So Judah said, “What can we say to my lord? What words can we speak? And how can we justify ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been found.”

Then they will pay attention to what you say; and you with the elders of Israel will come to the king of Egypt, and you will say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please, let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, otherwise He will strike us with plague or with the sword.”

Then he said, “Tomorrow.” So he said, “May it be according to your word, so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.

But Moses said, “It is not permissible for us to do so, because we will sacrifice to the Lord our God that which is an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice that which is an abomination to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us?

We must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, just as He commands us.”

But Moses said, “You must also let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings, so that we may sacrifice them to the Lord our God.

Therefore, our livestock too shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind, for we shall take some of them to serve the Lord our God. And until we arrive there, we ourselves do not know with what we shall serve the Lord.”

“The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain.

“Then we set out from Horeb, and went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us; and we came to Kadesh-barnea.

And I said to you, ‘You have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is about to give us.

And they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. They also brought us back a report and said, ‘The land that the Lord our God is about to give us is good.’

“Then you replied to me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord; we ourselves will go up and fight, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ And every man of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you viewed it as easy to go up into the hill country.

just as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I cross over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving us.’

And the Lord our God turned him over to us, and we defeated him with his sons and all his people.

From Aroer which is on the edge of the Valley of Arnon and from the city which is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was no city that was too high for us; the Lord our God turned it all over to us.

Only you did not go near the land of the sons of Ammon, all along the river Jabbok and the cities of the hill country, and wherever the Lord our God had commanded us to avoid.

So the Lord our God also handed over to us Og, king of Bashan, with all his people, and we struck them until no survivor was left.

For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him?

The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

You said, ‘Behold, the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire; we have seen today that God speaks with mankind, yet he lives.

Now then, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us; if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any longer, then we will die!

Go near and listen to everything that the Lord our God says; then speak to us everything that the Lord our God speaks to you, and we will listen and do it.’

“Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the provisions and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?’