Exodus 34 explained: Starting Over After the Golden Calf

New stone tablets (vv. 1-4)

Moses had broken the first tablets when the people worshiped a golden calf, so the agreement between God and Israel must begin again from the start. This time Moses carves the stones himself, and they were small enough for one man to carry up the mountain alone.

God describes himself (vv. 5-9)

God passes by Moses and names his own character: tender, generous, slow to anger and full of faithful love that reaches thousands, yet not leaving the guilty unpunished and punishing parents' wrongdoing on their children to the third and fourth generation. Moses bows and asks God to stay with this stubborn people and forgive them; this self-description is quoted again and again in later parts of the Bible.

Terms of the renewed covenant (vv. 10-17)

God promises to drive out the peoples of Canaan and forbids Israel to make treaties with them, marry into their families or join their worship. Israel is to tear down their altars, standing stones and the wooden poles honoring the goddess Asherah, because the LORD demands loyalty to no other god.

Festivals and first things (vv. 18-26)

Israel is to rest every seventh day even in busy farming seasons, and keep three yearly festivals: one remembering the escape from Egypt and two at the wheat and autumn harvests. Firstborn animals and sons belonged to God, so donkeys and sons were bought back with a substitute; the ban on cooking a young goat in its mother's milk has an unclear original reason that scholars still debate.

Forty days on the mountain (vv. 27-28)

Moses stays forty days without food or water, and the covenant words are written on the tablets. Verse 1 says God would do the writing, so most readers take the one who writes in verse 28 to be God, though the wording is unclear.

Moses' shining face (vv. 29-35)

Moses comes down with his face glowing from being in God's presence, and the people are afraid to come near. He covers his face with a veil, taking it off only to speak with God and to pass on God's words; Christians, following Paul, have read this glow as a passing glimpse of a glory they see more fully in Jesus.

Key verse: Exodus 34:6

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on how to read God's self-description in verses 6 and 7, especially whether the line about punishing children for their parents' wrongdoing means God directly punishes descendants or describes how wrongdoing carries on in families that keep repeating it.

Something to think about

When trust between people has been badly broken, what does it actually take to start again, and can a relationship be renewed without pretending the break never happened?