Crimes against Persons

The narrative setting of the Book of the Covenant, like that of the Ten Commandments, is the revelation at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19–24). Because the people are terrified to hear God speak, Moses approaches God to receive the covenant stipulations on their behalf. The narrative is hard to follow because it incorporates various, sometimes inconsistent, accounts of the event. In its current form, however, the laws of 20:19–23:33 supplement the Ten Commandments and spell out the terms of the covenant in greater detail. After the people unanimously agree to the terms once again, Moses writes them down in “the Book of the Covenant” (translated as “the record of the covenant”) and conducts a dramatic ceremony that formally ratifies the covenant between God and the people. Here, too, then, the deeper significance of the laws is in their role as stating the way Israel may perpetuate its relationship with God.