered these words, then Moses following God pronounced them a second time, so that these words of God were repeated by him. Hence I said in the preceding chapter that I will call upon the name of the Lord is to be understood thus, as if to say: By calling upon the name of the Lord, I will teach you to invoke the same; and so our translator wished to signify both things, namely that God uttered these words — and he expressed this sufficiently in the preceding chapter at that verse 19; and then that Moses repeated and recited the same from God's instruction — and this is what he says at this passage. Which is perhaps why the Hebrew here is ambiguous, so that it can be applied to both, namely both to Moses and to God. Similar is Matthew chapter 21, verse 41, where the chief priests and elders are narrated to have said: "He will miserably destroy those wretched men, and will lease his vineyard to other farmers," yet in Mark chapter 12, verse 9, and Luke chapter 20, verse 16, the Lord Himself is narrated to have said these words; where Matthew and Mark are to be reconciled by saying that these words were first spoken by the elders, as Matthew says, and then Christ repeated the same, so as to convict them by their own answer, as Mark and Luke say. So Lipomanus.
Ruler, Lord: The Twelve Names of God
RULER, LORD. — God here gives Himself twelve names, as it were titles, by which He wills to be addressed and invoked by us, because, as the Hebrews say, these titles in God express a relation to men and to men's salvation. The first is, "Ruler, Lord," for which in Hebrew is Jehovah, or rather Jehevah, which is the tetragrammaton name. The second, "God." The third, "merciful." The fourth, "gracious." The fifth, "patient." The sixth, "of great mercy." The seventh, "true," namely in His promises. The eighth, "who keeps mercy unto thousands." The ninth, "who takes away iniquity." The tenth, "no one is innocent of himself before You." The eleventh, "who repays the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." The twelfth, "and upon grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation," on which I will speak at Deuteronomy 5:9.
Merciful and Gracious
MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS. — This mercy of God St. Chrysostom proclaims in his homily on Psalm 50: "Are you impious? Set before yourself the Magi:" for Christ called these unbelievers to Himself through a star. "Are you a robber? Think of the tax collector. Are you impure? Let the prostitute present herself to your mind. Are you a murderer? Let that thief be turned before your eyes. Are you wicked? Let Paul come to your mind, who was first a blasphemer, afterward an Apostle; first a persecutor, afterward an Evangelist; first a wolf, afterward a shepherd. Have you sinned? Repent. Have you sinned a thousand times? Repent a thousand times."
And St. Bernard, sermon On the Threefold Mercy: "A great sinner," he says, "has need of great mercy; that where sin has abounded, grace may also abound. There are three degrees of this. The first, when God delays to strike, ready to forgive. The second, when He gives grace to the one who repents. The third, when He shakes the yoke of sin from the conscience."
The same, in sermon 2 and 3 on the gospel of the seven loaves: "The mercies of the Lord," he says, "I will sing forever," especially seven. First, He preserved me from many sins while I was still placed in the world; I confess and will confess, that unless the Lord had helped me, my soul would have fallen into almost every sin. Second, I was sinning, and You were overlooking it; I was not restraining myself from crimes, and You were abstaining from punishments; I prolonged my iniquity for a long time, and You, O Lord, Your mercy. Third, He visited my heart, and changed it so that things which had been wrongly sweet before became bitter. Fourth, He mercifully received me when I repented. Fifth, He provided the virtue of living more correctly, lest I suffer a relapse, and the last error be worse than the first. Sixth, He created in me hatred of past evils, contempt for present goods, and desire for future ones. Seventh, He gave me hope of obtaining eternal life.
The first mercy consists in the removal of occasion, in the virtue given to resist, in the health of the affections. The second embraces the long-suffering which God showed, the election of His predestination which He willed to be fulfilled, and the immense charity with which He loved us. The third: God shook my heart, arousing it to notice the wounds of its sins, and to feel the pain of its wounds; He terrified me, leading me to the gates of hell and showing me the punishments prepared for the wicked; inspiring consolation in me, He gave me hope of pardon. The fourth: God does not condemn by avenging, does not confound by reproaching, nor does He love less by imputing. The fifth: God protects us against all the snares of the flesh, the world, and Satan. The sixth has been explained. The seventh: no poverty of merits, no consideration of my own worthlessness, no estimation of heavenly blessedness, can cast me down from the height of hope, being firmly rooted in it. These and more St. Bernard says in various places at the cited passage.
The same, sermon 52 among the shorter ones: When we turn to God, he says, we kiss the feet of the Lord. Now there are two feet of the Lord, mercy and truth. And sermon 6 on the Song of Songs: It is not permitted, he says, to kiss the one without the other; because the recollection of judgment alone casts one into the abyss of despair, and the deceitful flattery of mercy alone produces the worst kind of false security.
Patient
Patient. — In Hebrew it is ארך אפים erech appaim, long, that is broad, in nostrils, that is slow to anger. In Greek makrothymos, and long-suffering. For those who have narrow nostrils receive the fumes rising from the heart and choler more quickly, and expel them more slowly on account of the narrowness of the passages, and therefore are more inclined to bile. On the contrary, those who have wide nostrils have ample passages through which they exhale choler and fumes, and through which they admit much cold air by which that heat and bile is tempered; hence these are more placid, more patient and long-suffering. So Ribera on Nahum, chapter 1, number 9.
Morally, learn here that God, who is supremely powerful, is also supremely patient. For impatience is a great impotence of soul; patience, however, is power. Hear Boethius, book III, meter 5:
He who would wish to be powerful,
Let him tame his fierce passions,
Nor submit his neck, conquered by lust,
To foul reins.
For though the far-off Indian land
Tremble at your laws,
And farthest Thule serve you:
Yet not to be able to drive away dark cares,
And put to flight wretched complaints —
That is not power.
Diogenes said to a young man complaining that he was disturbed by many people: "Stop carrying signs of perturbation about you." The same, when someone had said to him, "Many people revile you," replied: "A wise man must be struck by fools; the tongue that bites indicates the better man." Xenophon, as Seneca reports, said to someone cursing him: "You have learned to curse; I, with my conscience as witness, have learned to despise curses." Antisthenes used to say that "virtue is sufficient for happiness, and needs nothing else except Socratic strength." Socrates, moreover, had hardened himself to patience in all things.
No One Is Innocent before You of Himself
And no one is innocent before You of himself, as if to say: Therefore all stand in need of Your mercy, pardon, and grace, O Lord. In Numbers chapter 14, verse 18, our translator renders the same words that are here in the Hebrew thus: "leaving none guiltless," that is, who considers all guilty, culpable, and bound to You by some fault, on account of original sin, or mortal, or venial sin — understand this of themselves, or insofar as it is from man's side: for if God by His grace should preserve someone (as the Church piously believes of the Blessed Virgin), anyone could indeed be innocent. So Abulensis. It could secondly be translated from the Hebrew thus: "leaving none guiltless," that is, unpunished. For the Hebrew naka signifies both to be innocent and to be unpunished: for the latter follows from the former.
Verse 9: I Beseech You, Take Away Our Iniquities
9. I beseech You that, etc., You take away our iniquities. — Moses foresaw that the stiff-necked Jews would thereafter more frequently offend God; he therefore asks Him to be propitious to them, and not to entirely abandon or reject them on account of future sins; but rather to firmly possess and protect them as His inheritance, as the Hebrew has it. Hence here he teaches the Jews to address God by this same name, to invoke Him, and frequently to seek from Him pardon for their sins.
Verse 10: I Will Make a Covenant in the Sight of All
10. The Lord answered: I will make a covenant in the sight of all, I will do signs that have never been seen. — In Hebrew it is: I strike a covenant before all the people, who namely sees you ascending the mountain for this reason of a covenant, and already knows that you are here with Me on the mountain for the same reason, and beholds the cloud and perhaps other signs similar to those that were produced in the prior covenant, chapter 24, verse 17, and will behold your face flashing horns of light, when you will propose to them the conditions of the covenant, namely these My laws and the tablets inscribed by My finger.
Again, I will make a covenant in the sight of all, namely in the following times continuously confirming this covenant by wondrous signs, which I will thereafter produce for the protection of the people for this reason; as was most evident in the time of Joshua in his wars and prodigious victories.
Moreover, the covenant of God with the people renewed here was the same as the prior covenant, namely that God would be the Lord and protector of the people, and the people in turn would serve and obey God alone: both of which were signified by the giving and receiving, or acceptance, of the law. For God gave the tablets of the law, and the people received and accepted them.
Note: On the fortieth day from his ascent of the mountain, early in the morning Moses saw that vision and glory of God passing by, but from behind, about which see here verse 6 and the preceding chapter, verses 19 and 22. Then God, again covering Himself with the cloud, spoke with Moses, and proposes to him the conditions of the covenant, namely His laws, in verse 11 and following, and by this very act enters into a covenant with Moses and the people, and finally gives Moses the tablets of the Decalogue inscribed by Himself, as a symbol and confirmation of the covenant. Having received these, Moses on that same fortieth day descended from the mountain to the people with the tablets.
Verse 11: Observe All That I Have Commanded You Today
11. Observe all that I have commanded you today. — "You," O My people: for here God speaks to Moses as the intermediary of the people and one bearing their person.
Verse 14: The Lord Whose Name Is Jealous
14. The Lord whose name is Jealous — "whose" is redundant by a Hebraism, and in its place the word "Lord" should be substituted in the genitive, so that you say: "The name of the Lord is Jealous," that is, as follows: the Lord is jealous, a zealous guardian of the honor due to Him, and He does not suffer His people to turn aside to idols as to lovers.
Note the Hebraism: to have a name, or to be called, means to be, so that one can rightly be called by this name. Thus it is said of Christ: "And His name shall be called Emmanuel, wonderful, counselor, mighty." Likewise: "Make haste to seize the spoils, hasten to plunder" (Isaiah 8 and 9), that is, Christ will be Emmanuel, that is, God with us; He will be a counselor, He will be mighty, He will swiftly seize the spoils, He will hasten to plunder. See canon 18.
Verse 15: Lest When They Have Committed Fornication with Their Gods
15. Lest when they have committed fornication with their gods. — "Have committed fornication," that is, have worshipped gods or idols. Scripture frequently, especially in the Prophets, calls idolatry fornication, because men, blinded by the hope and lust of riches, pleasures, and a more licentious life, departing from God, subjected and surrendered themselves to idols as to lovers to be corrupted. See chapters 2 and 3 of Jeremiah, and chapter 16 of Ezekiel.
On the contrary, the Apostle, in 2 Corinthians 11:2, says to the faithful who duly worship God: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."
That you may eat of the things sacrificed, — and thus be enticed to sacrifice. For eating idol-offerings is not evil in itself, unless it is done in such a way — for example, in the midst of the sacrifices themselves in idol-temples — that one is considered by this very act to consent to the sacrifice offered to idols. It is nevertheless evil and unlawful per accidens, namely on account of danger, or an erroneous conscience, or scandal — which especially applied among the Jews. See what was said about idol-offerings at the beginning of chapter 8 of the first epistle to the Corinthians. The remaining laws are here briefly repeated from chapter 23, where I explained them.
Verse 21: On the Seventh Day You Shall Rest
21. On the seventh day you shall rest from plowing and reaping — as if to say: Even if it is the time of harvest or plowing, which above all other times is usually most laborious, nevertheless on the Sabbath you shall rest, and on that day you shall neither reap nor plow. This is clear from the Hebrew.
Verse 22: The Feast of Weeks
22. You shall celebrate the feast of weeks with the first-fruits of the harvest — as if to say: You shall celebrate the feast of Pentecost after a week of weeks, that is after 7 weeks, namely after 49 days, on the fiftieth day from Passover, and on it you shall offer the first-fruits of bread to God.
And the feast, when at the return of the year all things are gathered in — namely the feast of ingathering in the seventh month, in which the ancient and common year began, about which see chapter 23, verse 16.
Verse 24: When I Shall Have Enlarged Your Borders
24. When I shall have enlarged your borders — when I shall have given you the wide borders I promised you: which was accomplished immediately in the time of Joshua after the first rest from wars. And so, as is gathered from this, before this rest the Hebrews were not bound by this precept of going three times a year to the tabernacle, both because the journey was dangerous and because they were still occupied with wars against the natives.
No one shall lay snares for your land when you go up and appear in the sight of the Lord your God three times a year — in Hebrew it is: no one shall covet your land, so as to invade it in your absence and lay ambushes for it. As if to say: Do not fear enemies when you obey My law by going up, that is, going to My sanctuary, as if they would invade your cities, empty of men and warriors, in your absence; for I will restrain and divert them, so that they neither covet it nor even think of it. So Abulensis.
Verse 25: You Shall Not Sacrifice with Leaven
25. You shall not sacrifice with leaven — that is, with leavened bread. See what was said at chapter 23, verse 18.
Nor shall anything remain in the morning of the victim of the solemnity of the Passover. — As if to say: Nothing of the paschal lamb shall remain until the next day, or until the following morning; but on the same day on which you sacrifice the lamb, you shall eat it entirely. See what was said at chapter 12, verse 20.
Verse 27: Write These Words
27. Write these words — these ceremonial precepts now repeated by Me; when you have descended from the mountain, write them in some book, for a perpetual memorial of My worship and covenant. And so Moses wrote them here in the book of Exodus.
According to which. — In Hebrew: according to whose tenor, that is, the terms and rationale by which I entered into a covenant with you and with your people, so that they might be a people bound to Me by this worship and these ceremonies; and I in turn would be their God, guardian, and provider.
Verse 28: He Was There with the Lord Forty Days
28. He was therefore there with the Lord forty days. — This is Moses' second sojourn and stay on Mount Sinai for 40 days. For the first sojourn of the same number of days was in chapter 24, last verse, during which were said and done the things narrated from chapter 24, last verse, to chapter 32, verse 15. This second sojourn began the day after Moses had descended from the first: for the next day he again ascended Sinai and remained there 40 days. This second stay of Moses contains what was said from verse 31 of chapter 32 to this point. Therefore the preceding conversations of God with Moses, which have been narrated until now, occurred during the space of these 40 days during which Moses stayed on the mountain the second time, as is clear from this passage.
Note: Moses first ascended the mountain immediately after the law was given at Pentecost, namely the following day (as is gathered from Exodus 24:12), which was the seventh day of the third month; for the law was given on the sixth day of the third month. From there Moses remained with God on the mountain 40 days; then he descended with the tablets of the law which he had received from God, and upon seeing the calf he broke them on the 17th day of the fourth month. The next day, namely the 18th, he again ascended to God on Sinai, as is clear from chapter 32, verses 30 and 31, and there he again remained another 40 days, as is clear from chapter 34, verse 28. When these had elapsed, he received from God the second tablets of the law, and with these he descended with horns of light to the people on the 28th day of the fifth month.
He ate no bread and drank no water — that is, he took absolutely no food, living solely by prayer and the conversation of God. For the Hebrews are accustomed to signify all food by two parts, or things necessary and sufficient for relieving hunger and thirst, namely water and bread. So Augustine, Question 165, and St. Jerome on Isaiah 3. Moses therefore fasted twice for 40 days, namely once before the first writing and reception of the tablets of the law, and a second time before the second. Concerning the disposition and virtue of this fasting, see St. Maximus, Homily 3 On the Fast of Lent; St. Jerome, Book 2 Against Jovinian; Chrysostom, Sermon 1 On Fasting; Cyprian, Treatise On the Fasting and Temptations of Christ, and above all St. Basil, Sermon 1 On Fasting, and from him St. Ambrose, in the book On Elijah and Fasting. Hear a few things out of many.
On Fasting
"Fasting," says St. Jerome to Demetrias, "is not only a perfect virtue, but is the foundation of the other virtues, and sanctification, and chastity and prudence, without which no one shall see God." St. Ambrose, Sermon on Lent: "Hunger," he says, "is a friend to virginity, an enemy to wantonness; but satiety squanders chastity and nourishes allurement." And again: "He," he says, "keeps the Lenten fast who by fasting and keeping vigil ascends to Easter. For just as fasting during the rest of the year is a merit, so not fasting during Lent is a sin. For those fasts are voluntary, these are necessary; those come from choice, these from law; to those we are invited, to these we are compelled." Note the precept of the Lenten fast in the time of St. Ambrose. St. Chrysostom, on Matthew chapter 6: "Just as," he says, "neither a soldier without weapons is anything, nor weapons without a soldier, so neither is prayer without fasting, nor fasting without prayer." St. Basil: "Fasting," he says, "is the likeness of men to angels." Again Chrysostom: "Fasting is the nourishment of the soul." St. Augustine: "Fasting," he says, "purges the mind, elevates the senses, subjects the flesh to the spirit, makes the heart contrite and humbled, disperses the clouds of concupiscence, extinguishes the fires of lust, and kindles the light of chastity." St. Athanasius, Treatise On Virginity: "See," he says, "what fasting does: it heals diseases, dries up fluxes, puts demons to flight, drives out evil thoughts, renders the mind clearer, the heart purer, and the body healthier."
St. Ambrose, On Elijah and Fasting: "Fasting," he says, "is the death of sin, the destruction of offenses, the remedy of salvation, the root of grace, the foundation of chastity: by this step, as by a chariot, Elijah ascended." Peter of Ravenna, Sermon on Fasting: "Fasting," he says, "we know to be the fortress of God, the camp of Christ, the wall of the Holy Spirit, the standard of faith, the sign of chastity, the trophy of holiness." St. Gregory: "Since," he says, "we fell from the joy of paradise through food, let us rise again, as much as we can, through abstinence."
Examples and rewards of those who fast I have brought forward at Genesis 9:21 and here at chapter 24, verse 18.
And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten. — Namely, God, not Moses, wrote the ten precepts of the Decalogue on the stone tablets, as St. Cyprian in the Treatise On the Spirit, and St. Augustine, Question 116, would have it. For although the preceding discourse was about Moses, here nonetheless it is about God — which, although it may seem novel to Latin speakers, is not so to the Hebrews, who often either understand the subject of the verb, or adopt a more remote one, especially if it is known or named elsewhere. So here, from the fact that in verse 1 the Lord said He would write the law on these tablets, it is left clear that what is said here — "he wrote" — must be understood of the Lord, not of Moses. Then that this is absolutely so is clear from Deuteronomy 10, verses 1, 2, 3, 4, where this same history is repeated, and it is said that the Lord wrote the law, not Moses.
Verse 29: His Face Was Horned from the Conversation of the Lord
29. And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he held the two tablets, and he did not know that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord's speech. — Note first: God, about to give the tablets of the law to Moses and the Hebrews, and speaking with Moses about this matter on Sinai, like a most radiant sun breathed upon Moses His glory, that is, rays of His light so brilliant that the Hebrews could not look upon the face of Moses as upon another sun, but were compelled to turn their faces away from him. Hence Moses, so that he could speak with them, veiled his face and his glory with a veil; whence it says: "He did not know that his face was horned."
Where note secondly: Our translator rendered it well as "horned"; for the verb karan properly signifies to be horned, not to radiate, as some fabricate. Just as the noun keren signifies only a horn, and this in nearly all languages.
Note thirdly: "Horned" is here taken metaphorically; for Moses did not have horns on his forehead, as painters depict him, but his face was so luminous that it shot forth rays of light and emitted, as it were, horns. Hence the Chaldean, rendering not the words but the sense, says: Moses did not know that the splendor of the glory of his countenance had been multiplied. And the Septuagint: "he did not know that the appearance of the color (or, as others read, of the skin) of his face had been glorified," that is, Moses did not know that the appearance of the color, or skin, of his face had been glorified. St. Paul follows the Septuagint, in 2 Corinthians 3:7, calling these horns "the glory of the face of Moses." From the same Septuagint, in the ecclesiastical office of the Transfiguration of Christ it is sung: "The face of Moses was glorified." From which you may conjecture that the ancient edition of Sacred Scripture which the Church used before St. Jerome was that of the Seventy Interpreters.
Moreover, these rays of Moses are called horns because they so dazzled and struck the eyes of the Hebrews that they seemed to be struck and pierced as if by horns. For they were so struck by them that out of terror they drew back, and repelled as it were by these rays, unable to endure their force, they fled. And this was to the end that they might revere and fear Moses the lawgiver and the law given to him by God, and no longer dare to transgress it. For horns are a symbol, first, of authority and kingship, according to Psalm 132:17: "There I will make a horn (that is, strength and kingdom) to spring up for David." And concerning the descendants of Joseph, namely the kings to be born from Ephraim his son, Moses says in Deuteronomy 33:17: "His horns are the horns of a rhinoceros; with them he shall push the nations." By these horns, therefore, God established Moses as leader and lawgiver, and adorned him as with the insignia of authority,
Brandishing flaming lights from his horned countenance,
And bearing the heavenly laws in sacred books.
Hence these horns were not of bone, but of light; because the law, which he was about to give from God as lawgiver, was light, and that heavenly and divine, as in Proverbs chapter 6, verse 23.
Secondly, the horns of Moses signified that his law would be threatening and terrible, as if Moses, horned, would attack with his horns those who violated the law, inflicting on them the penalty of death. For the old law was one of rigor and terror, just as the new on the contrary is one of grace and love.
From the conversation of the Lord's speech. — Hence it is clear that these horns of light, that is, these rays, were breathed upon Moses from his association with God, especially when the glory of God passed before the opening of the rock and cried out: "Lord God" (this chapter, verse 6). For Moses had asked to see the face of the Lord who was speaking with him through the cloud; but God answered: "My back (that is, My back in the body assumed through an angel) you shall see; but My face (as being too radiant) you shall not be able to see." Therefore God, or rather the angel acting in God's place, placed Moses in the cave and covered it with a cloud, and thus passed before Moses in a glorious and most luminous body assumed by Himself. And when He had already passed, He removed the cloud, so that Moses might behold the back of the Lord, or rather of the angel (in which the light was more tempered than in the face). Then therefore the back of the Lord, wonderfully radiant, so dazzled Moses who was gazing at it that it fixed, as it were, horns of light upon him.
For it is clear that Moses' face radiated most especially from that event, because on the first occasion, when he had conversed with the Lord for the same number of days and received the first tablets (Exodus chapter 32:15), we read nothing about such rays. Similarly, neither in this second conversation just before that vision of God, when Moses was descending from the mountain to bring the tablets to God (verses 3 and 4) — which occurred on the 39th day of the second stay on Sinai. It is therefore likely that in that most splendid and most eminent vision already mentioned, Moses contracted them and they were breathed upon him, namely on the last and 40th day on which he was with God on Sinai, and on which he also received from Him the second tablets of the law. And this was, first, so that God might declare His love toward Moses and repay love with love. Secondly, so that He might show the law to be promulgated to the Israelites to be divine by this most certain mark, and proceeding from God, and strike them with terror lest they dare to violate it thereafter; the Apostle assigns this cause in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 7. Thirdly, so that He might secure authority for Moses among the people. Fourthly, so that He might show the power and fruit of prayer.
How long this splendor of his face lasted, Scripture does not state. Abulensis, for the same reasons already given, thinks it lasted until the death of Moses, and therefore that Moses, after the first conversation with the people, thereafter until his death veiled his face when he addressed the people. Ambrose in his commentary on Psalm 119 also holds this opinion, and he pursues the allegorical reason: Moses, he says, that is, the old law, always had a veil; Jesus, or Joshua, his successor, had none: for Christ took away all the veil of the law, as the Apostle says, in 2 Corinthians.
Morally note: God is immense and uncreated light, the font of all light and illumination; hence light is the most noble and heavenly quality by which God, when He appeared, represented His majesty. "Light," says St. Dionysius in On the Divine Names, "is from the Good itself, and is an image of goodness. Therefore the Good itself is praised by the name of light, as if the archetype were expressed in a certain image." Hence those who associate with God and, praying, frequently converse with Him, are breathed upon by the rays of God like Moses, and become luminous in soul, and sometimes in face and body. Thus Christ was transfigured in prayer, and His face shone like the sun, so that with His rays He illuminated not only Elijah and Moses, but also Peter, James, and John. For Peter, exulting in this splendor and joy, and as if intoxicated, cried out: "Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." Likewise the face of St. Anthony, spending the night in prayer, shone continuously, so that from the light and joy of his countenance alone, among so many thousands of monks, Anthony was recognized — for he seemed to be like a sun among stars. Likewise St. Francis, lifted into the air by fervent prayer, radiated and burned, and seemed to cast forth flames and fires from himself.
Likewise our holy father Ignatius was often seen by St. Philip Neri and others with a countenance august and radiant beyond the human. Likewise the august face of the Blessed Virgin radiated from her constant association with God and the incarnate Word, so that she seemed to be a kind of goddess, as St. Dionysius testifies. Moreover, these rays of light had the appearance of horns, to signify that through prayer the saints are not only illuminated by divine light, but also made horned, that is, constant, strong, robust, and invincible for enduring all hardships and for undertaking any difficult endeavor. Thus by prayer St. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, was strengthened, of whom it is said in 1 Samuel 1:18: "And her countenance was no longer changed," as if to say: With the same ever-constant countenance she thereafter received both the praises of Elkanah and the taunts of Peninnah; things both hard and sweet, both adverse and prosperous.
Verse 30: They Feared to Come Near
30. And when Aaron and the children of Israel saw the horned face of Moses, they feared to come near — because they could not fix the gaze of their eyes on his face, so radiant, or on this splendor of his face, and because they reverenced Moses as one now made divine by these rays. But these rays were hidden from Moses himself, because he was absorbed in the vision and conversation of God, and could not see his own face except in a mirror; had he looked, he would certainly have seen these rays of his own face as well.
31 and 32. And after he had spoken to them (namely Moses to Aaron and the leaders of the people), all the children of Israel also came to him — now reassured from their fear, since they had seen Aaron and the leaders conversing with Moses.
The most illustrious Bellarmine also implies this opinion, in Book 2 On the Religion of the Saints, chapter 4.
Verse 33: He Put a Veil upon His Face
33. And when he had finished speaking, he put a veil upon his face. — From this passage it is gathered that Moses promulgated the precepts of God to the people in the first conversation with open and radiant face, for the sake of the majesty, reverence, and testimony of the law. But after that first promulgation, thereafter when he spoke with the people, he veiled his face so that freer conversation might be possible. But when he went to the tabernacle, about which see chapter 33, verse 8, to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil.
The Apostle gives the allegorical reason for this veiling in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 14, 15, 16. For to the Jews the Old Testament is covered with a veil, so that they do not see its inner light of the New Testament and Christ, contained and represented therein. This veil Christ has taken away for us in the new law, and will take it away at the end of the age from the Jews who are to be converted to the faith of Christ.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Part 3 of the Pastoral Rule, chapter 5: The preacher, he says, must adapt himself to his hearers; for lofty matters must be covered over before many listeners, and scarcely opened to a few.
Verse 35. The latter part of this verse can be translated from the Hebrew thus: Then, when he had ceased speaking, he would put back the veil over his face, until he entered the tabernacle to speak with Him, namely Jehovah.