A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Exodus 34
Exodus 34 is the thirty-fourth chapter of the book of Exodus and the chapter of the second tablets and the renewed covenant. The 35-verse chapter contains the most-quoted self-revelation in the Old Testament, a renewed covenant with a distinctly cultic emphasis, and the closing image of Moses descending the mountain with his face shining so that he must veil it before the people.
The chapter opens with the LORD telling Moses to cut two stone tablets like the first ones, which he broke, and to come up Mount Sinai in the morning. He is to come alone; no one is to be seen anywhere on the mountain.
Moses chisels the tablets, rises early, takes them in his hands, and climbs the mountain. The LORD descends in a cloud, stands with him there, and proclaims his name, the LORD.
Then he passes in front of Moses and calls out: "The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." This is the self-revelation that the rest of the Old Testament will echo: Numbers 14, Joel 2, Jonah 4, Nahum 1, and the Psalms 86, 103, and 145 all draw from it.
Moses immediately bows down and worships. He asks the LORD to go with them, even though the people are stiff-necked, and to take them as his inheritance.
The LORD answers by renewing the covenant. The commandments that follow have a distinctly cultic emphasis, different from the moral decalogue of Exodus 20. Israel is not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land or take their daughters for their sons. They are to tear down the local altars, smash the sacred stones, and chop down the Asherah poles, for the LORD whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. They are to make no molten gods. They are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread in the month of Abib. The firstborn male of every womb belongs to the LORD; the firstborn donkey is redeemed with a lamb or its neck is broken; the firstborn of their sons must be redeemed. No one appears before the LORD empty-handed. They are to rest on the seventh day even in plowing and harvest seasons. They are to keep the Feast of Weeks at the wheat firstfruits, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all the males are to appear before the Lord GOD. No leaven goes with the blood of a sacrifice. The firstfruits of the soil go to the house of the LORD. They are not to cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
The LORD then tells Moses to write down these words, "for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses is on the mountain forty days and forty nights without bread or water. He writes the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, on the tablets.
When Moses comes down with the two tablets of the testimony, he does not know that his face has become radiant from speaking with the LORD. Aaron and the Israelites see and are afraid to approach him. Moses calls them, and they come; he gives them everything the LORD told him. When he finishes, he puts a veil over his face. From that point on, whenever Moses goes in to speak with the LORD, he removes the veil; when he comes out and tells the Israelites what he was commanded, they see his face radiant, and he puts the veil back on until he goes in again.
Verse 1. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Verse 2. Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop.
Verse 3. No one may go up with you; in fact, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain—not even the flocks or herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
Verse 4. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him.
Verse 5. And the LORD descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD.
Verse 6. Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
Verse 7. maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
Verse 8. Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped.
Verse 9. “O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
Verse 10. And the LORD said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you.
Verse 11. Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
Verse 12. Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
Verse 13. Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
Verse 14. For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
Verse 15. Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
Verse 16. And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.
Verse 17. You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.
Verse 18. You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. For in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
Verse 19. The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males among your livestock, whether cattle or sheep.
Verse 20. You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb; but if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.
Verse 21. Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.
Verse 22. And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
Verse 23. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
Verse 24. For I will drive out the nations before 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.
Verse 25. Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything leavened, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.
Verse 26. Bring 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.”
Verse 27. The LORD also said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
Verse 28. So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
Verse 29. And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with the LORD.
Verse 30. Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him.
Verse 31. But Moses called out to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.
Verse 32. And after this all the Israelites came near, and Moses commanded them to do everything that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.
Verse 33. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Verse 34. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,
Verse 35. and the Israelites would see that the face of Moses was radiant. So Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.
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