Exodus 23–25

Regulations Regarding Justice

23“ ‘You will not spread^a a false report. Do not lift your hand with the wicked to be a malicious witness. ²You will not follow^b a majority^c for evil, and you will not testify concerning a legal dispute to turn aside after a majority^d to pervert justice. ³You will not be partial to a powerless person^e in his legal dispute.

⁴“ ‘If you come upon the ox of your enemy or his donkey going astray, you will certainly bring it back to him. ⁵If you see the donkey of your enemy lying down under its burden, you will refrain from abandoning him. You will surely arrange^f it with him.

⁶“ ‘You will not pervert the justice of your poor in his legal dispute. ⁷You will stay far from a false charge,^g and do not kill the innocent and the righteous, because I will not declare the wicked righteous.^{h 8}And you will not take a bribe, because the bribe makes the sighted blind and ruins the words of the righteous. ⁹And you will not oppress an alien; you yourselves know the feelingsⁱ of the alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

Regulations Regarding Work and Festivals

¹⁰“ ‘And six years you will sow your land and gather its yield. ¹¹But the seventh you will let it rest and leave it fallow, and the poor of your people will eat, and their remainder the animals^j of the field will eat. You will do likewise for your vineyard and for your olive trees.

¹²“ ‘Six days you will do your work, but on the seventh day you will stop so that your ox and your donkey will rest and the son of your slave woman and the alien will be refreshed.

¹³“ ‘And you will be attentive to all that I have said to you, and you will not profess^k the name of other gods; it will not be heard in your mouth.

¹⁴“ ‘Three times in the year you will hold a festival for me. ¹⁵You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at the appointed time, the month of Abib, because in it you came out from Egypt, and no one will^l appear before me empty-handed. ¹⁶And you will keep the Feast of Harvest, with the firstfruits of your work, what you sow in the field. And you will keep the Feast of Harvest Gathering when the year goes out, when you gather your work from the field. ¹⁷Three times in the year all your men will appear before the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁸“ ‘You will not sacrifice the blood of my sacrifice together with food with yeast, and you will not leave the fat of my feast overnight until morning.

¹⁹“ ‘The best of the firstfruits of your land you will bring to the house of Yahweh your God.

“ ‘You will not boil a young goat^m in its mother’s milk.

Reasons for Loyal Obedience

²⁰“ ‘Look, I am about to send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹Be attentive to him and listen to his voice; do not rebel against him, because he will not forgive your transgression, for my name is in him. ²²But if you listen attentively to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. ²³When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amoritesⁿ and the Hittites^o and the Perizzites^p and the Canaanites^q and the Hivites^r and the Jebusites,^s I will wipe them out.

²⁴“ ‘You will not bow to their gods, and you will not serve them, and you will not act according to their actions, because you will utterly demolish them, and you will utterly break their stone pillars. ²⁵And you will serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from among you. ²⁶There will be no one suffering miscarriage or infertile in your land. I will make full the number of your days.^t

²⁷“ ‘I will release my terror before you, and I will throw into confusion all the people against whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their back to you.^{u 28}And I will send the hornet before you, and it will drive out the Hivites,^v the Canaanites,^w and the Hittites^x from before you. ²⁹I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become a desolation and the wild animals^y multiply against you. ³⁰Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you are fruitful and take possession of the land.

³¹“ ‘And I will set your boundary from the Red Sea^z and up to the sea of the Philistines and from the desert up to the river,^a because I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out from before you. ³²You will not make a covenant with them and with their gods. ³³They will not live in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me when you serve their gods, for it will be a snare to you.’ ”

Confirming the Covenant

24And to Moses he said, “Go up to Yahweh—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel—and you will worship at a distance. ²And Moses alone^a will come near to Yahweh, and they will not come near, and the people will not go up with him.”

³And Moses came, and he told the people all the words of Yahweh and all the regulations. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said, “All the words that Yahweh has spoken we will do.”

⁴And Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and he rose early in the morning, and he built an altar at the base of the mountain and set up twelve memorial stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵And he sent young men from the Israelites,^b and they offered burnt offerings, and they sacrificed sacrifices as fellowship offerings to Yahweh using bulls. ⁶And Moses took half of the blood, and he put it in bowls, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷And he took the scroll of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will listen.”^{c 8}And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and he said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that Yahweh has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

⁹And Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy from the elders of Israel went up. ¹⁰And they saw the God of Israel, and what was under his feet was like sapphire tile work and like the very heavens for clearness. ¹¹And toward the leaders of the Israelites^d he did not stretch out his hand, and they beheld God, and they ate, and they drank.

The Start of Forty Days and Nights on Mount Sinai

¹²And Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and the commandments that I have written to instruct them.” ¹³And Moses got up, and Joshua, his assistant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.

¹⁴And to the elders he said, “Wait for us here until we return to you. And look, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute^e will bring it to you.”

¹⁵And Moses went up to the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. ¹⁶And the glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days, and he called to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud. ¹⁷And the appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain to the eyes of^f the Israelites.^{g 18}And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Instruction to Collect Materials

25And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the Israelites,^a and let them bring to me a contribution. You will receive my contribution from every man whose heart prompts him. ³And this is the contribution that you will receive from them—gold and silver and bronze, ⁴blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine linen and goat hair, ⁵and red-dyed ram skins, and fine leather,^b and acacia wood, ⁶oil for the lamp, balsam oils for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, ⁷onyx stones and stones for mountings on the ephod and the breast piece. ⁸And make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell in the midst of them, ⁹according to all that I show you—the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its equipment—and so you will do.

Instructions for Making the Ark of the Covenant

¹⁰“And they will make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits its length and a cubit and a half its width and a cubit and a half its height. ¹¹And you will overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you will overlay it, and you will make on it a gold molding all around. ¹²And you will cast for it four gold rings, and you will put them on its four feet, with two rings on its one side and two rings on its second side. ¹³And you will make poles of acacia wood, and you will overlay them with gold. ¹⁴And you will put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark with them. ¹⁵In the rings of the ark will be the poles; they will not be removed from it.^{c 16}And you will put into the ark the testimony that I will give to you.

¹⁷“And you will make an atonement cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits its length and a cubit and a half its width. ¹⁸And you will make two cherubim of gold; you will make them of hammered work at the two ends of the atonement cover. ¹⁹And make one cherub at one end^d and one cherub at the other end^e of the atonement cover; you will make the cherubim on its two ends. ²⁰And the cherubim will be with outspread wings above, covering with their wings over the atonement cover and facing each other;^f the faces of the cherubim will be toward the atonement cover. ²¹And you will put the atonement cover above onto the ark, and into the ark you will put the testimony that I will give you. ²²And I will meet you there, and I will speak with you from over the atonement cover, from between the two cherubim that are to be on the ark of the testimony—all that I will command you to the Israelites.^g

Instructions for Making a Table and a Lampstand

²³“And you will make a table of acacia wood, two cubits its length and a cubit its width and a cubit and a half its height. ²⁴And you will overlay it with pure gold, and…