New Stone Tablets
1. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
2. Be prepared by morning, and in the morning come up Mount Sinai to present yourself there to Me on the mountaintop.
3. No one may go up with you; indeed, no one should be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds must not graze in front of that mountain.”
4. So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and he went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took the two stone tablets in his hand.
5. Then the LORD came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD.
6. And the LORD passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,
7. maintaining 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.”
8. Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped.
9. “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord,” he said, “let my Lord go with us, I beg. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
The LORD Renews the Covenant
10. And the LORD 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 the LORD’s work, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
11. Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
12. Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
13. Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.
14. You must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
15. Do 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.
16. Then you will take some of their daughters as wives for your sons, and their daughters will prostitute themselves to their gods and cause your sons to do the same.
17. You must not make any molten gods for yourselves.
18. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
19. The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether cattle or sheep.
20. You shall 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.
21. Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing and harvesting seasons, you must rest.
22. You are also to observe the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
23. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
24. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.
25. You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor shall the sacrifice of the Passover Feast remain until morning.
26. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28. So Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
29. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was unaware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.
30. And when Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face was radiant, and they were afraid to approach him.
31. But Moses called out to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.
32. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.
33. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,
35. and they would see that the face of Moses was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD again.