Exodus 23–25

Chapter 23

Sundry Laws

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 dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude in order to ^apervert justice;

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

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 pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute.

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

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

⁹“^aYou shall not oppress a ¹stranger, since you yourselves know the ²feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The Sabbath and Land

¹⁰“^aYou shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield,

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. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

¹²“^aSix days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as ¹your stranger, may refresh themselves.

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

Three National Feasts

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

¹⁵“You shall observe ^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 observe ^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 ¹God.

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 soil into the house of the Lord your God.

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

Conquest of the Land

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

²¹“Be on your guard before him and obey 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 obey his voice and do all that I say, 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 completely destroy them.

²⁴“^aYou shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; ^bbut you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ^csacred pillars in pieces.

²⁵“^aBut you shall serve the Lord 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 turn their backs to you.

²⁸“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, that the land may not 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 possession of the land.

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

³²“^aYou shall ¹make no covenant with them ^bor with their gods.

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

Chapter 24

People Affirm Their Covenant with God

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

²“Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.”

³Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ¹ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, “^aAll the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!”

^4aMoses wrote down all the words of the Lord. 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.

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

^6aMoses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled 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 the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!”

⁸So ^aMoses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Behold ^bthe blood of the covenant, which the Lord has ¹made 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 saw God, and they ate and drank.

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

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

¹⁴But to the elders he said, “^aWait 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.

^16aThe glory of the Lord ¹rested 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 to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a ^bconsuming fire on the mountain top.

¹⁸Moses 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

Offerings for the Sanctuary

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²“^aTell the sons of Israel to ¹raise a ²contribution for Me; ^bfrom every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution.

³“This is the ¹contribution which you are to ²raise 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“Let them ^aconstruct 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 construct it.

Ark of the Covenant

¹⁰“^aThey shall construct 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 at the other end; you shall make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at its two ends.

²⁰“^aThe cherubim shall have their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings and ¹facing one another; the faces of the cherubim are to be turned 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 that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.

The Table of Showbread

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

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

²⁵“You shall make for it a rim of a handbreadth around it; and you shall make a…