34:1 Now the LORD said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you smashed.
34:2 So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and ①present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.
▷ ①Or place yourself before Me
34:3 And no one is to come up with you, nor let anyone be seen ①anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”
▷ ①Lit on all
34:4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses got up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took the two stone tablets in his hand.
34:5 And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he ①called upon the name of the LORD.
▷ ①Or called out with the name of the LORD
34:6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and ①truth;
▷ ①Or trustworthiness
34:7 who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the ①punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
▷ ①I.e., punishment for the wrongdoing
34:8 And Moses hurried ①to bow low toward the ground and worship.
▷ ①Lit and bowed...worshiped
34:9 Then he said, “If in any way I have found favor in Your sight, Lord, please may the Lord go along in our midst, even though ①the people are so obstinate, and pardon our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us as Your own ②possession.”
▷ ①Lit it is a people stiff-necked ②Or inheritance
34:10 Then ①God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been ②produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people ③among whom you live will see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.
▷ ①Lit He ②Lit created ③Lit in whose midst you are
34:11 “ ①Be sure to comply with what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite from you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
▷ ①Lit Observe for yourself
34:12 Be careful that you do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.
34:13 But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their memorial stones, and cut down their ①Asherim
▷ ①I.e., wooden symbols of a female deity (Asherah)
34:14 —for you shall not worship any other god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—
34:15 otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they would prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you ①to eat of his sacrifice,
▷ ①Lit and you eat
34:16 and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might prostitute themselves with their gods and cause your sons also to prostitute themselves with their gods.
34:17 You shall not make for yourself any gods cast in metal.
34:18 “You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, ①as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
▷ ①Or which
34:19 “The ①firstborn from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male livestock, the ②firstborn from ③cattle and sheep.
▷ ①Lit every firstborn of a womb ②Lit every firstborn of a womb ③Or oxen
34:20 You shall redeem with a lamb the firstborn from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. ①None are to appear before Me empty-handed.
▷ ①Lit They shall not
34:21 “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.
34:22 And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
34:23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord ①GOD, the God of Israel.
▷ ①Heb YHWH, usually rendered LORD
34:24 For I will ①drive out nations from 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.
▷ ①Or dispossess
34:25 “You shall not ①offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to ②be left over until morning.
▷ ①Lit slaughter ②Lit remain overnight
34:26 “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
34:27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write ①down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
▷ ①Lit for yourself
34:28 So he was there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And ①He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten ②Commandments.
▷ ①I.e., the LORD ②Lit Words
34:29 And it came about, when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.
34:30 So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.
34:31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
34:32 Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken ①to him on Mount Sinai.
▷ ①Lit with
34:33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34:34 But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,
34:35 the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with Him.