Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Exodus
Chapter 34: The Name of the LORD Proclaimed
After the golden calf, God renews the covenant in mercy. He calls Moses back up with two new tables of stone, and there, in answer to Moses' plea to see His glory, the LORD passes by and proclaims His own name: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth," who forgives iniquity yet "will by no means clear the guilty." Moses bows and worships, and pleads that God will go among His stiffnecked people and take them for His own. God renews the covenant, warning against every idol and unholy alliance, for "the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." Moses spends forty more days with God, and comes down with his face shining, so bright that he must veil it. Exodus 34 is a chapter about the glory of God's character, both merciful and just, the jealous love that will share His people with no rival, and the transforming power of beholding His glory.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Exodus chapter 34. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Chapter 34 renews the covenant after the golden calf, proclaims God's name of mercy and justice, and ends with Moses' shining face. It teaches the glory of God's character, the jealous love that tolerates no rival, and the transforming power of beholding His glory in Christ. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
Merciful and Just
God proclaims His own name, merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, yet by no means clearing the guilty.
A Jealous God
God renews the covenant and warns against every idol and alliance, for His very name is Jealous.
Renewed Devotion
The feasts and firstfruits are renewed, and God promises to guard the land of those who come to worship Him.
Beholding Glory
Moses comes down with his face shining from being with God, a glory so bright he must veil it.
The LORD Proclaimed His Name (Exodus 34:1-9)
God calls Moses up with new tables and, passing by, proclaims His own name, revealing His glory as a character of mercy and justice.
Merciful and Gracious
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount. And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. 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:"
Explanation
God commands Moses to hew "two tables of stone like unto the first," for the first he had broken, and to come up alone. There the LORD "descended in the cloud ... and proclaimed the name of the LORD." This was God's answer to Moses' plea, "shew me thy glory." God revealed His glory not as a blaze of power but as the character of His name: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Yet the same breath adds, "and that will by no means clear the guilty." God is overflowing with mercy, and He is perfectly just; He forgives, yet He does not treat sin as though it did not matter. This proclamation of the name became the most echoed description of God in all the Old Testament. Hearing it, Moses "made haste, and bowed his head ... and worshipped," and begged God to go among His people and pardon them.
Hebrew Study
"Merciful" is the Hebrew rachum, from rechem, the womb. It pictures the deep, tender compassion a mother feels for the child of her womb, God's yearning, protective love for His people. Joined to chanun, "gracious," it opens the proclamation of God's name with the warmth of His heart. The God who had every right to consume a rebellious people revealed Himself first as tender, compassionate, and gracious, slow to anger and full of steadfast love.
Gospel Focus
When Moses asked to see God's glory, God answered by proclaiming His name, "merciful and gracious ... forgiving iniquity ... and that will by no means clear the guilty." This is the glory of God: perfect mercy and perfect justice together. He is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy" (Psalm 103:8), yet He will not simply wave sin away. How can God both forgive iniquity and by no means clear the guilty? The answer is the cross. There God punished sin fully in Christ and freely forgives the sinner, "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). God does not clear the guilty by ignoring their guilt; He bore it Himself. So the very tension in this proclamation, mercy that forgives and justice that will not clear the guilty, finds its resolution at Calvary. Here is the glory Moses longed to see, and it shines brightest in the face of Jesus Christ, where mercy and justice meet, and the guilty are forgiven at the price of God's own blood.
Whose Name Is Jealous (Exodus 34:10-17)
God renews the covenant, promising marvels but warning His people to make no alliance with the nations and no idol, for He is a jealous God.
The LORD, Whose Name Is Jealous
"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."
Hebrew Study
As the covenant is renewed, God guards it with a name: "the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (qanna). His jealousy is not petty but the fierce faithfulness of a husband — He will share His people with no idol. So the warnings pile up against leagues with the land's peoples and their altars, groves, and "molten gods"; the God who has bound Himself to Israel will tolerate no rival in the covenant He has just restored.
Explanation
God renews His covenant: "Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels." He promises to drive out the nations, but He commands His people to keep themselves wholly for Him. They must "destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves," make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and not intermarry with them, lest their sons and daughters be drawn "a whoring after their gods." The reason is His very character: "thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." And plainly, "Thou shalt make thee no molten gods", no more golden calves. Having just fallen into idolatry, Israel is warned in the strongest terms to guard against every path back into it, the idol, the alliance, the marriage that would turn their hearts away. God's jealousy is not petty; it is the rightful jealousy of a husband for a wife He loves.
Gospel Focus
"The LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." God's jealousy flows from His love; because He loves His people wholly, He will not share them with a rival. This is not the insecure jealousy of a small heart but the holy jealousy of a faithful husband. And notice how God warns Israel to guard against idolatry, not only the idol itself, but the alliances and marriages that lead to it. Sin rarely announces itself; it comes through the friendship, the partnership, the union that slowly turns the heart. This is why Scripture warns, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 6:14). The way to keep from the calf is to keep from the paths that lead to it. God calls His people to a jealous, whole-hearted devotion that tears down every idol and refuses every union that would divide the heart. He is worthy of all our love, and He will not be content with a portion of it. Give Him no rival, for His name is Jealous, and His love is complete.
Thrice in the Year (Exodus 34:18-26)
God renews the feasts, the firstfruits, and the sabbath, and promises to guard the land of those who leave it to come and worship Him.
Neither Shall Any Man Desire Thy Land
"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."
Hebrew Study
The renewed covenant restores the rhythm of grateful worship: the feast of unleavened bread, the firstfruits, the ingathering, and the claim that "all that openeth the matrix is mine." "None shall appear before me empty." After the calf, worship is re-founded not on the people's vows (which failed) but on God's mercy and His appointed seasons — and again comes the tender line, "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.
Explanation
As part of the renewed covenant, God restores the rhythm of worship: the feast of unleavened bread, the claiming of the firstborn, the sabbath rest even "in earing time and in harvest," the feast of weeks, and the feast of ingathering. Three times a year all the men of Israel were to appear before the LORD. And God adds a remarkable promise for their obedience: while they left their homes and fields undefended to travel and worship, "neither shall any man desire thy land." God Himself would guard what they left behind when they went to seek Him. Worship would cost them nothing they could not trust God to protect. The renewed covenant restored not only the law but the joyful rhythm of coming before God, and wrapped it in the promise of His care.
Gospel Focus
The promise, "neither shall any man desire thy land," when the people left everything to appear before God, is a beautiful assurance for all who put worship first. Israel might have feared that leaving their fields three times a year would invite raiders; God promised to guard their homes while they sought Him. So the Lord honors those who seek first His kingdom, "and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). We never lose by putting God first. What we surrender to worship and obey Him, He keeps; what we entrust to Him while we seek His face, He guards. The renewed rhythm of the feasts also reminds us that a life with God has a shape, appointed times to gather, to remember, and to rejoice. After the failure of the calf, God graciously restored His people to worship, and He restores us too. Put the seeking of God first, trust Him with all you leave to do it, and find that He guards what you cannot.
The Skin of His Face Shone (Exodus 34:27-35)
After forty days with God, Moses comes down with his face shining so brightly that the people are afraid, and he veils it when he is not before the LORD.
Moses Wist Not That His Face Shone
"And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh: and he gave them in commandment all that the LORD had spoken with him in mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face. But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the vail off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the vail upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him."
Explanation
Moses was with the LORD "forty days and forty nights," neither eating bread nor drinking water, sustained by God's presence, and there he wrote the words of the covenant. When he came down carrying the tables, "the skin of his face shone," yet "Moses wist not" it did, he did not know he was glowing. The glory of God he had been near had left its light on his face. Aaron and the people were "afraid to come nigh him," so bright was the reflected glory. Moses spoke to them the words God had given, and afterward "put a vail on his face." Whenever he went back in before the LORD he removed the veil, and came out shining again; but before the people he covered his face. The man who had been in the presence of God carried the evidence of it in a light he could not see himself, but everyone else could.
Hebrew Study
The word for "shone," Hebrew qaran, means to send out rays or beams of light, and is related to the word for a horn, since rays were pictured shooting out like horns of light. Moses' face radiated the borrowed glory of God like beams of light. He did not generate it; he reflected it, having been in the presence of the One who is light. The nearer a life comes to God, the more it shines with a glory that is not its own.
Gospel Focus
Moses' shining face teaches that time in the presence of God transforms us, and the New Testament unfolds its full meaning. Paul says Moses veiled his face because the glory of the old covenant was fading, and the people could not see it pass away. But the new covenant has a greater, unfading glory, and in it the vail "is done away in Christ" (2 Corinthians 3:14). Now, Paul says, "we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Moses' face shone with a fading glory he had to hide; the believer, gazing on the unveiled glory of God in Christ, is transformed into that same image, from glory to glory, a glory that grows rather than fades. And notice that Moses "wist not" his face shone; the truly God-marked life is often the last to know its own radiance, for it is not self-conscious but God-conscious. Spend time in the presence of God, behold His glory with unveiled face, and you will come away changed, shining with a light that is not your own, drawing others to the God whose glory rests upon you.
Chapter 34 in Review
Exodus 34 renews the covenant after the golden calf. God calls Moses up with two new tables and proclaims His own name, "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth," who forgives iniquity yet "will by no means clear the guilty." Moses worships and pleads for the people. God renews the covenant, warning against every idol, alliance, and marriage that would turn the heart, for "the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." He restores the feasts and promises to guard the land of those who come to worship. Moses spends forty days with God and comes down with his face shining so brightly that he must veil it.
For the Apostolic reader, this chapter reveals the glory of God's character. His name is mercy and justice together, and the tension of forgiving iniquity while by no means clearing the guilty is resolved only at the cross, where God is both just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. His jealousy is the holy love that will share His people with no rival, and calls us to tear down every idol and refuse every unequal yoke. His grace restores the fallen to worship and guards all we entrust to Him. And Moses' shining, fading glory gives way to the greater glory of the new covenant, where with unveiled face we behold the glory of the Lord and are changed into His image, from glory to glory. Behold the God whose name is mercy and justice, give Him no rival, and be transformed by His presence.
- God's glory is His name and character: merciful and just, forgiving iniquity yet by no means clearing the guilty (34:6-7; Psalm 103:8).
- That tension is resolved at the cross, where God is just and the justifier of those who believe (34:7; Romans 3:26).
- God's jealousy is the holy love that tolerates no rival and warns against every path to idolatry (34:14; 2 Corinthians 6:14).
- God guards what we entrust to Him when we put worship first (34:24; Matthew 6:33).
- Time in God's presence transforms us; the new covenant's unveiled glory changes us from glory to glory (34:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
Questions for Reflection
- God's name is merciful and just. Do you rest in a mercy that also honored justice at the cross?
- God's name is Jealous. Is there a rival, an idol, alliance, or unequal yoke, dividing your heart from Him?
- Moses shone from being with God, and did not know it. Are you spending enough time in His presence to be changed by it?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). "Merciful" (Hebrew rachum) is rooted in rechem, the womb, picturing tender, motherly compassion, and "shone" (Hebrew qaran) means to send out rays or beams of light, as any Bible reference confirms. The proclamation of God's name in verses 6 and 7 is echoed throughout the Old Testament. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The proclamation of God's name: Exodus 34:1-9; Psalm 103:8; Romans 3:26.
- The jealous God and the renewed covenant: Exodus 34:10-17; 2 Corinthians 6:14.
- The feasts and God's guarding: Exodus 34:18-26; Matthew 6:33.
- Moses' shining face and the greater glory: Exodus 34:27-35; 2 Corinthians 3:14, 18.