[First posted July 26, 3013. This is part of the series on a literary approach to the books of the Torah. Please read the introductory note in Bereshith/Genesis if you have not yet done so.
If serious readers/students of the Christian Bible and the Hebrew Scriptures were literature-majors, these documents of ancient antiquity would most likely be better understood, because amazingly, there is rhyme and reason in the organization of the material in the books comprising the Torah, or the first five books attributed to Moses. And as you will note after reading this series of literary approaches to different books of the Hebrew Scriptures, minus religious-theological confusing biases, the original text clearly communicates the message of the God who revealed Himself to humankind through His revelation to a people assigned to be His light to the nations.
This valuable resource in our S6K library needs to be read by all, and that is why we are sharing its contents in case the book is no longer available in bookstores.
Again, please remember that the authors of these articles have based their studies on the Christian Bible of 2 parts, Old and New Testaments, instead of the Hebrew Scriptures. Understand as well that the Jews do not refer to their Scriptures or the TNK as the “Bible” —that is a Christian designation. The original article has been reformatted and highlighted for this post; and the source is our MUST READ/MUST OWN: The Literary Guide to the Bible, eds. Robert Alter and Frank Kermode.
Other related posts:
- A Literary Approach to the book of Genesis/Bereshith
- A Literary Approach to the book of Leviticus/Wayyiqrah
- The Literary Approach to the book of Numbers/Bamidbar
- A Literary Approach to the book of Deuteronomy/Davarim
—Admin1.]
Exodus
J. P. Fokkelman
The second book of the Pentateuch, like the first, provides a foundation for the whole Bible.
The themes and most important events of Exodus recur with regularity in later books.
Exodus consists of two main sections,
- chapters 1-15 and 16-40,
- a compositional scheme that embraces
- the physical
- and spiritual birth
- of the people of Israel.
- These two stages might be called
- Liberation
- and Covenant.
After a concise sketch of the book’s composition, I shall examine both—-
- the extent to which Exodus represents a continuation of Genesis
- and the new themes and specific features that make the second book a distinctive literary text in its own right.
The caesura marking the end of the first section of Exodus is signaled by dense and powerful poetic language.
Chapter 15 is a hymn to—
- the incomparability of YHWH,
- who has manifested himself as supreme overIsrael and Egypt.
- This song of Moses beside the Reed Sea celebrates
- the definitive liberation of Israel from slavery in Egypt,
- and this disjunction of two nations obsessed by each other
- is the issue of the whole section 1-15.
The great confrontation between the leaders of Israel, Moses and Aaron (both from priestly tribe Levi), and Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, takes place in the series of stories dealing with the Ten Plagues (chaps. 7-14). This sequence mounts to a double climax. The narrator gives much more space to the exceptional tenth plague, the destruction of the firstborn of Egypt (chaps. 11-13), than to the others and emphasizes its unique nature by interweaving two types of text.
Narrative and legislative language alternate and interpenetrate as follows:
- 11 is narrative (annunciation),
- 12:1-28 gives the laws for Passover,
- 12:29-42 is narrative (the catastrophe itself),
- and 12:43-51 + 13:1-16 gives laws for Passover and the firstborn.
- Verses 11:10b, 12:28, 12:40-42, and 12:50-51 (and, somewhat later, 13:18b-19) mark the conclusion of each section and could easily be read as a distinct sequence of short reports, each one of which carries the line of development forward.
- After this, Pharaoh relapses yet again into stubbornness, which yields the decisive climax: the passage of Israelt hrough the Reed Sea while the waters close over the pursuing Egyptian army.
The liberation is preceded by a long, also climactic preparation in three phases.
- After a prologue (1:6-22), which sets the tone of oppression,
- chapter 2 presents phase 1, Moses’ education, in three short stories:
- birth (vv. 1-10),
- attempts at intervention (11-15a),
- and activity in Midian and marriage (15b-22).
- Chapters 3-4, phase 2,
- tell of God’s revelation to Moses
- and his commission to demand that Pharaoh allow Israel to depart from Egypt unhindered.
- Phase 3 consists of —
- Pharaoh’s increased oppression as a result of Moses’ and Aaron’s plea (chap. 5)
- and God’s reiteration of his command to Moses (6:2-13).
The exposition concludes with—
- the genealogy of the Levites (6:14-27),
- crowned with the origins
- and role of Moses and Aaron.
By its position, this list marks the narrative change from preparation to confrontation.
The preamble to the second section relates five stories about the crises that befall Israel on the march, involving—
- water (15:22-27),
- food (chap. 16),
- water (17:1-7),
- war with Amalek (17:8-16),
- and Jethro’s advice to Moses on the delegation of power (chap. 18).
These events also constitute the itinerary of the people to the most holy mountain, Sinai.
Beginning in chapter 19, this summit will predominate for a very long time in the narrated world of the Torah, and Israel will remain encamped for almost fourteen months at its foot.
Not until Numbers 10:11 does Israel break camp, continuing on its way toward the Promised Land, with other crises ahead.
The story of the theophany (chap. 19) and the account of the conclusion of the Covenant (chap. 24) embrace a normative (legislative) section which contains the Ten Commandments (20:1-17) and the so-called Book of the Covenant (20:22-23:19), an old text containing legal rules for the rural Israel from before the time of the monarchy.
A second normative section comprises chapters 25-31, in which God gives Moses instructions for making the sanctuary (the tabernacle of the congregation) and its cultic objects, as well as rulers about garments and ordination of the priests. This long text in direct discourse is carefully mirrored in the narrator’s text, chapters 35-39, which describes how Moses and his craftsmen follow the instructions. But there unexpectedly intervenes an immense crisis which yields another three chapters of narrative:
- the worship of the golden calf,
- Moses’ mediation with the wrathful deity,
- renewed revelation and covenant.
Finally, chapter 40 concisely recapitulates the cultic instructions and provides a follow-up:
- in verses 1-15 God gives instructions about the placement of the tent and of the objects within it,
- in 16-33 Moses obeys,
- and verses 34-38 imposingly conclude the book by describing how God dwells with Israel in his glory.
- The overall structure may be summarized as follows.
Exposition
frame 1:1-6
Israel enters slavery, Moses’ youth 1:7-2:22
frame 2:23-25
YHWH reveals himself, Moses’ call 3-4
oppression, command, genealogy 5:1-6:27
Confrontation
prologue 6:28-7:13
nine plagues 7:14-10:29
tenth plague, Passover, Exodus 11:1-13:16
passage of the Reed sea, Egypt destroyed 13:17-14:31
conclusion: hymn 15:1-18
Introduction: making for Sinai
crises in Israel over food, war, governance 15:22-18:27
Revelation on Sinai and Covenant I
narrative text 19:1-25
normative text, Decalogue 20:1-17
narrative text 20:18-21
normative text, Book of the Covenant 20:22-23:19
narrative text 24:1-18
instructions from God on sanctuary and worship 25-31
Revelation on Sinai and Covenant II
crisis around idolatrous people, Moses mediates 32
revelation and covenant 33-34
Moses and artisans follow instructions 35-39
conclusion (speech/report): sanctuary in use 40
In most prose books of the Old Testament, the story is used as a basic literary unit. But the stories combine in groups (which can be called acts); these groups often constitute a section or cycle, and the sections form a book.
The arrangement of Exodus proposed here is probably not perfect, but it demonstrates the principal importance of determining a plausible arrangement through thorough analysis. An adequate schema helps us to assign accurate meanings to the literary units on the various compositional levels. Thus it is necessary first to evaluate the literary data on the higher levels (from stories to book), then to integrate them on the next-higher-level, which is ruled by other networks of meaning and other rules of play. In this way we can work through the hierarchical structure of the text step by step, continuously alternating between analysis and integration.
In this process, the device of repetition is a powerful aid, as two examples from Exodus show.
- The deaths of Joseph and of a later Pharaoh connect 1:6 and 2:23, and this knowledge helps us realize that the short paragraphs 1:1-6 and 2:23-25 are not independent stories but bridges. Their primary function is articulative: they frame the four short stories of Exodus 1-2 and thus mark phase I of the exposition—a function whose importance exceeds the size and lexical meanings of these stories.
- Another connection with strong articulative power is formed by the substance of 2:23-25 and 4:31 versus 6:9 and 12 and 14:30-31. When we read these verses as a series, we see how the end of the three phases of the exposition and the end of the confrontation are attuned to each other and thereby provide a double theme: God’s concern with Israel versus the belief or unbelief of the people. We can then reread Exodus 1-14 as a continual obstacle race for God, who wants to free his people.
Various powerful literary resources ensure that Exodus shows a solid continuity with its predecessor Genesis.
- Genesis is emphatically and clearly rounded off with the death and burial of Jacob,
- who as the eponymous “Israel” is the patriarch.
- Exodus links up with its predecessor in a very simple way:
- the opening section (1:1-5) recapitulates the names of Jacob’s sons and counts the number of souls of their families, and thereby takes up the thread where it was dropped.
- Two other aspects of continuity are also apparent in the prologue (1:7-22).
- The Egyptian kings who enslave and exploit generations of Israelites are formally grouped in an emblematic title, “Pharaoh.” He makes serious attempts on the survival of Israel, first with the command that newborn males be killed, then with the command that they be thrown into the Nile.
- This very first story artfully extends the key notion toledot (“generations”) from Genesis and introduces two named midwives (meyalledot; we can hear the rhyme) as heroines. Their courageous action turns the prologue into an arena in which immense forces of oppression and revolt clash. The midwives’ refusal to execute the Egyptian orders because they “feared God” is the high point of the story.
- In the meantime we have recognized the theme of birth and survival:
- the choice of words in 1:7—“And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them”—is inspired by the Creation story (see Gen. 1:28)
- and is also reminiscent of God’s promise of numerous offspring and his blessing of the patriarchs.
- Moreover, the sequel forms an iterative line containing a paradox which refers to God’s support against Egyptian terror: “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew” (1:12a, with an echo in 1:20b).
The beginning of Exodus, then, transforms the theme of the genealogical line and raises it to the level of an entire nation.
The midwives and the blessing of children in chapter 1 are also emblematic, because from 12:40-41 we learn that the people’s slavery has lasted four centuries. That period and its tensions are concentrated in chapters 1 and 5.
————————————————————-
The second story describes another paradox of growth during oppression:
- Moses is raised by an Egyptian princess despite Pharaoh’s command.
- Her compassion crosses the boundary dividing flock-tending Semite from Egyptian Herrenvolk.
- The issue of 2:1-10 is indicated by the key words “to bear” and “child” (both from the root yld).
- The Hebrew child, fished out of the Nile,
- matures quickly (the narrator virtually skips Moses’ youth, 2:11-15)
- and finds a wife in Midian after fleeing Egypt;
- and the short text 2:16-22 ends with a new birth, in yet another allusion to the theme of genealogical continuation.
- And chapter 6 presents the genealogy of Moses, a typical successor of the registers in Genesis.
- The name of his son Gershom contains a pun which anticipates Israel’s departure fromEgypt: Pharaoh “shall surely thrust you out hence altogether [garish yegaresh]” (11:1).
- An antithesis to this expulsion is announced later, in 34:24a: “For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders.” (Also see 6:1, 12:39, 23:28-31, and 33:2.)
The conclusion of Genesis and the first section of Exodus explore the question of whether the combination Israel-Egypt is a conjunction or a disjunction.
- At first the two nations seem to get along well. Joseph’s visionary powers help Egypt through years of famine, and Pharaoh welcomes Joseph’s entire family.
- But this conjunction quickly ends. The four-century-long oppression introduces the spectacular disjunction or the Exodus.
- The information from 12:40-41 on the narrated time—practically the only indication of its kind in the first section, for the narrator is not concerned with regular historiography or the individual feats of Pharaoh—supplies still another connection with Genesis.
- The long slavery entails the fulfillment of Abraham’s haunting prophetic vision in Genesis 15.
- The beginning of Exodus directly signifies the ultimate disjunction between Israel and Egypt,
- as the water of the Nile, which to the Egyptian is in all aspects the water of life, is chosen as the site and means of death for the Israelite male babies.
- Thus Egypt through the agency of the Nile brings about a separation between life for Egyptians and death for Israelites, a division which should be the prerogative of the deity alone.
- Eventually this high-handedness leads God to intervene—the only one who has actual power over the polarities of existence.
- The Creator, whose first deeds consisted in establishing a division between elementary entities such as light and darkness, earth and see, announces to Pharaoh through the mouth of Moses: “I will put a division between my people and thy people: tomorrow shall this sign be” (8:23).
- The words are reminiscent of the cosmogonic dividing in Genesis 1.
- Thus it is not surprising that Egypt’s fountain of life, the Nile, in the very first of the ten plagues turns into a stream of blood—an unmistakable hint from God to Egypt that death will strike in many forms.
The first division in Genesis 1 was that between light and darkness.
This polarity continues powerfully throughout Exodus and beyond.
- On its journey through the desert, Israel is protected and led by a column of smoke or a cloud during the day and a column of fire at night, as signs of God’s presence.
- These are the virtuoso effects of the master of polarities, who has thus created a chiasm: light in darkness, darkness in light. These polarities occur at strategic points in the composition:On the one hand, this impressive moment of revelation is prepared for in the beginning of chapter 3, when Moses sees a burning bramble which is not consumed by the fire (a striking spectacle which, together with 3:4-6, introduces the long dialogue between God and Moses that begins in 3:7).
- in chapter 14, where the division between Israel and Egypt becomes definite, around and in the Reed Sea (13:21-22 and 14:19-20),
- and also in 10:23, 19:18, and 20:18, where smoke and fire dramatize the theophany on the holy mountain;
- in 33:9-11a, in front of the tabernacle of the congregation, where the cloud appears only in order to screen from the people Moses’ contact with God;
- and preeminently in the climactic moment at the conclusion of the book (40:34-38), where the full polarity, day/night = fire/cloud, appears and marks how “the glory of YHWH filled the tabernacle” (v. 35b).
- On the other hand, the column of fire/smoke signals that main issue of the book: the question of whether man can behold God or not. Yes, say two passages unambiguously: 24:9-11, upon the conclusion of the first covenant, and 33:11, “And YHWH speak unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.”The intimacy of the encounter in 33:11 harks back to Jacob’s insight, beside the Jabbok, into his own truthfulness in relation to God’s blessing (Gen. 32:31), and perhaps also to his nightlong struggle relieved by the break of day.
- No, thinks Moses in 3:6 (although it is not at all certain whether the narrator would agree with him).
- No, say 19:12 and 21 and, more ambiguously, 20:19;
- and God himself says no in 33:20-23.
- Egypt is now left behind in darkness.
- The ninth plague is impenetrable darkness;
- the eradication of the tenth plague takes place in a horrible night;
- and the dawn of 14:24, which illuminates the safe departure of Israel,
- does not extend to the Egyptian army,
- which is engulfed by the darkness of deluge and death.
The moment God reveals himself to Moses in Exodus 3:6, he does so in terms from Genesis: “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
In 3:15 he even reveals his proper name, the tetragrammaton YHWH, commanding Moses: “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, YHWH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (see also 3:16, 4:5).
The emphatic series in 2:23-25 characterizes the Lord unambiguously as the God who wants to keep his covenant with the patriarchs.
On the subject of primogeniture, the rights and position of the firstborn, Exodus also links up with Genesis.At the same time it elevates this issue—just as with the theme of birth—to the level of peoples. This transformation occurs powerfully as early as 4:22-23, in the framework of Moses’ call, when God tells him of the plagues he has in store for Pharaoh:
Thus saith the Lord,
Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
And I say unto thee,
Let my son go, that he may serve me:
and if thou refuse to let him go, behold,
I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.
Here the question of primogeniture expands into the historical theme that is central to Exodus and to the whole Bible, the choosing of the people of Israel.
- The description of the tenth plague (11:1-13:16) contains a special section (13:1-16) on the law of the firstborn.
- Thus the normative is anchored in the narrative (the report of the slaughter among Egypt’s firstborn).
- The consecration of the firstborn and the feast of unleavened bread (Passover),
- both manifestations of the idea of an entirely new beginning,
- are founded in the historical event which initiates the history of God and his people.
Within the normative context of Passover and the Passover meal,
- the ritual of the circumcision also reappears (12:23-48),
- instituted in Genesis 17
- as an indispensable condition for the keeping of the Covenant.
- Earlier, in 4:24-26, another circumcision occurs at a frightening, almost magic moment of transition,
- after Moses’ call but before his return to the people.
- Only quick and resolute interference by his wife saves Moses for Israel and the future.
- She turns the literal circumcision of her son into the symbolic one of Moses, who is thus saved from a demoniac attack.
- The attack comes from God himself, who in chapters 3-4 is apparently exasperated by the objections and hesitations of his servant.
- The entire incident as rite de passage is again reminiscent of Jacob’s night beside the Jabbok.
Another religious institution, that of the Sabbath,
- also received special attention in Exodus,
- at the prominent junctures 20:8-11 (part of the Decalogue)
- and 31:12-17 and 35:1-3 (the end and beginning, respectively, of blocks 25-31 and 35-39).
- The holiness of the seventh day was instituted in Genesis 1 after the Creation, when God turned his day of rest into one of celebration.
What is new and specific in this book?
Exodus richly portrays the constitution of Israel,
- both physically and historically in the first section,
- and, in the second section, as a spiritual entity.
Beginning with chapter 16 Israel enters the circle of light of the revelation and receives its spiritual statute from God.
Two manifestations of this new portentous status are—
- the conclusion of the Covenant
- and the two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments.
These considerations of content increase our awareness of the intimate connection between narrative and normative sections.
- The latter are direct discourse by God as he instructs Moses to instruct the people.
- Thus the legal text, in its function as spoken word, is embedded in the narrative.
As elsewhere in the Bible, what we need to do here is to examine the relation of speech, using the tools of current textual and narrative theory, and not to detach embedded speech from its textural setting, even if it comes from the character God. In 12:1-12, 43-52, 13:1-16, and chapters 20-23 the enactments of God are purposefully embedded; they stand in fruitful interaction with the narrative mass around it and share their themes with it.
As a text that articulates a large spiritual vision, Exodus is defined by the three climaxes of revelation on the mountain of God,
- in 3:1 called Horeb, in 19-24 and 33-34 Sinai.
- The divine revelation in Exodus concerns—
- God himself,
- both his name
- and his nature.
- Exodus 3:15, quoted above,
- contains the first mention of the tetragrammaton,
- the proper name YHWH,
- and makes it the focus of our attention.
- This mysterious and holy name is authoritatively discussed in two ways,
- in the literary unit on the call of Moses (chap. 3).
- The word yhwh, clearly from the root hwh = hyh, “to be, become,” and, like many other proper names in the Bible, an imperfect form of the verb, is uttered and explained by the bearer himself, and Exodus as a whole offers a valuable, contextual explanation for the name.
- God answers Moses’ question about his identity in two ways in 3:14: “I AM THAT I AM” (‘ehyeh ‘asher ‘ehyeh) and “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ‘ehyeh hath sent me unto you” [AR].
- Only afterward, in verse 15, does God utter his name YHWH for the first time.
- The entire creation has originated from God’s being,
- which wants to stand-in-relation-to,
- and now God further develops this desire by designating a specific partner, the chosen people.
- God is the only one who can entirely develop the fullness of his being.
- But he cannot be happy—Therefore, his freedom is also his self-chosen confinement.
- if his creation
- and his creatures (among whom is the attentive listener to the story)
- do not get the chance to do so as well,
- within their appointed limits.
- The Name signifies a paradox of absolute being and involvement.
- The “I am” poses a spiritual question to every reader taking his own growth seriously, pondering whether he can fully accept what is within and around him.
In the context of Exodus, “I am” is applied in a practical sense, in that Egypt must free Israel so that it can be/become itself, and the text plays with two sides of the key word “serving.”
- Israel asks whether it may leave “to serve the God of the Hebrews” (key words recurring in 7:16; 9:1, 13; and 10:3),
- and this service is incompatible with service (slavery, the same word in Hebrew) under earthly powers because it entails actual spiritual freedom.
- In 3:14-15 the three ‘ehyeh-lines surrounding the revelation of the name touch on the theme of liberation.
- In 3:12 God says: “Certainly, I will be with thee,”
- and in 4:12, 15 he tells Moses: “I will be with thy mouth.”
- Together, these lines reveal the aspect of involvement and covenant in God’s being,Later, God as speaker uses the same construction as “I am who I am” in 33:18-19, an enheartening section on God’s involvement at a moment when Moses again presses a question: “And he [Moses] said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”
- which is also implied in the probably correct translation of the name Yahweh, “he lets be” (which includes “he creates”).
- Similarly, in the compact poetry and archaic power of 34:6-7, after the annunciation of 33:19, the God of Israel performs a self-revelation which can serve believers as a credo:
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed:
“The Lord! The Lord! A God compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness,
extending kindness to the thousandth generation,
forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin;
yet He does not remit all punishment,
but visits the iniquity of fathers upon children and
children’s children, upon the third and fourth generation.”
The dialogic being of God, already evident in the creation of man in his own image and reflected in the man-wife dialogue, culminates in Exodus when God assigns exceptional status to his covenanted people: “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (19:6a).
The blessings of the patriarchs that are so characteristic of Genesis are crowned in Exodus with the so-called covenant formula, two clauses of characteristic reciprocity: “And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God” (6:7a). This passage and the self-revelation reported in Exodus recur regularly throughout the Old Testament, and that is a proof of their major importance in ancient Israel.
The full proper name of God incorporates a title: YHWH Sabaoth, which is to say, “YHWH (God) of host.”
The epithet, which usually refers to the heavenly host around God’s throne, acquires another dialogic significance in Exodus within the context of covenant. God himself names Israel “mine armies” in 7:4, and the narrator uses similar words to denote the Exodus in12:41: “all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”
Without the hosts of the chosen people, God can no longer be complete, says the book of liberation and revelation.
God wishes to be known as much by Egypt as by Israel. For this reason, in the first section of the book the elementary and powerful line “I am YHWH” is proclaimed—
- five times to Egypt (7:5, 17; 8:22; 14:4, 18)
- and five times to Israel (6:2, 6, 7, 8, 29).
In the second section it recurs in strategic places, not only in 15:26 and 16:12 but also as title to the Decalogue itself. This seminal pronouncement is found further on in the Bible as well. It occurs, for example, as a key statement in Ezekiel (6:7, 10, 14, and passim), for there too God wishes to make himself known through his involvement in history.
Thus the book on Names—as Exodus is called in Jewish tradition because of its opening words—is in effect the book of the Name.
Henceforth God’s care envelops the chosen people.
- The covenant between them has its classic formulation in Exodus; later formulations, as in Joshua 24, are only variants of this.
- The Covenant at Sinai remains the matrix for Israel’s relationship with God.
- But Exodus points, beyond itself, even more clearly to the future insofar as the stories of the Exodus and the program which God lays down in his speeches to Moses anticipate the entry into the Holy Land.
- The blessing of the forefathers will not be fulfilled until the people take possession of the land of Canaan,
- and the following three books of the Torah lead us only to the threshold of the era.
For all the richness of its complex formal dynamics and for all its spiritual depth, Exodus is only a part of a greater literary-spiritual conception.