Exodus 31-35

Living Bible

31 ^1-2 The Lord also said to Moses, “See, I have appointed Bezalel (son of Uri, and grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah), ³ and have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and skill in constructing the Tabernacle and everything it contains. ⁴ He is highly capable as an artistic designer of objects made of gold, silver, and bronze. ⁵ He is skilled, too, as a jeweler and in carving wood.

⁶ “And I have appointed Oholiab (son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan) to be his assistant; moreover, I have given special skill to all who are known as experts, so that they can make all the things I have instructed you to make: ⁷ the Tabernacle; the Ark with the place of mercy upon it; all the furnishings of the Tabernacle; ⁸ the table and its instruments; the pure gold lampstand with its instruments; the altar of incense; ⁹ the burnt offering altar with its instruments; the laver and its pedestal; ¹⁰ the beautifully made, holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments for his sons, so that they can minister as priests; ¹¹ the anointing oil; and the sweet-spice incense for the Holy Place. They are to follow exactly the directions I gave you.”

^12-13 The Lord then gave these further instructions to Moses: “Tell the people of Israel to rest on my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a reminder of the covenant between me and you forever; it helps you to remember that I am Jehovah who makes you holy. ^14-15 Yes, rest on the Sabbath, for it is holy. Anyone who does not obey this command must die; anyone who does any work on that day shall be killed. ^16-17 Work six days only, for the seventh day is a special day to remind you of my covenant—a weekly reminder forever of my promises to the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh day, and was refreshed.”

¹⁸ Then, as God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written with the finger of God.

32 When Moses didn’t come back down the mountain right away, the people went to Aaron. “Look,” they said, “make us a god to lead us, for this fellow Moses who brought us here from Egypt has disappeared; something must have happened to him.”

^2-3 “Give me your gold earrings,” Aaron replied.

So they all did—men and women, boys and girls. ⁴ Aaron melted the gold, then molded and tooled it into the form of a calf. The people exclaimed, “O Israel, this is the god that brought you out of Egypt!”

⁵ When Aaron saw how happy the people were about it, he built an altar before the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a feast to Jehovah!”

⁶ So they were up early the next morning and began offering burnt offerings and peace offerings to the calf idol; afterwards they sat down to feast and drink at a wild party, followed by sexual immorality.

⁷ Then the Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go on down, for your people that you brought from Egypt have defiled themselves, ⁸ and have quickly abandoned all my laws. They have molded themselves a calf, and worshiped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of Egypt.’”

⁹ Then the Lord said, “I have seen what a stubborn, rebellious lot these people are. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone and my anger shall blaze out against them and destroy them all; and I will make you, Moses, into a great nation instead of them.”

¹¹ But Moses begged God not to do it. “Lord,” he pleaded, “why is your anger so hot against your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and mighty miracles? ¹² Do you want the Egyptians to say, ‘God tricked them into coming to the mountains so that he could slay them, destroying them from off the face of the earth’? Turn back from your fierce wrath. Turn away from this terrible evil you are planning against your people! ¹³ Remember your promise to your servants—to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. For you swore by your own self, ‘I will multiply your posterity as the stars of heaven, and I will give them all of this land I have promised to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”

¹⁴ So the Lord changed his mind and spared them.

¹⁵ Then Moses went down the mountain, holding in his hands the Ten Commandments written on both sides of two stone tablets. ¹⁶ (God himself had written the commandments on the tablets.)

¹⁷ When Joshua heard the noise below them, of all the people shouting, he exclaimed to Moses, “It sounds as if they are preparing for war!”

¹⁸ But Moses replied, “No, it’s not a cry of victory or defeat, but singing.”

¹⁹ When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and in terrible anger he threw the tablets to the ground, and they lay broken at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf and melted it in the fire, and when the metal cooled, he ground it into powder and spread it upon the water and made the people drink it.

²¹ Then he turned to Aaron. “What in the world did the people do to you,” he demanded, “to make you bring such a terrible sin upon them?”

²² “Don’t get so upset,” Aaron replied. “You know these people and what a wicked bunch they are. ²³ They said to me, ‘Make us a god to lead us, for something has happened to this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt.’ ²⁴ Well, I told them, ‘Bring me your gold earrings.’ So they brought them to me and I threw them into the fire, and . . . well . . . this calf came out!”

²⁵ When Moses saw that the people had been committing adultery—at Aaron’s encouragement, and much to the amusement of their enemies— ²⁶ he stood at the camp entrance and shouted, “All of you who are on the Lord’s side, come over here and join me.” And all the Levites came.

²⁷ He told them, “Jehovah the God of Israel says, ‘Get your swords and go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other and kill even your brothers, friends, and neighbors.’” ²⁸ So they did, and about three thousand men died that day.

²⁹ Then Moses told the Levites, “Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the Lord, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers; now he will give you a great blessing.”

³⁰ The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin, but I will return to the Lord on the mountain—perhaps I will be able to obtain his forgiveness for you.”

³¹ So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have sinned a great sin and have made themselves gods of gold. ³² Yet now if you will only forgive their sin—and if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”^[a]

³³ And the Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me will be blotted out of my book. ³⁴ And now go, lead the people to the place I told you about, and I assure you that my Angel shall travel on ahead of you; however, when I come to visit these people, I will punish them for their sins.”

³⁵ And the Lord sent a great plague upon the people because they had worshiped Aaron’s calf.

33 The Lord said to Moses, “Lead these people you brought from Egypt to the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I said, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ ² I will send an Angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. ³ It is a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’; but I will not travel among you, for you are a stubborn, unruly people, and I would be tempted to destroy you along the way.”

⁴ When the people heard these stern words, they went into mourning and stripped themselves of their jewelry and ornaments.

⁵ For the Lord had told Moses to tell them, “You are an unruly, stubborn people. If I were there among you for even a moment, I would exterminate you. Remove your jewelry and ornaments until I decide what to do with you.” ⁶ So, after that, they wore no jewelry.

⁷ Moses always erected the sacred tent (the “Tent for Meeting with God,” he called it) far outside the camp, and everyone who wanted to consult with Jehovah went out there.

⁸ Whenever Moses went to the Tabernacle, all the people, when they saw it, stood and would rise and stand in their tent doors. ⁹ As he entered, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the door while the Lord spoke with Moses. ¹⁰ Then all the people worshiped from their tent doors, bowing low to the pillar of cloud. ¹¹ Inside the tent the Lord spoke to Moses face-to-face, as a man speaks to his friend. Afterwards Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua (son of Nun), stayed behind in the Tabernacle.

¹² Moses talked there with the Lord and said to him, “You have been telling me, ‘Take these people to the Promised Land,’ but you haven’t told me whom you will send with me. You say you are my friend,^[b] and that I have found favor before you; ¹³ please, if this is really so, guide me clearly along the way you want me to travel^[c] so that I will understand you and walk acceptably before you. For don’t forget that this nation is your people.”

¹⁴ And the Lord replied, “I myself will go with you and give you success.”

¹⁵ For Moses had said, “If you aren’t going with us, don’t let us move a step from this place. ¹⁶ If you don’t go with us, who will ever know that I and my people have found favor with you, and that we are different from any other people upon the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord had replied to Moses, “Yes, I will do what you have asked, for you have certainly found favor with me, and you are my friend.”^[d]

¹⁸ Then Moses asked to see God’s glory.

¹⁹ The Lord replied, “I will make my goodness pass before you, and I will announce to you the meaning of my name^[e] Jehovah, the Lord. I show kindness and mercy to anyone I want to. ²⁰ But you may not see the glory of my face, for man may not see me and live. ²¹ However, stand here on this rock beside me. ²² And when my glory goes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed. ²³ Then I will remove my hand, and you shall see my back but not my face.”

34 The Lord told Moses, “Prepare two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write upon them the same commands that were on the tablets you broke. ² Be ready in the morning to come up into Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. ³ No one shall come with you and no one must be anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or herds feed close to the mountain.”

⁴ So Moses took two tablets of stone like the first ones, and was up early and climbed Mount Sinai, as the Lord had told him to, taking the two stone tablets in his hands.

^5-6 Then the Lord descended in the form of a pillar of cloud and stood there with him, and passed in front of him and announced the meaning of his name.^[f] “I am Jehovah, the merciful and gracious God,” he said, “slow to anger and rich in steadfast love and truth. ⁷ I, Jehovah, show this steadfast love to many thousands by forgiving their sins;^[g] or else I refuse to clear the guilty, and require that a father’s sins be punished in the sons and grandsons, and even later generations.”

⁸ Moses fell down before the Lord and worshiped. ⁹ And he said, “If it is true that I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, then please go with us to the Promised Land; yes, it is an unruly, stubborn people, but pardon our iniquity and our sins, and accept us as your own.”

¹⁰ The Lord replied, “All right, this is the contract I am going to make with you. I will do miracles such as have never been done before anywhere in all the earth, and all the people of Israel shall see the power of the Lord—the terrible power I will display through you. ¹¹ Your part of the agreement is to obey all of my commandments; then I will drive out from before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

¹² “Be very, very careful never to compromise with the people there in the land where you are going, for if you do, you will soon be following their evil ways. ¹³ Instead, you must break down their heathen altars, smash the obelisks they worship, and cut down their shameful idols.^{[h] 14} For you must worship no other gods, but only Jehovah, for he is a God who claims absolute loyalty and exclusive devotion.

¹⁵ “No, do not make a peace treaty of any kind with the people living in the land, for they are spiritual prostitutes, committing adultery against me by sacrificing to their gods.^[i] If you become friendly with them and one of them invites you to go with him and worship his idol, you are apt to do it. ¹⁶ And you would accept their daughters, who worship other gods, as wives for your sons—and then your sons would commit adultery against me by worshiping their wives’ gods. ¹⁷ You must have nothing to do with idols.

¹⁸ “Be sure to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, just as I instructed you, at the dates appointed each year in March; that was the month you left Egypt.

¹⁹ “Every firstborn male^[j] is mine—cattle, sheep, and goats. ²⁰ The firstborn colt of a donkey may be redeemed by giving a lamb in its place. If you decide not to redeem it, then its neck must be broken. But your sons must all be redeemed. And no one shall appear before me without a gift.

²¹ “Even during plowing and harvest times, work only six days, and rest on the seventh.

²² “And you must remember to celebrate these three annual religious festivals: the Festival of Weeks, the Festival of the First Wheat, and the Harvest Festival. ²³ On each of these three occasions all the men and boys of Israel shall appear before the Lord. ²⁴ No one will attack and conquer your land when you go up to appear before the Lord your God those three times each year. For I will drive out the nations from before you and enlarge your boundaries.

²⁵ “You must not use leavened bread with your sacrifices to me, and none of the meat of the Passover lamb may be kept over until the following morning. ²⁶ And you must bring the best of the first of each year’s crop to the Tabernacle of the Lord your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

²⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these laws^[k] that I have given you, for they represent the terms of my covenant with you and with Israel.”

²⁸ Moses was up on the mountain with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, and in all that time he neither ate nor drank. At that time God^[l] wrote out the Covenant—the Ten Commandments—on the stone tablets.

²⁹ Moses didn’t realize as he came back down the mountain with the tablets that his face glowed from being in the presence of God. ³⁰ Because of this radiance upon his face, Aaron and the people of Israel were afraid to come near him.

³¹ But Moses called them over to him, and Aaron and the leaders of the congregation came and talked with him. ³² Afterwards, all the people came to him, and he gave them the commandments the Lord had given him upon the mountain. ³³ When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face;^{[m] 34} but whenever he went into the Tabernacle to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil until he came out again; then he would pass on to the people whatever instructions God had given him, ³⁵ and the people would see his face aglow. Afterwards he would put the veil on again until he returned to speak with God.

35 Now Moses called a meeting of all the people and told them, “These are the laws of Jehovah you must obey.

² “Work six days only; the seventh day is a day of solemn rest, a holy day to be used to worship Jehovah; anyone working on that day must die. ³ Don’t even light the fires in your homes that day.”

⁴ Then Moses said to all the people, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ^5-9 All of you who wish to, all those with generous hearts, may bring these offerings to Jehovah:

^10-19 “Come, all of you who are skilled craftsmen having special talents, and construct what God has commanded us:

²⁰ So all the people went to their tents to prepare their gifts. ²¹ Those whose hearts were stirred by God’s Spirit returned with their offerings of materials for the Tabernacle, its equipment, and for the holy garments. ²² Both men and women came, all who had willing hearts. They brought to the Lord their offerings of gold, jewelry—earrings, rings from their fingers, necklaces—and gold objects of every kind. ²³ Others brought blue, purple, and scarlet cloth made from the fine-twined linen or goats’ hair; and rams’ skins dyed red, and specially treated goatskins. ²⁴ Others brought silver and bronze as their offering to the Lord; and some brought the acacia wood needed in the construction.

²⁵ The women skilled in sewing and spinning prepared blue, purple, and scarlet thread and cloth, and fine-twined linen, and brought them in. ²⁶ Some other women gladly used their special skill to spin the goats’ hair into cloth. ²⁷ The leaders brought onyx stones to be used for the ephod and the chestpiece; ²⁸ and spices, and oil—for the light, and for compounding the anointing oil and the sweet incense. ²⁹ So the people of Israel—every man and woman who wanted to assist in the work given to them by the Lord’s command to Moses—brought their freewill offerings to him.

^30-31 And Moses told them, “Jehovah has specifically appointed Bezalel (the son of Uri and grandson of Hur of the tribe of Judah) as general superintendent of the project. ³² He will be able to create beautiful workmanship from gold, silver, and bronze; ³³ he can cut and set stones like a jeweler and can do beautiful carving; in fact, he has every needed skill. ³⁴ And God has made him and Oholiab gifted teachers of their skills to others. (Oholiab is the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.) ³⁵ God has filled them both with unusual skills as jewelers, carpenters, embroidery designers in blue, purple, and scarlet on linen backgrounds, and as weavers—they excel in all the crafts we will be needing in the work.