Exodus 34
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 34
The New Tablets of the Law. 1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, the ones you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning. Tomorrow morning you must climb up Mount Sinai and remain on the summit of the mountain with me. 3 No one is to climb up with you. No one should be on the summit of the mountain nor anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”
4 Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. He arose early in the morning and climbed up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, with the two stone tablets in his hands.
The Lord Shows Himself to Moses.5 The Lord came down in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed in front of him proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and fidelity, 7 who shows mercy to thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, but will by no means forgive the iniquity of the fathers, visiting it upon their sons and their sons’ sons, to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. 9 He said, “If I have found favor with you, my Lord, let the Lord walk in our midst. Yet, it is an obstinate people. Pardon our iniquity and sin and take us for your own inheritance.”
10 A New Book of the Law.[a] The Lord said, “Behold, I am going to establish a covenant with you. I will perform marvelous deeds before all your people, things that have never been done before anywhere on the earth or among any people. All the people in whose midst you dwell will see the work of the Lord, for it is a wondrous thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you today. I will drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 12 Take care not to make any covenants with the inhabitants of the land that you are about to enter, lest it become a snare to you. 13 You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred trees.[b] 14 You must not worship any other god, for the Lord is called Jealous, for he is a jealous God.
15 “Do not make a covenant with the people of that land lest, when they commit fornication for their gods and perform sacrifices to their gods, they invite you and you eat of their sacrifice.[c] 16 Do not take their daughters as wives for your sons lest, when their daughters commit fornication to their gods, they cause your sons to commit fornication with their gods as well.
17 “Do not make any molten gods for yourselves.
18 “Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.
19 “Every creature that is the firstborn from its mother’s womb belongs to me: every firstborn bull, every firstborn cattle and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey will be redeemed with a lamb. If you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. All of your firstborn sons are to be redeemed.
“None is to appear before me empty-handed.
21 “For six days you may work, but on the seventh you must rest. Even during plowing season and the harvest, you must rest.
22 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and also the Harvest Feast at the year’s end.
23 “Three times a year all your men will appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel, 24 for I will cast out your enemies before you and enlarge your borders. Neither will any man desire your land, when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord, your God. 25 You shall not sacrifice the blood of my sacrificial victim with leavened bread, neither shall you let the sacrificial victim of the Passover remain until the morning.
26 “You will bring the best of the firstfruits of the land to the house of the Lord, your God.
“You shall not cook a kid goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have established a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 Moses remained with the Lord for forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, on the tablets.
29 The Radiant Face of Moses.[d] When Moses went down from Mount Sinai, he had the two tablets of Testimony in his hands, while he descended the mountain. He did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant, for he had been speaking with the Lord. 30 But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses and that the skin of his face had become radiant, they were afraid to approach him. 31 Moses therefore called to them, to Aaron and all the heads of the community, and they went over to him. Moses spoke to them. 32 All the children of Israel then drew near after them, and he commanded them to do all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses was finished speaking to them, he put on a veil to cover his face. 34 Whenever Moses came before the Lord to speak with him, Moses took off the veil until he went outside. When he went outside, he told the children of Israel all that had been commanded them. 35 The children of Israel saw that the skin of his face had become radiant. Then he put the veil on over his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord again.
Footnotes
- Exodus 34:10 After their first false step the chosen people had to make a serious commitment to live according to the renewed covenant. As a remembrance of this event, the Yahwist tradition has preserved for us this new Decalogue, which is probably to be associated with the point at which Israel became sedentary and had to struggle with the nature cults of Canaan; this would account for the emphasis on taking part in the liturgical celebrations.
- Exodus 34:13 In the Canaanite religion the pillars, Hebrew, massebot, were symbols of the male god; their cult is condemned; see also Ex 23:24; Lev 26:1; Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:22; Hos 3:4; 10:1; Mic 5:12. The sacred trees (Hebrew, asherah) were a symbol of the female goddess of love and fertility (Astarte).
- Exodus 34:15 As compared to the worship of Yahweh, which is likened to a legitimate marriage, the worship of false gods is described as prostitution. See Ezek 16; 23; Hos 1–3; Rev 17.
- Exodus 34:29 The face of Moses reflected the glory of God. The verb garan, “to be radiant,” is like the noun goren, “horn.” This explains why the verb was translated as “horns” in the Latin Vulgate and became part of the tradition. Paul refers to this passage when he reminds Christians of their transformation into the image of God (2 Cor 3:7-8, 18).
