Exodus 23-25
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Justice for All
23 “You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with the wicked to act as a malicious witness.(A) 2 You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice,[a](B) 3 nor shall you be partial to the poor in a lawsuit.
4 “When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back.(C)
5 “When you see the donkey of one who hates you struggling under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.(D)
6 “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor in their lawsuits.(E) 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and those in the right, for I will not acquit the guilty.(F) 8 You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds officials and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.(G)
9 “You shall not oppress a resident alien; you know the heart of an alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.(H)
Sabbatical Year and Sabbath
10 “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield,(I) 11 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard and with your olive orchard.
12 “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may have relief and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.(J) 13 Be attentive to all that I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.
The Annual Festivals
14 “Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me. 15 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread; as I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.
“No one shall appear before me empty-handed.(K)
16 “You shall observe the Festival of Harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.(L) 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 anything leavened or let the fat of my festival remain until the morning.
19 “The choicest of the first fruits 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.(M)
The Conquest of Canaan Promised
20 “I am going to send an angel in front of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.(N) 21 Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.(O)
22 “But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.(P)
23 “When my angel goes in front of you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out,(Q) 24 you shall not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices, but you shall utterly demolish them and break their pillars in pieces.(R) 25 You shall serve the Lord your God, and I[b] will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.(S) 26 No one shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.(T) 27 I will send my terror in front of you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 And I will send swarms of hornets[c] in front of you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.(U) 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals multiply against you.(V) 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. 31 I will set your borders from the Red Sea[d] to the sea of the Philistines and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will hand over to you the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out before you.(W) 32 You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.(X) 33 They shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”(Y)
The Blood of the Covenant
24 Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance.(Z) 2 Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”
3 Moses went and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.”(AA) 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning, built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up twelve pillars, corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel.(AB) 5 He sent young men of the Israelites, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as offerings of well-being to the Lord. 6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he dashed against the altar.(AC) 7 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”(AD) 8 Moses took the blood and dashed it on the people, and said, “Here is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”(AE)
On the Mountain with God
9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up,(AF) 10 and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.(AG) 11 God[e] did not lay his hand on the chief men of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there; I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up onto the mountain of God. 14 To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come back to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”
15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.(AH) 16 The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud.(AI) 17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the Israelites.(AJ) 18 Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.(AK)
Offerings for the Tabernacle
25 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to take for me an offering; from all whose hearts prompt them to give you shall receive the offering for me.(AL) 3 This is the offering that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, 4 blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine linen, goats’ hair, 5 tanned rams’ skins, fine leather,[f] acacia wood, 6 oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,(AM) 7 onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and for the breastpiece.(AN) 8 And they shall make me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them.(AO) 9 In accordance with all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.(AP)
The Ark of the Covenant
10 “They shall make an ark of acacia wood; it shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.(AQ) 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you shall overlay it, and you shall make a molding of gold upon it all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on one side of it and two rings on the other side. 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, for carrying the ark. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed. 16 You shall put the covenant that I am giving you into the ark.(AR)
17 “Then you shall make a cover of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width.(AS) 18 You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work at the two ends of the cover. 19 Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the cover you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the cover with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the cover.(AT) 21 You shall put the cover on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I am giving you.(AU) 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the cover, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will tell you all that I am commanding you for the Israelites.(AV)
The Table for the Bread of the Presence
23 “You shall make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.(AW) 24 You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. 25 You shall make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and a molding of gold around the rim. 26 You shall make for it four rings of gold and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. 27 The rings that hold the poles used for carrying the table shall be close to the rim. 28 You shall make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. 29 You shall make its plates and dishes and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold.(AX) 30 And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me continually.(AY)
The Lampstand
31 “You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The base and the shaft of the lampstand shall be made of hammered work; its cups, its calyxes, and its petals shall be of one piece with it;(AZ) 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;(BA) 33 three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. 34 On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyxes and petals.(BB) 35 There shall be a calyx of one piece with it under the first pair of branches, a calyx of one piece with it under the next pair of branches, and a calyx of one piece with it under the last pair of branches—so for the six branches that go out of the lampstand. 36 Their calyxes and their branches shall be of one piece with it, the whole of it one hammered piece of pure gold. 37 You shall make seven lamps for it, and the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.(BC) 38 Its snuffers and trays shall be of pure gold. 39 It and all these utensils shall be made from a talent of pure gold. 40 And see that you make them according to the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain.(BD)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.