The Daily Audio Bible

Two new flat stones

34 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Cut two flat stones like the first stones. Then I will write on them all the words that I wrote on the first stones. Those were the stones that you broke into pieces.^{[a] 2} Make yourself ready in the morning and come up Sinai mountain. Stand there, ready to meet me on the top of the mountain. ³ Nobody must come with you. Nobody must go anywhere on the mountain. Even your sheep and your cows must not eat grass near the bottom of the mountain.’

⁴ So Moses cut two flat stones like the first stones. Early in the morning, he went up Sinai mountain, as the Lord had commanded him. He carried the two flat stones in his hands. ⁵ Then the Lord came down in the cloud. He came and he stood with Moses. The Lord spoke aloud his own name, the Lord.

⁶ The Lord passed in front of Moses. He said in a loud voice, ‘I am the Lord! The Lord! I am kind to people and I forgive them. I do not quickly become angry. My faithful love for my people continues for ever, and I am always faithful. ⁷ I faithfully love thousands of people. I forgive their sins when they turn against me. But if people are guilty, I surely punish them. I punish their children, their grandchildren and their grandchildren's children.’

⁸ Then Moses quickly bent down low to worship the Lord. ⁹ He said, ‘Lord, my God, if you are pleased with me, please travel with us! It is true that these people are proud and they often do not obey you. But please forgive all our sins. Please accept us as your own people.’

¹⁰ Then the Lord said, ‘I will make a covenant with the Israelites. I will do great miracles for them to see. Nobody in any nation anywhere in the world has ever done such great things. All the people who live near you will see the great things that I, the Lord, will do. The powerful things that I do among you will make them very afraid.

¹¹ Obey the commands that I am giving you today. Then I will chase out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as you move into the land. ¹² Do not make any agreements with those people in the land where you are going. If you become their friends, they would teach you to do wrong things. ¹³ Instead, you must knock down their altars. Destroy the special stones that are their idols. Cut down their Asherah poles. ¹⁴ Do not worship any other god instead of me. I am the Lord and I want you to belong to me alone.

¹⁵ Be careful not to make an agreement with the people who live in that land. They have turned away to worship their own gods. They offer sacrifices to their gods. When they do that, they may ask you to join with them. Then you will eat the food that they have offered to their gods. ¹⁶ Perhaps you may choose some of their daughters for your sons to marry. Their daughters will continue to worship their gods. Then they will teach your sons to turn away from me and worship their gods.

¹⁷ Do not melt metal to make images of false gods.

¹⁸ Eat the Feast of Flat Bread every year. Eat bread that has no yeast in it for seven days, as I commanded you. Do this on the right day in the month of Abib. That is the month that you came out from Egypt.

¹⁹ Every firstborn child that a woman gives birth to belongs to me. That is also true for every firstborn male that your animals give birth to. That includes your cows and your sheep. ²⁰ For a firstborn donkey, you may pay for it with a lamb instead. If you do not pay for it, you must break the donkey's neck. You must pay me back for every firstborn son that you have.

Nobody may come to worship me without an offering to give me.

²¹ You may work for six days each week, but on the seventh day you must rest. That is true even when it is the time to plough your fields. It is also true at harvest time. You must rest on the seventh day each week.

²² Eat the Feast of Weeks every year when you cut the first wheat in your fields. Eat the Feast of Harvest at the end of each year.^{[b] 23} Three times in every year, all your men must come to worship the Lord God, the God of Israel. ²⁴ I will chase the nations out of the land as you move in. I will give you more and more land to live in. Three times each year you must come to worship the Lord your God. When you do that, nobody will try to take your land for themselves.

²⁵ When you offer the blood of an animal to me as your sacrifice, do not also offer any bread with yeast in it. When you kill a lamb for the Passover sacrifice, do not keep any of the meat until the next morning.

²⁶ When you cut the first crops from your fields, bring the best food to the house of the Lord your God.

Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.’

²⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write down these words. They are the rules of the covenant that I have made with you and with the Israelites.’

²⁸ Moses was there on the mountain with the Lord for 40 days and 40 nights. He did not eat anything or drink anything during that time. He wrote the words of God's covenant on the flat stones. Those were God's ten special commands.

Moses' face shines

²⁹ Moses came down from Sinai mountain. He carried the two stones of the covenant in his hands. As he came down the mountain, he did not know that his face was shining. His face was shining because he had spoken with the Lord. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, they could see that his face was shining. They were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called out to them. So Aaron and the leaders of the people came back to him. Then Moses talked to them. ³² After this, all the Israelites came near to Moses. He told them all the commands that the Lord had given to him on Sinai mountain.

³³ When Moses had finished speaking to the people, he covered his face with a thin cloth. ³⁴ But when he went into the special tent to speak with the Lord, he would remove the cloth. When he came out again, he would tell God's commands to the Israelites. ³⁵ They could see that his face was shining. So Moses would put the thin cloth over his face again. The cloth would stay on his face until he went into the special tent again to speak with the Lord.

Rules about the Sabbath day

35 Moses brought all the Israelites together. Then he said to them, ‘These are the Lord's commands to you. ² You may work for six days each week, but the seventh day will be a holy day for you. It will be a day of complete rest to give honour to the Lord. If anyone works on that day, you must punish him with death. ³ Do not light a fire in any of your homes on a Sabbath day.’

Materials for the tabernacle

⁴ Moses said to all the Israelites, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded: ⁵ Take an offering to give to the Lord from the things that you have. Everyone who wants to give something may choose to give these things:

¹⁵ Each year, at the time for the Passover festival, the Roman ruler would let one person go free out of the prison. The people could choose which person should go free. ¹⁶ At that time, there was a man called Barabbas in prison. Everyone knew about the bad things that he had done. ¹⁷ When the crowd came together at Pilate's house, Pilate asked them, ‘Who do you want me to let go free? Should Barabbas go free? Or should it be Jesus, who is called the Messiah?’ ¹⁸ Pilate knew why the Jewish leaders had brought Jesus to him. They were jealous because people liked Jesus so much.

¹⁹ Pilate was sitting on his special seat as a judge. Then his wife sent a message to him. She said, ‘Do not do anything to that man. He has done nothing wrong. Last night I had a dream about him. It gave me a lot of trouble in my mind.’

²⁰ But the leaders of the priests and the important Jews talked to the crowds of people. They said, ‘You must ask Pilate to let Barabbas go free. Then he must tell the soldiers to kill Jesus.’

²¹ Pilate asked the people again, ‘Which of these two men should go free?’ The people answered, ‘Barabbas.’

²² Then Pilate asked the people, ‘So what should I do with Jesus, who is called the Messiah?’ The people all shouted, ‘Take him and kill him on a cross!’

²³ So Pilate said, ‘Why should I kill him? What bad things has he done?’

But the people shouted even louder, ‘Kill him on a cross!’

²⁴ Then Pilate knew that he could not do anything to make them quiet. He thought that the people would start to fight his soldiers. So he took a dish of water and he washed his hands in front of the people. He said, ‘It is not because of me that this man will die. You are the people who have caused it to happen.’

²⁵ All the people answered Pilate, ‘Yes, God should punish us and our children, if we have done the wrong thing.’

²⁶ Then Pilate let Barabbas go free, as the crowd wanted. But he said to his soldiers, ‘Hit Jesus many times with a whip. Then take him and fix him to a cross to die.’

²⁷ Then Pilate's soldiers took Jesus into the yard of the ruler's house. All the other soldiers in their group were there. ²⁸ They removed Jesus' clothes from him. They put a dark red coat on him. ²⁹ They used some branches with thorns to make a crown for him. Then they put it on his head. They put a long stick in his right hand. They went down on their knees in front of him. They laughed at him and they said, ‘Hello, King of the Jews, you are great!’^[a]

³⁰ Then the soldiers spat into Jesus' face. They took the stick and they hit Jesus on his head with it many times. ³¹ After they had laughed at him, they took the special coat off him. They put his own clothes back on him. Then they took him out to the place where they would kill him on a cross.

Two women^[a]

9 The woman who is called ‘Wisdom’ has built her house with seven pillars to make it strong.

² She has killed an animal for a big meal. She has mixed her wine. She has also prepared her table. ³ She has sent her servants to shout a message from the highest places in the town.

⁴ She says to foolish people, ‘Come here to me.’

She says to people who do not understand what is right, ⁵ ‘Come here and eat my food. Drink the wine that I have mixed. ⁶ Leave foolish ways so that you may live. Learn to understand what is right, so that you can do it.’