Augustine of Hippo : When God sends Moses, once he grants him possession of the land, destroys all idolatry and the people does not worship any other God, he says: For the Lord is a God whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God (Exodus 34,14). This means that the very name by which the Lord God is designated is Jealous, because He is a jealous God. This quality, distinct from the vice of human disturbance, always and in all circumstances God is immutable and calm. But with that word it is indicated that God will not leave his people unpunished if he is not faithful to him, worshiping other gods. The word is taken in a metaphorical sense of marital zeal, by means of which the husband keeps the chastity of the wife, which is useful to us, but not to God. Because who could harm God with that kind of fornication? On the other hand, it causes great harm to oneself, because it leads to perdition. God forbids this infidelity with a very serious terror, calling himself Jealous. Of him it is said in the psalm: You have caused all who are unfaithful to perish; but for me it is a good to be united to God (Ps. 72,27.28). Finally, the text says: Lest you make an alliance with those who are established in the country and prostitute themselves by following their gods (Exodus 34,15). 159 (Exodus 34.20). What does it mean: You will not appear before me empty-handed? As the context indicates, appearing before God is appearing in his tabernacle. And you will not appear before him with empty hands means that you should never enter without some offering. This, taken in a spiritual sense, is a great mystery. For these things were said as shadows of future realities. 160 (Exodus 34.21). Speaking of Saturday, what does it mean? What will you add: Will you rest from sowing and harvesting? It seems to mean: "in the time of sowing and harvesting." Or perhaps send observing the sabbatical rest so that they do not even have excuse those seasons that are very necessary for the farmers so they can eat and live? The Scripture, therefore, commands that even at the time of sowing and harvesting, when labor is urgently needed, sabbath rest is observed. And so, alluding to these times that demand a lot of work, it is indicated that at all times work should be suspended on Saturday. 161 (Exodus 34.24). The Scripture says: No one will covet your land (and) when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times a year. This means that anyone could come up quiet and should not be worried about their land, since God promises custody so that no one covets anything. And this God promised to the one who went up to the sanctuary, so that he would not be afraid in his absence. And here it is clearly demonstrated what was said before: You will not appear before the Lord your God with empty hands (Exodus 34,20). For they refer to that place where God was to dwell in the tabernacle or in the temple. 162 (Exodus 34.25). What does it mean: You will not sacrifice the blood of my victims on fermented bread? Do you call in this place "your victims" to those who sacrifice at Easter, and commanded that there be no then fermented bread at home, because they are the days of unleavened bread? 163 (Exodus 34.25). What does it mean: And it will not sleep until the morning the immolation of the solemnity of the Passover, but what it sent above, that is to say, that there will be nothing left for the morning of the breast of the animal that immolated itself? But the expression is something dark: sleep will be "will be". 164 (Exodus 34.26). You will not bake the lamb in its mother's milk. He goes back to saying again what I do not know how it can be understood. But it is a great prophecy about Christ, whether it could be fulfilled literally, especially if it could not be fulfilled. Because in the words of God we must not refer everything to the property of things, as in the case of the rock and the cavern and the laying of the hand (Cf Exodus 33,22). But what must certainly be demanded of the narrator's fidelity is that what he says happened has actually happened, and what he says was said has actually been said. Which is also required of the writers of the Gospel. Because when they say that Christ said certain things, in parables, that he said those things is not a parable, but a historical narrative. 165 (Exodus 34.28). And Moses was there in the presence of the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread or drink water. What he had said before, when taking the tables he broke, he repeats it now again, not recapitulating what happened, but remembering that something else happened again. And we have said what the repetition of the law means. The phrase: He did not eat bread or drink water means that he "fasted", taking the part for the whole; that is to say, the Scripture means bread for all kinds of food, and for water all kinds of drink. 166 (Exodus 34.28). And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. Now it is said that Moses himself wrote. A little before God had told him: Write these words (Exodus 34,28). But when he received the law for the first time and threw away the boards, he was not told that he had made them, as it is now said: Wash two tables of stone, (Exodus 34,1) and he was not commanded to write them, as the Scripture says: the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. The previous time it was said: And he gave Moses, as soon as he stopped talking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the covenant, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God (Exodus 31,18 ). And shortly afterwards he adds: And Moses turned and came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tables of stone written on both sides; they were written by one and on the other; and the tablets were the work of God, and the writing, engraved on the tablets, was the writing of God (Exodus 32,15.15). That is why a serious question arises of knowing how those tablets that Moses was going to break, knowing God in advance, are said to be not the work of man, but of God, and that they were not written by man, but by God, the finger of God. On the other hand, the other tablets that were to last so long and that were to be in the tabernacle and in the temple, by God's command, were carved by man and written by man. In those first were meant the grace of God, not the work of man, grace from which the Hebrews became unworthy, returning with desire to Egypt and becoming the idol-for which they were deprived of that benefit and Moses broke The tables? Was it meant in these second ones to those who boast about their works that is why the Apostle says: Ignoring the justice of God and wanting to establish his own, they did not submit to the justice of God (Rm 10, 3) and that is why tables were given engraved and written by the work of man, that they remain with men to signify those who would boast of their works, not of the finger of God, that is, of the Spirit of God? Certainly, the handing over of the law for the second time means the New Testament-the Old Testament signified that first law, whose tables were broken and the law abolished-especially since when the law is given a second time, it is given without any terror, as when that first occurred in the midst of so much noise of fire, clouds and trumpets, for which the people, terrified, exclaimed: That God does not speak to us, lest we die. (Exodus 20,19) Where it is meant that in the Old Testament there is fear, and in the New, love. But how does the question of knowing why these tablets were God's work, and these, the work of man; those, written by the finger of God, and these, written by man? Is it perhaps that the former meant the Old Testament, precisely because God in them imposed his precepts and man did not fulfill them? The law was given in the Old Testament to convince the transgressors, a law that entered so that the crime would abound. Evidently, this law was not fulfilled by fear, which can not be fulfilled except by love. But it is called the work of God, because the law was established by God, God wrote it, it was not the work of man, because man did not obey God, and the law made him guilty. In the second tables, man, with the help of God, makes the tables and writes them, because the love of the New Testament fulfills the law. Therefore the Lord says: I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And the Apostle adds: Love is the fullness of the law (Rm 13,10) and faith that acts by love (Galatians 5,6). Thus, what in the Old Testament was difficult, in the New Testament it is easy for the man who has the faith who acts by love and when the finger of God, the Spirit of God, has written it in, in the heart, not outside, on a stone. That is why the Apostle says: Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh of the heart, (2 Corinthians 3,3) because the love of God, through which the precept is truly fulfilled, has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Spirit, who He has given us (Rm 5,5). Therefore, the law was first given-in which the Old Testament is represented, which is the work of God alone and which was written by the finger of God. And that is why the Apostle says: Thus, the law is certainly holy and the command is holy, and just and good (Rm 7,12). Then the holy and good law is the work of God, in which man does nothing, because he does not obey, but rather becomes guilty under the threat and condemnation of the law. Therefore the Apostle says: Sin, so that it appears as sin, by means of a good thing, procured death for me (Rm 7,13). But man is happy when this holy and just and good command is also his work, but through the grace of God. — QUESTIONS ON EXODUS, Q. 158 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)