Exodus 23–25

LAWS ABOUT HONESTY AND JUSTICE

23“You must not spread a false report. Do not join^D the wicked to be a malicious witness.^c

²“You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice.^{d 3}Do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit.

⁴“If you come across your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.

⁵“If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying helpless under its load, and you want to refrain from helping it, you must help with it.^Ae

⁶“You must not deny justice to a poor person among you in his lawsuit. ⁷Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the guilty.^{f 8}You must not take a bribe,^g for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and corrupts the words^B of the righteous. ⁹You must not oppress a resident alien;^h you yourselves know how it feels to be a resident alien because you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.

SABBATHS AND FESTIVALS

¹⁰“Sow your land for six years and gather its produce.^{i 11}But during the seventh year you are to let it rest and leave it uncultivated, so that the poor among your people may eat from it and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“Do your work^j for six days but rest on the seventh day so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave as well as the resident alien may be refreshed.

¹³“Pay strict attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.^Ck

¹⁴“Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year.^{l 15}Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^{m 16}Also observe the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingatheringⁿ at the end of the year, when you gather your produce^G from the field. ¹⁷Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.

¹⁸“You must not offer the blood of my sacrifices with anything leavened. The fat of my festival offering must not remain until morning.^o

¹⁹“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God.

“You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.^p

PROMISES AND WARNINGS

²⁰“I am going to send an angel^q before you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹Be attentive to him and listen to him. Do not defy him, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for my name is in him.^{r 22}But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy^s to your enemies and a foe to your foes. ²³For my angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hethites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.^{t 24}Do not bow in worship to their gods, and do not serve them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them^A and smash their sacred pillars to pieces.^{u 25}Serve the Lord your God, and he^B will bless your bread and your water. I will remove illnesses from you.^{v 26}No woman will miscarry or be childless in your land. I will give you the full number of your days.^w

²⁷“I will cause the people ahead of you to feel terror^C and will throw into confusion^x all the nations you come to. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you in retreat.^{D 28}I will send hornets^Ey in front of you, and they will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hethites away from you. ²⁹I will not drive them out ahead of you in a single year; otherwise, the land would become desolate, and wild animals would multiply against you. ³⁰I will drive them out little by little ahead of you until you have become numerous^F and take possession of the land. ³¹I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea,^G and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River.^H For I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you will drive them out ahead of you.^{a 32}You must not make a covenant^b with them or their gods. ³³They must not remain in your land, or else they will make you sin against me. If you serve their gods, it will be a snare for you.”^c

THE COVENANT CEREMONY

24Then he said to Moses, “Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders,^d and bow in worship at a distance. ²Moses alone is to approach the Lord, but the others are not to approach, and the people are not to go up with him.”

³Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded with a single voice, “We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.”^{e 4}And Moses wrote^f down all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain. ⁵Then he sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. ⁶Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he splattered on the altar. ⁷He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, “We will do and obey all that the Lord has commanded.”

⁸Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”^g

⁹Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, ¹⁰and they saw^h the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself.^{i 11}God did not harm^I the Israelite nobles; they saw^j him, and they ate and drank.

¹²The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets^k with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

¹³So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God.^{l 14}He told the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Whoever has a dispute should go to them.” ¹⁵When Moses went up the mountain, the cloud^m covered it. ¹⁶The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from the cloud.^{n 17}The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire^o on the mountaintop. ¹⁸Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.^p

OFFERINGS TO BUILD THE TABERNACLE

25The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Tell the Israelites to take an offering for me. You are to take my offering from everyone who is willing to give.^{q 3}This is the offering you are to receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze; ⁴blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair; ⁵ram skins dyed red^r and fine leather;^A acacia wood; ⁶oil^s for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; ⁷and onyx^B along with other gemstones for mounting on the ephod and breastpiece.^Ct

⁸“They are to make a sanctuary^u for me so that I may dwell^v among them. ⁹You must make it according to all that I show you—the pattern^w of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.

THE ARK

¹⁰“They are to make an ark^x of acacia wood, forty-five inches long, twenty-seven inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high.^{D 11}Overlay it with pure gold; overlay it both inside and out. Also make a gold molding all around it. ¹²Cast four gold rings for it and place them on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other side. ¹³Make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark in order to carry the ark with them. ¹⁵The poles are to remain in the rings of the ark; they must not be removed from it. ¹⁶Put the tablets of the testimony that I will give you into the ark.^{y 17}Make a mercy seat^z of pure gold, forty-five inches long and twenty-seven inches wide.^{F 18}Make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat. ¹⁹Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. At its two ends, make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat. ²⁰The cherubim are to have wings spread out above, covering^a the mercy seat with their wings, and are to face one another. The faces of the cherubim should be toward the mercy seat. ²¹Set the mercy seat on top of the ark and put the tablets of the testimony that I will give you into the ark.^{b 22}I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim^c that are over the ark of the testimony; I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.

THE TABLE

²³“You are to construct a table^d of acacia wood, thirty-six inches long, eighteen inches wide, and twenty-seven inches high.^{A 24}Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding all around it. ²⁵Make a three-inch^B frame all around it and make a gold molding for it all around its frame. ²⁶Make four gold rings for it, and attach the rings to the four corners at its four legs. ²⁷The rings should be next to the frame as holders for the poles to carry the table. ²⁸Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and the table can be carried by them. ²⁹You are also to make its plates^e and cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold. ³⁰Put the Bread of the Presence^f on the table before me at all times.

THE LAMPSTAND

³¹“You^g are to make a lampstand^h out of pure, hammered gold. It is to be made of one piece: its base and shaft, its ornamental cups, and its buds^C and petals. ³²Six branches are to extend from its sides, three branches of the lampstand…