Exodus 23–25

CHAPTER 23

¹“^aYou shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a ^bmalicious witness.

²“You shall not follow ¹the masses in doing evil, nor shall you ²testify in a case so as to turn aside after ³the masses in order to ^4acause justice to be turned aside;

^3anor shall you ¹be partial to a poor man in his case.

⁴“^aIf you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him.

⁵“^aIf you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.

⁶“^aYou shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case.

⁷“^aKeep far from a ¹false charge, and ^bdo not kill the innocent or the righteous, for ^cI will not justify the guilty.

⁸“^aAnd you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and ¹subverts the cause of the ²just.

⁹“^aAnd you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Judgments About Work and Rest

¹⁰“^aNow you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce,

¹¹but on the seventh year you shall let it ¹rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“^aSix days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall ¹rest so that your ox and your donkey may ²rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves.

¹³“Now ^aconcerning everything which I have said to you, beware; and ^bdo not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard ¹from your mouth.

Judgments About National Feasts

¹⁴“^aThree times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.

¹⁵“You shall keep ^athe Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the ^bmonth Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And ^1cnone shall appear before Me empty-handed.

¹⁶“Also you shall keep ^athe Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year ^bwhen you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.

¹⁷“^aThree times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁸“^aYou shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; ^bnor is the fat of My ¹feast to remain overnight until morning.

¹⁹“You shall bring ^athe choice first fruits of your ground into the house of Yahweh your God.

“^bYou shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

Yahweh Will Drive Out Israel’s Enemies

²⁰“Behold, I am going to send ^aan angel before you to keep you along the way and ^bto bring you into the place which I have prepared.

²¹“Keep watch of yourself before him and listen to his voice; ^ado not be rebellious toward him, for he will not pardon your transgression, since ^bMy name is in him.

²²“But if you truly listen to his voice and do all that I speak, then ^aI will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

²³“^aFor My angel will go before you and bring you in to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I will annihilate them.

²⁴“^aYou shall not worship their gods, you shall not serve them, and you shall not do according to their deeds; ^bbut you shall utterly pull them down and shatter their ^csacred pillars in pieces.

²⁵“^aBut you shall serve Yahweh your God, ¹and He will bless your bread and your water; and ^bI will remove sickness from your midst.

²⁶“There shall be no one miscarrying or ^abarren in your land; ^bI will fulfill the number of your days.

²⁷“I will ^asend My terror ahead of you and ^bthrow into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will ^cmake all your enemies ¹turn their backs to you.

²⁸“And I will send ^ahornets ahead of you so that they will ^bdrive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites before you.

²⁹“^aI will not drive them out before you in a single year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.

³⁰“I will drive them out before you ^alittle by little, until you become fruitful and take the land as an inheritance.

³¹“^aAnd I will set your boundary from the ¹Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the ²River; ^bfor I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will ^cdrive them out from before you.

³²“^aYou shall cut no covenant with them ^bor with their gods.

³³“^aThey shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, ^bit will surely be a snare to you.”

CHAPTER 24

Yahweh Cuts His Covenant with Israel

¹Then He said to Moses, “^aCome up to Yahweh, you and Aaron, ^bNadab and Abihu and ^cseventy of the elders of Israel, and you all shall worship at a distance.

²“Moses alone, however, shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

³Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of Yahweh and all the judgments; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “^aAll the words which Yahweh has spoken we will do!”

^4aAnd Moses wrote down all the words of Yahweh. Then he arose early in the morning and built an ^baltar ¹at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

⁵And he sent young men of the sons of Israel, ^aand they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to Yahweh.

^6aAnd Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he ¹sprinkled on the altar.

⁷Then he took ^athe book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “^bAll that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”

⁸So ^aMoses took the blood and ¹sprinkled it on the people and said, “Behold ^bthe blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has cut with you ²in accordance with all these words.”

⁹Then Moses went up ¹with Aaron, ^aNadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

¹⁰and ^athey saw the God of Israel; and under His feet ^1bthere appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, ²as clear as the sky itself.

¹¹Yet He did not stretch out His hand against the nobles of the sons of Israel; and ^athey beheld God, and they ate and drank.

¹²Now Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and ¹remain there, and ^aI will give you the stone tablets ²with the ³law and the commandment which I have written for their instruction.”

¹³So Moses arose ¹with ^aJoshua his ²attendant, and Moses went up to ^bthe mountain of God.

¹⁴But to the elders he said, “^aRemain here for us until we return to you. And behold, ^bAaron and Hur are with you; whoever ¹has a legal matter, let him approach them.”

¹⁵Then Moses went up to the mountain, and ^athe cloud covered the mountain.

^16aAnd the glory of Yahweh dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He ^bcalled to Moses from the midst of the cloud.

^17aAnd the appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like a ^bconsuming fire on the mountain top, in the eyes of the sons of Israel.

¹⁸Then Moses entered the midst of the cloud ¹as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain ^aforty days and forty nights.

CHAPTER 25

Contributions for the Sanctuary

¹Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

²“^aSpeak with the sons of Israel so that they take a ¹contribution for Me; ^bfrom every man whose heart is willing you shall take My ²contribution.

³“And this is the ¹contribution which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze,

^41ablue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair,

⁵rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood,

^6aoil for lighting, ^bspices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense,

⁷onyx stones, and setting stones for the ^aephod and for the ^1bbreastpiece.

⁸“And let them ^amake a sanctuary for Me, ^bthat I may dwell among them.

⁹“^aAccording to all that I am going to show you, as the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall make it.

The Ark of the Testimony

¹⁰“^aAnd they shall make an ark of acacia wood two and a half ¹cubits ²long, and one and a half cubits ³wide, and one and a half cubits ⁴high.

¹¹“You shall ^aoverlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding ¹around it.

¹²“You shall cast four gold rings for it and ¹fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it.

¹³“You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.

¹⁴“You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them.

¹⁵“The ^apoles shall ¹remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it.

¹⁶“You shall ^aput into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

¹⁷“You shall ^amake a ¹mercy seat of pure gold, two and a half ²cubits ³long and one and a half cubits ⁴wide.

¹⁸“You shall make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work ¹at the two ends of the mercy seat.

¹⁹“Make one cherub ¹at one end and one cherub ²at the other end; from one piece you shall make the mercy seat with the cherubim at its two ends.

²⁰“^aThe cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be toward the mercy seat.

²¹“^aYou shall put the mercy seat ¹on top of the ark, and ^bin the ark you shall put the testimony which I will give to you.

²²“^aThere I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from ^bbetween the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all which I will command you for the sons of Israel.

Bread of the Presence

²³“^aYou shall make a table of acacia wood, two ¹cubits ²long and one cubit ³wide and one and a half cubits ⁴high.

²⁴“You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a gold ^aborder around it.…