The Tabernacle Erected and Arranged

40 Then the Lord aspoke to Moses, saying: 2 “On the first day of the bfirst month you shall set up cthe tabernacle of the tent of meeting. 3 dYou shall put in it the ark of the Testimony, and 1partition off the ark with the veil. 4 eYou shall bring in the table and farrange the things that are to be set in order on it; gand you shall bring in the lampstand and 2light its lamps. 5 hYou shall also set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the Testimony, and put up the screen for the door of the tabernacle. 6 Then you shall set the ialtar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. 7 And jyou shall set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 8 You shall set up the court all around, and hang up the screen at the court gate.

9 “And you shall take the anointing oil, and kanoint the tabernacle and all that is in it; and you shall hallow it and all its utensils, and it shall be holy. 10 You shall lanoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar. mThe altar shall be most holy. 11 And you shall anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it.

12 n“Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and wash them with water. 13 You shall put the holy ogarments on Aaron, pand anoint him and consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest. 14 And you shall bring his sons and clothe them with tunics. 15 You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to Me as priests; for their anointing shall surely be qan everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.”

16 Thus Moses did; according to all that the Lord had commanded him, so he did.

17 And it came to pass in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, that the rtabernacle was 3raised up. 18 So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars. 19 And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 20 He took sthe Testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark. 21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, thung up the veil of the covering, and partitioned off the ark of the Testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

22 uHe put the table in the tabernacle of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil; 23 vand he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 24 wHe put the lampstand in the tabernacle of meeting, across from the table, on the south side of the tabernacle; 25 and xhe lit the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 26 yHe put the gold altar in the tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil; 27 zand he burned sweet incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 28 aHe hung up the screen at the door of the tabernacle. 29 bAnd he put the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and coffered upon it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 30 dHe set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and put water

Israel’s Suffering in Egypt

1 Now athese are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt; each man and his household came with Jacob: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; 4 Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 5 All those 1who were descendants of Jacob were bseventy 2persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already). 6 And cJoseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. 7 dBut the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and 3grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, ewho did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and fmightier than we; 10 gcome, let us hdeal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them ito afflict them with their jburdens. And they built for Pharaoh ksupply cities, Pithom land Raamses. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. 13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel mserve with 4rigor. 14 And they nmade their lives bitter with hard bondage—oin mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.

15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the pHebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah; 16 and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a qson, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 17 But the midwives rfeared God, and did not do sas the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. 18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”

19 And tthe midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they 5are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”

20 uTherefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and 6grew very mighty. 21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, vthat He 7provided households for them.

22 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, w“Every son who is 8born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”

Moses is Born

2 And aa man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi. 2 So the woman conceived and bore a son. And bwhen she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of cbulrushes for him, daubed it with dasphalt and epitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds fby the river’s bank. 4 gAnd his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.

5 Then the hdaughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it. 6 And when she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby wept. So she had compassion on him, and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s …

Jethro’s Advice

18 And aJethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that bGod had done for Moses and for Israel His people—that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt. 2 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took cZipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, 3 with her dtwo sons, of whom the name of one was 1Gershom (for he said, e“I have been a 2stranger in a foreign land”) 4 and the name of the other was 3Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my fhelp, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”); 5 and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at gthe mountain of God. 6 Now he had said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”

7 So Moses hwent out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and ikissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent. 8 And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the Lord had jdelivered them. 9 Then Jethro rejoiced for all the kgood which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. 10 And Jethro said, l“Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. 11 Now I know that the Lord is mgreater than all the gods; nfor in the very thing in which they 4behaved oproudly, He was above them.” 12 Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, 5took a burnt poffering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel qto eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

13 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses rsat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. 14 So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone 6sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”

15 And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because sthe people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have ta 7difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

17 So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. 18 Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; uyou are not able to perform it by yourself. 19 Listen now to my voice; I will give you 8counsel, and God will be with you: Stand vbefore God for the people, so that you may wbring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall xteach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and ythe work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people zable men, such as afear God, bmen of truth, chating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. dThen it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it