New tablets of stone
1Yahweh said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2Be ready by morning, and come up Mount Sinai in the morning; present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain. 3No one may come up with you, and no one is to be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even flocks or herds may graze in front of that mountain.” 4So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he went up Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hands. 5Yahweh came down in the cloud and stood there with him, and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. 6Yahweh passed in front of him and proclaimed, “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7maintaining steadfast love to thousands, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin — yet he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren, to the third and fourth generation.” 8At once Moses bowed to the ground and worshiped. 9He said, “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor in your sight, please go with us. This is indeed a stiff-necked people, but forgive our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”
The covenant renewed
10Yahweh said, “I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will perform wonders never done before in any nation in all the earth. All the people around you will see the work of Yahweh, for what I am about to do with you is a fearsome thing. 11Keep what I command you today. I am driving out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12Be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, or they will become a snare among you. 13Instead, tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their sacred poles, 14for you must not bow down to any other god, since Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. 15Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, or when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. 16And when you take some of their daughters as wives for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same. 17Do not make yourselves gods cast in metal. 18Keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. 19The firstborn of every womb belongs to me, including all your male livestock, the firstborn of cattle and sheep. 20Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all the firstborn among your sons. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. 21Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. 22Keep the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. 23Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. 24For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before Yahweh your God. 25Do not offer the blood of my sacrifice together with anything leavened, and do not let the sacrifice of the Passover festival remain until morning. 26Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of Yahweh your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
The shining face of Moses
27Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words down, for on the basis of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28Moses was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water. And 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 his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face was shining because he had been speaking with Yahweh. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything Yahweh had told him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34But whenever Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out; then he would come out and tell the Israelites what he had been commanded. 35The Israelites would see that the skin of Moses’ face was shining, and Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in again to speak with Yahweh.
