Israel as a Kingdom of Priests: An Exegetical Study of Exodus 19:6a
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Date
2023
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Pan-African Journal of Theology
Abstract
The promise “you will be to me a kingdom of priests” in Exodus
19:6 receives little attention from a number of commentaries. Those
commentaries that discuss the promise offer varying interpretations.
This article seeks to exegetically examine the promise in its
immediate context and a wider context of the Pentateuch. This is
done through an examination of the grammatical, syntactical and
semantic implications of waw conjunction in the immediate literary
context of the text and the text itself. The waw conjunctions between
the clauses 5c, 6a and 6b in Exodus 19, are waw copulatives that
function to create a hendiadys construction. This means the
promises that God would make Israel his “possession”, a “kingdom
of priest” and a “holy nation” are intricately related, overlapping
and representing different aspects of a complex situation though not
logically related. Furthermore, clauses 5c, 6a and 6b are logically
contingent and consequential to clauses 5a and 5b. Stated more
explicitly, Israel would become God’s possession, a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation if they would listen to God’s voice and
keep his covenant. A wider study of the promise in the context of the
Pentateuch lead to the conclusion that God’s promise to make Israel
a nation alludes to God’s Covenant to Abraham. Israel becomes a
holy nation because of God’s presence among them. By mediating
God to other nations, they act as a kingdom of priests. By being
priests, they are a special possession to God.