1.4.5.1. Division of the sixth pericope into smaller units.

This pericope consists of the following parts:

(1) 15:22-27: The beginning of the way from the Sea of Reeds: The Lord announces the essential purpose of the spiritual way.

The biblical writer presented here: the first difficulties (no drinking water), the first complaints of the people, the first prayer of Moses, the first speech of God.

In the first speech (15:26 along with the narrative in 15:25b, which is an introduction to this speech) God announced that the people should listen to His voice, do what is right in His eyes, fulfill His Law, and then He will be their doctor [254], protector.

In this way, too, the essential theme of the whole pericope was announced: to walk Lord’s way not only from the sea to Mount Horeb but from their lack of confidence in His presence among them to fully trust in the Lord as shepherd of the people.

(2) 16:1-36: The Lord gives the people the Sabbath Law, meat (quails), and bread (manna).

As part of the narrative, the biblical writer presented here three speeches of God (16:4-5.10-12.28-29), showing the spiritual dimension of meeting the needs of the people by God. The primarily important is not that they need bread and meat, but that they need to walk according to the law of the Lord (4-5) and to know Him as their God (10-12), who not only gives the law but also the possibility of its realization (28-29).

One should note that:

• According to Ex 31:13, the Sabbath is a great ‘sign’ (אוֹת) of the covenant thanks to which God is the God of Israel [255],
• According to Ex 16:1-16, God requires Israel to keep the law of the Sabbath. This God’s requirement precedes His act of granting such law within a framework of the covenant made in Sinai. The explanation for this seemingly obvious anachronism (enforcement of the law precedes its granting) will be the subsequent analysis of the whole of Ex 1-18.

This part ends with a description (31-36) of the commemoration of God’s goodness: giving the name for manna and its safekeeping for all generations in Ark of Covenant is to ensure the people’s gratitude towards the Lord, who fed them with manna until they entered the inhabited land, Canaan.

Remembering the Lord’s graciousness had to be in the center of the biblical writer’s attention since he did not hesitate to give as if a summary of the trip here, although Israel had only just ended the first leg [256].

(3) 17:1-7: Lord brings water out of rock and faith in His presence out of hearts of Israelites.

The next lack of water became a test of faith for the people because their complaints came from disbelief in the presence of God among them (17:7).

In the speech, God commanded Moses to strike the rock with the rod, which he had used earlier to strike the Nile in Egypt. He was to do it in front of all the people; Moses obediently did so.

Moses commemorated [257] the goodness of God, who patiently frees his people from unbelief, by giving this place a new name: Massah and Meribah (מַסָּה וּמְרִיבָה).

(4) 17:8-16: The Lord shows the importance of faith by responding to Moses’ faith through the gift of victory over the enemies.

The Amalekites stepped armed, intending to kill the people of the Lord. Through this situation of mortal danger, God revealed the great importance in His eyes not so much of the strength of the weapon as of the spirit: Moses with the staff of God, raised to heaven, made the military victory of Joshua.

In His speech to Moses, the Lord ordered to commemorate this event in the book and Joshua’s memory. Additionally, on his initiative, Moses commemorated it by building an altar and naming it יְהוָה נִסִּי – the Lord is my banner – thus underlining the spiritual message of the whole event: The Lord is the focus of attention, the Lord who is still the protector of the people conducted from captivity [258].

(5) 18:1-12: Thanksgiving of Jethro and the Israelites to the Lord for the liberation from Egypt and care all the way long.

What follows in this part is integrally related to God’s announcement He gave at the time of the first revelation at the foot of Horeb after that Moses was shying away from undertaking the mission of leader of Israel:

Ex 3:12 He said, ‘I will be with you, and this is the sign for you that I have sent you: in your bringing out the people from Egypt – you will serve God on this mountain.’

The relation between the announcement and its fulfillment is already visible in the name of this mountain [259]: its name is הַר הָאֱלֹהִים חֹרֵב (the mountain of God, Horeb) [260] in the first revelation (Ex 3:1), while both these names also appear in the discussed pericope:

The meeting between Jethro and Moses was also in Rephidim, which one should deduce from 17:1.8 and 18:8-12, where there is no mention of Israel’s departure from Rephidim, and which is confirmed by the Book of Numbers: according to Num 33:14-16 (cf. also Num 10:12-11:35) the next places of encampment were Rephidim, the Desert of Sinai, Kibroth-hattaavah, Hazeroth.

One should suppose that the people of the desert knew Rephidim as a place where there is usually water. Otherwise, Moses would not have led there first the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro (cf. Ex 3:1), and, after many years, the whole people with their possessions (cf. Ex 17:1ff).

The people’s complaints about the lack of water in Rephidim becomes understandable – they went to it as the subsequent camping place in the desert, and thus as a place rich in water, known to Moses [261], and upon their arrival, it turned out that there was no water there! Such a situation means that everyone can die of thirst because expecting water, they probably did not take sufficient supplies from the previous place. It is a fatal danger.

The intervention of God bringing water out of the rock is, therefore, the water restoration for this place, not the creation of the spring, as if water had never been here before.

Rephidim was known both to Moses and Jethro [262], and therefore it had to be commonly known as a place rich in water, a place where one should stop on the way through the desert. It could even be near the place where Jethro was living, if he could ‘hear’ (probably from the messengers of Moses: cf. 18:6) that Moses brought the people out of Egypt and probably passes nearby – thanks to the fact that it was not far away, Jethro went with Moses’ wife and sons to meet him and then returned to himself without them [263] (cf. 18:27).

So it is Rephidim, where it takes place the realization of that sign announced by God to Moses.

The worship of God takes place here first in a manner that is not easy to notice:

The significance of this name is particularly evident when one compares it to the first son’s name ‘Gershom,’ being its opposite since the biblical writer explains it in the following way: “Gershom, because Moses said, ‘I have been a stranger in a foreign land’” (18:3),

Then the glorification of God for His intervention for Israel follows in the dialogue that Jethro has with Moses (18:8-12), the dialogue, which culminates in a burnt offering and feasting in honor of God.

It is worth quoting these exhilarating sentences showing the Lord in His work of doing (עשׂה) everything necessary to complete the process of bringing (יצא) Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians and rescuing (נצל) them not only from Pharaoh’s sword but also from all the dangers of the time of the way to this place (cf. 18:8) at the foot of the God’s mountain Horeb:

Ex 18:1

וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֱלֹהִים לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵל עַמּוֹ כִּי־הוֹצִיא יְהוָה אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם׃

NAB Now Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel: how the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt.

Ex 18:4

וְשֵׁם הָאֶחָד אֱלִיעֶזֶר כִּי־אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי וַיַּצִּלֵנִי מֵחֶרֶב פַּרְעֹה׃

The other was called Eliezer; for he said, “My father’s God is my helper; He has rescued me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

Ex 18:8

וַיְסַפֵּר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹתְנוֹ אֵת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְהוָה לְפַרְעֹה וּלְמִצְרַיִם עַל אוֹדֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל אֵת כָּל־הַתְּלָאָה אֲשֶׁר מְצָאָתַם בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיַּצִּלֵם יְהוָה׃

NAB Moses then told his father-in-law of all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, and of all the hardships they had had to endure on their journey, and how the Lord had come to their rescue.

Ex 18:9

וַיִּחַדְּ יִתְרוֹ עַל כָּל־הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה יְהוָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הִצִּילוֹ מִיַּד מִצְרָיִם

NAB Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness that the Lord had shown Israel in rescuing them from the hands of the Egyptians.

Ex 18:10

וַיֹּאמֶר יִתְרוֹ בָּרוּךְ יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֶתְכֶם מִיַּד מִצְרַיִם וּמִיַּד פַּרְעֹה אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֶת־הָעָם מִתַּחַת יַד־מִצְרָיִם׃

And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.”

Ex 18:11

עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־גָדוֹל יְהוָה מִכָּל־הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי בַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר זָדוּ עֲלֵיהֶם׃

KJV Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.

Ex 18:12

וַיִּקַּח יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה עֹלָה וּזְבָחִים לֵאלֹהִים וַיָּבֹא אַהֲרֹן וְכֹל זִקְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לֶאֱכָל־לֶחֶם עִם־חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים

KJV And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came, to eat bread with him before God.

The above list shows how a wonderful ‘hymn’ of gratitude in honor of the Lord is here ‘sung’ by the people, inspired by Moses’ father-in-law.

The biblical writer at the beginning of the scene under consideration indicated that Jethro was a Midian priest (18:1). This priest states with emotional involvement at the climax of the scene:

Ex 18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods!

עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־גָדוֹל יְהוָה מִכָּל־הָאֱלֹהִים

The confession of the priest Jethro is the counterpart of the central part of the hymn of Moses:

15:11Who is like You among the gods, o Lord?

מִי־כָמֹכָה בָּאֵלִם יְהוָה

One might suppose, therefore, that the biblical writer’s thought was that the two pericopes would somehow relate together. An analysis of this relation will be made somewhat further in this work. We must now consider in detail the significance of the sacrifice made by priest Jethro in honor of God (18:12).

The biblical writer emphasized that not only Jethro and Moses but also Aaron and all elders of Israel took part in eating the sacrifice in honor of Lord, the eating before His face (לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים – 18:12).

One should thus assume [264] that this act of cult is the fulfillment of the words of the Lord, who announced during His first revelation to Moses, from the midst of the burning bush at the foot of Horeb (Ex 3:1ff):

“I will be with you, and this is the sign for you that I have sent you: in your bringing out the people from Egypt – you will serve God (תַּעַבְדוּן אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים) on this mountain’ (3:12).

In literary terms, there is a plural [265] in both cases – in the announcement of the sign (3:12) and its realization (18:12).

The announcement of the sign in Ex 3:12 contains the verb עבד which describes the act of serving and offering the sacrifice, the fulfillment of which towards God is, in light of the Bible, when one makes a burnt offering (עֹלָה) and offers a kind of the festive sacrifice (זֶבַח). This connection between עבד and these both offerings, one can see in Moses’ dialogue with Pharaoh: cf. Ex 10:24 (עבד) and 10:25 (עֹלָה and זֶבַח).

If traditionally biblical scholars point out the fulfillment of this sign in the act of offering these two kinds of sacrifice during the conclusion of the Covenant at Sinai (cf. Ex 24:5), one should note that Jethro earlier, on God’s mountain Horeb, offered the same sacrifices (cf. Ex 18:12), and the whole people participated in this act of cult through their elders.

The Israelites’ sacrifice – as their service עבד and simultaneously as the foretold sign which was to take place on God’s mountain Horeb – becomes a fact! Furthermore, it is more legitimate to identify that foretold ‘sign from the Lord’ (Ex 3:12) with this act of cult than with the sacrifice at the time of the Covenant at Sinai:

• At Sinai, the decision to make it was from Moses, while here it was not from him but Jethro, inspired by the Lord; Jethro acted independently of Moses, independently of Moses’ will,
• At Sinai, the Israelites did not doubt that it was the Lord who sent Moses and led them out of Egypt, but on the way from the Sea of Reeds to Horeb (which is the theme of the sixth pericope), whenever they lacked food or water, they always doubted; they even accused Moses, not the Lord, of leading them out from Egypt. So this sign (“a sign for you that I sent you” – Ex 3:12) was in the center of attention of both Moses (lest they stoned him to death) and the people (so that they can walk their way through a dangerous, after all, desert, without worrying about the near future).

This explanation allows us to go to the analysis of the last part of the last pericope.

(5) 18:13-27: On the advice of Jethro, Moses appoints judges that Israel may know and observe the Law of the Lord.

This part consists of three fragments:

1. The first scene shown is the one in which Moses judges the people. The Israelites wait with remarkable perseverance throughout the day until the time when they can talk with Moses. It is contrastively different behavior in comparison to the repeated statements in this pericope, from earlier stages of the road, that the people complained and had grudges against Moses. It is also contrasting with the scene recorded in the first pericope of the Book of Exodus, where one of the two arguing Israelites answers to Moses trying to reconcile them: “Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” (2:14).
2. The biblical writer then presented a dialogue between Moses and Jethro, which leads to a reorganization of this service of judging. The fundamental role of God as a lawmaker, expressed in the words of Jethro (18:17-23), especially in the final statement of Moses’ total dependence on Him [266], needs to be emphasized here: “If you do this, and God commands you to do so.” Moses will henceforth settle the most difficult matters; he entrusts the less complicated ones to lower superiors.
3. The biblical writer ends the scene with the statement that Moses followed his father-in-law’s advice, and then Jethro left for his country. It is simultaneously the end of the entire pericope and the entire Ex 1-18 text.

1.4.5.2. Thematic unity of pericope 15:22-18:27.

The Hebrew Bible [267] seems to divide the analyzed pericope into two parts because it gives before 18:1:

● in BH1: יתרו פפפ + a new line;

_⊢

● in BH2: פ * a new line + ס

Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, is distinguished here.

However, it is worth not to succumb to the hasty suggestion that the text is divided here into two pericopes. A similar situation occurs, after all, in the pericope 6:2-11:10, where there is before 10:1:

● in BH1: בא פפפ + a new line

_⊢

● in BH2: פ קֹכֹאֹ + a new line + ס

The distinctive mark out here does not mean a division into two pericopes since the entire text 6:2-11:10 is devoted to the miraculous signs of the Lord preceding the night of the final strike of Egypt by the death penalty. This distinction serves here to emphasize the importance of the Lord’s command, which gives the essential meaning to the events described:

Ex 10:1 Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may recount in the ears of your sons and of your sons’ sons, what things I have done in Egypt, and my miracles, which I have done among them: that you may know that I am the Lord.

The same meaning – the exposing of the text which shows the essential message of the whole pericope – one should read in the pericope 15:22-18:27: what Jethro does is remarkable not only for the history of Israel’s wandering through the desert. Jethro inspires Israel to be thankful to God for leading them out of Egypt and for leading them so far, and at the same time, Jethro emphasizes the legislative dimension of this way – the way of spirit – which Israel has walked from a state of disbelief in the Lord’s presence among them to a state of faith and gratitude to Him for being truly their God, King, Savior.

In the 15:22-18:27 pericope, one should indicate characteristic words from the field of law, which show the biblical writer’s thought regarding the meaning of the events presented by it:

(a) In the first part of this pericope, viz in the text Ex 15:22-17:16:

15:25b

שָׁם שָׂם לוֹ חֹק וּמִשְׁפָּט וְשָׁם נִסָּהוּ

It was here that He made for them a statute and regulation, and put them to the test.

Such testing and trying (נסה) of the people by the Lord is the primary purpose of the way (cf. 15:25; 16:4). Israel thus climbs not only the way from the sea to the mountain’s foot but also the spiritual way. This way leads from the stage of unbelieving into the presence of the Lord among them and complaining and experiencing (!) God (cf. 17:2.7) to the stage of believing in His presence and simultaneously of recognizing Moses as His chosen one, appointed by God to be a leader, legislator, and judge, according to His plan.

Ex 15:26

וַיֹּאמֶר אִם־שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע לְקוֹל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו תַּעֲשֶׂה וְהַאֲזַנְתָּ לְמִצְוֹתָיו וְשָׁמַרְתָּ כָּל־חֻקָּיו כָּל־הַמַּחֲלָה אֲשֶׁר־שַׂמְתִּי בְמִצְרַיִם לֹא־אָשִׂים עָלֶיךָ כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה רֹפְאֶךָ׃ ס

He told them, “If you will indeed listen to the voice of the Lord, your God, and do what is right in His eyes; if you will heed His commandments and keep all His precepts, then I will not afflict you with any of the diseases with which I afflicted the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.”

The marked out initial sequence contains an emphatic phrase [268], consisting of the infinitive absolute + the imperfect of the verb שָׁמַע – listen: The Lord places particular emphasis on listening to the voice of Him as their God.

Ex 16:4a

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה הִנְנִי מַמְטִיר לָכֶם לֶחֶם מִן־הַשָּׁמָיִם וְיָצָא הָעָם וְלָקְטוּ דְּבַר־יוֹם בְּיוֹמוֹ

Ex 16:4b

לְמַעַן אֲנַסֶּנּוּ הֲיֵלֵךְ בְּתוֹרָתִי אִם־לֹא׃

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will send down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion. Thus I will test them whether they will follow my laws or not.

One should understand verse 16:4 as follows: God will give food to the Israelites six days a week (see 16:5.29) to test them (לְְמַעַן אֲנַסֶּנּוּ): whether they will follow His Torah (Law) or not.

Ex 16:28

וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל־מֹשֶׁה עַד־אָנָה מֵאַנְתֶּם לִשְׁמֹר מִצְוֹתַי וְתוֹרֹתָי׃

Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws (Torahs)?

After this question, the Lord explained to the people that after all, on the sixth day, He gave them food for two days so that they would keep the Sabbath rest on the seventh day (16:29).

The command to celebrate the Sabbath in honor of the Lord is, therefore, the essential message which He connected with the human need of manna hunger and its assuaging.

As many as four times the word שַׁבָּת (Sabbath) occurs in this part of the pericope, which has its culmination in the statement: וַיִּשְׁבְּתוּ הָעָם בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִעִי – and the people kept the Sabbath (= and rested, did not work) on that seventh day (16:30).

This obedience of the people, attained as spiritual maturity after the stage of immaturity, was the primary purpose of the testing and experiencing them by the Lord (אֲנַסֶּנּוּ – I will test them – 16:4b); the Lord has been doing it during the way. Furthermore, while in light of subsequent events, the Israelites were once again immature (cf. 17:1-7), it was the last time in this pericope!

(b) In the second part of this pericope, that is, in the text Ex 18:1-27:

The events described here in connection with the arrival of Jethro showed the real spiritual growth of the Israelites: they patiently and persistently waited for the judgment of the conflicts by Moses, who was doing it in the name of God. In the framework of a dialogue between Jethro and Moses, which led to an improvement of the system of explaining the Law of Lord to people, the biblical writer used significant formulations.

Ex 18:16a

כִּי־יִהְיֶה לָהֶם דָּבָר בָּא אֵלַי וְשָׁפַטְתִּי בֵּין אִישׁ וּבֵין רֵעֵהוּ

Ex 18:16b

וְהוֹדַעְתִּי אֶת־חֻקֵּי הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֶת־תּוֹרֹתָיו׃

Ex 18:16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God and His laws.

The literal meaning of 18:6b: I do make them know the statutes of God and His Torahs.

Ex 18:20a

וְהִזְהַרְתָּה אֶתְהֶם אֶת־הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת־הַתּוֹרֹת

Ex 18:20b

וְהוֹדַעְתָּ לָהֶם אֶת־הַדֶּרֶךְ יֵלְכוּ בָהּ וְאֶת־הַמַּעֲשֶׂה אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשׂוּן׃

Ex 18:20a then teach them the statutes and the laws (Torahs), Ex 18:20b and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.

Verse 18:20b means literally: “and let them know the way in which [according to which] they will go.”

It is parallel to verse 18:6b, analogous to God’s speech (analyzed above) which took place at the beginning of the way:

16:4b

לְמַעַן אֲנַסֶּנּוּ הֲיֵלֵךְ בְּתוֹרָתִי אִם־לֹא

that (לְמַעַן) I may test them, whether they will walk in my law (Torah), or no.

Literal expressions: “to walk in the way” of the Lord (18:20b), “to walk in the Torah” of the Lord (16:4b) – are analogous.

The made comparison shows that the Law of the Lord as the literary inclusion embraces the theme of the pericope 15:22-18:27 – God has established the Law so that Israel may learn His way, know the Law/Torah of the Lord, keep His commandments, listen to His voice.

However, one should not think that this pericope has the same purpose as the legislative pericope 12:1-13:16. For the Lord in that pericope laid down the laws recording in the memory of Israel His powerful intervention in Egypt, and Israel fulfilled them without delay and precisely as He had commanded them through Moses (cf. 12:28.50). However, here it is different: Lord patiently implements His people in the observance of His Law, a keeping of His orders, and an attitude of listening to His voice.

Both pericopes have the same fundamental dimension – the legislative dimension – but the emphasis is not on the same in them. The basic message of pericope 15:22-18:27 is not the presentation of laws, but of patience and wisdom of Lord guiding His people out of idolatrous Egypt in the way of purification, way finished in some fundamental dimension at the foot of Horeb [269].

Pericope 15:22-18:27 shows the Lord’s way, which His people walk from the Sea of Reeds to the foot of the Mount Horeb. One understands ‘the way’ here in two aspects:

• The geographical way, going from sea to mountain, i.e., upwards,
• The way of the Lord’s orders, the observance of which is a condition for receiving the fullness of God’s blessing.

Israel climbing up in the geographical sense, simultaneously ascends spiritually: she slowly gets out of the state of complaining.