God's Revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai

God's Revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai

(i. 1-26: cf. Ex. xxiv. 15-18).

1. And it came to pass in the first year of the

2450 A.M. (A.M. = Anno Mundi)

exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt, in the third month, ⁵ on the sixteenth day of the month, that God spake to Moses, saying: "Come up to Me on the Mount, and I will give thee two tables of stone of the law and of the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayst teach them." ⁶ 2. And Moses went up into the mount of God, and the glory of the Lord abode on Mount Sinai, and a cloud overshadowed it six days. 3. And He called to Moses on

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the seventh day out of the midst of the cloud, and the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a flaming fire on the top of the Mount. 4. And Moses was on the Mount forty days and forty nights, and God taught him the earlier and the later history ¹ of the division of all the days of the law and of the testimony. 5. And He said: "Incline thine heart to every word which I shall speak to thee on this Mount, and write them ² in a book in order that their generations may see how I have not forsaken them for all the evil which they have wrought in transgressing the covenant which I establish between Me and thee for their generations this day on Mount Sinai. 6. And thus it will come to pass when all these things come upon them, ³ that they will recognize that I am more righteous than they in all their judgments and in all their actions, and they will recognize that I have been truly with them. 7. And do thou write for thyself ⁴ all these words which I declare unto thee this day, for I know their rebellion and their stiff neck, ⁵ before I bring them into the land of which I sware to their fathers, to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, saying: "Unto your seed will I give a land flowing with milk and honey. 8. And they will eat and be satisfied, and they will turn to strange gods, to (gods) which cannot deliver them from aught of their tribulation: "and this witness shall be heard for a witness against them. ⁶ 9. For they will forget all My commandments, (even) all that I command them, and they will walk after the Gentiles, and after their uncleanness, and after their shame, and will serve their gods, and these will prove unto them an offence and a tribulation and an affliction and a snare. ⁷ 10. And

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many will perish and they will be taken captive, ¹ and will fall into the hands of the enemy, because they have forsaken My ordinances and My commandments, and the festivals of My covenant, and My sabbaths, and My holy place ² which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle, ³ and My sanctuary, which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set My name upon it, and that it should dwell (there). 11. And they ⁴ will make to themselves high places and groves and graven images, ⁵ and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go astray, and they will sacrifice their children to demons, ⁶ and to all the works of the error of their hearts. 12. And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness against them, but they will not hear, ⁷ and will slay ⁸ the witnesses also, and they will persecute those who seek the law, and they will abrogate and change everything so as to work evil before My eyes. 13. And I shall hide My face from them, and I shall deliver them into the hand of the Gentiles for captivity, and for a prey, and for devouring, ⁹ and I shall remove them from the midst of the land, and I shall scatter ¹⁰ them amongst the Gentiles. 14. And they will forget all My law and all My commandments and all My judgments, and will go astray as to new moons, and sabbaths, and festivals, and jubilees, and ordinances. 15. And after this they will turn to Me ¹¹ from amongst the Gentiles with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength, and I shall gather them from amongst all the Gentiles, ¹² and they will seek Me, so that I shall be found of them, when they seek Me

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with all their heart and with all their soul. 16. And I shall disclose to them abounding peace with righteousness, and I shall †remove them the plant of uprightness†, ¹ with all My heart and with all My soul, ² and they will be for a blessing and not for a curse, ³ and they will be the head and not the tail. ⁴ 17. And I shall build My sanctuary ⁵ in their midst, and I shall dwell with them, and I shall be their God and they will be My people ⁶ in truth and righteousness. 18. And I shall not forsake them nor fail them; ⁷ for I am the Lord their God." 19. And Moses fell on his face and prayed and said, "O Lord my God, do not forsake Thy people and Thy inheritance, ⁸ so that they should wander in the error of their hearts, and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies, the Gentiles, lest they should rule over them and cause them to sin against Thee. 20. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be lifted up upon Thy people, and create in them an upright spirit, ⁹ and let not the spirit of Beliar ¹⁰ rule over them to accuse them before Thee, and to ensnare them from all the paths of righteousness, so that they may perish from before Thy face. 21. But they are Thy people and Thy inheritance, which Thou hast delivered with Thy great power ¹¹ from the hands of the Egyptians: create in them a clean heart and a holy Spirit, ¹² and let them not be ensnared in their sins from henceforth until eternity." 22. And the Lord said unto Moses: "I know their contrariness and their thoughts and their stiffneckedness, ¹³ and they will not be obedient till they confess their own sin and the sin of their

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fathers. ¹ 23. And after this they will turn to Me in all uprightness and with all (their) heart and with all (their) soul, and I shall circumcise the foreskin of their heart ² and the foreskin of the heart of their seed, and I shall create in them a holy spirit, and I shall cleanse them so that they shall not turn away from Me from that day unto eternity. 24. And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My commandments, and I shall be their Father and they will be My children. 25. And they will all be called children of the living God, ³ and every angel and every spirit will know, yea, they will know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them. 26. And do thou write down for thyself all these words ⁴ which I declare unto thee on this mountain, the first and the last, which shall come to pass in all the divisions of the days in the law and in the testimony and in the weeks and the jubilees unto eternity, until I descend and dwell with them ⁵ throughout eternity."

Footnotes

35:5 Cf. Exod. xix. i.

35:6 Cf. Exod. xxiv. 12.

36:1 Cf. i. 26. According to the Jewish Midrash, also, God showed Moses "all the generations that should arise," as well as "all the minutiæ of the Law" (Shemoth rabb. xl.; Megilla 19b).

36:2 Cf. Exod. xxxiv. 27.

36:3 Cf. Deut. xxx. 1.

36:4 Cf. i. 27.

36:5 Cf. Deut. xxxi. 27.

36:6 Cf. Deut. xxxi. 20.

36:7 Cf. Exod. xxiii. 33.

37:1 N. Israel is referred to.

37:2 i. e. the Temple in Jerusalem.

37:3 The Tabernacle is apparently thought of as still in existence (in Jerusalem) during the time of the monarchy.

37:4 i. e. Judah.

37:5 Cf. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3 ff.

37:6 Cf. 2 Chron. xxviii. 3, xxxiii. 6.

37:7 Cf. 2 Chron. xxiv. 19.

37:8 Cf. Matt. xxiii. 34.

37:9 Cf. 2 Kings xxi. 14.

37:10 Cf. Deut. iv. 27, xxviii. 64.

37:11 Cf. Deut. iv. 30.

37:12 Cf. Jer. xxix. 14.

38:1 The obelized words are corrupt. Charles suggests reading "And I will plant them the plant of uprightness in the land."

38:2 Cf. Jer. xxxii. 41.

38:3 Cf. Zech. viii. 13.

38:4 Cf. Deut. xxviii. 13.

38:5 i. e. the second Temple.

38:6 Cf. Lev. xxvi. 12 and often.

38:7 Cf. Deut. xxxi. 6.

38:8 Cf. Deut. ix. 26.

38:9 Cf. Ps. li. 10.

38:10 Beliar (Belial) is here, as in the Ascension of Isaiah (see Introduction to that work), a Satanic being, apparently "the prince of the devils."

38:11 Cf. Deut. ix. 29.

38:12 Cf. Ps. li. 10 (and ver. 20 above).

38:13 Cf. Deut. xxxi. 27.

39:1 Cf. Lev. xxvi. 40.

39:2 Cf. Deut. x. 16, xxx. 6.

39:3 Cf. Hos. i. 10.

39:4 Viz. those contained in our Book (the Book of Jubilees) as distinguished from the Book of the First Law (vi. 22 = the Pentateuch), which was written by the angel himself.

39:5 viz. in the perfect theocracy inaugurated by the Messianic Kingdom.