Exodus 33:1–34:35

¹And Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, ‘Go, ascend from this place, thou and the people, whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To thy seed I give it,’ ²(and I have sent before thee a messenger, and have cast out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,) ³unto a land flowing with milk and honey, for I do not go up in thy midst, for thou art a stiff-necked people—lest I consume thee in the way.’ ⁴And the people hear this sad thing, and mourn; and none put his ornaments on him. ⁵And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Say unto the sons of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people; one moment—I come up into thy midst, and have consumed thee; and now, put down thine ornaments from off thee, and I know what I do to thee;’ ⁶and the sons of Israel take off their ornaments at mount Horeb.

⁷And Moses taketh the tent, and hath stretched it out at the outside of the camp, afar off from the camp, and hath called it, ‘Tent of Meeting;’ and it hath come to pass, every one seeking Jehovah goeth out unto the tent of meeting, which is at the outside of the camp. ⁸And it hath come to pass, at the going out of Moses unto the tent, all the people rise, and have stood, each at the opening of his tent, and have looked expectingly after Moses, until his going into the tent. ⁹And it hath come to pass, at the going in of Moses to the tent, the pillar of the cloud cometh down, and hath stood at the opening of the tent, and He hath spoken with Moses; ¹⁰and all the people have seen the pillar of the cloud standing at the opening of the tent, and all the people have risen and bowed themselves, each at the opening of his tent. ¹¹And Jehovah hath spoken unto Moses face unto face, as a man speaketh unto his friend; and he hath turned back unto the camp, and his minister Joshua, son of Nun, a youth, departeth not out of the tent.

¹²And Moses saith unto Jehovah, ‘See, Thou art saying unto me, Bring up this people, and Thou hast not caused me to know whom Thou dost send with me; and Thou hast said, I have known thee by name, and also thou hast found grace in Mine eyes.

¹³‘And now, if, I pray Thee, I have found grace in Thine eyes, cause me to know, I pray Thee, Thy way, and I know Thee, so that I find grace in Thine eyes, and consider that this nation is Thy people;’ ¹⁴and He saith, ‘My presence doth go, and I have given rest to thee.’ ¹⁵And he saith unto Him, ‘If Thy presence is not going—take us not up from this place; ¹⁶and in what is it known now, that I have found grace in Thine eyes—I and Thy people—is it not in Thy going with us? and we have been distinguished—I and Thy people—from all the people who are on the face of the ground.’ ¹⁷And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Even this thing which thou hast spoken I do; for thou hast found grace in Mine eyes, and I know thee by name.’ ¹⁸And he saith, ‘Shew me, I pray Thee, Thine honour;’ ¹⁹and He saith, ‘I cause all My goodness to pass before thy face, and have called concerning the Name of Jehovah before thee, and favoured him whom I favour, and loved him whom I love.’ ²⁰He saith also, ‘Thou art unable to see My face, for man doth not see Me, and live;’ ²¹Jehovah also saith, ‘Lo, a place is by Me, and thou hast stood on the rock, ²²and it hath come to pass, in the passing by of Mine honour, that I have set thee in a cleft of the rock, and spread out My hands over thee, until My passing by, ²³and I have turned aside My hands, and thou hast seen My back parts, and My face is not seen.’

Chapter 34

¹And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Hew for thyself two tables of stone like the first, and I have written on the tables the words which were on the first tables which thou hast broken; ²and be prepared at morning, and thou hast come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and hast stood before Me there, on the top of the mount, ³and no man cometh up with thee, and also no man is seen in all the mount, also the flock and the herd do not feed over-against that mount.’ ⁴And he heweth two tables of stone like the first, and Moses riseth early in the morning, and goeth up unto mount Sinai, as Jehovah commanded him, and he taketh in his hand two tables of stone.

⁵And Jehovah cometh down in a cloud, and stationeth Himself with him there, and calleth in the Name of Jehovah, ⁶and Jehovah passeth over before his face, and calleth: ‘Jehovah, Jehovah God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness and truth, ⁷keeping kindness for thousands, taking away iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on children, and on children’s children, on a third generation, and on a fourth.’ ⁸And Moses hasteth, and boweth to the earth, and doth obeisance, ⁹and saith, ‘If, I pray Thee, I have found grace in Thine eyes, O my Lord, let my Lord, I pray Thee, go in our midst (for it is a stiff-necked people), and thou hast forgiven our iniquity and our sin, and hast inherited us.’

¹⁰And He saith, ‘Lo, I am making a covenant: before all thy people I do wonders, which have not been done in all the earth, or in any nation, and all the people in whose midst thou art have seen the work of Jehovah, for it is fearful that which I am doing with thee.

¹¹‘Observe for thyself that which I am commanding thee to-day: lo, I am casting out from before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite; ¹²take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land into which thou art going, lest it become a snare in thy midst; ¹³for their altars ye break down, and their standing pillars ye shiver, and its shrines ye cut down; ¹⁴for ye do not bow yourselves to another god—for Jehovah, whose name is Zealous, is a zealous God.

¹⁵‘Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, and they have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have sacrificed to their gods, and one hath called to thee, and thou hast eaten of his sacrifice, ¹⁶and thou hast taken of their daughters to thy sons, and their daughters have gone a-whoring after their gods, and have caused thy sons to go a-whoring after their gods; ¹⁷a molten god thou dost not make to thyself.

¹⁸‘The feast of unleavened things thou dost keep; seven days thou dost eat unleavened things, as I have commanded thee, at an appointed time, the month of Abib: for in the month of Abib thou didst come out from Egypt.

¹⁹‘All opening a womb are Mine, and every firstling of thy cattle born a male, ox or sheep; ²⁰and the firstling of an ass thou dost ransom with a lamb; and if thou dost not ransom, then thou hast beheaded it; every first-born of thy sons thou dost ransom, and they do not appear before Me empty.

²¹‘Six days thou dost work, and on the seventh day thou dost rest; in ploughing-time and in harvest thou dost rest.

²²‘And a feast of weeks thou dost observe for thyself; first-fruits of wheat-harvest; and the feast of in-gathering, at the revolution of the year.

²³‘Three times in a year do all thy males appear before the Lord Jehovah, God of Israel; ²⁴for I dispossess nations from before thee, and have enlarged thy border, and no man doth desire thy land in thy going up to appear before Jehovah thy God three times in a year.

²⁵‘Thou dost not slaughter with a fermented thing the blood of My sacrifice; and the sacrifice of the feast of the passover doth not remain till morning: ²⁶the first of the first-fruits of the land thou dost bring into the house of Jehovah thy God; thou dost not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.’ ²⁷And Jehovah saith unto Moses, ‘Write for thyself these words, for, according to the tenor of these words I have made with thee a covenant, and with Israel.’

²⁸And he is there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; bread he hath not eaten, and water he hath not drunk; and he writeth on the tables the matters of the covenant—the ten matters. ²⁹And it cometh to pass, when Moses is coming down from mount Sinai (and the two tables of the testimony are in the hand of Moses in his coming down from the mount), that Moses hath not known that the skin of his face hath shone in His speaking with him, ³⁰and Aaron seeth—all the sons of Israel also—Moses, and lo, the skin of his face hath shone, and they are afraid of coming nigh unto him. ³¹And Moses calleth unto them, and Aaron and all the princes in the company return unto him, and Moses speaketh unto them; ³²and afterwards have all the sons of Israel come nigh, and he chargeth them with all that Jehovah hath spoken with him in mount Sinai. ³³And Moses finisheth speaking with them, and putteth on his face a vail; ³⁴and in the going in of Moses before Jehovah to speak with Him, he turneth aside the vail until his coming out; and he hath come out and hath spoken unto the sons of Israel that which he is commanded; ³⁵and the sons of Israel have seen the face of Moses that the skin of the face of Moses hath shone, and Moses hath put back the vail on his face until his going in to speak with Him.

Chapter 35