Beginning
33 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Depart. Go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt. Go up to the land about which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob: ‘I will give it to your seed.’ 2 I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I would consume you on the way.”
4 When the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and none of them put on their jewelry, 5 for the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry, while I determine what to do to you.’” 6 So the people of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry at Mount Horeb.
The First Tent of Meeting
7 So Moses took a tent and set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. Everyone who was seeking an answer from the Lord would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people got up and stood at their tent doors and watched Moses, until he had gone into the tent. 9 Whenever Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, and all the people would rise up and worship, all of them at their own tent door. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend. Moses would return again into the camp, but his assistant Joshua son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.
Moses and God’s Goodness
12 Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you yourself have been telling me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 So now if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your ways, so that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight. Consider that this nation is your people.”
14 The Lord said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Moses said to him, “If your Presence is not going to go with me, do not send us up from here. 16 After all, how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it in this way: that you go with us, so that we are distinguished, I and your people, from all the people who are on the face of the earth?”
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have said, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”
19 The Lord said, “I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord in your presence. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” 20 He said, “You cannot see my face, for no human may see me and live.”
21 The Lord also said, “Look, there is a place next to me, where you shall stand on the rock. 22 It will happen that, while my glory passes by, I will put you in a crevice in the rock. I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back. But my face will not be seen.”
New Stone Tablets: A New Copy of the Laws
34 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. On these tablets I will write the same words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. 2 Be ready by morning, and come up to Mount Sinai in the morning. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. 3 No one may come up with you. In fact, no person is to be seen anywhere on the entire mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”
4 Moses cut out two stone tablets like the first ones. Moses got up early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hand. 5 The Lord came down in the cloud. He took his stand there with Moses and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and overflowing with mercy and truth, 7 maintaining mercy for thousands, forgiving guilt and rebellion and sin. He will by no means clear the guilty. He calls their children and their children’s children to account for the guilt of the fathers, even to the third and the fourth generation.”
8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshipped. 9 He said, “If I have now found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go along with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, pardon our guilt and our sin, and accept us as your possession.”
The Covenant Repeated
10 The Lord said,
See, I am making a covenant. In the presence of all your people I will do marvelous things such as have never been created anywhere on earth or in any nation. So all the people who are around you will see the work of the Lord. For it is an awe-inspiring thing that I will do for you. 11 Observe what I command you this day. Watch me as I drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 Be careful that you do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, or it will be a trap in your midst. 13 But you must break down their altars and smash their sacred memorial stones to pieces, and you must cut down their Asherah poles.[a] 14 So you must worship no other god. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.[b] 15 Do not make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land, so that they can prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to their gods. If you do, they will invite you to eat their sacrifices, 16 and they will invite you to take their daughters as wives for your sons, and their daughters will prostitute themselves and make your sons prostitute themselves to their gods. 17 You shall not make any idols[c] for yourselves.
The Covenant Festivals
18 You shall observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread.[d] For seven days you are to eat bread without yeast, as I commanded you. Eat it at the time appointed in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib.
19 The firstborn of every mother[e] is mine—the firstborn from all your male livestock, the firstborn of cattle and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not want to redeem it, then you must break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you must redeem. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you must rest. Even in plowing time and in harvest time you must rest.
22 You are to observe the Festival of Weeks[f] with the first ripe produce from the wheat harvest.
Observe the Festival of Ingathering[g] at the year’s end.
23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before God the Lord, the God of Israel. 24 Because I will drive out nations before you and expand your borders, no one will covet your land when you go up to be in the presence of[h] the Lord, your God, three times a year.
25 You shall not offer leavened bread along with the blood of my sacrifices. Nothing from the sacrifice of the Festival of the Passover is to be left over until morning. 26 You are to bring the best of the firstfruits from your soil to the house of the Lord your God.
You shall not boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk.
27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words for yourself, for these are the words with which I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He did not eat any bread or drink any water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.[i]
Moses’ Shining Face
29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not realize that the skin of his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, they were amazed that the skin of his face was shining, so they were afraid to come close to him. 31 Moses called to them, so Aaron and all the rulers of the community returned to him, and Moses spoke to them. 32 Afterward, all the people of Israel came close to him, and he gave them all of the commands that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses was finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out again. Then he would come out and tell the people of Israel what he had been commanded. 35 Whenever the people of Israel saw Moses’ face, they would see that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. Then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord again.
35 Moses assembled the whole community of the people of Israel and told them, “These are the things which the Lord has commanded you to do.”
The Sabbath
2 On six days work may be done, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on that day must be put to death. 3 You must not even light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.
The Offering for the Construction of the Dwelling
4 Moses spoke to the whole community of the people of Israel. He told them what the Lord commanded:
5 From what you possess, gather a special offering[j] for the Lord. Whoever has a willing heart, let him bring these things as the Lord’s offering: gold, silver, and bronze; 6 blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen; goats’ hair, 7 rams’ skins dyed red, and the hides of sea cows; acacia wood, 8 olive oil for the Light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, 9 onyx stones, and stones to be mounted on the special vest and on the chest pouch.
10 Let every skilled craftsman among you come and make everything that the Lord has commanded: 11 the Dwelling, its tent and its outer coverings, its clasps, its framework, its crossbars, its posts, and its socket bases; 12 the ark and its poles, the atonement seat, the special veil that hides it;[k] 13 the table with its poles, all its vessels and accessories, and the Bread of the Presence; 14 also the lampstand for the Light, with its utensils, its lamps, and the oil for the Light; 15 and the altar for incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense; the screen for the door at the entrance to the tent; 16 the altar for burnt offerings with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin and its pedestal; 17 the hangings for the courtyard, its posts, their socket bases, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard; 18 the stakes for the tent, the stakes for the courtyard, and their ropes; 19 the finely woven garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons, to minister in the priest’s office.
20 So the whole community of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. 21 Then everyone whose heart moved him and everyone whose spirit was willing came back and brought offerings to the Lord for the construction of the Tent of Meeting and for all the things to be used in its services and for the holy garments. 22 They came back, both men and women, all those whose hearts were willing. They brought brooches, earrings, signet rings, armlets, and all kinds of gold jewelry.[l] Every person who came presented a wave offering of gold to the Lord. 23 Everyone who had blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goats’ hair, rams’ skins dyed red, and hides of sea cows brought them. 24 Everyone who presented an offering of silver and bronze brought it as the Lord’s special offering, and everyone who had acacia wood for any use in the project brought it. 25 All the women who were skilled spun thread with their hands and brought what they had spun: the blue, the purple, and the scarlet material and the fine linen. 26 All the women who were willing and skillful spun the goats’ hair. 27 The tribal leaders brought the onyx stones and the stones to be mounted on the vest and the pouch, 28 also the spices, and the olive oil for the Light, for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. 29 The people of Israel brought a voluntary[m] offering to the Lord. Every man and woman whose heart was willing contributed to all the work which the Lord had commanded Moses to do.
The Craftsmen
30 Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, from the tribe of Judah. 31 He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and skill in all kinds of crafts. 32 He has the ability to create designs and to work in gold, silver, and bronze. 33 He can cut and engrave precious stones for mounting and can carve wood. He works skillfully in all kinds of crafts. 34 The Lord has also put into his heart the ability to teach others—both he and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, from the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to work in all kinds of crafts: designing, embroidering in blue, purple, and scarlet, working with fine linen, and weaving—all kinds of workmanship and designing.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.