Read the Modern Pastor’s Version

The Lord said to Moses, "Chisel two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the words that were on the original tables you broke. Come up to Mount Sinai in the morning, and present yourself to me at its summit."

Moses rose early, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets he had chiseled like the first. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there, proclaiming his name.

The Lord passed before him, saying, "The Lord, the Lord God, is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in goodness and truth." He continued, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands by forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet not clearing the guilty; instead, he visits the iniquity of fathers upon their children and grandchildren, even to the third and fourth generations."

Moses hastened to bow his head toward the earth and worshiped. He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us, even though this is a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance." The Lord replied, "Behold, I will do marvels before all your people that have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible thing that I will do with you."

The Lord said to Moses, "Observe what I command you today: behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you; but break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles."

Moses said, "You shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their sacred trees. You shall worship no other god, for the Lord is a jealous God whose name is Jealous." The Lord continued, "Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they lead you astray to worship their gods, sacrificing to them and inviting you to share in their offerings."

The Lord warned Moses, "You shall not take their daughters to be wives for your sons, lest they lead them to worship other gods. You shall not fashion idols from molten metal." He said, "The feast of unleavened bread you shall keep, eating unleavened bread for seven days in the time of the month Abib when you came out from Egypt."

All that opens the womb belongs to me, and every firstborn among your cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. You shall redeem the firstborn of an ass with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; all the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem, and none shall appear before me empty.

Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. You shall observe the feast of weeks with the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year's end. Three times in the year, all your male descendants will appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

The Lord said to Moses, "I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders." He continued, "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

The Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for after their pattern I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." For forty days and forty nights, Moses was there with the Lord; he did neither eat bread nor drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in his hand, after speaking with God, he did not know that the skin of his face was shining. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, they were afraid to come near him because the skin of his face shone.

Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him; then Moses spoke with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. When Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove his veil until he came out, and then he would come out and tell the Israelites everything the Lord had commanded.

The children of Israel saw the radiant face of Moses, and when he finished speaking with God, he would cover his face again until he returned to speak with them.