Exodus 34

The LORD said to Moses, “Cut out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by morning; come up Mount Sinai in the morning and present yourself to me there on the mountaintop. No one is to come up with you, nor is anyone to be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds must not graze in front of that mountain.” So Moses cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. He rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets in his hand. The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, keeping faithful love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, yet by no means leaving the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generations.” Moses hurried to bow down to the ground and worship. He said, “If I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in our midst, for this is a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.” He said, “Look, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonders such as have never been created in all the earth or among any of the nations. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, for what I am doing with you is awesome. Observe what I command you today. Look, I am driving out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest it become a snare in your midst. Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles. For you must not bow down to another god, because the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for they prostitute themselves after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and one may invite you, and you may eat of his sacrifice. You may take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters may prostitute themselves after their gods and make your sons prostitute themselves after their gods. You must not make cast-metal gods for yourself. You must keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. All that first opens the womb is mine, including every firstborn male of your livestock, whether cattle, sheep, or goats. You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep or goat. If you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. You must redeem every firstborn of your sons. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Six days you must work, but on the seventh day you must rest; even in plowing time and harvest you must rest. You must celebrate the Festival of Weeks, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. For I will dispossess nations before you and enlarge your territory. No one will covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times a year. You must not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, nor may the sacrifice of the Passover festival remain until morning. You must bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.” The LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” He was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had spoken with him. Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, and look, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do all that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. Then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded. The Israelites would see Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with him.

Rights and attribution