ExodusChapter 34

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, "Cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ²Be ready in the morning. Then come up on Mount Sinai. Stand before me there on the top of the mountain. ³No one may come up with you. In fact, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain. Not even the flocks or herds may eat grass in front of the mountain." ⁴So Moses cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning. He took the two stone tablets in his hands. And he went up Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him. ⁵The LORD came down in a cloud and stood there with him. He called out his name, the LORD. ⁶Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out,
"The LORD, the LORD God,
is full of mercy and grace.
He is slow to get angry.
He overflows with faithful love and faithfulness. ⁷He keeps his faithful love for a thousand generations.
He forgives wrongdoing, rebellion, and sin.
Yet he will never let the guilty go unpunished.
He brings the sin of the fathers on their children and grandchildren,
to the third and fourth generations." ⁸Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. ⁹He said, "Lord, if you really are pleased with me, my Lord, please go with us. These people are stubborn. But forgive our sin and wrong. Take us as your own special people."a ¹⁰And the LORD said, "Look, I am making a covenant. In front of all your people I will do wonders. They have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people you live among will see the LORD's work. For what I am doing with you will be awesome. ¹¹Obey what I command you today. I will drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites ahead of you. ¹²Be careful not to make a treaty with the people who live in the land you are going into. If you do, they will become a trap among you. ¹³Instead, you must tear down their altars. Smash their sacred stones. Cut down their Asherah poles. ¹⁴You must not worship any other god. For the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. ¹⁵Do not make a covenant with the people who live in the land. For when they give themselves like prostitutes to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you. And you will eat their sacrifices. ¹⁶And when you take some of their daughters as wives for your sons, their daughters will give themselves like prostitutes to their gods. And they will lead your sons to do the same. ¹⁷You must not make any gods of melted metal for yourselves. ¹⁸You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the set time in the month of Abib. For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. ¹⁹Every firstborn belongs to me. This includes all the firstborn males among your animals, both cattle and sheep. ²⁰You must buy back the firstborn of a donkey by giving a lamb. But if you do not buy it back, you are to break its neck. You must buy back all your firstborn sons. No one may come before me with empty hands. ²¹For six days you will work. But on the seventh day you will rest. Even in the time of plowing and harvest, you must rest. ²²You are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. Also celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. ²³Three times a year all your males are to come before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. ²⁴For I will drive out the nations ahead of you. I will make your borders larger. And when you go up three times a year to come before the LORD your God, no one will want to take your land for himself. ²⁵Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me with anything that has yeast in it. Do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast be left until morning. ²⁶Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother's milk." ²⁷The LORD also said to Moses, "Write down these words. For I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words." ²⁸So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread or drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. ²⁹Then Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. He did not know that his face was shining because he had spoken with the LORD. ³⁰Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses. They saw that his face was shining. And they were afraid to come near him. ³¹But Moses called out to them. So Aaron and all the leaders of the people came back to him. And Moses spoke to them. ³²After this, all the Israelites came near. Moses commanded them to do everything the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai. ³³When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came out. When he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded. ³⁵The Israelites would see that Moses' face was shining. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.