Sabbath Regulations

35 Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, ^(A)“These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. ^2 (B)Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. ^3 (C)You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

Contributions for the Tabernacle

⁴ Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded. ^5 (D)Take from among you a contribution to the Lord. ^(E)Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the Lord's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; ⁶ blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats' hair, ⁷ tanned rams' skins, and goatskins;^[a] acacia wood, ⁸ oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, ⁹ and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.

¹⁰ “Let ^(F)every skillful craftsman among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded: ^11 (G)the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; ^12 (H)the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the ^(I)veil of the screen; ^13 (J)the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the ^(K)bread of the Presence; ^14 (L)the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the ^(M)oil for the light; ^15 (N)and the altar of incense, with its poles, ^(O)and the anointing oil and the ^(P)fragrant incense, and ^(Q)the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle; ^16 (R)the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the ^(S)basin and its stand; ^17 (T)the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; ^18 (U)the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their ^(V)cords; ¹⁹ the ^(W)finely worked garments for ministering^[b] in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests.”

²⁰ Then all the congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. ²¹ And they came, ^(X)everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, ^(Y)and brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments. ²² So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and armlets, all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord. ²³ And ^(Z)every one who possessed ^(AA)blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goats' hair or tanned rams' skins or goatskins brought them. ^24 (AB)Everyone who could make a contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution. And every one who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it. ²⁵ And every ^(AC)skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. ²⁶ All the women ^(AD)whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats' hair. ²⁷ And the ^(AE)leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastpiece, ²⁸ and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. ^29 (AF)All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.

Construction of the Tabernacle

^30 (AG)Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; ³¹ and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with ^(AH)skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, ³² to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, ³³ in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. ³⁴ And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. ³⁵ He has ^(AI)filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer.

36 “Bezalel and Oholiab and ^(AJ)every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”

² And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone ^(AK)whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. ³ And they received from Moses all the ^(AL)contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him ^(AM)freewill offerings every morning, ⁴ so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, ⁵ and said to Moses, ^(AN)“The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” ⁶ So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the ^(AO)contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, ⁷ for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.

^8 (AP)And all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked. ⁹ The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits,^[c] and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains were the same size.

¹⁰ He^[d] coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another. ¹¹ He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set. Likewise he made them on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set. ¹² He made fifty loops on the one curtain, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite one another. ¹³ And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps. So the tabernacle was a single whole.

¹⁴ He also made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle. He made eleven curtains. ¹⁵ The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains were the same size. ¹⁶ He coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. ¹⁷ And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the other connecting curtain. ¹⁸ And he made fifty clasps of bronze to couple the tent together that it might be a single whole. ¹⁹ And he made for the tent a covering of tanned rams' skins and goatskins.

^20 (AQ)Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of ^(AR)acacia wood. ²¹ Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame. ²² Each frame had two tenons for fitting together. He did this for all the frames of the tabernacle. ²³ The frames for the tabernacle he made thus: twenty frames for the south side. ²⁴ And he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons. ²⁵ For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty frames ²⁶ and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one frame and two bases under the next frame. ²⁷ For the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six frames. ²⁸ He made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear. ²⁹ And they were separate beneath but joined at the top, at the first ring. He made two of them this way for the two corners. ³⁰ There were eight frames with their bases of silver: sixteen bases, under every frame two bases.

³¹ He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, ³² and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward. ³³ And he made the middle bar to run from end to end halfway up the frames. ³⁴ And he overlaid the frames with gold, and made their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

^35 (AS)He made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; with cherubim skillfully worked into it he made it. ³⁶ And for it he made four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four bases of silver. ³⁷ He also made a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework, ³⁸ and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals, and their fillets were of gold, but their five bases were of bronze.

Blessed Are the Forgiven

A Maskil^[a] of David.

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again ^(A)he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, ^(B)so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. ² And ^(C)he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³ “Listen! Behold, ^(D)a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶ And ^(E)when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, ^(F)it withered away. ⁷ Other seed fell among ^(G)thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and ^(H)a hundredfold.” ⁹ And he said, ^(I)“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables

¹⁰ And ^(J)when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹ And he said to them, ^(K)“To you has been given ^(L)the secret of the kingdom of God, but for ^(M)those outside everything is in parables, ^12 (N)so that

^13 (Q)And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? ^14 (R)The sower sows ^(S)the word. ¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. ¹⁶ And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it ^(T)with joy. ¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but ^(U)endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately ^(V)they fall away.^{[a] 18} And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, ¹⁹ but ^(W)the cares of ^(X)the world and ^(Y)the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. ²⁰ But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and ^(Z)bear fruit, ^(AA)thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

A Lamp Under a Basket

^21 (AB)And he said to them, ^(AC)“Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? ^22 (AD)For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. ^23 (AE)If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: ^(AF)with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. ^25 (AG)For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

The Parable of the Seed Growing

²⁶ And he said, ^(AH)“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. ²⁷ He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; ^(AI)he knows not how. ²⁸ The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once ^(AJ)he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (AK)And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? ³¹ It is like ^(AL)a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, ³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

^33 (AM)With many such parables he spoke ^(AN)the word to them, ^(AO)as they were able to hear it. ³⁴ He did not speak to them ^(AP)without a parable, but ^(AQ)privately to his own disciples he ^(AR)explained everything.

Jesus Calms a Storm

^35 (AS)On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” ³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. ³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves ^(AT)were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and ^(AU)rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and ^(AV)there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you ^(AW)so afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ^(AX)“Who then is this, that even ^(AY)the wind and the sea obey him?”