Exodus 19-20
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Israelites Reach Mount Sinai
19 On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2 They journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.(A) 3 Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the Israelites:(B) 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.(C) 5 Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine,(D) 6 but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.”(E)
7 So Moses went, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 The people all answered as one, “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.” Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.(F) 9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.”
The People Consecrated
When Moses had told the words of the people to the Lord,(G) 10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes(H) 11 and prepare for the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.(I) 12 You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Be careful not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Any who touch the mountain shall be put to death.(J) 13 No hand shall touch them, but they shall be stoned or shot with arrows;[a] whether animal or human being, they shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they may go up on the mountain.” 14 So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes. 15 And he said to the people, “Prepare for the third day; do not go near a woman.”
16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled.(K) 17 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now all of Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.(L) 19 As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in thunder.(M) 20 When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. 21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the Lord; otherwise many of them will perish.(N) 22 Even the priests who approach the Lord must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”(O) 23 Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not permitted to come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and keep it holy.’ ”(P) 24 The Lord said to him, “Go down, then come back up and bring Aaron with you, but do not let either the priests or the people break through to come up to the Lord; otherwise he will break out against them.” 25 So Moses went down to the people and told them.
The Ten Commandments
20 Then God spoke all these words,(Q)
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;(R) 3 you shall have no other gods before[b] me.(S)
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.(T) 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me(U) 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation[c] of those who love me and keep my commandments.(V)
7 “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.(W)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.(X) 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.(Y) 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.(Z)
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.(AA)
13 “You shall not murder.[d](AB)
14 “You shall not commit adultery.(AC)
15 “You shall not steal.(AD)
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.(AE)
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”(AF)
18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid[e] and trembled and stood at a distance(AG) 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”(AH) 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”(AI) 21 Then the people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.(AJ)
The Law concerning the Altar
22 The Lord said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites: You have seen for yourselves how I spoke with you from heaven.(AK) 23 You shall not make gods of silver alongside me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold.(AL) 24 You need make for me only an altar of earth and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your offerings of well-being, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.(AM) 25 But if you make for me an altar of stone, do not build it of hewn stones, for if you use a chisel upon it you profane it.(AN) 26 You shall not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.
Exodus 32-34
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Golden Calf
32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”(A) 2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.”(B) 3 So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took these from them, formed them in a mold,[a] and cast an image of a calf, and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”(C) 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” 6 They rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to revel.(D)
7 The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;(E) 8 they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ”(F) 9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.(G) 10 Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, and of you I will make a great nation.”(H)
11 But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?(I) 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.(J) 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”(K) 14 And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.(L)
15 Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, carrying the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, tablets that were written on both sides, written on the front and on the back.(M) 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets.(N) 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said,
“It is not the sound made by victors
or the sound made by losers;
it is the sound of singing that I hear.”
19 As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’s anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.(O) 20 He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.(P)
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”(Q) 22 And Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn hot; you know the people, that they are wicked.(R) 23 They said to me, ‘Make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’(S) 24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off’; so they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”(T)
25 When Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had lost control of them, prompting derision among their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Put your sword on your side, each of you! Go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.”(U) 28 The sons of Levi did as Moses commanded, and about three thousand of the people fell on that day. 29 Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of a son or a brother, and so have brought a blessing on yourselves this day.”
30 On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. But now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”(V) 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold.(W) 32 But now, if you will only forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of the book that you have written.”(X) 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.(Y) 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; see, my angel shall go in front of you. Nevertheless, when the day for punishment comes, I will punish them for their sin.”(Z)
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf—the one that Aaron had made.(AA)
The Command to Leave Sinai
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Go, leave this place, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’(AB) 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.(AC) 3 Go up[b] to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”(AD)
4 When the people heard these harsh words, they mourned, and no one put on ornaments.(AE) 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do to you.’ ” 6 Therefore the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
The Tent outside the Camp
7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.(AF) 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each of them, at the entrance of their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent.(AG) 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord[c] would speak with Moses.(AH) 10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tent. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp, but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.(AI)
Moses’s Intercession
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’(AJ) 13 Now if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider, too, that this nation is your people.”(AK) 14 He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”(AL) 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.”(AM)
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have asked, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”(AN) 18 Moses[d] said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord,’[e] and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.(AO) 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.”(AP) 21 And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; 23 then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”(AQ)
Moses Makes New Tablets
34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke.(AR) 2 Be ready in the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.(AS) 3 No one shall come up with you, and do not let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain, and do not let flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”(AT) 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the former ones, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “The Lord.”[f](AU) 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,(AV)
7 keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,[g]
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
but visiting the iniquity of the parents
upon the children
and the children’s children
to the third and the fourth generation.”(AW)
8 And Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped.(AX) 9 He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, my Lord, I pray, let my Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”(AY)
The Covenant Renewed
10 He said, “I hereby make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform marvels, such as have not been done[h] in all the earth or in any nation, and all the people among whom you live shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.(AZ)
11 “Observe what I command you today. See, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.(BA) 12 Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will become a snare among you.(BB) 13 Rather, you shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, and cut down their sacred poles,[i](BC) 14 for you shall worship no other god, because the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.(BD) 15 You shall not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, someone among them will invite you, and you will eat of the sacrifice,(BE) 16 and you will take wives from among their daughters for your sons, and their daughters who prostitute themselves to their gods will make your sons also prostitute themselves to their gods.(BF)
17 “You shall not make cast idols.(BG)
18 “You shall keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.(BH)
19 “All that first opens the womb is mine, all your male[j] livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep.(BI) 20 The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem.
“No one shall appear before me empty-handed.(BJ)
21 “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest time you shall rest.(BK) 22 You shall observe the Festival of Weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.(BL) 23 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.(BM) 24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, and the sacrifice of the festival of the Passover shall not be left until the morning.(BN)
26 “The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God.
“You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”(BO)
27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”(BP) 28 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.[k](BQ)
The Shining Face of Moses
29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.(BR) 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.(BS) 33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face,(BT) 34 but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out, and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,(BU) 35 the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining, and Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him.
Footnotes
- 32.4 Or fashioned it with an engraving tool; meaning of Heb uncertain
- 33.3 Heb lacks Go up
- 33.9 Heb he
- 33.18 Heb he
- 33.19 Heb YHWH; see note at 3.15
- 34.5 Heb YHWH; see note at 3.15
- 34.7 Or for thousands
- 34.10 Heb created
- 34.13 Or Asherahs
- 34.19 Gk Theodotion Vg Tg: Meaning of Heb uncertain
- 34.28 Heb the ten words
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.