Israel at Sinai

19 In the third month from the very day the Israelites left the land of Egypt, they came to the Sinai Wilderness. ² They traveled from Rephidim, came to the Sinai Wilderness, and camped in the wilderness. Israel camped there in front of the mountain.^(A)

³ Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called^(B) to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: ⁴ ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.^{(C) 5} Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant,^(D) you will be my own possession^(E) out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’^(F) These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”

⁷ After Moses came back, he summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. ⁸ Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken.”^(G) So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord.

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud,^(H) so that the people will hear when I speak^(I) with you and will always believe you.” Moses reported the people’s words to the Lord,

¹⁶ On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud blast from a ram’s horn, so that all the people in the camp shuddered. ¹⁷ Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the Lord came down on it in fire.^(A) Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace,^(B) and the whole mountain shook violently.^{(C) 19} As the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.^(D)

²⁰ The Lord came down on Mount Sinai at the top of the mountain. Then the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and he went up.

⁵ The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” ⁶ The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,^{(A) 7} maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.^(B) But he will not leave the guilty^(C) unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

⁸ Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped. ⁹ Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.”^(D)

Covenant Obligations

¹⁰ And the Lord responded, “Look, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done^[a] in the whole earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.^{(E) 11} Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites,^[b] and Jebusites. ¹² Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you.^{(F) 13} Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.^{(G) 14} Because the Lord is jealous^(H) for his reputation, you are never to bow down to another god.^[c] He is a jealous God.

²⁷ The Lord also said to Moses, “Write^(A) down these words, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel based on these words.”

²⁸ Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments,^(B) the words of the covenant, on the tablets.

Moses’s Radiant Face

²⁹ As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord.^{[a](C) 30} When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone!^(D) They were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,^{(E) 35} and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face^[b] was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.

New Covenant Ministry

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, chiseled in letters on stones, came with glory,^(A) so that the Israelites were not able to gaze steadily at Moses’s face because of its glory, which was set aside, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry that brought condemnation had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness overflows with even more glory. ¹⁰ In fact, what had been glorious is not glorious now by comparison because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what was set aside^(B) was glorious, what endures will be even more glorious.

¹² Since, then, we have such a hope,^(C) we act with great boldness. ¹³ We are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face^(D) to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily until the end^[a] of the glory of what was being set aside, ¹⁴ but their minds were hardened.^(E) For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant,^(F) the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ.^{(G) 15} Yet still today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts, ¹⁶ but whenever a person turns^(H) to the Lord, the veil is removed.^{(I) 17} Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at^[b](J) the glory of the Lord^(K) and are being transformed^(L) into the same image^(M) from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.^[c]