The big picture
Moses, the leader who speaks to God for the people, returns to mount Sinai, the mountain where God gives his commands. Israel, the people under his care, has broken its agreement with God. The first stone tablets have been smashed. God now calls Moses up alone with new tablets. The question is whether God will still live among this stubborn people and lead them onward.
In this chapter
- Moses Cuts Two New Tablets Exodus 34:1-4
God tells Moses to cut two stone tablets like the ones he broke.
- God Names His Mercy and Judgment Exodus 34:5-9
The Lord comes down in a cloud and tells Moses what he is like.
- Israel Must Refuse Other Gods Exodus 34:10-17
God promises to do wonders and drive out the peoples living in the land ahead.
- Worship Sets the Yearly Rhythm Exodus 34:18-26
God gives commands for festivals, firstborn animals and sons, weekly rest, and offerings.
- The Agreement Is Put in Writing Exodus 34:27-28
The Lord orders Moses to write down these words.
- Moses Returns with a Shining Face Exodus 34:29-35
Moses comes down carrying the tablets, unaware that his face shines after speaking with God.
Central truth
God renews his agreement with Israel, joining mercy with firm commands about how his people must live.
Scripture beside the summary
Exodus · King James Version · 35Exodus 34:1-4
Moses Cuts Two New Tablets
God tells Moses to cut two stone tablets like the ones he broke. God will write the same words on these new stones. Moses must climb the mountain early the next morning and meet God at the top. Nobody else is to come with him. Even the flocks must stay away from the mountain. Moses cuts the tablets and carries them up as ordered. The broken stones are replaced, but God's commands have not changed.
In everyday life
A contract holder brings fresh copies to a meeting after tearing up the signed agreement in anger. The other party agrees to meet again. She smooths the new pages on the table and waits for the terms to be restored. Moses receives binding commands; he does not negotiate with God as an equal.
Notice
Exodus 34:1 The new stones must resemble the first ones. God restores the same words, so a fresh beginning does not mean a different agreement.
Exodus 34:1-4
King James Version1And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.
2And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.
3And 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.
4And 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 the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.
Exodus 34:5-9
God Names His Mercy and Judgment
The Lord comes down in a cloud and tells Moses what he is like. He is merciful, patient, faithful, and ready to forgive wrong. Yet he does not treat guilt as harmless. His judgment reaches across generations within families. Moses bows low and asks God to go with the people. He admits their stubbornness instead of excusing it. He asks God to forgive their sin and claim them as his own people despite what they have done.
In everyday life
An injured father listens while his adult daughter admits taking his savings. He lets her come home, but he also names the unpaid bills and the damage to her children. Forgiveness and serious consequences occupy the same conversation. This family cannot measure God's mercy or his judgment across generations.
Notice
Exodus 34:9 Moses calls the people stubborn while asking God to stay with them. Their need for mercy becomes part of his request, not a hidden fact.
Exodus 34:5-9
King James Version5And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
6And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
7Keeping mercy 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, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
8And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.
9And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.
Exodus 34:10-17
Israel Must Refuse Other Gods
God promises to do wonders and drive out the peoples living in the land ahead. He also warns Israel against making agreements that draw them into other worship. They must destroy the local worship sites rather than join their feasts. Marriage ties can bring the same danger when households turn toward other gods. God demands their undivided loyalty. They must not make metal gods for themselves. The renewed agreement rules out sharing worship between the Lord and rival gods.
In everyday life
A recovering gambler hands his phone to his brother and deletes the betting accounts before moving home. He also declines the weekly card night where his debts began. Returning to the old circle would pull against the promise he has made. Israel's command concerns worship, not treatment for an addiction.
Notice
Exodus 34:15 The invitation to a sacrificial meal comes after the proposed agreement. God describes how a social tie can become participation in another people's worship.
Exodus 34:10-17
King James Version10And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
11Observe 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.
12Take 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:
13But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
14For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
15Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
17Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
Exodus 34:18-26
Worship Sets the Yearly Rhythm
God gives commands for festivals, firstborn animals and sons, weekly rest, and offerings. The bread festival recalls leaving Egypt, the country where Israel lived in slavery. Firstborn sons must be redeemed, with a payment or substitute rather than sacrifice. Rest still applies during the busiest farm seasons. Men must gather before God three times yearly, and God promises protection for their land. The rules also govern blood, bread, the first crops, and cooking a young goat in its mother's milk.
In everyday life
A market gardener locks her stall for the annual family gathering while ripe produce waits in crates. She has arranged the week around a commitment that comes before another day's sales. The closed stall makes that priority visible. God also promises to guard Israel's land during its appointed gatherings.
Notice
Exodus 34:21 Ploughing and harvest are named because those seasons make stopping costly. The rest day remains binding when people have strong reasons to keep working.
Exodus 34:18-26
King James Version18The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.
19All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.
20But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.
21Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
22And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
23Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
24For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
25Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
26The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
Exodus 34:27-28
The Agreement Is Put in Writing
The Lord orders Moses to write down these words. They state the agreement God makes with Moses and Israel. Moses stays there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights. He eats no bread and drinks no water during that time. The account then reports the writing of the ten commandments on the stone tablets. The renewed relationship has written terms that the people can receive, rather than resting on Moses' memory of a private meeting.
In everyday life
A union representative copies the final terms after a long dispute ends. She checks each page before carrying the signed document back to the workers. Their return to work rests on stated commitments that everyone can hear. Moses' time without food or water has no ordinary counterpart in such negotiations.
Notice
Exodus 34:27 Writing belongs to the renewal itself. The people receive definite words to live under, not a vague assurance that their earlier breach no longer matters.
Exodus 34:27-28
King James Version27And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
28And he was there with the LORD 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.
Exodus 34:29-35
Moses Returns with a Shining Face
Moses comes down carrying the tablets, unaware that his face shines after speaking with God. Aaron, his brother and a priest, and the people fear approaching him. Moses calls them back and tells them God's commands. A veil covers his face between these encounters. When he goes in to speak with the Lord, he removes it. He comes out to give the people God's words, and they see his shining face before he covers it again.
In everyday life
A mountain rescuer returns from a dangerous ascent, still wearing the ice crust from the summit. The waiting family steps back at her changed appearance before listening to her report. What she has encountered is visible before she speaks. Moses' shining face comes from speaking with God, not harsh weather.
Notice
Exodus 34:29 Moses does not know his face is shining. He has not arranged an impressive entrance; the people's fear responds to a change he has not noticed.
Exodus 34:29-35
King James Version29And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.
30And 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.
31And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.
32And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai.
33And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.
34But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.
35And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Details worth noticing
The opening image
Exodus 34:1 begins with “And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables…”
Where the chapter turns
Exodus 34:20 forms a natural hinge: “But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou…”
The final note
Exodus 34:35 leaves the reader with “And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak…”
A word trail through the chapter
The words LORD, Moses, mount, children, tables, face help reveal the chapter’s repeated concerns.
KJV words made clear
- wist
- Knew or was aware of something; an older form of know.
- vail
- A cloth covering, here placed over the face.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
