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Exodus 34

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Preparation for Covenant Renewal 1–4

1
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which thou brakest. ​
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And be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me on the top of the mount.
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And no man shall come up with thee; neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.
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And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as Jehovah had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone.

The Lord Proclaims His Name 5–9

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And Jehovah descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. ​
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And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth; ​
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keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation. ​
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And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. ​
9
And he said, If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. ​

Renewal of the Covenant Stipulations 10–27

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And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been wrought in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of Jehovah; for it is a terrible thing that I do with thee. ​
11
Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12
Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: ​
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but ye shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and ye shall cut down their Asherim; ​
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(for thou shalt worship no other god: for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God); ​
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lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot after their gods, and sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice;
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and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods, and make thy sons play the harlot after their gods. ​
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Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. ​
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The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. ​
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All that openeth the womb is mine; and all thy cattle that is male, the firstlings of cow and sheep.
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And the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck. All the first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. ​
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Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in plowing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. ​
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And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, even of the first-fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. ​
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Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel.
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For I will cast out nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou goest up to appear before Jehovah thy God three times in the year. ​
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Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
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The first of the first-fruits of thy ground thou shalt bring unto the house of Jehovah thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. ​
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And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. ​

Moses’ Shining Face and the Veil 28–35

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And he was there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ​
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And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses knew not that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. ​
30
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. ​
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And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses spake to them.
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And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that Jehovah had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
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And when Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. ​
34
But when Moses went in before Jehovah to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
35
And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Exodus 34

Verse 1

Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first — Pasal, to cut or hew. The first tables 'were the work of God' (32:16), and Moses broke them (32:19); now he cuts the stone and the LORD says 'I will write'. Moses recalls the command in Deut 10:1, and the writing is again 'according to the first writing' (Deut 10:4).

Verse 5

proclaimed the name of the LORD — The promise of 33:19, 'I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee', is kept. The LORD 'descended' (yarad) in the 'cloud' (anan), as the 'cloudy pillar descended' at the tent door in 33:9. The name is given in the words of the next two verses, not as a bare title.

Verse 6

merciful and gracious, longsuffering — The LORD 'passed by' (abar), as 33:19, 22 foretold. The words are rachum and channun, then erek aph, 'long of nostril', i.e. slow to anger. 'Goodness' is chesed, covenant love. The formula returns in Num 14:18; Ps 86:15; 103:8; Joel 2:13 and Jonah 4:2.

Verse 7

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin — The verse uses three words for wrong: avon, pesha and chattah, and all three are borne away. 'Keeping mercy for thousands' sets the reach of grace beside the 'third and … fourth generation' of visiting, which in Ex 20:5 falls on 'them that hate me'. Moses pleads the verse again in Num 14:18 after the spies' report.

Verse 8

bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped — He 'made haste' (mahar). 'Bowed' (qadad) and 'worshipped' (shachah) are the pair the people used when they heard that the LORD had visited them: 'they bowed their heads and worshipped' (Ex 4:31); so also at the Passover command (12:27).

Verse 9

pardon our iniquity and our sin — Moses answers the proclamation of v.7 with two of its three words, avon and chattah, and asks the LORD to 'go among us' (qereb, in the midst), the request of 33:15. Israel's being 'a stiffnecked people' is now his reason for asking, not against it. 'Take us for thine inheritance' (nachal) shares a root with Deut 32:9.

Verse 10

I make a covenant — Literally 'cut' a covenant (karath). 'Marvels' (pala) are wonders, and 'done' is bara, 'created', the verb of Gen 1:1, found here and nowhere else in Exodus. The 'terrible thing' (yare, to be feared) leads into v.11: 'I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite…'.

Verse 12

lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee — Moqesh is a snare or trap. The warning repeats Ex 23:33: 'if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee'. Judges 2:2–3 records it coming true ('their gods shall be a snare unto you'), and Josh 23:12–13 speaks of the nations as 'snares and traps'.

Verse 13

destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves — The three are mizbeach (altar), matstsebah (standing pillar) and asherah (the KJV's 'grove', a wooden image). Hezekiah's reform used two of the same verbs: 'he removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves' (2 Kgs 18:4).

Verse 14

whose name is Jealous — Qanna, jealous, is a name here and the word of the second commandment (Ex 20:5), and of Deut 4:24; 5:9; 6:15, always of the LORD. The command beside it is 'thou shalt worship no other god' (el acher). Paul asks, 'Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?' (1 Cor 10:22).

Verse 16

go a whoring after their gods — Zanah, to commit harlotry, here said of worshipping other gods. The warning of Deut 7:3–4 is that such marriages 'will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods'. Solomon is the example: 'his wives turned away his heart after other gods' (1 Kgs 11:4).

Verse 17

no molten gods — Maccekah, a cast image, is the word of 32:4 and 32:8, 'a molten calf'. The prohibition returns in Lev 19:4: 'nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.' It is the second commandment (20:4–5) applied to what Israel had done at Sinai.

Verse 18

the month Abib — Abib means a young ear of grain, and it names the month of the exodus (13:4; Deut 16:1). Unleavened bread is kept 'seven days' (Lev 23:6). 'As I commanded thee' points back to 23:15, where the same feast is first set among the three yearly feasts.

Verse 20

the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb — Peter is the opening of the womb; padah is to redeem. The rule is that of Ex 13:13, tied there to the sparing of Israel's firstborn. Luke cites the law when Christ is presented: 'Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord' (Luke 2:23). 'Empty' is reqam (Deut 16:16).

Verse 21

in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest — 'Earing' is the old English for ploughing (charish; Gen 45:6, 'earing nor harvest'). The Sabbath binds in the two busiest seasons, ploughing and harvest. The seventh day was already the fourth commandment (20:8–11) and a sign (31:13–17).

Verse 22

the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest — The feast comes after counting 'fifty days' from the morrow after the seventh sabbath (Lev 23:16), which is why it is named Pentecost in Acts 2:1. 'Ingathering' (asiph) is the feast of tabernacles in the seventh month (Lev 23:34). With unleavened bread, they are the three feasts of Deut 16:16.

Verse 24

neither shall any man desire thy land — 'Desire' is chamad, the verb of the tenth commandment, 'Thou shalt not covet' (20:17). The LORD promises that no one will covet Israel's land while the men are away at the three feasts. 'Go up' (alah) is the pilgrim's verb, as in 33:1; the safety of the land rests on the LORD's word.

Verse 26

Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk — Bashal is to boil. The same two sentences stand together in Ex 23:19: firstfruits to 'the house of the LORD', then the kid. It stands a third time in Deut 14:21, after the law of clean and unclean food.

Verse 27

Write thou these words — Kathab is the verb of this command. 'After the tenor' is literally 'according to the mouth' (peh) of these words: the covenant stands on what was spoken. Earlier 'Moses wrote all the words of the LORD' (24:4); here he writes again. The tables are a separate writing (v.1; Deut 10:4).

Verse 28

forty days and forty nights — The first forty days (24:18) are repeated, with the same fast from bread and water (Deut 9:9, 18). 'The ten commandments' is literally 'the ten words' (eser, ten, and dabar, word). The tables were written by the LORD: 'And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing' (Deut 10:4). Christ later fasted forty days and forty nights (Matt 4:2).

Verse 29

the skin of his face shone — Qaran, from qeren, a horn or ray: light came out from the face. Moses 'wist not' (knew not) of it. Paul says the children of Israel 'could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance' (2 Cor 3:7). On the mount of transfiguration Christ's face 'did shine as the sun' with Moses beside him (Matt 17:2–3).

Verse 30

they were afraid to come nigh him — Aaron as well as 'all the children of Israel' saw the shining (qaran) and feared to approach (nagash). Moses called them, and Aaron and the rulers came back to him, and 'afterward all the children of Israel came nigh' (vv.31–32), and he gave them the commands the LORD had spoken in Sinai.

Verse 33

he put a vail on his face — Masveh, a covering; the word is found only in vv.33–35. He wore it after 'speaking' and took it off to go in before the LORD (v.34). Paul says Moses 'put a vail over his face' so that Israel 'could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished' (2 Cor 3:13), and that 'when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away' (2 Cor 3:16).