Exodus 34
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me, “Cut two slabs of stone that will be like the first slabs, the ones that you broke. Then I will engrave on them the words that were on the first slabs.
And YHWH says to Moses, “Hew for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I have written on the tablets the words which were on the first tablets which you have broken;
2 Get ready tomorrow morning, and come up to the top of Sinai Mountain again to talk with me there.
and be prepared at morning, and you have come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and have stood before Me there, on the top of the mountain,
3 Do not allow anyone to come up with you. I do not want anyone [else] to be anywhere on the mountain. Do not allow any sheep or cattle to graze (at the base of/near) the mountain.”
and no man comes up with you, and also no man is seen in all the mountain, also the flock and the herd do not feed toward the front of that mountain.”
4 So Moses/I cut two slabs of stone that were like the first ones. He/I arose early the next morning. He/I took the slabs and carried them in his/my hands up to the top of Sinai Mountain, as Yahweh had commanded.
And he hews two tablets of stone like the first, and Moses rises early in the morning, and goes up to Mount Sinai as YHWH commanded him, and takes [the] two tablets of stone in his hand.
5 Then Yahweh descended in the [tall] cloud and stood with Moses/me there. He proclaimed that it was he, Yahweh, [who was going to speak to Moses/me].
And YHWH comes down in a cloud, and stations Himself with him there, and calls in the Name of YHWH,
6 Then Yahweh passed in front of him/me and proclaimed, “I am Yahweh God. I always act mercifully and kindly [toward people]. I do not get angry quickly. I [truly] love [people] and I do what I promise to do for them, without changing.
and YHWH passes over before his face, and calls: “YHWH, YHWH God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness and truth,
7 I love people for thousands of generations. I forgive people for all kinds of sins [TRI]. But I will certainly punish [LIT] those who are guilty. I will punish not only them, but I will punish (their descendants, down to the third and fourth generation/their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren).”
keeping kindness for thousands, taking away iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and not entirely acquitting, charging iniquity of fathers on sons and on sons’ sons, on a third and on a fourth [generation].”
8 Moses/I quickly prostrated himself/myself on the ground and worshiped [Yahweh].
And Moses hurries, and bows to the earth, and pays respect,
9 He/I said, “Yahweh, if you are now pleased with me, I ask that you go with us. These people are very stubborn [IDM], but forgive us for all our sins [DOU], and accept us to be people who belong to you [forever].”
and says, “Now if I have found grace in Your eyes, O my Lord, please let my Lord go in our midst (for it [is] a stiff-necked people), and you have forgiven our iniquity and our sin, and have inherited us.”
10 Yahweh replied, “Note this: I am going to make a solemn agreement [with the Israeli people]. As they are watching, I will perform great miracles. They will be miracles that no one has ever done on the earth in any nation. All the people who are near you will see the great things that I, Yahweh, will do. I will do awesome things for you [all].
And He says, “Behold, I am making a covenant. I do wonders before all your people, which have not been done in all the earth, or in any nation, and all the people in whose midst you [are in] have seen the work of YHWH, for it [is] fearful—that which I am doing with you.
11 [Each Israeli] person must obey what I am commanding you this day. Do not forget that [if you obey me], I will expel the Amor, Canaan, Heth, Periz, Hiv, and Jebus people-groups [from the land]. But be careful that you do not make any [peace] agreements with any of the people who live in the land into which you are going, because if you do that, [you will begin to do the evil things that they do]. It will be [like] falling into a trap.
Observe for yourself that which I am commanding you today. Behold, I am casting out from before you the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite;
take heed to yourself lest you make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst;
13 You must tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down [the poles that they use to worship their female goddess] Asherah.
for you break down their altars, and you shatter their standing pillars, and you cut down its Asherim;
14 You must worship only me, [and] not worship any other god, because I, Yahweh, cannot endure any rivals.
for you do not bow yourselves to another god—for YHWH, whose Name [is] Zealous, is a zealous God.
15 Do not make peace agreements with [any group] that lives in that land. When they worship their gods and offer sacrifices to their gods, and they invite you to join them, do not join them. If [you join them], you will eat the food that they sacrifice to their gods, and [you will not be faithful to me. You will be like people who] commit adultery, [who are not being faithful to their spouses] [MET].
Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitant of the land, and they have gone whoring after their gods, and have sacrificed to their gods, and [one] has called to you, and you have eaten of his sacrifice,
16 If you take some of their women to be wives for your sons, and these women worship their own gods, they will persuade your sons also to worship their gods.
and you have taken of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters have gone whoring after their gods, and have caused your sons to go whoring after their gods;
17 Do not pour melted metal into molds to make statues for you to worship.
you do not make a molten god for yourself.
18 [Each year], during the month [of/named] Abib, celebrate the Festival of Eating Bread Made Without Yeast. [During that festival], for seven days you must not eat bread made with yeast, as I commanded you, because it was in that month that you left Egypt.
You keep the Celebration of Unleavened Things; [for] seven days you eat unleavened things, as I have commanded you, at an appointed time, [in] the month of Abib: for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
19 Your firstborn sons and the firstborn [male] animals of your cattle and sheep [and goats] belong to me.
All opening a womb [are] Mine, and every firstling of your livestock born a male, [whether] ox or sheep;
20 The firstborn of your [male] donkeys [also belong to me]. But you may buy them back by [offering to me] lambs [in their place]. If you do not do that, you must [kill these animals by] breaking their necks. You must also buy back your firstborn sons. You must bring an offering to me [LIT] each time you come to [worship] me.
and you ransom the firstling of a donkey with a lamb; and if you do not ransom, then you have beheaded it; you ransom every firstborn of your sons, and they do not appear before Me empty.
21 [Each week] you may work for six days, but on the seventh day you must rest. [Even] during the times when you plow [the ground] and harvest [your crops], you must rest [on the seventh day].
[For] six days you work, and on the seventh day you rest; in plowing-time and in harvest you rest.
22 [Each year] celebrate the Harvest Festival, when you begin to harvest the first crop of wheat, and also celebrate the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, when you finish harvesting [the grain and fruit].
And you observe [the] Celebration of Weeks for yourself, of [the] first-fruits of wheat-harvest; and the Celebration of Ingathering at the revolution of the year.
23 Three times each year all the men must come to worship me, Yahweh, the God of the Israeli people.
Three times in a year all your males appear before the Lord YHWH, God of Israel;
24 I will expel the people-groups that live in the land [where you will be], and I will cause your territory to become very large. As a result, no group will try to conquer your country if you come to worship me each year during those three festivals.
for I dispossess nations from before you, and have enlarged your border, and no man desires your land in your going up to appear before your God YHWH three times in a year.
25 When you sacrifice an animal [MTY] to me, do not offer with it bread that is made with yeast. And during the Passover Festival, when you sacrifice lambs, do not keep any of the meat until the next morning.
You do not slaughter the blood of My sacrifice with a fermented thing; and the sacrifice of the Celebration of the Passover does not remain until morning.
26 I am Yahweh God. You must bring to my Sacred Tent the first part of the grain that you harvest each year. When you kill a young animal/kid [either a lamb or a calf], do not [prepare to eat it by] boiling it in its mother’s milk.”
You bring the first of the first-fruits of the land into the house of your God YHWH. You do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
27 Yahweh also said to Moses/me, “Write down the words that I have told you. By giving you these commands, I have made a solemn agreement with you and with the [other] Israeli people.”
And YHWH says to Moses, “Write these words for yourself, for I have made a covenant with you and with Israel according to the tenor of these words.”
28 Moses/I was there [on the top of the mountain] with Yahweh for 40 days and nights. During that time he/I did not eat or drink anything [SYN]. He/I engraved on the stone slabs the words of the Ten Commandments, [which were part of Yahweh’s] solemn agreement.
And he is there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; he has not eaten bread, and he has not drunk water; and he writes on the tablets the matters of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.
29 When Moses/I came back down the mountain, carrying in his/my hand the two stone slabs on which were written the Ten Commandments, his/my face was shining because he/I had been talking with Yahweh, but he/I did not know that his/my face was shining.
And it comes to pass, when Moses is coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony [are] in the hand of Moses in his coming down from the mountain), that Moses has not known that the skin of his face has shone in His speaking with him,
30 When Aaron and the [other] Israeli people saw Moses/me, they were amazed/surprised that his/my face was shining. So they were afraid to come near him/me.
and Aaron sees—all the sons of Israel also—Moses, and behold, the skin of his face has shone, and they are afraid of coming near to him.
31 But Moses/I called to them. Then Aaron and the other Israeli leaders came to him/me, and he/I talked with them.
And Moses calls to them, and Aaron and all the princes in the congregation return to him, and Moses speaks to them;
32 Afterwards, all the other Israeli people came near, and he/I told them all the laws that Yahweh had given to him/me on Sinai Mountain.
and afterward all the sons of Israel have come near, and he charges them with all that YHWH has spoken with him in Mount Sinai.
33 When Moses/I finished talking to the people, he/I put a veil over his/my face.
And Moses finishes speaking with them, and puts a veil on his face;
34 But whenever Moses/I entered the Sacred Tent to talk with Yahweh, he/I removed the veil. When he/I came back out, he/I would always tell to the Israeli people everything that Yahweh had commanded him/me [to tell them].
and in the going in of Moses before YHWH to speak with Him, he turns aside the veil until his coming out; and he has come out and has spoken to the sons of Israel that which he is commanded;
35 The Israeli people would see that Moses’/my face was [still] shining. Then he/I would put the veil back on his/my face again until the next time that he/I went into [the Sacred Tent] to talk with Yahweh.
and the sons of Israel have seen the face of Moses, that the skin of the face of Moses has shone, and Moses has put back the veil on his face until his going in to speak with Him.
