Exploring Exodus

Table Of Contents

Foreword
xi

Preface
xix

Introduction
1
The uses of the Exodus theme; The title; The connection with Genesis; Structure and content; The historical background.

CHAPTER I
The Oppression
15
The Hyksos and their expulsion; The enslavement of the Israelites; Brickmaking; The midwives.

CHAPTER II
The Births and Youth of Moses
27
The birth of Moses; The motif of the abandoned hero; The role of women; The name “Moses”; Moses’ upbringing; The Midianites; Jethro.

CHAPTER III
The Commissioning of Moses
38
The Burning Bush; The “God of the Father(s); “A land flowing with milk and honey”; The ethnic complexity; Moses’ reluctance; The Divine Name; The elders; “Hebrews”; Worship the wilderness; Stripping the Egyptians; Signs and wonders; Moses’ continued resistance.

CHAPTER IV
The Ten Plagues
63
The hardening of the heart; Bricks without straw; Demoralization; Signs before the pharaoh;  The plagues; The literary form; Judgments on the gods of Egypt.

CHAPTER V
The Passover and the Exodus
81
The calendar; The paschal lamb and the unleavened bread; Leaven; Bitter herbs; The blood; The death of the firstborn; “Six hundred thousand men on foot.”

CHAPTER VI
From Egypt to Sinai
103
The route of the Exodus; The Yam Suf; The pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire; The miracle at the sea; Manna and quails; The battle with the Amalekites; The organization of the judiciary.

CHAPTER VII
The Ten Commandments; Moses and Monotheism
130
Preparations for the theophany; The atmospheric disturbances; The covenant concept; Near Eastern parallels; Israelite innovations; The prohibition against idolatry; The Sabbath; Moses and monotheism.

CHAPTER VIII
The Laws
158
The Book of the Covenant; The casuistic formulation; The ancient Near Eastern laws; The nature of the law collections; The nature of the Torah’s collections of laws; The distinctive feature of Israelite law; Lex talonis, or “an eye for an eye”; Lex talonis in the Torah.

CHAPTER IX
The Tabernacle and the Golden Calf 
190
The plan of the Tabernacle; The furniture; The historical reality; The divine instructions and the celestial images; The Tabernacle and Sinai; The all-Israelite emphasis; Gradations of holiness; God’s omnipresence; God’s unity and perfection; The tablets; The Ark; The cherubim; The Tabernacle, the Sabbath, and Creation; The Golden Calf.

Notes
221

Abbreviations
245

Bibliography
247

Index
264