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 28:36

28:36 “You are to make a plate 4  of pure gold and engrave on it the way a seal is engraved: 5  “Holiness to the Lord.” 6 

Exodus 39:30

39:30 They made a plate, the holy diadem, of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription, as on the engravings of a seal, “Holiness to the Lord.”

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 tn The word צִּיץ (tsits) seems to mean “a shining thing” and so here a plate of metal. It originally meant “flower,” but they could not write on a flower. So it must have the sense of something worn openly, visible, and shining. The Rabbinic tradition says it was two fingers wide and stretched from ear to ear, but this is an attempt to give details that the Law does not give (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 818).

5 tn Heb “the engravings of a seal”; this phrase is an adverbial accusative of manner.

6 sn The engraving was a perpetual reminder of the holiness that was due the Lord (Heb “Yahweh”), that all the clothing, the furnishings, and the activities were to come under that description. This corresponded to the symbolism for the whole nation of binding the law between the eyes. It was to be a perpetual reminder of commitment.