Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 20:22-26

"And Jehovah said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. Ye shall not make [other gods] with me; gods of silver, or gods of gold, ye shall not make unto you. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt-offerings, and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in every place where I record my name I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. And if thou make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon." — Exodus 20:22-26 (ASV)

THE BOOK OF THE COVENANT.

In the remainder of Exodus 20:0, and in the three chapters that follow, we have a series of laws delivered by God to Moses, immediately after the delivery of the Decalogue. These laws constituted the second stage of the revelation, standing midway between the first great enunciation of abstract principles in the Ten Commandments and the ultimate minute and complicated elaboration of rules to meet all cases, which fills the three Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. This intermediate revelation appears to have been immediately committed to writing. In its written form, it was known as “the Book of the Covenant” (Exodus 24:7) and was regarded with special veneration.

“The Book of the Covenant” is lacking in system and arrangement, but is not wholly unsystematic. It commences with some laws concerning the worship of God (Exodus 20:22–26), proceeds from the Divine to the human, and treats in its second section (Exodus 21:1–32) of “the rights of persons.” It then concerns itself with “the rights of property” (Exodus 21:33 –Exodus 22:15), and finally, winds up with “miscellaneous laws” (Exodus 22:16 –Exodus 23:19), partly on things Divine, partly on things human—the things Divine being reserved to the last, so that the end of the legislation is in close harmony with the beginning.

Altogether, the enactments contained in the short space of three chapters are some seventy; and the “Book of the Covenant” is thus no mere tentative sketch, but a very wonderful condensation of the essence of all the more important matters that Moses afterwards set forth by Divine inspiration in the long space of nearly forty years.