¹³ He proclaimed to you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep: the ten words,^[a] which he wrote on two stone tablets.^{(A) 14} At that time the Lord charged me to teach you the statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land you are about to cross into and possess.

Moses as Mediator. ²² These words the Lord spoke with a loud voice to your entire assembly on the mountain from the midst of the fire and the dense black cloud, and added no more. He inscribed them on two stone tablets and gave them to me.^(A)

¹¹ Then, at the end of the forty days and forty nights, when the Lord had given me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant,

¹⁸ Then, as before, I lay prostrate before the Lord for forty days and forty nights; I ate no food, I drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed in the sight of the Lord, doing wrong and provoking him.^(A)

^25 (A)Those forty days, then, and forty nights, I lay prostrate before the Lord, because he had threatened to destroy you.

¹⁰ Meanwhile I stayed on the mountain as I did before, forty days and forty nights, and once again the Lord listened to me. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you.

Moses on the Mountain. ¹² The Lord said to Moses: Come up to me on the mountain and, while you are there, I will give you the stone tablets^(A) on which I have written the commandments intended for their instruction. ¹³ So Moses set out with Joshua, his assistant, and went up to the mountain of God. ¹⁴ He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are with you. Anyone with a complaint should approach them.” ¹⁵ Moses went up the mountain. Then the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶ The glory of the Lord settled upon Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.^{(B) 17} To the Israelites the glory of the Lord was seen as a consuming fire on the top of the mountain.^{(C) 18} But Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up on the mountain. He was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.^(D)

²⁸ So Moses was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights,^(A) without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.