Moses Makes New Tablets

34 The Lord said to Moses, ^(A)“Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, ^(B)and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, ^(C)which you broke. ² Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me ^(D)on the top of the mountain. ³ No ^(E)one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” ⁴ So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. ⁵ The Lord ^(F)descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and ^(G)proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ^(H)“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and ^(I)gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast ^(J)love and faithfulness, ^7 (K)keeping steadfast love for thousands,^{[a] (L)}forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but ^(M)who will by no means clear the guilty, ^(N)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” ⁸ And Moses quickly ^(O)bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. ⁹ And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please ^(P)let the Lord go in the midst of us, for ^(Q)it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for ^(R)your inheritance.”

The Covenant Renewed

¹⁰ And he said, “Behold, ^(S)I am making a covenant. Before all your people ^(T)I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an ^(U)awesome thing that I will do with you.

¹¹ “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, ^(V)I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ^12 (W)Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a ^(X)snare in your midst. ¹³ You shall ^(Y)tear down their altars and ^(Z)break their pillars and cut down their ^(AA)Asherim ¹⁴ (for ^(AB)you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), ^15 (AC)lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they ^(AD)whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and ^(AE)you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶ and you take of ^(AF)their daughters for your sons, and their daughters ^(AG)whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

^17 (AH)“You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.

^18 (AI)“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in ^(AJ)the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. ^19 (AK)All that open the womb are mine, all your male^[b] livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. ²⁰ The ^(AL)firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And ^(AM)none shall appear before me empty-handed.

^21 (AN)“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. ^22 (AO)You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end. ^23 (AP)Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. ²⁴ For I will ^(AQ)cast out nations before you and ^(AR)enlarge your borders; ^(AS)no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

^25 (AT)“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, ^(AU)or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. ^26 (AV)The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. ^(AW)You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.”

²⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words ^(AX)I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” ^28 (AY)So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he ^(AZ)wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.^[c]

Messengers from John the Baptist

^18 (A)(B)The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, ¹⁹ calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one ^(C)who is to come, or ^(D)shall we look for another?” ²⁰ And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one ^(E)who is to come, or ^(F)shall we look for another?’” ²¹ In that hour ^(G)he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and ^(H)on many who were blind he bestowed sight. ²² And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: ^(I)the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, ^(J)lepers^[a] are cleansed, and ^(K)the deaf hear, ^(L)the dead are raised up, ^(M)the poor have good news preached to them. ²³ And blessed is the one who is ^(N)not offended by me.”

²⁴ When John's messengers had gone, Jesus^[b] began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out ^(O)into the wilderness to see? ^(P)A reed shaken by the wind? ²⁵ What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are dressed in splendid clothing and live in luxury are in kings' courts. ²⁶ What then did you go out to see? ^(Q)A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. ²⁷ This is he of whom it is written,

²⁸ I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” ²⁹ (^(S)When all the people heard this, and ^(T)the tax collectors too, they declared God just,^{[c] (U)}having been baptized with ^(V)the baptism of John, ^30 (W)but the Pharisees and ^(X)the lawyers ^(Y)rejected ^(Z)the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)

³¹ “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like? ³² They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another,

³³ For John the Baptist has come ^(AA)eating no bread and ^(AB)drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ ³⁴ The Son of Man has come ^(AC)eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, ^(AD)a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ³⁵ Yet ^(AE)wisdom is justified by all her children.”