Exodus 34 · WEB
The New Stone Tablets and the Proclamation of God's Name
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Yahweh said to Moses, "Cut two stone tablets like the first; and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2Be 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.
3No one shall come up with you, neither let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain. Don't let the flocks or herds feed before that mountain."
4Moses cut two stone tablets like the first. He rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
5Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Yahweh.
6Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, "Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
7keeping 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."
8Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
9He 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; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."
10He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.
11"Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare among you;
13but you shall break down their altars, demolish their pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles.
14For you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
15"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 of them invite you and you eat of his sacrifice;
16and you take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.
17"You shall make no molten gods for yourselves.
18"You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.
19"All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep.
20The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty.
21"Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22You shall observe the feast of weeks, even of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest, at the year's end.
23Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel.
24For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh, your God, three times in the year.
25"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left until the morning.
26"You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."
27Yahweh said to Moses, "Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
28He was there with Yahweh 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.
29When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him.
30When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
31Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
32Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
34But when Moses went in before Yahweh 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.
35The children of Israel saw Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone; and Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
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Summary
Moses cuts new stone tablets and ascends Sinai again. God descends and makes the most comprehensive self-declaration in the Old Testament: "Yahweh, 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." Moses worships and intercedes again. The covenant is renewed with its core commandments. Moses spends forty days on the mountain without food or water. When he descends, his face radiates light from speaking with God — he must cover it with a veil because Israel cannot bear the reflected glory.
Themes
- God's character: the tension of grace and justice held together
- Covenant renewal after catastrophic failure
- The transformative effect of encountering God's presence
- God's jealousy as the expression of exclusive, passionate love
Key verses
- Ex 34:29 — “Moses didn't know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with him.”
- Ex 34:6-7 — “The "thirteen attributes of God" — the fullest divine self-definition in Scripture.”
- Ex 34:9 — “Even though this is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
Context & background
Exodus 34:6-7 — the great self-proclamation of Yahweh — is the most-quoted verse in the entire Old Testament, cited or alluded to in Nehemiah 9:17, Psalm 86:15, Joel 2:13, Jonah 4:2, Micah 7:18, and many other passages. It became the theological bedrock of Israel's understanding of God. The shining of Moses' face became a major theological point for Paul in 2 Corinthians 3: Moses had to veil the fading glory, but in Christ we behold glory with unveiled faces and are transformed from glory to glory. Mount Sinai, where this occurred, is in the Sinai Peninsula of modern Egypt. The covenant renewed here is called a "second Sinai covenant" or the "Ten Words" (Decalogue) in the renewal context.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 — Paul contrasts Moses' veiled, fading glory with the unveiled, increasing glory of new covenant transformation.
- John 1:14 — "Full of grace and truth" — a direct echo of Exodus 34:6 ("loving kindness and truth").
- Jonah 4:2 — Jonah protests that he knew God was "gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great loving kindness" — citing Exodus 34:6 as his reason for running from the Nineveh mission.
- Nehemiah 9:17 — "You are a God who is ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness" — quoting Exodus 34:6-7.