Exodus 34
International Standard Version
The Tablets of the Law Replaced
34 The Lord told Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and I’ll write on the tablets the words which were on the first tablets that you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning on Mount Sinai, where you are to present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come up with you, nor is anyone to be seen anywhere on the mountain. Also, the sheep and cattle are not to graze in front of that mountain.”
4 So Moses[a] carved out two stone tablets like the first ones, got up early in the morning, and climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him. He took with him the two stone tablets. 5 The Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed the name of the Lord.[b] 6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord God,
compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger,
and filled with[c] gracious love and truth.
7 He graciously loves thousands,
and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.
But he does not leave the guilty unpunished,
visiting the iniquity of the ancestors on their children,
and on their children’s children
to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and prostrated himself in worship. 9 He said, “If I’ve found favor in your sight, Lord, please, Lord, walk among us. Certainly this is an obstinate people, but pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your own inheritance.”
The Covenant Promises Repeated
10 Then the Lord said, “I’m now going to make a covenant. I’ll do miraculous deeds in full view of your people that haven’t been done[d] in all the earth or in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, because it’s an awesome thing that I’ll do with you. 11 Obey[e] what I am commanding you today and I’ll drive out from before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
12 “Be very careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, so they won’t be a snare among you. 13 Rather, you are to tear down their altars, you are to smash their sacred pillars, and you are to cut down their sacred poles[f]— 14 indeed, you are not to bow down in worship to any other god, because the Lord’s name is Jealous—he’s a jealous God— 15 Otherwise, you may make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and when they prostitute themselves with their gods and offer sacrifices to their gods, someone may invite you and then you may eat some of their sacrifices.
16 “You are not to take any of their daughters for your sons. Otherwise, when their daughters prostitute themselves with their gods, they may cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods.
17 “You are not to make molten gods for yourselves.
18 “You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days, at the appointed time in the month Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 “Everything firstborn[g] belongs to me: all the males of your herds, the firstborn of both cattle and sheep. 20 You are to redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a sheep, and if you don’t redeem it, you are to break its neck. You are to redeem every firstborn of your sons, and no one is to appear before me empty-handed.
21 “For six days you are to work, but on the seventh day you are to rest; even during plowing time and harvest you are to rest.
22 “You are to observe the Festival of Weeks, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Tabernacles[h] at the turn of the year. 23 Three times during the year all your males are to appear in the presence of the Lord God of Israel, 24 since I’m going to drive out nations before you, and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land, when you go up to appear in the presence of the Lord your God three times a year.
25 “You are not to offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, nor are you to allow the sacrifice of the Festival of Passover to remain until morning.
26 “You are to bring the best[i] of the first fruits of the ground to the house of the Lord your God.
“You are not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Then the Lord told Moses, “Write down these words, because I’m making a covenant with you and with Israel according to these words.”
28 While Moses[j] was there with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights, he did not eat or drink.[k] He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets.
Moses’ Face Shines
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he had the two tablets in his hand,[l] and he did not know that the skin of his face was ablaze with light because he had been speaking with God.[m] 30 Aaron and all the Israelis saw Moses and immediately noticed that the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 When Moses called to them, Aaron and the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterwards all the Israelis came near and he gave them everything the Lord told him on Mount Sinai as commandments. 33 When Moses finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face, 34 and then whenever Moses would come in the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he left the Lord’s presence.[n] When he went out, he would tell the Israelis what he had been commanded. 35 The Israelis would see the face of Moses and that the skin of his face shone; then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with God.[o]
Footnotes
- Exodus 34:4 Lit. He
- Exodus 34:5 Or and he called on the name of the Lord
- Exodus 34:6 Or and abundant in
- Exodus 34:10 Lit. created
- Exodus 34:11 Lit. keep
- Exodus 34:13 Heb. Asherim; wooden symbols of the chief female Canaanite deity
- Exodus 34:19 Lit. Everything that first opens the womb
- Exodus 34:22 Or of Ingathering, or of Tents, or of Thanksgiving
- Exodus 34:26 Or the first
- Exodus 34:28 Lit. he
- Exodus 34:28 Lit. eat bread or drink water
- Exodus 34:29 Lit. hand as he came down from the mountain
- Exodus 34:29 Lit. him
- Exodus 34:34 The Heb. lacks the Lord’s presence
- Exodus 34:35 Lit. him
Exodus 34
Wycliffe Bible
34 And afterward God said, Hew to thee two tables of stone at the likeness of the former, and I shall write on those tables those words, which the tables, that thou brakest, had. (And afterward God said, Cut thou two stone tablets like the first ones, and I shall write on these tablets the same words which the first tablets had, that thou hast broken.)
2 Be thou ready in the morrowtide, that thou go up anon into the hill of Sinai; and thou shalt stand with me on the top of the hill; (Be thou ready in the morning, and come up at once onto Mount Sinai; and thou shalt stand with me on the top of the mountain;)
3 no man go up with thee, neither any man be seen by all the hill; and oxen and sheep be not fed against the hill. (no one shall come up with thee, nor shall anyone be seen on all the mountain; and no oxen or sheep shall be fed near the mountain.)
4 Therefore Moses hewed two tables of stone, (in) which manner the tables were before, and he rose by night, and went up into the hill of Sinai, as the Lord commanded to him; and he bare with him the tables. (And so Moses cut two stone tablets, like the first tablets, and he rose up early, and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord commanded to him; and he carried the tablets with him.)
5 And when the Lord had come down by a cloud, Moses stood with him, and called inwardly the name of the Lord; (And the Lord came down in a cloud, and Moses stood with him, and the Lord proclaimed his own name;)
6 and when the Lord passed before him (yea, when the Lord passed before him), he said, Lordshipper, Lord God, merciful, and pious, patient, and of much mercy doing, and soothfast,
7 which keepest covenant and mercy into thousands, which doest away wickedness, and trespasses, and sins, and no man by himself is innocent with thee, which yieldest the wickedness of fathers to their sons, and to the sons of their sons, into the third and the fourth generation. (who keepest covenant and mercy with thousands of people, who doest away wickedness, and trespasses, and sins, but no one in themselves is innocent with me, and who punishest their sons, and the sons of their sons, to the third and fourth generations, for the wickedness of their fathers.)
8 And hastily Moses was bowed low to [the] earth, and worshipped, (And Moses hastily bowed down low to the ground, and worshipped,)
9 and said, Lord, if I have found grace in thy sight, (then) I beseech thee, that thou go with us, for the people is of hard noll (for the people is hard-headed, or is stubborn); and that thou do away our wickednesses and sins, and wield us.
10 The Lord answered, I shall make (a) covenant, and in (the) sight of all men I shall make signs, that were never seen (before) on [the] earth, neither in any folks (nor in any nation), (so) that this people, in whose midst thou art, see the fearedful work of the Lord, that I shall make (for thee).
11 Keep thou all things, which I command to thee today (Obey thou everything which I command to thee today); I myself shall cast out before thy face (the) Amorites, and Canaanites, and Hittites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites.
12 Beware, lest any time thou join friendships with the dwellers of that land, which friendships (shall) be into falling to thee.
13 But also destroy thou their altars, (and) break the(ir) images, and cut thou down their [maumet] woods;
14 do not thou worship an alien God; a jealous lover is the Lord’s name, God is a fervent lover; (do not thou worship any foreign, or any other, god; for the Lord’s name is Jealous, and he is a jealous God;)
15 make thou not (a) covenant with the men of those countries, lest when they have done fornication, that is, idolatry, with their gods, and have worshipped the simulacra of them, any man call thee (someone call thee), that thou eat (some) of the things offered to an idol.
16 Neither thou shalt take a wife of their daughters to thy sons, lest after those daughters have done fornication, that is, idolatry, they make also thy sons to do fornication into their gods (they also make thy sons to do idolatry with their gods).
17 Thou shalt not make to thee molten gods. (Thou shalt not make gods for thyselves out of melted metal.)
18 Thou shalt keep the solemnity of therf loaves; seven days thou shalt eat therf loaves, as I commanded to thee, in the time of the month of new fruits; for in the month of ver time thou wentest out of Egypt. (Thou shalt keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded to thee, at the time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib thou wentest out of Egypt.)
19 All thing of male kind that (first) openeth the womb shall be mine, of all living beasts, as well of oxen, as of sheep, it shall be mine. (All the males that first openeth the womb shall be mine, yea, of people, and of all living beasts, of oxen, as well as of sheep, they all be mine.)
20 Thou shalt again-buy with a sheep the first engendered of an ass, else if thou givest not [the] price therefore, it shall be slain. Thou shalt again-buy the first begotten of thy sons; neither thou shalt appear void in my sight. (Thou shalt buy back the first-born of a donkey with a sheep, but if thou wilt not buy it back, it shall be killed. Thou shalt buy back the first-born of thy sons; thou shalt not appear empty-handed before me.)
21 Six days thou shalt work, in the seventh day thou shalt cease to ear and to reap. (For six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt cease to plow and to harvest.)
22 Thou shalt make to thee the solemnity of weeks, in the first things of fruits of thy ripe corn of wheat, and the solemnity when all things be gathered into barns, when the time of the year cometh again. (Thou shalt keep the Feast of Weeks, with the first fruits of thy wheat harvest, and also the Feast of Ingathering, when all things be gathered into the barns, when that time of the year cometh again.[a])
23 Each male kind of thee shall appear in three times of the year in the sight of the Lord Almighty, thy God of Israel. (All thy adult males shall appear before the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, three times each year.)
24 For when I shall take away (the) folks from thy face, and I shall alarge thy terms, none shall set treasons to thy land, while thou goest up (when thou goest up), and appearest in the sight of thy Lord God, thrice in the year.
25 Thou shalt not offer on sourdough the blood of my sacrifice, neither anything of the slain sacrifice of the solemnity of pask shall abide unto the morrowtide. (Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything made with yeast, nor shall anything of the slain sacrifice of the Feast of Passover remain until the morning.)
26 (Each year) Thou shalt offer in the house of thy Lord God the first of the fruits of thy land. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in the milk of his mother (Thou shalt not boil a goat-kid in its mother’s milk).
27 And the Lord said to Moses, Write thou (down) these words, by which I smote a bond of peace (by which I make a covenant), both with thee and with Israel.
28 Therefore Moses was there with the Lord by forty days and forty nights, and he ate not bread, and drank not water; and he wrote in [the] tables the ten words of the bond of peace. (And so Moses was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, and he ate no bread, and drank no water; and he wrote on the tablets the Ten Commandments of the covenant.)
29 And when Moses came down from the hill of Sinai, he held in his hand(s) two tables of witnessing, and he wist not that his face was horned with wonderful shining beams, of the fellowship of God’s word. (And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he held in his hands the two tablets of the Witnessing, and he did not know that his face shone with wonderful shining beams, from his time of fellowship and of speaking with the Lord.)
30 Forsooth Aaron and the sons of Israel saw (that) Moses’ face (was) horned, and they dreaded to nigh nigh, (And Aaron and the Israelites saw that Moses’ face shone, and they were afraid to come near,)
31 and they were called of him, and they turned again, as well Aaron as the princes of the synagogue; and after that Moses spake, (but he called to them, and they came over to him, Aaron as well as the leaders of the congregation; and after that Moses had spoken with these men,)
32 they came to him, yea all the sons of Israel; to which he commanded all things, which he had heard of the Lord in the hill of Sinai. (then all the other Israelites came over to him; to whom he commanded all the things, which he had heard from the Lord on Mount Sinai.)
33 And when the words were fulfilled (And when he had finished speaking), he put a veil on his face;
34 and (when) he entered to the Lord, and spake with him, and he did away that veil, till he went out; and then he spake to the sons of Israel all things that were commanded to him; (but when he went in before the Lord, and spoke with him, he did away the veil, until he went out again; and then he would tell the Israelites all the things that were commanded to him;)
35 which saw that the face of Moses going out was horned, but again he covered his face, if any time he spake to them. (and they saw that Moses’ face shone whenever he went out, and so he covered his face any time that he spoke to them.)
Footnotes
- Exodus 34:22 See Exodus 23:16, and footnote #7.
Exodus 34
King James Version
34 And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
2 And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
4 And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
19 All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
23 Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year.
25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
27 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
31 And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
32 And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
33 And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.
34 But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
35 And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
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2001 by Terence P. Noble