Covenant Stipulations

¹⁰ And he said, “Look, I am about to make a covenant. In front of all your people I will do wonders that have not been created on all the earth and among all the nations, and all the people among whom you are will see Yahweh’s work, because what I am about to do with you will be awesome.

¹¹ “Keep for yourself what I myself have commanded you today. Look, I am about to drive from before you the Amorites and the Canaanites^[a] and the Hittites^[b] and the Perizzites^[c] and the Hivites^[d] and the Jebusites.^{[e] 12} Be careful for yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest it be a snare among you. ¹³ Rather, you will tear down their altars, and you will break their stone pillars, and you will cut off their Asherah poles. ¹⁴ For you will not bow in worship to another god, for ‘Yahweh Is Jealous’ is his name, he is a jealous God, ¹⁵ lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves after their gods, and they sacrifice to their gods, and they invite you, and you eat their sacrifice, ¹⁶ and you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves after their gods, and they cause your sons to prostitute themselves after their gods. ¹⁷ You will not make gods of cast metal for yourself.

¹⁸ “You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. ¹⁹ Every first offspring of a womb is for me—all of your male livestock, the first offspring of cattle and small livestock. ²⁰ But the first offspring of a donkey you will redeem with small livestock, and if you will not redeem it, you will break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you will redeem, and you will not appear before me empty-handed. ²¹ Six days you will work, and on the seventh day you will rest; in the time of plowing and in the time of harvest you will rest. ²² And you yourself^[f] will observe the Feast of Weeks—the firstfruits of the wheat harvest—and the Feast of Harvest Gathering at the turn of the year. ²³ Three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, ²⁴ because I will evict nations before you, and I will enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh your God three times in the year.

²⁵ “You will not slaughter the blood of my sacrifice on food with yeast, and the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover will not stay overnight to the morning. ²⁶ The beginning of the firstfruits of your land you will bring to the house of Yahweh your God. You will not boil a young goat^[g] in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ And Yahweh said to Moses, “Write for yourself these words, because according to^[h] these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

The Shining Face of Moses

²⁸ And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights. He ate no food and drank no water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.