Exodus 34
Open in the reader1Then He-Who-Is said to Drawn-Out, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop.
3No one may go up with you; in fact, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain—not even the flocks or herds may graze in front of the mountain.”
4So Drawn-Out chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as He-Who-Is had commanded him.
5And He-Who-Is descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, He-Who-Is.
6Then He-Who-Is passed in front of Drawn-Out and called out: “He-Who-Is, the He-Who-Is God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
7maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
8Drawn-Out immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped.
9“O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
10And He-Who-Is said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders that have never been done in any nation in all the world. All the people among whom you live will see He-Who-Is’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I am doing with you.
11Observe what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Humbled-Ones, Humbled-One, Son-of-Terror, Open-Country-Dweller, and Trodden-Ones.
12Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
13Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
14For you must not worship any other god, for He-Who-Is, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
15Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you, and you will eat their sacrifices.
16And when you take some of their daughters as brides for your sons, their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.
17You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.
18You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread as I commanded you. For in the month of Abib you came out of Two-Straits.
19The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males among your livestock, whether cattle or sheep.
20You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb; but if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.
21Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.
22And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
23Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord He-Who-Is, the He-Who-Is of Strives-with-God.
24For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before He-Who-Is your God.
25Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to Me along with anything leavened, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.
26Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of He-Who-Is your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27He-Who-Is also said to Drawn-Out, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Strives-with-God.”
28So Drawn-Out was there with He-Who-Is forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
29And when Drawn-Out came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant from speaking with He-Who-Is.
30Aaron and all the children of Strives-with-God looked at Drawn-Out, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him.
31But Drawn-Out called out to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Drawn-Out spoke to them.
32And after this all the children of Strives-with-God came near, and Drawn-Out commanded them to do everything that He-Who-Is had told him on Mount Sinai.
33When Drawn-Out had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34But whenever Drawn-Out went in before He-Who-Is to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the children of Strives-with-God what he had been commanded,
35and the children of Strives-with-God would see that the face of Drawn-Out was radiant. So Drawn-Out would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with He-Who-Is.