Exodus 34:10-28
New English Translation
10 He said, “See, I am going to make[a] a covenant before all your people. I will do wonders such as have not been done[b] in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am doing with you.[c]
11 “Obey[d] what I am commanding you this day. I am going to drive out[e] before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12 Be careful not to make[f] a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it become a snare[g] among you. 13 Rather you must destroy their altars, smash their images, and cut down their Asherah poles.[h] 14 For you must not worship[i] any other god,[j] for the Lord, whose name[k] is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15 Be careful[l] not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when[m] they prostitute themselves[n] to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you,[o] you will eat from his sacrifice; 16 and you then take[p] his daughters for your sons, and when his daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods as well. 17 You must not make yourselves molten gods.
18 “You must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days[q] you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you; do this[r] at the appointed time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 “Every firstborn of the womb[s] belongs to me, even every firstborn[t] of your cattle that is a male,[u] whether ox or sheep. 20 Now the firstling[v] of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then break its neck.[w] You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons.
“No one will appear before me empty-handed.[x]
21 “On six days[y] you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest;[z] even at the time of plowing and of harvest[aa] you are to rest.[ab]
22 “You must observe[ac] the Feast of Weeks—the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat—and the Feast of Ingathering at the end[ad] of the year. 23 At three times[ae] in the year all your men[af] must appear before the Sovereign Lord,[ag] the God of Israel. 24 For I will drive out[ah] the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one will covet[ai] your land when you go up[aj] to appear before the Lord your God three times[ak] in the year.
25 “You must not offer the blood of my sacrifice with yeast; the sacrifice from the Feast of Passover must not remain until the following morning.[al]
26 “The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the Lord your God.
“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”[am]
27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down[an] these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights;[ao] he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.[ap]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 34:10 tn Here again is a use of the futur instans participle; the deictic particle plus the pronoun precedes the participle, showing what is about to happen.
- Exodus 34:10 tn The verb here is בָּרָא (baraʾ, “to create”). The choice of this verb is to stress that these wonders would be supernaturally performed, for the verb is used only with God as the subject.
- Exodus 34:10 sn The idea is that God will be doing awesome things in dealing with them, i.e., to fulfill his program.
- Exodus 34:11 tn The covenant duties begin with this command to “keep well” what is being commanded. The Hebrew expression is “keep for you”; the preposition and the suffix form the ethical dative, adding strength to the imperative.
- Exodus 34:11 tn Again, this is the futur instans use of the participle.
- Exodus 34:12 tn The exact expression is “take heed to yourself lest you make.” It is the second use of this verb in the duties, now in the Niphal stem. To take heed to yourself means to watch yourself, be sure not to do something. Here, if they failed to do this, they would end up making entangling treaties.
- Exodus 34:12 sn A snare would be a trap, an allurement to ruin. See Exod 23:33.
- Exodus 34:13 tn Or “images of Asherah”; ASV, NASB “their Asherim”; NCV “their Asherah idols.”sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4).
- Exodus 34:14 tn Heb “bow down.”
- Exodus 34:14 sn In Exod 20:3 it was “gods.”
- Exodus 34:14 sn Here, too, the emphasis on God’s being a jealous God is repeated (see Exod 20:5). The use of “name” here is to stress that this is his nature, his character.
- Exodus 34:15 tn The sentence begins simply “lest you make a covenant”; it is undoubtedly a continuation of the imperative introduced earlier, and so that is supplied here.
- Exodus 34:15 tn The verb is a perfect with a vav consecutive. In the literal form of the sentence, this clause tells what might happen if the people made a covenant with the inhabitants of the land: “Take heed…lest you make a covenant…and then they prostitute themselves…and sacrifice…and invite…and you eat.” The sequence lays out an entire scenario.
- Exodus 34:15 tn The verb זָנָה (zanah) means “to play the prostitute; to commit whoredom; to be a harlot” or something similar. It is used here and elsewhere in the Bible for departing from pure religion and engaging in pagan religion. The use of the word in this figurative sense is fitting, because the relationship between God and his people is pictured as a marriage, and to be unfaithful to it was a sin. This is also why God is described as a “jealous” or “impassioned” God. The figure may not be merely a metaphorical use, but perhaps a metonymy, since there actually was sexual immorality at the Canaanite altars and poles.
- Exodus 34:15 tn There is no subject for the verb. It could be rendered “and one invites you,” or it could be made a passive.
- Exodus 34:16 tn In the construction this verb would follow as a possible outcome of the last event, and so remain in the verbal sequence. If the people participate in the festivals of the land, then they will intermarry, and that could lead to further involvement with idolatry.
- Exodus 34:18 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
- Exodus 34:18 tn The words “do this” have been supplied.
- Exodus 34:19 tn Heb “everything that opens the womb.”
- Exodus 34:19 tn Here too: everything that “opens [the womb].”
- Exodus 34:19 tn The verb basically means “that drops a male.” The verb is feminine, referring to the cattle.
- Exodus 34:20 tn Heb “and the one that opens [the womb of] the donkey.”
- Exodus 34:20 sn See G. Brin, “The Firstling of Unclean Animals,” JQR 68 (1971): 1-15.
- Exodus 34:20 tn The form is the adverb “empty.”
- Exodus 34:21 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
- Exodus 34:21 tn Or “cease” (i.e., from the labors).
- Exodus 34:21 sn See M. Dahood, “Vocative lamed in Exodus 2, 4 and Merismus in 34, 21, ” Bib 62 (1981): 413-15.
- Exodus 34:21 tn The imperfect tense expresses injunction or instruction.
- Exodus 34:22 tn The imperfect tense means “you will do”; it is followed by the preposition with a suffix to express the ethical dative to stress the subject.
- Exodus 34:22 tn The expression is “the turn of the year,” which is parallel to “the going out of the year,” and means the end of the agricultural season.
- Exodus 34:23 tn “Three times” is an adverbial accusative.
- Exodus 34:23 tn Heb “all your males.”
- Exodus 34:23 tn Here the divine name reads in Hebrew הָאָדֹן יְהוָה (haʾadon yehvah), which if rendered according to the traditional scheme of “Lord” for “Yahweh” would result in “Lord Lord.” A number of English versions render this phrase “Lord God.” sn The title “Lord” translated as Sovereign is included here before the divine name (translated “Lord” here), perhaps to form a contrast with Baal (which means “lord” as well) and to show the sovereignty of Yahweh. But the distinct designation “the God of Israel” is certainly the point of the renewed covenant relationship.
- Exodus 34:24 tn The verb is a Hiphil imperfect of יָרַשׁ (yarash), which means “to possess.” In the causative stem it can mean “dispossess” or “drive out.”
- Exodus 34:24 sn The verb “covet” means more than desire; it means that some action will be taken to try to acquire the land that is being coveted. It is one thing to envy someone for their land; it is another to be consumed by the desire that stops at nothing to get it (it, not something like it).
- Exodus 34:24 tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with a preposition and a suffixed subject to form the temporal clause.
- Exodus 34:24 tn The expression “three times” is an adverbial accusative of time.
- Exodus 34:25 sn See M. Haran, “The Passover Sacrifice,” Studies in the Religion of Ancient Israel (VTSup), 86-116.
- Exodus 34:26 sn See the note on this same command in 23:19.
- Exodus 34:27 tn Once again the preposition with the suffix follows the imperative, adding some emphasis to the subject of the verb.
- Exodus 34:28 tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.
- Exodus 34:28 tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.
Exodus 34:10-28
World English Bible
10 He said, “Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you. 11 Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 12 Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you; 13 but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles; 14 for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
15 “Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; 16 and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.
17 “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
18 “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
19 “All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before me empty.
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22 “You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end. 23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. 24 For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh, your God, three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning.
26 “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God.
“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
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