^14 (A)“Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. ^15 (B)You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of ^(C)Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. ^(D)None shall appear before me empty-handed. ¹⁶ You shall keep ^(E)the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the ^(F)Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. ^17 (G)Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.

^18 (H)“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

¹⁹ “The best of the ^(I)firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.

^(J)“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

^20 (K)“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; ^(L)do not rebel against him, ^(M)for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

²² “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then ^(N)I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

^23 (O)“When my angel goes before you and brings you ^(P)to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, ²⁴ you shall ^(Q)not bow down to their gods nor serve them, ^(R)nor do as they do, but ^(S)you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ^(T)pillars in pieces. ²⁵ You ^(U)shall serve the Lord your God, and ^(V)he^[a] will bless your bread and your water, and ^(W)I will take sickness away from among you. ^26 (X)None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the ^(Y)number of your days. ²⁷ I will send ^(Z)my terror before you and will throw into ^(AA)confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And ^(AB)I will send hornets^[b] before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. ^29 (AC)I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. ^31 (AD)And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,^[c] for ^(AE)I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ^32 (AF)You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. ³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, ^(AG)it will surely be a snare to you.”

The Covenant Confirmed

24 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(AH)Nadab, and Abihu, and ^(AI)seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² Moses ^(AJ)alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

³ Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and ^(AK)all the rules.^[d] And all the people answered with one voice and said, ^(AL)“All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” ⁴ And ^(AM)Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve ^(AN)pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶ And ^(AO)Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, ^(AP)“All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ^8 (AQ)And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

⁹ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and ^(AR)seventy of the elders of Israel ^(AS)went up, ¹⁰ and they ^(AT)saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of ^(AU)sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. ¹¹ And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ^(AV)ate and drank.

¹² The Lord said to Moses, ^(AW)“Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the ^(AX)tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” ¹³ So Moses rose with his assistant ^(AY)Joshua, and Moses went up ^(AZ)into the mountain of God. ¹⁴ And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and ^(BA)Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”

¹⁵ Then Moses went up on the mountain, and ^(BB)the cloud covered the mountain. ^16 (BC)The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷ Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a ^(BD)devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses ^(BE)was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Contributions for the Sanctuary

25 The Lord said to Moses, ^2 (BF)“Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From ^(BG)every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. ³ And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, ^4 (BH)blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, ⁵ tanned ^(BI)rams' skins, goatskins,^[e] acacia wood, ^6 (BJ)oil for the lamps, ^(BK)spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, ⁷ onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ^(BL)ephod and for the breastpiece. ⁸ And let them make me a ^(BM)sanctuary, that ^(BN)I may dwell in their midst. ^9 (BO)Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the ^(BP)tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

The Ark of the Covenant

^10 (BQ)“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Two cubits^[f] and a half shall be its length, a cubit and a half its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹ You shall overlay it with ^(BR)pure gold, inside and outside shall you overlay it, and you shall make on it a molding of gold around it. ¹² You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its ^(BS)four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. ¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark by them. ¹⁵ The ^(BT)poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. ^16 (BU)And you shall put into the ark the ^(BV)testimony that I shall give you.

^17 (BW)“You shall make a mercy seat^[g] of pure gold. Two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth. ¹⁸ And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of ^(BX)hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. ¹⁹ Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. ^(BY)Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. ^20 (BZ)The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. ²¹ And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. ^22 (CA)There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from ^(CB)between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.

The Table for Bread

^23 (CC)“You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. ²⁴ You shall overlay it with ^(CD)pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. ²⁵ And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth^[h] wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. ²⁶ And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. ²⁷ Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as ^(CE)holders for the poles to carry the table. ²⁸ You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. ²⁹ And you shall make its plates and ^(CF)dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. ³⁰ And you shall set the ^(CG)bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.

The Golden Lampstand

^31 (CH)“You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. ³² And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; ³³ three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. ³⁴ And on the lampstand itself there shall be four cups made like almond blossoms, with their calyxes and flowers, ³⁵ and a calyx of one piece with it under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand. ³⁶ Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it a single piece of hammered work of pure gold. ³⁷ You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps ^(CI)shall be set up so as ^(CJ)to give light on the space in front of it. ³⁸ Its tongs and their trays shall be of pure gold. ³⁹ It shall be made, with all these utensils, out of a talent^[i] of pure gold. ⁴⁰ And ^(CK)see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.

The Coming of the Son of Man

²⁹ “Immediately after ^(A)the tribulation of those days ^(B)the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and ^(C)the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then ^(D)will appear in heaven ^(E)the sign of the Son of Man, and then ^(F)all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and ^(G)they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven ^(H)with power and great glory. ³¹ And ^(I)he will send out his angels with a loud ^(J)trumpet call, and they will ^(K)gather ^(L)his elect from ^(M)the four winds, ^(N)from one end of heaven to the other.

The Lesson of the Fig Tree

³² “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. ³³ So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, ^(O)at the very gates. ^34 (P)Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. ^35 (Q)Heaven and earth will pass away, but ^(R)my words will not pass away.

No One Knows That Day and Hour

³⁶ “But concerning that day and hour ^(S)no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, ^(T)nor the Son,^{[a] (U)}but the Father only. ^37 (V)For as were the days of Noah, ^(W)so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ^38 (X)For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, ^(Y)marrying and giving in marriage, until ^(Z)the day when Noah entered the ark, ³⁹ and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, ^(AA)so will be the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. ^41 (AB)Two women will be grinding ^(AC)at the mill; one will be taken and one left. ⁴² Therefore, ^(AD)stay awake, for you do not know on what day ^(AE)your Lord is coming. ^43 (AF)But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night ^(AG)the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ Therefore you also must be ^(AH)ready, for ^(AI)the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

⁴⁵ “Who then is ^(AJ)the faithful and ^(AK)wise servant,^[b] whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? ^46 (AL)Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. ⁴⁷ Truly, I say to you, ^(AM)he will set him over all his possessions. ⁴⁸ But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master ^(AN)is delayed,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants^[c] and eats and drinks with ^(AO)drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come ^(AP)on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know ⁵¹ and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place ^(AQ)there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Joy Comes with the Morning

A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of ^(A)the temple.