Exodus 33:1–34:35

The Command to Leave Sinai

33Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you ^aand the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ^b‘To your descendants I will give it.’ ^2cAnd I will send My Angel before you, ^dand I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ³Go up ^eto a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest ^fI ¹consume you on the way, for you are a ^gstiff-necked ²people.”

⁴And when the people heard this bad news, ^hthey mourned, ⁱand no one put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ³ornaments, that I may ^jknow what to do to you.’ ” ⁶So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.

Moses Meets with the Lord

⁷Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and ^kcalled it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who ^lsought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. ⁸So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood ^mat his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. ⁹And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord ⁿtalked with Moses. ¹⁰All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and ^oworshiped, each man in his tent door. ¹¹So ^pthe Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but ^qhis servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.

The Promise of God’s Presence

¹²Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^rYou say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ^s‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, I pray, ^tif I have found grace in Your sight, ^ushow me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is ^vYour people.”

¹⁴And He said, ^w“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you ^xrest.”

¹⁵Then he said to Him, ^y“If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, ^zexcept You go with us? So we ^ashall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

¹⁷So the Lord said to Moses, ^b“I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸And he said, “Please, show me ^cYour glory.”

¹⁹Then He said, “I will make all My ^dgoodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. ^eI will be gracious to whom I will be ^fgracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” ²⁰But He said, “You cannot see My face; for ^gno man shall see Me, and live.” ²¹And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. ²²So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you ^hin the cleft of the rock, and will ⁱcover you with My hand while I pass by. ²³Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall ^jnot be seen.”

Moses Makes New Tablets

34And the Lord said to Moses, ^a“Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and ^bI will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. ²So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there ^con the top of the mountain. ³And no man shall ^dcome up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”

⁴So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

⁵Now the Lord descended in the ^ecloud and stood with him there, and ^fproclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord ^gGod, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in ^hgoodness and ⁱtruth, ^7jkeeping mercy for thousands, ^kforgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, ^lby no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”

⁸So Moses made haste and ^mbowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. ⁹Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, ⁿlet my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a ^ostiff-necked ¹people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as ^pYour inheritance.”

The Covenant Renewed

¹⁰And He said: “Behold, ^qI make a covenant. Before all your people I will ^rdo ²marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord. For it is ^san awesome thing that I will do with you. ^11tObserve what I command you this day. Behold, ^uI am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ^12vTake heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. ¹³But you shall ^wdestroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and ^xcut down their wooden images ¹⁴(for you shall worship ^yno other god, for the Lord, whose ^zname is Jealous, is a ^ajealous God), ¹⁵lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they ^bplay the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them ^cinvites you and you ^deat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶and you take of ^ehis daughters for your sons, and his daughters ^fplay the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.

^17g“You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.

¹⁸“The Feast of ^hUnleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the ⁱmonth of Abib you came out from Egypt.

^19j“All ³that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. ²⁰But ^kthe firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.

“And none shall appear before Me ^lempty-handed.

^21m“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

²²“And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.

²³ⁿ“Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. ²⁴For I will ^ocast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.

²⁵“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, ^pnor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.

^26q“The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to 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, “Write ^rthese words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” ^28sSo he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And ^tHe wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ⁴Ten Commandments.

The Shining Face of Moses

²⁹Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the ^utwo tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that ^vthe skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. ³⁰So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. ³²Afterward all the children of Israel came near, ^wand he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. ³³And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put ^xa veil on his face. ³⁴But ^ywhenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. ³⁵And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.