The New Stone Tablets
Exodus 34YHWH said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one is to come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as YHWH had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. YHWH descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of YHWH. YHWH passed by before him, and proclaimed, “YHWH! YHWH, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us, even though this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
The Covenant Renewed
He said, “Look, I am making a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you will see the work of YHWH; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you. Observe that which I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Be careful, that you not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, or it will be a snare among you; but y’all must break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and y’all must cut down their Asherah poles. For you must not worship any other god, becuase YHWH, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
“Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.
“You must not make images of gods.
“You must keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
“The firstborn that opens the womb is mine, including all your male livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. You are to redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you will not redeem it, then you must break its neck. You are to redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one is to appear before me empty.
“You are to work for six days, but on the seventh day you are to rest: in plowing time and in harvest you must rest.
“You are to observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end. Three times in the year all your males must appear before Lord YHWH, the God of Israel. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man desire your land when you go up to appear before YHWH, your God, three times in the year.
“You must not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover must not be left to the morning.
“You must bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of YHWH your God.
“You are not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
YHWH said to Moses, “Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
He was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
The Radiant Face of Moses
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with ʜɪᴍ. When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him. Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that YHWH had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before YHWH to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. The children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; so Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.