EXODUS, Book of. The book of Exodus is the second book in the Old Testament ; and, of course, occupies the same position in the collection known as the "Five Books of Moses" or the 'Pentateuch," which constitutes the first division of the Hebrew Bible. Its Hebrew name is Weilleh shemOth, "And these are the names? or, in abbreviated form, shemOth, "Names)) after the opening words of the book The designation Exodus, which means, Coming out, that is, from Egypt, originated with the early Greek translation known as the Septuagint, and is meant to be descriptive of the contents of the book.
The book falls naturally into four divisions of unequal length : (1) Oppres sion of Israel in Egypt (i, 1-ii, 22) ; (2) Prepa rations for the departure (ii, 23-xii, 29) ; (3) Exodus and march to Mount Sinai (xii, 30-xix, 2) ; (4) Giving of the Law and building, of the tabernacle (xix, 3-xl, 38). The closing chap ters of the book of Genesis record how the Hebrew nomads, after living in Canaan for several generations, were driven by famine to Egypt, where. they were assigned to a district in the eastern portion of the Delta. There they remained for many generations (i, 7). In the course of time a new dynasty ascended the throne of Egypt, under which a period of op pression set in, from which the Hebrews were delivered under the leadership of Moses. After some wanderings in the desert, the fugitives encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai, where a covenant was established between the local God Yahweh and Israel, a law was given for the purpose of regulating the life of the cove nant people in harmony with the will of their God; and a tabernacle, in which the people or their representatives might meet with their God, was built.
In its present form the book is a compilation of material taken from three originally separate sources, commonly desig nated by the letters J, E and P. (For proofs of this assertion and for the significance of the symbols see article PENTATEUCH). The P sec tions can easily be separated from the rest: to distinguish E from J is more difficult, espe cially after chapter iii. The J and E narratives were written first, and the combination of the two was made long before P was written. The two earlier documents contained a full account of all the important events connected with Israel's stay in Egypt and with the exodus, also at least a brief record of the journey from the Red Sea to Mount Sinai. There followed an account of the giving of the law, the rebellion of the people, Yahweh's anger, Moses' inter cession and the divine response. The P ac count was written by one who shared the com mon postexilic conception that the age of Moses was the period during which Yahweh was nearer to Israel than at any subsequent time; consequently he introduced more of the mirac ulous in his history, and attempted to trace the beginning of the religious practices and institutions of his day to that unique period in Israel's history. The latter tendency mani fests itself especially in the priestly sections xxv, 1-xxxi, 18 and chapters xxxv-xl. For an analy sis of the book of Exodus according to the sources used in its compilation consult any modern Commentary on Exodus, or any Old Testament Introduction. The contents of each source are printed consecutively in Kent, C. F., (The Student's Old Testament' ; Carpenter and Battersby, 'The Heictateuch); Brightman, E. S., (The Sources of the Hexateuch.) Legal Sections.— In addition to the his torical material derived from the three sources indicated, Exodus contains three groups of laws, which at first existed independently but later were embodied in E or the combined JE. (1) The Ten Words, commonly called the Decalogue, XX, 1-17; found, with few varia tions, also in Deuteronomy v. In both cases some of the commandments are expanded by certain hortatory additions, but the original form can easily be restored. (2) A second
Decalogue, xxxiv, 10-28; which bears a more primitive aspect than the other and lacks the ethical emphasis. Most scholars hold that the decalogue in xxxiv is earlier than that in XX ; the latter is considered by many a compendium of the teaching of the 8th century prophets, while the other is generally assigned to the period of the Judges or of the early monarchy. (For a fuller dis cussion of the two decalogues .and of their relation to each other consult Eiselen, F. C., (The Books of the Pentateuch,' chap. xvii). (3) The Book of the Covenant, xx, 22-xxiii, 19. The laws in this code deal with a great variety of subjects, and it requires considerable adjust ment to make any systematic arrangement pos sible. Originally the arrangement may have been on the principle of the decalogue, in the sense that it contained 10 separate decalogues, each containing two groups of five laws. Corre sponding to the two divisions of the deealogue the Book of the Covenant may be divided into two groups of laws, each consisting of five decalogues. (1) Judgments, dealing with civil and cnminal cases; (2) Religious and humane laws. The five decalogues of the first group are not difficult to reconstruct; of the second group only four exist, though traces of the fifth appear. The Judg-rnents deal with the following subjects : (1) The rights of slaves, xxi, 2-11'; (2) Assaults, xxi, 12-27; (3) Domes tic animals, xxi, 28-36; xxii, 1, 4; (4) Responsi bility for property, xxii, 5-15; (5) Social purity, xxii, 16-20 plus Deut. xxii, 13-27. . The religious and humane laws deal with: (1) Kind ness xxii, 2, 3, 6, 7, 21-27; xxiii, 4, 5 ; (2) Justice, xxiii, 1-3, 6-8; (3) Duties to God, XX, 23-26; xxii, 28-31; (4) Sacred seasons, xxiii, 10-19.
Many of the laws in the Book of the Cove nant are strilcingly siznilar to Babylonian laws, chiefly those found in the law code of Ham murapi (q.v.), king of Babylon about 2100 ac. (Consult Johns, C. H. W., (The Relation be tween the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew People)). This similarity has an important bearing on the question of the date and origin of the Hebrew code. One widely accepted view is that the Book of the Covenant is essentially a collection of Mosaic decisions, expanded and modified to meet the needs of the Hebrews in Canaan during the period of the Judges or of the early monarchy. However, there is much to be said in favor of the view that it is a Canaanite production, based on the Babylonian legal system, and that it came to the Israelites from the Canaanites (Luckenbill, D. D., (Israel's Origins) in Ameri can Journal of Theology, XXII, p. 44).
The Song of This poem, in chap ter xv, was originally independent of its present context. From verse 17 it is clear that the poem in its present form cannot be earlier than the reign of David or even that of Solomon (compare also verses 13 and 15). It is not improbable, however, that it is the expansion of a shorter poem composed at the time the events commemorated took place (compare verse 21).
addition to the discus sions already mentioned the following works in English may be named: Bacon, B. W., (Triple Tradition of the Exodus) (Hartford 1894) ; Bennett, W. H., (Exodus' (New Century Bible,' Edinburgh no date) ; Cornill, C. H., 'Introduction) (London 1907) ; Driver, S. R,