Open English Translation EXO Chapter 34

34 Then Yahweh continued speaking to Mosheh, “Carve two slabs of stone for yourself just like the first ones. Then the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, I’ll write them again on the slabs. 2 Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me up on the top. 3 Don’t bring anyone with you, and also don’t let anyone be on the mountain at all—don’t even let their flocks and herds graze at the base of that mountain.” 4 So Mosheh carved out two slabs of stone like the first ones, and he got up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as Yahweh had commanded him, carrying up the two slabs of stone. 5 Then Yahweh came down in the cloud and stood with him there, and he pronounced his name ‘Yahweh’. 6 Yahweh passed over above his face and proclaimed, “I am Yahweh, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to get angry but exuding faithfulness and trustworthiness.[ref] 7 I display faithfulness to thousands of generations—forgiving disobedience, transgression, and sin. But I certainly won’t let the guilty get away with it—visiting the iniquity of the parents onto the children and onto the grandchildren—to the third and the fourth generations.”

8 Mosheh hurried and bowed to the ground and worshipped Yahweh 9 and said, “Please, if I have found favour in your sight, my master, please go with us, because these are stubborn people. And forgive our disobedience and our sin and take us as your inheritance.”

10 Yahweh said, “Listen, I’m about to make an agreement in front of all your people.[fn] I will do miracles that have not been done before anywhere on the earth or in any country of the world. All the people that you’re among will see my work, because what I’m going to do with you is awe-inspiring. 11 Be sure to obey what I’m telling you today. See, I’m about to force the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Yebusites out of the land ahead of you. 12 Be very careful not to make any treaties with any of the current inhabitants of the land that you’re about to enter, in case it ends up trapping you. 13 What you must do instead is to break down their altars and smash their pillars, and cut down the poles used to worship their god Asherah.[ref] 14 You must not bow down to any other god because Yahweh is a jealous God—jealous to protect his name. 15 So don’t make an agreement with the inhabitants of the land, because when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, and then they invite you to join them and you eat some of their sacrifice, 16 then you’ll end up by allowing your sons to marry their daughters who’ll prostitute themselves to their gods, and then your sons will do the same.

17 Don’t make cast metal gods for yourselves.[ref]

18 You must observe the Flat Bread Celebration every year as I instructed you. For seven days you must eat only bread that hasn’t been risen, at the appointed time in late March or early April because that’s when you came out of Egypt.[ref] 19 All of your eldest male offspring belong to me, including your sons and the first males born from your cattle and sheep and goats.[ref] 20 If it’s a male donkey, a lamb can be given as a ransom instead, but if you don’t pay a ransom then you must kill the donkey. It’s compulsory to ransom your eldest sons. Don’t come to worship me without bringing something.[ref]

21 Each week, you should only work for six days, then you must rest on the seventh day—even during ploughing and harvest times.[ref]

22 In the spring when you begin to harvest the first wheat crop, you must have a Celebration of Weeks, and at the end of the year in the autumn, have a Finished Harvest Celebration.[ref]

23 Three times every year, all your men must present themselves before me—Isra’el’s God, the master Yahweh. 24 I will drive out the people groups ahead of you and expand your borders, and no one will think of taking your land when they know that you present yourselves to me three times a year.

25 Don’t wave bread that’s been risen when offering a sacrifice. Don’t allow any part of the sacrifice for the ‘pass-over’ celebration to still be there in the morning.[ref]

26 You must bring the best of the first parts of your harvests to my residence.[ref]

Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

27 Yahweh told Mosheh, “Write down these words for yourself, because it’s in accordance with these words that I’ve made an agreement with you and with Israel.” 28 Mosheh was there with Yahweh for forty days and nights, and during that time he didn’t eat or even drink water, and he wrote the ten commands of the agreement on the stone slabs.

29 So when Mosheh came down from Mt. Sinai, he was carrying the two stone slabs with the transcript of the ten commands, but what he didn’t know as he descended was that the skin on his face was shining after his talking with Yahweh.[ref] 30 When Aharon and the Israelis saw Mosheh, wow, his face radiated light and they were afraid to go close to him. 31 But Mosheh called them over, and Aharon and all of the community leaders returned back to him, and he spoke with them. 32 After that, the Israelis came closer, and Mosheh gave them all the instructions that Yahweh had told him on Mt. Sinai. 33 Then when he’d finished talking to them, Mosheh put a veil over his face, 34 and whenever he would go in to speak with Yahweh, he would remove the veil until he came out. Whenever he did come out, he’d tell the Israelis what he’d been instructed, 35 and they would see how his face shone. Then Mosheh would put the veil back over his face until he went in the next time to speak with Yahweh.