Exodus

New covenant – Passage of Glory

The Lord said to Moses:

“Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

Be ready in the morning, come up to Mount Sinai, and wait for me on the top of the mountain.

No one will go up with you, and no one is to be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the sheep and the cattle are not to graze near the mountain.”

So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first, and, with the two tablets of stone in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai in the early morning, as the Lord had commanded.

And the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him, and Moses called on the name of the Lord.

Then the Lord passed in front of him and cried out, “The Lord, the Lord is a God full of pity and mercy, slow to anger and abounding in truth and loving kindness.

He shows loving kindness to the thousandth generation and forgives wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet he does not leave the guilty without punishment, even punishing the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Moses hastened to bow down to the ground and worshiped.

He then said:

“If you really look kindly on me, my Lord, please come and walk in our midst, and even though we are a stiff-necked people, pardon our wickedness and our sin and make us yours.”

The Lord said:

“I am making a Covenant with you; in the presence of all the people, I will do marvels never yet done in any land or nation so that all the people among whom you live may see how awesome is the work of the Lord that I will do for you.

Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Take care to make no treaty with the inhabitants of the country you enter, lest it be a snare for you.

Rather shall you knock down their altars and smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.

New Decalogue

Do not worship another god, for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God!

So make no treaty with those who live in the land, for they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them; otherwise, they will invite you, and you will eat of their sacrifices.

Then you will take their daughters for your sons, and as those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

Make no molten gods for yourself.

Keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days in the month of Abib, you are to eat unleavened bread, for that was the month you left Egypt.

All that first opens the womb is mine and every firstborn male of your livestock, sheep, and cattle.

You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. You shall redeem every firstborn of your sons, and no one shall appear before me empty-handed.

You shall work for six days and rest on the seventh day, even at the time of plowing and harvesting.

Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the Feast of Ingathering at the turning of the year.

Three times each year, all your men shall appear before the Lord, God of Israel.

I will drive out nations before you and extend your boundaries. No one shall covet your country when you go up three times yearly to appear before the Lord, your God.

Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me together with leavened bread, and do not let anything from the Passover Feast remain until morning.

Bring the very best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord, your God.

Do not boil a kid in the milk of its mother.”

Then the Lord said to Moses:

“Write down these words, for these are the requirements of the Covenant that I have made with you and Israel.”

Moses remained with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. He wrote the words of the Covenant—the Ten Commandments—on tablets.

Effects of the Theophany

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that the skin of his face was radiant after speaking with the Lord.

Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw that Moses’ face was radiant, and they were afraid to go near him.

But Moses called them, and Aaron with all the community leaders drew near, and Moses spoke to them.

Afterwards, all the Israelites came near, and he told them all that the Lord had commanded him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses finished speaking with them, he wore a veil over his face.

Whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. And when he came out and told them what he had been commanded,

the Israelites saw that his face was radiant. Moses would then replace the veil over his face until he went again to speak with the Lord.