Exodus 31–35

Oholiab and Bezalel

31The Lord said to Moses, ²“See, I have called by name ^xBezalel the son of Uri, son of ^yHur, of the tribe of Judah, ³and I have ^zfilled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, ⁴to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, ⁵in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. ⁶And behold, I have appointed with him ^aOholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ^bability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: ^7cthe tent of meeting, and ^dthe ark of the testimony, and ^ethe mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, ^8fthe table and its utensils, and ^gthe pure lampstand with all its utensils, and ^hthe altar of incense, ⁹and ⁱthe altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and ^jthe basin and its stand, ¹⁰and ^kthe finely worked garments,¹ the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, ¹¹and ^lthe anointing oil and the fragrant ^mincense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”

The Sabbath

¹²And the Lord said to Moses, ¹³“You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. ¹⁴You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. ⁿWhoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. ^15oSix days shall work be done, but ^pthe seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. ⁿWhoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. ¹⁶Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. ^17qIt is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that ^rin six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and ^son the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”

¹⁸And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the ^ttwo tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with ^uthe finger of God.

The Golden Calf

32When the people saw that Moses ^vdelayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, ^w“Up, make us gods who shall ^xgo before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” ²So Aaron said to them, “Take off the ^yrings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” ³So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. ^4zAnd he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden¹ calf. And they said, ^a“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” ⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron ^bmade a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” ⁶And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And ^cthe people sat down to eat and drink and rose up ^dto play.

⁷And the Lord said to Moses, ^e“Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have ^fcorrupted themselves. ⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way that ^gI commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ ” ⁹And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, ^hit is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰Now therefore ⁱlet me alone, that ^jmy wrath may burn hot against them and ^kI may consume them, in order that ^lI may make a great nation of you.”

¹¹But ^mMoses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹²ⁿWhy should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and ^orelent from this disaster against your people. ¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you ^pswore by your own self, and said to them, ^q‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ” ¹⁴And the Lord ^rrelented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

¹⁵Then ^sMoses turned and went down from the mountain with the ^ttwo tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. ^16uThe tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. ¹⁷When ^vJoshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” ¹⁸But he said, “It is not the sound of ^wshouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” ¹⁹And as soon as he came near the camp and ^xsaw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron, ^y“What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” ²²And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. ^zYou know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³For ^athey said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴So ^bI said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, ^cto the derision of their enemies), ²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. ²⁷And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you ^dkill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’ ” ²⁸And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. ²⁹And Moses said, “Today you have been ^eordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, ^f“You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; ^gperhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, ^fthis people has sinned a great sin. They have ^hmade for themselves gods of gold. ³²But now, if ⁱyou will forgive their sin—but if not, please ^jblot me out of ^kyour book that you have written.” ³³But the Lord said to Moses, ^l“Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. ^34mBut now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; ⁿbehold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

³⁵Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

The Command to Leave Sinai

33The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you ^oand the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To ^pyour offspring I will give it.’ ²I will send an ^qangel before you, ^rand I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ^3sGo up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ^tbut I will not go up among you, ^ulest I consume you on the way, for you are a ^vstiff-necked people.”

⁴When the people heard this disastrous word, they ^wmourned, and ^xno one put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a ^vstiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would ^yconsume you. So now ^xtake off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” ⁶Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

The Tent of Meeting

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and ^zhe called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who ^asought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and ^beach would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. ⁹When Moses entered the tent, the ^cpillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord¹ would speak with Moses. ¹⁰And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. ¹¹Thus ^dthe Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his ^eassistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses’ Intercession

¹²Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^fyou say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ^g‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please ^hshow me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in…