Exodus 34
The Lord instructs Moses to cut out two new tablets of stone to replace the ones he broke, and to ascend Mount Sinai alone. The Lord then descends in a cloud and proclaims his name and character, describing himself as merciful, lenient, and truthful. Moses asks the Lord to walk with the people and take away their iniquities, and the Lord agrees to make a covenant with them. The Lord then gives Moses instructions on how to worship him, including the destruction of idols and the observance of certain festivals, and commands the people to set apart the firstborn of their sons and animals as his own. Moses writes down the words of the covenant and spends 40 days and nights on the mountain, after which he descends with the two tablets, his face radiant from his encounter with the Lord.
1And after this he said: "Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone similar to the first ones, and I will write upon them the words which were held on the tablets that you broke2Be prepared in the morning, so that you may immediately ascend onto Mount Sinai, and you shall stand with me on the summit of the mountain3Let no one ascend with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout the entire mountain. Likewise, do not let the oxen or the sheep pasture up against it.4And so he cut out two tablets of stone, like those that were before. And rising up in the night, he ascended onto Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had instructed him, carrying with him the tablets5And when the Lord had descended in a cloud, Moses stood with him, calling upon the name of the Lord6And as he was crossing before him, he said: "The Ruler, the Lord God, merciful and lenient, patient and full of compassion and also truthful7who preserves mercy a thousand fold, who takes away iniquity, and wickedness, and also sin; and with you no one, in and of himself, is innocent. You render the iniquity of the fathers to the sons, and also to their descendents to the third and fourth generation.8And hurrying, Moses bowed down prostrate to the ground; and worshiping9he said: "If I have found grace in your sight, O Lord, I beg you to walk with us, (for the people are stiff-necked) and take away our iniquities and our sin, and so possess us.10The Lord responded: "I will enter into a pact in the sight of all. I will perform signs which have never been seen on earth, nor among any nation, so that this people, in whose midst you are, may discern the terrible work of the Lord that I will do11Observe everything that I command you this day. I myself will drive out before your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite12Beware that you do not ever join in friendship with the inhabitants of that land, which may be your ruin13But destroy their altars, break their statues, and cut down their sacred groves14Do not be willing to worship any strange god. The jealous Lord is his name. God is a rival15Do not enter into a pact with the men of those regions, lest, when they will have fornicated with their gods and worshiped their idols, someone might call upon you to eat from what was immolated16Neither shall you take a wife for your son from their daughters, lest, after they themselves have fornicated, they may cause your sons also to fornicate with their gods17You shall not make for yourselves any molten gods18You shall keep the solemnity of unleavened bread. For seven days, you shall eat unleavened bread, just as I instructed you, in the time of the month of what is new. For in the month of springtime you departed from Egypt19All of the male kind, which open the womb, shall be mine: from all the animals, as much of oxen as of sheep, it shall be mine20The firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a sheep. But if you will not give a price for it, it shall be slain. The firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. You shall not appear empty in my sight21For six days you shall work. On the seventh day you shall cease to cultivate and to harvest22You shall observe the Solemnity of Weeks with the first-fruits of the grain from the harvest of your wheat, and a Solemnity when the time of the year returns and everything is stored away23Three times a year, all your males shall appear in the sight of the Almighty, the Lord God of Israel24For when I will have taken away the nations before your face, and enlarged your borders, no one shall lie in wait against your land when you will go up to appear in the sight of the Lord your God, three times a year25You shall not immolate the blood of my victim over leaven; and there shall not remain, in the morning, any of the victim of the Solemnity of the Passover26The first of the fruits of your land you shall offer in the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.27And the Lord said to Moses, "Write these words to you, through which I have formed a covenant, both with you and with Israel.28Therefore, he was in that place with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread and he did not drink water, and he wrote on the tablets the ten words of the covenant29And when Moses descended from Mount Sinai, he held the two tablets of the testimony, and he did not know that his face was radiant from the sharing of words with the Lord30Then Aaron and the sons of Israel, seeing that the face of Moses was radiant, were afraid to approach close by31And being called by him, they turned back, both Aaron and the leaders of the assembly. And after he had spoken to them32all the sons of Israel also now came to him. And he instructed them in all the things that he had heard from the Lord on Mount Sinai33And having completed these words, he placed a veil over his face34But when he entered to the Lord and was speaking with him, he took it off, until he exited. And then he spoke to the sons of Israel all that had been commanded to him35And they saw that the face of Moses, when he came out, was radiant, but he covered his face again, whenever he spoke to them
Share this chapter