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Exodus 34

Exodus book home•Chapter 34 of 40•35 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Exodus 34 Overview

Exodus 34 records covenant renewal after the golden calf. Moses cuts two new stone tables and ascends Sinai. The LORD descends in the cloud and proclaims his name and character: merciful, gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity while by no means clearing the guilty. Moses worships and asks God to go among the people. The LORD renews covenant commands concerning separation from Canaanite idolatry, feasts, firstborn, Sabbath, and offerings. Moses remains forty days and nights, and when he descends his face shines because he has spoken with God, so he covers it with a veil when not speaking the LORD’s words to Israel.

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Before you read Exodus 34

Coming from

Exodus 33 ends with God promising his presence and a limited revelation of glory to Moses.

In this chapter

The covenant is renewed after catastrophic rebellion, with new tablets and a profound revelation of God’s character.

Leads into

Exodus 35 returns to the people and begins actual construction of the tabernacle through Sabbath instruction, willing offerings, and skilled workers.

Key understanding

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Covenant renewal is an act of mercy after real guilt, not denial that the golden calf mattered.

Truth 2

God’s self-proclamation holds mercy and justice together rather than choosing one against the other.

Truth 3

Israel is warned that covenant with Canaanite idolatry will become a snare.

Truth 4

Worship calendar and firstborn commands are renewed, showing that restoration brings Israel back under covenant order.

Truth 5

Moses’ shining face visibly reflects the glory of prolonged communion with the LORD.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Numbers 14 cites the LORD’s self-description from this chapter during another intercession crisis.

Connection 2

Psalm 103 echoes the description of the LORD as merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

Connection 3

2 Corinthians 3 interprets Moses’ veil and shining face in Paul’s contrast of covenant ministries.

Connection 4

John 1:14–18 presents grace and truth fully in Jesus Christ while deliberately resonating with Moses and Sinai revelation.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The statement about visiting iniquity upon later generations should be read with the broader biblical teaching of personal responsibility and the consequences of entrenched family sin; it is not arbitrary punishment of innocent descendants for someone else’s guilt.

Keep this clear 2

The renewal of covenant commands after mercy shows that forgiveness does not make holiness irrelevant.

Keep this clear 3

Moses’ shining face is a result of divine communion, not a technique believers can reproduce by outward practice.

Keep this clear 4

The veil passage receives inspired New Testament interpretation in 2 Corinthians 3, which should guide Christian theological application.

Read Exodus 34 watching for…

God’s proclamation of his own name and character.

Mercy and justice held together.

Warnings against covenant with idolatry.

Moses’ second forty-day period.

The shining face and veil.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-9Moses prepares new tables and the LORD proclaims his name 10-17God renews the covenant and warns against idolatry 18-26Feasts and covenant ordinances are repeated 27-28Moses remains forty days and writes the covenant words 29-35Moses' face shines when he comes down

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, which thou brakest.

And 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.

And 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.

And 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.

And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.

And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Keeping 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.

And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.

And 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.

And 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.

Observe 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.

Take 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:

But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Lest 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;

And 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.

Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

The 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.

All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

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 shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.

For 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.

Thou 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.

The 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.

And 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.

And 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.

And 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.

And 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.

And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them.

And 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.

And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.

But 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.

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 with him.