Exodus 33:8-9
Verse 9. The cloudy pillar descended] This very circumstance precluded the possibility of deception. The cloud descending at these times, and at none others, was a full proof that it was miraculous, and a pledge of the Divine presence. It was beyond the power of human art to counterfeit such an appearance; and let it be observed that all the people saw this, Ex 33:10. How many indubitable and irrefragable proofs of its own authenticity and Divine origin does the Pentateuch contain! Exodus 33:11
Verse 11. The Lord spake unto Moses face to face] That there was no personal appearance here we may readily conceive; and that the communications made by God to Moses were not by visions, ecstacies, dreams, inward inspirations, or the mediation of angels, is sufficiently evident: we may therefore consider the passage as implying that familiarity and confidence with which the Divine Being treated his servant, and that he spake with him by articulate sounds in his own language, though no shape or similitude was then to be seen. Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man] There is a difficulty here. Joshua certainly was not a young man in the literal sense of the word; "but he was called so," says Mr. Ainsworth, "In respect of his service, not of his years; for he was now above fifty years old, as may be gathered from Jos 24:29. But because ministry and service are usually by the younger sort, all servants are called young men, Ge 14:24." See also Ge 22:3, and Ge 41:12. Perhaps the word naar, here translated young man, means a single person, one unmarried.
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