Exodus 34:11-28

Easy-to-Read Version

¹¹ Obey what I command you today, and I will force your enemies to leave your land. I will force out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ¹² Be careful! Don’t make any agreement with the people who live in the land where you are going. If you make an agreement with them, it will bring you trouble. ¹³ So destroy their altars, break the stones they worship, and cut down their idols.^{[a] 14} Don’t worship any other god. I am Yahweh Kanah—the jealous Lord. That is my name. I hate for my people to worship other gods.^[b]

¹⁵ “Be careful not to make any agreements with the people who live in that land. If you do this, you might join them when they worship their gods. They will invite you to join them, and you will eat their sacrifices. ¹⁶ You might choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons. Those daughters serve false gods. They might lead your sons to do the same thing.

¹⁷ “Don’t make idols.

¹⁸ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days, eat the bread made without yeast as I commanded you before. Do this during the month I have chosen, the month of Abib, because that is the month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ “A woman’s first baby always belongs to me. Even the first animals that are born from your cattle or sheep belong to me. ²⁰ If you want to keep a donkey that is the first born, then you can buy it with a lamb. But if you don’t buy that donkey with a lamb, you must break the donkey’s neck. You must buy back all of your firstborn sons from me. No one should come before me without a gift.

²¹ “You will work for six days, but on the seventh day you must rest. You must rest even during the times of planting and harvesting.

²² “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest. Use the first grain from the wheat harvest for this festival. And in the fall^[c] celebrate the Festival of Shelters.

²³ “Three times each year all your men must go to be with the Lord God, the God of Israel.

²⁴ “When you go into your land, I will force your enemies out of that land. I will expand your borders—you will get more and more land. You will go before the Lord your God three times each year. At that time no one will try to take your land from you.

²⁵ “When you kill an animal and offer its blood as a sacrifice, you must not include anything that has yeast in it.

“Don’t let any of the meat from the Passover meal remain until morning.

²⁶ “Give the Lord the very first crops that you harvest. Bring them to the house^[d] of the Lord your God.

“Never cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write everything that I have told you. This is the agreement that I made with you and the Israelites.”

²⁸ Moses stayed there with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. Moses did not eat any food or drink any water. And he wrote the words of the agreement (the Ten Commandments) on the two stone tablets.