After the golden calf, Moses returned to the LORD and asked Him to forgive Israel:
And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said: ‘Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them a god of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.’ (Exodus 32:31–32)
וַיָּשָׁב מֹשֶׁה אֶל ה' וַיֹּאמַר: אָנָּא, חָטָא הָעָם הַזֶּה חֲטָאָה גְדֹלָה, וַיַּעֲשׂוּ לָהֶם אֱלֹהֵי זָהָב. וְעַתָּה, אִם תִּשָּׂא חַטָּאתָם, וְאִם אַיִן – מְחֵנִי נָא מִסִּפְרְךָ אֲשֶׁר כָּתָבְתָּ.
The LORD answered:
And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. (Exodus 32:33)
וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֶל מֹשֶׁה: מִי אֲשֶׁר חָטָא לִי אֶמְחֶנּוּ מִסִּפְרִי. (שמות לב לא-לג)
What book is meant? What does Moses mean by “blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written”?
Rashi identifies it as the Torah, asking that Moses’ name be omitted from it. This raises two difficulties. First, the Torah describes events that have not yet happened, making it difficult on the plain meaning to identify it as “Thy book which Thou hast written,” in the past tense. Second, the LORD’s reply, “Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book,” clearly cannot refer to the Torah, which contains many sinners whose names have not been erased.
Rashbam, Nahmanides, and others therefore suggest the “book of life,” recording those destined to live, like the book of the righteous described in the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16b).
The Bible itself already hints at this. The psalmist prays concerning his enemies:
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, And not be written with the righteous. (Psalms 69:29)
יִמָּחוּ מִסֵּפֶר חַיִּים, וְעִם צַדִּיקִים אַל יִכָּתֵבוּ. (תהילים ס"ט, כט)
And Isaiah says:
And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written unto life in Jerusalem; (Isaiah 4:3)
וְהָיָה הַנִּשְׁאָר בְּצִיּוֹן וְהַנּוֹתָר בִּירוּשָׁלַ͏ִם – קָדוֹשׁ יֵאָמֶר לוֹ, כָּל הַכָּתוּב לַחַיִּים בִּירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם. (ישעיהו ד', ג)
On this explanation, Moses asks to die if the LORD will not forgive Israel, as he said on another occasion: “And if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in Thy sight; and let me not look upon my wretchedness” (Numbers 11:15).
But he should then have said “blot me out of the book of life,” or simply “out of Thy book.” The addition “which Thou hast written” suggests another book, one containing a story and substance written by the LORD, rather than merely names of people granted life for a particular period.
Abraham Ibn Ezra, influenced by astrology, interprets the book as the stars and constellations, the LORD’s book in which the world’s events are engraved in advance. On this account, each person’s fate, and even a whole people’s, was determined at the heavens’ creation. Moses asks the LORD to alter his prescribed fate if the predetermined plan includes Israel’s destruction.
We can follow Ibn Ezra’s direction without accepting astrology or determinism, understanding the book as a metaphor for a general divine plan directing history without abolishing human free choice.
Isaiah describes this book when speaking of the LORD’s plans to punish the nations. He concludes that all these things are written beforehand in “the book of the LORD”:
Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read; No one of these shall be missing, None shall want her mate; For My mouth it hath commanded, And the breath thereof it hath gathered them. (Isaiah 34:16)
דִּרְשׁוּ מֵעַל סֵפֶר ה' וּקְרָאוּ, אַחַת מֵהֵנָּה לֹא נֶעְדָּרָה.
אִשָּׁה רְעוּתָהּ לֹא פָקָדוּ, כִּי פִי הוּא צִוָּה – וְרוּחוֹ, הוּא קִבְּצָן. (ישעיהו ל"ד, טז)
Moses’ words would then mean: If You will not forgive Israel, and intend to destroy them and make me a great nation instead, as You told me before I descended the mountain (Exodus 32:10), I want no part in that plan.
