January 28
Exodus 32:15 —
34:35
15 After
that Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the
Testimony in his hand, tablets written upon on both their sides. On this side
and on that they were written upon.
16 And
the tablets were the workmanship of God, and the writing was the writing of God
engraved upon the tablets.
17 And
Joshua began to hear the noise of the people because of their shouting, and he
proceeded to say to Moses: “There is a noise of battle in the camp.”
18 But
he said:
“It is not the sound of the singing over mighty performance,
And it is not the sound of the singing of defeat;
It is the sound of other singing that I am hearing.”
19 So
it came about that as soon as he got near the camp and could see the calf and
the dances, Moses’ anger began to blaze, and he at once threw the tablets from
his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
20 Then
he took the calf that they had made and he burnt it with fire and crushed it
till it was fine, after which he scattered it upon the surface of the waters and
made the sons of Israel drink it.
21 After
that Moses said to Aaron: “What did this people do to you that you have brought
a great sin upon it?”
22 To
this Aaron said: “Do not let the anger of my lord blaze. You yourself well know
the people, that they are evil-inclined.
23 So
they said to me, ‘Make for us a god who will go ahead of us, because as regards
this Moses, the man who led us up out of the land of Egypt, we certainly do not
know what has happened to him.’
24 Hence
I said to them, ‘Who have any gold? They must tear it off themselves that they
may give it to me.’ And I proceeded to throw it into the fire and this calf came
on out.”
25 And
Moses got to see that the people went unrestrained, because Aaron had let them
go unrestrained for a disgrace among their opposers.
26 Then
Moses took his stand in the gate of the camp and said: “Who is on Jehovah’s
side? To me!” And all the sons of Levi began gathering themselves to him.
27 He
now said to them: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘Put each
one of YOU his sword on his side. Pass through and return from gate to gate in
the camp and kill each one his brother and each one his fellow and each one his
intimate acquaintance.’”
28 And
the sons of Levi proceeded to do as Moses had said, so that there fell of the
people on that day about three thousand men.
29 And
Moses went on to say: “Fill YOUR hand today with power for Jehovah, because each
one of YOU is against his own son and his own brother, and that he may confer a
blessing upon YOU today.”
30 And
it came about on the very next day that Moses proceeded to say to the people:
“YOU—YOU have sinned with a great sin, and now I shall go up to Jehovah. Perhaps
I can make amends for YOUR sin.”
31 So
Moses returned to Jehovah and said: “Ah, but this people has sinned with a great
sin, in that they made a god of gold for themselves!
32 But
now if you will pardon their sin,—and if not, wipe me out, please, from your
book that you have written.”
33 However,
Jehovah said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against me, I shall wipe him out of
my book.
34 And
now, come, lead the people to where I have spoken to you of. Look! My angel will
go ahead of you, and on the day of my bringing punishment I shall certainly
bring punishment upon them for their sin.”
35 And
Jehovah began plaguing the people because they had made the calf, which Aaron
had made.
33
And Jehovah said further to Moses: “Go, move up from here, you and the people
whom you led up out of the land of Egypt, to the land about which I swore to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘To your seed I shall give it.’
2 And
I will send an angel ahead of you and drive out the Canaanites,
the Amorites,
and the Hittites and the Perizzites,
the Hivites and the Jebusites;
3
to a land flowing with milk and honey, for I shall not go up in the midst of
you, because you are a stiff-necked people, that I may not exterminate you on
the way.”
4 When
the people got to hear this evil word, they began to mourn; and none of them put
his ornaments on himself.
5 And
Jehovah went on to say to Moses: “Say to the sons of Israel, ‘YOU are a
stiff-necked people. In one moment I could go up into the midst of you and
certainly exterminate you. So now put down your ornaments off yourself, as I
want to know what I am going to do to you.’”
6 And
the sons of Israel went stripping their ornaments off themselves from Mount Horeb
onward.
7 As
for Moses, he proceeded to take his tent away and he pitched it outside the
camp, far away from the camp; and he called it a tent of meeting. And it
occurred that everyone inquiring of Jehovah would go out to the tent of meeting,
which was outside the camp.
8 And
it occurred that as soon as Moses went out to the tent, all the people would
rise, and they stationed themselves each one at the entrance of his own tent,
and they gazed after Moses until he went into the tent.
9 It
also occurred that as soon as Moses had gone into the tent, the pillar of cloud
would come down, and it stood at the entrance of the tent and he spoke with
Moses.
10 And
all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, and
all the people rose and bowed down each one at the entrance of his own tent.
11 And
Jehovah spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man would speak to his fellow.
When he returned to the camp, his minister Joshua, the son of Nun, as attendant,
would not withdraw from the midst of the tent.
12 Now
Moses said to Jehovah: “See, you are saying to me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but
you yourself have not let me know whom you will send with me. Moreover, you
yourself have said, ‘I do know you by name and, besides, you have found favor in
my eyes.’
13 And
now, if, please, I have found favor in your eyes, make me know, please, your
ways, that I may know you, in order that I may find favor in your eyes. And
consider that this nation is your people.”
14 So
he said: “My own person will go along and I shall certainly give you rest.”
15 At
this he said to him: “If your own person is not going along, do not lead us up
from here.
16 And
by what, now, will it be known that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your
people? Is it not by your going along with us, in that I and your people have
been made distinct from all the other people who are upon the surface of the
ground?”
17 And
Jehovah went on to say to Moses: “This thing, too, of which you have spoken, I
shall do, because you have found favor in my eyes and I know you by name.”
18 At
this he said: “Cause me to see, please, your glory.”
19 But
he said: “I myself shall cause all my goodness to pass before your face, and I
will declare the name of Jehovah before you; and I will favor the one whom I may
favor, and I will show mercy to the one to whom I may show mercy.”
20 And
he added: “You are not able to see my face, because no man may see me and yet
live.”
21 And
Jehovah said further: “Here is a place with me, and you must station yourself
upon the rock.
22 And
it has to occur that while my glory is passing by I must place you in a hole in
the rock, and I must put my palm over you as a screen until I have passed by.
23 After
that I must take my palm away, and you will indeed see my back. But my face may
not be seen.”
34
Then Jehovah said to Moses: “Carve out for yourself two tablets of stone like
the first ones, and I must write upon the tablets the words that appeared on the
first tablets, which you shattered.
2 And
get ready for the morning, as you must go up in the morning into Mount Sinai
and station yourself by me there on the top of the mountain.
3 But
nobody may go up with you and, too, let nobody else be seen in all the mountain.
What is more, no flock or herd should be pasturing in front of that mountain.”
4 Accordingly
Moses carved out two tablets of stone like the first ones and got up early in
the morning and went on up into Mount Sinai, just as Jehovah had commanded him,
and he was taking the two tablets of stone in his hand.
5 And
Jehovah proceeded to come down in the cloud and station himself with him there
and declare the name of Jehovah.
6 And
Jehovah went passing by before his face and declaring: “Jehovah, Jehovah, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and truth,
7 preserving
loving-kindness for thousands, pardoning error and transgression and sin, but by
no means will he give exemption from punishment, bringing punishment for the
error of fathers upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and
upon the fourth generation.”
8 Moses
at once hurried to bow low to the earth and prostrate himself.
9 Then
he said: “If, now, I have found favor in your eyes, O Jehovah, let Jehovah,
please, go along in the midst of us, because it is a stiff-necked people, and
you have to forgive our error and our sin, and you must take us as your
possession.”
10 In
turn he said: “Here I am concluding a covenant: Before all your people I shall
do wonderful things that have never been created in all the earth or among all
the nations; and all the people in the midst of whom you are will indeed see the
work of Jehovah, because it is a fear-inspiring thing that I am doing with you.
11 “For
your part keep what I am commanding you today. Here I am driving out from before
you the Amorites
and the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Perizzites
and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
12 Watch
yourself that you do not conclude a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to
which you are going, for fear it may prove itself a snare in your midst.
13 But
their altars YOU people are to pull down, and their sacred pillars YOU are to
shatter, and their sacred poles YOU are to cut down.
14 For
you must not prostrate yourself to another god, because Jehovah, whose name is
Jealous, he is a jealous God;
15 for
fear that you may conclude a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, as they
will certainly have immoral intercourse with their gods and sacrifice to their
gods, and someone will be certain to invite you, and you will certainly eat some
of his sacrifice.
16 Then
you will have to take some of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters
will be certain to have immoral intercourse with their gods and make your sons
have immoral intercourse with their gods.
17 “You
must not make molten idol gods for yourself.
18 “The
festival of unfermented cakes you are to keep. You will eat unfermented cakes,
just as I have commanded you, seven days at the appointed time in the month of
Abib, because it was in the month of Abib that you came out of Egypt.
19 “Everything
that first opens the womb is mine, and, as regards all your livestock, the male
firstling of bull and of sheep.
20 And
the firstling of an ass you are to redeem with a sheep. But if you will not
redeem it, then you must break its neck. Every firstborn of your sons you are to
redeem. And they must not appear before me empty-handed.
21 “Six
days you are to labor, but on the seventh day you will keep sabbath. In plowing
time and in harvest you will keep sabbath.
22 “And
you will carry on your festival of weeks with the first ripe fruits of the wheat
harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year.
23 “Three
times in the year every male of yours is to appear before the [true] Lord,
Jehovah, the God of Israel.
24 For
I shall drive the nations away from before you, and I will make your territory
spacious; and nobody will desire your land while you are going up to see the
face of Jehovah your God three times in the year.
25 “You
must not slaughter along with what is leavened the blood of my sacrifice. And
the sacrifice of the festival of the passover should not stay overnight until
the morning.
26 “The
best of the first ripe fruits of your soil you are to bring to the house of
Jehovah your God.
“You must not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
27 And
Jehovah went on to say to Moses: “Write down for yourself these words, because
it is in accordance with these words that I do conclude a covenant with you and
Israel.”
28 And
he continued there with Jehovah forty days and forty nights. He ate no bread and
he drank no water. And he proceeded to write upon the tablets the words of the
covenant, the Ten Words.
29 Now
it came about when Moses came down from Mount Sinai that the two tablets of the
Testimony were in the hand of Moses when he came down from the mountain, and
Moses did not know that the skin of his face emitted rays because of his having
spoken with him.
30 When
Aaron and all the sons of Israel got to see Moses, why, look! the skin of his
face emitted rays and they grew afraid of coming near to him.
31 And
Moses proceeded to call them. So Aaron and all the chieftains among the assembly
came back to him, and Moses began to speak to them.
32 First
after that all the sons of Israel came near to him, and he began commanding them
all that Jehovah had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33 When
Moses would finish speaking with them, he would put a veil over his face.
34 But
when Moses would go in before Jehovah to speak with him, he would take away the
veil until his going out. And he went out and spoke to the sons of Israel what
he would be commanded.
35 And
the sons of Israel saw Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face emitted rays;
and Moses put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with him.