Exodus 34

1Yahweh said to Moses, “Carve out two stone tablets like the earlier ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first ones, which you shattered.

2Have yourself ready by morning. In the morning climb Mount Sinai and stand before me there on the mountaintop.

3Nobody may come up with you, and nobody may be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the sheep and cattle must not graze facing that mountain.”

4So he carved out two stone tablets like the earlier ones, and early in the morning Moses rose and climbed Mount Sinai as Yahweh had commanded him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hand.

5Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood beside him there, and he called out the name of Yahweh.

6Yahweh passed by in front of him and called out, “Yahweh, Yahweh, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in steadfast love and faithfulness,

7who preserves steadfast love for thousands and forgives iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will certainly not acquit the guilty; he calls the children and the grandchildren to account for the iniquity of the fathers, to the third and the fourth generation.”

8Moses at once bent low to the ground and worshiped.

9He said, “If now I have found favor with you, Lord, please let the Lord go along in our midst. This is a stiff-necked people, but pardon our iniquity and our sin, and make us your inheritance.”

10Yahweh said, “Here I am making a covenant. In front of all your people I will perform marvels that have never been brought about anywhere on earth or among any nation. All the people you live among will see the work of Yahweh, for the thing I am doing with you is fearsome.

11Keep what I am commanding you today. See, I am driving out ahead of you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

12Guard yourself against making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land you are entering; it would become a trap in your midst.

13Rather, pull down their altars, shatter their standing stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.

14You must not bow down to another god, because Yahweh’s name is Jealous; he is a jealous God.

15Do not make a covenant with those who inhabit the land; otherwise, when they play the prostitute after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, one of them will invite you, and you will eat some of his sacrifice.

16You will take some of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters will play the prostitute after their gods and cause your sons to play the prostitute after their gods.

17Do not make cast metal gods for yourselves.

18Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the set time in the month of Abib, because it was in the month of Abib that you left Egypt.

19Every firstborn from the womb is mine: every male among your livestock, the firstborn of cattle and of sheep.

20A donkey’s firstborn you must buy back with a lamb; if you do not buy it back, break its neck. Buy back every firstborn of your sons. None may appear before me with empty hands.

21You are to work six days, but on the seventh day you must rest; in plowing time and in harvest time, rest.

22Observe the Festival of Weeks for the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering as the year turns.

23Every male among you is to appear three times a year before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel.

24For I will dispossess nations ahead of you and extend your borders, and no one will set his heart on your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh your God three times a year.

25Do not present the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, and the sacrifice of the Passover festival must not stay overnight until morning.

26Bring the choicest firstfruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words down for yourself, because it is in keeping with these words that I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

28He stayed there with Yahweh for forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water. On the tablets he wrote the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

29As Moses came down from Mount Sinai, carrying the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he descended the mountain, he was unaware that the skin of his face had become radiant because he had been speaking with Yahweh.

30Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses and saw that the skin of his face was radiant, and they were afraid to go near him.

31Moses called them over, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them.

32After that all the Israelites drew near, and he commanded them everything Yahweh had told him on Mount Sinai.

33Once Moses had finished talking with them, he covered his face with a veil.

34Whenever Moses entered Yahweh’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. Then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,

35and they would see that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with Yahweh.