Exodus 34:18 → Exodus 23:15

Exodus 34:18 restates Exodus 23:15 lemma for lemma and in the same order: שָׁמַר (shamar, "keep"), חַג (chag, "feast"), מַצּוֹת (matstsot, "unleavened bread"), the מוֹעֵד (mo'ed, "appointed time") in the month of אָבִיב (Abib), the seven days of eating (אָכַל, akal), and the ground of the whole command — "you came out (יָצָא, yatsa') of Egypt (מִצְרַיִם, Mitsrayim)." Even the deferring clause "as I commanded you" (כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִךְ, ka'asher tsivvitikha) is carried across, so that the renewed covenant quotes the broken covenant quoting the exodus itself. The one element 34:18 withholds is 23:15's closing line, "No one may appear before Me empty-handed" (רֵיקָם, reqam) — and Exodus 34:20 restores it word for word two verses later. What makes the repetition weighty is where it stands. This is the first festal legislation God gives after the golden calf, after the tablets were smashed and Israel was told the LORD would not go up in their midst. It is not a reduced covenant or a probationary one. It is the same law, handed back whole to a people who had just proved they could not keep it. The exodus month is still their month; the memorial still stands in their calendar. Israel's claim on that feast never rested on their fidelity, and Exodus 34 makes the point simply by repeating itself. This is why the feast could survive the calf, and why the greater Passover can be offered for covenant-breakers rather than merely to the faithful: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). A God who hands the feast back to the people who broke it is a God worth feasting with.