Abstract

The article makes a comparison between the two contrasting accounts of Exodus 32-34 and Deutoronomy 9,1-10,11, highlighting and analyzing a crucial difference between the two texts. In the exhortation of Moses in Deuteronomy, there is no mention of the Exodus representation of Yahweh as a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. The absence of these features of God in the Deuteronomy account serves to underline three other, and different, aspects of the image of God in that account: that his commitment to Israel lasts for ever; that his mercy and his covenant precede all actions for justification on the part of Israel; and that his revelation to the Patriarchs happened once, when he took an oath of allegiance to Israel's ancestors