Exodus 23–25

Laws about Honesty and Justice

23“You must not spread a false report. Do not join ^hthe wicked to be a malicious witness. ⁱ

²“You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice. ^j3Do 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. ^kl

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. ^m8You must not take a bribe, ⁿfor a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and corrupts the words ^oof the righteous. ⁹You must not oppress a foreign resident; ^pyou yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

Sabbaths and Festivals

¹⁰“Sow your land for six years and gather its produce. ^q11But 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 ^rfor 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 foreign resident 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. ^st

¹⁴“Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year. ^u15Observe 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, ^vbecause you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed. ^w16Also observe the Festival of Harvest ^xwith the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering ^yzat the end of the year, when you gather your produce ^afrom 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. ^b

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. ^c

Promises and Warnings

²⁰“I am going to send an angel ^dbefore you to protect you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹Be attentive to him and listen to his voice. Do not defy ^ehim, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for My name is in him. ^f22But if you will carefully obey him and do everything I say, then I will be an enemy ^gto your enemies and a foe to your foes. ²³For My angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. ^h24You must not bow down to their gods or worship them. Do not imitate their practices. Instead, demolish them ⁱand smash their sacred pillars to pieces. ^j25Worship the Lord your God, and He ^kwill bless your bread and your water. I will remove illnesses from you. ^l26No woman will miscarry or be childless in your land. I will give you the full number of your days. ^m

²⁷“I will cause the people ahead of you to feel terror ⁿand throw into confusion ^oall the nations you come to. I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you in retreat. ²⁸I will send the hornet ^pqin front of you, and it will drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites 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 ^rand take possession of the land. ³¹I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, ^sand from the wilderness to the Euphrates River. ^tFor I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you will drive them out ahead of you. ^u32You must not make a covenant ^vwith them or their gods. ³³They must not remain in your land, or else they will make you sin against Me. If you worship their gods, it will be a snare for you.” ^w

The Covenant Ceremony

24Then He said to Moses, “Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, ^xand 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.” ^y4And Moses wrote ^zdown all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and 12 pillars for the 12 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 sprinkled on the altar. ⁷He then took the covenant scroll and read it aloud to the people. They responded, “We will do and obey everything that the Lord has commanded.”

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

⁹Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, ¹⁰and they saw ^bthe God of Israel. Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire ^cstone, as clear as the sky itself. ^d11God did not harm ^ethe Israelite nobles; they saw ^fHim, 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 ^gwith the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

¹³So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and went up the mountain of God. ^h14He 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 ⁱcovered 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. ^j17The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire ^kon the mountaintop. ¹⁸Moses entered the cloud as he went up the mountain, and he remained on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights. ^l

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. ^m3This 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 ⁿand manatee skins; ^oacacia wood; ⁶oil ^pfor the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; ⁷and onyx ^qalong with other gemstones for mounting on the ephod and breastpiece. ^rs

⁸“They are to make a sanctuary ^tfor Me so that I may dwell ^uamong them. ⁹You must make it according to all that I show you—the pattern ^vof the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.

The Ark

¹⁰“They are to make an ark ^wof acacia wood, 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ^x11Overlay 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. ^y17Make a mercy seat ^zof pure gold, 45 inches long and 27 inches wide. ^a18Make 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 ^bthe 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 testimony that I will give you into the ark. ^c22I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim ^dthat 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 ^eof acacia wood, 36 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 27 inches high. ^f24Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding all around it. ²⁵Make a three-inch ^gframe 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 ^hand cups, as well as its pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold. ³⁰Put the bread of the Presence ⁱon the table before Me at all times.

The Lampstand

³¹“You ^jare to make a lampstand ^kout of pure, hammered gold. It is to be made of one piece: its base and shaft, its ornamental cups, and its calyxes ^land petals. ³²Six branches are to extend from its sides, three branches of the lampstand from one side and three branches of the lampstand from the other side. ³³There are to be three cups shaped…