New Stone Tablets
1The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.34:1 Ex 32:19; 34:28; Dt 10:2,4
2Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me on the mountaintop.
3No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”34:2–3 Ex 19:12–13,20–21
4Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him.
6The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord — the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth,34:6 Nm 14:18; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 103:8; 108:4; Jl 2:13; Rm 2:4
7maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.34:7 Ex 20:6; Ps 103:3; 130:4; Dn 9:9; 1Jn 1:9 But he will not leave the guilty34:7 Jos 24:19; Jb 10:14; Nah 1:3 unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
8Moses immediately knelt low on the ground and worshiped.
9Then he said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.”34:9 Ex 33:15–16; Ps 33:12; 94:14
Covenant Obligations
10And the Lord responded, “Look, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done34:10 Lit created in the whole earth or in any nation. All the people you live among will see the Lord’s work, for what I am doing with you is awe-inspiring.34:10 Dt 4:32; 5:2; Ps 77:14; 145:6
11Observe what I command you today. I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hethites, Perizzites, Hivites,34:11 DSS, Sam, LXX add Girgashites and Jebusites.
12Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you.34:11–12 Ex 23:32–33; 33:2
13Instead, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and chop down their Asherah poles.34:13 Ex 23:24; Dt 12:3; 2Kg 18:4; 2Ch 34:3–4
22“Observe the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering34:22 The Festival of Ingathering is called Festival of Shelters elsewhere; Lv 23:34–36. at the turn of the agricultural year.
“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
Moses’s Radiant Face
29As Moses descended from Mount Sinai — with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain — he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord.34:29 Lit with him34:29 Ex 32:15
30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone!34:30 Ps 34:5; Mt 17:2; 2Co 3:7,13 They were afraid to come near him.
31But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.
32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai.
33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,34:34 Ex 24:3; 2Co 3:13–16
35and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face34:35 Lit see Moses’s face, that the skin of his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.
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