When he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.
Parallel Translations
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When he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.
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And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
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And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of speaking with him upon mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Exodus 31:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 4:13 He declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even the ten commandments. He wrote them on two stone tablets.
- Exodus 32:15-16 Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides. They were written on one side and on the other. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
- Deuteronomy 5:22 Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me.
- Exodus 24:12 Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them.”
- Exodus 8:19 Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is God’s finger;” but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he didn’t listen to them, as Yahweh had spoken.
- 2 Corinthians 3:3 being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.
- Exodus 34:1-4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.” He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.
- Exodus 34:28-29 He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.
- Deuteronomy 9:9-11 When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which Yahweh made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. Yahweh delivered to me the two stone tablets written with God’s finger. On them were all the words which Yahweh spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly. It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that Yahweh gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant.
- Luke 11:20 But if I by God’s finger cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come to you.
- Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Matthew 12:28 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you.
- 2 Corinthians 3:7-8 But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face, which was passing away, won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory?
- Exodus 24:18 Moses entered into the middle of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Whereby he declared his will to his people.
Whereby he declared his will to his people.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he…
Exo 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Ver. 18. Written with the finger of God.] Of the Decalogue, above all other Holy Writ, God seems to say, as Paul, {Phm 1:19} "Behold, I have written it with mine own hand"; i.e., By mine own power and operation.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain i.e. The tables of the law, which was the…
i.e. The tables of the law, which was the witness of God’s will and Israel’s duty. See Exo 16:34.
Tables of stone; whereby was signified both the durable and perpetual obligation of the moral law, whereas the ceremonial law was to end with the Jewish polity at Christ’s coming; and the stoniness of men’s hearts by nature, in which the law of God could not be written but by a Divine and omnipotent hand.
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Written with the finger of God, i.e. with the power or Spirit of God, by comparing Mat 12:18; not by any art of man, but immediately by a Divine hand.
BC 1491
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he gave unto Moses, when he had made…
And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him on Mount Sinai,.... After all those laws, orders, and instructions before related, which having done, he ceased to converse with him any longer in that manner he had, and at parting gave him
two tables of testimony; the two tables of the law, which is a testimony of the will of God, and contained the duty of the Israelites both towards God and man, and are reducible to these two, love to God, and love to our neighbour: five of the commands of the decalogue were written on one table, and five on the other; or it may be rather four on one table, the first being the largest, and containing the duty owing to God, and six on the other, which regard the duty of men one to another; so Orpheus the Heathen poet, speaking of the law of Moses, calls it (s). "Tables of stone"; the Targum of Jonathan will have them to be of the sapphire stone, from the throne of glory; the paraphrast seems to have respect to Exo 24:10 and, with as little appearance of truth, says their weight was forty seahs; it is more probable they were of marble stone, of which there were great quantities in Mount Sinai. Dr. Shaw says (t) that part of Mount Sinai, which lies to the westward of the plain of Rephidim, consists of a hard reddish marble like "porphyry", but is distinguished from it by the representations of little trees and bushes, which are dispersed all over it. The naturalists call this sort of marble "embuscatum", or "bushy marble"; some think Sinai had its name from thence (u). This may denote the firmness, stability, and duration of the law, not as in the hands of Moses, from which these tables were cast and broke, but as in the hands of Christ, and laid up in him the ark of the covenant, the fulfilling end of the law for righteousness: and it may also figure the hardness of man's heart, which is destitute of spiritual life, obdurate and impenitent, stupid, senseless and ignorant, stubborn and inflexible, and not subject to the law of God, and on which no impressions can be made but by the power and grace of God:
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written with the finger of God: by God himself, and not by an angel, or by any creature or instrument: and it is by the finger of God, the Spirit, grace, and power of God, that the laws of God are put into the inward part, and written on the heart, to which the apostle refers, Co2 3:3. This account is given by way of transition to what is recorded in the next chapter.
(s) De Deo, "prope finem". (t) Travels, p. 443. (u) See Buxtorf. in voce
Next: Exodus Chapter 32
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain These tables of stone, were not prepared by Moses,…
These tables of stone, were not prepared by Moses, but probably by the ministry of angels. They were written with the finger of God - That is, by his will and power immediately, without the use of any instrument. They were written in two tables, being designed to direct us in our duty, towards God, and towards man. And they were called tables of testimony, because this written law testified the will of God concerning them, and would be a testimony against them if they were disobedient.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 18. When he had made an end of…
Verse 18. When he had made an end of communing] When the forty days and forty nights were ended.
Two tables of testimony] See Clarke on Ex 34:1.
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Tables of stone] That the record might be lasting, because it was a testimony that referred to future generations, and therefore the materials should be durable.
Written with the finger of God.] All the letters cut by God himself. Dr. Winder, in his History of Knowledge, thinks it probable that this was the first writing in alphabetical characters ever exhibited to the world, though there might have been marks or hieroglyphics cut on wood, stone, c., before this time see Ex 17:14. That these tables were written, not by the commandment but by the power of God himself, the following passages seem to prove: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mountain, and be thou there; and I will give thee tables of stone WHICH I HAVE WRITTEN, that thou mayest teach them;" Ex 24:12. "And he gave unto Moses, upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, WRITTEN WITH THE FINGER OF GOD;" Ex 31:18. "And Moses went down from the mount, and the two tables of testimony were in his hand; the tables were Written on both their sides. And the tables were THE WORK OF GOD, and the WRITING WAS THE WRITING OF GOD, graven upon the tables;" Ex 32:15-16. "These words [the ten commandments] the Lord spake in the mount, out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and he added no more, BUT HE WROTE THEM on two tables of stone;" De 5:22. It is evident therefore that this writing was properly and literally the writing of God himself. God wrote now on tables of stone what he had originally written on the heart of man, and in mercy he placed that before his eyes which by sin had been obliterated from his soul; and by this he shows us what, by the Spirit of Christ, must be rewritten in the mind, 2Co 3:3; and this is according to the covenant which God long before promised to make with mankind, Jer 31:33. See also what is said on this subject, Clarke's note, "Ex 20:1", and See Clarke on Ex 34:1; and "Ex 17:14".
"No time," says Dr. A. Bayley, "seems so proper from whence to date the introduction of letters among the Hebrews as this, for after this period we find continual mention of letters, reading, and writing, in the now proper sense of those words. See De 27:8; De 31:9. Moses, it is said, επαιδευθη, was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians - in all the learning they possessed; but it is manifest that he had not learned of them any method of writing, otherwise there had been no want of God's act and assistance in writing the two tables of the law, no need of a miraculous writing. Had Moses known this art, the Lord might have said to him, as he does often afterwards, Write thou these words; Ex 34:27. Write on the stones the words of this law; De 27:3. Write you this song for you; De 31:19. Perhaps it may be said, God's writing the law gave it a sanction. True; but why might it not also teach the first use of letters, unless it can be proved that they were in use prior to this transaction? It might be thought too much to assert that letters no more than language were a natural discovery; that it was impossible for man to have invented writing, and that he did not invent it: yet this may appear really the case from the following reflections: -
1. Reason may show us how near to an impossibility it was that a just and proper number of convenient characters for the sounds in language should naturally be hit upon by any man, for whom it was easy to imitate and vary, but not to invent.
2. From evidence of the Mosaic history, it appears that the introduction of writing among the Hebrews was not from man, but GOD.
3. There are no evident vestiges of letters subsisting among other nations till after the delivery of the law at Mount Sinai; nor then, among some, till very late."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Exo 31:18. He gave unto Moses the two tables…
Exo 31:18. He gave unto Moses the two tables of testimony — After his forty days’ stay upon the mount, God dismissed him, giving him the ten articles of the moral law, written upon two tables of stone, to be delivered to the people, and to be laid up in the ark, as the standing record of the divine will relating to the principal branches of their duty. In the most ancient times, it must be observed, laws were wont to be engraven upon tables of brass, marble, wood, &c. These tables of stone, it appears, were not prepared by Moses, but probably by the ministry of angels. They were written with the finger of God — That is, by his will and power immediately, without the use of any instrument. They were written in two tables, being designed to direct us in our duty toward God and toward man. They were called tables of testimony, because this written law testified the will of God concerning them, and would be a testimony against them, if they were disobedient.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Two tables of testimony - See Exo 25:16; Exo…
Two tables of testimony - See Exo 25:16; Exo 32:15.
The tables of stone which represented the covenant between Yahweh and His people, and which, when covered with the mercy-seat were to give the sanctuary its significance, are now delivered to Moses in accordance with the promise in Exo 24:12.
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The history of what relates to the construction of the sanctuary is here interrupted, and is taken up again in Exo 35:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Testimony, to inform men of their duty. --- Written,…
Testimony, to inform men of their duty. --- Written, not by Moses, or by any man, but by God himself, or by an angel. (Chap. xxxiv. 1.; Galatians iii. 19.) (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain tables of stone, written with the finger of God--containing…
tables of stone, written with the finger of God--containing the ten commandments (Exo 24:12), called "tables of testimony," because God testified His will in them.
Next: Exodus Chapter 32
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE TWO TABLES, Exo_31:18.
THE TWO TABLES, Exo_31:18.
18. Two tables of testimony — These were soon broken, (Exo_32:19,) and others were subsequently hewn, (Exo_34:1-4.) Their size must have been smaller than the dimensions of the ark in which they were deposited, and sufficiently small and light for Moses to carry in his hand. They were doubtless some two or three inches in thickness, to prevent their being easily broken; but they need not have been one foot square to contain all the words of the decalogue. See, further, note on Exo_32:15. The fact that they were written with the finger of God is no greater a miracle than that they should have been spoken “out of the midst of the fire.” Deu_4:12. But the ministry of angels may be assumed as one of the means by which these tables, as well as the utterance of the words, were produced. See note on Exo_20:1. The expression finger of God is simply an anthropomorphic way of designating the divine agency in the preparation of the tables, and is not designed to teach that the infinite Being has a physical “body or parts.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) The termination and crown of the entire conference…
THE TWO TABLES GIVEN.
(18) The termination and crown of the entire conference which Moses had held with God on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights (Exo_24:18) was the committal to his hands of the two tables of testimony which had been promised before the ascent into the mount was made (Exo_24:12), and which were pre-supposed in the entire arrangement of the sanctuary. The Court pre-supposed the tabernacle; the outer chamber of the tabernacle, or holy place, was a mere vestibule to the inner chamber, or holy of holies: the inner chamber was a receptacle for the ark; and the ark was a chest or coffer constructed to contain the Two Tables. The entire design having been laid down, it was a first step towards the carrying out of the design to put into the hands of Moses that treasure with a view to which all the directions concerning the tabernacle had been given.
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Two tables of testimony.—Rather, the two tables. The treasure which had been glanced at in Exo_25:21, and distinctly promised in Exo_24:12.
Written with the finger of God.—Comp. Exo_24:12, where God speaks of “commandments which He has written.” We must understand that the tables were inscribed by some supernatural process, and not by any human hand. The exact nature of the supernatural process is not revealed to us.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THE TABLES OF TESTIMONY. It had been assumed, in…
THE TABLES OF TESTIMONY. It had been assumed, in the directions given for the construction of the ark, that God would give, in some material form, a document to be called "the testimony," which was to be laid up inside it. (Exo_25:16) It is not too much to say that the tabernacle, with its various appurtenances, was constructed for this purpose; the rest of the tabernacle was designed with a view to the holy of holies the holy of holies was designed as a receptacle for the ark and the ark was designed as a receptacle for the tables of testimony. This section could, therefore, scarcely be concluded without some definite account of the document which was to give the ark and the tabernacle itself, its main significance.
When he had made an end of communing. Literally, "when he had finished speaking." Two tables. Rather, the two tablesi.e., the tables promised when he went up into the mount. (Exo_24:12) Of stone. Stone was the ordinary material on which Egyptian documents were engraved, both at the time of the Exodus, and before and after. They were, however, for the most part, either inscribed upon the natural rock, or engraved on the walls of temples or tombs. Inscriptions upon slabs of stone are rare, more especially in the early times, and would scarcely have occurred to Moses himself. Written with the finger of Godi.e. , "inscribed supernaturally not cut by any human hand. Compare Exo_32:16. It is idle to speculate on the exact mode of the Divine operation.
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HOMILETICS.
Ver. 18. The Tables of Testimony
were in many respects like the document impressed upon them. For instance, they were
I OF STONE, AND THEREFORE ENDURING AND WELL NIGH IMPERISHABLE. Few things are more enduring than some kinds of stone. Inscriptions exist, engraved on stone, which are certainly anterior to Abraham. No remains in metal go back so far. Gold and silver are, comparatively speaking, soft. Iron corrodes. Steel was unknown at the period. The material selected to receive the moral law was as nearly indestructible as possible. The tables may still exist, and may one day be discovered under the mounds of Babylon, or in the bed of the Euphrates. The character of the material was thus in harmony with the contents of the tables, consisting, as they did, of laws whereof no jot or tittle shall pass away till the fulfilment of all things. (Mat_5:18)
II WRITTEN WITH THE FINGER OF GOD. The stones had the laws engraved upon them by a Divine agency which is called "the finger of God." The laws themselves had been long previously written with the finger of God in the fleshly tables of men"s hearts. The Divine power, which was competent to do the one, could no doubt with can accomplish the other. The human heart is the most stubborn of all materials, and the most difficult to impress permanently.
III TWO-FOLD. Twin tables, alike in the main, but inscribed differently. So was the law of the tables two-fold containing
(1) man"s duty to God, and
(2) his duty to his neighbour.
It is uncertain how the Ten Commandments were divided between the two tables, but quite possible that the first four were written on one table, and the last six on the other. In that case the material division would have exactly corresponded to the spiritual.
IV WRITTEN ON BOTH THEIR SIDES. (Exo_32:15) So the moral law the law of the Decalogue is written both within and without the human heart presses externally upon men as a rule of right which they are constrained to obey, and approves itself to them from within, as one which the voice of conscience declares to be binding, apart from external sanction. The book seen in vision by Ezekiel (Eze_2:9) was "written within and without" (ib, 10), like the tables; but its entire contents were "lamentation, and mourning, and woe." The moral law, as convincing us of sin, has a painful side; but it sustains as much as it alarms, and produces as much effort as mourning.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Written with the finger of God.
Exo_31:18
Written with the finger of God.
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Gods writing
It is said of these tables that they were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. Some infidels have carped at this; and I must say it does seem to me as if it were not human finger, or human stylus, or pen, but God Himself that engraved it; but why should it be thought impossible for God to engrave upon stone? Have we not discovered that the lightning can carry our messages--that the lightning let go at London can print at Dover, as has been more recently shown--is it not found that the very rays of light themselves can engrave the most exquisite and intricate imagery; and should it be thought strange, then, that God should Himself engrave upon stone the Ten Commandments? The fact is, the higher we rise in scientific knowledge, the more we see how true this Book is, how worthy of God to write it, how dutiful in man to believe, and bless Him and rejoice in Him. (J. Cumming, D.D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain tables of stone
tables of stone
(See Scofield "Exo 20:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 written on by his own hand
written on by his own hand
This can be translated with an active verb. AT: "which Yahweh wrote on with his own hand" (See: Active or Passive)
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translationWords
God
Moses
Sinai
hand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 31:18 Normally, each party to a covenant received a…
31:18 Normally, each party to a covenant received a written copy of the terms of the covenant. So it may be that the two stone tablets were identical, one being God’s copy and the other the people’s copy, to be kept together in the Ark of the Covenant. • finger of God: See 34:28.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.