Beginning
Chapter 33
The Israelites Are Ordered To Depart. 1 The Lord said to Moses, “Get up and leave this place, you and the people whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, to go to the land that I have promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ 2 I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up in your midst, lest I destroy you along the way, for you are an obstinate people.”
4 The people heard this sad news and they mourned. No one put on his ornaments.
5 The Lord said to Moses, “Say this to the children of Israel, ‘You are an obstinate people. If I were to go up with you for a single moment, I would surely destroy you. Now, take off your ornaments so that I may know what to do with you.’ ”
6 The children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
A Provisional Tent for the Colloquy between God and Moses. 7 Moses took the tent and pitched it quite a distance outside of the camp, calling it the meeting tent. Anyone who sought the Lord would go to the meeting tent that was outside the camp.[a] 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose up and each one stood in the door to his tent. They watched Moses pass by until he entered the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, a column of cloud descended and remained at the entrance to the tent, and the Lord spoke with Moses. 10 The whole people saw the column of cloud that stood at the entrance to the tent, and they all got up and worshiped at the doors to their tents. 11 Thus the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He then returned to the camp while his servant Joshua, son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tent.[b]
12 The Prayer of Moses. Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, you commanded me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you did not tell me whom you would send with me. You even said, ‘I know you by name,[c] and you have found favor with me.’ 13 Now, therefore, I beseech you, if I have found favor with you, show me your ways, so that I may know you and stay in your favor. Keep in mind that this people is your people.”
14 The Lord answered, “I will walk with you and give you rest.” 15 Moses replied, “If you will not go with us, then do not make us go up from here, 16 for how will it then be known if I have found favor with you, I and your people? Is it not in your journeying with us, with me and your people, that we are marked out as being distinct from all the other peoples who are upon the face of the earth?”
17 The Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this very thing that you have said, for you have found favor with me and I know you by name.”
18 So Moses said to him, “Show me your glory!”
19 He answered, “I will make all my splendor pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, before you. I will show favor to those to whom I show favor and I will have mercy on those on whom I have mercy.” 20 He continued, “But you cannot see my face, for no one can see my face and live.” 21 And the Lord continued, “There is a place near me. You will stand upon the rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will place you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I will have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand and you will see my back, but you cannot see my face.”
Chapter 34
The New Tablets of the Law. 1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, the ones you broke. 2 Be ready in the morning. Tomorrow morning you must climb up Mount Sinai and remain on the summit of the mountain with me. 3 No one is to climb up with you. No one should be on the summit of the mountain nor anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.”
4 Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. He arose early in the morning and climbed up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, with the two stone tablets in his hands.
The Lord Shows Himself to Moses.5 The Lord came down in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed in front of him proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and fidelity, 7 who shows mercy to thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, but will by no means forgive the iniquity of the fathers, visiting it upon their sons and their sons’ sons, to the third and fourth generation.”
8 Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped. 9 He said, “If I have found favor with you, my Lord, let the Lord walk in our midst. Yet, it is an obstinate people. Pardon our iniquity and sin and take us for your own inheritance.”
10 A New Book of the Law.[d] The Lord said, “Behold, I am going to establish a covenant with you. I will perform marvelous deeds before all your people, things that have never been done before anywhere on the earth or among any people. All the people in whose midst you dwell will see the work of the Lord, for it is a wondrous thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you today. I will drive out the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 12 Take care not to make any covenants with the inhabitants of the land that you are about to enter, lest it become a snare to you. 13 You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred trees.[e] 14 You must not worship any other god, for the Lord is called Jealous, for he is a jealous God.
15 “Do not make a covenant with the people of that land lest, when they commit fornication for their gods and perform sacrifices to their gods, they invite you and you eat of their sacrifice.[f] 16 Do not take their daughters as wives for your sons lest, when their daughters commit fornication to their gods, they cause your sons to commit fornication with their gods as well.
17 “Do not make any molten gods for yourselves.
18 “Observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat unleavened bread at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.
19 “Every creature that is the firstborn from its mother’s womb belongs to me: every firstborn bull, every firstborn cattle and sheep. 20 The firstborn of a donkey will be redeemed with a lamb. If you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. All of your firstborn sons are to be redeemed.
“None is to appear before me empty-handed.
21 “For six days you may work, but on the seventh you must rest. Even during plowing season and the harvest, you must rest.
22 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and also the Harvest Feast at the year’s end.
23 “Three times a year all your men will appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel, 24 for I will cast out your enemies before you and enlarge your borders. Neither will any man desire your land, when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord, your God. 25 You shall not sacrifice the blood of my sacrificial victim with leavened bread, neither shall you let the sacrificial victim of the Passover remain until the morning.
26 “You will bring the best of the firstfruits of the land to the house of the Lord, your God.
“You shall not cook a kid goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 The Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have established a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28 Moses remained with the Lord for forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, on the tablets.
29 The Radiant Face of Moses.[g] When Moses went down from Mount Sinai, he had the two tablets of Testimony in his hands, while he descended the mountain. He did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant, for he had been speaking with the Lord. 30 But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses and that the skin of his face had become radiant, they were afraid to approach him. 31 Moses therefore called to them, to Aaron and all the heads of the community, and they went over to him. Moses spoke to them. 32 All the children of Israel then drew near after them, and he commanded them to do all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. 33 When Moses was finished speaking to them, he put on a veil to cover his face. 34 Whenever Moses came before the Lord to speak with him, Moses took off the veil until he went outside. When he went outside, he told the children of Israel all that had been commanded them. 35 The children of Israel saw that the skin of his face had become radiant. Then he put the veil on over his face again, until he went in to speak with the Lord again.
The Construction and Furnishing of the Sanctuary[h]
Chapter 35
Sabbath Regulations. 1 Moses assembled the whole community of the children of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do: 2 For six days you shall work, but the seventh shall be a holy day for you, a day of absolute rest, sacred to the Lord. Whoever works on that day shall be put to death. 3 You shall light no fires on the Sabbath in all of your dwellings.”
Materials for the Tabernacle. 4 Moses told the whole community of the children of Israel, “This is what the Lord has commanded you to do: 5 Take up an offering from among yourselves for the Lord. Whoever is generous, let him bring the offering to the Lord: gold, silver, and bronze, 6 blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine twisted linen, goat hair, 7 rams’ skins dyed red, sheep skins, acacia wood, 8 oil for lamps, balsam for anointing, and oil for fragrant incense, 9 onyx stones and stones for setting in the ephod and the breastplate.
10 “All the artisans among you shall come and make what the Lord has commanded: 11 the tabernacle, its tent, its covering, its hooks, its boards, its bars, its pillars, its bases; 12 the Ark and its poles, the seat of atonement, and the veil of the screen; 13 the table with its poles and all its accessories, the bread of the Presence; 14 the lampstand that provides light and its accessories, the lamps, and the oil for light; 15 the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense; the screen for the door at the entrance to the tabernacle; 16 the altar of burnt offerings with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its accessories; the basin and its base; 17 the drapes for the courtyard, their columns, and their bases, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard; 18 the pegs for the tabernacle and the pegs for the courtyard and their cords; 19 the carefully prepared cloths for ministering in the sanctuary, the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest and the vestments for his sons to exercise their priesthood.”
20 All the community of the children of Israel left the presence of Moses. 21 Then those whose hearts were stirred and whose spirits moved them came and brought the Lord’s offerings to be used for the construction of the meeting tent and for all its service and for the sacred vestments. 22 Men and women came forward, those whose hearts were willing, and they brought brooches and earrings and rings and armlets, all kinds of golden objects, and each man dedicated his gold unto the Lord.
23 All those who had blue or purple or scarlet cloth, or fine linen, or goat hair, or rams’ skins dyed red, or sheep skins brought them. 24 Those who could make an offering of silver or bronze offered it to the Lord. Likewise, those who had acacia wood for some purpose brought it.
25 Furthermore, all the skilled women spun with their hands and brought the blue, purple, and scarlet cloth and the fine linen they had spun. 26 All the women whose hearts were moved by wisdom spun goat hair. 27 The leaders brought onyx stones and stones for setting in the ephod and the breastplate, 28 balsam and oil for light, oil of anointing, and fragrant incense. 29 Thus, all the men and women whose hearts moved them to bring something for the construction that the Lord had commanded them to build through Moses brought it. The children of Israel brought their freewill offerings to the Lord.
30 The Artisans. Moses said to the children of Israel, “Behold, the Lord has summoned Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, by name. 31 He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with ability in every type of craft, 32 to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, 33 to know how to cut stones for settings and how to carve wood. He is expert in every craft. 34 He has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with the skill needed to do the work of the engraver, the designer, and the embroiderer, to work with blue and purple and scarlet cloth and fine linen, and to weave. They can do the work of any craftsman or designer.
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