Completion Of Yahweh's Intentions In Exodus 34:1-4 (Exodus 34:27-28).
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
Moses is now told to write down the words spoken to him before Yahweh, as a symbol of the re-established covenant. ‘After the tenor of -' looks back to a previous explanation, something that has been said or written previously (compare Genesis 43:7), again stressing that these are not original commandments.
‘And he was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.'
Moses again remained in the mountain for over a moon period (compare Exodus 24:18), sustained solely by God. Going without food and water for so long a period was a recipe for disaster, but Moses came out from the experience unharmed. He may well have been in a state of suspended animation for a part of the time. Deuteronomy 9:9 tells us that this fasting also occurred on his first period in the Mount.
This is in contrast with the time when, with the elders, he had eaten and drunk before Yahweh (Exodus 24:11). This was no joyous celebration or covenant giving sealed by a covenant meal, but a solemn reception of revelation from God.
“ And he wrote on the tables the words of the covenant, the ten words.” The question here is, who is ‘he'. If we had been told nothing earlier we would read it as meaning Moses. But in Hebrew the antecedent can also refer to another who is mentioned as long as it is made clear in the context. And here it is made clear in the context. It is describing the fulfilment of Exodus 34:1 (see also Deuteronomy 10:2; Deuteronomy 10:4 which are very specific). Thus we must refer it back to ‘with Yahweh'. It was Yahweh who wrote on the tablets the ‘ten words' of the covenant, as He said He would in Exodus 34:1, and they were the same as those on the original tablets (Exodus 34:1). Moses was probably in a state of ecstasy, either watching the process or oblivious of it. (The verse must be interpreted in its present context, for that is the context in which it is found. Any previous theoretical context is irrelevant as we have no way of telling what the exact theoretical words were in that theoretical context).