Book Intro › Law

Exodus

שְׁמוֹת Shemot, “names”. Narrative, law and instructions. 40 chapters, 1,213 verses.

God rescues Israel from slavery in Egypt, binds them to himself by covenant at Sinai, and comes to live among them.

Read Exodus 1 →

Overview

Exodus opens where Genesis left off, with Jacob’s family in Egypt, but centuries later and no longer welcome. A new Pharaoh enslaves them, and God, who “remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (2:24), calls Moses from a burning bush to bring them out. Ten plagues, the first Passover and the crossing of the sea take up the first fifteen chapters.

The rest of the book happens at or near Mount Sinai. God gives the Ten Commandments and a body of law, Israel agrees to the covenant, and within weeks worships a golden calf. Moses pleads for them, the covenant is renewed, and the book ends with the tabernacle finished and God’s glory filling it (40:34). Rescue leads to covenant, and covenant leads to God’s presence in the camp.

Author and date

Exodus, like the rest of the first five books, does not name its author, though it says Moses wrote down particular words and laws (17:14, 24:4).

Traditional view

Moses · 15th or 13th century BC

Jewish and Christian tradition hold that Moses wrote the book, drawing on his own part in its events, with minor later editing. The date depends on when the exodus itself is dated (see Audience and setting).

Academic view

Compiled over centuries · final form c. 6th–5th century BC

Most academic scholars see Exodus as combining older traditions with material from Israel’s priestly writers, reaching its final form in or after the Babylonian exile. The detailed tabernacle chapters and much of the law are usually assigned to those priestly writers. The Song of the Sea in chapter 15, by contrast, is often counted among the oldest poetry in the Bible.

Both views treat the exodus as the founding memory of Israel, the event the rest of the Old Testament keeps looking back to.

Audience and setting

Exodus was written for Israel, to tell them how they became a people and whose people they were. Its setting runs from the eastern Nile Delta, where the Israelites build the store cities Pithom and Raamses (1:11), through the wilderness to Sinai.

When the events took place is debated. 1 Kings 6:1 places the exodus 480 years before Solomon began the temple; taken literally, that gives a date around 1446 BC. The city name Raamses points many scholars to the 13th century, under Ramesses II. Others doubt that the story as told can be tied to one date at all.

Genre, and how to read it

Exodus moves from story to law and back again, and the law is part of the story: it is what Israel is rescued for. Chapters 20–23 hold the Ten Commandments and the “book of the covenant” (24:7), often considered the oldest collection of Israel’s laws.

The tabernacle is described twice, once as instructions (chapters 25–31) and once, almost word for word, as it is built (chapters 35–40). The repetition is deliberate. Between the two comes the golden calf, and the second telling shows the covenant restored and everything done exactly as God asked.

The ten plagues, round by round

  • Pharaoh he hardens his own heart
  • hardened it “was hardened”, no one named
  • Yahweh Yahweh hardens it
Round Plague Warned Struck by The magicians Israel spared Pharaoh’s heart Pharaoh bargains
Round 1 1. Blood 7:14–25 At the water, in the morning 7:15 Aaron’s rod 7:19–20 did the same thing 7:22 not said hardened Pharaoh’s heart was hardened 7:22 —
2. Frogs 8:1–15 Go in to Pharaoh 8:1 Aaron 8:5–6 did the same thing 8:7 not said Pharaoh he hardened his heart 8:15 I will let the people go 8:8
3. Lice 8:16–19 No warning 8:16 Aaron’s rod 8:17 This is God’s finger 8:19 not said hardened Pharaoh’s heart was hardened 8:19 —
Round 2 4. Flies 8:20–32 At the water, early in the morning 8:20 Yahweh 8:24 not mentioned I will set apart in that day the land of Goshen 8:22 Pharaoh Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also 8:32 Go, sacrifice to your God in the land! 8:25
5. Livestock 9:1–7 Go in to Pharaoh 9:1 Yahweh 9:6 not mentioned of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died 9:6 hardened the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn 9:7 —
6. Boils 9:8–12 No warning 9:8 Moses, with ashes 9:10 couldn’t stand before Moses because of the boils 9:11 not said Yahweh Yahweh hardened the heart of Pharaoh 9:12 —
Round 3 7. Hail 9:13–35 Early in the morning, before Pharaoh 9:13 Moses’ rod 9:23 not mentioned Only in the land of Goshen … there was no hail 9:26 Pharaoh hardened his heart, he and his servants 9:34 I have sinned this time 9:27
8. Locusts 10:1–20 Go in to Pharaoh 10:1 Moses’ rod 10:13 not mentioned not said Yahweh Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart 10:20 Go now you who are men 10:11
9. Darkness 10:21–29 No warning 10:21 Moses’ hand 10:22 not mentioned all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings 10:23 Yahweh Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart 10:27 Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind 10:24
Tenth 10. The firstborn 11:1–12:32 Announced: “About midnight” 11:4 Yahweh 12:29 not mentioned against any of the children of Israel a dog won’t even bark 11:7 Yahweh Yahweh hardened Pharaoh’s heart 11:10 Rise up, get out from among my people 12:31

Exodus tells the plagues in three rounds of three. Each round opens with Moses meeting Pharaoh early in the morning (at the water, in the first two rounds), then going in to him, and then a plague with no warning at all. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened in every round; from the sixth plague on, the text says it is Yahweh who hardens it, as he said he would before the first (4:21, 7:3).

The tabernacle, told twice

Exodus describes the tabernacle twice. In chapters 25–31 God gives the pattern on the mountain; in 35–40 the people make it, often in the same words, and the two sections together fill 38% of the book. But the order changes. The command starts with the ark at the centre and works outward to the court; the making starts with the tent itself and works inward, and leaves the priests’ garments to the end.

  1. The ark 25:10–22
  2. The table 25:23–30
  3. The lamp stand 25:31–40
  4. Curtains and coverings 26:1–14
  5. The frames 26:15–30
  6. The veil and the screen 26:31–37
  7. The bronze altar 27:1–8
  8. The court 27:9–19
  9. The priests’ garments 28:1–43
  10. The incense altar 30:1–10
  11. The basin 30:17–21
  12. Oil and incense 30:22–38
  1. Curtains and coverings 36:8–19
  2. The frames 36:20–34
  3. The veil and the screen 36:35–38
  4. The ark 37:1–9
  5. The table 37:10–16
  6. The lamp stand 37:17–24
  7. The incense altar 37:25–28
  8. Oil and incense 37:29
  9. The bronze altar 38:1–7
  10. The basin 38:8
  11. The court 38:9–20
  12. The priests’ garments 39:1–31

Bars are verses in each account: the command gives these parts 162 verses and the making 111. The making ends did according to all that Yahweh commanded Moses (39:32), and near the book’s end Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle (40:34). The Almanac draws the tabernacle in plan beside Solomon’s temple (The tabernacle).

Outline

Out of Egypt (1–15)

Through the wilderness (15–18)

At Sinai (19–40)

Key themes

The God who hears
The story turns when God hears Israel’s groaning and remembers his promise to their fathers (2:24), picking up the covenant from Genesis.
The name
At the bush God names himself “I AM WHO I AM” (3:14), and after the golden calf he describes himself as “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth” (34:6), words the rest of the Old Testament repeats.
Rescue
The exodus becomes Israel’s picture of salvation: the Ten Commandments begin not with a rule but with “I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (20:2).
Covenant
At Sinai Israel is called to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (19:6). The Covenants page follows the Mosaic covenant from here.
Presence
The book ends not with arrival in the land but with God living among his people, his glory filling the tabernacle (40:34).

At a glance

83 people and 34 places named.

Most mentioned: Moses, Jacob (Israel), Aaron, Pharaoh (of the Exodus), Jethro

Main places: Egypt, Mount Sinai, Nile, Holy Place, Amalek

Covenants made here: The Mosaic Covenant

In the Almanac: Span, Sabbath day's journey, Ephah, Omer, Hin, Shekel, Talent, Beka, Gerah, Pieces of silver, What things cost, The Hebrew year, Nisan, Passover, Sabbath, Cherubim, Amalekites, Urim and Thummim, Ephod, Ark of the covenant, Tabernacle, The name YHWH