New Stone Tablets
The Lord tells Moses to prepare new tablets and an ark, then writes again the words first given at Sinai. Moses receives the tablets, brings them down, and places them in the ark as commanded.
A1t that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.” 3So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me, 5and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained.
The account briefly notes the people’s journey, Aaron’s death, Eleazar’s succession, and the setting apart of Levi to carry the ark, serve before the Lord, and bless in His name. Levi’s inheritance is the Lord Himself rather than tribal land.
6The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. 7From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. 8At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day. 9That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him.
Moses remembers remaining on the mountain forty days and nights, where the Lord listens again and does not destroy Israel. The Lord then sends the people forward to possess the land sworn to their fathers.
10I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you. 11Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.”