Êxodo 34

BLIVRE · Chapter 34/40

1E o SENHOR disse a Moisés: Entalha para ti duas tábuas de pedra como as primeiras, e escreverei sobre essas tábuas as palavras que estavam nas tábuas primeiras que quebraste.

2Prepara-te, pois, para amanhã, e sobe pela manhã ao monte de Sinai, e fica diante de mim ali sobre o cume do monte.

3E não suba homem contigo, nem apareça alguém em todo o monte; nem ovelhas nem bois apascentem diante do monte.

4E Moisés entalhou duas tábuas de pedra como as primeiras; e levantou-se pela manhã, e subiu ao monte de Sinai, como lhe mandou o SENHOR, e levou em sua mão as duas tábuas de pedra.

5E o SENHOR desceu na nuvem, e esteve ali com ele, proclamando o nome do SENHOR.

6E passando o SENHOR por diante dele, proclamou: SENHOR, SENHOR, forte, misericordioso, e piedoso; tardio para a ira, e grande em benignidade e verdade;

7Que guarda a misericórdia em milhares, que perdoa a iniquidade, a rebelião, e o pecado, e que de nenhum modo justificará ao malvado; que visita a iniquidade dos pais sobre os filhos e sobre os filhos dos filhos, sobre os de terceira, e quarta gerações.

8Então Moisés, apressando-se, baixou a cabeça até o chão e encurvou-se;

9E disse: Se agora, Senhor, achei favor em teus olhos, vá agora o Senhor em meio de nós; porque este é povo de dura cerviz; e perdoa nossa iniquidade e nosso pecado, e possui-nos.

10E ele disse: Eis que, eu faço concerto diante de todo o teu povo: farei maravilhas que não foram feitas em toda a terra, nem em nação alguma; e verá todo o povo em meio do qual estás tu, a obra do SENHOR; porque será coisa terrível a que eu farei contigo.

11Guarda o que eu te mando hoje; eis que eu expulso de diante de tua presença aos amorreus, e aos cananeus, e aos heteus, e aos perizeus, e aos heveus, e aos jebuseus.

12Guarda-te que não faças aliança com os moradores da terra de onde hás de entrar, para que não sejam por tropeço em meio de ti:

13Mas derrubareis seus altares, e quebrareis suas estátuas, e cortareis seus bosques:

14Porque não te hás de inclinar a deus alheio; que o SENHOR, cujo nome é zeloso, Deus zeloso é.

15Portanto não farás aliança com os moradores daquela terra; pois senão fornicarão após seus deuses, e sacrificarão a seus deuses, e te chamarão, e comerás de seus sacrifícios;

16Ou, se tomarem de suas filhas para teus filhos, e fornicarem suas filhas após seus deuses, farão também fornicar a teus filhos atrás dos deuses delas.

17Não farás deuses de fundição para ti.

18A festa dos pães ázimos guardarás: sete dias comerás sem levedar, segundo te mandei, no tempo do mês de Abibe; porque no mês de Abibe saíste do Egito.

19Todo o que abre madre, meu é; e de teu gado todo primeiro de vaca ou de ovelha que for macho.

20Porém resgatarás com cordeiro o primeiro do asno; e se não o resgatares, lhe cortarás a cabeça. Resgatarás todo primogênito de teus filhos, e não serão vistos vazios diante de mim.

21Seis dias trabalharás, mas no sétimo dia cessarás: cessarás ainda na arada e na colheita.

22E te farás a festa das semanas aos princípios da colheita do trigo: e a festa da colheita à volta do ano.

23Três vezes no ano será visto todo homem teu diante do Soberano SENHOR, Deus de Israel.

24Porque eu lançarei as nações de tua presença, e alargarei teu termo: e ninguém cobiçará tua terra, quando tu subires para ser visto diante do SENHOR teu Deus três vezes no ano.

25Não oferecerás com levedado o sangue de meu sacrifício; nem ficará da noite para a manhã o sacrifício da festa da páscoa.

26A primícia dos primeiros frutos de tua terra meterás na casa do SENHOR teu Deus. Não cozerás o cabrito no leite de sua mãe.

27E o SENHOR disse a Moisés: Escreve tu estas palavras; porque conforme estas palavras fiz a aliança contigo e com Israel.

28E ele esteve ali com o SENHOR quarenta dias e quarenta noites: não comeu pão, nem bebeu água; e escreveu em tábuas as palavras da aliança, os dez dizeres.

29E aconteceu que, descendo Moisés do monte Sinai com as duas tábuas do testemunho em sua mão, enquanto descia do monte, não sabia ele que a pele de seu rosto resplandecia, depois que havia com ele falado.

30E olhou Arão e todos os filhos de Israel a Moisés, e eis que a pele de seu rosto era resplandescente; e tiveram medo de chegar-se a ele.

31E chamou-os Moisés; e Arão e todos os príncipes da congregação voltaram-se a ele, e Moisés lhes falou.

32E depois se chegaram todos os filhos de Israel, aos quais mandou todas as coisas que o SENHOR lhe havia dito no monte de Sinai.

33E quando acabou Moisés de falar com eles, pôs um véu sobre seu rosto.

34E quando vinha Moisés diante do SENHOR para falar com ele, tirava-se o véu até que saía; e saindo, falava com os filhos de Israel o que lhe era mandado;

35E viam os filhos de Israel o rosto de Moisés, que a pele de seu rosto era resplandescente; e voltava Moisés a pôr o véu sobre seu rosto, até que entrava a falar com ele.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God commands Moses to cut new stone tablets and to go up Mount Sinai again, where he proclaims his own name and character; the covenant is renewed, and Moses' face begins to shine after being in God's presence.

Explanation

This chapter marks the restoration of the covenant broken in the golden calf episode: God, in his mercy, orders new tablets to be prepared, and personally proclaims his own character to Moses in one of the richest descriptions in the whole Old Testament of who God is — 'merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth' (v. 6), a text that would be quoted and echoed repeatedly throughout the rest of Scripture. The renewal of the covenant includes specific instructions to avoid any alliance or marriage with the idolatrous peoples of Canaan, recognizing the real risk of spiritual contamination that cultural closeness could bring. The physical phenomenon of Moses' face shining after his prolonged encounter with God, so much so that he needed to wear a veil before the people, visually symbolizes the transformative and visible effect of genuine, close communion with the divine.

Fun facts

  • The proclamation of God's character in this chapter (v. 6-7), known in Jewish tradition as the 'Thirteen Attributes of Mercy,' became one of the most recited texts in Jewish liturgy, especially during the season of repentance around the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
  • The Hebrew word used to describe Moses' shining face has been interpreted in various ways by ancient translators — Saint Jerome's Latin translation (the Vulgate) used a word that can also mean 'horns,' which influenced medieval works of art, including Michelangelo's famous sculpture of Moses, which depicts him with small horns on his head.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Êxodo 34:1God tells Moses to prepare new stone tablets to replace the ones he had broken, promising to write on them the same content as the first ones.
  2. Êxodo 34:2It sets a new, exact time and place for the meeting: the next morning, at the same top of Mount Sinai as the first time.
  3. Êxodo 34:3This time the restrictions on access to the mountain are even stricter, forbidding even animals from grazing nearby.
  4. Êxodo 34:4Moses follows the instructions exactly, preparing the tablets and going up early, carrying them himself to the top of the mountain.
  5. Êxodo 34:5God comes down in a cloud, repeating the kind of manifestation already seen in earlier encounters, and proclaims His own name before Moses.
  6. Êxodo 34:6The proclamation of God’s name comes with a list of attributes: merciful, gracious, patient, and abounding in goodness and faithfulness.
  7. Êxodo 34:7This line is often read as saying children are punished for their parents’ sins, but the sense most accepted by scholars is about consequences that repeat—a pattern of behavior or a bad situation that stretches across generations when it isn’t interrupted. It comes right after a description of God as patient and “keeping mercy for thousands” of generations, as the KJV phrases it—a deliberate contrast with this more limited reach of punishment.
  8. Êxodo 34:8Moses’s immediate reaction to this revelation is one of deep reverence, bowing down with his face to the ground.
  9. Êxodo 34:9Moses uses the moment to renew his request that God remain present among the people, acknowledging their stubbornness but asking for forgiveness anyway.
  10. Êxodo 34:10God responds by formalizing a renewed covenant, promising to perform before the people wonders never seen in any other nation on earth.
  11. Êxodo 34:11It repeats the instruction to obey the laws given, linking this directly to the promise to drive the peoples of Canaan out of Israel’s way.
  12. Êxodo 34:12It forbids any formal alliance with the inhabitants of the promised land, warning that this kind of agreement would become a spiritual trap for the people.
  13. Êxodo 34:13It calls for the physical destruction of these peoples’ religious symbols: altars torn down, sacred pillars broken, and cult groves cut down.
  14. Êxodo 34:14“Jealous” here—the KJV calls Him, “the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God”—doesn’t carry the ordinary sense of personal envy, but a demand for exclusivity, similar to the commitment expected in a marriage. The idea is that the relationship between God and the people of Israel allowed no division with other gods.
  15. Êxodo 34:15It explains the risk behind any alliance with these peoples: being invited to take part in their religious sacrifices, mixing the worship together.
  16. Êxodo 34:16The risk extends to marriages as well: foreign daughters married to Israelite sons could lead the whole family to worship strange gods.
  17. Êxodo 34:17It repeats, briefly and directly, the central prohibition against making molten metal images for worship.
  18. Êxodo 34:18It returns to the instruction about the feast of unleavened bread, already detailed in earlier chapters, linking it once more to the month of the exodus from Egypt.
  19. Êxodo 34:19It repeats the law that the firstborn—of animals and humans alike—belong to God, a theme already explained in more detail in chapter 13.
  20. Êxodo 34:20The firstborn male of a donkey could not be sacrificed, since it wasn’t an animal accepted for offerings, so it had to be “redeemed”—the KJV says, “the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb”—exchanged for a lamb offered in its place, or else killed. In the same way, the firstborn human son had to be redeemed, meaning an offering was given in his place; the law makes clear human sacrifice was never really an option here.
  21. Êxodo 34:21It reinforces the sabbath commandment, specifying that not even the most urgent periods of the farming calendar—plowing and harvest—justify working on the seventh day.
  22. Êxodo 34:22It mentions the Feast of Weeks, tied to the wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, rounding out the festival calendar already seen in chapter 23.
  23. Êxodo 34:23It repeats the requirement that every Israelite man appear before God three times a year, the same obligation already established earlier.
  24. Êxodo 34:24It promises that as long as the people kept these annual pilgrimages, no one would try to invade the land left temporarily undefended during those trips.
  25. Êxodo 34:25It repeats technical rules about sacrifices already seen before: no leavened bread offered with the blood, and nothing left over from the Passover sacrifice until morning.
  26. Êxodo 34:26This is the second time this prohibition appears in Exodus, after 23:19, reinforcing the same rule against cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk. Its repetition suggests it was considered a rule important enough not to be forgotten, even though the text never explains exactly why.
  27. Êxodo 34:27God orders Moses to write these words down, since they form the basis of the renewed covenant between God and Israel after the episode of the calf.
  28. Êxodo 34:28This is Moses’s second forty-day period on the mountain, since the first ended with the episode of the golden calf. Going that long without eating or drinking is described as something out of the ordinary, reinforcing that this second climb was sustained by something beyond a person’s normal physical endurance.
  29. Êxodo 34:29After spending so much time in God’s presence, Moses’s face became visibly radiant, and he himself wasn’t aware of it, only noticing it from the people’s frightened reaction. It’s described as a physical side effect of that close contact, not as something Moses had sought to cause.
  30. Êxodo 34:30Seeing Moses’s radiant face, Aaron and the rest of the people react with fear, hesitating to come near him.
  31. Êxodo 34:31Moses has to actively call them to come closer, and first Aaron and the leaders of the people come to him to talk.
  32. Êxodo 34:32After the leaders, the rest of the people also draw near, and Moses passes on to them all the instructions he received from God on the mountain.
  33. Êxodo 34:33Moses began wearing a veil to cover his face after speaking with the people, probably because the radiance intimidated or unsettled them. The following verses show that he removed the veil whenever he went in to speak with God again, and put it back on when he came out to speak with the people.
  34. Êxodo 34:34Whenever he went in to speak with God, Moses removed the veil, and only covered his face again after coming out to relay the instructions to the people.
  35. Êxodo 34:35This pattern of removing and replacing the veil repeated every time Moses entered and left God’s presence, a cycle that continued for the rest of his leadership.

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