26 When Jesus had ended this discourse, He said to His disciples,

² You know that the Passover is in two days—and the Son of Man will be delivered up ^[a]treacherously to be crucified.

³ Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the [^[b]open] court of the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,

⁴ And consulted together in order to arrest Jesus by stratagem secretly and put Him to death.

⁵ But they said, It must not be during the Feast, for fear that there will be a riot among the people.

⁶ Now when Jesus came back to Bethany and was in the house of Simon the leper,

⁷ A woman came up to Him with an alabaster flask of very precious perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at table.

⁸ And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, For what purpose is all this waste?

⁹ For this perfume might have been sold for a large sum and the money given to the poor.

¹⁰ But Jesus, fully aware of this, said to them, Why do you bother the woman? She has done a noble (praiseworthy and beautiful) thing to Me.

¹¹ For you always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me.^(A)

¹² In pouring this perfume on My body she has done something to prepare Me for My burial.

¹³ Truly I tell you, wherever this good news (the Gospel) is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be told also, in memory of her.

¹⁴ Then one of the Twelve [apostles], who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

¹⁵ And said, What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you? And they weighed out for and paid to him thirty pieces of silver [about twenty-one dollars and sixty cents].^(B)

¹⁶ And from that moment he sought a fitting opportunity to betray Him.

¹⁷ Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread [Passover week], the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, Where do You wish us to prepare for You to eat the Passover supper?

¹⁸ He said, Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The Master says: My time is near; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.

¹⁹ And accordingly the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they made ready the Passover supper.^(C)

²⁰ When it was evening, He was reclining at table with the twelve disciples.

²¹ And as they were eating, He said, Solemnly I say to you, one of you will betray Me!

²² They were exceedingly pained and distressed and deeply hurt and sorrowful and began to say to Him one after another, ^[c]Surely it cannot be I, Lord, can it?

²³ He replied, He who has [just] dipped his hand in the same dish with Me will betray Me!

²⁴ The Son of Man is going just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better (more profitable and wholesome) for that man if he had never been born!^(D)

²⁵ Judas, the betrayer, said, ^[d]Surely it is not I, is it, Master? He said to him, You have stated [the fact].

²⁶ Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread and, ^[e]praising God, gave thanks and asked Him to bless it to their use, and when He had broken it, He gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat; this is My body.

²⁷ And He took a cup, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you;

²⁸ For this is My blood of the new covenant, which [^[f]ratifies the agreement and] is ^[g]being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.^(E)

²⁹ I say to you, I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it with you new and ^[h]of superior quality in My Father’s kingdom.

³⁰ And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

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32 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, [they] gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, Up, make us gods to 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.

² So Aaron replied, Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and daughters, and bring them to me.

³ So all the people took the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.

⁴ And he received the gold at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf; and they said, These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

⁵ And when Aaron saw the molten calf, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.

⁶ And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, Go down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, These are your gods, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people;

¹⁰ Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and that I may destroy them; but I will make of you a great nation.

¹¹ But Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why does Your wrath blaze hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

¹² Why should the Egyptians say, For evil He brought them forth, to slay them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and change Your mind concerning this evil against Your people.

¹³ [Earnestly] remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

¹⁴ Then the Lord turned from the evil which He had thought to do to His people.

¹⁵ And Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tables of the Testimony in his hand, tables or tablets that were written on both sides.

¹⁶ The tables were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

¹⁷ And 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 Moses said, It is not the sound of shouting for victory, neither is it the sound of the cry of the defeated, but the sound of singing that I hear.

¹⁹ And as soon as he came near to the camp he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses’ anger blazed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

²⁰ And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

²¹ And Moses said to Aaron, What did this people do to you, that you have brought so great a sin upon them?

²² And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord blaze hot; you know the people, that they are set on evil.

²³ For they said to me, Make us gods which 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.

²⁴ I said to them, Those who have any gold, let them take it off. So they gave it to me; then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

²⁵ And when Moses saw that the people were unruly and unrestrained (for Aaron had let them get out of control, so that they were a derision and object of shame among their enemies),

²⁶ Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Whoever is on the Lord’s side, let him come to me. And all the Levites [the priestly tribe] gathered together to him.

²⁷ And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Every man put his sword on his side and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

²⁸ And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about 3000 men.

²⁹ And Moses said [to the Levites, By your obedience to God’s command] you have consecrated yourselves today [as priests] to the Lord, each man [at the cost of being] against his own son and his own brother, that the Lord may restore and bestow His blessing upon you this day.

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord, and said, Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold!

³² Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have written!

³³ But the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him [not you] out of My book.^(A)

³⁴ But now go, lead the people to the place of which I have told you. Behold, My ^[a]Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish I will visit their sin upon them!^(B)

³⁵ And the Lord sent a plague upon the people because they made the calf which Aaron fashioned for them.

33 The Lord said to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought from the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it.

² I will send an ^[b]Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite.^(C)

³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way.

⁴ When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man put on his ornaments.

⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, You are a stiff-necked people! If I should come among you for one moment, I would consume and destroy you. Now therefore [penitently] leave off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.

⁶ And the Israelites left off all their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷ Now Moses used to take [his own] tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting [of God with His own people]. And everyone who sought the Lord went out to [that temporary] tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

⁸ When Moses went out to the tent of meeting, all the people rose and stood, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he had gone into the tent.

⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would talk with Moses.

¹⁰ And all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the tent door, and all the people rose up and worshiped, every man at his tent door.

¹¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses returned to the camp, but his minister Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the [temporary prayer] tent.

¹² Moses said to the Lord, See, You say to me, Bring up this people, but You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You said, I know you by name and you have also found favor in My sight.

¹³ Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You [progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with You, perceiving and recognizing and understanding more strongly and clearly] and that I may find favor in Your sight. And [Lord, do] consider that this nation is Your people.

¹⁴ And the Lord said, My Presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.

¹⁵ And Moses said to the Lord, If Your Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here!

¹⁶ For by what shall it be known that I and Your people have found favor in Your sight? Is it not in Your going with us so that we are distinguished, I and Your people, from all the other people upon the face of the earth?

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, I will do this thing also that you have asked, for you have found favor, loving-kindness, and mercy in My sight and I know you personally and by name.^(D)

¹⁸ And Moses said, I beseech You, show me Your glory.

¹⁹ And God said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim My name, The Lord, before you; for I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy and loving-kindness on whom I will show mercy and loving-kindness.^(E)

²⁰ But, He said, You can not see My face, for no man shall see Me and live.

²¹ And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place beside Me, and you shall stand upon the rock,

²² And while My glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and 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.