Exodus 34:5

5 And when the Lord had come down by a cloud, Moses stood with him, and called inwardly the name of the Lord; (And the Lord came down in a cloud, and Moses stood with him, and the Lord proclaimed his own name;)

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 man go up with thee, neither any man be seen by all the hill; and oxen and sheep be not fed against the hill. (no one shall come up with thee, nor shall anyone be seen on all the mountain; and no oxen or sheep shall be fed near the mountain.)

4 Therefore Moses hewed two tables of stone, (in) which manner the tables were before, and he rose by night, and went up into the hill of Sinai, as the Lord commanded to him; and he bare with him the tables. (And so Moses cut two stone tablets, like the first tablets, and he rose up early, and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord commanded to him; and he carried the tablets with him.)

5 And when the Lord had come down by a cloud, Moses stood with him, and called inwardly the name of the Lord; (And the Lord came down in a cloud, and Moses stood with him, and the Lord proclaimed his own name;)

6 and when the Lord passed before him (yea, when the Lord passed before him), he said, Lordshipper, Lord God, merciful, and pious, patient, and of much mercy doing, and soothfast,

7 which keepest covenant and mercy into thousands, which doest away wickedness, and trespasses, and sins, and no man by himself is innocent with thee, which yieldest the wickedness of fathers to their sons, and to the sons of their sons, into the third and the fourth generation. (who keepest covenant and mercy with thousands of people, who doest away wickedness, and trespasses, and sins, but no one in themselves is innocent with me, and who punishest their sons, and the sons of their sons, to the third and fourth generations, for the wickedness of their fathers.)