After the Shattering, He Rewrites

GOD said to Moses: “Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered. Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain. No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain.” So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as GOD had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him. GOD came down in a cloud—and stood with him there, proclaiming the name GOD [יהוה]. The ETERNAL passed before him and proclaimed: “GOD! GOD! a Deity compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin—yet not remitting all punishment, but visiting the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.” Moses hastened to bow low to the ground in homage, and said, “If I have gained Your favor, O my Sovereign, pray, let my Sovereign go in our midst, even though this is a stiffnecked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!” [God] said: I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will work such wonders as have not been wrought on all the earth or in any nation; and all the people who are with you shall see how awesome are GOD’s deeds that I will perform for you. Mark well what I command you this day. I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Beware of making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are advancing, lest they be a snare in your midst. No, you must tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred posts; for you must not worship any other god, because the ETERNAL, whose name is Impassioned, is an impassioned God. You must not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for they will lust after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and invite you, and you will eat of their sacrifices. And when you take wives from among their daughters for your sons, their daughters will lust after their gods and will cause your sons to lust after their gods. You shall not make molten gods for yourselves. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread—eating unleavened bread for seven days, as I have commanded you—at the set time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you went forth from Egypt. Every first issue of the womb is Mine, from all your livestock that drop a male, form uncertain. as firstling, whether cattle or sheep. But the firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. And you must redeem every male first-born among your children.None shall appear before Me empty-handed. Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor; you shall cease from labor even at plowing time and harvest time. You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest; and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the ETERNAL Sovereign, the God of Israel. I will drive out nations from your path and enlarge your territory; no one will covet your land when you go up to appear before the ETERNAL your God three times a year. You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with anything leavened; and the sacrifice of the Feast of Passover shall not be left lying until morning. The choice first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the ETERNAL your God.You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. And GOD said to Moses: Write down these commandments, for in accordance with these commandments I make a covenant with you and with Israel. And he was there with GOD forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water; and he wrote down on the tablets the terms of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. So Moses came down from Mount Sinai. And as Moses came down from the mountain bearing the two tablets of the Pact, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant, since he had spoken with God. Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; and they shrank from coming near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the chieftains in the assembly returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he instructed them concerning all that GOD had imparted to him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses went in before GOD to converse, he would leave the veil off until he came out; and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites

Exodus 34:1-20 records a remarkable second giving of the covenant. Moses had broken the first tablets after Israel's golden calf (Exodus 32:19), and now God commands him to carve new stones so that He can reinscribe 'the words that were on the first tablets.' The passage then weaves together the proclamation of the divine Name (34:5-7), Moses' intercession (34:8-9), and the renewed commands about covenant loyalty and the land (34:10-20). It is the theological heart of the Sinai revelation: a God who is compassionate and faithful, slow to anger, and yet who does not leave sin unaddressed—calling His people to wholehearted trust and singular devotion.