Exodus 15:11

15:11 Who is like you, 1  O Lord, among the gods? 2 

Who is like you? – majestic in holiness, fearful in praises, 3  working wonders?

Exodus 16:31

16:31 The house of Israel 4  called its name “manna.” 5  It was like coriander seed and was white, and it tasted 6  like wafers with honey.

Exodus 24:10

24:10 and they saw 7  the God of Israel. Under his feet 8  there was something like a pavement 9  made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself. 10 

1 tn The question is of course rhetorical; it is a way of affirming that no one is comparable to God. See C. J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament, 22, 66-67, and 94-97.

2 sn Verses 11-17 will now focus on Yahweh as the incomparable one who was able to save Israel from their foes and afterward lead them to the promised land.

3 tn S. R. Driver suggests “praiseworthy acts” as the translation (Exodus, 137).

4 sn The name “house of Israel” is unusual in this context.

5 tn Hebrew מָן (man).

6 tn Heb “like seed of coriander, white, its taste was.”

7 sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 254) wishes to safeguard the traditional idea that God could not be seen by reading “they saw the place where the God of Israel stood” so as not to say they saw God. But according to U. Cassuto there is not a great deal of difference between “and they saw the God” and “the Lord God appeared” (Exodus, 314). He thinks that the word “God” is used instead of “Yahweh” to say that a divine phenomenon was seen. It is in the LXX that they add “the place where he stood.” In v. 11b the LXX has “and they appeared in the place of God.” See James Barr, “Theophany and Anthropomorphism in the Old Testament,” VTSup 7 (1959): 31-33. There is no detailed description here of what they saw (cf. Isa 6; Ezek 1). What is described amounts to what a person could see when prostrate.

8 sn S. R. Driver suggests that they saw the divine Glory, not directly, but as they looked up from below, through what appeared to be a transparent blue sapphire pavement (Exodus, 254).

9 tn Or “tiles.”

10 tn Heb “and like the body of heaven for clearness.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heaven” or “sky” depending on the context; here, where sapphire is mentioned (a blue stone) “sky” seems more appropriate, since the transparent blueness of the sapphire would appear like the blueness of the cloudless sky.