The Music of the Law (Exodus 20:1-3)

I have set this in a different mode. It surprises me. I don't remember changing it from the default mode with its f natural and raised g#. Instead we have f# and g natural. Instead we have a mode with normal perfect fourths and no devil's interval, the augmented fourth. The tonal feel is a mixture of e-minor and g-major, rather than the default a-minor with frequent approaches from the diminished triad.

The whole of the first 5 verses concerns the exclusiveness of Yahweh as God. In that presence we are essentially without any of our excuses standing by us. -- No other gods in my face. The one who brought us out of the house of servitude -- whatever that was to us -- is to have our complete attention.

Exodus 20:1

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֵ֛ת כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לֵאמֹֽר ס		1 And God spoke all these words, saying,
a vidbr alohim at cl-hdbrim halh lamor s

Exodus 20:2

אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הוֹצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִֽ֑ים		2 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth from the land of Egypt, from the house of servitude.
b anoci ihvh alohiç awr hoxatiç marx mxriim mbit ybdim

The first three words, I -- the name -- your God, make a sentence without a verb. The verb 'to be' is understood. Where would you put it? I am Yahweh your God or I Yahweh am your God. What does it mean that the addressees have a God? What call does that God have on them?

This is 'explained' in the next phrase: awr, who, hoxatiç, brought you up -- formed from the root ixa, begins with an h so it's a hiphil form, perfect. If we were a child hearing our native tongue, would we know this tidbit of grammatical form? Unlikely but I think we would know that we were cared for. The opening sound of the h perhaps would tell us that the action stated was enabled (caused) by a larger resource than ourselves. For what seems at first sight a clear resource for verb senses and paradigms, see here. Super - that takes me off the hook entirely for explaining such details. Instead we can concentrate on how the music sets the tone of the verb and its usage.

The pronoun suffix (c) is singular. Does that mean it is addressed to a single person, or to each one individually, or to the corporate persona addressed as a  unit--? This singular unit is from the land of -- marx -- a single letter prefix m indicating from or out of. We could have a look at the page of data on the letter m. But BDB puts all this under mn, and m as prefix is an abbreviation of the same. To keep it simple, mn m is a preposition "expressing the idea of separation, hence out of, from, on account of, off, on the side of, since, above, than, so that not" - and pages of usage following.

Egypt, mxriim (sounds like mitsraim) a grand subject all on its own. The word derives from xrr - trouble, straits, adversity. It's a dual form - double-straits! And the explanation is in the appositional phrase, it is a house of servitude.

Exodus 20:3

לֹֽ֣א יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ֛֩ אֱלֹהִ֥֨ים אֲחֵרִ֖֜ים עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ		3 ♪B Not it is for you: other gods over my presence.
g la ihih-lç alohim akrim yl-pnii

What are the other gods that we worship? Our cultural and legal assumptions must rank high among them. Our opinions especially of ourselves. We forget that our thoughts are not God's thoughts. I was very tempted to translate עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ as 'in my faces'. God's faces - just where do we find this plurality? More often than we think. Consider the lily or the ferocious hummingbird, lovingly tailored from a dinosaur.