Exodus 33–34

Chapter 33

The Journey Resumed

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which ^aI swore to Abraham, ^bIsaac, and ^cJacob, saying, ‘^dTo your ¹descendants I will give it.’

²“I will send ^aan angel before you and ^bI will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.

³“Go up to a land ^aflowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are ^1ban obstinate people, and ^cI might destroy you on the way.”

⁴When the people heard this ¹sad word, ^athey went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.

⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are ^1aan obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I shall do with you.’ ”

⁶So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take ^athe tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And ^beveryone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

⁸And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.

⁹Whenever Moses entered the tent, ^athe pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; ^band ¹the Lord would speak with Moses.

¹⁰When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent.

¹¹Thus ^athe Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When ¹Moses returned to the camp, ^bhis servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses Intercedes

¹²Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘^aBring up this people!’ But You Yourself have not let me know ^bwhom You will send with me. ^cMoreover, You have said, ‘I have known you by name, and you have also found favor in My sight.’

¹³“Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, ^alet me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight. ^bConsider too, that this nation is Your people.”

¹⁴And He said, “^aMy presence shall go with you, and ^bI will give you rest.”

¹⁵Then he said to Him, “^aIf Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here.

¹⁶“For how then can it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not by Your going with us, so that ^awe, I and Your people, may be distinguished from all the other people who are upon the face of the ¹earth?”

¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; ^afor you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name.”

^18aThen ¹Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!”

¹⁹And He said, “^aI Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and ^bI will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”

²⁰But He said, “You cannot see My face, ^afor no man can see Me and live!”

²¹Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place ¹by Me, and ^ayou shall stand there on the rock;

²²and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and ^acover you with My hand until I have passed by.

²³“Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but ^aMy face shall not be seen.”

Chapter 34

The Two Tablets Replaced

¹Now the Lord said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself ^atwo stone tablets like the former ones, and ^bI will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered.

²“So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to ^aMount Sinai, and ¹present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain.

³“^aNo man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen ¹anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.”

⁴So he cut out ^atwo stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand.

^5aThe Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as ¹he called upon the name of the Lord.

⁶Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, ^acompassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and ¹truth;

⁷who ^akeeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He ^bwill by no means leave the guilty unpunished, ^cvisiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

⁸Moses made haste ^1ato bow low toward the earth and worship.

⁹He said, “^aIf now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though ^1bthe people are so obstinate, and ^cpardon our iniquity and our sin, and ^dtake us as Your own ²possession.”

The Covenant Renewed

¹⁰Then ¹God said, “Behold, ^aI am going to make a covenant. Before all your people ^bI will perform miracles which have not been ²produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people ³among whom you live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.

¹¹“¹Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, ^aI am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.

¹²“^aWatch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.

¹³“^aBut rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their ^1bAsherim

¹⁴—for ^ayou shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God—

¹⁵otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and ^asacrifice to their gods, and someone ^bmight invite you ¹to eat of his sacrifice,

¹⁶and ^ayou might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

¹⁷“^aYou shall make for yourself no molten gods.

¹⁸“You shall observe ^athe Feast of Unleavened Bread. For ^bseven days you are to eat unleavened bread, ¹as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ^cmonth of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹“^aThe first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from ¹cattle and sheep.

²⁰“^aYou shall redeem with a lamb the ¹first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem ^ball the firstborn of your sons. ^2cNone shall appear before Me empty-handed.

²¹“You shall work ^asix days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest.

²²“You shall celebrate ^athe Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

²³“^aThree times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord ¹God, the God of Israel.

²⁴“For I will ^1adrive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

²⁵“^aYou shall not ¹offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, ^bnor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to ²be left over until morning.

²⁶“You shall bring ^athe very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.

“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷Then the Lord said to Moses, “^aWrite ¹down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made ^ba covenant with you and with Israel.”

²⁸So he was there with the Lord ^aforty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And ^1bhe wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, ^cthe Ten ²Commandments.

Moses’ Face Shines

²⁹It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the ^atwo tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that ^bthe skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.

³⁰So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and ^athey were afraid to come near him.

³¹Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.

³²Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the Lord had spoken ¹to him on Mount Sinai.

³³When Moses had finished speaking with them, ^ahe put a veil over his face.

³⁴But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, ^ahe would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,

^35athe sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.