Exodus 34:10-28

The Covenant Renewed

10 And he said, "Behold, ¹I am making a covenant. Before all your people ²I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an ³awesome thing that I will do with you.

11 "Observe what I command you this day. Behold, ⁴I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

12 ⁵Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a ⁶snare in your midst.

13 You shall ⁷tear down their altars and ⁸break their pillars and cut down their ⁹Asherim

14 (for ¹⁰you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),

15 ¹¹lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they ¹²whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and ¹³you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice,

16 and you take of ¹⁴their daughters for your sons, and their daughters ¹⁵whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.

17 ¹⁶"You shall not make for yourself any gods of cast metal.

18 ¹⁷"You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in ¹⁸the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.

19 ¹⁹All that open the womb are mine, all your male^[a] livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

20 The ²⁰firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And ²¹none shall appear before me empty-handed.

21 ²²"Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

22 ²³You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year's end.

23 ²⁴Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel.

24 For I will ²⁵cast out nations before you and ²⁶enlarge your borders; ²⁷no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.

25 ²⁸"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, ²⁹or let the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning.

26 ³⁰The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. ³¹You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."

27 And the LORD said to Moses, "Write these words, for in accordance with these words ³²I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

28 ³³So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he ³⁴wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.^[b]

Exodus 34:10-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 34

In this chapter Moses has orders to hew two tables of stone, that God might write on them the ten commands, and bring them up with him to the mount, Ex 34:1-4 where the Lord proclaimed his name, and caused his glory and his goodness to pass before him, Ex 34:5-7 when Moses took this favourable opportunity that offered to pray for the people, that God would forgive their sin, and go along with them, Ex 34:8,9 upon which he made a covenant with them, which on his part was to do wonders for them, and drive out the inhabitants of Canaan before them; and on their part, that they should have no confederacy and communion with these nations, and shun their idolatry, and everything that might lead unto it, Ex 34:10-17 and he repeated several laws before given, and urged the observance of them, which Moses was to acquaint the people with, Ex 34:18-27 and after a stay of forty days and forty nights on the mount, he came down with the two tables of the law; and the skin of his face shone so bright, that the people of Israel were afraid to come nigh him, and therefore he put a vail over his face while he conversed with them, Ex 34:28-35.

Cross References

• 1. ver. 27; Deuteronomy 5:2; Deuteronomy 29:1
• 2. Deuteronomy 4:32-35; Joshua 6:20; Joshua 10:12, 13; 2 Samuel 7:23; Psalms 77:14; Psalms 78:12
• 3. Deuteronomy 10:21; Psalms 145:6; [Isaiah 64:3]
• 4. See Exodus 13:5
• 5. Exodus 23:32; Deuteronomy 7:2; Joshua 23:12, 13; Judges 2:2
• 6. See Exodus 23:33
• 7. Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 12:3; Judges 2:2; Judges 6:25; 2 Chronicles 34:3, 4
• 8. Exodus 23:24; 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 23:14; 2 Chronicles 31:1
• 9. See Deuteronomy 16:21
• 10. Exodus 20:3, 5
• 11. [See ver. 12 above]
• 12. Leviticus 17:7; Leviticus 20:5; Deuteronomy 31:16; Judges 2:17; Jeremiah 3:9; Ezekiel 6:9
• 13. Numbers 25:2; Psalms 106:28; [1 Cor. 8:4, 7, 10; 1 Corinthians 10:27]
• 14. Deuteronomy 7:3, 4; 1 Kings 11:2; Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 13:25
• 15. [See ver. 15 above]
• 16. Leviticus 19:4; Deuteronomy 27:15; [Exodus 32:4, 8]
• 17. See Exodus 12:15
• 18. Exodus 13:4
• 19. See Exodus 13:2
• 20. Exodus 13:13; Numbers 18:15
• 21. Exodus 23:15; Deuteronomy 16:16
• 22. See Exodus 20:9
• 23. Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 16:10, 13
• 24. Exodus 23:14, 17; Deuteronomy 16:16
• 25. Exodus 33:2; Deuteronomy 7:1; Psalms 78:55; Psalms 80:8; See Exodus 23:27-31
• 26. Deuteronomy 12:20; Deuteronomy 19:8
• 27. [Proverbs 16:7]
• 28. See Exodus 12:8
• 29. See Exodus 12:10
• 30. See Exodus 23:19
• 31. Deuteronomy 14:21
• 32. ver. 10
• 33. See Exodus 24:18
• 34. [ver. 1; Exodus 31:18; Exodus 32:16; Deuteronomy 4:13; Deuteronomy 10:2, 4]

Footnotes

• [a]. Septuagint, Theodotion, Vulgate, Targum; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
• [b]. Hebrew the ten words