Old/New Testament
Bezalel and Oholiab
31 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 ‘Look! I have chosen Bezalel, the son of Uri and the grandson of Hur. He belongs to the tribe of Judah. 3 I have filled him with my Spirit so that he has special skills. He knows how to make many kinds of things. 4 He can draw pictures of beautiful things that he wants to make. Then he uses gold, silver or bronze to make them. 5 He knows how to cut valuable stones and make them look beautiful. He knows how to cut wood into different shapes. He is very clever at all kinds of work.
6 I have also chosen Oholiab to help Bezalel. Oholiab is the son of Ahisamach. He belongs to the tribe of Dan. I have also helped all the workers who have special skills. They will be able to make everything that I have commanded you to make. 7 They will make these things:
the Tent of Meeting,
the Covenant Box with its special lid,
the other things that will be in the tabernacle.
8 Those things include:
the special table with all its tools,
the pure gold lampstand with all its tools,
the altar for incense,
9 the altar for burnt offerings with all its tools,
the large bowl for water and its base,
10 the beautiful clothes for Aaron the priest,
the clothes for his sons as they serve as priests,
11 the special oil to show that things belong to me,
and the sweet incense for the Holy Place.
The workers must make all these things in the way that I have commanded you.’
The Sabbath day
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, 13 ‘Say to the Israelites, “You must keep my Sabbath days as special days. This will help you and your descendants to remember that you belong to me. You will remember that I, the Lord, have chosen you to be my people.
14 The Sabbath day must be special for you, because it is a holy day. If anyone does not make the Sabbath a special day, you must punish him with death. If anyone does any work on a Sabbath day, he can no longer belong to my people. 15 You may work for six days each week, but the seventh day is a day of rest. It is a holy day that is special to me, the Lord. If anyone does any work on a Sabbath day, you must punish him with death. 16 The Israelites must always keep the Sabbath as a special day. They must obey the rules for the Sabbath day. Those rules are part of my covenant with my people that continues for ever. 17 It will always be a sign that I have chosen the Israelites to be my people. You will remember that the Lord made the heavens and the earth in six days. Then, on the seventh day, he stopped working and he rested.” ’
18 The Lord finished speaking to Moses on Sinai mountain. Then he gave Moses the two flat stones with the special commands that God himself had written on them.
The gold calf
32 The people realized that Moses had been on the mountain for a long time. So they went in a group to Aaron. They said to him, ‘Do something! Make some gods for us who will lead us. This man, Moses, brought us here out of Egypt. But now we do not know what has happened to him.’
2 So Aaron said to them, ‘Take the gold rings from the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters. Then bring the rings to me.’ 3 So all the Israelites removed the rings from their ears. They brought them to Aaron.
4 Aaron took the gold rings from the people. He melted the gold and he used a tool to make an image of a calf. Then the people said, ‘Look, people of Israel! This is our god who brought us up out of Egypt!’
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the gold calf. He told everyone, ‘Tomorrow, there will be a feast to worship the Lord.’
6 So the next day, the Israelites got up early. They killed animals as burnt offerings on the altar. They also brought peace offerings. After that, they sat down to eat a meal and they drank wine. Then they had a wild party.
7 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Hurry back down the mountain! The people that you brought out of Egypt have done a wicked thing. 8 They have already turned away from my commands. They have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bent down low to worship it. They have made sacrifices to give it honour. They are saying, “This is the god of the Israelites, the god who brought us out of Egypt!” ’
9 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen these people. They are proud and they do not obey me. 10 I am very angry with them and I will destroy them. Do not try to stop me. I will make your descendants into a great nation, instead of them.’
11 But Moses asked the Lord his God to be kind. He said, ‘Lord, please do not be so angry with your own people! You used your great power and authority to bring them safely out of Egypt. 12 If you destroy them, the Egyptians will say, “God led the Israelites out of our land so that he could completely destroy them. He wanted to kill them in the mountains.” So please stop being angry. Change your mind. Please do not bring this great trouble on your own people. 13 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are our ancestors. Remember the serious promise that you made to them. You said, “I will give you many descendants. They will be as many as the stars in the sky. I have also promised to give this whole land to them. It will belong to them as their home for ever.” ’
14 Then the Lord changed his mind. He did not bring the great trouble on his people as he had said he would.
15 Moses left the Lord and he went down the mountain. He carried in his hands the two flat stones with God's special commands on them. God had written his commands on both sides of the stones. 16 This was God's own work. He himself had written the words on the stones.
17 Joshua heard the noise of the Israelites as they were shouting down below. He said to Moses, ‘I can hear the sound of war in the camp!’ 18 But Moses said, ‘It is not the noise that soldiers make when they have won a battle. It is not the sound of soldiers who are crying because their enemy has won against them. I can hear the sound of people who are singing.’
19 Then Moses arrived at the camp. He saw the gold calf. He saw that the people were dancing. He became very angry. He threw the two flat stones that he was carrying onto the ground. He broke them into pieces there at the bottom of the mountain. 20 Then he took the image of the calf that they had made. He burned it in the fire. He beat it into powder. He mixed the powder with the people's water. Then he commanded the Israelites to drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, ‘Why did you agree to do this? What did the people do to you? You have made them guilty of a great sin.’ 22 Aaron answered, ‘My lord, please do not be so angry with me. You know how quickly these people decide to do wicked things. 23 They said to me, “Make us some gods that will lead us. This man Moses brought us here out of Egypt. But now we do not know what has happened to him.” 24 So I said to them, “Everyone who has any gold rings must remove them.” So they gave the gold to me. I threw it into the fire. Then this image of a calf came out of the fire!’
God punishes the people
25 Moses saw that the people were running about everywhere. Aaron had not been able to control them. If their enemies could see them, they would see how foolish they were. 26 So Moses stood at the edge of the camp. He said, ‘Everyone who decides to serve the Lord must come here to me.’ Then all the Levites went to stand near Moses.
27 Then Moses said to the Levites, ‘The Lord, Israel's God, says this: Each one of you must take his sword in his hand. You must go everywhere in the camp, from this side to the other side. You must kill everyone, even your brothers, your friends and your neighbours.’ 28 The Levites obeyed Moses' command. About 3,000 Israelites died on that day.
29 Then Moses said to the Levites, ‘You have shown today that you want to serve the Lord. You have become his special servants because you have obeyed him. You have agreed to kill even your own sons and brothers. God has blessed you because of this.’
30 On the next day, Moses said to the people, ‘You have done a great sin. But now I will go back up the mountain. I will speak to the Lord. Perhaps I can do something so that the Lord will forgive your sin.’
31 So Moses returned to the Lord. He said to the Lord, ‘Please listen to me. These people have done a very great sin. They have made a gold idol to worship as their god. 32 But now I ask you to forgive them for their sin. But if you will not do that, then please remove my name from your book.’[a]
33 The Lord answered Moses, ‘I will only remove the names of the people who have turned against me. 34 Now go! Lead the Israelites to the place that I have told you about. My angel will go in front of you. But on the day for punishment, I will certainly punish them for their sin.’
35 The Lord did send a bad disease to punish the people. He punished them because they had caused Aaron to make an image of a calf.
33 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘You must now leave here with the people that you brought out of Egypt. You must take them to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I made a serious promise to them that I would give the land to their descendants. 2 I will send an angel to lead you. I will chase the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites out of the land. 3 You will go to that land where there is plenty of food and drink, enough for everyone. But I will not travel with you. You are proud people who refuse to obey me. If I go with you, I might destroy you as you travel.’
4 The Israelites heard God's strong words. His message made them very upset. They stopped wearing their jewels, to show that they were sad. 5 The Lord had said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites, “You are proud people who refuse to obey me. If I go with you, even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now remove your jewels. Then I will decide what I should do with you.” ’
6 So the Israelites no longer wore their jewels after they left Sinai mountain.
The special tent
7 As they travelled, Moses put up a special tent outside the camp. It was not near the other tents. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone could go there to ask the Lord about something. They would go to the Tent of Meeting that was outside the camp.[b]
8 When Moses went out to the special tent, all the people would stand at the doors of their tents. They would watch Moses until he went into the special tent. 9 When Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down. The cloud would stay at the door of the tent while the Lord spoke to Moses.
10 Every time that the people saw the pillar of cloud at the door of the special tent, they all stood up. Then each person would stand at the door of his tent. They would bend low to worship the Lord. 11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp. But Nun's son Joshua always stayed in the special tent. Joshua was a young man who helped Moses.
God's great glory
12 Moses said to the Lord, ‘You have said to me, “Lead these people to their new land.” But you have not told me who my helper will be on the journey. You have told me, “I know you by your name. I am very pleased with you.” 13 If you are really pleased with me, tell me your thoughts. I want to understand you properly. Then I can continue to please you. Remember that this nation, the Israelites, are your own people.’
14 The Lord replied, ‘I myself will go with you. I will give you rest.’[c]
15 Then Moses said, ‘If you do not agree to go with us, do not let us go anywhere. 16 If you do not go with us, nobody will know that you are pleased with me. Nobody will know that you are pleased with us as your special people. I, and all your people, will be the same as all the other people in the world.’
17 The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will certainly do what you have asked for. This is because I am pleased with you. I know you by your name.’
18 Then Moses said, ‘Please, show me your glory!’
19 The Lord said, ‘I will let you see how great and good I am. I will tell you my name, that I am the Lord. If I choose to be kind to someone, I will be kind to them. If I choose to forgive someone, I will forgive them. 20 But you will never see my face. Nobody can see my face and still be alive.’
21 Then the Lord said, ‘Look! There is a place near to me. You can stand there on a rock. 22 When my glory passes in front of you, I will put you in a hole in the rock. I will cover your eyes with my hand as I pass by there. 23 Then I will remove my hand so that you will see my back. But nobody must ever see my face.’
Jesus tells a story about a meal at a marriage
22 Jesus continued to teach the people with stories. 2 He said, ‘This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king prepared a special meal for his son's marriage. 3 He asked many people to come. When the meal was ready, he sent his servants out to tell those people to come. But they refused to come.
4 So the king then sent out other servants. He said to them, “Tell this message to all those people that I have asked to come. Tell them that the master says, ‘My servants have prepared the meal. They have killed my large oxen and some fat young cows to eat. Everything is ready. Now come to the marriage party!’ ”
5 But the people did not think that the king's message was important. They went away to do their own work. One man went to his farm and another man went to his business. 6 Other people took hold of the king's servants. They hurt them and then they killed them. 7 The king was very angry. He sent his soldiers to the city where those people lived. They killed the people who killed the king's servants. They destroyed their city with fire.
8 Then the king said to his other servants, “The meal for my son's marriage is ready. But the people that I had asked to come did not deserve to come. 9 So go out now to the town's streets where people meet together. Ask all the people that you find there to come to the marriage party.” 10 Then those servants went out into the streets. They brought to the king's house all the people that they met. Some were good people and some were bad people. Very many people came. The room for the marriage was full!
11 Then the king came into the room to see all the people. He saw one man who was not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.[a] 12 The king said to the man, “How did you come in here, my friend? You are not wearing the right clothes for a marriage.” The man could not answer the king.
13 The king said to his servants, “Tie his hands and his feet. Take him and throw him into the dark place outside. There, people will cry and they will bite their teeth together.”
14 God asks many people to come to him. But he only chooses a few people to be there with him.’
The Pharisees ask Jesus about taxes
15 After the Pharisees heard this, they thought about what they could do. They wanted to ask Jesus difficult questions. They wanted to make him say something wrong about the Roman ruler. 16 So the Pharisees sent their own disciples to Jesus. They also sent people who were friends of King Herod. They said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that you only say true things. You teach us what God wants us to do. It does not matter to you what other people think. If someone is important, you do not change your answers to make them happy. 17 So tell us your answer to this question: Should we pay our taxes to the Roman ruler, Caesar? Is it right to give that money to him, or not?’
18 Jesus knew that these men wanted to do bad things to him. So he said to them, ‘You are asking that question to cause trouble for me. You are not being honest! 19 Now, show me the coin that you use for the tax.’ So they brought a coin to him. 20 Then Jesus asked them, ‘Whose picture is on this coin? Whose name is on it?’
21 They replied, ‘It is Caesar's picture and Caesar's name.’
Jesus said to them, ‘So you should give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. And give to God the things that belong to God.’
22 When they heard Jesus' answer, they were very surprised. So they left him and they went away.
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