Exodus 32:16

32:16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

Exodus 34:1

The New Tablets of the Covenant

34:1 ¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out ²  two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write ³  on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.

Exodus 32:19

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ⁴  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ⁵ 

Exodus 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ⁶  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ⁷ 

[34:1]  ¹ sn The restoration of the faltering community continues in this chapter. First, Moses is instructed to make new tablets and take them to the mountain (1-4). Then, through the promised theophany God proclaims his moral character (5-8). Moses responds with the reiteration of the intercession (8), and God responds with the renewal of the covenant (10-28). To put these into expository form, as principles, the chapter would run as follows: I. God provides for spiritual renewal (1-4), II. God reminds people of his moral standard (5-9), III. God renews his covenant promises and stipulations (10-28).

[34:1]  ² tn The imperative is followed by the preposition with a suffix expressing the ethical dative; it strengthens the instruction for Moses. Interestingly, the verb “cut out, chisel, hew,” is the same verb from which the word for a “graven image” is derived – פָּסַל (pasal).

[34:1]  ³ tn The perfect tense with vav consecutive makes the value of this verb equal to an imperfect tense, probably a simple future here.

[32:19]  ¹ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ² sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.

[34:28]  ¹ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ² tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.