The Lord Orders Israel to Leave Mount Sinai

¹The Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought out of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to their descendants.

²I will send an angel to guide you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

³You are going to a rich and fertile land. But I will not go with you myself, because you are a stubborn people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

⁴When the people heard this, they began to mourn and did not wear jewelry any more.

⁵For the Lord had commanded Moses to tell them, “You are a stubborn people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I would completely destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.”

⁶So after they left Mount Sinai, the people of Israel no longer wore jewelry.

The Tent of the Lord's Presence

⁷Whenever the people of Israel set up camp, Moses would take the sacred Tent and put it up some distance outside the camp. It was called the Tent of the Lord's presence, and anyone who wanted to consult the Lord would go out to it.

⁸Whenever Moses went out there, the people would stand at the door of their tents and watch Moses until he entered it.

⁹After Moses had gone in, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the door of the Tent, and the Lord would speak to Moses from the cloud.

¹⁰As soon as the people saw the pillar of cloud at the door of the Tent, they would bow down.

¹¹The Lord would speak with Moses face-to-face, just as someone speaks with a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp. But the young man who was his helper, Joshua son of Nun, stayed in the Tent.

The Lord Promises to Be with His People

¹²Moses said to the Lord, “It is true that you have told me to lead these people to that land, but you did not tell me whom you would send with me. You have said that you know me well and are pleased with me.

¹³Now if you are, tell me your plans, so that I may serve you and continue to please you. Remember also that you have chosen this nation to be your own.”

¹⁴The Lord said, “I will go with you, and I will give you victory.”

¹⁵Moses replied, “If you do not go with us, don't make us leave this place.

¹⁶How will anyone know that you are pleased with your people and with me if you do not go with us? Your presence with us will distinguish us from any other people on earth.”

¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, “I will do just as you have asked, because I know you very well and I am pleased with you.”

¹⁸Then Moses requested, “Please, let me see the dazzling light of your presence.”

¹⁹The Lord answered, “I will make all my splendor pass before you and in your presence I will pronounce my sacred name. I am the Lord, and I show compassion and pity on those I choose.

²⁰I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive,

²¹but here is a place beside me where you can stand on a rock.

²²When the dazzling light of my presence passes by, I will put you in an opening in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

²³Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back but not my face.”

The Second Set of Stone Tablets

¹The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

²Get ready tomorrow morning, and come up Mount Sinai to meet me there at the top.

³No one is to come up with you; no one is to be seen on any part of the mountain; and no sheep or cattle are to graze at the foot of the mountain.”

⁴So Moses cut two more stone tablets, and early the next morning he carried them up Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded.

⁵The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and pronounced his holy name, the Lord.

⁶The Lord then passed in front of him and called out, “I, the Lord, am a God who is full of compassion and pity, who is not easily angered and who shows great love and faithfulness.

⁷I keep my promise for thousands of generations and forgive evil and sin; but I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents.”

⁸Moses quickly bowed down to the ground and worshiped.

⁹He said, “Lord, if you really are pleased with me, I ask you to go with us. These people are stubborn, but forgive our evil and our sin, and accept us as your own people.”

The Covenant Is Renewed

¹⁰The Lord said to Moses, “I now make a covenant with the people of Israel. In their presence I will do great things such as have never been done anywhere on earth among any of the nations. All the people will see what great things I, the Lord, can do, because I am going to do an awesome thing for you.

¹¹Obey the laws that I am giving you today. I will drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as you advance.

¹²Do not make any treaties with the people of the country into which you are going, because this could be a fatal trap for you.

¹³Instead, tear down their altars, destroy their sacred pillars, and cut down their symbols of the goddess Asherah.

¹⁴“Do not worship any other god, because I, the Lord, tolerate no rivals.

¹⁵Do not make any treaties with the people of the country, because when they worship their pagan gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you to join them, and you will be tempted to eat the food they offer to their gods.

¹⁶Your sons might marry those foreign women, who would lead them to be unfaithful to me and to worship their pagan gods.

¹⁷“Do not make gods of metal and worship them.

¹⁸“Keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I have commanded you, eat unleavened bread for seven days in the month of Abib, because it was in that month that you left Egypt.

¹⁹“Every first-born son and first-born male domestic animal belongs to me,

²⁰but you are to buy back every first-born donkey by offering a lamb in its place. If you do not buy it back, break its neck. Buy back every first-born son. “No one is to appear before me without an offering.

²¹“You have six days in which to do your work, but do not work on the seventh day, not even during plowing time or harvest.

²²“Keep the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest the first crop of your wheat, and keep the Festival of Shelters in the autumn when you gather your fruit.

²³“Three times a year all of your men must come to worship me, the Lord, the God of Israel.

²⁴After I have driven out the nations before you and extended your territory, no one will try to conquer your country during the three festivals.

²⁵“Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. Do not keep until the following morning any part of the animal killed at the Passover Festival.

²⁶“Each year bring to the house of the Lord the first grain that you harvest. “Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.”

²⁷The Lord said to Moses, “Write these words down, because it is on the basis of these words that I am making a covenant with you and with Israel.”

²⁸Moses stayed there with the Lord forty days and nights, eating and drinking nothing. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

Moses Goes Down from Mount Sinai

²⁹When Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he had been speaking with the Lord; but he did not know it.

³⁰Aaron and all the people looked at Moses and saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him.

³¹But Moses called them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community went to him, and Moses spoke with them.

³²After that, all the people of Israel gathered around him, and Moses gave them all the laws that the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

³³When Moses had finished speaking with them, he covered his face with a veil.

³⁴Whenever Moses went into the Tent of the Lord's presence to speak to the Lord, he would take the veil off. When he came out, he would tell the people of Israel everything that he had been commanded to say,

³⁵and they would see that his face was shining. Then he would put the veil back on until the next time he went to speak with the Lord.

Taking Care of the Lamps

¹The Lord told Moses

²to give the following orders to the people of Israel: Bring pure olive oil of the finest quality for the lamps in the Tent, so that a light might be kept burning regularly.

³Each evening Aaron shall light them and keep them burning until morning, there in the Lord's presence outside the curtain in front of the Covenant Box, which is in the Most Holy Place. This regulation is to be observed for all time to come.

⁴Aaron shall take care of the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold and must see that they burn regularly in the Lord's presence.

The Bread Offered to God

⁵Take twenty-four pounds of flour and bake twelve loaves of bread.

⁶Put the loaves in two rows, six in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, which is in the Lord's presence.

⁷Put some pure incense on each row, as a token food offering to the Lord to take the place of the bread.

⁸Every Sabbath, for all time to come, the bread must be placed in the presence of the Lord. This is Israel's duty forever.

⁹The bread belongs to Aaron and his descendants, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because this is a very holy part of the food offered to the Lord for the priests.

An Example of Just and Fair Punishment

^10-11There was a man whose father was an Egyptian and whose mother was an Israelite named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan. There in the camp this man quarreled with an Israelite. During the quarrel he cursed the Lord, so they took him to Moses,

¹²put him under guard, and waited for the Lord to tell them what to do with him.

¹³The Lord said to Moses,

¹⁴“Take that man out of the camp. Everyone who heard him curse shall put his hands on the man's head to testify that he is guilty, and then the whole community shall stone him to death.

¹⁵Then tell the people of Israel that anyone who curses God must suffer the consequences

¹⁶and be put to death. Any Israelite or any foreigner living in Israel who curses the Lord shall be stoned to death by the whole community.

¹⁷“Any who commit murder shall be put to death,

¹⁸and any who kill an animal belonging to someone else must replace it. The principle is a life for a life.

¹⁹“If any of you injure another person, whatever you have done shall be done to you.

²⁰If you break a bone, one of your bones shall be broken; if you put out an eye, one of your eyes shall be put out; if you knock out a tooth, one of your teeth shall be knocked out. Whatever injury you cause another person shall be done to you in return.

²¹Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death.

²²This law applies to all of you, to Israelites and to foreigners living among you, because I am the Lord your God.”

²³When Moses had said this to the people of Israel, they took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death. In this way the people of Israel did what the Lord had commanded Moses.

A Song for a Festival

¹Shout for joy to God our defender; sing praise to the God of Jacob!

²Start the music and beat the tambourines; play pleasant music on the harps and the lyres.

³Blow the trumpet for the festival, when the moon is new and when the moon is full.

⁴This is the law in Israel, an order from the God of Jacob.

⁵He gave it to the people of Israel when he attacked the land of Egypt. I hear an unknown voice saying,

⁶“I took the burdens off your backs; I let you put down your loads of bricks.

⁷When you were in trouble, you called to me, and I saved you. From my hiding place in the storm, I answered you. I put you to the test at the springs of Meribah.

⁸Listen, my people, to my warning; Israel, how I wish you would listen to me!

⁹You must never worship another god.

¹⁰I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Open your mouth, and I will feed you.

¹¹“But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not obey me.

¹²So I let them go their stubborn ways and do whatever they wanted.

¹³How I wish my people would listen to me; how I wish they would obey me!

¹⁴I would quickly defeat their enemies and conquer all their foes.

¹⁵Those who hate me would bow in fear before me; their punishment would last forever.

¹⁶But I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with wild honey.”