Exodus 23–25

1“You shall not spread a false report. Don’t join your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness.

2“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. You shall not testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice.

3You shall not favor a poor man in his cause.

4“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.

5If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.

6“You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

7“Keep far from a false charge, and don’t kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked.

8“You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have sight and perverts the words of the righteous.

9“You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, since you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

10“For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in its increase,

11but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the field shall eat. In the same way, you shall deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.

12“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the alien may be refreshed.

13“Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other gods or even let them be heard out of your mouth.

14“You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.

15You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.

16And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.

17Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

18“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The fat of my feast shall not remain all night until the morning.

19You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

20“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

21Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

22But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries.

23For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.

24You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars.

25You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.

26No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

27I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

28I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.

29I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you.

30Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land.

31I will set your border from the Red Sea even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.

32You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

33They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

1He said to Moses, “Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship from a distance.

2Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near. The people shall not go up with him.”

3Moses came and told the people all Yahweh’s words, and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do.”

4Moses wrote all Yahweh’s words, then rose up early in the morning and built an altar at the base of the mountain, with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

5He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of cattle to Yahweh.

6Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

7He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do all that Yahweh has said, and be obedient.”

8Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.”

9Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up.

10They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness.

11He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank.

12Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and stay here, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commands that I have written, that you may teach them.”

13Moses rose up with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up onto God’s Mountain.

14He said to the elders, “Wait here for us, until we come again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them.”

15Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

16Yahweh’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud.

17The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

18Moses entered into the middle of the cloud, and went up on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2“Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me. From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall take my offering.

3This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, bronze,

4blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair,

5rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,

6oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,

7onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.

8Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.

9According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you shall make it.

10“They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall be two and a half cubits, its width a cubit and a half, and a cubit and a half its height.

11You shall overlay it with pure gold. You shall overlay it inside and outside, and you shall make a gold molding around it.

12You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it.

13You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

14You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark.

15The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken from it.

16You shall put the covenant which I shall give you into the ark.

17You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width.

18You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.

19Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end. You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.

20The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another. The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.

21You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the covenant that I will give you.

22There I will meet with you, and I will tell you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the covenant, all that I command you for the children of Israel.

23“You shall make a table of acacia wood. Its length shall be two cubits, and its width a cubit, and its height one and a half cubits.

24You shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it.

25You shall make a rim of a hand width around it. You shall make a golden molding on its rim around it.

26You shall make four rings of gold for it, and put the rings in the four corners that are on its four feet.

27The rings shall be close to the rim, for places for the poles to carry the table.

28You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them.

29You shall make its dishes, its spoons, its ladles, and its bowls with which to pour out offerings. You shall make them of pure gold.

30You shall set bread of the presence on the table before me always.

31“You shall make a lamp stand of pure gold. The lamp stand shall be made of hammered work. Its base, its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it.

32There shall be six branches going out of its sides: three branches of the lamp stand out of its one side, and three branches of the lamp stand out of its other side;

33three cups made like almond blossoms in one branch, a bud and a flower; and three cups made like almond blossoms in the other branch, a bud and a flower, so for the six branches going out of the lamp stand;

34and in the lamp stand four cups made like almond blossoms, its buds and its flowers;

35and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, and a bud under two branches of one piece with it, for the six branches going out of the lamp stand.

36Their buds and their branches shall be of one piece with it, all of it one beaten work of pure gold.

37You shall make its lamps seven, and they shall light its lamps to give light to the space in front of it.

38Its snuffers and its snuff dishes shall be of pure gold.

39It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these accessories.

40See that you make them after their pattern, which has been shown to you on the mountain.