Did Moses write the second set of Ten Commandments on tablets of stone?
This is a common misconception that can easily be cleared up when we take a close look at the following text (emphasis supplied throughout):
“So he was there with the Lord 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 Commandments.” Exodus 34:28
It may appear to some that the third “He” mentioned in this verse refers to Moses, and therefore, he may have written the second version of the Commandments on the tablets. However, we know that “He” mentioned in the second sentence of this verse refers to God as indicated clearly in the following verse:
“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.” Exodus 34:1
The record becomes even clearer when we get to Deuteronomy:
“‘And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you shall put them in the ark.’ So I made an ark of acacia wood, hewed two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain, having the two tablets in my hand. And He wrote on the tablets according to the first writing, the Ten Commandments, which the Lord had spoken to you in the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them to me.” Deuteronomy 10:2–4
The Scriptures make clear that God wrote both versions of the Ten Commandments. The only things God allowed Moses to write were the ceremonial laws and ordinances, separate from the Ten Commandments. These laws were written by the hand of Moses in a book as a witness against the children of Israel, and placed in a side compartment on the outside of the ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 31:24–26). The Bible clearly says that God wrote both versions of the Ten Commandments on stone with His finger (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10).