The Covenant Confirmed

24 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, ^(A)Nadab, and Abihu, and ^(B)seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² Moses ^(C)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 ^(D)all the rules.^[a] And all the people answered with one voice and said, ^(E)“All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” ⁴ And ^(F)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 ^(G)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 ^(H)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, ^(I)“All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ^8 (J)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 ^(K)seventy of the elders of Israel ^(L)went up, ¹⁰ and they ^(M)saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of ^(N)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 ^(O)ate and drank.

Contributions for the Sanctuary

25 The Lord said to Moses, ^2 (A)“Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From ^(B)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 (C)blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, ⁵ tanned ^(D)rams' skins, goatskins,^[a] acacia wood, ^6 (E)oil for the lamps, ^(F)spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, ⁷ onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ^(G)ephod and for the breastpiece. ⁸ And let them make me a ^(H)sanctuary, that ^(I)I may dwell in their midst.

¹⁸ Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. ¹⁹ And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁰ He ^(A)took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. ²¹ And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and ^(B)set up the veil of the screen, and screened ^(C)the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ^22 (D)He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil, ²³ and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ^24 (E)He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, ^25 (F)and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ^26 (G)He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil, ²⁷ and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ^28 (H)He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. ^29 (I)And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the ^(J)grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ^30 (K)He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, ³¹ with which Moses and ^(L)Aaron and his sons ^(M)washed their hands and their feet. ³² When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses. ^33 (N)And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So ^(O)Moses finished the work.

The Glory of the Lord

³⁴ Then ^(P)the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and ^(Q)the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁶ Throughout all their journeys, ^(R)whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. ³⁷ But ^(S)if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. ³⁸ For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.