1Yahweh said to Moses, “Cut two slabs of stone like the first, and I will write on the slabs the words that were on the former slabs that you broke.
2Be ready in the morning and come up to Mount Sinai and wait for me on the top of the mountain. 3No one will go up with you and no one is to be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the sheep and the cattle are not to graze near the mountain.”
4So Moses cut two slabs of stone like the first. Then he rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai as Yahweh had commanded, taking in his hands the two slabs of stone.
5And Yahweh came down in a cloud and stood there with him, and Moses called on the name of Yahweh.
6Then Yahweh passed in front of him and cried out, “Yahweh, Yahweh is a God full of pity and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in truth and loving-kindness. 7He shows loving-kindness to the thousandth generation and forgives wickedness, rebellion and sin; yet he does not leave the guilty without punishment, even punishing the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
8Moses hastened to bow down to the ground and worshiped. 9He then said, “If you really look kindly on me, my Lord, please come and walk in our midst and even though we are a stiff-necked people, pardon our wickedness and our sin and make us yours.”
The law of the Covenant
10 ① Yahweh said, “I am making a covenant with you; in the presence of all the people I will do marvels never yet done in any land or nation so that all the people among whom you live may see how awesome is the work of Yahweh that I will do for you.
11Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. 12Take care to make no treaty with the inhabitants of the country you enter, lest it be a snare for you. 13Rather shall you knock down their altars and smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.
14Do not worship another god, for Yahweh whose name is jealous, is a jealous God! 15So make no treaty with those who live in the land, for they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them; otherwise they will invite you and you will eat of their sacrifices. 16Then you will take their daughters for your sons and as those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.
17Make no molten gods for yourself.
18Keep the feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread, for that was the month you went out of Egypt.
19All that first opens the womb is mine and every firstborn male of your livestock, sheep and cattle. 20You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you do not redeem it you must break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you shall redeem; and no one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21You shall work for six days and rest on the seventh day; even at the time of plowing and harvesting you shall rest.
22Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest and the Feast of Ingathering at the turning of the year. 23Three times each year all your men shall appear before Yahweh, God of Israel. 24I will drive out nations before you and extend your boundaries. No one shall covet your country when you go up three times each year to appear before Yahweh, your God.
25Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me together with leavened bread and do not let anything from the Passover Feast remain until morning.
26Bring the very best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of Yahweh, your God.
Do not boil a kid in the milk of its mother.”
27Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Write down these words, for these are the requirements of the covenant that I have made with you and with Israel.”
28Moses remained there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the slabs the words of the Covenant — the Ten Commandments.
Moses comes down from the mountain
29 ② When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two slabs of the Statement in his hands, he was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant after speaking with Yahweh.
30Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw that Moses’ face was radiant and they were afraid to go near him. 31But Moses called them, and Aaron with all the leaders of the community drew near, and Moses spoke to them. 32Afterwards all the Israelites came near and he told them all that Yahweh had commanded him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34 ③ Whenever Moses went before Yahweh to speak with him, he took off the veil until he came out again. And when he came out and told them what he had been commanded, 35the Israelites saw that his face was radiant. Moses would then replace the veil over his face until he went again to speak with Yahweh.
The holy tent(2nd part)
- Ex 34,10 Here is another very old text, considered by Israel as one of those which expressed better the demands of God in celebrating the Covenant. In the first generations after Moses, there was not one decalogue, but several groups of commandments put down at varied times and in various places. Each of them was meant to express the requirements of the Covenant and the rules of Moses.The most well known is in chapter 20 but here is found another and more ancient one. While the first, our decalogue, gives priority to justice, these Ten Commandments of chapter 34, about rites and feasts, helped the Israelites keep their religious identity among pagan and foreign people. In the ancient times, at least two accounts of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai were kept. This possibly explains why in the actual text of the Bible, Moses goes up a second time after having broken the slabs of stone. This literary fiction was a way of keeping the two accounts separate of the ascent of Moses as well as the two most important decalogues. Ex 34,29 The skin of his face was radiant after speaking with Yahweh. This exterior sign reveals the profound transformation worked by God in those who openly present themselves before him. This mystery will be clarified in Mark 9:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. Ex 34,34 The continuation of remembrances about the Israelites' life in the desert is in chapters 11-16 and 20-24 of the Book of Numbers.
- Ex 34,10 Here is another very old text, considered by Israel as one of those which expressed better the demands of God in celebrating the Covenant. In the first generations after Moses, there was not one decalogue, but several groups of commandments put down at varied times and in various places. Each of them was meant to express the requirements of the Covenant and the rules of Moses.The most well known is in chapter 20 but here is found another and more ancient one. While the first, our decalogue, gives priority to justice, these Ten Commandments of chapter 34, about rites and feasts, helped the Israelites keep their religious identity among pagan and foreign people. In the ancient times, at least two accounts of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai were kept. This possibly explains why in the actual text of the Bible, Moses goes up a second time after having broken the slabs of stone. This literary fiction was a way of keeping the two accounts separate of the ascent of Moses as well as the two most important decalogues. Ex 34,29 The skin of his face was radiant after speaking with Yahweh. This exterior sign reveals the profound transformation worked by God in those who openly present themselves before him. This mystery will be clarified in Mark 9:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. Ex 34,34 The continuation of remembrances about the Israelites' life in the desert is in chapters 11-16 and 20-24 of the Book of Numbers.
- Ex 34,10 Here is another very old text, considered by Israel as one of those which expressed better the demands of God in celebrating the Covenant. In the first generations after Moses, there was not one decalogue, but several groups of commandments put down at varied times and in various places. Each of them was meant to express the requirements of the Covenant and the rules of Moses.The most well known is in chapter 20 but here is found another and more ancient one. While the first, our decalogue, gives priority to justice, these Ten Commandments of chapter 34, about rites and feasts, helped the Israelites keep their religious identity among pagan and foreign people. In the ancient times, at least two accounts of Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai were kept. This possibly explains why in the actual text of the Bible, Moses goes up a second time after having broken the slabs of stone. This literary fiction was a way of keeping the two accounts separate of the ascent of Moses as well as the two most important decalogues. Ex 34,29 The skin of his face was radiant after speaking with Yahweh. This exterior sign reveals the profound transformation worked by God in those who openly present themselves before him. This mystery will be clarified in Mark 9:2 and 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. Ex 34,34 The continuation of remembrances about the Israelites' life in the desert is in chapters 11-16 and 20-24 of the Book of Numbers.
