Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

Dear Kevin,
> In Exodus 43:28c there is the line "and he wrote on the tablets the words of
> the covenant, the ten commandments."  I have no problems with the meaning of
> the words, just in working out who "he" is - Moses ort God.  It seems to
> read more logically as Moses wrote, but I wondered if there was any rule of
> syntax to solve this.  Sorry I haven't written it in Hebrew transcription,
> but I have only a few seconds to write.
>   

HH: You mean Ex 34:28:

Ex. 34:28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights 
without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the 
words of the covenant — the Ten Commandments.

Context is clear that the first time Moses spent forty days on the 
mountain God wrote the ten commandments:

Ex. 32:16 The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing 
of God, engraved on the tablets.

So the question is about the second time he was there for forty days 
since they had to be redone after he broke them. But doesn't the 
previous verse help clear up the matter?

Ex. 34:27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in 
accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with 
Israel.”

And a literal rendering of the verse seem to indicate clearly, unless 
someone can prove me wrong, that Moses must have written the ten 
commandments the second time:

Ex 334:28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. 
Bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And he wrote on the 
tablet the words of the covenant, the ten words.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard