Exodus 31-35

World English Bible

31 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. ³ I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship, ⁴ to devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, ⁵ and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of workmanship. ⁶ Behold, I myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the heart of all who are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you: ⁷ the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furniture of the Tent, ⁸ the table and its vessels, the pure lamp stand with all its vessels, the altar of incense, ⁹ the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, the basin and its base, ¹⁰ the finely worked garments—the holy garments for Aaron the priest, the garments of his sons to minister in the priest’s office— ¹¹ the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”

¹² Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³ “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you. ¹⁴ You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Yahweh. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ¹⁶ Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’”

¹⁸ When he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant, stone tablets, written with God’s finger.

32 When the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”

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

³ All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

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

⁶ They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

⁷ Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves! ⁸ They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

⁹ Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”

¹¹ Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring^[a] as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

¹⁴ So Yahweh turned away from the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁵ Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides. They were written on one side and on the other. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”

¹⁸ He said, “It isn’t the voice of those who shout for victory. It is not the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear.” ¹⁹ As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.

²¹ Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?”

²² Aaron said, “Don’t let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. ²³ For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them take it off.’ So they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵ When Moses saw that the people were out of control, (for Aaron had let them lose control, causing derision among their enemies), ²⁶ then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on Yahweh’s side, come to me!”

All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him. ²⁷ He said to them, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” ²⁸ The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. About three thousand men fell of the people that day. ²⁹ Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, for every man was against his son and against his brother, that he may give you a blessing today.”

³⁰ On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”

³¹ Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. ³² Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”

³³ Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. ³⁴ Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.” ³⁵ Yahweh struck the people, because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.

33 Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ ² I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ³ Go to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you on the way.”

⁴ When the people heard this evil news, they mourned; and no one put on his jewelry.

⁵ Yahweh had said to Moses, “Tell the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up among you for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.’”

⁶ The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it “The Tent of Meeting.” Everyone who sought Yahweh went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸ When Moses went out to the Tent, all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent. ⁹ When Moses entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and Yahweh spoke with Moses. ¹⁰ All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their tent door. ¹¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, didn’t depart from the Tent.

¹² Moses said to Yahweh, “Behold, you tell me, ‘Bring up this people;’ and you haven’t let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me your way, now, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight; and consider that this nation is your people.”

¹⁴ He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹⁵ Moses said to him, “If your presence doesn’t go with me, don’t carry us up from here. ¹⁶ For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?”

¹⁷ Yahweh said to Moses, “I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”

¹⁹ He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” ²⁰ He said, “You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live.” ²¹ Yahweh also said, “Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. ²² It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; ²³ then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”

34 Yahweh said to Moses, “Chisel two stone tablets like the first. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ² Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. ³ No one shall come up with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds graze in front of that mountain.”

⁴ He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; then Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as Yahweh had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets. ⁵ Yahweh descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed Yahweh’s name. ⁶ Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, ⁷ keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”

⁸ Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped. ⁹ He said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go among us, even though this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”

¹⁰ He said, “Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of Yahweh; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you. ¹¹ Observe that which I command you today. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. ¹² Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare among you; ¹³ but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherah poles; ¹⁴ for you shall worship no other god; for Yahweh, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵ “Don’t make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice; ¹⁶ and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

¹⁷ “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.

¹⁸ “You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.

¹⁹ “All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep. ²⁰ You shall redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. If you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before me empty.

²¹ “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

²² “You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end. ²³ Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. ²⁴ For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before Yahweh, your God, three times in the year.

²⁵ “You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread. The sacrifice of the feast of the Passover shall not be left to the morning.

²⁶ “You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of Yahweh your God.

“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ Yahweh said to Moses, “Write these words; for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

²⁸ He was there with Yahweh forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mountain, Moses didn’t know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the commandments that Yahweh had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. ³³ When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. ³⁴ But when Moses went in before Yahweh to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. ³⁵ The children of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; so Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

35 Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said to them, “These are the words which Yahweh has commanded, that you should do them. ² ‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of solemn rest to Yahweh: whoever does any work in it shall be put to death. ³ You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the Sabbath day.’”

⁴ Moses spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which Yahweh commanded, saying, ⁵ ‘Take from among you an offering to Yahweh. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as Yahweh’s offering: gold, silver, bronze, ⁶ blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, ⁷ rams’ skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood, ⁸ oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense, ⁹ onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.

¹⁰ “‘Let every wise-hearted man among you come, and make all that Yahweh has commanded: ¹¹ the tabernacle, its outer covering, its roof, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets; ¹² the ark, and its poles, the mercy seat, the veil of the screen; ¹³ the table with its poles and all its vessels, and the show bread; ¹⁴ the lamp stand also for the light, with its vessels, its lamps, and the oil for the light; ¹⁵ and the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, the screen for the door, at the door of the tabernacle; ¹⁶ the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its vessels, the basin and its base; ¹⁷ the hangings of the court, its pillars, their sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court; ¹⁸ the pins of the tabernacle, the pins of the court, and their cords; ¹⁹ the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place—the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons—to minister in the priest’s office.’”

²⁰ All the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. ²¹ They came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing, and brought Yahweh’s offering for the work of the Tent of Meeting, and for all of its service, and for the holy garments. ²² They came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought brooches, earrings, signet rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man who offered an offering of gold to Yahweh. ²³ Everyone with whom was found blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats’ hair, rams’ skins dyed red, and sea cow hides, brought them. ²⁴ Everyone who offered an offering of silver and bronze brought Yahweh’s offering; and everyone with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service, brought it. ²⁵ All the women who were wise-hearted spun with their hands, and brought that which they had spun: the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen. ²⁶ All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats’ hair. ²⁷ The rulers brought the onyx stones and the stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate; ²⁸ with the spice and the oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense. ²⁹ The children of Israel brought a free will offering to Yahweh; every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all the work, which Yahweh had commanded to be made by Moses.

³⁰ Moses said to the children of Israel, “Behold, Yahweh has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. ³¹ He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of workmanship; ³² and to make skillful works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, ³³ in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all kinds of skillful workmanship. ³⁴ He has put in his heart that he may teach, both he and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. ³⁵ He has filled them with wisdom of heart to work all kinds of workmanship, of the engraver, of the skillful workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of those who do any workmanship, and of those who make skillful works.