Exodus
Book Outhne
Key theme: God sets us free that we might serve Him
Key verses:
I. Redemption: The Lord Delivers His People (): “I will rescue you” ()
A. The Lord calls a leader ()
B. The Lord declares war on Pharaoh ()
C. The Lord wins the victory ()
D. The Lord provides for His people ()
1. Healing ()
2. Meat ()
3. Manna ()
4. Water ()
5. Protection ()
E. The Lord counsels His leader ()
II. Covenant: The Lord Claims His People (): “I will take you as My people” ()
A. The people prepare ()
B. The Lord declares His law ()
C. The covenant confirmed by blood ()
III. Worship: The Lord Dwells with His People (): “I will be your God” ()
A. Instructions about the tabernacle (; )
B. Consecration of the priests ()
C. Disobedience of the people ()
D. Construction of the tabernacle ()
E. God’s glory enters the tabernacle ()
Book Overview
Whether it means freeing a nation from political bondage or delivering an individual from dependence or codependence, liberation is a popular theme these days. But many people who want to be free don’t really know what freedom is or how to use it if they have it. Fools use freedom as a toy to play with; wise people use freedom as a tool to build with.
The nation of Israel is a case in point. God brought them out of Egypt that He might bring them into their inheritance (, ), but they didn’t have the maturity to manage their freedom successfully. As a result, a whole generation of Israelites perished while wandering in the wilderness.
Sin is always costly, and Israel’s sin had not only led to the death of thousands of people, but it had robbed the nation of the presence of the Lord in the camp and on their pilgrim journey to the Promised Land.
The theme of Exodus is deliverance, and you can’t have deliverance without a deliverer. That’s where Moses comes in: the great liberator, legislator, and mediator.
Using the experiences of Israel, the Book of Exodus explains what true freedom is, what freedom costs, and how it must be used. Exodus teaches us that freedom is not license, and discipline is not bondage. God tells us how to enjoy mature freedom in His will, a quality that is desperately needed in our churches and our world today.
“Be Transformed”
The Book of Exodus opens with Moses seeing God’s glory in the burning bush (), and it closes with the glory of God descending into the camp and filling the tabernacle. The presence of the glory of God in the camp of Israel was not a luxury; it was a necessity. It identified Israel as the people of God and set them apart from the other nations, for the tabernacle was consecrated by the glory of God (, ). Other nations had sacred buildings, but they were empty. The tabernacle of Israel was blessed with the presence of the glory of God.
Exodus tells us how God got His people out of Egypt, and it begins to tell us how God got Egypt out of His people. Although God showed His continual presence to His people by the pillar of cloud and fire, they got so accustomed to it that they took God’s visible signs for granted. In , special note is made of the last day in which the people collected manna. Shockingly, there is no mention of when the pillar of cloud and fire disappeared! God’s presence by His Spirit in us is as real as the pillar of cloud and fire, and we are in just as much danger of ignoring Him or taking Him for granted.
Transformation is God’s continual work in us. Our response will either be similar to the hardening of heart that we see in Pharaoh in Exodus, or it will be a willingness to be directed, corrected, instructed, and reconstructed by His Spirit at work in us.
Israel’s Suffering in Egypt
2Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
5All those who were descendants of Jacob were seventy persons (for Joseph was in Egypt already).
6And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation.
7But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
8Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
9And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we;
10“come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”
11Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.
12But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.
13So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor.
14And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
15Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;
16and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”
18So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”
19And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”
20Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty.
22So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
Moses Is Born
1And a man of the house of Levi went and took as wife a daughter of Levi.
3But when she could no longer hide him, she took an ark of bulrushes for him, daubed it with asphalt and pitch, put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river’s bank.
4And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done to him.
5Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river. And her maidens walked along the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.
7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?”
8And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the maiden went and called the child’s mother.
9Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.
Moses Flees to Midian
13And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, “Why are you striking your companion?”
14Then he said, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” So Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known!”
16Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. And they came and drew water, and they filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17Then the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18When they came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that you have come so soon today?”
19And they said, “An Egyptian delivered us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew enough water for us and watered the flock.”
20So he said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.”
22And she bore him a son. He called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”
23Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
24So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.
Moses at the Burning Bush
3Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
4So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
5Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
6Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
8“So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
9“Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
10“Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
12So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
14And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
15Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
16“Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt;
17“and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
18“Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
19“But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand.
20“So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.
21“And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be, when you go, that you shall not go empty-handed.
22“But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, namely, of her who dwells near her house, articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing; and you shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
Miraculous Signs for Pharaoh
2So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.”
3And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.
4Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand),
5“that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”
6Furthermore the LORD said to him, “Now put your hand in your bosom.” And he put his hand in his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, like snow.
7And He said, “Put your hand in your bosom again.” So he put his hand in his bosom again, and drew it out of his bosom, and behold, it was restored like his other flesh.
8“Then it will be, if they do not believe you, nor heed the message of the first sign, that they may believe the message of the latter sign.
9“And it shall be, if they do not believe even these two signs, or listen to your voice, that you shall take water from the river and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take from the river will become blood on the dry land.”
11So the LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?
12“Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.”
15“Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do.
16“So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.
17“And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”
Moses Goes to Egypt
18So Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, “Please let me go and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
19Now the LORD said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.”
20Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
22“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.
23“So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”
24And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the LORD met him and sought to kill him.
25Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!”
26So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.
27And the LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on the mountain of God, and kissed him.
28So Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him.
30And Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people.
31So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.
First Encounter with Pharaoh
2And Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, nor will I let Israel go.”
4Then the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people from their work? Get back to your labor.”
5And Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them rest from their labor!”
6So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying,
7“You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves.
8“And you shall lay on them the quota of bricks which they made before. You shall not reduce it. For they are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’
9“Let more work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard false words.”
10And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw.
11‘Go, get yourselves straw where you can find it; yet none of your work will be reduced.’ ”
12So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.
13And the taskmasters forced them to hurry, saying, “Fulfill your work, your daily quota, as when there was straw.”
14Also the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as before?”
16“There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And indeed your servants are beaten, but the fault is in your own people.”
17But he said, “You are idle! Idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’
18“Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks.”
19And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble after it was said, “You shall not reduce any bricks from your daily quota.”
20Then, as they came out from Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them.
21And they said to them, “Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Israel’s Deliverance Assured
23“For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.”
2And God spoke to Moses and said to him: “I am the LORD.
3“I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them.
4“I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers.
5“And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
6“Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
7‘I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8‘And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage: I am the LORD.’ ”
10And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
11“Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children of Israel go out of his land.”
12And Moses spoke before the LORD, saying, “The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?”
13Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
The Family of Moses and Aaron
15And the sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
16These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty-seven.
17The sons of Gershon were Libni and Shimi according to their families.
18And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. And the years of the life of Kohath were one hundred and thirty-three.
19The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of Levi according to their generations.
20Now Amram took for himself Jochebed, his father’s sister, as wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven.
21The sons of Izhar were Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
22And the sons of Uzziel were Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri.
23Aaron took to himself Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, as wife; and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
24And the sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korahites.
25Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took for himself one of the daughters of Putiel as wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their families.
26These are the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.”
27These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are the same Moses and Aaron.
Aaron Is Moses’ Spokesman
28And it came to pass, on the day the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,
29that the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “I am the LORD. Speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say to you.”
30But Moses said before the LORD, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?”
1So the LORD said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.
2“You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.
4“But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.
6Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the LORD commanded them, so they did.
7And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Aaron’s Miraculous Rod
8Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
9“When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.’ ”
10So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
12For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
13And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the LORD had said.
The First Plague: Waters Become Blood
15“Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.
16“And you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear!
17‘Thus says the LORD: “By this you shall know that I am the LORD. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.
18“And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will loathe to drink the water of the river.” ’ ”
19Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.’ ”
20And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the LORD commanded. So he lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
21The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
23And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this.
24So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river.
25And seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river.
The Second Plague: Frogs
1And the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
2“But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all your territory with frogs.
3“So the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into your house, into your bedroom, on your bed, into the houses of your servants, on your people, into your ovens, and into your kneading bowls.
4“And the frogs shall come up on you, on your people, and on all your servants.” ’ ”
5Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up on the land of Egypt.’ ”
6So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
7And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
9And Moses said to Pharaoh, “Accept the honor of saying when I shall intercede for you, for your servants, and for your people, to destroy the frogs from you and your houses, that they may remain in the river only.”
10So he said, “Tomorrow.” And he said, “Let it be according to your word, that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God.
11“And the frogs shall depart from you, from your houses, from your servants, and from your people. They shall remain in the river only.”
12Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried out to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh.
13So the LORD did according to the word of Moses. And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the courtyards, and out of the fields.
14They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.
The Third Plague: Lice
16So the LORD said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’ ”
17And they did so. For Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt.
18Now the magicians so worked with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not. So there were lice on man and beast.
The Fourth Plague: Flies
23“I will make a difference between My people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall be.” ’ ”
26And Moses said, “It is not right to do so, for we would be sacrificing the abomination of the Egyptians to the LORD our God. If we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, then will they not stone us?
27“We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the LORD our God as He will command us.”
28So Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only you shall not go very far away. Intercede for me.”
29Then Moses said, “Indeed I am going out from you, and I will entreat the LORD, that the swarms of flies may depart tomorrow from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. But let Pharaoh not deal deceitfully anymore in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.”
30So Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the LORD.
31And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one remained.
32But Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither would he let the people go.
The Fifth Plague: Livestock Diseased
2“For if you refuse to let them go, and still hold them,
3“behold, the hand of the LORD will be on your cattle in the field, on the horses, on the donkeys, on the camels, on the oxen, and on the sheep—a very severe pestilence.
4“And the LORD will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. So nothing shall die of all that belongs to the children of Israel.” ’ ”
5Then the LORD appointed a set time, saying, “Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land.”
6So the LORD did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the children of Israel, not one died.
The Sixth Plague: Boils
8So the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from a furnace, and let Moses scatter it toward the heavens in the sight of Pharaoh.
9“And it will become fine dust in all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out in sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.”
10Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses scattered them toward heaven. And they caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast.
11And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.
12But the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh; and he did not heed them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.
The Seventh Plague: Hail
14“for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like Me in all the earth.
16“But indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.
17“As yet you exalt yourself against My people in that you will not let them go.
18“Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down, such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now.
19“Therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home; and they shall die.” ’ ”
20He who feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses.
21But he who did not regard the word of the LORD left his servants and his livestock in the field.
22Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt—on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.”
23And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt.
24So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
25And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field.
26Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.
28“Entreat the LORD, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.”
29So Moses said to him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.
30“But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear the LORD God.”
31Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud.
32But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops.
33So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to the LORD; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth.
34And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants.
35So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the LORD had spoken by Moses.
The Eighth Plague: Locusts
2“and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
3So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
4‘Or else, if you refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your territory.
5‘And they shall cover the face of the earth, so that no one will be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of what is left, which remains to you from the hail, and they shall eat every tree which grows up for you out of the field.
6‘They shall fill your houses, the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians—which neither your fathers nor your fathers’ fathers have seen, since the day that they were on the earth to this day.’ ” And he turned and went out from Pharaoh.
7Then Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long shall this man be a snare to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is destroyed?”
8So Moses and Aaron were brought again to Pharaoh, and he said to them, “Go, serve the LORD your God. Who are the ones that are going?”
9And Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”
11“Not so! Go now, you who are men, and serve the LORD, for that is what you desired.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence.
12Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land—all that the hail has left.”
13So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
15For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left. So there remained nothing green on the trees or on the plants of the field throughout all the land of Egypt.
16Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.
17“Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and entreat the LORD your God, that He may take away from me this death only.”
18So he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the LORD.
19And the LORD turned a very strong west wind, which took the locusts away and blew them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the territory of Egypt.
20But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go.
The Ninth Plague: Darkness
22So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.
23They did not see one another; nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.
24Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, “Go, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be kept back. Let your little ones also go with you.”
25But Moses said, “You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
26“Our livestock also shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind. For we must take some of them to serve the LORD our God, and even we do not know with what we must serve the LORD until we arrive there.”
28Then Pharaoh said to him, “Get away from me! Take heed to yourself and see my face no more! For in the day you see my face you shall die!”
Death of the Firstborn Announced
1And the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. Afterward he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you out of here altogether.
3And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
4Then Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;
6‘Then there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as was not like it before, nor shall be like it again.
7‘But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’
8“And all these your servants shall come down to me and bow down to me, saying, ‘Get out, and all the people who follow you!’ After that I will go out.” Then he went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
9But the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not heed you, so that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”
10So Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go out of his land.
The Passover Instituted
4‘And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.
5‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
7‘And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.
9‘Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails.
10‘You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.
11‘And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.
12‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.
13‘Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
14‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.
16‘On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you.
18‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.
19‘For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.
20‘You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ”
21Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb.
22“And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.
23“For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.
25“It will come to pass when you come to the land which the LORD will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service.
26“And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
27“that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
28Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
The Tenth Plague: Death of the Firstborn
30So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
The Exodus
31Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the LORD as you have said.
32“Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.”
33And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”
34So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.
35Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing.
36And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
37Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.
38A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.
39And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves.
41And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
42It is a night of solemn observance to the LORD for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.
Passover Regulations
43And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it.
44“But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it.
45“A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it.
46“In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones.
47“All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.
48“And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it.
49“One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.”
51And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies.
The Firstborn Consecrated
2“Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.”
The Feast of Unleavened Bread
3And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
4“On this day you are going out, in the month Abib.
5“And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall keep this service in this month.
6“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
7“Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.
8“And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.’
9“It shall be as a sign to you on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the LORD’s law may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.
10“You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
The Law of the Firstborn
11“And it shall be, when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you,
12“that you shall set apart to the LORD all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the LORD’s.
14“So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
15‘And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
16“It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”
The Wilderness Way
19And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had placed the children of Israel under solemn oath, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you.”
21And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.
22He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
The Red Sea Crossing
1Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
2“Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and camp before Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon; you shall camp before it by the sea.
3“For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are bewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’
4“Then I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will pursue them; and I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
5Now it was told the king of Egypt that the people had fled, and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people; and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
6So he made ready his chariot and took his people with him.
7Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt with captains over every one of them.
8And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with boldness.
9So the Egyptians pursued them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, and overtook them camping by the sea beside Pi Hahiroth, before Baal Zephon.
11Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt?
13And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.
16“But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
17“And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them. So I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen.
18“Then the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained honor for Myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
19And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them.
21Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.
22So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
23And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
24Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that the LORD looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and He troubled the army of the Egyptians.
25And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”
26Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.”
27And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
28Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained.
29But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
30So the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
The Song of Moses
“I will sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!
2The LORD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
The LORD is His name.
4Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
5The depths have covered them;
They sank to the bottom like a stone.
6“Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power;
Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.
7And in the greatness of Your excellence
You have overthrown those who rose against You;
You sent forth Your wrath;
It consumed them like stubble.
8And with the blast of Your nostrils
The waters were gathered together;
The floods stood upright like a heap;
The depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
9The enemy said, ‘I will pursue,
I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil;
My desire shall be satisfied on them.
I will draw my sword,
My hand shall destroy them.’
10You blew with Your wind,
The sea covered them;
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11“Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like You, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
12You stretched out Your right hand;
The earth swallowed them.
13You in Your mercy have led forth
The people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength
To Your holy habitation.
14“The people will hear and be afraid;
Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.
15Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed;
The mighty men of Moab,
Trembling will take hold of them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away.
By the greatness of Your arm
They will be as still as a stone,
Till Your people pass over, O LORD,
Till the people pass over
Whom You have purchased.
17You will bring them in and plant them
In the mountain of Your inheritance,
In the place, O LORD, which You have made
For Your own dwelling,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.
18“The LORD shall reign forever and ever.”
19For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.
The Song of Miriam
21And Miriam answered them:
“Sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!”
Bitter Waters Made Sweet
22So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
23Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.
25So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them,
27Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters.
Bread from Heaven
1And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.
3And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
5“And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
6Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, “At evening you shall know that the LORD has brought you out of the land of Egypt.
7“And in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD; for He hears your complaints against the LORD. But what are we, that you complain against us?”
8Also Moses said, “This shall be seen when the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the LORD hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the LORD.”
9Then Moses spoke to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the LORD, for He has heard your complaints.’ ”
10Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
11And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
12“I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.’ ”
13So it was that quail came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.
14And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground.
15So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat.
16“This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.’ ”
17Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less.
18So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need.
20Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.
23Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.’ ”
24So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it.
25Then Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
26“Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
27Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.
28And the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws?
29“See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
30So the people rested on the seventh day.
31And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
33And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the LORD, to be kept for your generations.”
34As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.
35And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
36Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.
Water from the Rock
2Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, “Give us water, that we may drink.” So Moses said to them, “Why do you contend with me? Why do you tempt the LORD?”
4So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
5And the LORD said to Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go.
6“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Victory over the Amalekites
10So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
11And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
12But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
13So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
14Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
15And Moses built an altar and called its name, The-LORD-Is-My-Banner;
16for he said, “Because the LORD has sworn: the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
Jethro’s Advice
2Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back,
3with her two sons, of whom the name of one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land”)
4and the name of the other was Eliezer (for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”);
5and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.
6Now he had said to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”
7So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and kissed him. And they asked each other about their well-being, and they went into the tent.
8And Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.
9Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.
10And Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.
11“Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.”
12Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
15And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.
16“When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
17So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good.
18“Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.
19“Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God.
20“And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do.
22“And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.
23“If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all this people will also go to their place in peace.”
25And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
26So they judged the people at all times; the hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves.
27Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way to his own land.
Israel at Mount Sinai
2For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the Wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain.
3And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
7So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these words which the LORD commanded him.
8Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” So Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.
9And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.” So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
10Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes.
11“And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
12“You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.
13‘Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.”
15And he said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not come near your wives.”
17And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
19And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.
20Then the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
22“Also let the priests who come near the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against them.”
23But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for You warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ”
24Then the LORD said to him, “Away! Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest He break out against them.”
25So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
The Ten Commandments
2“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3“You shall have no other gods before Me.
5you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
9Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
11For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
The People Afraid of God’s Presence
18Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
19Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.”
20And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”
21So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
The Law of the Altar
22Then the LORD said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.
23‘You shall not make anything to be with Me—gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves.
24‘An altar of earth you shall make for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name I will come to you, and I will bless you.
25‘And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it.
The Law Concerning Servants
3“If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.
4“If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.
5“But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’
6“then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.
7“And if a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do.
8“If she does not please her master, who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9“And if he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.
10“If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights.
11“And if he does not do these three for her, then she shall go out free, without paying money.
The Law Concerning Violence
13“However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
14“But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him from My altar, that he may die.
16“He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put to death.
17“And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18“If men contend with each other, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but is confined to his bed,
19“if he rises again and walks about outside with his staff, then he who struck him shall be acquitted. He shall only pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for him to be thoroughly healed.
20“And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
21“Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his property.
23“But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life,
24“eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25“burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26“If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for the sake of his eye.
27“And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free for the sake of his tooth.
Animal Control Laws
28“If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted.
29“But if the ox tended to thrust with its horn in times past, and it has been made known to his owner, and he has not kept it confined, so that it has killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner also shall be put to death.
30“If there is imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay to redeem his life, whatever is imposed on him.
31“Whether it has gored a son or gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
32“If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
33“And if a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls in it,
34“the owner of the pit shall make it good; he shall give money to their owner, but the dead animal shall be his.
35“If one man’s ox hurts another’s, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money from it; and the dead ox they shall also divide.
36“Or if it was known that the ox tended to thrust in time past, and its owner has not kept it confined, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall be his own.
Responsibility for Property
1“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.
2“If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed.
4“If the theft is certainly found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox or donkey or sheep, he shall restore double.
5“If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed, and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.
7“If a man delivers to his neighbor money or articles to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief is found, he shall pay double.
8“If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges to see whether he has put his hand into his neighbor’s goods.
9“For any kind of trespass, whether it concerns an ox, a donkey, a sheep, or clothing, or for any kind of lost thing which another claims to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whomever the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor.
10“If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any animal to keep, and it dies, is hurt, or driven away, no one seeing it,
11“then an oath of the LORD shall be between them both, that he has not put his hand into his neighbor’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept that, and he shall not make it good.
12“But if, in fact, it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution to the owner of it.
13“If it is torn to pieces by a beast, then he shall bring it as evidence, and he shall not make good what was torn.
14“And if a man borrows anything from his neighbor, and it becomes injured or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall surely make it good.
15“If its owner was with it, he shall not make it good; if it was hired, it came for its hire.
Moral and Ceremonial Principles
16“If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife.
17“If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins.
18“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
19“Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.
20“He who sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
22“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.
23“If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry;
24“and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
25“If you lend money to any of My people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him; you shall not charge him interest.
26“If you ever take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.
27“For that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in? And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.
29“You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to Me.
30“Likewise you shall do with your oxen and your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.
31“And you shall be holy men to Me: you shall not eat meat torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.
Justice for All
2“You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice.
3“You shall not show partiality to a poor man in his dispute.
4“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.
5“If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.
6“You shall not pervert the judgment of your poor in his dispute.
7“Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked.
8“And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.
9“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
The Law of Sabbaths
10“Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce,
11“but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.
12“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.
13“And in all that I have said to you, be circumspect and make no mention of the name of other gods, nor let it be heard from your mouth.
Three Annual Feasts
15“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);
16“and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.
17“Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
18“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning.
The Angel and the Promises
21“Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.
22“But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
23“For My Angel will go before you and bring you in to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I will cut them off.
24“You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
25“So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.
26“No one shall suffer miscarriage or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.
27“I will send My fear before you, I will cause confusion among all the people to whom you come, and will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
28“And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you.
29“I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
30“Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.
31“And I will set your bounds from the Red Sea to the sea, Philistia, and from the desert to the River. For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.
33“They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”
Israel Affirms the Covenant
2“And Moses alone shall come near the LORD, but they shall not come near; nor shall the people go up with him.”
3So Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words which the LORD has said we will do.”
4And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
6And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
7Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the LORD has said we will do, and be obedient.”
8And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”
On the Mountain with God
11But on the nobles of the children of Israel He did not lay His hand. So they saw God, and they ate and drank.
12Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.”
13So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God.
14And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has a difficulty, let him go to them.”
15Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.
16Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.
17The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
18So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Offerings for the Sanctuary
2“Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering.
3“And this is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, silver, and bronze;
4“blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair;
5“ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood;
6“oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense;
7“onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.
8“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
The Ark of the Testimony
10“And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
11“And you shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and shall make on it a molding of gold all around.
12“You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in its four corners; two rings shall be on one side, and two rings on the other side.
13“And you shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
14“You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, that the ark may be carried by them.
15“The poles shall be in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it.
16“And you shall put into the ark the Testimony which I will give you.
18“And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
19“Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat.
20“And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
21“You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you.
22“And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
The Table for the Showbread
23“You shall also make a table of acacia wood; two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
24“And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and make a molding of gold all around.
25“You shall make for it a frame of a handbreadth all around, and you shall make a gold molding for the frame all around.
26“And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that are at its four legs.
27“The rings shall be close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table.
28“And you shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be carried with them.
29“You shall make its dishes, its pans, its pitchers, and its bowls for pouring. You shall make them of pure gold.
The Gold Lampstand
31“You shall also make a lampstand of pure gold; the lampstand shall be of hammered work. Its shaft, its branches, its bowls, its ornamental knobs, and flowers shall be of one piece.
32“And six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side.
33“Three bowls shall be made like almond blossoms on one branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower, and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower—and so for the six branches that come out of the lampstand.
34“On the lampstand itself four bowls shall be made like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob and flower.
35“And there shall be a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand.
36“Their knobs and their branches shall be of one piece; all of it shall be one hammered piece of pure gold.
37“You shall make seven lamps for it, and they shall arrange its lamps so that they give light in front of it.
38“And its wick-trimmers and their trays shall be of pure gold.
39“It shall be made of a talent of pure gold, with all these utensils.
The Tabernacle
2“The length of each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits. And every one of the curtains shall have the same measurements.
3“Five curtains shall be coupled to one another, and the other five curtains shall be coupled to one another.
4“And you shall make loops of blue yarn on the edge of the curtain on the selvedge of one set, and likewise you shall do on the outer edge of the other curtain of the second set.
5“Fifty loops you shall make in the one curtain, and fifty loops you shall make on the edge of the curtain that is on the end of the second set, that the loops may be clasped to one another.
6“And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle.
7“You shall also make curtains of goats’ hair, to be a tent over the tabernacle. You shall make eleven curtains.
8“The length of each curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; and the eleven curtains shall all have the same measurements.
9“And you shall couple five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves, and you shall double over the sixth curtain at the forefront of the tent.
10“You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain of the second set.
11“And you shall make fifty bronze clasps, put the clasps into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one.
12“The remnant that remains of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle.
13“And a cubit on one side and a cubit on the other side, of what remains of the length of the curtains of the tent, shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and on that side, to cover it.
14“You shall also make a covering of ram skins dyed red for the tent, and a covering of badger skins above that.
15“And for the tabernacle you shall make the boards of acacia wood, standing upright.
16“Ten cubits shall be the length of a board, and a cubit and a half shall be the width of each board.
17“Two tenons shall be in each board for binding one to another. Thus you shall make for all the boards of the tabernacle.
18“And you shall make the boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side.
19“You shall make forty sockets of silver under the twenty boards: two sockets under each of the boards for its two tenons.
20“And for the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, there shall be twenty boards
21“and their forty sockets of silver: two sockets under each of the boards.
22“For the far side of the tabernacle, westward, you shall make six boards.
23“And you shall also make two boards for the two back corners of the tabernacle.
24“They shall be coupled together at the bottom and they shall be coupled together at the top by one ring. Thus it shall be for both of them. They shall be for the two corners.
25“So there shall be eight boards with their sockets of silver—sixteen sockets—two sockets under each of the boards.
26“And you shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle,
27“five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward.
28“The middle bar shall pass through the midst of the boards from end to end.
29“You shall overlay the boards with gold, make their rings of gold as holders for the bars, and overlay the bars with gold.
31“You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim.
32“You shall hang it upon the four pillars of acacia wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be gold, upon four sockets of silver.
34“You shall put the mercy seat upon the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy.
35“You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand across from the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south; and you shall put the table on the north side.
36“You shall make a screen for the door of the tabernacle, woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver.
37“And you shall make for the screen five pillars of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold; their hooks shall be gold, and you shall cast five sockets of bronze for them.
The Altar of Burnt Offering
2“You shall make its horns on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it. And you shall overlay it with bronze.
3“Also you shall make its pans to receive its ashes, and its shovels and its basins and its forks and its firepans; you shall make all its utensils of bronze.
4“You shall make a grate for it, a network of bronze; and on the network you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners.
5“You shall put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be midway up the altar.
6“And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze.
7“The poles shall be put in the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar to bear it.
8“You shall make it hollow with boards; as it was shown you on the mountain, so shall they make it.
The Court of the Tabernacle
10“And its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets shall be bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be silver.
11“Likewise along the length of the north side there shall be hangings one hundred cubits long, with its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of bronze, and the hooks of the pillars and their bands of silver.
12“And along the width of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits, with their ten pillars and their ten sockets.
13“The width of the court on the east side shall be fifty cubits.
14“The hangings on one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets.
15“And on the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets.
17“All the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver; their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of bronze.
18“The length of the court shall be one hundred cubits, the width fifty throughout, and the height five cubits, made of fine woven linen, and its sockets of bronze.
19“All the utensils of the tabernacle for all its service, all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court, shall be of bronze.
The Care of the Lampstand
20“And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually.
21“In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the LORD. It shall be a statute forever to their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.
Garments for the Priesthood
2“And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.
3“So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest.
4“And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons, that he may minister to Me as priest.
The Ephod
5“They shall take the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine linen,
6“and they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked.
7“It shall have two shoulder straps joined at its two edges, and so it shall be joined together.
8“And the intricately woven band of the ephod, which is on it, shall be of the same workmanship, made of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen.
9“Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel:
10“six of their names on one stone and six names on the other stone, in order of their birth.
11“With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold.
12“And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders as a memorial.
13“You shall also make settings of gold,
14“and you shall make two chains of pure gold like braided cords, and fasten the braided chains to the settings.
The Breastplate
16“It shall be doubled into a square: a span shall be its length, and a span shall be its width.
17“And you shall put settings of stones in it, four rows of stones: The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald; this shall be the first row;
18“the second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond;
19“the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
20“and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings.
21“And the stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name; they shall be according to the twelve tribes.
22“You shall make chains for the breastplate at the end, like braided cords of pure gold.
23“And you shall make two rings of gold for the breastplate, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
24“Then you shall put the two braided chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate;
25“and the other two ends of the two braided chains you shall fasten to the two settings, and put them on the shoulder straps of the ephod in the front.
26“You shall make two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on the edge of it, which is on the inner side of the ephod.
27“And two other rings of gold you shall make, and put them on the two shoulder straps, underneath the ephod toward its front, right at the seam above the intricately woven band of the ephod.
28“They shall bind the breastplate by means of its rings to the rings of the ephod, using a blue cord, so that it is above the intricately woven band of the ephod, and so that the breastplate does not come loose from the ephod.
30“And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the LORD. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the LORD continually.
Other Priestly Garments
31“You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue.
32“There shall be an opening for his head in the middle of it; it shall have a woven binding all around its opening, like the opening in a coat of mail, so that it does not tear.
33“And upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around:
34“a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe all around.
HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
37“And you shall put it on a blue cord, that it may be on the turban; it shall be on the front of the turban.
38“So it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall always be on his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.
39“You shall skillfully weave the tunic of fine linen thread, you shall make the turban of fine linen, and you shall make the sash of woven work.
40“For Aaron’s sons you shall make tunics, and you shall make sashes for them. And you shall make hats for them, for glory and beauty.
41“So you shall put them on Aaron your brother and on his sons with him. You shall anoint them, consecrate them, and sanctify them, that they may minister to Me as priests.
42“And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the waist to the thighs.
43“They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever to him and his descendants after him.
Aaron and His Sons Consecrated
2“and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour).
3“You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.
4“And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.
6“You shall put the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban.
8“Then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them.
9“And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
10“You shall also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the bull.
11“Then you shall kill the bull before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
12“You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour all the blood beside the base of the altar.
13“And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.
14“But the flesh of the bull, with its skin and its offal, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
15“You shall also take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram;
16“and you shall kill the ram, and you shall take its blood and sprinkle it all around on the altar.
17“Then you shall cut the ram in pieces, wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and with its head.
18“And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD; it is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
19“You shall also take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram.
21“And you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar, and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, on his sons and on the garments of his sons with him; and he and his garments shall be hallowed, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
22“Also you shall take the fat of the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),
23“one loaf of bread, one cake made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the LORD;
24“and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.
25“You shall receive them back from their hands and burn them on the altar as a burnt offering, as a sweet aroma before the LORD. It is an offering made by fire to the LORD.
26“Then you shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration and wave it as a wave offering before the LORD; and it shall be your portion.
28“It shall be from the children of Israel for Aaron and his sons by a statute forever. For it is a heave offering; it shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, that is, their heave offering to the LORD.
29“And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons’ after him, to be anointed in them and to be consecrated in them.
30“That son who becomes priest in his place shall put them on for seven days, when he enters the tabernacle of meeting to minister in the holy place.
31“And you shall take the ram of the consecration and boil its flesh in the holy place.
32“Then Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
33“They shall eat those things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but an outsider shall not eat them, because they are holy.
34“And if any of the flesh of the consecration offerings, or of the bread, remains until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy.
35“Thus you shall do to Aaron and his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Seven days you shall consecrate them.
36“And you shall offer a bull every day as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to sanctify it.
37“Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and sanctify it. And the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar must be holy.
The Daily Offerings
39“One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight.
40“With the one lamb shall be one-tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of pressed oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering.
41“And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; and you shall offer with it the grain offering and the drink offering, as in the morning, for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
42“This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you.
43“And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory.
44“So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to Me as priests.
45“I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God.
46“And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.
The Altar of Incense
2“A cubit shall be its length and a cubit its width—it shall be square—and two cubits shall be its height. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.
3“And you shall overlay its top, its sides all around, and its horns with pure gold; and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around.
4“Two gold rings you shall make for it, under the molding on both its sides. You shall place them on its two sides, and they will be holders for the poles with which to bear it.
5“You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
8“And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.
9“You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering; nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.
10“And Aaron shall make atonement upon its horns once a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonement; once a year he shall make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the LORD.”
The Ransom Money
11Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
12“When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the LORD, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them.
13“This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the LORD.
14“Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the LORD.
15“The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves.
16“And you shall take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of meeting, that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for yourselves.”
The Bronze Laver
18“You shall also make a laver of bronze, with its base also of bronze, for washing. You shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. And you shall put water in it,
19“for Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in water from it.
20“When they go into the tabernacle of meeting, or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD, they shall wash with water, lest they die.
21“So they shall wash their hands and their feet, lest they die. And it shall be a statute forever to them—to him and his descendants throughout their generations.”
The Holy Anointing Oil
22Moreover the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
23“Also take for yourself quality spices—five hundred shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much sweet-smelling cinnamon (two hundred and fifty shekels), two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet-smelling cane,
24“five hundred shekels of cassia, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil.
25“And you shall make from these a holy anointing oil, an ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer. It shall be a holy anointing oil.
26“With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting and the ark of the Testimony;
27“the table and all its utensils, the lampstand and its utensils, and the altar of incense;
28“the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base.
29“You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy.
30“And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests.
31“And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil to Me throughout your generations.
32‘It shall not be poured on man’s flesh; nor shall you make any other like it, according to its composition. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you.
33‘Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people.’ ”
The Incense
34And the LORD said to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each.
35“You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.
36“And you shall beat some of it very fine, and put some of it before the Testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.
37“But as for the incense which you shall make, you shall not make any for yourselves, according to its composition. It shall be to you holy for the LORD.
38“Whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he shall be cut off from his people.”
Artisans for Building the Tabernacle
2“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
3“And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
4“to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze,
5“in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship.
6“And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
7“the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle—
8“the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense,
9“the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base—
10“the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests,
11“and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”
The Sabbath Law
13“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD 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 on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
15‘Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
16‘Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
17‘It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’ ”
18And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
The Gold Calf
2And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
4And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
5So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD.”
6Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
8“They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ ”
10“Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
11Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: “LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12“Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, ‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to 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 descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
14So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.
15And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.
16Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
17And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
18But he said:
“It is not the noise of the shout of victory,
Nor the noise of the cry of defeat,
But the sound of singing I hear.”
20Then he took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.
21And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought so great a sin upon them?”
22So Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord become hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
23“For they said to me, ‘Make us gods that shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
24“And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.”
25Now when Moses saw that the people were unrestrained (for Aaron had not restrained them, to their shame among their enemies),
26then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the LORD’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.
27And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Let every man put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp, and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’ ”
28So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
29Then Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, that He may bestow on you a blessing this day, for every man has opposed his son and his brother.”
30Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. So now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
31Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!
32“Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”
33And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.
34“Now therefore, 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 visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin.”
35So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.
The Command to Leave Sinai
2“And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
3“Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
4And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.
5For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ”
6So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
Moses Meets with the LORD
7Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the LORD went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp.
8So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
9And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
10All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door.
11So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
The Promise of God’s Presence
13“Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
14And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
16“For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
17So the LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
19Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
20But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”
21And the LORD said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock.
22“So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.
23“Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
Moses Makes New Tablets
2“So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain.
3“And no man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let neither flocks nor herds feed before that mountain.”
4So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him; and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.
6And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
7“keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
8So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.
9Then he said, “If now I have found grace in Your sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray, go among us, even though we are a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”
The Covenant Renewed
10And He said: “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD. For it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
11“Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I am driving out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.
12“Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst.
13“But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images
14“(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
15“lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice,
16“and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.
17“You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.
18“The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
19“All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep.
20“But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.
21“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
22“And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.
23“Three times in the year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.
24“For I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither will any man covet your land when you go up to appear before the LORD your God three times in the year.
25“You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, nor shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until morning.
26“The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”
28So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
The Shining Face of Moses
30So 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.
31Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them.
32Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the LORD had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.
33And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.
34But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded.
35And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.
Sabbath Regulations
1Then Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said to them, “These are the words which the LORD has commanded you to do:
2“Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
3“You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”
Offerings for the Tabernacle
5‘Take from among you an offering to the LORD. Whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as an offering to the LORD: gold, silver, and bronze;
6‘blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair;
7‘ram skins dyed red, badger skins, and acacia wood;
8‘oil for the light, and spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense;
9‘onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate.
Articles of the Tabernacle
10‘All who are gifted artisans among you shall come and make all that the LORD has commanded:
11‘the tabernacle, its tent, its covering, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;
12‘the ark and its poles, with the mercy seat, and the veil of the covering;
13‘the table and its poles, all its utensils, and the showbread;
14‘also the lampstand for the light, its utensils, its lamps, and the oil for the light;
15‘the incense altar, its poles, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, and the screen for the door at the entrance of the tabernacle;
16‘the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles, all its utensils, and the laver and its base;
17‘the hangings of the court, its pillars, their sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court;
18‘the pegs of the tabernacle, the pegs of the court, and their cords;
19‘the garments of ministry, for ministering in the holy place—the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.’ ”
The Tabernacle Offerings Presented
21Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments.
22They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart, and brought earrings and nose rings, rings and necklaces, all jewelry of gold, that is, every man who made an offering of gold to the LORD.
23And every man, with whom was found blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair, red skins of rams, and badger skins, brought them.
24Everyone who offered an offering of silver or bronze brought the LORD’s offering. And everyone with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service, brought it.
25All the women who were gifted artisans spun yarn with their hands, and brought what they had spun, of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.
26And all the women whose hearts stirred with wisdom spun yarn of goats’ hair.
27The rulers brought onyx stones, and the stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate,
28and spices and oil for the light, for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
29The children of Israel brought a freewill offering to the LORD, all the men and women whose hearts were willing to bring material for all kinds of work which the LORD, by the hand of Moses, had commanded to be done.
The Artisans Called by God
30And Moses said to the children of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;
31“and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship,
32“to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze,
33“in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship.
34“And He has put in his heart the ability to teach, in him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
35“He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver—those who do every work and those who design artistic works.
The People Give More than Enough
2Then Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred, to come and do the work.
3And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary. So they continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning.
4Then all the craftsmen who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work he was doing,
5and they spoke to Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the LORD commanded us to do.”
6So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” And the people were restrained from bringing,
7for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done—indeed too much.
Building the Tabernacle
9The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; the curtains were all the same size.
10And he coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another.
11He made loops of blue yarn on the edge of the curtain on the selvedge of one set; likewise he did on the outer edge of the other curtain of the second set.
12Fifty loops he made on one curtain, and fifty loops he made on the edge of the curtain on the end of the second set; the loops held one curtain to another.
13And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains to one another with the clasps, that it might be one tabernacle.
14He made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains.
15The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; the eleven curtains were the same size.
16He coupled five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves.
17And he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that is outermost in one set, and fifty loops he made on the edge of the curtain of the second set.
18He also made fifty bronze clasps to couple the tent together, that it might be one.
19Then he made a covering for the tent of ram skins dyed red, and a covering of badger skins above that.
20For the tabernacle he made boards of acacia wood, standing upright.
21The length of each board was ten cubits, and the width of each board a cubit and a half.
22Each board had two tenons for binding one to another. Thus he made for all the boards of the tabernacle.
23And he made boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side.
24Forty sockets of silver he made to go under the twenty boards: two sockets under each of the boards for its two tenons.
25And for the other side of the tabernacle, the north side, he made twenty boards
26and their forty sockets of silver: two sockets under each of the boards.
27For the west side of the tabernacle he made six boards.
28He also made two boards for the two back corners of the tabernacle.
29And they were coupled at the bottom and coupled together at the top by one ring. Thus he made both of them for the two corners.
30So there were eight boards and their sockets—sixteen sockets of silver—two sockets under each of the boards.
31And he made bars of acacia wood: five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle,
32five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle on the far side westward.
33And he made the middle bar to pass through the boards from one end to the other.
34He overlaid the boards with gold, made their rings of gold to be holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.
35And he made a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen; it was worked with an artistic design of cherubim.
36He made for it four pillars of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold, with their hooks of gold; and he cast four sockets of silver for them.
37He also made a screen for the tabernacle door, of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, made by a weaver,
38and its five pillars with their hooks. And he overlaid their capitals and their rings with gold, but their five sockets were bronze.
Making the Ark of the Testimony
2He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold all around it.
3And he cast for it four rings of gold to be set in its four corners: two rings on one side, and two rings on the other side of it.
4He made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
5And he put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark, to bear the ark.
6He also made the mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits was its length and a cubit and a half its width.
7He made two cherubim of beaten gold; he made them of one piece at the two ends of the mercy seat:
8one cherub at one end on this side, and the other cherub at the other end on that side. He made the cherubim at the two ends of one piece with the mercy seat.
9The cherubim spread out their wings above, and covered the mercy seat with their wings. They faced one another; the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.
Making the Table for the Showbread
10He made the table of acacia wood; two cubits was its length, a cubit its width, and a cubit and a half its height.
11And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold all around it.
12Also he made a frame of a handbreadth all around it, and made a molding of gold for the frame all around it.
13And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings on the four corners that were at its four legs.
14The rings were close to the frame, as holders for the poles to bear the table.
15And he made the poles of acacia wood to bear the table, and overlaid them with gold.
16He made of pure gold the utensils which were on the table: its dishes, its cups, its bowls, and its pitchers for pouring.
Making the Gold Lampstand
18And six branches came out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side.
19There were three bowls made like almond blossoms on one branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower, and three bowls made like almond blossoms on the other branch, with an ornamental knob and a flower—and so for the six branches coming out of the lampstand.
20And on the lampstand itself were four bowls made like almond blossoms, each with its ornamental knob and flower.
21There was a knob under the first two branches of the same, a knob under the second two branches of the same, and a knob under the third two branches of the same, according to the six branches extending from it.
22Their knobs and their branches were of one piece; all of it was one hammered piece of pure gold.
23And he made its seven lamps, its wick-trimmers, and its trays of pure gold.
24Of a talent of pure gold he made it, with all its utensils.
Making the Altar of Incense
26And he overlaid it with pure gold: its top, its sides all around, and its horns. He also made for it a molding of gold all around it.
27He made two rings of gold for it under its molding, by its two corners on both sides, as holders for the poles with which to bear it.
28And he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.
Making the Anointing Oil and the Incense
29He also made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the perfumer.
Making the Altar of Burnt Offering
2He made its horns on its four corners; the horns were of one piece with it. And he overlaid it with bronze.
3He made all the utensils for the altar: the pans, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the firepans; all its utensils he made of bronze.
4And he made a grate of bronze network for the altar, under its rim, midway from the bottom.
5He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating, as holders for the poles.
6And he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with bronze.
7Then he put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, with which to bear it. He made the altar hollow with boards.
Making the Bronze Laver
8He made the laver of bronze and its base of bronze, from the bronze mirrors of the serving women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Making the Court of the Tabernacle
9Then he made the court on the south side; the hangings of the court were of fine woven linen, one hundred cubits long.
10There were twenty pillars for them, with twenty bronze sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver.
11On the north side the hangings were one hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars and their twenty bronze sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver.
12And on the west side there were hangings of fifty cubits, with ten pillars and their ten sockets. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver.
13For the east side the hangings were fifty cubits.
14The hangings of one side of the gate were fifteen cubits long, with their three pillars and their three sockets,
15and the same for the other side of the court gate; on this side and that were hangings of fifteen cubits, with their three pillars and their three sockets.
16All the hangings of the court all around were of fine woven linen.
17The sockets for the pillars were bronze, the hooks of the pillars and their bands were silver, and the overlay of their capitals was silver; and all the pillars of the court had bands of silver.
18The screen for the gate of the court was woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and of fine woven linen. The length was twenty cubits, and the height along its width was five cubits, corresponding to the hangings of the court.
19And there were four pillars with their four sockets of bronze; their hooks were silver, and the overlay of their capitals and their bands was silver.
20All the pegs of the tabernacle, and of the court all around, were bronze.
Materials of the Tabernacle
21This is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, which was counted according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.
22Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD had commanded Moses.
23And with him was Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer, a weaver of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and of fine linen.
24All the gold that was used in all the work of the holy place, that is, the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.
25And the silver from those who were numbered of the congregation was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary:
26a bekah for each man (that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone included in the numbering from twenty years old and above, for six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men.
27And from the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil: one hundred sockets from the hundred talents, one talent for each socket.
28Then from the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals, and made bands for them.
29The offering of bronze was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels.
30And with it he made the sockets for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils for the altar,
31the sockets for the court all around, the bases for the court gate, all the pegs for the tabernacle, and all the pegs for the court all around.
Making the Garments of the Priesthood
Making the Ephod
3And they beat the gold into thin sheets and cut it into threads, to work it in with the blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine linen, into artistic designs.
4They made shoulder straps for it to couple it together; it was coupled together at its two edges.
5And the intricately woven band of his ephod that was on it was of the same workmanship, woven of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and of fine woven linen, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
6And they set onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold; they were engraved, as signets are engraved, with the names of the sons of Israel.
7He put them on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Making the Breastplate
8And he made the breastplate, artistically woven like the workmanship of the ephod, of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and of fine woven linen.
9They made the breastplate square by doubling it; a span was its length and a span its width when doubled.
10And they set in it four rows of stones: a row with a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald was the first row;
11the second row, a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond;
12the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst;
13the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold in their mountings.
14There were twelve stones according to the names of the sons of Israel: according to their names, engraved like a signet, each one with its own name according to the twelve tribes.
15And they made chains for the breastplate at the ends, like braided cords of pure gold.
16They also made two settings of gold and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
17And they put the two braided chains of gold in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate.
18The two ends of the two braided chains they fastened in the two settings, and put them on the shoulder straps of the ephod in the front.
19And they made two rings of gold and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on the edge of it, which was on the inward side of the ephod.
20They made two other gold rings and put them on the two shoulder straps, underneath the ephod toward its front, right at the seam above the intricately woven band of the ephod.
Making the Other Priestly Garments
22He made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.
23And there was an opening in the middle of the robe, like the opening in a coat of mail, with a woven binding all around the opening, so that it would not tear.
24They made on the hem of the robe pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, and of fine woven linen.
25And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates on the hem of the robe all around between the pomegranates:
26a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe to minister in, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
27They made tunics, artistically woven of fine linen, for Aaron and his sons,
28a turban of fine linen, exquisite hats of fine linen, short trousers of fine woven linen,
29and a sash of fine woven linen with blue, purple, and scarlet thread, made by a weaver, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
30Then they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription like the engraving of a signet:
HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
31And they tied to it a blue cord, to fasten it above on the turban, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
The Work Completed
32Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished. And the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses; so they did.
33And they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its furnishings: its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;
34the covering of ram skins dyed red, the covering of badger skins, and the veil of the covering;
35the ark of the Testimony with its poles, and the mercy seat;
36the table, all its utensils, and the showbread;
37the pure gold lampstand with its lamps (the lamps set in order), all its utensils, and the oil for light;
38the gold altar, the anointing oil, and the sweet incense; the screen for the tabernacle door;
39the bronze altar, its grate of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils; the laver with its base;
40the hangings of the court, its pillars and its sockets, the screen for the court gate, its cords, and its pegs; all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting;
41and the garments of ministry, to minister in the holy place: the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons’ garments, to minister as priests.
42According to all that the LORD had commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did all the work.
43Then Moses looked over all the work, and indeed they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, just so they had done it. And Moses blessed them.
The Tabernacle Erected and Arranged
2“On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.
3“You shall put in it the ark of the Testimony, and partition off the ark with the veil.
4“You shall bring in the table and arrange the things that are to be set in order on it; and you shall bring in the lampstand and light its lamps.
5“You shall also set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the Testimony, and put up the screen for the door of the tabernacle.
6“Then you shall set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting.
7“And you shall set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and put water in it.
8“You shall set up the court all around, and hang up the screen at the court gate.
9“And you shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it; and you shall hallow it and all its utensils, and it shall be holy.
10“You shall anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar. The altar shall be most holy.
11“And you shall anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it.
12“Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and wash them with water.
13“You shall put the holy garments on Aaron, and anoint him and consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest.
14“And you shall bring his sons and clothe them with tunics.
15“You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to Me as priests; for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.”
17And it came to pass in the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was raised up.
18So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
19And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
20He took the Testimony and put it into the ark, inserted the poles through the rings of the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.
21And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, hung up the veil of the covering, and partitioned off the ark of the Testimony, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
22He put the table in the tabernacle of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil;
23and he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
24He put the lampstand in the tabernacle of meeting, across from the table, on the south side of the tabernacle;
25and he lit the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
26He put the gold altar in the tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil;
27and he burned sweet incense on it, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
28He hung up the screen at the door of the tabernacle.
29And he put the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
30He set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and put water there for washing;
31and Moses, Aaron, and his sons would wash their hands and their feet with water from it.
32Whenever they went into the tabernacle of meeting, and when they came near the altar, they washed, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
33And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
The Cloud and the Glory
35And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
36Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys.
37But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up.
38For the cloud of the LORD was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
Annotations for Exodus
The Jewish rabbis call Exodus “the Book of Names” (or “These Are the Names”) because it opens with a list of the names of the sons of Jacob (Israel) who brought their families to Egypt to escape the famine in Canaan (). God used Israel’s experiences in Egypt to prepare them for the special tasks He gave them to accomplish on earth: bearing witness to the true and living God, writing the Holy Scriptures, and bringing the Savior into the world.
No people in recorded history have suffered as the Hebrew people have suffered, but every nation or ruler that has persecuted the Jews has been punished for it. After all, God’s promise to Abraham was, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” ().
God kept that promise in the way He dealt with Egypt and Babylon in ancient days and Stalin and Hitler in modern times. God is longsuffering as He sees nations persecute His chosen people, but eventually His hand of judgment falls on the oppressors.
This is the first instance in Scripture of what today we call “civil disobedience,” refusing to obey an evil law because of a higher good. Scriptures like ; ; and admonish Christians to obey human authorities, but reminds us that our obedience must not violate our conscience. When the laws of God are contrary to the laws of man, then “we ought to obey God rather than men” ().
Were the midwives lying to Pharaoh? Probably not. The babies were born before the midwives arrived because Shiphrah and Puah had told their assistants to be late! God blessed the two leading midwives for putting their own lives on the line in order to save the Israelite nation from extinction.
God honored these two women in a strange way: He gave them children at a time when it was dangerous to have children! Perhaps all their children were daughters, or perhaps God protected their sons as He protected Moses. This blessing from God shows how precious children are to the Lord: He wanted to give these two women His very best reward, so He sent them children ().
From the very first, Moses was seen to be “well pleasing to God” (; see ), and it was evident that God had a special purpose for him. Believing this to be true, the parents defied Pharaoh’s edict and kept their son alive. This wasn’t easy to do since all the Egyptians were now Pharaoh’s official spies, watching for babies to be drowned ().
God used a baby’s tears to control the heart of a powerful princess, and He used Miriam’s words to arrange for the baby’s mother to raise the boy and get paid for it! The phrase “as weak as a baby” doesn’t apply in the kingdom of God, for when the Lord wants to accomplish a mighty work, He often starts by sending a baby. This was true when He sent Isaac, Joseph, Samuel, John the Baptist, and especially Jesus. God can use the weakest things to defeat the mightiest enemies (). A baby’s tears were God’s first weapons in His war against Egypt.
In the Egyptian language, Moses means “born” or “son” and sounds like a Hebrew word that means “to draw out” (of the water). Years later, his name would remind Moses of the God who rescued him and did great things for him in Egypt. On more than one occasion, Moses would rescue his people because he trusted the Lord.
Moses spent his first forty years () serving in the Egyptian bureaucracy. (Some students think he was being groomed to be the next pharaoh.) Egypt seems the least likely place for God to start training a leader, but God’s ways are not our ways.
It’s possible that the Egyptian officer wasn’t just disciplining the Israelite slave but was beating him to death, because the Hebrew word can mean that, so when Moses interfered, he was probably saving a man’s life. And, if the Egyptian officer turned on Moses, which is likely, then Moses was also defending his own life.
But if Moses was planning to free the Hebrews by killing the Egyptians one by one, he was in for a shock. The next day he discovered that the Egyptians were only part of the problem because the Israelites couldn’t even get along with each other! When he tried to reconcile the two Israelites, they rejected his help!
These two incidents reveal Moses as a compassionate man who was sincere in his motives but impetuous in his actions. Knowing this, you would never suspect that later he would be called “very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (). Moses’ failure to help free the Israelites must have devastated him. That’s why God took him to Midian and made him a shepherd for forty years. He had to learn that deliverance would come from God’s hand, not Moses’ hand (; ).
The man who was “mighty in words and deeds” is now in the lonely pastures taking care of stubborn sheep, but that was just the kind of preparation he needed for leading a nation of stubborn people. Israel was God’s special flock () and Moses his chosen shepherd. Like Joseph’s thirteen years as a slave in Egypt and Paul’s three years’ hiatus after his conversion (, ), Moses’ forty years of waiting and working prepared him for a lifetime of faithful ministry. God doesn’t lay hands suddenly on His servants but takes time to equip them for their work.
God’s delays aren’t evidence of unconcern, for He hears our groans, sees our plight, feels our sorrows, and remembers His covenant. What He has promised He will perform, for He never breaks His covenant with His people. When the right time comes, God immediately goes to work.
Moses spent forty years serving as a shepherd in Midian (; ), and during those many days and nights in the field, he no doubt meditated on the things of God and prayed for his people who were suffering in Egypt.
, God can take an insignificant bush, ignite it, and turn it into a miracle, and that’s what He wanted to do with Moses. Some see in the burning bush a picture of the nation of Israel: They are God’s light in the world, persecuted but not consumed. But the burning bush was also a picture of what God had planned for Moses: He was the weak bush but God was the empowering fire (; ; ; ; ), and with God’s help, Moses could accomplish anything. The size of the task anyone faces isn’t nearly as significant as that person’s reliance on God for help. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul summarized a lesson Moses learned over the next forty years, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” ().
God spoke to Moses and assured him that He was the God of his fathers and that He felt the suffering of the Israelites in Egypt. He was now ready to deliver them out of Egypt and lead them into the Promised Land, and Moses would be His chosen leader. God’s statement “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh” must have astonished Moses. Why would God choose a failure?
Moses should have rejoiced because God was at last answering prayer, and he should have submitted to God’s will saying, “Here I am! Send me!” But instead, he argued with the Lord and tried to escape the divine call to rescue Israel from slavery.
What Moses thought of himself, or what others thought of Moses, really wasn’t important. God had spoken and that was all Moses needed for assurance that he was the right man for the job. Had forty years of shepherding so extinguished the fire in his soul that he didn’t think he could serve the Lord? Why was he looking at himself instead of looking by faith to the Lord? “I will certainly be with you” (v. ) is all the assurance God’s servants need in order to succeed (; ; ).
, As His representative, Moses had to be able to disclose God’s character to the Israelite people. Of course, God’s name “Jehovah” had been known centuries ago () and was familiar to the patriarchs (; ; , ; ; ).
What Moses asked was, “What does Your name mean? What kind of a God are You?” God explained that the name Jehovah is a dynamic name, based on the Hebrew verb “to be” or “to become.” He is the self-existent One who always was, always is, and always will be, the faithful and dependable God who calls Himself “I Am.” Centuries later, Jesus would take the name “I Am” and complete it: “I am the bread of life” (), “I am the light of the world” (), “I am the true vine” (), and so on.
“What if they won’t believe” really means “I do not believe.” Moses was concerned about his credentials before the elders, so God gave him three signs to convince the elders that he was truly God’s chosen servant. The apostle Paul alluded to this proof tendency when he wrote, “Jews request a sign” (). From now on, Moses would experience God’s power and work miracles.
Moses completely missed the message of God’s name and miraculous power. “I Am” is all that we need in every circumstance of life, and it’s foolish for us to argue, “I am not.” If God can turn a staff into a snake and a snake into a staff, if He can cause and cure leprosy, and if He can turn water into blood, then He can enable Moses to speak His Word with power. Moses was making the mistake of looking at himself instead of looking to God (). The God who made us is able to use the gifts and abilities He has given us to accomplish the tasks He assigns to us.
Was Moses manifesting an attitude of pride or true humility? Forty years before, he felt perfectly adequate to face the enemy and act on behalf of his people, but now he’s backing off and professing himself to be a worthless failure. But humility isn’t thinking poorly of ourselves; it’s simply not thinking of ourselves at all but making God everything. The humble servant thinks only of God’s will and God’s glory, not his or her own inadequacy, success, or failure. Moses was clothing his pride and unbelief in a hollow confession of weakness.
“Lord, please, send anybody else!” was Moses’ final plea. Moses calls Him “Lord” and yet was refusing to obey His orders (; ). Most of us understand that attitude because we’ve made the same mistake. We regularly resist, ignore, or deflect God’s commands—just as Moses did. We need to remember that if God isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.
God knows us better than we know ourselves, so we must trust Him and obey what He tells us to do. When we tell God our weaknesses, we aren’t sharing anything He doesn’t already know (; ; ). The will of God will never lead you where the power of God can’t enable you, so walk by faith in His promises.
God appointed Aaron to be the spokesperson for Moses, but Aaron wasn’t always a help to his brother. It was Aaron who cooperated with the people in making the gold calf (ch. ), and Aaron and his sister Miriam were critical of Moses and his wife and brought trouble to the camp (). One of the most painful judgments God can send is to let His people have their own way. Moses got a concession from God and had to live with the consequences.
Subsequent events proved that Moses was very capable of speaking God’s words with mighty power, both to his own people and to the king of Egypt. As the history of Israel unfolds, you find Moses delivering some eloquent messages in the power of the Lord. The Book of Deuteronomy records his magnificent farewell speech.
, As Moses stepped out by faith, God spoke to him and encouraged him. God told Moses not to be afraid to return to Egypt because his enemies were dead. Then He assured Moses that he would enable him to do the miraculous signs but that Pharaoh would only harden his heart and thereby invite more judgments from the Lord. Before Moses even arrived in Egypt, he knew he had a battle on his hands. It wouldn’t be easy to convince Pharaoh to let his Israelite slaves go free.
Moses had expressed fear that the Israelite elders wouldn’t believe his message or accept his leadership, but they did, and so did the rest of the nation when they saw the demonstration of God’s power in the signs. On hearing that God was concerned for them and was about to rescue them, they bowed in grateful worship. Worship is the logical response of God’s people to God’s grace and goodness.
Moses and Aaron made a simple request of Pharaoh. They wanted permission to take the Israelite people on a three-days’ journey into the desert to a place where they could worship the Lord. Six days of travel and one day of worship would add up to a week away from their work, but Moses said nothing about how long they would be gone or when they would return. This omission made Pharaoh suspicious, and he wondered if the purpose of their journey was escape rather than worship.
Moses was telling Pharaoh that the God of the Hebrews was a powerful God who could kill the Egyptians as well as the Israelites. Pharaoh needed to understand that the demands Moses and Aaron were making were not to be taken lightly, for this was a matter of life and death.
Instead of going to Pharaoh to complain, the foremen should have gone to Moses and Aaron and suggested that they summon the elders and have a prayer meeting. They should have reminded themselves of the promises God had given Israel and claimed them by faith. What a difference that would have made for them and for their leaders! Alas, during the next forty years, complaining about God’s will and criticizing God’s leaders would be characteristic of the people of Israel, but are God’s people much different today?
, Faced with fierce, unexpected anger, Moses did what all spiritual leaders must do when the going is tough: He took his burden to the Lord and honestly talked to Him about the situation. It’s easy to see that Moses was disappointed and distressed. He blamed God for the way Pharaoh was mistreating the Israelites, and he accused Him of doing nothing. “Why did You send me?” he asked. In other words, “Are You going to keep Your promises to me or not?”
God’s chosen servants must expect opposition and misunderstanding, because that’s part of what it means to be a leader; and leaders must know how to get alone with God, pour out their hearts, and seek His strength and wisdom. Spiritual leaders must be bold before people but broken before God (see ) and must claim God’s promises and do His will even when everything seems to be against them.
Four times in this speech, God reminded Moses, “I am the LORD” (vv. , , , ) and used His covenant name; and seven times, God said, “I will.” When we know that God is in control and we claim His promises, then we can experience peace and courage in the battles of life. God promised to bring Israel out of Egypt, free them from bondage, and take them into their Promised Land. At the heart of the seven “I will” promises is “I will take you as My people” (v. ), which is the basis for all that God did for the Israelites.
Catalyst
How did the Lord encourage His struggling servant? First, God spoke to him and gave him great promises (). Today we have the written Word of God, but it’s likely that Moses heard God speak in an audible voice (; ).
Second, God also reminded Moses of His covenant name “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” (). One way to get to know God better is to pay attention to His names. Jehovah is the special name of God that links Him with Israel and His covenants, and it is so sacred to Jews even today that they will not speak it when they read the Scriptures in the synagogue. Instead, they substitute “Adonai” (Master) or simply say “the Name.”
Third, the Lord assured Moses that He felt the burdens of His people and was working on their behalf (; see ). Everything was working according to His plan, and nothing God had planned would fail. Whenever we feel the Lord has abandoned us and doesn’t really care, we need to remember His assuring words, “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” ().
Fourth, the Lord commanded Moses to speak to Pharaoh again (). Moses reached the depths of discouragement when the elders wouldn’t even listen to him. They had forgotten the signs and promises that Moses and Aaron had given them (). Moses and the elders had given up, but God hadn’t given up on Moses. In times of despair, it’s best to ignore our feelings and simply do what God tells us to do, leaving the consequences with Him.
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The people were so discouraged that they refused to listen to Moses. Moses, in turn, felt discouraged by their lack of response. Yet God persisted in commanding Moses to return to Pharaoh. The challenge of obedience to God sometimes has to be met beyond how we feel. Mature faith doesn’t rely on feelings as a motivation.
This genealogy isn’t here by accident, for it’s the Lord’s way of reminding us, the readers, that God had prepared Moses and Aaron for their ministry in Egypt. Their arrival in Jacob’s family was part of His providential working. God’s calling means God’s enabling, and what He begins He always completes (; ).
God was hardening Pharaoh’s heart (; ; ; , , ; ; , , ). Does this mean that God was unfair and that Pharaoh shouldn’t be held responsible for what he did? No, for the same sun that melts the ice also hardens the clay. It all depends on the nature of the material. To the very end of the contest (.), Pharaoh was a proud, unrepentant sinner who refused to hear God’s Word, do God’s will, or even keep his own promises to the Israelite people. The Lord gave him more than enough evidence to convince him that the gods of Egypt were false and the God of the Hebrews was the true and living God.
Before we study this remarkable series of miracles, we must focus on the reasons why the Lord took this approach in dealing with Pharaoh and sent these sign judgments to the land of Egypt. The ultimate purpose, of course, was to bring Pharaoh and the Egyptians to their knees so they would be willing for the Israelites to leave the land. But at the same time, the Lord was revealing Himself to both the Israelites and the Egyptians and proving that He alone is God.
But the people of Israel also needed to learn this lesson. According to , some of the Israelites had begun to worship the Egyptian gods, and when they were delivered from Egypt, they took their gods with them! Did they compromise their faith in an attempt to please their captors and receive better treatment? But how could they forsake Jehovah after seeing all the demonstrations of His power? “Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies” ().
, The miracles and plagues were also God’s way of judging the gods of Egypt and proving them false and futile. “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (; and see and ). More than eighty different deities were worshiped in Egypt, but they could do nothing to deliver the land and the people from the terrible judgments Jehovah sent. If nothing else, the Egyptians learned that Jehovah was the true and living God. The fact that the magicians were able to duplicate Moses’ signs at first gave them a dangerous feeling of security. Eventually, they would be helpless before God.
The three sign miracles—the staff turned into a serpent, the water turned to blood, and the invasion of the frogs—have in common the fact that all of them were duplicated by Pharaoh’s court magicians. Perhaps “counterfeited” is a more accurate word, because what they did was more likely deceptive sleight of hand. The apostle Paul used these Egyptian magicians to teach an important truth: In the last days, Satan will attack God’s truth and God’s people by imitating the works of God (). Jesus teaches (, ) that Satan is a counterfeiter who “plants” imitation Christians in this world. Paul called them “false brethren” (). Satan has an imitation gospel (), a counterfeit righteousness (), and even counterfeit ministers who spread his lies (). Satan will one day produce a false Christ who will deceive the whole world ().
The longer Pharaoh resisted God, the more serious the judgments became. The first three plagues were distressful (water to blood, frogs, lice); the second three were painful and costly (flies, death of the livestock, boils); and the last four were dangerous and destructive (hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn). The longer sinners resist God’s will and refuse to hear His Word, the “louder” He has to speak to them through His judgments.
Moses and Aaron kept their promise, and so did the Lord, but Pharaoh refused to keep his word and let the people go. He really wasn’t interested in helping the Israelites; he only wanted to get relief from the awful plague of frogs. Many sinners aren’t interested in repenting and receiving God’s grace; they want only to be delivered from God’s judgment. However, this was only a temporary respite; the greatest judgments were yet to come.
At times, people who are in trouble in one way or another will beg and pray that the Lord would deliver them. They make all kinds of promises to the Lord, telling Him what they’ll do if He will help them. But when He does graciously help them, they forget their promises and even forget the Lord. They are quite unlike the psalmist, who writes: “I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble” (, ).
Pharaoh began to harden his heart when Moses and Aaron performed the first miraculous sign before him, just as God said he would do (, , ). This hardening continued throughout the entire series of plagues (; , , ; ).
What does it mean to harden your heart? It means to see clear evidence of the hand of God at work and still refuse to accept His Word and submit to His will. It means to resist Him by showing ingratitude and disobedience and not to have any fear of the Lord or of His judgments. Hardhearted people say with Pharaoh, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice?” ().
The defeated magicians saw “the finger of God” in this miracle when it was actually God’s “strong hand” () and “outstretched arm” (). In Scripture, the “finger of God” is also associated with the giving of the law (; ), the creation of the heavens (), and the casting out of demons (). All of these are demonstrations of God’s authority and power. But God wasn’t through speaking to Pharaoh or judging the gods of Egypt. Jehovah had seven more plagues to send, and when they were finished, the nation of Egypt would be bankrupt. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” ().
, God declared all-out war on both the ruler of Egypt and the gods of Egypt. The Lord sent six painful and destructive plagues to the land, and then a seventh plague which brought the death of every firstborn son. As you study Pharaoh’s responses to these plagues, you see the moral and spiritual deterioration of a man who wouldn’t submit to God and paid a terrible price for his rebellion.
God was dealing with Pharaoh in mercy, wanting to bring him into submission, for it is only when we obey God that we can truly enjoy His blessings. With one blow, God could have wiped out Pharaoh and the nation (), but He chose to give them opportunity to repent.
God warned Pharaoh what was coming but, of course, he refused to believe the Word of God and persisted in his disobedience. The fact that each plague occurred just as God described it, at the time announced, should have convinced Pharaoh and his officers that the God of Israel was in control of these spectacular events.
The Lord added a new feature to this plague by announcing that the Israelites in the land of Goshen would escape the plague completely. Only the great God of Israel could control the flight pattern of tiny flies and keep them from entering the land of Goshen.
Just as God promised, the next day great swarms of flies invaded the land, entering the homes of the people and even the palace of the king. Some students think that the fly was especially sacred to the Egyptian god Uatchit, so the plague was also God’s way of dishonoring another one of the false gods of Egypt.
, God’s people today make similar “Egyptian compromises” as we seek to serve the Lord. The enemy tells us we don’t have to be separated from sin because we can serve God “in the land.” God’s reply is found in . “Don’t go too far away,” the enemy whispers, “or people will call you a fanatic.” and demolish that proposal. True service to God means giving Him authority over all our possessions and all the people in our family for whom we are responsible. Not to do so is to disobey ; ; and . Once we start to negotiate the will of God and see how close we can get to the world, we have already disobeyed Him in our hearts.
As you study the account of the plagues of Egypt, keep in mind the purposes God was fulfilling through these momentous events. First of all, he was manifesting His power to Pharaoh and his officials and proving to them that He alone is the true and living God. At the same time, the Lord was exposing the futility of the Egyptian religion and the vanity of the many gods they worshiped, including Pharaoh himself. All that God did to Egypt was a reminder to His people that their God was fighting for them and they didn’t have to worry or be afraid.
The nation of Egypt was being devastated and the people were in great pain, but Pharaoh would not yield. He continued resisting the Lord and His servants, and each act of disobedience only hardened his heart more. “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (). For Pharaoh, the worst was yet to come.
It didn’t look like Moses was achieving his purpose, for each new plague only made the situation worse. But God was in control and He knew what He was doing. The Lord always has a new word for His servants; all they have to do is listen, believe, and obey.
, Moses reminded the king of the Lord’s mercy: “Now if I had stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been cut off from the earth.” Simply by speaking the word, God could have wiped out the entire Egyptian nation, but God in His mercy doesn’t give sinners all that they deserve. How grateful Pharaoh should have been, and yet he continued to resist the Lord.
Moses also reminded Pharaoh of God’s sovereign grace (v. ), a lesson more than one dictator has had to learn the hard way (; ). Apart from the sovereign will of God, Pharaoh would not have been the ruler of Egypt. Each time Pharaoh resisted God, the Lord used the situation to reveal His power and glorify His name. If Pharaoh exalted himself against God, then God exalted Himself through Pharaoh ().
, Seeing the devastation of his land, Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron, something he had done before () and would do again (). However, this time the proud king acknowledged the justice of God and admitted that he had sinned! (He would do that again; see .) However, his confession was insincere because it didn’t lead to obedience. Moses knew that the king didn’t really fear the Lord. All he and his officials wanted to do was stop the terrible hailstorm.
God in His grace answered Moses’ prayer and stopped the plague. Pharaoh in his duplicity reneged on his promise and wouldn’t let Israel go. When would he ever learn that you can’t fight against God and win?
, When God gave Moses the instructions for his next meeting with Pharaoh, He added another reason for the great display of His wonders in the plagues: that the Israelites might be able to tell the generations to come about the awesome power of their great God. This purpose was also written into the Passover feast (, ; , , ). Whether in the family or the local church, it’s good for each new generation to learn and appreciate the way God has worked on behalf of previous generations. Recalling and giving thanks for God’s wonderful deeds is one of the basic themes of the Book of Deuteronomy, including what the Lord did to Pharaoh (; , ; ; ).
, In his angry response, Pharaoh blasphemed the name of God. He said, “The LORD had better be with you when I let you and your little ones go!” The Living Bible paraphrases it, “In the name of God I will not let you take your little ones!” Pharaoh interpreted their request as an evil plot to secure their freedom from Egyptian bondage. If all the Israelite men left with their families and livestock, they’d never have to return!
The plague of locusts was the most devastating natural calamity to hit the land of Egypt in all of Egyptian history. In destroying the vegetation, God not only left the land bankrupt, but He triumphed over Osiris, the Egyptian god of fertility and crops. He also proved that He had control over the wind.
We don’t know how long it was after the locusts left Egypt that God sent the ninth plague, but the darkness over the land for three days proved that Jehovah was greater than Ra (or Re) and Horus, both of whom the Egyptians revered as sun gods.
, Pharaoh was a beaten man, but he wouldn’t admit it. Instead, he used his authority to try to intimidate Moses. He warned Moses that if he came back into the palace to see Pharaoh, he would be killed. There were to be no more official audiences with Pharaoh.
Before Moses left the throne room, he delivered God’s final warning about the last plague, the death of the firstborn (). There’s an unfortunate chapter division here, for it’s likely that Moses delivered his final speech between and , and then he left the throne room in great anger. Pharaoh had threatened to kill Moses, but God was going to slay every firstborn son in the land of Egypt and then drown Pharaoh’s best troops. In spite of what Pharaoh said about not seeing Moses, on Passover night, Pharaoh would once again call for Moses and plead for his help ().
The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is a warning to all of us. If the sinful human heart doesn’t respond by faith to God’s Word, it cannot be transformed by the grace of God (, ; ). Instead, it will become harder and harder the longer it resists God’s truth. No matter how often God may send affliction, it will only provoke more disobedience. In the last days, when God sends His terrible judgments on the world (), people will curse God and continue in their sins, but they will not repent (; , ; , ). There will be a whole world full of men and women like Pharaoh who will behold God’s judgments and still not repent. “As the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts’ ” (, ).
Moses told the Israelites that the time had come for them to collect their unpaid wages for all the work they and their ancestors had done as slaves in Egypt. The Hebrew word for “ask or request” is sometimes incorrectly translated “borrow” in this verse. The Israelites didn’t intend to return what the Egyptians gave them, for that wealth was payment for an outstanding debt that Egypt owed to Israel.
God had promised Abraham that his descendants would leave Egypt with great wealth (), and he repeated that promise to Moses (, ). God had given His servant Moses great respect among the Egyptians, and now He would give the Israelites great favor with the Egyptians, who would freely give their wealth to them (, ).
Two questions must be addressed at this point: (1) Why did God slay only the firstborn? (2) Was He just in doing so, when Pharaoh was the true culprit? In answering the first question, we also help to answer the second.
In most cultures, firstborn sons are considered special, and in Egypt, they were considered sacred. We must remember that God calls Israel his firstborn son (; ; ). At the very beginning of their conflict, Moses warned Pharaoh that the way he treated God’s firstborn would determine how God treated Egypt’s firstborn (, ).
Compensation is a fundamental law of life (, ), and God isn’t unjust in permitting this law to operate in the world. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (). Only God knows the human heart and can dispense His justice perfectly. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” ().
Catalyst
When you read the Book of Genesis, you learn that God often rejected the firstborn son and chose the next son to carry on the family line and receive God’s special blessing. God chose Abel, and then Seth, but not Cain; He chose Shem, not Japheth; Isaac, not Ishmael; and Jacob, not Esau.
These choices not only magnify God’s sovereign grace, but they are a symbolic way of saying that it is not our first birth that makes us right with God. We must experience a second birth, a spiritual birth, before God can accept us (, ; )., because of our first birth, we inherit Adam’s sinful nature and are lost (, ), but when we experience a second birth through faith in Christ, we receive God’s divine nature and are accepted in Christ (; ; ).
God’s mercy should have brought Pharaoh to see his need for a second birth; instead, he repeatedly hardened his heart. Pharaoh’s officials humbled themselves before Moses (; ); why couldn’t Pharaoh follow their example? “Pride goes before destruction, and haughty spirit before a fall” ().
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Passover marked a new beginning for the Israelites and bound them together as a nation. When the Lord liberates you from bondage, it’s the dawning of a new day and the beginning of a new life. Whenever you meet the words “redeem” or “redemption” in the New Testament, they speak of freedom from slavery. (There were an estimated 60 million slaves in the Roman empire.) Jewish believers would immediately think of Passover and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb.
The Israelite nation in the Old Testament had two calendars: a civil calendar that began in our September–October, and a religious calendar that began in our March–April. New Year’s Day in the civil year (“Rosh Hashanah”—“beginning of the year”) fell in the seventh month of the religious calendar and ushered in the special events in the month of Tishri: the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of tabernacles. But Passover marked the beginning of the religious year, and at Passover the focus is on the lamb.
The lamb was chosen and examined (vv. ) on the tenth day of the month and carefully watched for four days to make sure it met the divine specifications. There is no question that Jesus met all the requirements to be our Lamb, for the Father said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” ().
On the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, the lamb was slain (vv. , , , , ) and its blood was applied to the sides and top of the doorframes of the houses in which the Israelite families lived. It wasn’t the life of the lamb that saved the people from judgment—it was the death of the lamb. “Without shedding of blood, there is no remission” (; ).
Some people who claim to admire the life and teachings of Jesus don’t want the cross of Jesus, yet it’s His death on the cross that paid the price of our redemption (; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ). Jesus was our substitute; He died our death for us and suffered the judgment of our sin (; ).
The lamb was roasted and eaten (see also v. ), and the eating was done in haste, each family member ready to move out when the signal was given. The meal consisted of the roasted lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs, each of which symbolized an important spiritual truth.
In order that the lamb might be kept whole, it was roasted in the fire and not boiled in water. It’s not likely that the Israelites had vessels large enough for boiling a whole lamb, but even if they did, it was forbidden because the bones would have to be broken and the meat in cooking would separate from the bones. The bones were not to be broken nor were pieces of meat to be carried outside the house (v. ; ; ). It was important to see the wholeness of the lamb.
We trust Christ that we might be saved from our sins by His sacrifice, but we must also feed on Christ in order to have strength for our daily pilgrim journey. As we worship, meditate on the Word, pray, and believe, we appropriate the spiritual nourishment of Jesus Christ and grow in grace and knowledge.
Their bread was unleavened (without yeast) for two reasons: There wasn’t time for the bread to rise (v. ), and leaven was a symbol of impurity. For a week after Passover, the Israelites were required to eat unleavened bread and to remove every trace of leaven from their dwellings.
Yeast is an image of sin: It’s hidden; it works silently and secretly; it spreads and pollutes; and it causes dough to rise (“puffed up”—). Both Jesus and Paul compared false teaching to yeast (; ; ), but it’s also compared to hypocrisy () and sinful living (). Paul admonishes local churches to purge out the sin from their midst and present themselves as an unleavened loaf to the Lord.
Though there were many Israelite households in the land of Goshen, God saw all of them as one congregation (vv. , ). When local Christian congregations today meet to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, God sees each individual assembly as part of one body, the church. That’s why Paul could write about “the whole body” (). Israel was one nation because of the blood of the lamb, and the church is one fellowship because of Jesus Christ.
Not only was the Passover supper an ordinance to be obeyed (vv. , , , ), but it was also a “memorial” to be celebrated to keep alive in Israel the story of the Exodus (v. ; ). After Israel had entered and conquered the Promised Land, it would be easy for the people to settle down and forget the great acts of God on their behalf. The annual observance of Passover would give parents another opportunity to teach their children the meaning of their freedom and what God did for them. The adults were to be “living links” with Israel’s past so that each new generation would understand what it meant to be a member of God’s chosen nation. (See ; ; ; ; .)
, After the Israelites held their Passover feast “between the evenings,” they waited for God’s signal to depart. At midnight, the Lord struck the firstborn, death visited every Egyptian household, and a great cry arose throughout Egypt (; ). Death is no respecter of persons, and that night it touched the family of the lowest Egyptian prisoner as well as Pharaoh himself. However, not a single death occurred among the Israelite people in the land of Goshen. The lesson here is obvious: Unless you’re protected by the blood of Christ, when death comes, you’ll be completely unprepared, and you don’t know when death is coming.
God’s promises are never in error and His timing is never wrong (vv. , ). The Exodus took place 480 years before the fourth year of Solomon’s reign (), which was the year 966 B.C. That means that the date of the Exodus was 1446 B.C. and that Jacob’s descendants had been in Egypt since 1876 B.C. Both and give “four hundred years,” which is a round figure, but specifies “430 years.” Most conservative biblical scholars accept 1446 as the date of the Exodus.
Israel’s exodus from Egypt is mentioned many places in Scripture as the greatest demonstration of Jehovah’s power in the history of Israel. The prophets point to the Exodus as proof of God’s love for Israel (; ). They also refer to the Exodus when they speak about the Jews’ deliverance from Babylonian captivity (; , ). Isaiah promises a future regathering of Israel to their land and compares it to the Exodus (; ; ). Frequently, Isaiah mentions a “highway” that will facilitate this future exodus of the Jews from the Gentile nations (; ; ; ).
, This section explains the significance of the firstborn in the nation of Israel. Not only once a year at Passover were the Israelites reminded of God’s grace and power, but each time a firstborn male, man or beast, came into the world, that firstborn issue had to be redeemed. Because of God’s mighty acts in protecting and redeeming His people and saving the firstborn of humans and livestock from death (, ), all the firstborn belonged to God. They were sanctified, that is, set apart for God’s exclusive possession.
When a firstborn son was redeemed, or a firstborn animal, it gave adults the opportunity to explain how God had rescued the firstborn in the land of Goshen on Passover night, and how He had slain all the Egyptian firstborn, both humans and livestock. Even though he had nothing to do with the birth order in the home, each firstborn son in an Israelite family was very special to the parents and to the Lord.
It’s a mark of maturity when we learn that freedom is a tool to build with, not a toy to play with, and that freedom involves accepting responsibility. Israel’s Exodus experience taught them that their future success lay in fulfilling three important responsibilities: following the Lord (vv. ), trusting the Lord (), and praising the Lord ().
The person who trusts Jesus Christ is born again into the family of God, but that’s just the beginning of an exciting new adventure that should lead to growth and conquest. God liberates us and then leads us through the varied experiences of life, a day at a time, so that we might get to know Him better and claim by faith all that He wants us to have. At the same time, we come to know ourselves better; we discover our strengths and weaknesses, and we grow in understanding God’s will and trusting His promises.
God plans the route for His people (vv. , ). Nothing takes God by surprise, for in His providence He plans the best way for His people to take. We may not always understand the way He chooses, or even agree with it, but His way is always the right way. We may confidently say, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake” (), and we should humbly pray, “Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day” (, ).
If you permit the Lord to direct your steps (, ), expect to be led occasionally on paths that may seem unnecessarily long and circuitous. Remind yourself that God knows what He’s doing; He isn’t in a hurry, and as long as you follow Him, you’re safe and in the place of His blessing. He may close some doors and suddenly open others, and we must be alert (; , ).
Is it idolatrous to have visible reminders of God’s faithfulness? Not necessarily, for you find several significant monuments in the Book of Joshua. When Israel crossed the Jordan River, they put up a monument of stones on the farther shore to commemorate what God had done (). They also put stones on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim to remind them of God’s law (). A heap of stones bore witness of Achan’s treachery (, ), and a “witness stone” was a reminder of Israel’s rededication after the conquest of the land (). Samuel set up a stone to commemorate Israel’s victory over the Philistines and called it Ebenezer, (which means “stone of help”) (). As long as we keep obeying the Lord, such reminders can encourage our faith. The important thing is that they point to the Lord and not to a dead past, and that we continue to walk by faith and obey the Lord today.
Catalyst
We don’t have this same kind of visible guidance today, but we do have the Word of God which is a light () and a fire (). It’s interesting to note that the pillar of fire gave light to the Israelites but was darkness to the Egyptians (). God’s people are enlightened by the Word (), but the unsaved can’t understand God’s truth (; ).
The Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of Truth, guides us by teaching us the Word (, ). Just as God spoke to Moses from the pillar, so the Lord communicates with us from the Scriptures by making them clear to us. There are times when we aren’t sure which way God wants us to go, but if we wait on Him, He will eventually guide us.
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These verses introduce the disappointing pattern of Israel’s behavior during their march from Egypt to Canaan. As long as everything was going well, they usually obeyed the Lord and Moses and made progress. But if there was any trial or discomfort in their circumstances, they immediately began to complain to Moses and to the Lord and asked to go back to Egypt. However, before we criticize the Israelites, perhaps we’d better examine our own hearts. How much disappointment or discomfort does it take to make us unhappy with the Lord’s will, so that we stop believing and start complaining? “For we live by faith and not by sight” ().
When you forget God’s promises, you start to imagine the worst possible scenario. The Israelites were sure that they and their children would die in the wilderness as soon as Pharaoh’s army caught up with them. The frightened people reminded Moses that they had told him to leave them alone (), but he had persisted in challenging Pharaoh. Israel was now in a terrible predicament, and Moses was to blame. Unbelief has a way of erasing from our memory all the demonstrations we’ve seen of God’s great power and all the instances we know of God’s faithfulness to His Word.
Moses not only told the people to stand still, but also to “hold their peace.” How easy it would have been to weep, complain, and keep criticizing Moses, but none of those things would have helped them out of their predicament. Unbelief complains, but faith obeys and brings glory to the Lord. “Be still, and know that I am God” (). What is there to complain about when we have the wonderful promise, “The LORD will fight for you” ()?
Why did God perform this series of miracles for the Israelite people? They certainly didn’t deserve it as they stood there cringing in fear and complaining that God didn’t seem to know what He was doing. To begin with, he was keeping His promise that he would deliver Israel and take them as His people (, ). In years to come, pious Israelites would measure everything by the demonstration of God’s great power at the Exodus. But God had another purpose in mind: revealing once more His power and glory in the defeat of the Egyptian army. And the Egyptians will know that “I am the LORD” ().
This series of divine miracles was certainly a revelation of the greatness and power of God, His faithfulness to His promises, and His concern for His people. Future psalmists would extol the Lord for His mighty works at the Red Sea (; ; ; ; ; ; ), and the prophets would use the Exodus to encourage the Jewish exiles in their return to their land after the Babylonian captivity (; , ; , ; , ; , ), as well as to motivate the backslidden nation to return to the Lord (, ; ; ; ; , ).
Knowing that the enemy was in pursuit, and hearing the wind blowing all night, the Israelites must have wondered what was going to happen and why God was taking so long. But when we have faith in God’s promises, we have peace in our hearts. “Why are you so fearful?” Jesus asked His disciples after he had calmed a storm. “How is it that you have no faith?” (). Faith and fear can’t live together in the same heart, for one will destroy the other. True faith depends on what God says, not on what we see or how we feel. It has well been said that faith is not believing in spite of evidence—that’s superstition—but obeying in spite of consequence.
Paul saw Israel’s march through the sea as a baptism, for the water was on either side like a wall and the cloud of God’s presence was behind them and over them (, ). Through this “baptism,” the people of Israel were identified with Moses, just as in water baptism God’s people today are identified with Jesus Christ. The miracle of the Exodus became a part of Israel’s confession of faith when they brought their gifts to the Lord ().
With their enemies drowned and their freedom secure, the people of Israel burst into song and praised the Lord. We don’t read that they praised God while they were enslaved in Egypt, and while they were going out of the land they were complaining to Moses and asking him to let them go back. But it takes maturity for God’s people to have a “song in the night” (; ; ; ), and the Israelites were very immature in their faith at that time.
The statement “The Lord is a man of war” may upset people who feel that anything relating to warfare is alien to the gospel and the Christian life. Some denominations have taken the “militant” hymns out of their hymnals, including “Onward Christian Soldiers.” But Moses promised the people, “The Lord will fight for you” (; see ), and one of God’s names is “Jehovah Sabaoth,” which means “Lord of hosts (armies),” a title that’s used 285 times in the Old Testament. This aspect of God’s character is the theme of the famous Reformation hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”
If there is in this world an enemy like Satan, and if sin and evil are hateful to God, then He must wage war against them. “The LORD shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies” (). Jesus Christ is both the Lamb who died for our sins and the Lion who judges sin (, ), and one day He will ride forth to conquer His enemies (). To emphasize only “God is love” (, ) and eliminate “God is light” () is to rob God of His attributes of righteousness, holiness, and justice.
This stanza in the victory song looks forward to Israel’s conquest of Canaan and points out that God purchased Israel and they are His people. The nations in Canaan would be as still and dead as stones when Israel’s army conquered the land and the tribes claimed their inheritance. God brought them out of Egypt that He might bring them into Canaan and plant them in their own land (; , ; ). God would put His sanctuary among His people and dwell with them in glory. “The LORD shall reign forever and ever” () is the climax of the song, emphasizing that God is sovereign and eternal.
, Miriam and Aaron led the people in a thunderous refrain, praising the Lord’s victory. As David later described the setting, “The waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then they believed His words; they sang His praise” (, ). However, that isn’t the end of the story, for the nation’s singing soon turned into complaining as they entered the wilderness and headed toward Mount Sinai. “They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert” (, ). It wasn’t easy for them to carry the burden of freedom, and God had to teach them how to live a day at a time.
It’s possible to win the battle and yet lose the victory, which is what the Israelites did as they left the Red Sea and began to march toward Mount Sinai. They forgot that life is a pilgrimage during which we must learn new lessons and fight new battles. One great victory doesn’t settle everything; we need challenging new experiences that will help us mature and glorify God. Yes, life is a school, and the Lord knows just when to give us an examination.
Catalyst
Faced with what they perceived as another disappointment with God and Moses, the people complained over the bitter water. They had been anticipating water for three days, so the mixed blessing of water they couldn’t drink was an offense they didn’t think they could swallow ().
Moses took the right approach (v. ), the way of faith: He cried out to the Lord and then followed God’s orders. God can solve our problems by changing things (like making the bitter waters sweet), by giving us something else (like the wells of water at Elim), or by giving us the grace we need to bear with our difficulties and not complain. The third approach is what produces lasting spiritual growth ().
From this difficult experience, the Israelites not only learned something about themselves and about life, but they also learned something about their God, that He is Jehovah Rapha, “the LORD who heals you” (). God promised Israel abundant physical blessings if they would obey Him, but they would receive physical afflictions if they disobeyed (; ). These promises were a part of the old covenant with Israel and aren’t repeated in the new covenant for believers today. If it is His will, God is certainly able to heal every disease, but our attitude must always be, “not as I will, but as You will.”
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God was testing His people, not because He didn’t know their hearts, but because they didn’t know their own hearts. People often say, “Well, I know my own heart,” but they forget that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” ().
The Lord tests us to encourage spiritual growth and bring out the best in us, but the devil tempts us to bring out the worst in us and to encourage spiritual immaturity. The attitude that we take toward our difficulties determines which direction life will go, for what life does to us depends on what life finds in us. If we trust God and obey His Word, we will pass the test and grow, but if in unbelief we complain and disobey the Lord, we will fail the test and remain immature (; ).
, The whole congregation complained because they were hungry. They had been away from the oppression of Egypt only a month but now they remembered the “pots of meat” in Egypt and “bread to the full.” But for some reason, they’d forgotten the bondage, the beatings, and the misery of their forced labor as slaves. They accused Moses and Aaron of deliberately leading them into the wilderness to kill them.
God heard their murmurings and in His grace and mercy met their needs. He told them that in the evening, they would have meat to eat (v. ), and in the morning he would rain bread from heaven (v. ). By giving them these special provisions, He was also testing them to see if they would believe and obey. In this passage we see God’s promise (vv. , , , , ); God’s glory (vv. , , , ); and God’s faithfulness (vv. ).
Catalyst
In , the crowd wanted Jesus to prove He was the Messiah by duplicating the miracle of the manna (, ), but instead He declared that He was “the true bread” that came down from heaven. The Old Testament manna was a type or picture of God’s Son who came to give Himself as the Bread of Life for hungry sinners.
The Jews in the synagogue thought that Jesus was speaking about literally eating His flesh and blood (), something that was contrary to Jewish law. Jesus made it clear that He was speaking in spiritual language and referring to receiving His Word (). However, Peter got the message (, ), and so must we. God’s Word is the heavenly food that nourishes our spiritual life, and we must feed on it daily (; ; ; ; ).
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, There’s a personal warning here for God’s people today: We can’t hoard His Word and try to live on yesterday’s spiritual nourishment. It’s good to hear the Bible preached and taught on the Lord’s Day, but we need fresh manna each day if we want to be healthy Christians. There’s no substitute for a daily time alone with God, gathering fresh nourishment from His Word.
There was no place in the camp of Israel for the sluggard who stayed in bed while others gathered his food. There’s a lesson here for believers today: We must start the day with the Lord, gathering spiritual food from the Word, because if we wait too long to meet God, the day will become cluttered, we’ll get distracted, and we’ll suffer from spiritual malnutrition. The “early risers” of the Bible include Abraham (; ; ), Jacob (), Moses (; ; ), Joshua (, ), Samuel (), Job (), David (; ), and our Lord Jesus Christ ().
In verse , the Sabbath is mentioned by name for the first time in Scripture. It’s called “the seventh day” in and commemorated the Lord’s rest after six days of creation. It seems obvious that the Israelites were taught to observe the Sabbath even before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. The Israelites were supposed to prepare their meals in advance, and this included the gathering of the manna. They were permitted on the sixth day to gather twice as much manna, and whatever they saved up would not become rancid.
God provided faithfully for His people. He gave the law to Israel because He loved His people. They needed a light to guide them, and God’s law is a lamp and a light, and obeying the law means life (). When the people disobeyed, they needed a priest to help them be forgiven and reconciled to God. They also needed to be reminded that it was God who provided food for them, and that they didn’t live by bread alone but by the Word of God ().
It was the presence of the Lord that gave Moses the strength and confidence he needed as he led the people of Israel during their wilderness wandering. He had a difficult task, leading a thankless army of former slaves whom he was trying to build into a nation, but he persevered because the Lord was with him. The events recorded in chapters and reveal to us what the presence of the Lord means to God’s people and their leaders as they are on their pilgrim journey.
Every difficulty God permits us to encounter will become either a test that can make us better or a temptation that can make us worse, and it is our own attitude that determines which it will be. If in unbelief we start complaining and blaming God, then temptation will trap us and rob us of an opportunity to grow spiritually. But if we trust God and let Him have His way, the trial will work for us and not against us (; ) and help us grow in grace.
, When people are out of fellowship with the Lord and are angry and bitter, they usually want to do unreasonable things that could only make the situation worse. In this instance, the people wanted to stone their leader! How that would have changed their situation is difficult to discern, but disobedient people often look for a scapegoat.
“Massah” means “to test,” and “Meribah” means “contention, arguing.” The Israelites had not yet learned that God tests His people in the everyday experiences of life. He uses the difficult experiences of life to strengthen our faith and mature our character. But Israel’s faith in God was very weak, for they thought their God had led them to a place where He couldn’t care for them! The trouble with the Israelites was that they had hard hearts that wouldn’t submit to the Lord, so they rebelled against His will.
On their journey to the Promised Land, Israel had to face difficulties as well as enemies. Their experiences help us see our own lives in a new light. The devil is our greatest enemy (), and he uses the world and the flesh to oppose us (). Just as Israel was delivered from Egypt by the power of God, so God’s people today have been delivered from “this present evil age” (, ) through the victory of Christ. We are in the world physically but not of the world spiritually (), and therefore must not become conformed to the world (). We renounce the things of the flesh () and resist the attacks of the devil (; , ).
There’s no record that the Israelites ever had to fight any battles in Egypt, but once they were delivered from bondage, they discovered they had enemies. So it is in the Christian life. When we identify with Jesus Christ, then His enemies become our enemies () and we must “fight the good fight of faith” (). But we need the battles of life to help balance the blessings of life; otherwise, we’ll become too confident and comfortable and stop trusting the Lord.
Israel’s great victory over Amalek involved three elements: the power of God in heaven, the skill of Joshua and the army on the battlefield, and the intercession of Moses, Aaron, and Hur on the top of the hill. God could have sent angels to annihilate the enemy (), but He deigns to use human instruments to accomplish His purposes. Joshua and his army would trust God and fight, Moses and his associates would trust God and intercede, and God would do the rest. In this way, God’s people would grow in faith and God’s name would be glorified.
True intercession is a demanding activity. To focus our attention on God and “pray without ceasing” () can weary us as much as strenuous work. Like Epaphras, who was “always laboring fervently” in prayer (), we must not just casually mention our requests to the Lord. To put our full heart into intercessory prayer will cost us, but it will also bless us.
After reading about the trials, complaints, and battles of the Israelites, it’s a relief to move into a chapter that describes the camp of Israel as a quiet place of family fellowship and daily business. Life isn’t always hunger and thirst and warfare, although those are often the things we remember most vividly.
The nation already had elders (v. ; ), but they weren’t assisting Moses in the day-by-day affairs of the camp, or if they were, there were matters they couldn’t settle that had to go to Moses. There were basic regulations for the management of the camp (), since two million people couldn’t very well live together and travel together without obeying some kind of code. The words “statutes of God and His laws” in verse can refer to the will of God in general as well as to specific ordinances from the Lord. Long before the law was given, God blessed Abraham for obeying His commandments, statutes, and laws ().
Jethro knew that Moses’ leadership was crucial for the future success of Israel and that any activity that drained his energy or wasted his time was bound to hurt the nation. Also, he didn’t want his son-in-law to wear himself out and leave Zipporah a widow and his two grandsons without a father. No one man could minister personally to two million people and last very long. Moses had to confess that the work was too much for him ().
The important thing about delegating responsibilities is that you have leaders who have ability and character, “such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.” These qualifications remind us of the experience of the early church in finding people to assist the apostles and relieve them of lesser duties (). These assistants had to have good reputations, be full of the Spirit and wisdom, and approved by the people.
According to , Moses shared Jethro’s counsel with the people, admitted his own weakness and weariness, and asked them to select leaders to assist him. They approved of the plan and selected the officers whom Moses then charged with the responsibilities of their offices.
Whenever ministry and structure collide, and ministry is being hindered, God’s people must adjust the structure so ministry can grow. When the Jerusalem church gave the apostles the help they needed, the work expanded and many people were converted (). In this rapidly changing world, Christian ministries must be flexible if they are to solve their problems and seize their opportunities. The emphasis in the Bible isn’t on organization as such but on the kind of organization that involves qualified people who get the job done.
If freedom doesn’t lead to maturity, then we end up imprisoned in a bondage worse than what we had before, a bondage from within and not from without. It’s bad enough to be enslaved by an Egyptian taskmaster, but it’s even worse to enslave yourself and become your own taskmaster.
Moses went up to meet God on the mountain, and what God told him he came down and shared with the people. The image of maturity that God used was that of the eagle, bearing its young on its wings and teaching them the glorious freedom of flight. Moses used the same image in the song he taught Israel at the close of his life. Read carefully .
When we’re maturing in the Lord, life becomes a series of open doors that lead to more and more opportunities for responsible freedom. But if we refuse to let God mature us, life becomes a series of confining iron bars that limit us. A baby is safe and comfortable in the mother’s womb, but at some point the baby must be born and enter a new and demanding world of growth and maturity. From birth to death, the “turning points” of life usher in new freedoms that bring with them new privileges and new responsibilities.
God called Israel His “special treasure.” All the nations of the earth belong to the Lord, because He is their maker and their sustainer (; ; ; ; ), but He has chosen Israel to be His treasured possession (; ; ; ; ). This choice was not because of Israel’s merits, because they had none (), but because of God’s love and sovereign grace ().
God also called Israel “a holy nation.” Later, God added, “you shall be holy men to Me” (), that is, a people set apart for God, a people who are different. “Be holy, for I am holy” is found at least six times in Leviticus (, ; ; , ; ) and is repeated twice in , . In every area of life, Israel’s activities were governed by the fact that they belonged to God.
God still uses the same terminology when speaking of His people today. Peter borrowed the imagery of and wrote to the church: “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. . . . you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (, ). Like Israel of old, God’s people today must point people to the Lord and reveal by their words and deeds how wonderful He is. We are to be living advertisements of the grace and power of God.
Changing clothes and washing (vv. , , , ) symbolize a new beginning. We today are accustomed to having soap and water readily available, and extra clothes hanging in our closets, but people in Bible days didn’t enjoy such luxuries. They couldn’t take showers daily, and only the wealthy had stores of extra garments.
That’s why bathing and changing clothes often marked a new beginning, such as when God restored Adam and Eve () or when Jacob and his family returned to Bethel (). Washing and changing clothes is the Old Testament equivalent of and .
A storm (vv. ; ) marked God’s presence. In Scripture, a storm is often a symbol of the awesome presence and power of God (; ; ). The cloud and darkness, the thunder and lightning, and the earthquake and fire, all manifested the greatness of God (, , ) and produced a holy fear in the hearts of the people. Even Moses trembled with fear and admitted it (; )!
A distance was set between God and the people (vv. , , ). Staying away from Mount Sinai was a matter of life or death, for the presence of God sanctified the mountain. So Moses put up barriers to keep the people at a distance.
God was teaching the people the distance between a holy God and sinful men and women, as well as the danger of presumptuously rushing into the presence of the Lord. The New Testament emphasizes the nearness of God, for the Son of God became flesh and came to dwell on earth (), and His name is “Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us’ ” (). By His death and resurrection, Jesus opened a new and living way into the presence of God ().
While all the Ten Commandments deal with our responsibilities toward God, the first four are particularly God-ward while the last six are man-ward. How we relate to others depends on how we relate to God, for if we love God and obey Him, we’ll also love our neighbors and serve them (; ).
Laws 1–3: Respect as creatures to our Creator ().
Law 4: Respect as creatures to ourselves (; see , ).
Law 5: Respect as children to our parents ().
Laws 6–10: Respect as fellow-creatures to our community ().
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The first two commandments highlight our central task of worshiping only the Lord. An idol is a substitute for God and therefore not a god, for there is only one true and living God. Present-day religious pluralism (“You worship your god and I’ll worship mine, because both are right”) is both unbiblical and illogical, for how can there be more than one god? If God is God, He is infinite, eternal, and sovereign and can’t share the throne with another being who is also infinite, eternal, and sovereign.
“I am the LORD, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images” (). The idol worship of the pagan nations was not only illogical and unbiblical, but it was intensely immoral (temple prostitutes and fertility rites), inhuman (sacrificing children), and demonic (). No wonder the Lord commanded Israel to destroy the temples, altars, and idols of the pagans when they invaded the land of Canaan ().
Catalyst
The law was never given as a way of salvation for either Jews or Gentiles, because “we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law” (). Salvation is not a reward for good works but the gift of God through faith in Jesus Christ (; , ).
The law reveals God’s righteousness and demands righteousness, but it can’t give righteousness (); only Jesus Christ can do that (). The law is a mirror that reveals where you’re dirty, but you don’t wash your face in the mirror (). Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from sin (; , ).
God doesn’t give His Spirit to us, because we obey the law () but, because we trust Christ (); neither does He give us our inheritance through the law (). The one thing the dead sinner needs is life (), but the law can’t give life (). Then what’s the purpose of the law? It’s God’s way of showing us our sins and stripping us of our self-righteousness so that we cry out for the mercy and grace of God.
God gives His Holy Spirit to all who believe on His Son, and the Spirit enables us to obey God’s will and therefore fulfill the righteousness of the law ().
We can now use the strength, guidance, and endurance the Holy Spirit provides to observe the spirit of the law in ways we could never hope to do relying on our desires or strength. We could never fulfill the law perfectly. In Christ, we don’t have to! Our obedience is based on freedom in Christ rather than slavery to the law.
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We need to think more seriously about honoring God’s name. Your name stands for your character and reputation—what you are and what you do (, ). People blaspheme God’s name by using vulgar language. But using God’s name in making a promise or taking an oath, and then not fulfilling the commitment, is cheapening his name and blaspheming God ().
The Sabbath day was a special covenant sign between the Lord and Israel (; , ; , ; , ), and there is no evidence that this commandment was given to the Gentile nations (, ). However, the principle of setting apart one day in seven to honor the Lord is carried on in the New Testament in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first day of the week (; ; ). The New Testament believer begins the week with rest and worship and then spends the week in service, while the Old Testament believer worked for six days and then rested and dared not perform any work. The first day speaks of grace, the second of law. The church today is warned not to make the Sabbath or other special days a test of spirituality or fellowship (, ).
In God’s central commandments, the Israelites were taught to respect age and to care for their senior citizens (see also , ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; ), a good example for us to follow today (; , ). The fact that this commandment comes with an immediate promise adds weight to its importance.
Life is a gift from God, and only He has the authority to take life. Because we’re made in God’s image, murder is an attack against God (, ; ). Protecting life is the responsibility of every member of society, not just the public officials (). The issue here is premeditated murder, which Jesus said could have its beginning in anger (). The Israelites were allowed to defend themselves (), and the law made concessions for accidental death, but murder was a capital offense ().
God insists that we honor marriage. So serious was adultery that it was considered a capital crime (; ). The family is the basic unit of the nation, and faithfulness to the marriage contract is the foundation for the family. Adultery is robbery (), but in the end, those who commit adultery rob themselves (). While the Lord can forgive the sin of adultery (; ), like David, the adulterer and adulteress must live with the sad consequences of forgiven sin (, ; ).
The eighth commandment has to do with respecting personal property. God gave Israel an elaborate set of laws to govern their use of the land, because the land belonged to Him and they were but stewards (, , ). This fact is the basis for a sane ecology. teaches that there are only three ways to get wealth: work for it, have it given to you, or steal it, and stealing is wrong.
Speaking the truth and honoring promises is the cement that holds society together. To tell lies in court is to undermine the very law itself, which explains why Moses required the witnesses to be the executioners in capital crimes (). It’s one thing to lie, but quite something else to kill in order to protect your lie. This commandment also prohibits slandering people (; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ).
The commandment not to covet centers on the need to control desires. The first and tenth commandments deal with what is in the heart, while the other eight focus on outward actions that begin in the heart. Covetous people will break all of God’s commandments in order to satisfy their desires, because at the heart of sin is the sin in the heart (). To covet is to feed inward desires for anything that God says is sinful.
In the remaining chapters of Exodus, it seems that eight times Moses went up the mountain and met with God and then descended to speak to the people. Some of the ascents and descents are implied because you find Moses addressing either God or the nation.
Ascended
Descended
(implied)
(implied)
, , ,
(implied)
(implied)
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Both nudity and intercourse with temple prostitutes were a part of many pagan religious ceremonies, and these were expressly forbidden by the Lord. God commanded the Israelite priests to wear special garments to cover their nakedness (, ; ), and if they failed to obey, they were in danger of being killed (, ). God’s emphasis on chastity and virtue flies in the face of our current culture, which is as saturated with pornography and indecency as any previous age has ever been. God still takes these matters seriously.
Justice is the practical outworking of the righteousness of God in human history, for “He loves righteousness and justice” (; see ; ). There may be a great deal of injustice in our world today, but the time will come when God will judge the world in righteousness by the Savior that the world has rejected, and His judgment will be just ().
Though the Israelites were permitted to own slaves from other nations, usually prisoners of war, they were not allowed to enslave their own people. Two scenarios are presented here: a man who voluntarily becomes a servant (vv. ), and a woman who is sold to be a servant (vv. ).
These laws regarding capital crimes are the logical application of the sixth commandment, “You must not murder” (; ). We’re made in God’s image, so to murder a fellow human being is to attack the image of God (). If a person was found guilty of murder on the testimony of two or more witnesses (, ), then the murderer was killed.
, Having dealt with murder in general, the law then dealt with specific cases. The first deals with a man’s mistreatment of his parents, abusing them physically and/or verbally, which would be a violation of the fifth commandment (; ; ). It’s possible that the “prodigal son law” () applies here and that this son was desperately in need of discipline. Children who have no respect for their parents usually have no respect for any other authority and want only their own selfish way.
Even though there was no serious injury to the mother or the child, the court was required to fine the guilty man for his aggressive action against somebody who wasn’t a party to the fight. Regardless of the man’s intent, what he did could have caused the death of the child or the mother or both. But if there was serious injury, that is, if the mother and/or child was maimed or killed, then the court would follow the lex talionis (vv. ) which says, “The punishment must fit the crime.”
When Jesus prohibited His disciples from retaliating against those who hurt them (; ), he was dealing with personal revenge (“I’ll get even with you!”) and encouraging personal forgiveness. He wasn’t criticizing Moses or interfering with the legal system, because He came to fulfill the law and not to destroy it (). As believers, we have the privilege of waiving our “legal rights” to the glory of God and not demanding compensation (). However, a judge has to see that justice is done and the law is respected.
This law makes a difference between the night thief and the daylight thief. In the daylight, the owner could identify the thief breaking into his pens and could even call for help from his neighbors. To kill the thief in daylight would be an unnecessary expression of revenge. But at night, the owner might not be able to identify the intruder, nor would he know if the man was armed and therefore his own life was in danger. At night it would also take longer to get help.
It was only right that whoever caused the fire should compensate the people who were deprived of their grain. The word translated “restore” or “make restitution,” used six times in chapter (vv. , , ), is the Hebrew word shalam that means “to make whole, to make complete” and is related to the familiar Hebrew word shalom (“peace, health”). It takes more than confession of guilt for an offender to make things right; it also demands effort on his part to compensate the people who were hurt. Only then can the torn fabric of relationships be mended and society be made whole.
These laws limit the tendency toward selfishness. They admonish the Israelites to be kind to strangers and aliens, widows and orphans, and the poor. The Israelites had been strangers in Egypt and for many years were treated kindly, and widows and orphans are the special concern of the Lord.
Israel was cautioned against reviling any legitimate authority. They might blaspheme God with their lips but also by despising the laws He gave for their good, especially the ones relating to generosity to others (vv. ). Blaspheming God was a capital offense (). It was against the law to speak evil of a ruler (, ; ). God has established human government (), and even if we don’t respect the officer, we must respect the office.
This is an amplification of the ninth commandment (), a warning not to endorse falsehood and promote injustice because of what the crowd is doing (, ; ). Nor should God’s people be influenced by the wealth or the poverty of the accused or by the bribes people offer them for their support (; ; ). To condemn an innocent person for personal gain is to become guilty before God, and God doesn’t acquit the guilty (). But Moses also reminded the people to be kind to their enemies and to the enemies’ animals (vv. , ; ). Our goodness should be the result of obeying laws but also of practicing love.
When the people were settled in their land, the men were to gather to worship three times a year: at the Feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest (Pentecost), and the Feast of Ingathering (tabernacles). (See for the Jewish religious calendar.) The men were usually accompanied by their families (see and ).
“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk” is repeated in and . The young goat was a favorite food of the people, and cooking it in milk was supposed to improve the taste. To use the mother’s milk to cook her own offspring would reveal an attitude of heart that could lead to all kinds of sin, and parallels the attitude addressed by the earlier part of the verse that encourages people to bring the very best of the first harvest to the Lord.
The angel here is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Angel of the Covenant (). Only He can pardon transgressions, and only in Him is the wonderful name of the Lord. God had prepared a place for His earthly people () just as Jesus is preparing a place for His heavenly people (). If they followed the Lord, He would meet all their needs and defeat all their enemies.
Once again, the Lord warned Israel about the sin of idolatry, worshiping the false gods of the nations around them, the nations that they would defeat. If Israel devoted themselves wholly to the Lord, He would go before them, confound their enemies, and enable them to conquer the land. Indeed, the terror of God did go before Israel and weaken the people in the land (; ).
, The first two verses connect with , when God called Moses to ascend Sinai and bring with him the seventy elders, Aaron, and Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu. Moses shared the words of God with the people, and once again they promised to obey everything God told them to do (; ). He then wrote down all that God had said, which means the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant.
, It would take more than promises to ratify the Book of the Covenant, and Moses took care of that the next morning. He built an altar to the Lord and then set up twelve pillar-like stones to represent the twelve tribes of Israel. The young men set aside to serve as priests offered sacrifices to the Lord, because it was necessary to seal the covenant with blood. Some of the blood was sprinkled on the altar, signifying that God had forgiven His people of their sins.
Moses took the rest of the blood in the basins and sprinkled both the Book and the people (v. ; , ), thus ratifying the covenant. Israel had to realize their responsibility to obey the laws of the Lord. The covenant was now ratified by blood, and God would hold them to their promises. After all, they expected God to keep His promises!
The promise of the Lord in was now about to move into its third phase. God had redeemed His people (chs. ) and taken them to Himself as His people (chs. ); now He was about to come and dwell among them and be their God (chs. ). The last section of Exodus will focus on the design, construction, and dedication of the tabernacle, and it is a section rich in spiritual truth and practical lessons.
Worshiping God is the highest privilege and the greatest responsibility of the Christian life, because God is the highest Being in the universe and the One to whom we must one day give account. Everything that we are and do flows out of our relationship with the Lord. God created us in His image so we might love Him and have fellowship with Him, not because we have to but because we want to. God is seeking people who will worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (, ).
When the Scripture says that the seventy-four men “saw the God of Israel,” this doesn’t mean they beheld God in His essential being, for this isn’t possible (). They saw some of God’s glory and they perhaps saw the throne of God on the sapphire pavement (see ), but the invisible God was hidden from them. After this vision of God, they shared a fellowship meal that climaxed the ratifying of the covenant. To eat together was a mark of friendship and agreement. God is glorious and high and lifted up, but He also condescends to fellowship with us!
, God was about to fulfill His promise to be Israel’s God () by coming to the camp of Israel to dwell with His people (chs. ). In order to do this, the Lord needed two things: a place for His glory to dwell and servants to minister to Him in that place. Therefore, He commanded the Israelites to build the tabernacle and to set apart the tribe of Levi to serve Him. The building of the tabernacle and the ordaining of the priesthood are the two major themes of chapters .
Whenever God does a work, He has a plan for that work, whether it’s building the tabernacle or the temple (, , , ), a local church (, ), or the individual Christian’s life and ministry (). God warned Moses to make everything according to the pattern revealed to him on the mountain (; ).
The earthly tabernacle was built to God’s specifications. It was a copy of the heavenly tabernacle where our Lord now ministers to and for His people (; ). The Book of Revelation mentions an altar of burnt offering (), an altar of incense (), a throne (), elders (, ), lamps (), a “sea” (), and living creatures or cherubim (, ), all of which parallel the main furnishings of the earthly tabernacle. It’s a basic principle of ministry that we follow the pattern given from heaven, not the pattern of this world ().
The cover of the ark, traditionally called the “mercy seat,” had a cherub at each end and their wings overshadowed the ark. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest was permitted to enter the Most Holy Place (traditionally the “Holy of Holies”), where he sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on the ark’s cover (). This made atonement for Israel’s sins for another year (). These actions were a foreshadowing or type that was not fully understood until later events made it clear. The fulfillment of this type was when Jesus Christ died once for all for the sins of the world and took away sin by the sacrifice of Himself ().
The loaves are called the “showbread,” literally “bread of faces.” The presence of twelve loaves of bread in the Holy Place couldn’t help but remind the priests that they were serving the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s chosen people. Through these loaves, the twelve tribes were presented before God, and God was present with them in their camp, beholding their worship and their daily walk.
There’s also a sense that the loaves remind us that Israel was called to feed a hungry world the spiritual bread the Lord had given them. They gave the world the Word of God which is bread (), and the bread speaks of Jesus (). Paul compared the church to a loaf of unleavened bread (; see , ), and our task is to preach the Word and tell sinners about Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.
What was done by the priests in the sanctuary was done for the Lord (, , , ; ) and before the Lord (; ; ). It mattered not that the people in the camp were ignorant of what the priests were doing, because God saw it all, and their task was to please Him. The most important part of a Christian’s life is the part that only God sees. If God is pleased by what He sees, and our consciences are clean before Him, then we don’t have to worry about what people think or say about us (). He will accept our ministry and bless it.
“Honor and majesty are before Him,” wrote the psalmist. “Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary” (). The tabernacle was a tent, but it was a tent like no other! The strength of His sanctuary is revealed in its construction, and the beauty is revealed in its adornment.
What Old Testament believers had in the tabernacle, and later in the temple, God’s people today have in Jesus Christ. The furnishings and the ceremonies point to Christ and reveal the many glorious aspects of His character and the salvation He gives to all who trust Him. Every spiritual need of the Israelite people was met in the provisions of the tabernacle, and in Jesus Christ we have everything that we need for “life and godliness” ().
Any approach to the Christian life that adds anything to the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture is not the right approach. All fullness dwells in Christ () as well as all the fullness of the Godhead (). In Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (), and we must “seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (). In Christ, God’s people have every spiritual blessing (), and He is all they need.
Between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, the inner curtain (veil) hung from gold hooks supported by four pillars. It was embroidered with cherubim in white, scarlet, blue, and purple. says that this curtain typifies the body of Christ, for when His body was offered on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom ().
No matter how common the tabernacle may have appeared to outsiders, everything within the sanctuary was costly and beautiful, and it all spoke of the Savior the people of Israel would give to the world. Godly believers in the Old Testament realized the treasures they possessed in God’s house.
Preachers and evangelists sometimes invite people in their congregations to “come to the altar,” but there are no longer altars on earth that are ordained of God or acceptable to God. Why? Because the death of Jesus Christ took care of the sin problem once and for all (). No more sacrifices can be or should be offered. The Lord’s Supper (Communion, Eucharist) is a reminder of His sacrifice, not a repeat of His sacrifice.
The only “altar” believers have today is Jesus Christ Himself, who bears on His glorified body the wounds of the cross (; ; ). As a holy priesthood, we “offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (). We present to Him our bodies (, ), our material wealth (), praise and good works (, ), and a broken heart ().
The tabernacle proper stood at the west end of this courtyard, and at the east end was a thirty-foot entrance to the enclosure. Here the priests met the people who came to offer sacrifices and examined each animal carefully to make sure it was acceptable. The worshiper would put his hand on the animal’s head to identify with the offering (), and then the priest would slay the animal and offer it on the bronze altar according to the regulations given in .
There was only one entrance to the enclosure and therefore only one way to get to the altar of God. When God puts up a fence and assigns the way in, nobody has the authority to question it or change it. Jesus claimed to be the only door () and the only way to God (), which explains why Peter said, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (). In today’s pluralistic society, many people like to think that every way is acceptable to God, but that attitude leads to death (; ; ).
In order to magnify a holy God, Israel had to be a holy people, and that’s where the Aaronic priesthood came in. It was the task of the priests (Aaron’s family) and the Levites (the families of Kohath, Gershon, and Merari; see ) to serve in the tabernacle and represent the people before God. The priests were also to represent God to the people by teaching them the law and helping them to obey it (; ; ).
God wants His church to minister in this world as a holy and royal priesthood (, ). If God’s people are faithful in their priestly ministry, they will “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (). As we study the Old Testament priesthood, we will see significant parallels between the work of the Israel’s priests in the past and the ministry of “the holy priests” in the church today.
The variety of stones on the breastplate suggests the variety of people in the church, all of them precious to God. Each of the tribes had its own distinctive outlook and personality, and no two were alike. Some were quick to go to battle, while others stayed home (). Some were easy to work with, while others liked to argue and be important (). Yet the Lord loved them all and the high priest had to minister to them all.
, Believers today don’t have devices such as the Urim and Thummim (see also ; ) for determining what God wants us to do, but we do have the Word of God to guide our steps (). The Word of God reveals the God of the Word, His character, His desires, and His purposes for His people, and the better we know God, the better we can discover His will. God’s Word contains precepts for us to obey, warnings for us to heed, promises for us to claim, and principles for us to follow. If we’re sincerely willing to obey, God is willing to direct us (; ).
If we had a simple infallible method of determining the will of God such as the Urim and Thummim, we probably wouldn’t pray as much, search the Scriptures as much, or humble ourselves as much as we do today as we seek God’s direction. Seeking and doing God’s will is the way we grow in the Lord, and sharing in the process is as much a blessing as knowing the results.
Twice in this section the priests were warned that they might die if they didn’t fully obey the Lord’s instructions and wear the right garments (vv. , ). In other words, God’s servants must walk in the fear of the Lord and be careful to obey Him and give Him the glory.
The turban was worn only by the high priest, while the other priests wore linen bonnets. At the front of the turban was the golden medallion that read “Holy to the Lord.” The whole purpose of the Levitical system was to make men and women holy and therefore pleasing to the Lord.
Nobody who is working wholeheartedly for the Lord will deny that there is joy in serving Jesus, but at the same time, we must cultivate “reverence and godly fear” (). If the Lord killed every believer today who didn’t enter seriously into his or her service, how many workers would be left? Fearing the Lord doesn’t mean cringing before a hard taskmaster so much as being reverent and humble before a loving Father and gracious Lord. “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (). “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father,
Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence?” (). In what ways is your life “set apart” and holy to the Lord?
When Aaron and his sons were washed all over, it was symbolic of complete cleansing from the Lord. They didn’t have to be bathed all over again; all they had to do was cleanse their hands and feet at the laver. “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean,” said Jesus (). Those who have trusted Christ have experienced this inward cleansing from the Lord ().
In Scripture, the wearing of garments is a picture of the character and life of the believer. We are to lay aside the filthy garments of the old life and wear the beautiful “garments of grace” provided by the Lord (; ). Christ has taken away our dirty rags and given us a robe of righteousness that He purchased for us on the cross (; , ).
In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed; it was a symbol that God had granted them the Holy Spirit for power and service (; ). Moses poured the oil on his brother’s head, which meant it ran down his beard and therefore bathed all the stones on the breastplate. Those who trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord have received an anointing of the Spirit of God. In , , John’s emphasis is on the teaching ministry of the Spirit in guiding the believer into the truth of the Word of God. In , , Paul’s emphasis is on encouragement and stability: we have been anointed and sealed by the Spirit, and the Spirit is the “down payment” of future glory (). If God has anointed us, sealed us, and given us a foretaste of heaven, then why should we despair or feel that He will ever desert us?
Not only did Moses sprinkle the blood on the altar and upon Aaron and his sons, along with the anointing oil, but each man was marked with some of the blood on the right earlobe, the right thumb, and the right big toe. This was a token reminder that they must listen to God’s Word, do God’s work, and walk in God’s way. The blood speaks of sacrifice, so the priests became “living sacrifices” in the service of the Lord ().
, If the priests were faithful in teaching the Word and encouraging Israel to obey the Lord, they would never lack for sustenance, for the people would be sensitive to God’s Word, bring the required sacrifices and offerings to the tabernacle, and thereby provide for God’s servants. It’s unfortunate that some of the priests in later years were selfish and carnal and took the best for themselves (; ).
The flour and wine represented the results of the people’s labor in the fields and the vineyards. Symbolically, they were presenting the fruit of their toil to God and thanking Him for the strength to work and for food to eat (). The wine poured out was a picture of their lives poured out in His service (; ). All of this would please the Lord and He would find delight in dwelling in the tabernacle and blessing His people.
In the Bible, burning incense is often a picture of prayer. “Let my prayer be set before You as incense,” David prayed (), and John saw the elders in heaven with “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (; see , ). Whenever the priest burned the incense, it was a call to the people for a time of prayer ().
The incense was burned just outside the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Because of the work of Christ on the cross, believers today can go through the curtain into the very presence of God and there present their worship and petitions in the name of Jesus (). Our living, reigning Priest-King, Jesus Christ, is interceding continually for us in heaven (, ; ; ), and the Holy Spirit also intercedes in our hearts (, ).
, The fire for burning the incense came from the bronze altar where the sacrifices were offered to God (, ; ). This suggests that true prayer must be based on the work of Christ on the cross and on our complete dedication to God. A true fervency in prayer isn’t a religious emotion we work up ourselves; rather, it’s a blessing that God sends down as we yield ourselves to Him.
Prayer isn’t simply a jumble of words we mix together with the hope they’ll be heard by God and answered. The Bible names some of the “ingredients” of prayer—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, petition, submission (; )—and even gives us a pattern to follow ().
In Scripture, water for drinking is a picture of the Spirit of God (), while water for washing is a picture of the Word of God (; ; ). The laver, then, typifies the Word of God that cleanses the mind and heart of those who receive it and obey it (). The fact that the laver was made out of the bronze mirrors of the Hebrew women () is evidence that it typifies God’s Word, for the Word of God is compared to a mirror (; ).
Under the Old Testament economy, there were three ways to achieve ceremonial cleansing: by water, by fire, or by blood. We are cleansed from the guilt of sin by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us on the cross, and when we confess our sins, that blood cleanses us (). But when we disobey God, our hearts and minds are defiled by sin (see ), and it’s the cleansing of God’s Word () that restores us.
Whether it’s for building the tabernacle in the Old Testament, building the church in the New Testament, or building our lives and ministries today, the Holy Spirit of God must equip us and enable us to do the job. God gave Bezalel and Aholiab the skill and wisdom they needed, but He also equipped the craftsmen who worked under them. Led by the Spirit, in obedience to the Word, they constructed the tabernacle and its furniture.
It’s unfortunate that the Israelites didn’t honor the Sabbath as God directed and had to be disciplined (; , ; ; ). It’s also unfortunate that the scribes and Pharisees added thirty-nine forbidden acts to this commandment so that observing the Sabbath became a burden instead of a blessing ().
Why did Israel commit such an evil act at such a glorious time in their history? To begin with, they were impatient with Moses who had been on the mountain with God for forty days and nights (vv. , ), and impatience is often the cause of impulsive actions that are sinful. Israel didn’t know how to live by faith and trust God regardless of where their leader was. Whether Moses was with them or away from them, they criticized him and ignored what he had taught them.
Aaron and the tribal leaders were to blame because they didn’t immediately turn to God for help and warn the people what would happen. Aaron and Hur had authority from Moses to lead in his absence (), and though they were men who had seen God’s mighty acts, they failed God and Moses. Instead of restraining the people, Aaron went along with them and gratified the desires of their sinful hearts.
Israel’s lust for idols was born in Egypt and still worked in their hearts (; ; , ). Aaron fed that appetite by giving the people what they wanted. Much is being said these days about “meeting the felt needs of people,” but here was a nation that didn’t know what its needs really were.
In leadership, the difficult experiences with our people either make us or break us, and Moses was about to be tested. God called Israel “your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,” as though the Lord were abandoning the nation to Moses, but Moses soon reminded Him that they were His people and that He had delivered them. Furthermore, God had made a covenant with their forefathers to bless them, multiply them, and give them their land (). Moses intended to hold God to His word, and that’s what God wanted him to do.
, The Lord then took a different approach: He offered to wipe out Israel and make a new nation out of Moses’ descendants. A lesser man might have accepted this invitation, but not Moses. He loved his people, sinful as they were, and he wanted more than anything else to glorify the God of Israel and see Him fulfill His promises.
Sin is always costly, and Israel’s sin had not only led to the death of thousands of people, but it had robbed the nation of the presence of the Lord in the camp and on their pilgrim journey to the Promised Land.
God would keep the covenant promises He had made to the patriarchs, but instead of going before Israel in the person of His Son, the Angel of the Lord (), He would appoint an angel to accompany them. The reason? “You are a stiff-necked people” (, ). If they had been a people who were suffering and afflicted, the Lord would have come to them in grace and mercy (), but a stubborn people can only be disciplined. Better that God depart from them than that He come suddenly upon them and destroy them!
Moses based his appeal on the grace (favor) of God, for he knew that the Lord was merciful and gracious and that the people were guilty. If God gave them what they deserved, they would have been destroyed! The Israelites were God’s people and Moses was God’s servant. They didn’t want an angel to accompany them, for there was nothing special about that. The thing that distinguished Israel from the other nations was that their God was present with them, and that’s what Moses requested. His heart must have leaped for joy when he heard God promise to accompany the people and lead them to the place of rest that He had promised.
God revealed His glory to Moses. The true servant of God is concerned more about the glory of God than about anything else. Moses and the Israelites had seen God’s glory in the pillar of cloud and fire, as well as in the “storm” on Mount Sinai, but Moses wanted to see the intimate glory of God revealed to him personally. God did give Moses a guarded glimpse of His glory and he was satisfied. When God’s servants are discouraged and disappointed because of the sins of their people, the best remedy for a broken heart is a new vision of the glory of God.
Moses had won God’s promise to accompany the people in their journey, but would He forgive the people for their sins? Would He accompany them like a policeman watching a criminal or like a father caring for his beloved children? The answer came when the Lord ordered Moses to prepare two new stone tablets, for this meant He was going to replace the tablets that Moses had broken! God would renew the covenant! The fact that God renewed the covenant is evidence that He forgave His people and gave them a new beginning.
Before He did anything with the tablets, God proclaimed the greatness of His attributes, a declaration that is basic to all Jewish and Christian theology. Moses repeated these words to God at Kadesh Barnea (), the Jews used them in Nehemiah’s day (, ), and Jonah quoted them when he sat pouting outside Nineveh (, ). We don’t read that Moses fell on his face when he saw the glimpses of God’s glory, but he did bow to the ground and worship when he heard God speak these magnificent words.
By the grace of God, Moses achieved his purposes: God promised to go with the people, God showed Moses a glimpse of His glory, and God forgave the sins of the nation. Moses could return to the camp with the second tablets of the law and tell the people God had forgiven their sins.
Moses had been fasting and praying in the presence of God for eighty days, and he had seen a glimpse of God’s glory (see also ). Is it any wonder that he had a shining face? He didn’t realize that he had “absorbed” some of the glory and was reflecting it from his countenance. Because of this glory, the people were afraid to come near him, but he summoned them to come and they talked as before.
Paul applied Moses’ experience to Christians who by faith see the glory of Jesus Christ in the Word and experience a spiritual transformation (, ). This is why Christians read the Bible and meditate on it, because when the child of God looks into the Word of God and sees the Son of God, he or she is transformed by the Spirit of God into the image of God for the glory of God.
Not only did God create the materials that the people brought to Him (, ), but He also worked in their hearts so that they were willing to give generously (see , ). In fact, the people brought so much that Moses had to tell them to stop (, )!
Several different kinds of materials were needed: precious metals (gold, silver), bronze, fabrics (yarn, fine linen, and goat’s hair), wood, skins, olive oil, spices, and precious stones. It has been estimated that a ton of gold was used in the tabernacle as well as over three tons of silver. Where did all this wealth come from? For one thing, the Israelites had “spoiled” the Egyptians before leaving the land (, ), and no doubt there were also spoils from the victory over Amalek (). God saw to it that they had everything they needed to build the tabernacle just as He had designed it.
God appointed Bezalel and Aholiab to direct the work, for without leaders there would be chaos, but He called for craftsmen to volunteer to assist them ().
We are born with different abilities, and at conversion we received different gifts from the Holy Spirit, to be used for the good of the church and the glory of God (; ; ). “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” ().
Go to the
Gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and white are the major colors used in the hangings and coverings of the tabernacle. The linen fence around the sacred area was white, reminding us of the holiness of God. The thirty-foot gate at the east end of the tabernacle was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet against the white background. Blue is the color of the sky and reminds us of heaven and the God of heaven. Purple is the royal color that speaks of the King, and scarlet makes us think of blood and the sacrifice of the Savior.
The Israelites built a tent that long ago turned to dust, but we’re helping to build a “dwelling place of God in the Spirit” () that will glorify God eternally.
Although Bezalel oversaw the construction of each item for the tabernacle, Moses personally saw to it that every piece of furniture and every utensil was anointed and placed where it ought to be. God could not and would not dwell in the tabernacle unless everything was done according to the pattern He showed Moses on the mountain (, , ; ; ).
Since there was no way to let in natural light from the outside, the gold lampstand was the only source of light available in the Holy Place. Without it, the priests couldn’t have carried on their various ministries. God wants us to offer Him intelligent worship, not ignorant worship (; ; ), and to do that, we need the light of the Word of God to guide us (, ; ).
In order to please God and not be in danger of death, the priest had to use not only the right fire on the altar but also the prescribed mixture of spices for the incense (). Nadab and Abihu tried to worship God with “profane fire” and were killed (). Any Israelite who tried to duplicate this special incense for his own personal use would be cut off, which could mean death.
The priests were warned not to use this golden altar for anything other than burning incense (), for there are no substitutes for prayer. No amount of sacrificing can take the place of true praying. The golden altar wasn’t a place for making bargains with God or trying to change His mind (; , ). It was a place for adoring Him and praying, “Thy will be done.”
Unlike the golden altar of incense in the Holy Place, the bronze altar was a place of bloodshed and death, for “without shedding of blood there is no remission” ().
If a sinner could manage to enter the tabernacle courtyard and wash in the laver, that wouldn’t save him, nor would he be forgiven if he entered the Holy Place and ate the bread or burned the incense. The way into the presence of God began at the bronze altar, where innocent victims died for guilty sinners. In short, the bronze altar takes us immediately to Calvary where the Son of God died for the sins of the world (; ; ; ; ).
Each morning, the priests were to offer a burnt offering on the bronze altar (, ), a picture of total dedication to the Lord (). That would be a good way for each of God’s children to begin the day, presenting ourselves in total dedication to God as “living sacrifices” (, ).
In serving God and the people, the high priest wore seven pieces of clothing: (1) undergarments (, ); (2) a white tunic (; ; , ); (3) a blue robe over that, with bells and pomegranates on the hem (; ); (4) the ephod, a sleeveless garment embroidered with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, held together by a jeweled clasp on each shoulder-piece (; ; ); (5) a decorative band (); (6) a jeweled breastplate, held in place on the ephod by braided cords attached to the shoulder-pieces (; ); and (7) a white linen turban () with a golden plate on it that said “Holiness to the LORD” (; , ).
The significant thing about this ephod was not the fabric or the colors. It was that the names of six tribes of Israel were engraved on each onyx stone on the shoulder-pieces, according to their birth order. Whenever the high priest wore his special robes, he carried the people on his shoulders before the Lord.
If the church is to be faithful as a holy priesthood, believers must serve Christ by serving one another and serving a lost world. Jesus said, “I am among you as the One who serves” (), and it’s His example that we should follow (). In the high-powered spiritual atmosphere of the tabernacle, it would be easy for the priest to ignore the common people outside, many of whom had burdens and problems and needed God’s help. “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” ().
The high priest not only carried the people on his shoulders, but he also carried them over his heart. If we don’t have sincere love in our hearts, we won’t be concerned about the needs of others, and we won’t want to help them. “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (). As servants of God, we should be able to say honestly to the people we serve, “I have you in my heart” ().
The tabernacle identified Israel as the people of God and set them apart from the other nations, for the tabernacle was consecrated by the glory of God (, ). Other nations had sacred buildings, but they were empty. The tabernacle of Israel was blessed with the presence of the glory of God.
In , Paul made an application of this remarkable event. He pointed out that the glory of the Mosaic legal system was fading away, but that the glory of the gospel of God’s grace was getting more glorious (). This was his answer to the legalists who taught that obedience to the law plus faith in Christ was God’s way of salvation (). Why believe in something when its glory is vanishing?
The people of Israel had no idea what Moses had experienced on the mountain and how close they had come to being rejected by God and destroyed. Never underestimate the spiritual power of a dedicated man or woman who knows how to intercede with God. One of our greatest needs today is for intercessors who can lay hold of God’s promises and trust God to work in mighty power (; ; ).
After everything and everybody associated with the tabernacle were dedicated to the Lord, the glory of God filled the tabernacle and abode there. The Hebrew word translated “filled” in v. is sometimes transliterated shekinah in English, “the abiding presence of God.” (See and .) So powerful was the presence of God’s glory that Moses wasn’t able to enter the tabernacle!
The next time the glory of God came to earth was in the person of Jesus Christ (). In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), the word for “rested” in is the Greek word used in and translated “overshadowed.” Mary’s virgin womb was a Most Holy Place, where the glory of God dwelt in the person of God’s Son. What did the world do with this glory? Nailed it to a cross!
God today doesn’t live in buildings (; ). Buildings are dedicated to God to be used as tools for His work and His worship. But God does dwell in His people, and it’s our responsibility to glorify God individually () and collectively (). What a tragedy it would be if the glory departed and we had to write “Ichabod” (“Where is the glory?”) on our buildings (). How much better it would be if, like Moses, we did everything according to the heavenly pattern, so that God’s glory would feel at home in our midst.
Exodus 1
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1:14
1:14
1:15
1:16
1:17
1:17 ,
1:19
1:20 []
1:21
1:22
1:22 Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, and Targum add to the Hebrews.
Exodus 2
2:1
2:2
2:3
2:3
2:3
2:3
2:4
2:5
2:10
2:10 Literally Drawn Out
2:11
2:12 ,
2:13
2:13
2:14 ,
2:14
2:15
2:15
2:15 ;
2:16 ; ;
2:16 , , ;
2:16
2:17
2:17
2:17 ,
2:18
2:18 ;
2:20 ;
2:21 ;
2:22 ; ,
2:22
2:22 Literally Stranger There
2:23
2:23
2:23
2:24
2:24 ; ; ;
2:24 ; ;
2:25
2:25
Exodus 3
3:1
3:1
3:1
3:1
3:2
3:3
3:4
3:5
3:6 []
3:6
3:7
3:7
3:7
3:8 ; ; ,
3:8 ;
3:8 ;
3:8
3:8
3:9
3:9 , ,
3:10 []
3:11 ;
3:12
3:12 ;
3:14 [, , ]
3:15 ; ; ;
3:16
3:16 ;
3:17 ; ; ,
3:18
3:18 ,
3:18 , , ,
3:19
3:20 ;
3:20
3:20 ;
3:21 ;
3:22
3:22
3:22
Exodus 4
4:5 ;
4:5 ,
4:6
4:7
4:8
4:9 ,
4:9 That is, the Nile
4:10 ; ;
4:11 ;
4:12
4:13
4:14 ,
4:14
4:14
4:15 , ; ,
4:15 ,
4:15
4:16 ,
4:18 ; ;
4:18
4:19 ;
4:19 ,
4:19 ,
4:20
4:20 , ,
4:21 ; ,
4:21
4:22
4:22
4:22
4:23 ;
4:24
4:24
4:24
4:25 ;
4:25 ,
4:25 Literally his
4:27
4:27 ; ;
4:28 ,
4:28 ,
4:29 ;
4:30 ,
4:31 ; , ;
4:31
4:31 ;
4:31
Exodus 5
5:1 ; ;
5:2
5:2 ;
5:3 ;
5:3
5:3
5:4 ; ;
5:5 ,
5:6 ; ; , ,
5:7
5:14
5:14
5:21 ; ; ;
Exodus 6
6:1
6:1 , ,
6:3 ; ;
6:3 ;
6:3 ;
6:3 Hebrew YHWH, traditionally Jehovah
6:4 ; ; , , ; ; ,
6:4
6:4
6:5
6:6
6:6
6:6
6:7
6:7 ,
6:7 ,
6:8 ;
6:9
6:9
6:12
6:13
6:14
6:15
6:15 Spelled Nemuel in
6:16
6:17
6:18 ,
6:19 ;
6:20 ,
6:20
6:20
6:21 ,
6:22
6:23 ,
6:23
6:23
6:24
6:25 ,
6:26 ; ,
6:27
6:29 ;
6:30 ;
Exodus 7
7:1
7:1 ,
7:2
7:3 ;
7:3
7:3
7:4 , ; ;
7:4
7:4 ;
7:5
7:5
7:5 ; ;
7:6
7:7 ; ;
7:7
7:9
7:9 , ,
7:10
7:10
7:11
7:11
7:11 ; ,
7:14 ; , ,
7:15 ;
7:15 , ;
7:16 , ;
7:16 , ; ; , ;
7:17 ; ;
7:17 ;
7:17 ; ,
7:18
7:19 , , ; ; , ; ,
7:20
7:20 ; ,
7:21
7:22
7:22
7:22 ;
Exodus 8
8:1 , ; ; ,
8:2 ;
8:2
8:3
8:5
8:6 ;
8:7 ,
8:8 ; ;
8:8 ,
8:10 ;
8:12 ; ; ;
8:15
8:15 , ;
8:17
8:18 , ;
8:18
8:19 ;
8:19
8:20 ;
8:20 ; ; , ;
8:22 , , ; ; , ;
8:22
8:22 , ; ;
8:22
8:23
8:23 Literally set a ransom (compare and )
8:24 ;
8:26 ;
8:27 ;
8:27
8:28 , , , ;
8:29 ,
8:30
8:32 ; ,
Exodus 9
9:1 ;
9:1
9:2
9:3
9:4
9:6 ,
9:7 ;
9:9
9:10
9:11 [, ]
9:11
9:12
9:12
9:13
9:13
9:14
9:15 ;
9:15
9:16 [, ]
9:16 , ; ; ;
9:16
9:20 []
9:20 ;
9:22
9:23
9:25 , ; ,
9:26 , ; , ; ; ;
9:27
9:27 ; ,
9:27
9:28 , ;
9:28 ; ,
9:29
9:29
9:30 []
9:31 ;
9:33 ;
9:35
Exodus 10
10:1
10:1 ;
10:2
10:2 , ;
10:3 []
10:3 ; ;
10:4
10:5
10:6 ,
10:7 ; ; ;
10:7
10:9 ;
10:11
10:12
10:12 ,
10:14 ;
10:14 , ;
10:15
10:15
10:16
10:16
10:17
10:18
10:19
10:20 ; ;
10:21
10:22
10:22
10:23 ,
10:24 , ;
10:24
10:26
10:27 ; , ; ,
10:28
10:29
Exodus 11
11:1 , ,
11:1 ;
11:2 ; ,
11:3 ;
11:3
11:4 , ,
11:5 ; ,
11:6
11:6
11:7
11:7
11:8
11:8
11:9 ; ;
11:9 ;
11:10
Exodus 12
12:2
12:3
12:5 []
12:6
12:8
12:8
12:8
12:9
12:10 ; ;
12:11 , , ,
12:12 ,
12:12
12:12
12:14
12:14 ,
12:14 , ;
12:15
12:15
12:16 , ,
12:17 ; ,
12:17
12:18
12:19 ; ;
12:21 []
12:21
12:21
12:22
12:22
12:23 ; ,
12:23
12:23 ;
12:23
12:24 , ; ,
12:25 ,
12:26 ; , ,
12:27
12:27
12:28 []
12:29 ,
12:29 ;
12:29
12:31 ,
12:31 ;
12:31
12:32 ,
12:33
12:33
12:35 , ; ,
12:36
12:36
12:37 ,
12:37
12:37
12:38
12:38
12:39 ; ;
12:40
12:40 Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint read Egypt and Canaan.
12:41 , ; ;
12:42 ,
12:43
12:44 ,
12:45
12:46 [, ]
12:47
12:48
12:49 ,
12:51 ;
12:51
Exodus 13
13:2
13:3
13:3 ;
13:3 ,
13:4 ; ;
13:5 ,
13:5
13:5
13:5 ,
13:6
13:7
13:8 ; ;
13:9 ;
13:10 ,
13:11
13:11
13:12
13:13
13:13 , ; ,
13:14
13:14 ,
13:15
13:16
13:17
13:17
13:18
13:19 ,
13:19 ;
13:19
13:19
13:20
13:20
13:21
Exodus 14
14:2
14:2
14:2
14:3
14:4 ; ;
14:4 ; , ,
14:4 ;
14:5
14:7
14:8
14:8
14:9
14:10
14:11 ,
14:12 ;
14:13 ,
14:13 ,
14:13 ;
14:13
14:14 ;
14:14 []
14:16 , ,
14:17
14:17
14:19 []
14:21 ; ; ,
14:21 ,
14:22
14:22 ;
14:24
14:24
14:25 ; , ,
14:25 Samaritan Pentateuch, Septuagint, and Syriac read bound.
14:27
14:27 ,
14:28 ;
14:29 ; ,
14:30 ,
14:30 ;
14:31 ;
Exodus 15
15:1
15:1
15:2
15:2 ,
15:2 , ,
15:2
15:3
15:3 ;
15:4
15:4
15:5
15:6 ;
15:7
15:7 ,
15:7
15:7
15:8 , ,
15:8
15:9
15:9
15:11
15:11
15:11
15:11 ,
15:13 []
15:13
15:14
15:14
15:15 ,
15:15
15:15 ,
15:15
15:15 ,
15:16
15:16
15:16
15:17 ; ,
15:17 ; ,
15:17 ; ; ,
15:18
15:19
15:19
15:20
15:20
15:20
15:20 ;
15:21
15:21
15:22 ; ;
15:22
15:23
15:23 Literally Bitter
15:24 ;
15:25
15:25
15:25 ,
15:26 ,
15:26 , ,
15:26
15:27
Exodus 16
16:1 ,
16:1 , ;
16:2
16:3
16:3 ,
16:4 []
16:4 ,
16:4
16:5
16:6
16:7 ,
16:7 ;
16:7
16:8
16:9
16:10
16:12
16:12
16:12
16:13
16:13
16:14 ,
16:14
16:15
16:16
16:16 ,
16:18
16:19 ; ;
16:23
16:24
16:26 ,
16:28
16:31
16:31 Literally What? (compare )
16:33
16:34
16:35 ,
16:35
16:35
Exodus 17
17:1
17:1
17:1
17:2 , ,
17:2 []
17:3 ,
17:3
17:4
17:4 ;
17:5
17:5
17:6 ,
17:7 , ;
17:7 Literally Tempted
17:7 Literally Contention
17:8
17:9
17:11 []
17:14 ;
17:14
17:15 Hebrew YHWH Nissi
17:16
Exodus 18
18:1 , ;
18:1 [, ]
18:2 ;
18:3
18:3
18:3 Compare
18:4
18:4 Literally My God Is Help
18:5 , ; ;
18:7
18:7
18:8 ,
18:9 []
18:10
18:11
18:11 , , ; ,
18:11
18:12
18:12
18:12 Following Masoretic Text and Septuagint; Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read offered.
18:13
18:15
18:16
18:18 ,
18:19 ;
18:19 ;
18:20
18:20
18:21
18:21
18:21
18:21
18:22
18:22
18:23
18:25
18:26
18:27 ,
Exodus 19
19:1
19:2
19:2 , ;
19:3
19:3
19:4
19:4
19:5 ;
19:5
19:5
19:5
19:6 [, ]
19:6 ; ;
19:7 ,
19:8 ;
19:9 ; ;
19:9 ,
19:10 ,
19:12
19:15 []
19:16 ,
19:16
19:17
19:18
19:18 ;
19:18 ;
19:18
19:18 Septuagint reads all the people.
19:19
19:19
19:21
19:22 ;
19:22 ;
19:22 ,
19:23
Exodus 20
20:1
20:2
20:2
20:3 ;
20:4 ;
20:5 ,
20:5
20:5 ,
20:6
20:7
20:7
20:8
20:9
20:10 ,
20:10
20:11
20:12
20:12 , ; ; ,
20:13
20:14
20:14
20:15 ,
20:16
20:17 [, ]
20:17 []
20:18 ,
20:18 ,
20:18 ,
20:19
20:19 ,
20:20 [, ]
20:20 []
20:20
20:21
20:22 ; ,
20:23 , ,
20:24 ;
20:24
20:24
20:24
20:25
20:25 ,
20:26 ,
Exodus 21
21:1 ;
21:2
21:5 ,
21:6 ; ,
21:7
21:10 [, ]
21:12 []
21:13 ,
21:13 , ,
21:13
21:14 ,
21:14
21:16
21:16
21:16
21:17
21:19
21:21
21:22 , ;
21:24
21:28
21:30
21:32 ,
21:32
Exodus 22
22:1
22:2 ;
22:2
22:3
22:4
22:4
22:7
22:7
22:8 , ;
22:9
22:11
22:12
22:13
22:16 ,
22:17
22:18
22:19 ; ,
22:20 ;
22:21
22:22 []
22:23 []
22:23
22:24
22:24
22:25
22:25
22:26 ,
22:27 ,
22:28
22:28
22:29 ,
22:29 , ,
22:30
22:30
22:31 ;
22:31
Exodus 23
23:1
23:1
23:2
23:2
23:3 ;
23:4 []
23:5
23:6
23:7
23:7
23:7
23:8 ; ,
23:9
23:10
23:12
23:13
23:13
23:14 ;
23:15
23:15 ;
23:16
23:16
23:17
23:17 Hebrew YHWH, usually translated LORD
23:18
23:18
23:19 ,
23:19
23:20 ; ;
23:21 ,
23:21
23:21
23:22
23:23
23:23 ,
23:24 ; ,
23:24 ,
23:24
23:25
23:25
23:25
23:26 ;
23:26
23:27
23:27
23:28
23:29
23:31
23:31
23:31 Hebrew Nahar, the Euphrates
23:32 ,
23:33
Exodus 24
24:1 ,
24:1
24:3 ;
24:4
24:4
24:5 ;
24:6
24:7
24:8 []
24:10 [; ]
24:10
24:10
24:11
24:11
24:11
24:12 ,
24:12 ;
24:13
24:14 ,
24:15
24:16 ;
24:17 , ;
24:18
Exodus 25
25:2 ,
25:6
25:6
25:7 ,
25:8 ,
25:8 []
25:10
25:11
25:15
25:16
25:17
25:20
25:21 ;
25:21
25:22 , ; ,
25:22
25:23
25:29
25:30
25:31
25:33
25:34
25:37 ,
25:37
25:40 []
Exodus 26
26:1
26:7
26:14 , ;
26:15
26:28
26:30
26:31
26:33 ;
26:33 ,
26:34 ;
26:35
26:35
26:36
26:37
Exodus 27
27:1
27:8 ;
27:9
27:17
27:20
27:21 ,
27:21
27:21 ;
Exodus 28
28:1 ;
28:1
28:1
28:1
28:2 , ; ;
28:3 ;
28:3 ; ,
28:4
28:4
28:4
28:4
28:4
28:4 That is, an ornamented vest
28:6
28:9
28:10 ;
28:11
28:12 , ; ,
28:12
28:15
28:17
28:29
28:30
28:30 Literally the Lights and the Perfections (compare )
28:31
28:36 ,
28:38 []
28:38 ; ;
28:39 ;
28:40 ,
28:40
28:41
28:41
28:42
28:43
28:43 ;
28:43
Exodus 29
29:1 []
29:2 ;
29:4
29:5
29:5
29:6
29:7 ;
29:8 ,
29:9 ; ;
29:9
29:10 ;
29:12
29:12 ;
29:13 ; ,
29:14 , ,
29:15
29:15
29:16
29:18
29:19
29:21 ,
29:21 []
29:23
29:24 ;
29:25
29:26 , ;
29:27 ,
29:28
29:28 ;
29:29
29:29 ,
29:29
29:30
29:30
29:31
29:32
29:33 , ,
29:33
29:34 ;
29:35
29:36
29:36 ; ,
29:37 ; ;
29:37 Compare and
29:38 ;
29:38
29:39
29:41
29:42
29:42 ; ,
29:43
29:44
29:45 []
29:45
29:46 ;
29:46
Exodus 30
30:1
30:6
30:6 ,
30:7
30:7 ,
30:9
30:10
30:12 ;
30:12 [, ]
30:12
30:13
30:13
30:13
30:15 []
30:16
30:16
30:18
30:18
30:19 ,
30:21
30:23
30:23
30:23
30:24
30:24
30:25 ;
30:26
30:29 ; ;
30:29 Compare and
30:30
30:32 ,
30:33
30:33
30:34 ;
30:35
30:36
30:36
30:37
30:38
Exodus 31
31:2
31:2
31:3
31:6
31:6 ; , ;
31:7
31:7
31:7
31:8
31:8
31:9
31:9
31:10 ,
31:10 Or woven garments
31:11
31:11
31:13 ,
31:13
31:14
31:14
31:15
31:15
31:17
31:17 ; ,
31:18 [; , ]
Exodus 32
32:1 ;
32:1
32:1
32:1
32:1
32:2 ;
32:4 , ,
32:4 ,
32:5
32:6
32:7
32:7 ,
32:8 , ,
32:8
32:9 []
32:10 ,
32:10
32:10
32:11 ,
32:12
32:12
32:13 []
32:13 ; ; , ; ; ; ,
32:13 and
32:14
32:15
32:16
32:19 ,
32:20
32:21
32:22
32:25 ,
32:25
32:27
32:29
32:30 ,
32:30
32:30
32:31
32:31
32:32
32:32
32:33 [; , , ]
32:33
32:34
32:34
32:34
32:34
32:35
Exodus 33
33:1 , ,
33:1
33:2
33:2
33:3
33:3 ,
33:3 ;
33:4 ,
33:4
33:5 []
33:7 ,
33:7
33:8
33:9
33:10
33:11
33:11
33:12 ;
33:12
33:13
33:13 ; ; ;
33:13 ,
33:14
33:14 ;
33:15
33:16
33:16
33:17 []
33:18 []
33:19 ,
33:19 [, , ]
33:19 [, ]
33:20 []
33:22
33:22 ,
33:23 []
Exodus 34
34:1 [; ; , , ]
34:1 ,
34:2 , ,
34:3 , ;
34:5
34:5
34:6
34:6
34:6
34:7
34:7 ,
34:7
34:8
34:9
34:9
34:9 ;
34:10
34:10
34:10
34:11
34:11 ;
34:12 ,
34:13
34:13
34:14 []
34:14 [; ]
34:14 []
34:15
34:15 ,
34:15 , ,
34:16
34:16 ,
34:17 , ;
34:18 ,
34:18 ;
34:19 ;
34:20
34:20 ;
34:21 ; ; ;
34:23
34:24 []
34:25
34:26
34:27
34:28
34:28 ,
34:28 Literally Ten Words
34:29
34:29
34:32
34:33 [, ]
34:34 []
Exodus 35
35:1
35:2
35:2
35:3 ;
35:4 ,
35:5
35:5
35:6
35:6
35:8 ;
35:10 ; ,
35:11 , ;
35:12
35:13
35:13
35:14
35:15
35:15
35:15
35:16
35:17
35:19 ; ,
35:19 Or woven garments
35:21 ; , , , ;
35:21
35:22 ,
35:22
35:23
35:25 ; ;
35:27
35:28
35:29
35:30
35:34
35:35
Exodus 36
36:1 ; ; ,
36:1
36:2 , ,
36:3
36:3
36:5 [, ]
36:7
36:8
36:12
36:14
36:19
36:20
36:22
36:31
36:35
36:37
Exodus 37
37:1 ;
37:1
37:6
37:9
37:10
37:16
37:17
37:23
37:25
37:28
37:29
Exodus 38
38:1
38:8
38:9
38:20
38:21
38:21 ,
38:21 ,
38:22 ,
38:23 ;
38:24 ,
38:24 ,
38:25
38:26 ,
38:26 ;
38:27 , , ,
38:28
Exodus 39
39:1 ;
39:1 ;
39:1
39:1 Or woven garments
39:2
39:2
39:6
39:7 ,
39:8
39:10
39:14
39:22
39:22
39:25
39:27 ,
39:28 ,
39:28
39:29
39:30 ,
39:30
39:32
39:32 ; ,
39:36
39:41 Or woven garments
39:42
39:43 ,
Exodus 40
40:1
40:2 ;
40:2 , ;
40:3
40:4 ;
40:4 ;
40:4 ,
40:5
40:6
40:7 ;
40:9
40:10
40:10 ,
40:12
40:13 ; ,
40:13 []
40:15
40:17
40:20
40:21
40:22
40:23
40:24
40:25 ; , ;
40:26 , ;
40:27
40:28 ;
40:29
40:29
40:30 ;
40:31 ,
40:32
40:33 ;
40:33 []
40:34
40:34 ,
40:34 ,
40:35
40:36
40:37
40:38