Section 105 of 12734:10–28Exodus

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King James VersionExodus 34:10–28

And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt.

All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male.

But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty.

Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.

And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.

Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.

For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.

Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.

The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.

Scripture text: King James Version, Standardized 1769 text. Public domain in the United States.About this Bible text

Exodus 34:10–28

A Renewed Covenant Demands Exclusive Worship

A covenant of marvels, jealousy, and no molten gods

God makes a covenant: marvels not done in all the earth; the people will see a terrible work. He will drive out the six peoples. Israel must make no covenant with the land's inhabitants, lest it be a snare; they are to destroy altars, break images, cut down groves. They shall worship no other god; the LORD whose name is Jealous is a jealous God. Covenant, sacrifice, and daughters of the land are named as paths into shared worship. 'Thou shalt make thee no molten gods' answers the calf directly.

Calendar, firstborn, rest, writing, forty days

Unleavened bread in Abib, firstlings the LORD's, firstborn sons redeemed, no empty appearance, sabbath even in plowing and harvest, weeks and ingathering, males appearing three times, borders enlarged so no one desires their land while they appear, no leaven with sacrificial blood, firstfruits, and the kid not seethed in its mother's milk. Moses is to write these words; after their tenor God has made a covenant with him and with Israel. He is there forty days and nights, neither eating nor drinking, and he writes on the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Renewal repeats exclusive worship, feasts, firstborn, and rest, now after rupture. Dispossession and image-breaking belong to this horizon and still must not be transferred onto modern peoples. The written ten words close a second forty-day stay.

How this should shape us

After failure, rewrite the terms you actually broke—here, molten gods—without using jealousy language to authorize a purge of neighbors. Keep rest in busy seasons, redeem firstborns, and put the words in writing again.

Teach it back

Explain Exodus 34:10–28 in your own words. Include both movements, its place in Exodus, one historical or compositional uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one conclusion the complete context rules out.

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Go deeper

The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.

Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

Best judgment: Careful interpreters agree that the received text states the following: Covenant wonders and land promises accompany commands against treaties and rival worship, calendar and firstborn practices, and a forty-day inscription of covenant words. They disagree over source layers, date, historical recovery, archaeology, Hebrew details, ritual development, legal use, and canonical relationship in different proportions; this study treats the final form directly while marking those alternatives as probable or uncertain rather than settled fact.

How certain? probable

Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exodus 34:10–28, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Exodus

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech, law, ritual vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Exod.xml, words and morphology for 34:10–28

NET Bible: Exodus with translators' notes

Supports: Unit-bounded Hebrew, syntax, lexical, textual, name, measure, legal, ritual, and older-English notes; silence is not evidence.

NET Bible Exodus PDF, complete 127-page PDF, translation and verse-attached translator notes for 34:10–28

Crossing of the Sea Study Guide

Supports: Sea-name and route uncertainty, poetry and prose relationships, historical limits, divine-war imagery, and liberation reception.

Yale Bible Study, 'Crossing of the Sea,' complete study guide pp. 1–5, sections on yam sup, the hymn, prose sources, history, and liberation reception; applied to Exodus 34:10–28

Sinai Study Guide

Supports: Mountain location uncertainty, covenant and treaty comparison, source plurality, mediation, Decalogue, covenant blood, and priestly dwelling instruction.

Yale Bible Study, 'Sinai,' complete study guide pp. 1–6, covenant, Moses and the mountain, Decalogue, Exodus 24, and tabernacle framing; applied to Exodus 34:10–28

Exodus Introduction Study Guide

Supports: Book movement, historicity and archaeology limits, literary plurality, final-form reading, and Exodus's place in Torah.

Yale Bible Study, Exodus Introduction study guide, pp. 1–6: 'Exodus and the Patriarchs,' 'The Historicity of the Exodus,' 'The Sources in Exodus,' and 'The Book of Exodus'

Sources for This Section

These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: Exodus 34:10–28, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Exodus

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech, law, ritual vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Exod.xml, words and morphology for 34:10–28

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Exodus with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2026-08-12

Supports: Unit-bounded Hebrew, syntax, lexical, textual, name, measure, legal, ritual, and older-English notes; silence is not evidence.

Exact location: NET Bible Exodus PDF, complete 127-page PDF, translation and verse-attached translator notes for 34:10–28

Open source ↗

open university course study guide

Crossing of the Sea Study Guide

Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins

Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition

Supports: Sea-name and route uncertainty, poetry and prose relationships, historical limits, divine-war imagery, and liberation reception.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Crossing of the Sea,' complete study guide pp. 1–5, sections on yam sup, the hymn, prose sources, history, and liberation reception; applied to Exodus 34:10–28

Open source ↗

open university course study guide

Sinai Study Guide

Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins

Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition

Supports: Mountain location uncertainty, covenant and treaty comparison, source plurality, mediation, Decalogue, covenant blood, and priestly dwelling instruction.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Sinai,' complete study guide pp. 1–6, covenant, Moses and the mountain, Decalogue, Exodus 24, and tabernacle framing; applied to Exodus 34:10–28

Open source ↗

open university course study guide

Exodus Introduction Study Guide

Joel S. Baden and John J. Collins

Yale Bible Study, 2019 course edition

Supports: Book movement, historicity and archaeology limits, literary plurality, final-form reading, and Exodus's place in Torah.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Exodus Introduction study guide, pp. 1–6: 'Exodus and the Patriarchs,' 'The Historicity of the Exodus,' 'The Sources in Exodus,' and 'The Book of Exodus'

Open source ↗

Exodus 34:10–28, King James Version

A covenant of marvels, jealousy, and no molten gods

Calendar, firstborn, rest, writing, forty days

How this should shape us

Teach it back

Go deeper

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Exodus

NET Bible: Exodus with translators' notes

Crossing of the Sea Study Guide

Sinai Study Guide

Exodus Introduction Study Guide