Exodus 23-25

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

23 You shall not repeat or raise a false report; you shall not join with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.

² You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you bear witness at a trial so as to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

³ Neither shall you be partial to a poor man in his trial [just because he is poor].

⁴ If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

⁵ If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying [helpless] under his load, you shall refrain from leaving the man to cope with it alone; you shall help him to release the animal.

⁶ You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in his cause.

⁷ Keep far from a false matter and [be very careful] not to condemn to death the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify and acquit the wicked.

⁸ You shall take no bribe, for the bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the testimony and the cause of the righteous.

⁹ Also you shall not oppress a temporary resident, for you know the heart of a stranger and sojourner, seeing you were strangers and sojourners in Egypt.

¹⁰ Six years you shall sow your land and reap its yield.

¹¹ But the seventh year you shall release it and let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat [what the land voluntarily yields], and what they leave the wild beasts shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard and olive grove.

¹² Six days you shall do your work, but the seventh day you shall rest and keep Sabbath, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your bondwoman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

¹³ In all I have said to you take heed; do not mention the name of other gods [either in blessing or cursing]; do not let such speech be heard from your mouth.

¹⁴ Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to Me.

¹⁵ You shall keep the Feast 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 it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.

¹⁶ Also you shall keep the Feast of Harvest [Pentecost], [acknowledging] the firstfruits of your toil, of what you sow in the field. And [third] you shall keep the Feast of Ingathering [Booths or Tabernacles] at the end of the year, when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.

¹⁷ Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.

¹⁸ You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread [but keep it unmixed], neither shall the fat of My feast remain all night until morning.

¹⁹ The first of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

²⁰ Behold, I send an ^[a]Angel before you to keep and guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.

²¹ Give heed to Him, listen to and obey His voice; be not rebellious before Him or provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgression; for My ^[b]Name is in Him.^(A)

²² But if you will indeed listen to and obey His voice and all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

²³ When My Angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I reject them and blot them out,

²⁴ You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them or do after their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and break down their pillars and images.

²⁵ You shall serve the Lord your God; He shall bless your bread and water, and I will take sickness from your midst.

²⁶ None shall lose her young by miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷ I will send My terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people to whom you shall come, and I will make all your foes turn from you [in flight].

²⁸ And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivite, Canaanite, and Hittite from before you.

²⁹ I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate [for lack of attention] and the wild beasts multiply against you.

³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and are numerous enough to take possession of the land.

³¹ I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the river [Euphrates]; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive them out before you.

³² You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods.

³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.

24 God said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu [Aaron’s sons], and seventy of Israel’s elders, and worship at a distance.

² Moses alone shall come near the Lord; the others shall not come near, and neither shall the people come up with him.

³ Moses came and told the people all that the Lord had said and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, All that the Lord has spoken we will do.

⁴ Moses ^[c]wrote all the words of the Lord. He rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars representing Israel’s twelve tribes.

⁵ And he sent young Israelite men, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.

⁶ And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar.

⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people; and they said, All that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient.

⁸ And Moses took the [remaining half of the] blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.^(B)

⁹ Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up [the mountainside].

¹⁰ And they saw the God of Israel [that is, a convincing manifestation of His presence], and under His feet it was like pavement of bright sapphire stone, like the very heavens in clearness.^(C)

¹¹ And upon the nobles of the Israelites He laid not His hand [to conceal Himself from them, to rebuke their daring, or to harm them]; but they saw [the manifestation of the presence of] God, and ate and drank.^(D)

¹² And the Lord said to Moses, Come up to Me into the mountain and be there, and I will give you tables of stone, with the law and the commandments which ^[d]I have written that you may teach them.^(E)

¹³ So Moses rose up with Joshua his attendant; and Moses went up into the mountain of God.

¹⁴ And he said to the elders, Tarry here for us until we come back to you; remember, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a cause, let him go to them.

¹⁵ Then Moses went up into the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

¹⁶ The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day [God] called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

¹⁷ And the glory of the Lord appeared to the Israelites like devouring fire on the top of the mountain.

¹⁸ Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and nights.

25 And the Lord said to Moses,

² Speak to the Israelites, that they take for Me an offering. From every man who gives it willingly and ungrudgingly with his heart you shall take My offering.

³ This is the offering you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze,

⁴ Blue, purple, and scarlet [stuff] and fine twined linen and goats’ hair,

⁵ Rams’ skins tanned red, goatskins, dolphin or porpoise skins, acacia wood,

⁶ Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil and for sweet incense,

⁷ Onyx stones, and stones for setting in the ephod and in the breastplate.

⁸ Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.^(F)

⁹ And you shall make it according to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle or dwelling and the pattern of all the furniture of it.

¹⁰ They shall make an ark of acacia wood: two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.

¹¹ You shall overlay the ark with pure gold, inside and out, and make a gold crown, a rim or border, around its top.

¹² You shall cast four gold rings and attach them to the four lower corners of it, two rings on either side.

¹³ You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold,

¹⁴ And put the poles through the rings on the ark’s sides, by which to carry it.

¹⁵ The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it [that the ark be not touched].

¹⁶ And you shall put inside the ark the Testimony [the Ten Commandments] which I will give you.

¹⁷ And you shall make a mercy seat (a covering) of pure gold, two cubits and a half long and a cubit and a half wide.

¹⁸ And you shall make two cherubim (winged angelic figures) of [solid] hammered gold on the two ends of the mercy seat.

¹⁹ Make one cherub on each end, making the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat, on the two ends of it.

²⁰ And the cherubim shall spread out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, facing each other and looking down toward the mercy seat.

²¹ You shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony [the Ten Commandments] that I will give you.

²² There I will meet with you and, from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are upon the ark of the Testimony, I will speak intimately with you of all which I will give you in commandment to the Israelites.

²³ Also, make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high [for the showbread].

²⁴ You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a crown, a rim or molding, of gold around the top of it;

²⁵ And make a frame of a handbreadth around and below the top of it and put around it a gold molding as a border.

²⁶ You shall make for it four rings of gold and fasten them at the four corners that are on the table’s four legs.

²⁷ Close against the frame shall the rings be as places for the poles to pass to carry the table [of showbread].

²⁸ You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them.

²⁹ And you shall make its plates [for showbread] and cups [for incense], and its flagons and bowls [for liquids in sacrifice]; make them of pure gold.

³⁰ And you shall set the showbread (the bread of the Presence) on the table before Me always.^(G)

³¹ You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. Of beaten and turned work shall the lampstand be made, both its base and its shaft; its cups, its knobs, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.

³² Six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the lampstand out of the one side and three branches out of its other side;

³³ Three cups made like almond blossoms, each with a knob and a flower on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms on the other branch with a knob and a flower; so for the six branches coming out of the lampstand;

³⁴ And on the [center shaft] itself you shall [make] four cups like almond blossoms with their knobs and their flowers.

³⁵ Also make a knob [on the shaft] under each pair of the six branches going out from the lampstand and one piece with it;

³⁶ Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece with it; the whole of it one beaten work of pure gold.

³⁷ And you shall make the lamps of the [lampstand] to include a ^[e]seventh one [at the top of the shaft]. [The priests] shall set up the [seven] lamps of it so they may give light in front of it.

³⁸ Its snuffers and its ashtrays shall be of pure gold.

³⁹ Use a talent of pure gold for it, including all these utensils.

⁴⁰ And see to it that you copy [exactly] their pattern which was shown you on the mountain.^(H)