Exodus 31–35

Chapter 31

The Skilled Craftsmen

^1aNow the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²“See, I have called by name Bezalel, the ^ason of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

³“I have ^afilled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of ¹craftsmanship,

⁴to ¹make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in ²bronze,

⁵and in the cutting of stones ¹for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of ²craftsmanship.

⁶“And behold, I Myself have ¹appointed with him ^aOholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are ²skillful I have put ³skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

^7athe tent of meeting, and ^bthe ark of testimony, and ^cthe ¹mercy seat upon it, and all the furniture of the tent,

^8athe table also and its ¹utensils, and the ^bpure gold lampstand with all its utensils, and ^cthe altar of incense,

^9athe altar of burnt offering also with all its ¹utensils, and ^bthe laver and its stand,

¹⁰the ^1awoven garments as well, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, with which to ²carry on their priesthood;

^11athe anointing oil also, and the ^bfragrant incense for the holy place, they are to make them according to all that I have commanded you.”

The Sign of the Sabbath

¹²The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

¹³“But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘^aYou shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is ^ba sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

¹⁴‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. ^aEveryone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵‘^aFor six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a ^bsabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; ^cwhoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to ¹celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’

¹⁷“^aIt is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; ^bfor in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

¹⁸When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses ^athe two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, ^bwritten by the finger of God.

Chapter 32

The Golden Calf

¹Now when the people saw that Moses ^adelayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “Come, ^bmake us ¹a god who will go before us; as for ^cthis Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

²Aaron said to them, “^aTear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

³Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a ^amolten calf; and they said, “¹This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

⁵Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.”

⁶So the next day they rose early and ^aoffered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and ^bthe people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up ^cto play.

⁷Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Go ¹down at once, for your people, whom ^ayou brought up from the land of Egypt, have ^bcorrupted themselves.

⁸“They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. ^aThey have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and ^bhave sacrificed to it and said, ‘^1cThis is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’ ”

^9aThe Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are ^1ban obstinate people.

¹⁰“Now then ^alet Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and ^bI will make of you a great nation.”

Moses’ Entreaty

¹¹Then ^aMoses entreated the Lord his God, and said, “O Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

¹²“Why should ^athe Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people.

¹³“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You ^aswore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will ^bmultiply your ¹descendants as the stars of the heavens, and ^call this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”

^14aSo the Lord changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.

^15aThen Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, ^btablets which were written on both ¹sides; they were written on one side and the other.

¹⁶The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷Now when Joshua heard the sound of the people ¹as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”

¹⁸But he said,

“It is not the sound of the cry of triumph,

Nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat;

But the sound of singing I hear.”

Moses’ Anger

¹⁹It came about, as soon as ¹Moses came near the camp, that ^ahe saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger burned, and ^bhe threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them ²at the foot of the mountain.

^20aHe took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

²¹Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?”

²²Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, ^athat they are ¹prone to evil.

²³“For ^athey said to me, ‘Make ¹a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

²⁴“I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and ^aI threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵Now when Moses saw that the people were ¹out of control—for Aaron had ^alet them ²get out of control to be a derision among ³their enemies—

²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.

²⁷He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his ¹neighbor.’ ”

²⁸So ^athe sons of Levi did ¹as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

²⁹Then Moses said, “¹Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”

³⁰On the next day Moses said to the people, “^aYou yourselves have ¹committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord, perhaps I can ^bmake atonement for your sin.”

³¹Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Alas, this people has ¹committed a great sin, and they have made ²a ^agod of gold for themselves.

³²“But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your ^abook which You have written!”

³³The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, ^aI will blot him out of My book.

³⁴“But go now, lead the people ^awhere I told you. Behold, ^bMy angel shall go before you; nevertheless ^cin the day when I ¹punish, ^dI will ²punish them for their sin.”

^35aThen the Lord smote the people, because of ^bwhat they did with the calf which Aaron had made.

Chapter 33

The Journey Resumed

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which ^aI swore to Abraham, ^bIsaac, and ^cJacob, saying, ‘^dTo your ¹descendants I will give it.’

²“I will send ^aan angel before you and ^bI will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite.

³“Go up to a land ^aflowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are ^1ban obstinate people, and ^cI might destroy you on the way.”

⁴When the people heard this ¹sad word, ^athey went into mourning, and none of them put on his ornaments.

⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘You are ^1aan obstinate people; should I go up in your midst for one moment, I would destroy you. Now therefore, put off your ornaments from you, that I may know what I shall do with you.’ ”

⁶So the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take ^athe tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And ^beveryone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

⁸And it came about, whenever Moses went out to the tent, that all the people would arise and stand, each at the entrance of his tent, and gaze after Moses until he entered the tent.

⁹Whenever Moses entered the tent, ^athe pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent; ^band ¹the Lord would speak with Moses.

¹⁰When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent.

¹¹Thus ^athe Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When ¹Moses returned to the camp, ^bhis servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

Moses Intercedes

¹²Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me,…