The Second Set of Stone Tablets
1The LORD said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2Be ready tomorrow morning, and come up Mount Sinai to meet me there at the top. 3No one is to come up with you; no one is to be seen on any part of the mountain; and no sheep or cattle are to graze at the foot of the mountain.” 4So Moses cut two more stone tablets, and early the next morning he carried them up Mount Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded.
5The LORD came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and pronounced his holy name, the LORD. 6The LORD then passed in front of him and called out, “I, the LORD, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness. 7I keep my promise for thousands of generations and forgive evil and sin; but I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.”
8Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshipped. 9He said, “Lord, if you really are pleased with me, I ask you to go with us. These people are stubborn, but forgive our evil and our sin, and accept us as your own people.”
The Covenant is Renewed
10The LORD said to Moses, “I now make a covenant with the people of Israel. In their presence I will do great things such as have never been done anywhere on earth among any of the nations. All the people will see what great things I, the LORD, can do, because I am going to do an awesome thing for you. 11Obey the laws that I am giving you today. I will drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as you advance. 12Do not make any treaties with the people of the country into which you are going, because this could be a fatal trap for you. 13Instead, tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down the symbols of their goddess Asherah.
14“Do not worship any other god, because I, the LORD, tolerate no rivals. 15Do not make any treaties with the people of the country, because when they worship their pagan gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you to join them, and you will be tempted to eat the food they offer to their gods. 16Your sons might marry those foreign women, who would lead them to be unfaithful to me and to worship their pagan gods.
17“Do not make and worship gods of metal.
18“Keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I have commanded you, eat unleavened bread for seven days in the month of Abib, because it was in that month that you left Egypt.
19“Every firstborn son and firstborn male domestic animal belongs to me, 20but you are to buy back every firstborn donkey by offering a lamb in its place. If you do not buy it back, break its neck. Buy back every firstborn son.
“No one is to appear before me without an offering.
21“You have six days in which to do your work, but do not work on the seventh day, not even during ploughing time or harvest.
22“Keep the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest the first crop of your wheat, and keep the Festival of Shelters in the autumn when you gather your fruit.
23“Three times a year all your men must come to worship me, the LORD, the God of Israel. 24After I have driven out the nations before you and extended your territory, no one will try to conquer your country during the three festivals.
25“Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. Do not keep until the following morning any part of the animal killed at the Passover Festival.
26“Each year bring to the house of the LORD the first corn that you harvest.
“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.”
27The LORD said to Moses, “Write these words down, because it is on the basis of these words that I am making a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28Moses stayed there with the LORD forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant — the Ten Commandments.
Moses Goes Down from Mount Sinai
29When Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the LORD; but he did not know it. 30Aaron and all the people looked at Moses and saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him. 31But Moses called them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community went to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32After that, all the people of Israel gathered round him, and Moses gave them all the laws that the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking to them, he covered his face with a veil. 34Whenever Moses went into the Tent of the LORD's presence to speak to the LORD, he took the veil off. When he came out, he would tell the people of Israel everything that he had been commanded to say, 35and they would see that his face was shining. Then he would put the veil back on until the next time he went to speak to the LORD.
