Christian Life

Truly, truly, I say to you that Moses broke the Tables of the Law in anger at the sight of the idolatrous people, then returned to the mountain, prayed, worshipped and obtained mercy. Recalling what we read in Exodus, chapters 32 to 34.

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Book of Exodus, 32-34

Ex 32-34:

(Chapter 32) When the people saw that Moses was slow to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him: "Come, make us a god who will go before us. For as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him." Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings that are in the ears of your wives, sons and daughters, and bring them to me." Everyone took off the gold rings they had in their ears, and they brought them to Aaron. He received them from their hands, fashioned the gold with a chisel, and made a cast-iron calf out of it. And they said, "Israel, this is your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before the image, and cried out, "Tomorrow there will be a feast in honor of Yahweh." The next day, having risen early in the morning, they offered burnt offerings and presented peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and then they rose to enjoy themselves.

Yahweh said to Moses: "Go, come down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have behaved very badly. They soon turned aside from the way I had commanded them; they made themselves a molten calf, and worshipped it, and offered sacrifices to it, and said, Israel, this is your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." Yahweh said to Moses, "I see that this people is a stiff-necked people. 10Now leave them to me: let my anger burn against them and consume them! But I will make of you a great nation."

Moses implored Yahweh, his God, and said, "Why, Yahweh, should your anger be kindled against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt by great power and a strong hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'He brought them out for their own hurt, to destroy them in the mountains and to destroy them from the earth? Return from the fierceness of your anger, and repent of the evil you want to do to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants, to whom you said, swearing by yourself, 'I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall possess it forever.'"

And Yahweh repented of the evil he had spoken of doing to his people. Moses returned and came down from the mountain, having in his hand the two tablets of the testimony, tablets written on their two sides; they were written on both sides. The tablets were God's work, and the writing was God's writing, engraved on the tablets. Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, and he said to Moses, "There is a battle cry in the camp!" Moses replied, "It's neither a noise of shouts of victory, nor a noise of shouts of defeat; I hear the voice of people singing." When he was near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger was kindled; he threw down the tablets with his hands and broke them at the foot of the Mountain. And taking the calf they had made, he burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured the powder on the water, and gave it to the children of Israel to drink.

Moses said to Aaron, "What has this people done to you that you have brought upon them such great sin?" Aaron replied: "Let not the anger of my lord be kindled! You yourself know that this people is inclined to evil. 23They said to me, 'Make us a god who will go before us; for as for this Moses, this man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. I said to them, "Let those who have gold strip themselves of it! They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out of it came this calf."

Moses saw that the people had no restraint, because Aaron had taken away all restraint from them, exposing them to become a laughingstock among their enemies. And Moses stood at the gate of the camp, and said, "Mine are those who are for Yahweh!" And all the children of Levi gathered to him. He said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Let each of you put his sword to his side; go through the camp again and again from gate to gate, and let each of you kill his brother, each of you his friend, each of you his kinsman!" The children of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people perished that day. Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, since every one of you has been against his son and his father, so that he may give you a blessing today."

The next day, Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. And now I will go up to Yahweh: perhaps I will obtain forgiveness for your sin." Moses returned to Yahweh and said, "Ah! this people has committed a great sin! They have made themselves a god of gold. Now forgive their sin; if not, erase me from your book that you have written." Yahweh said to Moses: "It is he who has sinned against me whom I will blot out of my book. Go now, lead the people where I have told you. Behold, my angel will go before you, but on the day of my visitation I will punish them for their sin." Thus Yahweh smote the people, because they had made the calf that Aaron had made.

(Chapter 33) Yahweh said to Moses, "Go, depart from here, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt; go up to the land I promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants. I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Chananean, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, so as not to destroy you on the way."

Hearing these harsh words, the people mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people; if I went up among you for a moment, I would destroy you. And now remove your ornaments from over you, and I will know what I have to do to you." 6The children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, right from Mount Horeb.

Moses took the tent and pitched it for himself outside the camp at some distance; he called it the tent of meeting; and whoever sought Yahweh, went to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. And when Moses went to the tent, all the people rose, each standing at the entrance of the tent, and they followed Moses with their eyes, until he entered the tent. As soon as Moses had entered the tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the entrance of the tent, and Yahweh spoke with Moses. And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent; and all the people arose, and every man bowed down at the entrance of his tent. And Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses returned to the camp; but his servant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the midst of the tent.

Moses said to Yahweh: "You say to me: Bring up this people; and you do not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you said, 'I know you by name, and you have found favor in my sight. And now, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways, that I may know you, that I may find favor in your sight. Consider that this nation is your people." Yahweh replied, "My face will go with you, and I will give you rest." Moses said, "If your face does not come, do not send us away from here. How will it be known that I and your people have found favor in your eyes, if not that you will walk with us? This is what will distinguish me and your people from all the peoples on the face of the earth." Yahweh said to Moses, "I will still do what you ask, for you have found favor in my sight and I know you by name."

Moses said, "Show me your glory." Yahweh replied, "I will cause all my goodness to pass before you, and I will speak the name of Yahweh before you: for I show grace to whom I show grace, and mercy to whom I show mercy." Yahweh said, "You will not be able to see my face, for man cannot see me and live." Yahweh said, "Here is a place near me; you shall stand on the rock. When my glory passes, I will put you in the hollow of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed. Then I will withdraw my hand, and you will see me from behind; but my face shall not be seen."

(Chapter 34) Yahweh said to Moses: "Hew out two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets you broke. Be ready for tomorrow, and go up to Mount Sinai in the morning, and stand there before me on the top of the mountain. Let no one go up with you, and let no one show himself anywhere on the mountain, and let neither sheep nor oxen graze on the side of this mountain." So Moses cut two tables of stone like the first ones; and rising early, he went up Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him; and he took the two tables of stone in his hand.

Yahweh came down in the cloud, stood there with him and spoke the name of Yahweh. And Yahweh passed before him and cried out, "Yahweh! Yahweh! Merciful and compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness, who preserves his grace to a thousand generations, who forgives iniquity, rebellion and sin; but he does not leave them unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children's children to the third and fourth generation!" Immediately Moses bowed to the ground and worshipped, 9saying, "If I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, deign the Lord to walk among us, for they are a stiff-necked people; forgive our iniquities and our sins, and take us for your inheritance."

Yahweh said, "Behold, I make a covenant: in the presence of all your people I will do wonders that have not taken place in any land or among any nation; and all the people around you will see the work of Yahweh, for terrible are the things I will do with you.

Take heed to what I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Chananean, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Beware of making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are marching, lest they be a snare in your midst. 13But you shall overthrow their altars, break their pillars and cut down their Asherim. You shall worship no other god; for Yahweh is called the jealous one, he is a jealous God. So do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they invite you in and you eat of their victims; lest you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters, prostituting themselves to their gods, cause your sons also to prostitute themselves to their gods.

You shall not make gods of molten metal.

You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread: for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of abib, for in the month of abib you came out of Egypt.

Every firstborn male of your flocks, whether ox or sheep, is mine. You shall redeem the donkey's firstborn with a lamb; and if you do not redeem it, you shall break its neck. You shall redeem every firstborn of your sons, and they shall not come before me empty-handed.

Six days thou shalt labor, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest, even in the time of plowing and harvesting.

You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, of the first wheat harvest, and the Feast of Harvest at the end of the year.

Three times a year, all the males will present themselves before the Lord, Yahweh, God Israel. For I will drive out the nations from before you and extend your borders; and no one shall covet your land while you go up to present yourself before Yahweh, your God, three times a year.

You shall not offer the blood of my victim with leavened bread, and the sacrifice of the Passover feast shall not be kept overnight until morning.

You shall bring the first-fruits of the first-fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God.

You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

Yahweh said to Moses, "You write these words; for according to these words I make a covenant with you and with Israel."

And Moses was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights, neither eating bread nor drinking water. And Yahweh wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

Moses came down from Mount Sinai; Moses had the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain; and Moses did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant as he spoke with Yahweh. Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face glowed; and they feared to approach him. Moses called them, and Aaron and all the princes of the congregation came to him, and he spoke to them. Then all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commands he had received from Yahweh on Mount Sinai.

When Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. When Moses entered before Yahweh to speak with him, he took off the veil, until he came out; then he went out and told the children of Israel what he had been commanded. 35The children of Israel saw Moses' face, they saw that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; and Moses put the veil back on his face, until he entered to speak with Yahweh.