Exodus 31-34

Exodus 31

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²I have made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, by name, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

³And I have given him the spirit of God and made him wise and full of knowledge and expert in every sort of handwork,

⁴To do all sorts of delicate work in gold and silver and brass;

⁵In cutting stones for framing, and to do every form of woodwork.

⁶And I have made selection of Oholiab with him, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are wise I have put the knowledge to make whatever I have given you orders to have made;

⁷The Tent of meeting, and the ark of the law, and the cover which is on it, and all the things for the tent,

⁸And the table with its vessels, and the holy light-support with all its vessels, and the altar for the burning of spices,

⁹And the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the washing-vessel with its base,

¹⁰And the robes of needlework, the holy robes for Aaron and for his sons, for their use when acting as priests,

¹¹And the holy oil, and the perfume of sweet spices for the holy place; they will do whatever I have given you orders to have done.

¹²And the Lord said to Moses,

¹³Say to the children of Israel that they are to keep my Sabbaths; for the Sabbath day is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you may see that I am the Lord who makes you holy.

¹⁴So you are to keep the Sabbath as a holy day; and anyone not honouring it will certainly be put to death: whoever does any work on that day will be cut off from his people.

¹⁵Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.

¹⁶And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement.

¹⁷It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it.

¹⁸And when his talk with Moses on Mount Sinai was ended, he gave him the two stones of the law, two stones on which was the writing made by the finger of God.

Exodus 32

¹And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him.

²Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me.

³And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron.

⁴And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt.

⁵And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord.

⁶So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure.

⁷And the Lord said to Moses, Go down quickly; for your people, whom you took out of the land of Egypt, are turned to evil ways;

⁸Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them, and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took you up out of the land of Egypt.

⁹And the Lord said to Moses, I have been watching this people, and I see that they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I will make a great nation.

¹¹But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is your wrath burning against your people whom you took out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength of your hand?

¹²Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people.

¹³Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever.

¹⁴So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of sending punishment on his people.

¹⁵Then Moses came down the mountain with the two stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their two sides, on the front and on the back.

¹⁶The stones were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut on the stones.

¹⁷Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the tents.

¹⁸And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear.

¹⁹And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of the mountain.

²⁰And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them?

²²And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have seen how the purposes of this people are evil.

²³For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has come to him.

²⁴Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out.

²⁵And Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them loose to their shame before their haters:

²⁶Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him.

²⁷And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour.

²⁸And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three thousand of the people were put to death that day.

²⁹And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day.

³⁰And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I may get forgiveness for your sin.

³¹Then Moses went back to the Lord and said, This people has done a great sin, making themselves a god of gold;

³²But now, if you will give them forgiveness — but if not, let my name be taken out of your book.

³³And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil against me will be taken out of my book.

³⁴But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin.

³⁵And the Lord sent punishment on the people because they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made.

Exodus 33

¹And the Lord said to Moses, Go forward from this place, you and the people whom you have taken up out of the land of Egypt, to that land about which I made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed will I give it.

²And I will send an angel before you, driving out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite:

³Go up to that land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, for fear that I send destruction on you while you are on the way.

⁴Hearing this bad news the people were full of grief, and no one put on his ornaments.

⁵And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: if I come among you, even for a minute, I will send destruction on you; so take off all your ornaments, so that I may see what to do with you.

⁶So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at Mount Horeb, and did not put them on again.

⁷Now it was Moses' way to put up the Tent of meeting outside the tent-circle, at some distance away; giving it the name of The Tent of meeting. And everyone desiring to make his prayer to the Lord went to the Tent of meeting outside the tent-circle.

⁸And whenever Moses went out to the Tent of meeting, all the people got up and everyone went to the door of his tent, looking after Moses till he went inside the Tent.

⁹And whenever Moses went into the Tent, the pillar of cloud came down, and took its place by the door of the Tent, as long as the Lord was talking with Moses.

¹⁰And all the people saw the cloud at the door of the Tent, and they went down on their faces, everyone at the door of his tent.

¹¹And the Lord had talk with Moses face to face, as a man may have talk with his friend. And when Moses came back to the tents, his servant, the young man Joshua, the son of Nun, did not come away from the Tent.

¹²And Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Be this people's guide on their journey, but you have not made clear to me whom you will send with me. But you have said, I have knowledge of you by name, and you have grace in my eyes.

¹³If then I have grace in your eyes, let me see your ways, so that I may have knowledge of you and be certain of your grace; and my prayer is that you will keep in mind that this nation is your people.

¹⁴And he said, I myself will go with you and give you rest.

¹⁵And Moses said, If you yourself are not going with us, do not send us on from here.

¹⁶For is not the fact of your going with us the sign that I and this people have grace in your eyes, so that we, that is, I and your people, are separate from all other people on the face of the earth?

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, I will do as you say: for you have grace in my eyes, and I have knowledge of you by your name.

¹⁸And Moses said, O Lord, let me see your glory.

¹⁹And he said, I will make all the light of my being come before you, and will make clear to you what I am; I will be kind to those to whom I will be kind, and have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy.

²⁰But it is not possible for you to see my face, for no man may see me and still go on living.

²¹And the Lord said, See, there is a place near me, and you may take your place on the rock:

²²And when my glory goes by, I will put you in a hole in the rock, covering you with my hand till I have gone past:

²³Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back: but my face is not to be seen.

Exodus 34

¹And the Lord said to Moses, Make two other stones like the first two; and I will put on them the words which were on the first stones, which were broken by you.

²And be ready by the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai, and come before me there in the morning, on the top of the mountain.

³No one is to come up with you, and let no man be seen anywhere on the mountain; let no flocks or herds come near to get their food at its foot.

⁴So Moses got two stones cut like the first; and early in the morning he went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had said, with the two stones in his hand.

⁵And the Lord came down in the cloud and took his place by the side of Moses, and Moses gave worship to the name of the Lord.

⁶And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and great in mercy and faith;

⁷Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation.

⁸Then Moses quickly went down on his face in worship.

⁹And he said, If now I have grace in your eyes, let the Lord go among us, for this is a stiff-necked people, and give us forgiveness for our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us for your heritage.

¹⁰And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake: before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to do for you is greatly to be feared.

¹¹Take care to do the orders which I give you today; I will send out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

¹²But take care, and do not make any agreement with the people of the land where you are going, for it will be a cause of sin to you.

¹³But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down:

¹⁴For you are to be worshippers of no other god: for the Lord is a God who will not give his honour to another.

¹⁵So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts,

¹⁶Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.

¹⁷Make for yourselves no gods of metal.

¹⁸Keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days your food is to be bread without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib; for in that month you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹Every first male child is mine; the first male birth of your cattle, the first male of every ox and sheep.

²⁰A lamb may be given in payment for the young of an ass, but if you will not make payment for it, its neck will have to be broken. For all the first of your sons you are to make payment. No one is to come before me without an offering.

²¹Six days let work be done, but on the seventh day take your rest: at ploughing time and at the grain-cutting you are to have a day for rest.

²²And you are to keep the feast of weeks when you get in the first-fruits of the grain, and the feast at the turn of the year when you take in the produce of your fields.

²³Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord, the God of Israel.

²⁴For I will send out the nations before you and make wide the limits of your land; and no man will make an attempt to take your land while you go up to give worship to the Lord, three times in the year.

²⁵No leaven is to be offered with the blood of my offering, and the offering of the Passover feast may not be kept till the morning.

²⁶Take the first-fruits of your land as an offering to the house of the Lord your God. Let not the young goat be cooked in its mother's milk

²⁷And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will make with you.

²⁸And for forty days and forty nights Moses was there with the Lord, and in that time he had no food or drink. And he put in writing on the stones the words of the agreement, the ten rules of the law.

²⁹Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two stones in his hand, he was not conscious that his face was shining because of his talk with God.

³⁰But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for fear.

³¹Then Moses sent for them; and Aaron, with the chiefs of the people, came to him; and Moses had talk with them.

³²And later, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the orders which the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³And at the end of his talk with them, Moses put a veil over his face.

³⁴But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to have talk with him, he took off the veil till he came out. And whenever he came out he said to the children of Israel what he had been ordered to say;

³⁵And the children of Israel saw that the face of Moses was shining: so Moses put the veil over his face again till he went to the Lord.