Exodus 34
15 Jun 2026 - Theology
A Second Set of Tablets
Ancient Eastern Weddings:
- Betrothal (Cup of the Covenant) - Genesis 12
- Groom leaves to prepare the house - Exodus 1-12
- Arrival of the bridegroom - Exodus 12
- Bride is consecrated - Exodus 19:10-15
- Shofar is sounded (bride’s entrance) - Exodus 19:16
- Gather under the chuppah - Exodus 19:17
- Presentation of the ketubah - Exodus 20-23
- Exchange of wedding gifts - Exodus 25-40, Leviticus
- Consummation of the marriage
- “Honeymoon” year (Deuteronomy 24:5)
If you remember Exodus 32, the people have just committed the sin of idolatry before God by their worship of the golden bull. In the context of a marriage between God and His people, this sin is akin to adultery! It would be as if a bride (God’s people) were caught in the act of adultery in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Thus the people were punished appropriately by Moses by having them drink the bitter water.
Exodus 34
What is interesting then, in this chapter, we see that the Lord wants to continue the covenant with His people, the bride, despite their sin!
Exodus 34:1 - “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.”
What kind of a God does this? This is the same God that we have seen all throughout our study so far, who walked through a blood path, put His bow in the clouds, and stood between Moses and the rock.
The Lord gives Moses a new set of Ten Commandments (Words), but this time they are a little bit different. Here’s one common way they are divided:
- You must not make a covenant with the Canaanites, and you must tear down their pillars and holy places. (11-16)
- You must not make molten gods. (17)
- You must observe the Feast of Matzot (Unleavened Bread) to remember leaving Egypt (18)
- Every first-born animal or son belongs to the Lord - it must either be brought as a sacrifice or redeemed. (19-20)
- Anyone coming to the Lord’s holy place must bring some kind of sacrifice. (20)
- You must rest on the Sabbath. (21)
- You must observe Shavout (Feast of Harvest, or Weeks) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), coming three times a year to worship before the Lord. (22-24)
- You must not offer the Passover sacrifice with anything but unleavened bread, and you must eat it all before morning comes. (25)
- You must bring the best of the first fruits of the harvest to the house of the Lord. (26)
- You shall not boil a kid (young goat) in its mother’s milk. (26)
Why are these “Ten Commands” different than the “Ten Words” we read in Exodus 20? Here is a great mystery. We can imagine the Torah’s final editor (the redactor, or R-teller) faced with the problem of having two different lists of ten commands, both traditional and well known. To fit them neatly into the puzzle, the R-teller placed the list called the “Ten Words” before the story of the golden calf, and the list called the “Ten Commands” here after it.
Moses was there with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights, and he did not have bread to eat or water to drink. (28)
Exodus 34:29-30 - “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.”
Moses did not know at first that his face was shining, and the people were afraid to come near him. So Moses put a veil over his face when speaking with them, and he took the veil off when speaking with the Lord. (33-35)
While Exodus 31 makes it seem as if God wrote down the words on the first set of tablets, here in Exodus 34 we see the Lord tell Moses to write the words on the second set of tablets (27-28). Is this change in physical authorship important?
References:
- The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
- The BEMA Podcast, Episode 22: Under the Chuppah
- The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)