Exodus 34

Known as Asherah poles. These may have been trees or poles meant to represent trees, as symbols of a Canaanite fertility goddess known as Asherah, goddess of motherhood. She was the love interest of Baal, chief god of the people who lived in Canaan, now known as Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

“Seduce” seems like a fitting word because some of the Canaanite religions featured sex rituals meant to entertain the gods. Numbers 25 says some women from Moab, in what is now the Arab country of Jordan, seduced some of the Hebrew men on the exodus out of Egypt to engage in ritual sex. Some scholars say the idea was to entertain Baal so he would make it rain. It’s a tad gross, but some taught that the rain was Baal’s semen. So, if the sex of worshipers got Baal stimulated enough, he would make it rain. Baal was considered god of fertility in family, flocks, and fields.

Often called “Feast of Unleavened Bread,” part of the Passover religious holiday. Observant Jews today eat a large cracker-like bread called matzo. See Exodus 23:15.

The writer calls the month Abib, an older name of the month that became known as Nisan (March-April). In fact, the month is called Nisan in Exodus 12:2, where the feast of Passover is first discussed. The Israelites would follow a lunar calendar, with every month starting at the first tiny crescent after the new moon. A new moon is when the moon is hidden behind earth’s shadow for one day. The sun, moon, and earth are aligned, with earth in the middle. Nisan is when Jews celebrate one of their most revered holidays: Passover. The month falls around Eastertime. Jesus went to Jerusalem to observe Passover when he was arrested and crucified.

See also Exodus 13:2. God claimed dibbs on Israel’s firstborn children and animals. They didn’t belong to the parents. They belonged to God. The first male child in each family was often considered the most important. He got a double share of the family inheritance. In the first reported sacrifice offered to God, Abel “killed the first lambs born to his prized sheep” (Genesis 4:4). The order God gave Moses wasn’t about human sacrifice, which God would outlaw. He provided a way for the parents to buy back (redeem) their children. The reason behind the ritual was to remind Israelites and their descendants, including Jewish people today, that God took the lives of Egypt’s firstborn, but spared the children of Israel. See also Exodus 13:12-15 and Numbers 18:15-16 for the process of reclaiming the children.

This repeats part of Exodus 23:15. There, it presumably referred to animal sacrifices, since it was still too early in the season for farmers to bring crops. Barley was one of the earliest plants harvested in the region. Farmers generally harvested it around April.

These offerings helped feed families of the priests and maintain the worship center. Priests descended from Jacob’s son, Levi. Levites weren’t assigned a tribal region of the Promised Land in what is now Israel and Palestinian Territories. They were scattered throughout the other tribes, to provide spiritual guidance locally, as well  in what became the Temple worship center at Jerusalem.

It is unclear who is doing the inscribing. Earlier God said he would write the words on the tablets (34:1). But the context in this verse makes it look as though Moses is doing the work of the LORD.