The Bible

Exodus Chapter 34

¹Yahweh said to Moses, "Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ²Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. ³Let no one come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain."

⁴He chiseled two stone tablets like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. ⁵Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh. ⁶Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, "Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, ⁷keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, punishing the children for the iniquity of the fathers, and on the children's children, on the third and on the fourth generation."

⁸Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. ⁹He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, LordOfMine, please let LordOfMine go among us, even though this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."

¹⁰He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created-from-nothing in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people you are among will see Yahweh's work; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you. ¹¹Observe what I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ¹²Be careful, in case you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, otherwise it be for a snare among you; ¹³but break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles; ¹⁴for you may worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵Don't make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; ¹⁶and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

¹⁷Don't make any cast-metal idols for yourselves.

¹⁸Keep the feast of unleavened bread. Eat unleavened bread for seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you left Egypt.

¹⁹All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep. ²⁰Redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you choose not to redeem it, then break its neck. Redeem all the firstborn of your sons. Let no one appear before me empty-handed.

²¹Work for six days, but on the seventh day, rest. In plowing time and in harvest you must rest.

²²Observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year's end. ²³Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. ²⁴For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders. No man will desire your land when you go up to appear in Yahweh your God's presence, three times a year.

²⁵Do not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. Don't leave the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover till the morning.

²⁶Bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to Yahweh your God's house. "Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."

²⁷Yahweh said to Moses, "Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

²⁸He was there with Yahweh for forty days and forty nights; he didn't eat bread, or drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

²⁹When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him. ³⁰When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. ³²Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had told him on Mount Sinai. ³³When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. ³⁴But when Moses went in to Yahweh's presence to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel what he was commanded. ³⁵The children of Israel saw Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone; so Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.