Exodus 34:5

5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, "The Lord."

Exodus 34:5 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 34:5

And the Lord descended in the cloud
The same with the cloudy pillar, which was now gone up from the door of the tabernacle, and was on high in the air over the mount, and on which the Lord now descended in it, as he had before, ( Exodus 19:9 Exodus 19:16 Exodus 19:18 ) :

and stood with him there;
not Moses stood with the Lord, as the Vulgate Latin version; but the Lord, or the cloud in which the Lord was, stood near to Moses:

and proclaimed the name of the Lord:
Jehovah declared with a loud voice out of the cloud, that the Lord was there; the Targum of Jonathan is,

``and Moses called on or in the name of the Word of the Lord;''

and so the Vulgate Latin version refers it to Moses, and renders the words, "calling on the name of the Lord"; but the following verse clearly shows that it must be understood of the Lord, and not of Moses.

Exodus 34:5 In-Context

3 No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain."

4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones; and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name, "The Lord."

6 The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb [YHWH]; see note at 3.15