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Read the Bible

Christian Standard Bible ®

Exodus 34:30

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Countenance;   Face;   God;   Miracles;   Moses;   Reverence;   Transfiguration;   Thompson Chain Reference - Face;   Light-Darkness;   Shining Faces;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Glory;   Moses;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Horn;   Moses;   Stephen;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Exodus, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Exodus;   Hexateuch;   Law;   Moses;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Transfiguration (2);   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Sinai;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Moses;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - On to Canaan;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Covenant, the New;   Transfiguration;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Holiness;   Moses;   Moses ben Isaiah Ha-Kohen;   Tables of the Law;   Veil;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
When Aharon and all the children of Yisra'el saw Moshe, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
King James Version
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
Lexham English Bible
And Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, and, to their amazement, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid of coming near to him.
New Century Version
When Aaron and all the people of Israel saw that Moses' face was shining, they were afraid to go near him.
New English Translation
When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to approach him.
Amplified Bible
When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.
New American Standard Bible
So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And Aaron and all the children of Israel looked vpon Moses, and beholde, the skin of his face shone bright, and they were afraid to come neere him)
Legacy Standard Bible
Then Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
Contemporary English Version
When Aaron and the others looked at Moses, they saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him.
Complete Jewish Bible
When Aharon and the people of Isra'el saw Moshe, the skin of his face was shining; and they were afraid to approach him.
Darby Translation
And Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
Easy-to-Read Version
Aaron and all the people of Israel saw that Moses' face was shining bright. So they were afraid to go near him.
English Standard Version
Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
George Lamsa Translation
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses face, behold, the skin of Moses face shone; and they were afraid to come near to him.
Good News Translation
Aaron and all the people looked at Moses and saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him.
Literal Translation
And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses. And, behold! The skin of his face had become luminous. And they were afraid to draw near to him.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And wha Aaron & all the childre of Israel sawe yt the skynne of his face shyned, they were afrayed to come nye him.
American Standard Version
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
Bible in Basic English
But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for fear.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Aaron and all the chyldren of Israel looked vpon Moyses: and beholde, the skynne of his face shone, and they were afrayde to come nye hym.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face sent forth beams; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
King James Version (1611)
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skinne of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And Aaron and all the elders of Israel saw Moses, and the appearance of the skin of his face was made glorious, and they feared to approach him.
English Revised Version
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.
Berean Standard Bible
Aaron and all the Israelites looked at Moses, and behold, his face was radiant. And they were afraid to approach him.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe Aaron and the sones of Israel sien Moises face horned,
Young's Literal Translation
and Aaron seeth -- all the sons of Israel also -- Moses, and lo, the skin of his face hath shone, and they are afraid of coming nigh unto him.
Update Bible Version
And when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, look, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
Webster's Bible Translation
And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him.
World English Bible
When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.
New King James Version
So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
New Living Translation
So when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses' face, they were afraid to come near him.
New Life Bible
When Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, they saw that the skin of his face was shining. They were afraid to come near him.
New Revised Standard
When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and lo! the skin of his face shone, and they stood in awe of drawing nigh unto him.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near.
Revised Standard Version
And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.

Contextual Overview

28Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat food or drink water. He wrote the Ten Commandments, the words of the covenant, on the tablets. 29As Moses descended from Mount Sinai—with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands as he descended the mountain—he did not realize that the skin of his face shone as a result of his speaking with the Lord. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face shone! They were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called out to them, so Aaron and all the leaders of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he commanded them to do everything the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34But whenever Moses went before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil until he came out. After he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35and the Israelites would see that Moses’s face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went to speak with the Lord.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

afraid: Numbers 12:8, Mark 9:3, Mark 9:15, Luke 5:8

Reciprocal: Exodus 34:35 - General Ecclesiastes 8:1 - a man's

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will make you into a great nation,I will bless you,I will make your name great,and you will be a blessing.
Genesis 12:12
When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live.
Genesis 13:7
and there was quarreling between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (At that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land.)
Genesis 34:5
Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent until they returned.
Genesis 34:7
Jacob’s sons returned from the field when they heard about the incident and were deeply grieved and very angry. For Shechem had committed an outrage against Israel by raping Jacob’s daughter, and such a thing should not be done.
Genesis 34:13
But Jacob’s sons answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully because he had defiled their sister Dinah.
Genesis 34:14
“We cannot do this thing,” they said to them. “Giving our sister to an uncircumcised man is a disgrace to us.
Genesis 34:18
Their words seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem.
Genesis 34:20
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city.
Genesis 46:27
And Joseph’s sons who were born to him in Egypt: two persons.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses,.... Who very probably met him at the bottom of the mount; these Israelites with Aaron were the princes, as Aben Ezra seems rightly to interpret it, and as appears from the following verse; for Moses could not well be seen by the whole body of the people at once, upon his descent from the mount:

behold, the skin of his face shone; darted out rays of light and glory all around it, much perhaps in the same manner as the glory about our Lord, and others, is painted by the Romanists:

and they were afraid to come nigh him; there was something so majestic and striking in it; and perhaps they could not tell whether it foreboded good or evil to them; and this may signify, that as by the light of the law sin is discovered, it fills with a sense of wrath and fear of damnation; and being the ministration of condemnation and death, it is terrifying and killing, though it has a glory in it.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 34:30. They were afraid to come nigh him. — A sight of his face alarmed them; their consciences were still guilty from their late transgression, and they had not yet received the atonement. The very appearance of superior sanctity often awes the guilty into respect.


 
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