Welcome to my Hebrew reading & language series.

Exodus 20:20-26

Today we are finishing this chapter and at the same time, counting the 613 commands in the Torah. Last week, we heard the people begging Moshe (Moses) to ask Elohim (God) to speak through Moshe because they feel they will die. We continue at that point in the story today.

Moshe answers them by explaining how Elohim was testing them. He told them that the fear they experienced is meant to keep them from sinning. Then Moshe leaves and walks into the dark cloud to speak with Elohim. The Hebrew gives me the idea that the people were still backing off from the initial fear they felt.

Moshe goes in and speaks to God. I will link the next two ideas that God presents. He tells Moshe to speak to Israel and say, in summary, "Now that the people have heard my voice and seen me talking to you, they will understand why they should not make for themselves any gods of silver or gold."

Right after that, he goes on to tell them the way that they should worship, by making sacrifices on earthen alters. If the alter is to be made of stone, do not use a tool on the stone. That would defile it.

And lastly, he forbids using stairs to walk up to the alter.

We left off with number 11) last week. Let's see how many different commands we can add to the list in these verses.

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12) You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.**

13) An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen.** In every place where I cause my name to be remembered.

14) And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.**

As I said, I am trying to count the 613 known commandments that Israel claims to follow. The Christian religions had looked in the writings to find Ten commandments and at some point, they had to do what I am doing, which is to group thoughts to make an easy list that people could remember. As long as we are reading the whole thing, I want to count all of the commands in the books of the Torah.

If done strictly, 12 could be counted as two. And 13 could be split into the earthen alter rules and the stone alter rules which would put our strict list at 16)

What a gruelling task the early church had, counting the commandments.

Today's Reading

English

Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

And YHVH said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the people of Israel: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. "You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered

1 will come to you and bless you. If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness be not exposed on it.

Hebrew

Next week, laws for buying servants...

Info on each letter starting at the beginning

If you are just starting, my lessons are all here starting at Alef, adding vowels (the dots and lines) as we go. I explain the meaning of each letter and its numerical value. Just go to my blog and scroll to the bottom or click here

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Thanks for reading.

Shabbat Shalom