The Voice of the Lord

In February 2021, I was taking notes in preparation for writing the weekly commentary for Yitro (Exodus 18:1 – 20:26). While going over the text to identify passages to discuss related to applied leadership in the family, I paused to look closely at Exodus 19:3-8. Let’s look at this passage.

3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”

7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one: “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

Exodus 19:3-8 NRSV

In verse 5, we see the first part of the conditional if-then statement which is if you obey my voice. Now, a friend had earlier mentioned that he associated “voice” with the Messiah. Therefore, I decided to take a closer look at this word.

For Exodus 19:5, the Hebrew word for voice is קול (H#6963) and transliterated as ‘qowl’. It has the below meanings in English.

1. voice, sound, noise
   1. voice
   2. sound (of instrument)
2. lightness, frivolity

Searching for other passages where this word was used in biblestudytools.com revealed a couple of surprises because of how the NASB and NRSV translated קול in several well-known verses.

The first occurrence of קול is in Genesis 3:8.

8 They heard the sound (קול) of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8 NRSV

Here קול is translated as sound, which is one of the possible definitions as given above. Using the word sound implies that the Lord God was making noise as He walked in the Garden.

But let’s replace sound with voice and re-read the passage.

8 They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

In this verse, “voice” is the noun and “of the Lord God” indicates who possesses the voice. Therefore, if we don’t know who possesses the voice, the verse could be re-written without the possessive clause.

8 They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

They heard the voice … walking in the garden …

A disembodied voice doesn’t typically walk around in gardens. The “Voice of the Lord God” is walking in the Garden. While we’re letting that sink in, let’s read a little further.

9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:9-10

Again, let’s replace sound with voice and re-read the passage.

9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:9-10

Literally, from the Hebrew it is ויאמר את-קולך שמעתי or “I heard your voice”.

It seems from a casual reading that the “Lord God” talking with Adam and Eve is God the Father. But a more careful and thoughtful reading seems to point rather to the Son.

1. In 3:8 the man and woman heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden.
2. In 3:8 the man and woman hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.
3. In 3:9, the Lord God is asking the man and woman who have hidden themselves where they were.
4. In 3:9 the man tells the Lord God that he had heard his voice, not that he had heard the voice of the Lord God.

Therefore, the Lord God here must be the same as the “Voice of the Lord God” who was physically walking in the Garden in an embodied form. Is there any evidence that would point to the “Lord God” as “God the Son”?

This seems like a good place to introduce the Targums and examine what they contribute to this discussion. The Targums are Aramaic paraphrases of the books of the Hebrew Tanakh (Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings)). They were created during the Second Temple Period after the return of many Jews from Babylon to the Land of Israel.

The website “Judeo-Christian Research” has a page devoted to the comparison of selected verses in the Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh of 1917 with the Aramaic paraphrases of three separate Targums translated into English. This page may be accessed at http://juchre.org/articles/word.htm. 

Here follows Genesis 3:8-10 as rendered by the JPS, the Onkelos, Palestinian and Jerusalem Targums as shown on the above referenced website. I have bolded the text that we want to compare between renderings; however, the yellow text highlights from the JUCHRE website have been replaced by making the highlighted texts orange.

JPS = Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (1917)

ONK = Onkelos Targum

PAL  = Palestinian Targum

JER = Jerusalem Targum

GENESIS 3:8

JPS	3:8	And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden toward the cool of the day; and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
ONK	3:8	And they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
PAL	3:8	And they heard the voice of the word of the Lord God walking in the garden in the repose of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from before the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
JER	3:8	Walking in the garden in the strength of the day

GENESIS 3:9

JPS	3:9	And the LORD God called unto the man, and said unto him: ‘Where art thou?’
ONK	3:9	And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where art thou?
PAL	3:9	And the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him, Is not all the world which I have made manifest before Me; the darkness as the light? and how hast thou thought in thine heart to hide from before Me? The place where thou art concealed, do I not see? Where are the commandments that I commanded thee?
JER	3:9	And the Word of the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him, Behold, the world which I have created is manifest before Me, the darkness and the light are manifest before Me; and how thinkest thou that the place in the midst whereof thou art, is not revealed before Me? Where is the commandment which I taught thee?

GENESIS 3:10

JPS	3:10	And he said: ‘I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’
ONK	3:10	And he said, The voice of Thy Word heard I in the garden, and I was afraid, because I (was) naked, and I would hide.
PAL	3:10	And he said, The voice of Thy Word heard I in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked; and the commandment which Thou didst teach me, I have transgressed; therefore I hid myself from shame.

Based on the above targums for Genesis 3:8-10, the ancient Jewish theologians understood that the Word of the Lord God was the One speaking with the man and woman in the Garden of Eden. This understanding was extant prior to the coming of Yeshua the Nazarene.

Let’s detour to the New Testament to consider what John and Paul recorded and asserted about the Father and Son.

John wrote that 

[t]he law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

John 1:17-18

Further, John recorded 

[I]t is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.

John 6:45-46

Finally, John again repeated 

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

I John 4:12

We learn from John’s repeated statements that no one has seen God the Father. Moreover, Yeshua patiently explained to his disciples the relationship between Him and His Father.

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.

John 14:6-11

Paul echoed this same explanation in soaring language to the Colossians. He wrote

15 [h]e is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell…”

Colossians 1:15-19

For Paul to say the “invisible God” is to confirm John’s statements that no one has seen God the Father. Again, Paul’s statement that “in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” echoes Yeshua’s statement that “I am in the Father and the Father in Me”.

Therefore, if no one has seen the Father, who was the Voice of the Lord God physically walking in the Garden at the cool of evening? It can only have been the Son.

Returning to Genesis 3, we see the judgment of Adam,

17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it…’

Genesis 3:17

Because of the parallelism of the two voices, we can see that the Lord God was contrasting Adam’s failure to obey His Voice by obeying the voice of his woman. This is the first of the connections between His Voice and the commandments.

The episode of the “Offering of Isaac” contains some strong connections that can be made.

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

15 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Genesis 22:1-3,9-18.

First, God tested Abraham. When Abraham passed the test, the Angel of the Lord spoke to Abraham. He said that He knew Abraham feared God because Abraham had not withheld Isaac from Him [the Angel]. This makes the Angel of God the One who tested Abraham, which in turn makes the Angel the same as God. Then the second time that the Angel spoke, it can be argued that the Angel is repeating what the Father said based on the sentence structure. Since the Angel was the One who told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and whom Abraham obeyed, there is an equivalence between the Angel of the Lord and “My Voice”.

The third connection is made when YHVH was talking with Isaac. 

5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Genesis 26:5 NRSV

The NRSV translates this correctly, but the NASB partly obscures this connection.

5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.” 

Genesis 26:5 NASB

Either way, the Voice is connected with keeping the charge, commandments, statutes, and laws.

Additional confirmation found in a fourth connection is in Exodus 15:25b-26.

There the Lord made for them a statute and an ordinance and there he put them to the test. 26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in his sight, and give heed to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Exodus 15:25b-26

Who is the “he” referencing in this passage? The most immediate precedent is “the Lord”. The Lord is telling the Israelites that they are to listen to the “voice of the Lord their God”. This looks like God the Father telling the Israelites to listen to the voice which we are showing is the Son. A parallel statement is recorded by Matthew in chapter 17, verse 5. 

5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

Matthew 17:5

The commandments and statutes belong to the Voice of the Lord our God who is the Son.

Yet more confirmation is provided by Moses in Deuteronomy 13:18.

18 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God by keeping all his commandments that I am commanding you today, doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Deuteronomy 13:18

Circling back to where we started which was Exodus 19:5, we are now in a position to understand who is speaking to Moses. He is the Son, Yeshua.

Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant…

If you obey my [Angel of the Lord|the Son] voice and keep my [Angel of the Lord | The Son] covenant…

This parallels another statement that Yeshua made in John, chapter 14.

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:15

I would say that more people are aware of the Angel of the Lord connections to Yeshua the Son than are aware of the Voice connections. A simple search would turn up more connections between the Voice and the commandments than were provided here. But by following the line of evidence made available via the Voice, we can demonstrate that Yeshua the Son was the Angel who spoke with Moses at Mount Sinai. That the first-century Jewish believers understood this is underscored by Stephen’s testimony just before he died a martyr. We will give him the final word.

30 “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight; and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’

35 “It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’ 38 He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living oracles to give to us. 

Acts 7:30-38

This brief study of the “Voice of the Lord God” was initiated because of teaching on the Torah portion of Yitro. It serves to buttress the “Angel of the Lord” argument that Yeshua was the One who made the Covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai. Analysis of Genesis 3:8-10 shows that the “voice” is equivalent to the Word of God, which by the New Testament, we know as the Son of God, Yeshua the Nazarene. This analysis agrees with the ancient targums whose authors paraphrased the Lord God as the Word of the Lord God at several points. It also enables us to better appreciate other scriptures in which His Voice is mentioned, Psalm 29 coming to mind here. 

The reader is encouraged to test the arguments made in this study for himself or herself, and to explore and make further connections. One connection that could be explored further but was out of scope of this discussion was Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 and note how each time something was created, the act of creation was preceded by the spoken word which implies a voice. 

One final point I wish to raise before concluding is that Tsvi Sadan in his book “The Concealed Light: Names of Messiah in Jewish Sources” (2012, available at Vine of David, FFOZ, https://ffoz.com/the-concealed-light-book.html ) has a discussion on the “Voice of my Beloved” on pages 210-211. It’s quite fascinating!