Hammurabi was to his people like the father that begot them!'"
Thus this devout king of ancient Babylonia graphically defines the
motive which, at a later period, led Israel's spiritual leaders to
set before the people those principles which made for the welfare
both of the nation and of the individual. Each was keenly
conscious that the laws which brought social and spiritual health
to mankind emanated from the divine power that was guiding the
destinies of men.

Hebrew tradition has described in a great variety of narratives the
way in which God made known his will to the people. The scene in
each case was Mount Sinai, which the ancient Hebrews as well as the
Kenites regarded as Jehovah's abode. In the early Judean version,
as some writers classify the accounts, Moses alone ascends the
mountain, while the people are forbidden to approach. In the
Northern Israelite version, the people approach, but being
terrified by the thunder and lightnings they request Moses to
receive for them the divine message. This later version implies
that a raging thunder storm shrouded the sacred mountain, while the
early Judean and late priestly narratives apparently suggest an
active volcano.

The element common to all these accounts is that under the
direction of their prophetic leader, Moses, a solemn covenant was
established between the nation and Jehovah, and that the
obligations of the people were defined in the decalogue with its
ten short commands. The problem is, however, complicated by the
presence of two decalogues, one now preserved in Exodus 34 and the
other, the familiar ten commandments of Exodus 20. Both agree in
emphasizing as primary the nation's obligation to be loyal to
Jehovah. The decalogue in Exodus 34, however, goes on to describe
in succeeding laws the ways in which the nation may show its
loyalty. This was through the observation of certain ceremonial
customs and especially the great annual feasts. Did most ancient
peoples show their loyalty to the gods by their lives and deeds or
by the ceremonies of the ritual and the offerings which they
brought to the altars? The first great prophet Amos declared that
Jehovah hated and despised feasts and ceremonies unless accompanied
by deeds of justice and mercy.

The decalogue in Exodus 34 may well represent the original commands
which Moses laid upon the nation, but the higher moral sense of
later editors has truly recognized the superiority of the ethical