Exodus 34 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Yahweh said to Moses, "Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I'll write on them the same words that were on the first tablets — the ones you smashed."

"Be ready by morning. Come up Mount Sinai at dawn and present yourself to me there, at the top of the mountain."

"No one is allowed to come up with you. No one should even be seen anywhere on the mountain. Don't let any flocks or herds graze near the mountain."

So Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones, got up early the next morning, and climbed Mount Sinai, just as Yahweh had told him to do, carrying the two stone tablets in his hands.

Then Yahweh came down in the cloud and stood there with him, and he called out the name "Yahweh."

Yahweh passed in front of him and declared: "Yahweh! Yahweh! A God who is compassionate and genuinely gracious, slow to get angry, overflowing with committed love and faithfulness,

maintaining that committed love for thousands of generations, forgiving wrongdoing, rebellion, and failure — yet he doesn't just let everything slide. He holds the consequences of parents' actions against their children and grandchildren, down to the third and fourth generation."

Moses immediately dropped to the ground, face down, and worshipped.

He said, "If I've truly found favor with you, my Master, then please — walk among us. Yes, these people are stubborn, but forgive our wrongdoing and our failure, and claim us as your own."

Then Yahweh said, "Right here and now, I'm making a binding agreement. In front of all your people, I will do things never done before — things never created anywhere on earth or among any nation. Everyone around you will see what Yahweh can do, because what I'm about to do with you will be awe-inspiring."

"Pay close attention to what I'm commanding you today. I'm going to drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites ahead of you."

"Be very careful not to make any treaty with the people living in the land you're entering, or they'll become a trap for you."

"Instead, tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles."

"Never bow down to any other god, because Yahweh — whose very name means 'Jealous' — is a God who is fiercely protective of what's his."

"Never make a treaty with the people living in the land. When they chase after their gods and offer sacrifices to them, they'll invite you, and you'll end up eating their sacrifice food."

"And then you'll take their daughters as wives for your sons, and when those daughters chase after their gods, they'll lead your sons to chase after them too."

"Don't make cast-metal gods for yourselves."

"Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, just as I told you — because that's when you came out of Egypt, in the month of Aviv."

"Every firstborn belongs to me — including every firstborn male from your livestock, whether cattle or sheep."

"You can buy back a firstborn donkey with a lamb. But if you don't buy it back, break its neck. Buy back every firstborn son. And no one should show up before me empty-handed."

"Work for six days, but on the seventh day, stop. Even during plowing season and harvest, stop."

"Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the first harvest of your wheat, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year."

"Three times a year, every male among you must appear before the Master, Yahweh, the God of Israel."

"When I drive out the nations ahead of you and expand your territory, no one will try to take your land while you're away appearing before Yahweh your God three times a year."

"Don't offer the blood of my sacrifice alongside anything with yeast in it, and don't let any of the Passover sacrifice be left over until morning."

"Bring the best of your first harvest to the house of Yahweh your God. And don't cook a young goat in its mother's milk."

Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Write down these words, because this binding agreement between me and you — and between me and Israel — is based on these exact words."

Moses stayed there with Yahweh for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water. And Yahweh wrote the words of the binding agreement on the tablets — the Ten Declarations.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai — carrying the two stone tablets of the agreement — he didn't realize that the skin of his face was radiating light because he had been talking with God.

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, they noticed the skin of his face was radiating light, and they were afraid to come near him.

But Moses called out to them. So Aaron and all the community leaders came back to him, and Moses spoke with them.

After that, all the Israelites came closer, and he gave them every command that Yahweh had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.

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

But whenever Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he would take off the veil until he came back out. Then he would come out and tell the Israelites whatever he'd been commanded.

The Israelites could see that Moses' face was radiating light. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until the next time he went in to speak with Yahweh.