If we eliminate from the historical narrative
the long Sinaitic section which has but a loose connection with it,
the wilderness of Kadesh becomes the locality of the preceding
and subsequent events. It was during the sojourn of many years
here that the organisation of the nation, in any historical sense,
took place. "There He made for them statute and ordinance, and
there He proved them," as we read in Exod. xv. 26 in a dislocated
poetical fragment. "Judgment and trial," "Massa and Meribah,"
point to Kadesh as the place referred to; there at all events is
the scene of the narrative immediately following (Exod. xvii. =
Num. xx.), and doubtless also of Exod. xviii.
If the legislation of the Pentateuch cease as a whole to be
regarded as an authentic source for our knowledge of what Mosaism
was, it becomes a somewhat precarious matter to make any
exception in favour of the Decalogue. In particular, the
following arguments against its authenticity must be taken into
account.
(1) According to Exod. xxxiv. the commandments which stood upon
the two tables were quite different.
(2) The prohibition of images was during the older period quite
unknown; Moses himself is said to have made a brazen serpent which
down to Hezekiah's time continued to be worshipped at Jerusalem as
an image of Jehovah.
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