Exodus 34:18-35

Common English Bible

¹⁸ Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You should eat unleavened bread for seven days, as I commanded you, at the set time in the month of Abib,^[a] because it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ Every first offspring is mine. That includes all your male livestock, the oldest offspring of cows and sheep. ²⁰ But a donkey’s oldest offspring you may ransom with a sheep. Or if you don’t ransom it, you must break its neck. You should ransom all of your oldest sons.

No one should appear before me empty-handed.

²¹ You should do your work for six days, but on the seventh day you should rest. Even during plowing or harvesttime you should rest. ²² You should observe the Festival of Weeks, for the early produce of the wheat harvest, and the Gathering Festival at the end of the year. ²³ All your males should appear three times a year before the Lord God, Israel’s God. ²⁴ I will drive out nations before you and extend your borders. No one will desire and try to take your land if you go up and appear before the Lord your God three times a year.

²⁵ Don’t slaughter the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened. The sacrifice of the Passover Festival shouldn’t be left over until the morning.

²⁶ Bring the best of the early produce of your farmland to the Lord your God’s temple.

Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²⁷ The Lord said to Moses: “Write down these words because by these words I hereby make a covenant with you and with Israel.” ²⁸ Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He didn’t eat any bread or drink any water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

Moses’ brightly shining face

²⁹ Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two covenant tablets in his hand, Moses didn’t realize that the skin of his face shone brightly because he had been talking with God. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw the skin of Moses’ face shining brightly, they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called them closer. So Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke with them. ³² After that, all the Israelites came near as well, and Moses commanded them everything that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ Whenever Moses went into the Lord’s presence to speak with him, Moses would take the veil off until he came out again. When Moses came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵ the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses’ face was shining brightly. So Moses would put the veil on his face again until the next time he went in to speak with the Lord.