Exodus 34 - Introduction

The Covenant Re-Established (Exodus 34:1).

We can analyse this passage as follows:

a The call by Yahweh to Moses to hew two tablets and be ready to come up into the mountain and present himself on the top of the mountain where Yahweh will ‘write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets' (Exodus 34:1).

b Moses' obedience to His command (Exodus 34:4).

c The Self-Proclamation of Yahweh as the One Who is merciful but does not clear the guilty (Exodus 34:5).

d The response of Moses to His proclamation which includes the thought that they are a stiffnecked people (Exodus 34:8).

e The fact that he is now renewing His covenant, accompanied by promises of the revelation of His power in achieving the success of His people (Exodus 34:10).

e The command to observe that covenant accompanied by a promise to drive out the Canaanites (Exodus 34:11).

d A warning against making any covenant with the Canaanites because of the awful consequences in idolatry and because Yahweh is named ‘Jealous' and is a jealous God (Exodus 34:12).

c A covenant codicil containing ten ritual requirements as selected from Exodus 20-23 (Exodus 34:17).

b Yahweh's command to Moses to, “Write these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel” (Exodus 34:27).

a Moses is with Yahweh in the mount for forty days and forty nights, and neither eats bread nor drinks water. ‘And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words' (Exodus 34:28).

We note here in ‘a' Yahweh's promise that He will write on the tablets the words of the previous covenant, and in the parallel the fulfilment of the promise. In ‘b' we have the description of Moses' preparation of the tablets and in the parallel the commandment to write on them the covenant. Note especially the parallel of the words in italics confirming that it was Yahweh Who wrote the words of the covenant, and it is specifically said that they were the same words as written previously. In ‘c' Yahweh's self-proclamation is paralleled by the ritual response required by His people. In ‘d' Moses' response of penitence and admission that Israel are a stiffnecked people is paralleled by the warning not to make any covenant with the Canaanites lest they provoke Him to jealousy. In ‘e' the renewing of the covenant is accompanied by an exhortation to observe that covenant.