Ulangan 9:9-11

9:9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained there ¹  forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. 9:10 The Lord gave me the two stone tablets, written by the very finger ²  of God, and on them was everything ³  he ⁴  said to you at the mountain from the midst of the fire at the time of that assembly. 9:11 Now at the end of the forty days and nights the Lord presented me with the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

Ulangan 10:1-5

The Opportunity to Begin Again

10:1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. ⁵  10:2 I will write on the tablets the same words ⁶  that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.” 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia ⁷  wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 10:4 The Lord ⁸  then wrote on the tablets the same words, ⁹  the ten commandments, ¹⁰  which he ¹¹  had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he ¹²  gave them to me. 10:5 Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made – they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me.

Keluaran 24:12

24:12 ¹³ The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets ¹⁴  with ¹⁵  the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.” ¹⁶ 

Keluaran 31:18

31:18 He gave Moses two tablets of testimony when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, tablets of stone written by the finger of God. ¹⁷ 

Keluaran 34:28

34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; ¹⁸  he did not eat bread, and he did not drink water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. ¹⁹ 

Keluaran 34:2

34:2 Be prepared ²⁰  in the morning, and go up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and station yourself ²¹  for me there on the top of the mountain.

Kolose 3:7

3:7 You also lived your lives ²²  in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.

Ibrani 9:4

9:4 It contained the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered entirely with gold. In this ark ²³  were the golden urn containing the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.

[9:9]  ¹ tn Heb “in the mountain.” The demonstrative pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:10]  ² sn The very finger of God. This is a double figure of speech (1) in which God is ascribed human features (anthropomorphism) and (2) in which a part stands for the whole (synecdoche). That is, God, as Spirit, has no literal finger nor, if he had, would he write with his finger. Rather, the sense is that God himself – not Moses in any way – was responsible for the composition of the Ten Commandments (cf. Exod 31:18; 32:16; 34:1).

[9:10]  ³ tn Heb “according to all the words.”

[9:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise at the beginning of vv. 12, 13). See note on “he” in 9:3.

[10:1]  ⁵ tn Or “chest” (so NIV, CEV); NLT “sacred chest”; TEV “wooden box.” This chest was made of acacia wood; it is later known as the ark of the covenant.

[10:2]  ⁶ sn The same words. The care with which the replacement copy must be made underscores the importance of verbal precision in relaying the Lord’s commandments.

[10:3]  ⁷ sn Acacia wood (Heb “shittim wood”). This is wood from the acacia, the most common timber tree of the Sinai region. Most likely it is the species Acacia raddiana because this has the largest trunk. See F. N. Hepper, Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Plants, 63.

[10:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “according to the former writing.” See note on the phrase “the same words” in v. 2.

[10:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ten words.” The “Ten Commandments” are known in Hebrew as the “Ten Words,” which in Greek became the “Decalogue.”

[10:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[10:4]  ¹² tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” earlier in this verse.

[24:12]  ¹³ sn Now the last part is recorded in which Moses ascends to Yahweh to receive the tablets of stone. As Moses disappears into the clouds, the people are given a vision of the glory of Yahweh.

[24:12]  ¹⁴ sn These are the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments would be written. This is the first time they are mentioned. The commandments were apparently proclaimed by God first and then proclaimed to the people by Moses. Now that they have been formally agreed on and ratified, they will be written by God on stone for a perpetual covenant.

[24:12]  ¹⁵ tn Or “namely”; or “that is to say.” The vav (ו) on the noun does not mean that this is in addition to the tablets of stone; the vav is explanatory. Gesenius has “to wit”; see GKC 484-85 §154.a, n. 1(b).

[24:12]  ¹⁶ tn The last word of the verse is לְהוֹרֹתָם (lÿhorotam), the Hiphil infinitive construct of יָרָה (yarah). It serves as a purpose clause, “to teach them,” meaning “I am giving you this Law and these commands in order that you may teach them.” This duty to teach the Law will be passed especially to parents (Deut 6:6-9, 20-25) and to the tribe of Levi as a whole (Deut 33:9-10; Mal 2:1-9).

[31:18]  ¹⁷ sn The expression “the finger of God” has come up before in the book, in the plagues (Exod 8:15) to express that it was a demonstration of the power and authority of God. So here too the commandments given to Moses on stone tablets came from God. It too is a bold anthropomorphism; to attribute such a material action to Yahweh would have been thought provoking to say the least. But by using “God” and by stating it in an obviously figurative way, balance is maintained. Since no one writes with one finger, the expression simply says that the Law came directly from God.

[34:28]  ¹⁸ tn These too are adverbial in relation to the main clause, telling how long Moses was with Yahweh on the mountain.

[34:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the ten words,” though “commandments” is traditional.

[34:2]  ²⁰ tn The form is a Niphal participle that means “be prepared, be ready.” This probably means that Moses was to do in preparation what the congregation had to do back in Exod 19:11-15.

[34:2]  ²¹ sn The same word is used in Exod 33:21. It is as if Moses was to be at his post when Yahweh wanted to communicate to him.

[3:7]  ²² tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).

[9:4]  ²³ tn Grk “in which”; in the translation the referent (the ark) has been specified for clarity.