Old/New Testament
The Craftsmen
31 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Look, here is Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, from the tribe of Judah. I have called him by name. 3 I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and with skill in all kinds of crafts. 4 He has the ability to create designs. He works with gold, silver, and bronze. 5 He is able to cut and engrave precious stones and mount them. He can also carve wood. He works skillfully in all kinds of crafts.
6 “Not only that, but I have also appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, from the tribe of Dan, to work with him. I have put wisdom into the heart of all the skilled craftsmen, so that they may make everything that I have commanded you: 7 the Tent of Meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, the atonement seat that is on it, all the furnishings for the tent, 8 the table and its vessels and accessories, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar for incense, 9 the altar for burnt offerings with all its utensils, the basin and its pedestal, 10 the finely woven garments (the holy garments for Aaron the priest), the garments for his sons to minister in the priest’s office, 11 the anointing oil, and the incense made of fragrant spices for the Holy Place. The skilled craftsmen shall do everything just as I commanded.”
The Sabbath
12 The Lord spoke to Moses. He said, 13 “Speak to the people of Israel. Tell them, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths diligently, because the Sabbath is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord, who sets you apart as holy. 14 So you shall observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it must certainly be put to death, for if anyone does any work on the Sabbath, his life shall be cut off from among his people. 15 On six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must certainly be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall observe the Sabbath by keeping the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a permanent sign between me and the people of Israel, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
18 When the Lord had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.
The Gold Calf
32 When the people saw that it took so long for Moses to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make a god[a] for us, who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has become of him.”
2 Aaron said to them, “Pull off the gold earrings from your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me.”
3 All the people pulled off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and shaped it with an engraving tool and made it into a bull calf cast out of metal. Then they said, “This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”[b]
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and Aaron made a proclamation. He said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”
6 They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought fellowship offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and to drink and got up to celebrate wildly.
7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Hurry down, because your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! 8 They have quickly turned from the way which I commanded them. They have made a calf for themselves out of metal and have worshipped it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
9 The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and they certainly are a stiff-necked people.[c] 10 So now leave me alone, so that my anger can burn hot against them, so that I may consume them and make you into a great nation.”
11 Moses begged the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out for an evil purpose, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn back from your fierce anger and change your mind about inflicting disaster on your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self. You said to them, ‘I will multiply your seed[d] like the stars of the sky, and I will give all this land that I have spoken about to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 Then the Lord changed his mind about the disaster which he said he would inflict on his people.
15 Moses turned and went down the mountain, with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand—tablets that were written on both sides, written on one side and on the other. 16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”
18 Moses said, “It is not the sound of people who shout for victory; neither is it the sound of people who cry because of defeat. But I do hear the sound of people who are celebrating.”
19 As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses’ anger burned. So he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on them?”
22 Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn. You know these people. They are set on evil, 23 so they said to me, ‘Make a god for us, who will go ahead of us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, pull it off.’ So they gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.”
25 When Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had let them get so out of control that they were disgraced among their enemies), 26 Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me!”
All the descendants of Levi gathered themselves together to Moses. 27 He said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man is to strap his sword on his thigh and go back and forth throughout the camp, from one gate of the camp to the other, and every man is to kill his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’” 28 The Levites did what Moses said, and that day about three thousand men from among the people fell. 29 Moses said, “Begin your service of the Lord today.[e] Yes, because every man among you took a stand against his son and against his brother, the Lord is bestowing a blessing on you today.”
30 On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a very serious sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I can gain atonement for your sin.”
31 Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Yes, this people has committed a very serious sin: They have made a god of gold for themselves. 32 Yet now, if you will, please forgive their sin—and if not, please erase me from your book, which you have written.”
33 The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me is the one I will erase from my book. 34 Now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Look, my Angel shall go ahead of you. Nevertheless, when the right day comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin.” 35 The Lord struck the people with a plague, because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron made.
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.”
The Parable of the Wedding Banquet
22 Jesus spoke to them again in parables. He said, 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent out his servants to summon those who were invited to the wedding banquet, but they did not want to come.
4 “Then he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet!’
5 “But those who were invited paid no attention and went off, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6 The rest seized the king’s servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 As a result, the king was very angry. He sent his army and killed those murderers and burned their town.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 So go to the main crossroads and invite as many as you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10 Those servants went out to the roads and gathered together everyone they found, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wearing wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. 13 Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Paying Taxes to Caesar
15 Then the Pharisees went out and plotted together how to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in accord with the truth. You are not concerned about gaining anyone’s approval because you are not swayed by appearances. 17 So tell us, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus knew their evil purpose and said, “Why are you testing me, hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.”
They brought him a denarius.
20 He asked them, “Whose image and inscription is this?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied to him.
Then he said to them, “Therefore give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. Then they left him and went away.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.