Exodus 34
GOD’S WORD Translation
The Lord Meets with Moses on the Mountain
34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two ⌞more⌟ stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets which you smashed. 2 Be ready in the morning. Then come up on Mount Sinai, and stand in my presence on the top of the mountain. 3 No one may come with you or even be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds may not graze in front of this mountain.”
4 So Moses cut two ⌞more⌟ stone tablets like the first ones. Early the next morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, carrying the two stone tablets.
5 The Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him and called out his name “the Lord.”
6 Then he passed in front of Moses, calling out, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and merciful God, patient, always faithful and ready to forgive. 7 He continues to show his love to thousands of generations, forgiving wrongdoing, disobedience, and sin. He never lets the guilty go unpunished, punishing children and grandchildren for their parents’ sins to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Immediately, Moses knelt, bowing with his face touching the ground. 9 Then he said, “Lord, please go with us! Even though we are impossible to deal with, forgive our sin and the wrong we have done, and accept us as your own people.”
The Lord Makes His Promise with Israel Again
10 The Lord said, “I’m making my promise [a] again. In front of all your people I will perform miracles that have never been done in any other nation in all the world. All the people around you will see how awesome these miracles are that I will perform for you. 11 Do everything that I command today. Then I will force the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites out of your way. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you’re going. This will prove to be a trap to you. 13 But tear down their altars, crush their sacred stones, and cut down their poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah. 14 (Never worship any other god, because the Lord is a God who does not tolerate rivals. In fact, he is known for not tolerating rivals.) 15 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in that land. When they chase after their gods as though they were prostitutes and sacrifice to them, they may invite you to eat the meat from their sacrifices with them. 16 Then your sons will end up marrying their daughters. When their daughters chase after their gods as though they were prostitutes, they’ll lead your sons to do the same thing.
17 “Never make an idol.
18 “You must celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you must eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because in that month you came out of Egypt.
19 “Every first male offspring is mine, even the firstborn males of all your livestock, whether cattle, sheep, or goats. 20 It will cost you a sheep or a goat to buy back the firstborn donkey. If you don’t buy it back, then you must break the donkey’s neck. You must buy back every firstborn of your sons.
“No one may come into my presence without an offering.
21 “You may work six days, but on the seventh day you must not work. Even during the time of plowing or harvesting you must not work ⌞on this day⌟.
22 “You must celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the first grain from your wheat harvest, and the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the season.
23 “Three times a year all your men must come into the presence of the Master, the Lord God of Israel. 24 I will force nations out of your way and will expand ⌞your country’s⌟ borders. No one will want to take away your land while you’re gone three times a year to the Lord’s festivals.
25 “Never offer the blood of a sacrifice to me at the same time you offer anything containing yeast. No part of the sacrifice at the Passover Festival should be left over in the morning.
26 “You must bring the first and best of the produce harvested from your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
“Never cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, because on the basis of these words I’m making a promise to Israel and to you.”
28 Moses was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights without food or water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the promise, the ten commandments.
Moses Returns to the People
29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai, carrying the two tablets with God’s words on them. His face was shining from speaking with the Lord, but he didn’t know it.
30 When Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses and saw his face shining, they were afraid to come near him. 31 Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him. Then Moses spoke to them. 32 After that, all the other Israelites came near him, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord told him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went into the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he took off the veil until he came out. Whenever he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they would see that Moses’ face was shining. Then Moses would put the veil back on until he went in again to speak with the Lord.
Footnotes
- 34:10 Or “covenant.”
Exodus 34
English Standard Version
Moses Makes New Tablets
34 The Lord said to Moses, (A)“Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, (B)and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, (C)which you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me (D)on the top of the mountain. 3 No (E)one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord (F)descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and (G)proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, (H)“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and (I)gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast (J)love and faithfulness, 7 (K)keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] (L)forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but (M)who will by no means clear the guilty, (N)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly (O)bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please (P)let the Lord go in the midst of us, for (Q)it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for (R)your inheritance.”
The Covenant Renewed
10 And he said, “Behold, (S)I am making a covenant. Before all your people (T)I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an (U)awesome thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, (V)I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 (W)Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a (X)snare in your midst. 13 You shall (Y)tear down their altars and (Z)break their pillars and cut down their (AA)Asherim 14 (for (AB)you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 (AC)lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they (AD)whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and (AE)you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of (AF)their daughters for your sons, and their daughters (AG)whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
17 (AH)“You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.
18 (AI)“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in (AJ)the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 (AK)All that open the womb are mine, all your male[b] livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 The (AL)firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And (AM)none shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 (AN)“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22 (AO)You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. 23 (AP)Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will (AQ)cast out nations before you and (AR)enlarge your borders; (AS)no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 (AT)“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, (AU)or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 (AV)The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. (AW)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”
27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words (AX)I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 (AY)So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he (AZ)wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.[c]
The Shining Face of Moses
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with (BA)the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face (BB)shone because he had been talking with God.[d] 30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face (BC)shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he (BD)commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a (BE)veil over his face.
34 Whenever Moses (BF)went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face was (BG)shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Footnotes
- Exodus 34:7 Or to the thousandth generation
- Exodus 34:19 Septuagint, Theodotion, Vulgate, Targum; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
- Exodus 34:28 Hebrew the ten words
- Exodus 34:29 Hebrew him
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