Dual Panel1The LORD told Moses, "Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed.
2Be ready in the morning to come up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me there on the top of the mountain.
3No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is allowed anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain."
4So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the LORD had told him, carrying the two stone tablets in his hands.
5Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and called out his own name, "the LORD," as Moses stood there in his presence.
6He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness.
7I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Even so I do not leave sin unpunished, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations."
8Moses immediately fell to the ground and worshiped.
9And he said, "If it is true that I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, then please go with us. Yes, this is an unruly and stubborn people, but please pardon our iniquity and our sins. Accept us as your own special possession."
10The LORD replied, "All right. This is the covenant I am going to make with you. I will perform wonders that have never been done before anywhere in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people around you will see the power of the LORD––the awesome power I will display through you.
11Your responsibility is to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then I will surely drive out all those who stand in your way––the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
12"Be very careful never to make treaties with the people in the land where you are going. If you do, you soon will be following their evil ways.
13Instead, you must break down their pagan altars, smash the sacred pillars they worship, and cut down their carved images.
14You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you.
15"Do not make treaties of any kind with the people living in the land. They are spiritual prostitutes, committing adultery against me by sacrificing to their gods. If you make peace with them, they will invite you to go with them to worship their gods, and you are likely to do it.
16And you will accept their daughters, who worship other gods, as wives for your sons. Then they will cause your sons to commit adultery against me by worshiping other gods.
17You must make no gods for yourselves at all.
18"Be sure to celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, just as I instructed you, at the appointed time each year in early spring, for that was when you left Egypt.
19"Every firstborn male belongs to me––of both cattle and sheep.
20A firstborn male donkey may be redeemed from the LORD by presenting a lamb in its place. But if you decide not to make the exchange, you must kill the donkey by breaking its neck. However, you must redeem every firstborn son. No one is allowed to appear before me without a gift.
21"Six days are set aside for work, but on the Sabbath day you must rest, even during the seasons of plowing and harvest.
22And you must remember to celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the first crop of the wheat harvest, and celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest at the end of the harvest season.
23Three times each year all the men of Israel must appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel.
24No one will attack and conquer your land when you go to appear before the LORD your God those three times each year. I will drive out the nations that stand in your way and will enlarge your boundaries.
25"You must not offer bread made with yeast as a sacrifice to me. And none of the meat of the Passover lamb may be kept over until the following morning.
26You must bring the best of the first of each year’s crop to the house of the LORD your God. "You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk."
27And the LORD said to Moses, "Write down all these instructions, for they represent the terms of my covenant with you and with Israel."
28Moses was up on the mountain with the LORD forty days and forty nights. In all that time he neither ate nor drank. At that time he wrote the terms of the covenant––the Ten Commandments––on the stone tablets.
29When Moses came down the mountain carrying the stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn’t aware that his face glowed because he had spoken to the LORD face to face.
30And when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses’ face, they were afraid to come near him.
31But Moses called to them and asked Aaron and the community leaders to come over and talk with him.
32Then all the people came, and Moses gave them the instructions the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.
33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34But whenever he went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he removed the veil until he came out again. Then he would give the people whatever instructions the LORD had given him,
35and the people would see his face aglow. Afterward he would put the veil on again until he returned to speak with the LORD.