Exodus 34
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 34
The New Tablets of the Law. 1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, the ones you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning. Tomorrow morning you must climb up Mount Sinai and remain on the summit of the mountain with me. 3 No one is to climb up with you. No one should be on the summit of the mountain nor anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”
4 Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. He arose early in the morning and climbed up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, with the two stone tablets in his hands.
The Lord Shows Himself to Moses.5 The Lord came down in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed in front of him proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and fidelity, 7 who shows mercy to thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, but will by no means forgive the iniquity of the fathers, visiting it upon their sons and their sons’ sons, to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. 9 He said, “If I have found favor with you, my Lord, let the Lord walk in our midst. Yet, it is an obstinate people. Pardon our iniquity and sin and take us for your own inheritance.”
10 A New Book of the Law.[a] The Lord said, “Behold, I am going to establish a covenant with you. I will perform marvelous deeds before all your people, things that have never been done before anywhere on the earth or among any people. All the people in whose midst you dwell will see the work of the Lord, for it is a wondrous thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you today. I will drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 12 Take care not to make any covenants with the inhabitants of the land that you are about to enter, lest it become a snare to you. 13 You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred trees.[b] 14 You must not worship any other god, for the Lord is called Jealous, for he is a jealous God.
15 “Do not make a covenant with the people of that land lest, when they commit fornication for their gods and perform sacrifices to their gods, they invite you and you eat of their sacrifice.[c] 16 Do not take their daughters as wives for your sons lest, when their daughters commit fornication to their gods, they cause your sons to commit fornication with their gods as well.
17 “Do not make any molten gods for yourselves.
18 “Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.
19 “Every creature that is the firstborn from its mother’s womb belongs to me: every firstborn bull, every firstborn cattle and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey will be redeemed with a lamb. If you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. All of your firstborn sons are to be redeemed.
“None is to appear before me empty-handed.
21 “For six days you may work, but on the seventh you must rest. Even during plowing season and the harvest, you must rest.
22 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and also the Harvest Feast at the year’s end.
23 “Three times a year all your men will appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel, 24 for I will cast out your enemies before you and enlarge your borders. Neither will any man desire your land, when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord, your God. 25 You shall not sacrifice the blood of my sacrificial victim with leavened bread, neither shall you let the sacrificial victim of the Passover remain until the morning.
26 “You will bring the best of the firstfruits of the land to the house of the Lord, your God.
“You shall not cook a kid goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have established a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 Moses remained with the Lord for forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, on the tablets.
29 The Radiant Face of Moses.[d] When Moses went down from Mount Sinai, he had the two tablets of Testimony in his hands, while he descended the mountain. He did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant, for he had been speaking with the Lord. 30 But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses and that the skin of his face had become radiant, they were afraid to approach him. 31 Moses therefore called to them, to Aaron and all the heads of the community, and they went over to him. Moses spoke to them. 32 All the children of Israel then drew near after them, and he commanded them to do all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses was finished speaking to them, he put on a veil to cover his face. 34 Whenever Moses came before the Lord to speak with him, Moses took off the veil until he went outside. When he went outside, he told the children of Israel all that had been commanded them. 35 The children of Israel saw that the skin of his face had become radiant. Then he put the veil on over his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord again.
Footnotes
- Exodus 34:10 After their first false step the chosen people had to make a serious commitment to live according to the renewed covenant. As a remembrance of this event, the Yahwist tradition has preserved for us this new Decalogue, which is probably to be associated with the point at which Israel became sedentary and had to struggle with the nature cults of Canaan; this would account for the emphasis on taking part in the liturgical celebrations.
- Exodus 34:13 In the Canaanite religion the pillars, Hebrew, massebot, were symbols of the male god; their cult is condemned; see also Ex 23:24; Lev 26:1; Deut 7:5; 12:3; 16:22; Hos 3:4; 10:1; Mic 5:12. The sacred trees (Hebrew, asherah) were a symbol of the female goddess of love and fertility (Astarte).
- Exodus 34:15 As compared to the worship of Yahweh, which is likened to a legitimate marriage, the worship of false gods is described as prostitution. See Ezek 16; 23; Hos 1–3; Rev 17.
- Exodus 34:29 The face of Moses reflected the glory of God. The verb garan, “to be radiant,” is like the noun goren, “horn.” This explains why the verb was translated as “horns” in the Latin Vulgate and became part of the tradition. Paul refers to this passage when he reminds Christians of their transformation into the image of God (2 Cor 3:7-8, 18).
Exodus 34
New King James Version
Moses Makes New Tablets(A)
34 And the Lord said to Moses, (B)“Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and (C)I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. 2 So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there (D)on the top of the mountain. 3 And no man shall (E)come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”
4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
5 Now the Lord descended in the (F)cloud and stood with him there, and (G)proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord (H)God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in (I)goodness and (J)truth, 7 (K)keeping mercy for thousands, (L)forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, (M)by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 So Moses made haste and (N)bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. 9 Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, (O)let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a (P)stiff-necked[a] people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as (Q)Your inheritance.”
The Covenant Renewed(R)
10 And He said: “Behold, (S)I make a covenant. Before all your people I will (T)do [b]marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is (U)an awesome thing that I will do with you. 11 (V)Observe what I command you this day. Behold, (W)I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12 (X)Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. 13 But you shall (Y)destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and (Z)cut down their wooden images 14 (for you shall worship (AA)no other god, for the Lord, whose (AB)name is Jealous, is a (AC)jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they (AD)play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them (AE)invites you and you (AF)eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of (AG)his daughters for your sons, and his daughters (AH)play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.
17 (AI)“You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.
18 “The Feast of (AJ)Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the (AK)month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
19 (AL)“All [c]that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. 20 But (AM)the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.
“And none shall appear before Me (AN)empty-handed.
21 (AO)“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.
23 (AP)“Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. 24 For I will (AQ)cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, (AR)nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.
26 (AS)“The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write (AT)these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 (AU)So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And (AV)He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the [d]Ten Commandments.
The Shining Face of Moses
29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the (AW)two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that (AX)the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. 30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. 32 Afterward all the children of Israel came near, (AY)and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put (AZ)a veil on his face. 34 But (BA)whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. 35 And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.
Footnotes
- Exodus 34:9 stubborn
- Exodus 34:10 wonderful acts
- Exodus 34:19 the firstborn
- Exodus 34:28 Lit. Ten Words
Éxodo 34
La Palabra (Hispanoamérica)
Las segundas losas del testimonio
34 El Señor dijo a Moisés:
— Talla dos losas de piedra iguales a las primeras: Yo escribiré en ellas lo mismo que había en las otras, las que tú hiciste añicos. 2 Prepárate para mañana, pues al amanecer subirás al monte Sinaí, y allí, en la cima del monte, me esperarás. 3 Que nadie suba contigo. No dejes que nadie esté por los alrededores del monte; ni siquiera ovejas o vacas pastando por las cercanías.
4 Moisés talló dos losas de piedra iguales a las primeras. Se levantó muy temprano y subió al monte Sinaí portando las dos losas de piedra, tal como el Señor se lo había ordenado. 5 Entonces el Señor descendió en una nube, y se quedó allí, al lado de Moisés, el cual pronunció el nombre del Señor.
6 El Señor pasó delante de él proclamando:
— ¡El Señor! ¡El Señor! ¡Dios compasivo y benévolo, lento en airarse y rico en amor y fidelidad, 7 que mantiene su amor a lo largo de mil generaciones y perdona la desobediencia, la rebeldía y los pecados, aunque no los deja impunes, sino que castiga la culpa de los padres en los hijos y en los nietos, en los biznietos y en los tataranietos!
8 Inmediatamente Moisés se postró en el suelo y lo adoró 9 diciendo:
— Señor, si de verdad gozo de tu favor, ven con nosotros, aunque seamos un pueblo testarudo. Perdónanos nuestras desobediencias y pecados, y acéptanos como propiedad tuya.
Alianza renovada
10 El Señor le respondió:
— Mira, voy a sellar una alianza. A la vista de todo el pueblo realizaré maravillas como no se han hecho en ningún país ni en ninguna nación. El pueblo que está contigo verá la obra del Señor, porque yo haré cosas impresionantes contigo.
11 Cumple lo que te ordeno hoy y expulsaré de tu presencia a amorreos, cananeos, hititas, fereceos, heveos y jebuseos. 12 Guárdate mucho de pactar con los habitantes del país donde vas a entrar porque serían una trampa para ti. 13 Al contrario, derriben sus altares, destruyan sus piedras votivas y talen sus árboles sagrados.
14 No adores a dioses extranjeros porque yo, el Señor, llevo el nombre de “Celoso” y soy un Dios celoso.
15 No hagas ninguna alianza con los habitantes de aquel país, no sea que cuando ellos rindan culto a sus dioses y les ofrezcan sacrificios, te inviten también a ti y tengas que comer de las víctimas sacrificadas. 16 No tomes a sus hijas como esposas para tus hijos, pues puede que cuando ellas rindan culto a sus dioses, induzcan también a los hijos de ustedes a rendir culto a esos mismos dioses.
17 No te fabriques dioses de metal fundido.
Las fiestas anuales
18 Observa la fiesta de los Panes sin levadura: durante siete días y según te mandé, comerás panes sin levadura en la fecha señalada del mes de Abib, porque en ese mes saliste de Egipto.
19 Todos los primogénitos me pertenecen, incluidas las primeras crías de tu ganado tanto vacuno como ovino, siempre que sean machos. 20 Puedes rescatar a la primera cría del asno sustituyéndola por un cordero, pero si no la rescatas, tendrás que desnucarla. A tus hijos primogénitos los rescatarás. Nadie se presentará ante mí con las manos vacías.
21 Durante seis días trabajarás y el séptimo descansarás, incluso en tiempo de siembra o siega.
22 Celebra la fiesta de las Semanas, al comienzo de la siega del trigo; y también la fiesta de la Recolección, al final del año agrícola.
23 Tres veces al año se presentarán todos los varones ante el Señor, Dios de Israel. 24 Cuando yo haya alejado de ti a las demás naciones y haya ampliado tus fronteras, nadie intentará invadir tu territorio aprovechando que subes tres veces al año a presentarte ante el Señor tu Dios.
25 No ofrezcas nada fermentado junto con la sangre de la víctima sacrificada en mi honor, ni conserves para el día siguiente lo que sobre del animal sacrificado en la Pascua.
26 Lleva a la casa del Señor tu Dios las primicias de los frutos de tu tierra. No cuezas el cabrito en la leche de su madre.
27 Después el Señor ordenó a Moisés:
— Pon por escrito todos estos mandatos, porque ellos son las cláusulas de la alianza que yo sello contigo y con los israelitas.
28 Y allí permaneció Moisés con el Señor durante cuarenta días y cuarenta noches, sin comer ni beber. Y escribió sobre las losas las cláusulas de la alianza, es decir, las Diez Palabras.
El rostro radiante de Moisés
29 Al bajar Moisés del monte Sinaí, traía consigo las dos losas del testimonio y no se dio cuenta de que su rostro irradiaba luminosidad porque había hablado con el Señor. 30 Aarón y los israelitas, al ver el rostro radiante de Moisés, temieron acercarse a él. 31 Pero Moisés los llamó y, cuando Aarón y los jefes de la comunidad se le acercaron, conversó con ellos. 32 Se acercaron después a él todos los israelitas, y Moisés les comunicó las órdenes que el Señor le había dado en el monte Sinaí. 33 Cuando terminó de hablar con ellos, se cubrió la cara con un velo.
34 Cada vez que Moisés se presentaba ante el Señor para hablar con él, se quitaba el velo y permanecía así hasta que salía y comunicaba a los israelitas las órdenes que había recibido del Señor. 35 Los israelitas contemplaban cómo el rostro de Moisés irradiaba luminosidad; luego Moisés volvía a ponerse el velo en el rostro y se lo dejaba puesto hasta que entraba de nuevo a hablar con el Señor.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
La Palabra, (versión hispanoamericana) © 2010 Texto y Edición, Sociedad Bíblica de España