-A+
Text Resize

Top of Page

   Page Style

The Holy Bible

Current English Language Version

The Book of Exodus

Chapter 34

  

The New Stone Tablets

1
THE

Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.  2  Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there, at the top of the mountain.  3  No one may go up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of the mountain.”

4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then he got up early the next morning, and carrying the two tablets of stone in his hands, he went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him.

God’s Perfect Revelation

5 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, Yahweh.”  6  Then the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

“The Lord, the Lord!

“The compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness;
7  maintaining faithful love to thousands,
and forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin.
Yet He will not leave the guilty unpunished,
bringing the sins of the fathers
on the children and their children
to the third and fourth generations.”

8 Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshipped.  9  “O Lord, If now I have found favour in your eyes,” he said, “please, let my Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”

The Covenant Renewed

10  Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders such as have never been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see how awesome the work is that I, the Lord, am doing among you.  11  Be diligent to obey what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, and Jebusites.  12  Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, or they will become a snare among you.  13  Instead, you must break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and cut down their Asherah poles.  14  You must never worship another god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

15  “Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you and you will eat of their sacrifices.  16  Then you will take some of their daughters as wives for your sons and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons prostitute themselves with their gods.

17  “Do not make gods of cast metal for yourselves.

18  “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

19  “The firstborn offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the males of your livestock, whether the firstborn of cattle or sheep.  20  But the firstborn of a donkey you are to redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you must break its neck. You must redeem all your firstborn sons.

“No one is to appear before Me empty-handed.

21  “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during ploughing and harvesting times you must rest.

22  “Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

23  “Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel  24  I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

25  “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me with anything leavened, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

26  “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God.

“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27  Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words down, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”  28  Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating any food or drinking any water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenantthe Ten Commandments.

The Radiant Face of Moses

29  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, he was not aware the skin of his face shone because he had been speaking with the Lord.  30  When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.  31  But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses talked with them.  32  Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

33  When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.  34  But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,  35  and the Israelites would see that Moses’ face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord again.