and earth, that judgment may shine in the land, I set up a bas-relief to preserve my likeness in the great temple that I love, to commemorate my name forever in gratitude.  The oppressed who has a suit to prosecute may come before my image, that of a righteous king, and read my inscription and understand my precious words and let my stele elucidate his case.  Let him see the law he seeks, and may he draw in his breath and say:  ’This Hammurabi was to his people like the father that begot them!’” Thus this devout king of ancient Babylonia graphically defines the motive which, at a later period, led Israel’s spiritual leaders to set before the people those principles which made for the welfare both of the nation and of the individual.  Each was keenly conscious that the laws which brought social and spiritual health to mankind emanated from the divine power that was guiding the destinies of men.

Hebrew tradition has described in a great variety of narratives the way in which God made known his will to the people.  The scene in each case was Mount Sinai, which the ancient Hebrews as well as the Kenites regarded as Jehovah’s abode.  In the early Judean version, as some writers classify the accounts, Moses alone ascends the mountain, while the people are forbidden to approach.  In the Northern Israelite version, the people approach, but being terrified by the thunder and lightnings they request Moses to receive for them the divine message.  This later version implies that a raging thunder storm shrouded the sacred mountain, while the early Judean and late priestly narratives apparently suggest an active volcano.

The element common to all these accounts is that under the direction of their prophetic leader, Moses, a solemn covenant was established between the nation and Jehovah, and that the obligations of the people were defined in the decalogue with its ten short commands.  The problem is, however, complicated by the presence of two decalogues, one now preserved in Exodus 34 and the other, the familiar ten commandments of Exodus 20.  Both agree in emphasizing as primary the nation’s obligation to be loyal to Jehovah.  The decalogue in Exodus 34, however, goes on to describe in succeeding laws the ways in which the nation may show its loyalty.  This was through the observation of certain ceremonial customs and especially the great annual feasts.  Did most ancient peoples show their loyalty to the gods by their lives and deeds or by the ceremonies of the ritual and the offerings which they brought to the altars?  The first great prophet Amos declared that Jehovah hated and despised feasts and ceremonies unless accompanied by deeds of justice and mercy.