# verses

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Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.


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God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.


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So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so.


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And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so.


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God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.


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Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.


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The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.


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And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,


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God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.


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And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky."


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So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.


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God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."


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And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so.


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God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.


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Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."


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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.


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God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."


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Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.


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And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life in it--I give every green plant for food." And it was so.


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God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning--the sixth day.


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By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.


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And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.


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This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens--


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and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground,


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the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.


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And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


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The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold.


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The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.


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but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."


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Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.


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So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.


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So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.


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Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.


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The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."


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For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.


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Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"


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but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"


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"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."


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When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.


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Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.


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Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.


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And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"


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Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."


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So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.


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And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."


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To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."


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To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.


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By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."


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And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."


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So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.


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After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.


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Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man."


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But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,


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but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.


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If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."


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Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.


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Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"


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Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.


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When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."


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Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."


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But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.


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Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.


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To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.


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Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.


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Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.


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Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him."


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Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.


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This is the written account of Adam's line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.


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When Adam had lived years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.


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And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God years and had other sons and daughters.


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He named him Noah and said, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed."


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the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.


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Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."


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The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.


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The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.


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So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them."


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This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.


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So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.


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Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.


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I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.


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But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark--you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.


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You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.


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Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.


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You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."


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The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.


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Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate,


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and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.


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Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."


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And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.


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In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.


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On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.


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They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.


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The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.


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For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.


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The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.


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Every living thing that moved on the earth perished--birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.


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Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.


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But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.


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Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.


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The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,


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The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.


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and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.


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But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.


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When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.


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By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.


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Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you--the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground--so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."


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All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds--everything that moves on the earth--came out of the ark, one kind after another.


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Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.


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The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.


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"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."


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Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.


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The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands.


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Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.


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And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.


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"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.


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and with every living creature that was with you--the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you--every living creature on earth.


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I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth."


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And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:


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I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.


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I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.


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Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."


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So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth."


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The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)


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But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.


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May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."


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(From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)


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He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD."


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and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha.


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Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.


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Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg, because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.


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These are the clans of Noah's sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.


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They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.


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Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."


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The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.


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That is why it was called Babel--because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.


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This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was years old, he became the father of Arphaxad.


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This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot.


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While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth.


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Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah.


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Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.


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The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.


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"I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.


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I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."


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So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.


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He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.


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Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.


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The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.


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From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.


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Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.


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When the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me but will let you live.


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Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you."


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And when Pharaoh's officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace.


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He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.


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So Pharaoh summoned Abram. "What have you done to me?" he said. "Why didn't you tell me she was your wife?


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Why did you say, 'She is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!"


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Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.


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So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him.


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From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier


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But the land could not support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to stay together.


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And quarreling arose between Abram's herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.


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So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for we are brothers.


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Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left."


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Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)


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So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company:


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Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.


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The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west.


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I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.


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So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.


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At this time Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim


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went to war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).


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In the fourteenth year, Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh Kiriathaim


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Then they turned back and went to En Mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who were living in Hazazon Tamar.


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Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and drew up their battle lines in the Valley of Siddim


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against Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar--four kings against five.


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Now the Valley of Siddim was full of tar pits, and when the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some of the men fell into them and the rest fled to the hills.


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One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the great trees of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were allied with Abram.


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When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan.


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During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.


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He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people.


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After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).


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And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand." Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.


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But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have raised my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, and have taken an oath


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that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, 'I made Abram rich.'


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I will accept nothing but what my men have eaten and the share that belongs to the men who went with me--to Aner, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them have their share."


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After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."


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But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"


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Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."


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He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."


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He also said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it."


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So the LORD said to him, "Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon."


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Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half.


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As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.


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Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.


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But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.


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In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."


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When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.


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On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates--


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Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;


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so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her." Abram agreed to what Sarai said.


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So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.


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He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.


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Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."


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"Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.


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The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.


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And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?" "I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.


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The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.


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He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers."


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She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me."


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When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.


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No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.


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I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.


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The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."


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Then God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come.


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This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.


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For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner--those who are not your offspring.


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Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant.


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Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant."


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God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah.


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I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her."


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Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"


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Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.


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And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.


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On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him.


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And every male in Abraham's household, including those born in his household or bought from a foreigner, was circumcised with him.


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The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.


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Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.


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Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way--now that you have come to your servant." "Very well," they answered, "do as you say."


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So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread."


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Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.


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He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.


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Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son." Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.


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Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.


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So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?"


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Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child, now that I am old?'


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Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son."


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When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way.


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Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.


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For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."


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that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."


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What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?


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Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"


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The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."


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Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,


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what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."


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Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."


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Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."


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Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."


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Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."


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The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.


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"My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square."


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But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.


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Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom--both young and old--surrounded the house.


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They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."


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Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."


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"Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.


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Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.


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The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here--sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,


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because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."


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So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.


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With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."


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When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.


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As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"


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Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.


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Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it--it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."


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He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.


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But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is why the town was called Zoar.)


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Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities--and also the vegetation in the land.


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He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.


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So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.


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Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.


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One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth.


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Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father."


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That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.


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The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Last night I lay with my father. Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father."


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So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went and lay with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.


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The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.


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Now Abraham moved on from there into the region of the Negev and lived between Kadesh and Shur. For a while he stayed in Gerar,


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and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, "She is my sister." Then Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.


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But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, "You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman."


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Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister,' and didn't she also say, 'He is my brother'? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands."


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Then God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.


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Now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die."


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Early the next morning Abimelech summoned all his officials, and when he told them all that had happened, they were very much afraid.


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Then Abimelech called Abraham in and said, "What have you done to us? How have I wronged you that you have brought such great guilt upon me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done."


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Abraham replied, "I said to myself, 'There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.'


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Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife.


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And when God had me wander from my father's household, I said to her, 'This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, "He is my brother." '"


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Then Abimelech brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him.


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To Sarah he said, "I am giving your brother a thousand shekels of silver. This is to cover the offense against you before all who are with you; you are completely vindicated."


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Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again,


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Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.


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And she added, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."


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and she said to Abraham, "Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."


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But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.


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Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.


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Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she thought, "I cannot watch the boy die." And as she sat there nearby, she began to sob.


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God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.


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Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.


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At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.


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Now swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or my descendants. Show to me and the country where you are living as an alien the same kindness I have shown to you."


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But Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today."


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and Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?"


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After the treaty had been made at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his forces returned to the land of the Philistines.


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Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.


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Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."


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Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.


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He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."


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Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,


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Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"


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Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.


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When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.


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But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied.


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"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."


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Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.


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So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided."


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and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,


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I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,


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Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.


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Some time later Abraham was told, "Milcah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor:


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She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.


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"I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead."


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"Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead."


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He said to them, "If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf


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so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you."


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Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.


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"No, my lord," he said. "Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead."


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and he said to Ephron in their hearing, "Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there."


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"Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead."


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Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.


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So Ephron's field in Machpelah near Mamre--both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field--was deeded


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to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.


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Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan.


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He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh.


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I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living,


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The servant asked him, "What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?"


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"The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'--he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.


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If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."


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So the servant put his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter.


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Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and left, taking with him all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor.


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He had the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was toward evening, the time the women go out to draw water.


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Then he prayed, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.


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See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water.


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May it be that when I say to a girl, 'Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too'--let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master."


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Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, who was the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.


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The girl was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever lain with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.


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After she had given him a drink, she said, "I'll draw water for your camels too, until they have finished drinking."


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So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw more water, and drew enough for all his camels.


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Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful.


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When the camels had finished drinking, the man took out a gold nose ring weighing a beka and two gold bracelets weighing ten shekels.


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Then he asked, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me, is there room in your father's house for us to spend the night?"


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saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and faithfulness to my master. As for me, the LORD has led me on the journey to the house of my master's relatives."


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As soon as he had seen the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister's arms, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man said to her, he went out to the man and found him standing by the camels near the spring.


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"Come, you who are blessed by the LORD," he said. "Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels."


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So the man went to the house, and the camels were unloaded. Straw and fodder were brought for the camels, and water for him and his men to wash their feet.


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Then food was set before him, but he said, "I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say." "Then tell us," Laban said.


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The LORD has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys.


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And my master made me swear an oath, and said, 'You must not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live,


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"He replied, 'The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey a success, so that you can get a wife for my son from my own clan and from my father's family.


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Then, when you go to my clan, you will be released from my oath even if they refuse to give her to you--you will be released from my oath.'


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"When I came to the spring today, I said, 'O LORD, God of my master Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come.


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See, I am standing beside this spring; if a maiden comes out to draw water and I say to her, "Please let me drink a little water from your jar,"


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and if she says to me, "Drink, and I'll draw water for your camels too," let her be the one the LORD has chosen for my master's son.'


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"Before I finished praying in my heart, Rebekah came out, with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water, and I said to her, 'Please give me a drink.'


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"She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too.' So I drank, and she watered the camels also.


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"I asked her, 'Whose daughter are you?' "She said, 'The daughter of Bethuel son of Nahor, whom Milcah bore to him.' "Then I put the ring in her nose and the bracelets on her arms,


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and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.


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Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn."


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Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has directed."


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Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.


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Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, "Send me on my way to my master."


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But her brother and her mother replied, "Let the girl remain with us ten days or so; then you may go."


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But he said to them, "Do not detain me, now that the LORD has granted success to my journey. Send me on my way so I may go to my master."


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So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men.


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And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, "Our sister, may you increase to thousands upon thousands; may your offspring possess the gates of their enemies."


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Then Rebekah and her maids got ready and mounted their camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.


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and asked the servant, "Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?" "He is my master," the servant answered. So she took her veil and covered herself.


text:
Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.


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Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan; the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites and the Leummites.


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The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.


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But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.


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Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people.


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His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite,


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This is the account of Abraham's son Ishmael, whom Sarah's maidservant, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.


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These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,


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These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps.


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Altogether, Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people.


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His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt, as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.


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and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.


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Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.


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The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.


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The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."


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After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.


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The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.


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He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)


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Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.


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Now there was a famine in the land--besides the earlier famine of Abraham's time--and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar.


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The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.


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Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.


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I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,


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When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," because he was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful."


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When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.


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So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She is really your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac answered him, "Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her."


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Then Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us."


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So Abimelech gave orders to all the people: "Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."


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Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.


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So all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.


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Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.


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But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen and said, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him.


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He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land."


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That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."


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Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.


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Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.


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They answered, "We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between us'--between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you


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that you will do us no harm, just as we did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD."


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Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.


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That day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, "We've found water!"


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When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.


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When Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he called for Esau his older son and said to him, "My son." "Here I am," he answered.


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Now then, get your weapons--your quiver and bow--and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me.


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Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die."


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Now Rebekah was listening as Isaac spoke to his son Esau. When Esau left for the open country to hunt game and bring it back,


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'Bring me some game and prepare me some tasty food to eat, so that I may give you my blessing in the presence of the LORD before I die.'


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Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so I can prepare some tasty food for your father, just the way he likes it.


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Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "But my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I'm a man with smooth skin.


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What if my father touches me? I would appear to be tricking him and would bring down a curse on myself rather than a blessing."


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His mother said to him, "My son, let the curse fall on me. Just do what I say; go and get them for me."


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So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and she prepared some tasty food, just the way his father liked it.


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Then Rebekah took the best clothes of Esau her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.


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Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of my game so that you may give me your blessing."


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Isaac asked his son, "How did you find it so quickly, my son?" "The LORD your God gave me success," he replied.


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Then Isaac said to Jacob, "Come near so I can touch you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not."


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Jacob went close to his father Isaac, who touched him and said, "The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau."


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He did not recognize him, for his hands were hairy like those of his brother Esau; so he blessed him.


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Then he said, "My son, bring me some of your game to eat, so that I may give you my blessing." Jacob brought it to him and he ate; and he brought some wine and he drank.


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So he went to him and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.


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May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed."


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After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in from hunting.


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He too prepared some tasty food and brought it to his father. Then he said to him, "My father, sit up and eat some of my game, so that you may give me your blessing."


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Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him--and indeed he will be blessed!"


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When Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, "Bless me--me too, my father!"


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Esau said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?"


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Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?"


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Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.


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His father Isaac answered him, "Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above.


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You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck."


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Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, "The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob."


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When Rebekah was told what her older son Esau had said, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, "Your brother Esau is consoling himself with the thought of killing you.


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When your brother is no longer angry with you and forgets what you did to him, I'll send word for you to come back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"


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Then Rebekah said to Isaac, "I'm disgusted with living because of these Hittite women. If Jacob takes a wife from among the women of this land, from Hittite women like these, my life will not be worth living."


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Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.


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May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.


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May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land God gave to Abraham."


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Then Isaac sent Jacob on his way, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.


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Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman,"


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so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.


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When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.


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He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.


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There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.


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Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.


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I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."


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When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it."


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He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."


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Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.


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Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear


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and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth."


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There he saw a well in the field, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large.


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When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well's mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.


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Then Jacob asked them, "Is he well?" "Yes, he is," they said, "and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep."


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"Look," he said, "the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture."


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"We can't," they replied, "until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep."


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While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.


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When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and Laban's sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle's sheep.


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He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.


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As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things.


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Then Laban said to him, "You are my own flesh and blood." After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month,


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Laban said to him, "Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be."


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Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.


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Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel."


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So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.


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When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me?"


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Laban replied, "It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.


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Finish this daughter's bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work."


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And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.


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Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.


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Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "It is because the LORD has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now."


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She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Because the LORD heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too." So she named him Simeon.


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Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons." So he was named Levi.


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She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.


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When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I'll die!"


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Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"


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Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family."


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Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son." Because of this she named him Dan.


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Then Rachel said, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won." So she named him Naphtali.


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When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.


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During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."


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But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?" "Very well," Rachel said, "he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."


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So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me," she said. "I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he slept with her that night.


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Then Leah said, "God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.


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Then Leah said, "God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.


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After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.


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Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I've done for you."


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But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you."


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Jacob said to him, "You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.


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The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?"


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"What shall I give you?" he asked. "Don't give me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:


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Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.


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And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen."


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That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.


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Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks.


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Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.


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Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,


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Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban's animals.


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Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,


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but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.


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In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.


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Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father."


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Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you."


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He said to them, "I see that your father's attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me.


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yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me.


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If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, 'The streaked ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked young.


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"In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted.


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And he said, 'Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.


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I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and where you made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.'"


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Then Rachel and Leah replied, "Do we still have any share in the inheritance of our father's estate?


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Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he has used up what was paid for us.


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Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you."


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and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.


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Taking his relatives with him, he pursued Jacob for seven days and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.


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Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad."


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Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban and his relatives camped there too.


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Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You've deceived me, and you've carried off my daughters like captives in war.


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Why did you run off secretly and deceive me? Why didn't you tell me, so I could send you away with joy and singing to the music of tambourines and harps?


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You didn't even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters good-by. You have done a foolish thing.


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I have the power to harm you; but last night the God of your father said to me, 'Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.'


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Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"


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Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force.


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But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.


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So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah's tent, he entered Rachel's tent.


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Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel's saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.


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Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I'm having my period." So he searched but could not find the household gods.


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Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. "What is my crime?" he asked Laban. "What sin have I committed that you hunt me down?


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Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.


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"I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.


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I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night.


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This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes.


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It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.


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If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."


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Laban answered Jacob, "The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?


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He said to his relatives, "Gather some stones." So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap.


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It was also called Mizpah, because he said, "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.


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If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me."


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Laban also said to Jacob, "Here is this heap, and here is this pillar I have set up between you and me.


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This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to your side to harm you and that you will not go past this heap and pillar to my side to harm me.


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May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob took an oath in the name of the Fear of his father Isaac.


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He offered a sacrifice there in the hill country and invited his relatives to a meal. After they had eaten, they spent the night there.


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Early the next morning Laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them. Then he left and returned home.


text:
He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.


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I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.'"


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When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, "We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."


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In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.


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Then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, 'Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,'


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I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.


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Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.


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But you have said, 'I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.'"


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thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.


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He put them in the care of his servants, each herd by itself, and said to his servants, "Go ahead of me, and keep some space between the herds."


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He instructed the one in the lead: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks, 'To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and who owns all these animals in front of you?'


text:
then you are to say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau, and he is coming behind us.'"


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He also instructed the second, the third and all the others who followed the herds: "You are to say the same thing to Esau when you meet him.


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And be sure to say, 'Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.'" For he thought, "I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me."


text:
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.


text:
When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.


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Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak." But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."


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Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."


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Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.


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So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."


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Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon.


text:
Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants.


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He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.


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But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they wept.


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Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. "Who are these with you?" he asked. Jacob answered, "They are the children God has graciously given your servant."


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Next, Leah and her children came and bowed down. Last of all came Joseph and Rachel, and they too bowed down.


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Esau asked, "What do you mean by all these droves I met?" "To find favor in your eyes, my lord," he said.


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"No, please!" said Jacob. "If I have found favor in your eyes, accept this gift from me. For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.


text:
Please accept the present that was brought to you, for God has been gracious to me and I have all I need." And because Jacob insisted, Esau accepted it.


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But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are tender and that I must care for the ewes and cows that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard just one day, all the animals will die.


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So let my lord go on ahead of his servant, while I move along slowly at the pace of the droves before me and that of the children, until I come to my lord in Seir."


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Esau said, "Then let me leave some of my men with you." "But why do that?" Jacob asked. "Just let me find favor in the eyes of my lord."


text:
Jacob, however, went to Succoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock. That is why the place is called Succoth.


text:
After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.


text:
For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent.


text:
When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her.


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When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home.


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Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter--a thing that should not be done.


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But Hamor said to them, "My son Shechem has his heart set on your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife.


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You can settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and acquire property in it."


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Then Shechem said to Dinah's father and brothers, "Let me find favor in your eyes, and I will give you whatever you ask.


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Make the price for the bride and the gift I am to bring as great as you like, and I'll pay whatever you ask me. Only give me the girl as my wife."


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Because their sister Dinah had been defiled, Jacob's sons replied deceitfully as they spoke to Shechem and his father Hamor.


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They said to them, "We can't do such a thing; we can't give our sister to a man who is not circumcised. That would be a disgrace to us.


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We will give our consent to you on one condition only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.


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Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you and become one people with you.


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The young man, who was the most honored of all his father's household, lost no time in doing what they said, because he was delighted with Jacob's daughter.


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"These men are friendly toward us," they said. "Let them live in our land and trade in it; the land has plenty of room for them. We can marry their daughters and they can marry ours.


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But the men will consent to live with us as one people only on the condition that our males be circumcised, as they themselves are.


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Won't their livestock, their property and all their other animals become ours? So let us give our consent to them, and they will settle among us."


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All the men who went out of the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male in the city was circumcised.


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Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male.


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The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled.


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They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields.


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They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses.


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Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed."


text:
Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau."


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So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.


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Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone."


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So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.


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Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them.


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There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because it was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother.


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Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth.


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God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel.


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And God said to him, "I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body.


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The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."


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Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him, and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it.


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Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.


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And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son."


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As she breathed her last--for she was dying--she named her son Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin.


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While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father's concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard of it. Jacob had twelve sons:


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The sons of Leah's maidservant Zilpah: Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram.


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Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.


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Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.


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Esau took his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon the Hivite--


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and Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the sons of Esau, who were born to him in Canaan.


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Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother Jacob.


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Their possessions were too great for them to remain together; the land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock.


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These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Basemath.


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Esau's son Eliphaz also had a concubine named Timna, who bore him Amalek. These were grandsons of Esau's wife Adah.


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The sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah and granddaughter of Zibeon, whom she bore to Esau: Jeush, Jalam and Korah.


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These were the chiefs among Esau's descendants: The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn of Esau: Chiefs Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,


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Korah, Gatam and Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in Edom; they were grandsons of Adah.


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The sons of Esau's son Reuel: Chiefs Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the chiefs descended from Reuel in Edom; they were grandsons of Esau's wife Basemath.


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The sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah: Chiefs Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the chiefs descended from Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.


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The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah. This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys of his father Zibeon.


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Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These were the Horite chiefs, according to their divisions, in the land of Seir.


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When Husham died, Hadad son of Bedad, who defeated Midian in the country of Moab, succeeded him as king. His city was named Avith.


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When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad succeeded him as king. His city was named Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab.


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These were the chiefs descended from Esau, by name, according to their clans and regions: Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,


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Magdiel and Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom, according to their settlements in the land they occupied. This was Esau the father of the Edomites.


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This is the account of Jacob. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.


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Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.


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When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.


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We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."


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His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.


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Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."


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When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?"


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and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them." "Very well," he replied.


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So he said to him, "Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me." Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem,


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"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let's go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan.


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"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."


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When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said.


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"Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.


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So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe--the richly ornamented robe he was wearing--


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and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.


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As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.


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Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.


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So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.


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They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, "We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe."


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He recognized it and said, "It is my son's robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces."


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All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. "No," he said, "in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son." So his father wept for him.


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Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.


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She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.


text:
Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother."


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But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.


text:
Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.


text:
After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.


text:
she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.


text:
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked.


text:
"I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked.


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He said, "What pledge should I give you?" "Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.


text:
Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her.


text:
He asked the men who lived there, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?" "There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here," they said.


text:
So he went back to Judah and said, "I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, 'There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.'"


text:
Then Judah said, "Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her."


text:
About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death!"


text:
As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."


text:
Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.


text:
As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first."


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But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out!" And he was named Perez.


text:
Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.


text:
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.


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When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did,


text:
Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.


text:
From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.


text:
So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,


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But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.


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No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?"


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One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.


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She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.


text:
she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.


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When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger.


text:
Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,


text:
the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.


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So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.


text:
The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.


text:
Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.


text:
and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.


text:
The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time,


text:
each of the two men--the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison--had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.


text:
So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, "Why are your faces so sad today?"


text:
"We both had dreams," they answered, "but there is no one to interpret them." Then Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."


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So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, "In my dream I saw a vine in front of me,


text:
and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes.


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Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand."


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Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.


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But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.


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For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon."


text:
When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, "I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread.


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In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head."


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Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat away your flesh."


text:
Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials:


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He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand,


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After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank.


text:
He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk.


text:
The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.


text:
In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.


text:
Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard.


text:
Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream.


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And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged."


text:
So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.


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Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it."


text:
After them, seven other cows came up--scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt.


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But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.


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The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none could explain it to me."


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Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, "The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.


text:
The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream.


text:
The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.


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but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land.


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The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe.


text:
The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.


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Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.


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They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.


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This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine."


text:
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.


text:
You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you."


text:
Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.


text:
He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, "Make way!" Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.


text:
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt."


text:
Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt.


text:
Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt.


text:
Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it.


text:
Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure.


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Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.


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Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household."


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The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."


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and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food.


text:
When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph and do what he tells you."


text:
When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt.


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And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world.


text:
When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you just keep looking at each other?"


text:
He continued, "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die."


text:
But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.


text:
So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.


text:
Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.


text:
As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. "Where do you come from?" he asked. "From the land of Canaan," they replied, "to buy food."


text:
Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, "You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected."


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But they replied, "Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more."


text:
And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.


text:
Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!"


text:
If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households.


text:
But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified and that you may not die." This they proceeded to do.


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They said to one another, "Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this distress has come upon us."


text:
Reuben replied, "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood."


text:
He turned away from them and began to weep, but then turned back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes.


text:
Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man's silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them,


text:
At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack.


text:
"My silver has been returned," he said to his brothers. "Here it is in my sack." Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, "What is this that God has done to us?"


text:
When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said,


text:
"The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land.


text:
We were twelve brothers, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan.'


text:
"Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, 'This is how I will know whether you are honest men: Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go.


text:
But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.'"


text:
As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver! When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened.


text:
Their father Jacob said to them, "You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!"


text:
Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back."


text:
But Jacob said, "My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow."


text:
So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, "Go back and buy us a little more food."


text:
But Judah said to him, "The man warned us solemnly, 'You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.'


text:
But if you will not send him, we will not go down, because the man said to us, 'You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.'"


text:
They replied, "The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. 'Is your father still living?' he asked us. 'Do you have another brother?' We simply answered his questions. How were we to know he would say, 'Bring your brother down here'?"


text:
Then Judah said to Israel his father, "Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die.


text:
I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.


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Then their father Israel said to them, "If it must be, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift--a little balm and a little honey, some spices and myrrh, some pistachio nuts and almonds.


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Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake.


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And may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved."


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So the men took the gifts and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph.


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When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, "Take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare dinner; they are to eat with me at noon."


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Now the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought, "We were brought here because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys."


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But at the place where we stopped for the night we opened our sacks and each of us found his silver--the exact weight--in the mouth of his sack. So we have brought it back with us.


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We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in our sacks."


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"It's all right," he said. "Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver." Then he brought Simeon out to them.


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The steward took the men into Joseph's house, gave them water to wash their feet and provided fodder for their donkeys.


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They prepared their gifts for Joseph's arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there.


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When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground.


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He asked them how they were, and then he said, "How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living?"


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They replied, "Your servant our father is still alive and well." And they bowed low to pay him honor.


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As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son, he asked, "Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?" And he said, "God be gracious to you, my son."


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Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.


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They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to Egyptians.


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The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest; and they looked at each other in astonishment.


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When portions were served to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as much as anyone else's. So they feasted and drank freely with him.


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Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: "Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's silver in the mouth of his sack.


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Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack, along with the silver for his grain." And he did as Joseph said.


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They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, "Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid good with evil?


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Isn't this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.'"


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But they said to him, "Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that!


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We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?


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If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord's slaves."


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"Very well, then," he said, "let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame."


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Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.


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Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him.


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Joseph said to them, "What is this you have done? Don't you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?"


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"What can we say to my lord?" Judah replied. "What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. We are now my lord's slaves--we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup."


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But Joseph said, "Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace."


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Then Judah went up to him and said: "Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.


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And we answered, 'We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him.'


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But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.'


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But we said, 'We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'


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One of them went away from me, and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since.


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If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.'


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"So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life,


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sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.


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Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, 'If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!'


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"Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.


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How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father."


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Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.


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Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.


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Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!


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And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.


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For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping.


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But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.


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"So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.


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Now hurry back to my father and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay.


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You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me--you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.


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I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.'


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"You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you.


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Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly."


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When the news reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased.


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Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers, 'Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan,


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and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.'


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"You are also directed to tell them, 'Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come.


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So the sons of Israel did this. Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey.


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To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes.


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And this is what he sent to his father: ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey.


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Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving he said to them, "Don't quarrel on the way!"


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They told him, "Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt." Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them.


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But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.


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So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.


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"I am God, the God of your father," he said. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.


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I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes."


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Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel's sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him.


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They also took with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan, and Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt.


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He took with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters--all his offspring.


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These are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt: Reuben the firstborn of Jacob.


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The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez and Zerah (but Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.


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These were the sons Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram, besides his daughter Dinah. These sons and daughters of his were thirty-three in all.


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The sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi and Beriah. Their sister was Serah. The sons of Beriah: Heber and Malkiel.


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These were the children born to Jacob by Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah--sixteen in all.


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These were the sons born to Jacob by Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel--seven in all.


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All those who went to Egypt with Jacob--those who were his direct descendants, not counting his sons' wives--numbered sixty-six persons.


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With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob's family, which went to Egypt, were seventy in all.


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Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen,


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Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.


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Israel said to Joseph, "Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive."


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Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, "I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, 'My brothers and my father's household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me.


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The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.'


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you should answer, 'Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.' Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians."


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Joseph went and told Pharaoh, "My father and brothers, with their flocks and herds and everything they own, have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen."


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Pharaoh asked the brothers, "What is your occupation?" "Your servants are shepherds," they replied to Pharaoh, "just as our fathers were."


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They also said to him, "We have come to live here awhile, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants' flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen."


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and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock."


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Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh,


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And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers."


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So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharaoh directed.


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Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their children.


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There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine.


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Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh's palace.


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When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, "Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is used up."


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"Then bring your livestock," said Joseph. "I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone."


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So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.


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When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, "We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.


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Why should we perish before your eyes--we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate."


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So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh's,


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However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.


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Joseph said to the people, "Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground.


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But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children."


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"You have saved our lives," they said. "May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh."


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So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt--still in force today--that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh's.


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Now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there and were fruitful and increased greatly in number.


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When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt,


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but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried." "I will do as you say," he said.


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"Swear to me," he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.


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Some time later Joseph was told, "Your father is ill." So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.


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When Jacob was told, "Your son Joseph has come to you," Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.


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Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me


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and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and will increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.'


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"Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine.


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Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.


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As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).


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"They are the sons God has given me here," Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, "Bring them to me so I may bless them."


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Now Israel's eyes were failing because of old age, and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them.


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Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children too."


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And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel's left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel's right hand, and brought them close to him.


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But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.


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Then he blessed Joseph and said, "May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,


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the Angel who has delivered me from all harm--may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly upon the earth."


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When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.


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But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations."


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He blessed them that day and said, "In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.


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Then Israel said to Joseph, "I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers.


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And to you, as one who is over your brothers, I give the ridge of land I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow."


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Then Jacob called for his sons and said: "Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.


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"Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.


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Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed, onto my couch and defiled it.


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Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.


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Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel.


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"Judah, your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons will bow down to you.


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You are a lion's cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him?


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The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.


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He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.


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"Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon.


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When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.


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Dan will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse's heels so that its rider tumbles backward.


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But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel,


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because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breast and womb.


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Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.


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"Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder."


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All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.


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Then he gave them these instructions: "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite,


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the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.


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There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah.


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When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.


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Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So the physicians embalmed him,


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taking a full forty days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.


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When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh's court, "If I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him,


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'My father made me swear an oath and said, "I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.'"


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So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's officials accompanied him--the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt--


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besides all the members of Joseph's household and his brothers and those belonging to his father's household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen.


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When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly; and there Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father.


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When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning." That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim.


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They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, along with the field.


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After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father.


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When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?"


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'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept.


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You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.


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So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.


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and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph's knees.


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Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."


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And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place."


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So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.


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but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.


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Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."


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So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.


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But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites


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They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.


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"When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."


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The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live.


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Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"


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The midwives answered Pharaoh, "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."


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Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."


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and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.


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But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.


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Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it.


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She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said.


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Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?"


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Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him.


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When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."


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One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.


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The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"


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The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid and thought, "What I did must have become known."


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When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.


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Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock.


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Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.


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When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"


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They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."


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"And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."


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Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."


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During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.


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Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.


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There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.


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When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."


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"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."


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Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.


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The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.


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So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey--the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.


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And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.


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But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"


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And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."


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Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"


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God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"


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God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the 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, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.


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"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers--the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.


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And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--a land flowing with milk and honey.'


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"The elders of Israel will listen to you. Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God.'


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So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.


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"And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed.


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Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."


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Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?"


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The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.


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Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.


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"This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob--has appeared to you."


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Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.


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"Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.


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Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second.


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But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."


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Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."


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The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?


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Then the LORD'S anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you.


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You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do.


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He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him.


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Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive." Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."


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Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."


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So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.


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The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.


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and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"


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But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses'feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said.


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So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)


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The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the desert to meet Moses." So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.


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Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the miraculous signs he had commanded him to perform.


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and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people,


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and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.


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Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the desert.'"


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Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go."


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Then they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword."


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But the king of Egypt said, "Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!"


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Then Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working."


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"You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw.


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But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don't reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'


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Then the slave drivers and the foremen went out and said to the people, "This is what Pharaoh says: 'I will not give you any more straw.


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The slave drivers kept pressing them, saying, "Complete the work required of you for each day, just as when you had straw."


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The Israelite foremen appointed by Pharaoh's slave drivers were beaten and were asked, "Why didn't you meet your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as before?"


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Then the Israelite foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh: "Why have you treated your servants this way?


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Your servants are given no straw, yet we are told, 'Make bricks!' Your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people."


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Pharaoh said, "Lazy, that's what you are--lazy! That is why you keep saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.'


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The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, "You are not to reduce the number of bricks required of you for each day."


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and they said, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."


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Moses returned to the LORD and said, "O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me?


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Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all."


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country."


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I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them.


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I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they lived as aliens.


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Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.


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"Therefore, say to the Israelites: 'I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.


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I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.


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And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.'"


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Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.


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But Moses said to the LORD, "If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?"


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Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron about the Israelites and Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he commanded them to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.


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These were the heads of their families: The sons of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans of Reuben.


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The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.


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These were the names of the sons of Levi according to their records: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived years.


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Aaron married Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.


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Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These were the heads of the Levite families, clan by clan.


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It was this same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, "Bring the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions."


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They were the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt about bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the same Moses and Aaron.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.


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You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.


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he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.


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And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."


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"When Pharaoh says to you, 'Perform a miracle,' then say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,' and it will become a snake."


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So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake.


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Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts:


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Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake.


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Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened.


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This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood.


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The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water.'"


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The LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt--over the streams and canals, over the ponds and all the reservoirs'--and they will turn to blood. Blood will be everywhere in Egypt, even in the wooden buckets and stone jars."


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Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood.


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The fish in the Nile died, and the river smelled so bad that the Egyptians could not drink its water. Blood was everywhere in Egypt.


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But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.


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And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.


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The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.'"


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So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land.


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But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.


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Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."


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Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile."


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"Tomorrow," Pharaoh said. Moses replied, "It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God.


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The frogs will leave you and your houses, your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile."


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After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh.


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And the LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards and in the fields.


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But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the ground,' and throughout the land of Egypt the dust will become gnats."


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They did this, and when Aaron stretched out his hand with the staff and struck the dust of the ground, gnats came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became gnats.


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But when the magicians tried to produce gnats by their secret arts, they could not. And the gnats were on men and animals.


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The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.


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If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies, and even the ground where they are.


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"'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the LORD, am in this land.


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I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.'"


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And the LORD did this. Dense swarms of flies poured into Pharaoh's palace and into the houses of his officials, and throughout Egypt the land was ruined by the flies.


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But Moses said, "That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us?


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We must take a three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, as he commands us."


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Pharaoh said, "I will let you go to offer sacrifices to the LORD your God in the desert, but you must not go very far. Now pray for me."


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Moses answered, "As soon as I leave you, I will pray to the LORD, and tomorrow the flies will leave Pharaoh and his officials and his people. Only be sure that Pharaoh does not act deceitfully again by not letting the people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD."


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and the LORD did what Moses asked: The flies left Pharaoh and his officials and his people; not a fly remained.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me."


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the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field--on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats.


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But the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and that of Egypt, so that no animal belonging to the Israelites will die.'"


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And the next day the LORD did it: All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one animal belonging to the Israelites died.


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Pharaoh sent men to investigate and found that not even one of the animals of the Israelites had died. Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go.


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Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh.


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It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."


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So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh. Moses tossed it into the air, and festering boils broke out on men and animals.


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The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them and on all the Egyptians.


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But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me,


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or this time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth.


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For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth.


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But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.


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Therefore, at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now.


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Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die.'"


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Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that hail will fall all over Egypt--on men and animals and on everything growing in the fields of Egypt."


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When Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. So the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt;


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hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.


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Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields--both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.


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Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. "This time I have sinned," he said to them. "The LORD is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong.


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Pray to the LORD, for we have had enough thunder and hail. I will let you go; you don't have to stay any longer."


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Moses replied, "When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD'S.


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Then Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He spread out his hands toward the LORD; the thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the land.


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When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he sinned again: He and his officials hardened their hearts.


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So Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them


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that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD."


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So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: 'How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may worship me.


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They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields.


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They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians--something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now.'" Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.


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Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?"


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Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the LORD your God," he said. "But just who will be going?"


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Moses answered, "We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, because we are to celebrate a festival to the LORD."


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Pharaoh said, "The LORD be with you--if I let you go, along with your women and children! Clearly you are bent on evil.


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No! Have only the men go; and worship the LORD, since that's what you have been asking for." Then Moses and Aaron were driven out of Pharaoh's presence.


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And the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over Egypt so that locusts will swarm over the land and devour everything growing in the fields, everything left by the hail."


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So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the LORD made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts;


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they invaded all Egypt and settled down in every area of the country in great numbers. Never before had there been such a plague of locusts, nor will there ever be again.


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They covered all the ground until it was black. They devoured all that was left after the hail--everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing green remained on tree or plant in all the land of Egypt.


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Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.


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Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me."


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And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt--darkness that can be felt."


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So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days.


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No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days. Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.


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Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, "Go, worship the LORD. Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind."


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But Moses said, "You must allow us to have sacrifices and burnt offerings to present to the LORD our God.


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Our livestock too must go with us; not a hoof is to be left behind. We have to use some of them in worshiping the LORD our God, and until we get there we will not know what we are to use to worship the LORD."


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Pharaoh said to Moses, "Get out of my sight! Make sure you do not appear before me again! The day you see my face you will die."


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Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely.


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Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold."


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(The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)


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Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.


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But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.' Then you will know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.


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All these officials of yours will come to me, bowing down before me and saying, 'Go, you and all the people who follow you!' After that I will leave." Then Moses, hot with anger, left Pharaoh.


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The LORD had said to Moses, "Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you--so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt."


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Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country.


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Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household.


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If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat.


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The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.


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Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight.


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Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.


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That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast.


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This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD'S Passover.


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"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.


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The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.


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"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance.


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For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.


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On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat--that is all you may do.


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"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.


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In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.


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For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.


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Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb.


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Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.


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When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.


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then tell them, 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped.


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At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well.


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Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.


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During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have requested.


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The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. "For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!"


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So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing.


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The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing.


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The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.


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The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children.


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With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.


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Because the LORD kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come.


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The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover: "No foreigner is to eat of it.


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"It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.


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"An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD'S Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it.


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"Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal."


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Then Moses said to the people, "Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.


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When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites--the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey--you are to observe this ceremony in this month:


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Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.


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On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'


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This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.


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"After the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your forefathers,


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you are to give over to the LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.


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Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.


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"In days to come, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.


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When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.'


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And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand."


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When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt."


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So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.


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Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place."


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By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.


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Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.


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"Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon.


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Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.'


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And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." So the Israelites did this.


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When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, "What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!"


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He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them.


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The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly.


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The Egyptians--all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops--pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.


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As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.


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They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?


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Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"


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Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.


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Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.


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I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen.


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The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen."


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Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them,


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coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.


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Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided,


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and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.


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The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea.


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During the last watch of the night the LORD looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.


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He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The LORD is fighting for them against Egypt."


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen."


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Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea.


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The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen--the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.


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But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.


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That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.


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And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.


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Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: "I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.


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The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.


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Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh's officers are drowned in the Red Sea.


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In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.


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By the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. The surging waters stood firm like a wall; the deep waters congealed in the heart of the sea.


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"The enemy boasted, 'I will pursue, I will overtake them. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword and my hand will destroy them.'


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"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you--majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?


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"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.


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The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away;


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terror and dread will fall upon them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone--until your people pass by, O LORD, until the people you bought pass by.


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You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance--the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established.


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When Pharaoh's horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.


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Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing.


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Miriam sang to them: "Sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."


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Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.


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When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.)


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Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.


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He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."


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Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.


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The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.


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The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD'S hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.


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On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."


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So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of Egypt,


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and in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?"


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Moses also said, "You will know that it was the LORD when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the LORD."


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Then Moses told Aaron, "Say to the entire Israelite community, 'Come before the LORD, for he has heard your grumbling.'"


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While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.


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"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, 'At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.'"


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That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.


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When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.


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This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.'"


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And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed.


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However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.


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On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much--two omers for each person--and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses.


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He said to them, "This is what the LORD commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.'"


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"Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today.


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Bear in mind that the LORD has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out."


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The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.


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Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.'"


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So Moses said to Aaron, "Take a jar and put an omer of manna in it. Then place it before the LORD to be kept for the generations to come."


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The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.


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The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.


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So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?"


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But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"


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Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."


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The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.


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I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.


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And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"


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Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands."


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So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill.


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As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.


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When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."


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He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."


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Now Jethro, the priest of Midian and father-in-law of Moses, heard of everything God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.


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and her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses said, "I have become an alien in a foreign land";


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and the other was named Eliezer, for he said, "My father's God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharaoh."


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Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, together with Moses' sons and wife, came to him in the desert, where he was camped near the mountain of God.


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Jethro had sent word to him, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons."


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So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent.


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Moses told his father-in-law about everything the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the LORD had saved them.


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Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.


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He said, "Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians.


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Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly."


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Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God.


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The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.


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When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, "What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?"


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Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws."


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You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.


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Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him.


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But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.


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Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.


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If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."


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He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.


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They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.


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In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt--on the very day--they came to the Desert of Sinai.


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After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.


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Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:


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'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.


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Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine,


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you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."


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So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak.


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The people all responded together, "We will do everything the LORD has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.


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The LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you." Then Moses told the LORD what the people had said.


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And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes


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and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.


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Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.


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He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain."


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After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes.


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On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled.


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Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.


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Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the LORD descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently,


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and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.


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The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up


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and the LORD said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish.


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Even the priests, who approach the LORD, must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them."


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Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.'"


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The LORD replied, "Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the LORD, or he will break out against them."


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"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.


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You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,


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"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.


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but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.


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For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.


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"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.


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"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."


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When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance


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and said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die."


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Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven:


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"'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.


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If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it.


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"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything.


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If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him.


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If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.


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"But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,'


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then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.


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If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her.


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If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights.


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If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.


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However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate.


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But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.


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"Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.


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"If men quarrel and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist and he does not die but is confined to bed,


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the one who struck the blow will not be held responsible if the other gets up and walks around outside with his staff; however, he must pay the injured man for the loss of his time and see that he is completely healed.


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"If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished,


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but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.


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"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows.


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"If a man hits a manservant or maidservant in the eye and destroys it, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the eye.


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And if he knocks out the tooth of a manservant or maidservant, he must let the servant go free to compensate for the tooth.


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"If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible.


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If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death.


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If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned.


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"If a man's bull injures the bull of another and it dies, they are to sell the live one and divide both the money and the dead animal equally.


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However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and the dead animal will be his.


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"If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.


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"If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed;


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but if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of bloodshed. "A thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft.


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"If the stolen animal is found alive in his possession--whether ox or donkey or sheep--he must pay back double.


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"If a man grazes his livestock in a field or vineyard and lets them stray and they graze in another man's field, he must make restitution from the best of his own field or vineyard.


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"If a fire breaks out and spreads into thornbushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution.


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"If a man gives his neighbor silver or goods for safekeeping and they are stolen from the neighbor's house, the thief, if he is caught, must pay back double.


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But if the thief is not found, the owner of the house must appear before the judges to determine whether he has laid his hands on the other man's property.


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In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody says, 'This is mine,' both parties are to bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to his neighbor.


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"If a man gives a donkey, an ox, a sheep or any other animal to his neighbor for safekeeping and it dies or is injured or is taken away while no one is looking,


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the issue between them will be settled by the taking of an oath before the LORD that the neighbor did not lay hands on the other person's property. The owner is to accept this, and no restitution is required.


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If it was torn to pieces by a wild animal, he shall bring in the remains as evidence and he will not be required to pay for the torn animal.


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"If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, he must make restitution.


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But if the owner is with the animal, the borrower will not have to pay. If the animal was hired, the money paid for the hire covers the loss.


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"If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife.


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My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.


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"If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.


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because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.


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"Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats."You must give me the firstborn of your sons.


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Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.


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"You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.


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"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd,


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If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.


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Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.


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"Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.


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but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.


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"Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.


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"Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.


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"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed.


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"Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. "Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.


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"Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast. "The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.


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"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.


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"See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.


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Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.


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If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.


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My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.


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Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.


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Worship the LORD your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you,


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"I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.


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But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you.


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Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.


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"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.


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Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."


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Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance,


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but Moses alone is to approach the LORD; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him."


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When Moses went and told the people all the LORD'S words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the LORD has said we will do."


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Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel.


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Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the LORD.


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Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the LORD has said; we will obey."


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Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."


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and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.


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But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.


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The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."


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He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."


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and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.


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Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.


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"Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give.


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"Have them make a chest of acacia wood--two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.


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Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.


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Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends.


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The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover.


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There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.


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And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings.


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"Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it.


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Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand--three on one side and three on the other.


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Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand.


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One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair--six branches in all.


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"Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.


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Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set.


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Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other.


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Then make fifty gold clasps and use them to fasten the curtains together so that the tabernacle is a unit.


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Join five of the curtains together into one set and the other six into another set. Fold the sixth curtain double at the front of the tent.


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Make fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set.


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As for the additional length of the tent curtains, the half curtain that is left over is to hang down at the rear of the tabernacle.


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The tent curtains will be a cubit longer on both sides; what is left will hang over the sides of the tabernacle so as to cover it.


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At these two corners they must be double from the bottom all the way to the top, and fitted into a single ring; both shall be like that.


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five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle.


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Overlay the frames with gold and make gold rings to hold the crossbars. Also overlay the crossbars with gold.


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"Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman.


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Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases.


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Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.


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Place the table outside the curtain on the north side of the tabernacle and put the lampstand opposite it on the south side.


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"For the entrance to the tent make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer.


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Make gold hooks for this curtain and five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold. And cast five bronze bases for them.


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"Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.


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Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze.


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Make all its utensils of bronze--its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans.


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Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network.


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The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried.


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"Make a courtyard for the tabernacle. The south side shall be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains of finely twisted linen,


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The north side shall also be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.


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"The west end of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits wide and have curtains, with ten posts and ten bases.


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Curtains fifteen cubits long are to be on one side of the entrance, with three posts and three bases,


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"For the entrance to the courtyard, provide a curtain twenty cubits long, of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer--with four posts and four bases.


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The courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with curtains of finely twisted linen five cubits high, and with bronze bases.


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All the other articles used in the service of the tabernacle, whatever their function, including all the tent pegs for it and those for the courtyard, are to be of bronze.


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"Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning.


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In the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the LORD from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.


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"Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.


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Tell all the skilled men to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest.


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These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests.


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"Make the ephod of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen--the work of a skilled craftsman.


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Its skillfully woven waistband is to be like it--of one piece with the ephod and made with gold, and with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and with finely twisted linen.


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Engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones the way a gem cutter engraves a seal. Then mount the stones in gold filigree settings


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and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the LORD.


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"Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions--the work of a skilled craftsman. Make it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen.


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Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row there shall be a ruby, a topaz and a beryl;


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There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.


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and the other ends of the chains to the two settings, attaching them to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front.


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Make two gold rings and attach them to the other two corners of the breastpiece on the inside edge next to the ephod.


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Make two more gold rings and attach them to the bottom of the shoulder pieces on the front of the ephod, close to the seam just above the waistband of the ephod.


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The rings of the breastpiece are to be tied to the rings of the ephod with blue cord, connecting it to the waistband, so that the breastpiece will not swing out from the ephod.


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"Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the LORD.


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Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD.


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with an opening for the head in its center. There shall be a woven edge like a collar around this opening, so that it will not tear.


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Make pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn around the hem of the robe, with gold bells between them.


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Aaron must wear it when he ministers. The sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the LORD and when he comes out, so that he will not die.


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It will be on Aaron's forehead, and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on Aaron's forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the LORD.


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"Weave the tunic of fine linen and make the turban of fine linen. The sash is to be the work of an embroiderer.


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After you put these clothes on your brother Aaron and his sons, anoint and ordain them. Consecrate them so they may serve me as priests.


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Aaron and his sons must wear them whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting or approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they will not incur guilt and die. "This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants.


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"This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect.


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And from fine wheat flour, without yeast, make bread, and cakes mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil.


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Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband.


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and put headbands on them. Then tie sashes on Aaron and his sons. The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance. In this way you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.


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"Bring the bull to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.


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Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar.


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Then take all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar.


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Cut the ram into pieces and wash the inner parts and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces.


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Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides.


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And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.


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"Take from this ram the fat, the fat tail, the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh. (This is the ram for the ordination.)


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From the basket of bread made without yeast, which is before the LORD, take a loaf, and a cake made with oil, and a wafer.


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Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the LORD, an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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After you take the breast of the ram for Aaron's ordination, wave it before the LORD as a wave offering, and it will be your share.


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"Consecrate those parts of the ordination ram that belong to Aaron and his sons: the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented.


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This is always to be the regular share from the Israelites for Aaron and his sons. It is the contribution the Israelites are to make to the LORD from their fellowship offerings.


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"Aaron's sacred garments will belong to his descendants so that they can be anointed and ordained in them.


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The son who succeeds him as priest and comes to the Tent of Meeting to minister in the Holy Place is to wear them seven days.


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At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket.


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They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no one else may eat them, because they are sacred.


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And if any of the meat of the ordination ram or any bread is left over till morning, burn it up. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.


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Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it.


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For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.


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With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering.


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Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning--a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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"For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you;


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"So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests.


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They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.


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It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high--its horns of one piece with it.


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Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding--two on opposite sides--to hold the poles used to carry it.


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Put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the Testimony--before the atonement cover that is over the Testimony--where I will meet with you.


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He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the LORD for the generations to come.


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Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it.


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Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the LORD."


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"When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.


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Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD.


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The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives.


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Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD, making atonement for your lives."


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"Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it.


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Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the LORD by fire,


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they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come."


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"Take the following fine spices: shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, shekels of fragrant cane,


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Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.


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Do not pour it on men's bodies and do not make any oil with the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred.


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Whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from his people.'"


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take fragrant spices--gum resin, onycha and galbanum--and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts,


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and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred.


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Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you.


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and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts--


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Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you:


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the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent--


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and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests,


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and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you."


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"Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.


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"'Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.


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For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.


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The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant.


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It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.'"


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When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.


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When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."


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Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me."


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He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."


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When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD."


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So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.


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They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'


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Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."


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But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?


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Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.


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Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.'"


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Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.


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When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, "There is the sound of war in the camp."


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Moses replied: "It is not the sound of victory, it is not the sound of defeat; it is the sound of singing that I hear."


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When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.


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And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.


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They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.'


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So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"


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Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies.


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So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him.


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Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.'"


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Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the LORD today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day."


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The next day Moses said to the people, "You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."


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So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold.


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Now go, lead the people to the place I spoke of, and my angel will go before you. However, when the time comes for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin."


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.'


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


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Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."


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For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.'"


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Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.


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And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.


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As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses.


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Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent.


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The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.


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Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.'


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If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."


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How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"


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And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."


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And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.


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When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.


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The LORD said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.


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Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.


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No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."


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So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.


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And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,


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maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."


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"O Lord, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance."


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Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.


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Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.


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Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.


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"Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.


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And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.


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"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt.


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"The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock.


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Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. "No one is to appear before me empty-handed.


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"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.


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"Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.


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I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.


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"Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Feast remain until morning.


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"Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk."


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Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."


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Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant--the Ten Commandments.


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When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.


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When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.


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But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them.


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Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.


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But whenever he entered the LORD'S presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,


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they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.


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Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, "These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do:


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For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.


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From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze;


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the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle;


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the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the bronze basin with its stand;


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the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard;


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the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary--both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests."


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and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.


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All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the LORD.


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Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or hides of sea cows brought them.


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Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the LORD, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.


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Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun--blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen.


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They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.


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All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the LORD freewill offerings for all the work the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do.


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Then Moses said to the Israelites, "See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,


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and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts--


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And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.


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He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers--all of them master craftsmen and designers.


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So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded."


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Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.


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They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning.


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and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done."


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Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more,


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All the skilled men among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman.


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Then they made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and the same was done with the end curtain in the other set.


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They also made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other.


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Then they made fifty gold clasps and used them to fasten the two sets of curtains together so that the tabernacle was a unit.


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Then they made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set.


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Then they made for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of hides of sea cows.


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with two projections set parallel to each other. They made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.


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At these two corners the frames were double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring; both were made alike.


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They overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. They also overlaid the crossbars with gold.


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They made the curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman.


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They made four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold. They made gold hooks for them and cast their four silver bases.


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For the entrance to the tent they made a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer;


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and they made five posts with hooks for them. They overlaid the tops of the posts and their bands with gold and made their five bases of bronze.


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Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood--two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.


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He cast four gold rings for it and fastened them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other.


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He made one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; at the two ends he made them of one piece with the cover.


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The cherubim had their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim faced each other, looking toward the cover.


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They cast four gold rings for the table and fastened them to the four corners, where the four legs were.


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And they made from pure gold the articles for the table--its plates and dishes and bowls and its pitchers for the pouring out of drink offerings.


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They made the lampstand of pure gold and hammered it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms were of one piece with it.


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Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms were on one branch, three on the next branch and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand.


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One bud was under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair--six branches in all.


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They made the altar of incense out of acacia wood. It was square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high--its horns of one piece with it.


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They overlaid the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and made a gold molding around it.


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They made two gold rings below the molding--two on opposite sides--to hold the poles used to carry it.


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They built the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, three cubits high; it was square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.


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They made a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar were of one piece, and they overlaid the altar with bronze.


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They inserted the poles into the rings so they would be on the sides of the altar for carrying it. They made it hollow, out of boards.


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They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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Next they made the courtyard. The south side was a hundred cubits long and had curtains of finely twisted linen,


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The north side was also a hundred cubits long and had twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, with silver hooks and bands on the posts.


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The west end was fifty cubits wide and had curtains, with ten posts and ten bases, with silver hooks and bands on the posts.


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and curtains fifteen cubits long were on the other side of the entrance to the courtyard, with three posts and three bases.


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The bases for the posts were bronze. The hooks and bands on the posts were silver, and their tops were overlaid with silver; so all the posts of the courtyard had silver bands.


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The curtain for the entrance to the courtyard was of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer. It was twenty cubits long and, like the curtains of the courtyard, five cubits high,


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with four posts and four bronze bases. Their hooks and bands were silver, and their tops were overlaid with silver.


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These are the amounts of the materials used for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, which were recorded at Moses' command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.


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(Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything the LORD commanded Moses;


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with him was Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan--a craftsman and designer, and an embroiderer in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.)


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The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was talents and shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.


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The silver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census was talents and, shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel--


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one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of, men.


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The talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain-- bases from the talents, one talent for each base.


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They used the, shekels to make the hooks for the posts, to overlay the tops of the posts, and to make their bands.


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They used it to make the bases for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils,


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the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard.


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From the blue, purple and scarlet yarn they made woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary. They also made sacred garments for Aaron, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut strands to be worked into the blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen--the work of a skilled craftsman.


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They made shoulder pieces for the ephod, which were attached to two of its corners, so it could be fastened.


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Its skillfully woven waistband was like it--of one piece with the ephod and made with gold, and with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and with finely twisted linen, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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They mounted the onyx stones in gold filigree settings and engraved them like a seal with the names of the sons of Israel.


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Then they fastened them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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They fashioned the breastpiece--the work of a skilled craftsman. They made it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen.


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Then they mounted four rows of precious stones on it. In the first row there was a ruby, a topaz and a beryl;


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There were twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.


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They made two gold filigree settings and two gold rings, and fastened the rings to two of the corners of the breastpiece.


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They made two gold rings and attached them to the other two corners of the breastpiece on the inside edge next to the ephod.


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Then they made two more gold rings and attached them to the bottom of the shoulder pieces on the front of the ephod, close to the seam just above the waistband of the ephod.


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They tied the rings of the breastpiece to the rings of the ephod with blue cord, connecting it to the waistband so that the breastpiece would not swing out from the ephod--as the LORD commanded Moses.


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with an opening in the center of the robe like the opening of a collar, and a band around this opening, so that it would not tear.


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They made pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen around the hem of the robe.


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The bells and pomegranates alternated around the hem of the robe to be worn for ministering, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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The sash was of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn--the work of an embroiderer--as the LORD commanded Moses.


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They made the plate, the sacred diadem, out of pure gold and engraved on it, like an inscription on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD.


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So all the work on the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses.


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Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases;


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the gold altar, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, and the curtain for the entrance to the tent;


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the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard; the ropes and tent pegs for the courtyard; all the furnishings for the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting;


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and the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when serving as priests.


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Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them.


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Bring in the table and set out what belongs on it. Then bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps.


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Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the Testimony and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.


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"Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy.


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Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy.


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Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest.


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Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue for all generations to come."


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When Moses set up the tabernacle, he put the bases in place, erected the frames, inserted the crossbars and set up the posts.


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Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent, as the LORD commanded him.


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He took the Testimony and placed it in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it.


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Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the Testimony, as the LORD commanded him.


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Moses placed the table in the Tent of Meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the curtain


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He placed the lampstand in the Tent of Meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle


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He set the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings, as the LORD commanded him.


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They washed whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.


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Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.


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In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out;


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So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.


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"'If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a male without defect. He must present it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting so that it will be acceptable to the LORD.


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He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.


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He is to slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and then Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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Then Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar.


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He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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"'If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock, from either the sheep or the goats, he is to offer a male without defect.


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He is to slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the LORD, and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides.


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He is to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar.


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He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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"'If the offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds, he is to offer a dove or a young pigeon.


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The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off the head and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar.


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He is to remove the crop with its contents and throw it to the east side of the altar, where the ashes are.


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He shall tear it open by the wings, not severing it completely, and then the priest shall burn it on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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"'When someone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering is to be of fine flour. He is to pour oil on it, put incense on it


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and take it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the fine flour and oil, together with all the incense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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The rest of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made to the LORD by fire.


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"'If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of fine flour: cakes made without yeast and mixed with oil, or wafers made without yeast and spread with oil.


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If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of fine flour mixed with oil, and without yeast.


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Bring the grain offering made of these things to the LORD; present it to the priest, who shall take it to the altar.


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He shall take out the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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"'Every grain offering you bring to the LORD must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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You may bring them to the LORD as an offering of the firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma.


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Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.


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"'If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, offer crushed heads of new grain roasted in the fire.


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The priest shall burn the memorial portion of the crushed grain and the oil, together with all the incense, as an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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"'If someone's offering is a fellowship offering, and he offers an animal from the herd, whether male or female, he is to present before the LORD an animal without defect.


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He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood against the altar on all sides.


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From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to the LORD by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them,


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both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys.


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Then Aaron's sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering that is on the burning wood, as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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"'If he offers an animal from the flock as a fellowship offering to the LORD, he is to offer a male or female without defect.


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He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron's sons shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides.


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From the fellowship offering he is to bring a sacrifice made to the LORD by fire: its fat, the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone, all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them,


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He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting. Then Aaron's sons shall sprinkle its blood against the altar on all sides.


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From what he offers he is to make this offering to the LORD by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them,


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The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD'S.


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"'This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.'"


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"Say to the Israelites: 'When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD'S commands--


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"'If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.


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He is to present the bull at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before the LORD.


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He is to dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the curtain of the sanctuary.


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The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the bull's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering--the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them,


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both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys--


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just as the fat is removed from the ox sacrificed as a fellowship offering. Then the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering.


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But the hide of the bull and all its flesh, as well as the head and legs, the inner parts and offal--


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that is, all the rest of the bull--he must take outside the camp to a place ceremonially clean, where the ashes are thrown, and burn it in a wood fire on the ash heap.


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"'If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD'S commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, they are guilty.


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When they become aware of the sin they committed, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting.


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The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull's head before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD.


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He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain.


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He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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and do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven.


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Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the community.


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"'When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the LORD his God, he is guilty.


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When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering a male goat without defect.


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He is to lay his hand on the goat's head and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is a sin offering.


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Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.


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He shall burn all the fat on the altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the man's sin, and he will be forgiven.


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"'If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD'S commands, he is guilty.


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When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect.


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He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering.


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Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.


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He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.


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He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it for a sin offering at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered.


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He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the lamb of the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven.


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"'If a person sins because he does not speak up when he hears a public charge to testify regarding something he has seen or learned about, he will be held responsible.


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"'Or if a person touches anything ceremonially unclean--whether the carcasses of unclean wild animals or of unclean livestock or of unclean creatures that move along the ground--even though he is unaware of it, he has become unclean and is guilty.


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"'Or if he touches human uncleanness--anything that would make him unclean--even though he is unaware of it, when he learns of it he will be guilty.


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"'Or if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil--in any matter one might carelessly swear about--even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty.


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and, as a penalty for the sin he has committed, he must bring to the LORD a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.


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"'If he cannot afford a lamb, he is to bring two doves or two young pigeons to the LORD as a penalty for his sin--one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.


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He is to bring them to the priest, who shall first offer the one for the sin offering. He is to wring its head from its neck, not severing it completely,


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and is to sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering against the side of the altar; the rest of the blood must be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering.


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The priest shall then offer the other as a burnt offering in the prescribed way and make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven.


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"'If, however, he cannot afford two doves or two young pigeons, he is to bring as an offering for his sin a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He must not put oil or incense on it, because it is a sin offering.


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He is to bring it to the priest, who shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar on top of the offerings made to the LORD by fire. It is a sin offering.


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In this way the priest will make atonement for him for any of these sins he has committed, and he will be forgiven. The rest of the offering will belong to the priest, as in the case of the grain offering.'"


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"When a person commits a violation and sins unintentionally in regard to any of the LORD'S holy things, he is to bring to the LORD as a penalty a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering.


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He must make restitution for what he has failed to do in regard to the holy things, add a fifth of the value to that and give it all to the priest, who will make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.


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"If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD'S commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible.


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He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the wrong he has committed unintentionally, and he will be forgiven.


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"If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving his neighbor about something entrusted to him or left in his care or stolen, or if he cheats him,


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or if he finds lost property and lies about it, or if he swears falsely, or if he commits any such sin that people may do--


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when he thus sins and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to him, or the lost property he found,


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or whatever it was he swore falsely about. He must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day he presents his guilt offering.


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And as a penalty he must bring to the priest, that is, to the LORD, his guilt offering, a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value.


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In this way the priest will make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for any of these things he did that made him guilty."


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"Give Aaron and his sons this command: 'These are the regulations for the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar.


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The priest shall then put on his linen clothes, with linen undergarments next to his body, and shall remove the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed on the altar and place them beside the altar.


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Then he is to take off these clothes and put on others, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a place that is ceremonially clean.


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The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest is to add firewood and arrange the burnt offering on the fire and burn the fat of the fellowship offerings on it.


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"'These are the regulations for the grain offering: Aaron's sons are to bring it before the LORD, in front of the altar.


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The priest is to take a handful of fine flour and oil, together with all the incense on the grain offering, and burn the memorial portion on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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Aaron and his sons shall eat the rest of it, but it is to be eaten without yeast in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.


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It must not be baked with yeast; I have given it as their share of the offerings made to me by fire. Like the sin offering and the guilt offering, it is most holy.


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Any male descendant of Aaron may eat it. It is his regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire for the generations to come. Whatever touches them will become holy.'"


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"This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to bring to the LORD on the day he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering, half of it in the morning and half in the evening.


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Prepare it with oil on a griddle; bring it well-mixed and present the grain offering broken in pieces as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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The son who is to succeed him as anointed priest shall prepare it. It is the LORD'S regular share and is to be burned completely.


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"Say to Aaron and his sons: 'These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering is to be slaughtered before the LORD in the place the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy.


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The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in a holy place, in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.


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Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in a holy place.


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The clay pot the meat is cooked in must be broken; but if it is cooked in a bronze pot, the pot is to be scoured and rinsed with water.


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But any sin offering whose blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place must not be eaten; it must be burned.


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The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be sprinkled against the altar on all sides.


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both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys.


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The priest shall burn them on the altar as an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is a guilt offering.


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"'The same law applies to both the sin offering and the guilt offering: They belong to the priest who makes atonement with them.


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Every grain offering baked in an oven or cooked in a pan or on a griddle belongs to the priest who offers it,


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"'If he offers it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering he is to offer cakes of bread made without yeast and mixed with oil, wafers made without yeast and spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour well-kneaded and mixed with oil.


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Along with his fellowship offering of thanksgiving he is to present an offering with cakes of bread made with yeast.


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He is to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the LORD; it belongs to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the fellowship offerings.


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The meat of his fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; he must leave none of it till morning.


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"'If, however, his offering is the result of a vow or is a freewill offering, the sacrifice shall be eaten on the day he offers it, but anything left over may be eaten on the next day.


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If any meat of the fellowship offering is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted. It will not be credited to the one who offered it, for it is impure; the person who eats any of it will be held responsible.


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"'Meat that touches anything ceremonially unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up. As for other meat, anyone ceremonially clean may eat it.


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But if anyone who is unclean eats any meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the LORD, that person must be cut off from his people.


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If anyone touches something unclean--whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean, detestable thing--and then eats any of the meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the LORD, that person must be cut off from his people.'"


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The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it.


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Anyone who eats the fat of an animal from which an offering by fire may be made to the LORD must be cut off from his people.


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"Say to the Israelites: 'Anyone who brings a fellowship offering to the LORD is to bring part of it as his sacrifice to the LORD.


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With his own hands he is to bring the offering made to the LORD by fire; he is to bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast before the LORD as a wave offering.


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The son of Aaron who offers the blood and the fat of the fellowship offering shall have the right thigh as his share.


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From the fellowship offerings of the Israelites, I have taken the breast that is waved and the thigh that is presented and have given them to Aaron the priest and his sons as their regular share from the Israelites.'"


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This is the portion of the offerings made to the LORD by fire that were allotted to Aaron and his sons on the day they were presented to serve the LORD as priests.


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On the day they were anointed, the LORD commanded that the Israelites give this to them as their regular share for the generations to come.


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These, then, are the regulations for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering and the fellowship offering,


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which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai on the day he commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the LORD, in the Desert of Sinai.


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"Bring Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sin offering, the two rams and the basket containing bread made without yeast,


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Moses did as the LORD commanded him, and the assembly gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He also tied the ephod to him by its skillfully woven waistband; so it was fastened on him.


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Then he placed the turban on Aaron's head and set the gold plate, the sacred diadem, on the front of it, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them.


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He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them.


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Then he brought Aaron's sons forward, put tunics on them, tied sashes around them and put headbands on them, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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He then presented the bull for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.


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Moses slaughtered the bull and took some of the blood, and with his finger he put it on all the horns of the altar to purify the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. So he consecrated it to make atonement for it.


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Moses also took all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, and both kidneys and their fat, and burned it on the altar.


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But the bull with its hide and its flesh and its offal he burned up outside the camp, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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He then presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.


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He washed the inner parts and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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He then presented the other ram, the ram for the ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.


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Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.


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Moses also brought Aaron's sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he sprinkled blood against the altar on all sides.


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He took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, both kidneys and their fat and the right thigh.


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Then from the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the LORD, he took a cake of bread, and one made with oil, and a wafer; he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh.


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He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved them before the LORD as a wave offering.


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Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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He also took the breast--Moses' share of the ordination ram--and waved it before the LORD as a wave offering, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments.


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Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, "Cook the meat at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, 'Aaron and his sons are to eat it.'


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Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days.


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You must stay at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days and do what the LORD requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded."


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He said to Aaron, "Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the LORD.


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Then say to the Israelites: 'Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb--both a year old and without defect--for a burnt offering,


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and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the LORD, together with a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.'"


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They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the LORD.


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Then Moses said, "This is what the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you."


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Moses said to Aaron, "Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded."


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His sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.


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On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys and the covering of the liver from the sin offering, as the LORD commanded Moses;


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Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons handed him the blood, and he sprinkled it against the altar on all sides.


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They handed him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar.


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Aaron then brought the offering that was for the people. He took the goat for the people's sin offering and slaughtered it and offered it for a sin offering as he did with the first one.


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He also brought the grain offering, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning's burnt offering.


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He slaughtered the ox and the ram as the fellowship offering for the people. His sons handed him the blood, and he sprinkled it against the altar on all sides.


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But the fat portions of the ox and the ram--the fat tail, the layer of fat, the kidneys and the covering of the liver--


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Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, he stepped down.


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Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.


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Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.


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Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command.


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Moses then said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: "'Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.'" Aaron remained silent.


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Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary."


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Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire.


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Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the LORD'S anointing oil is on you." So they did as Moses said.


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"You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.


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Moses said to Aaron and his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the grain offering left over from the offerings made to the LORD by fire and eat it prepared without yeast beside the altar, for it is most holy.


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Eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and your sons' share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire; for so I have been commanded.


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But you and your sons and your daughters may eat the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. Eat them in a ceremonially clean place; they have been given to you and your children as your share of the Israelites' fellowship offerings.


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The thigh that was presented and the breast that was waved must be brought with the fat portions of the offerings made by fire, to be waved before the LORD as a wave offering. This will be the regular share for you and your children, as the LORD has commanded."


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When Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering and found that it had been burned up, he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and asked,


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"Why didn't you eat the sin offering in the sanctuary area? It is most holy; it was given to you to take away the guilt of the community by making atonement for them before the LORD.


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Since its blood was not taken into the Holy Place, you should have eaten the goat in the sanctuary area, as I commanded."


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Aaron replied to Moses, "Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the LORD have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?"


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"'There are some that only chew the cud or only have a split hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you.


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And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.


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"'Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams, you may eat any that have fins and scales.


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But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales--whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water--you are to detest.


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"'These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture,


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There are, however, some winged creatures that walk on all fours that you may eat: those that have jointed legs for hopping on the ground.


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"'You will make yourselves unclean by these; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening.


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"'Every animal that has a split hoof not completely divided or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them will be unclean.


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Of all the animals that walk on all fours, those that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening.


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Anyone who picks up their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening. They are unclean for you.


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"'Of the animals that move about on the ground, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the rat, any kind of great lizard,


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Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening.


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When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean, whether it is made of wood, cloth, hide or sackcloth. Put it in water; it will be unclean till evening, and then it will be clean.


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Any food that could be eaten but has water on it from such a pot is unclean, and any liquid that could be drunk from it is unclean.


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Anything that one of their carcasses falls on becomes unclean; an oven or cooking pot must be broken up. They are unclean, and you are to regard them as unclean.


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A spring, however, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but anyone who touches one of these carcasses is unclean.


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"'If an animal that you are allowed to eat dies, anyone who touches the carcass will be unclean till evening.


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Anyone who eats some of the carcass must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening. Anyone who picks up the carcass must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening.


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You are not to eat any creature that moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is detestable.


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Do not defile yourselves by any of these creatures. Do not make yourselves unclean by means of them or be made unclean by them.


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I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.


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"'These are the regulations concerning animals, birds, every living thing that moves in the water and every creature that moves about on the ground.


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You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.'"


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"Say to the Israelites: 'A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period.


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Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over.


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If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.


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"'When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering.


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He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood. "'These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl.


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If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"


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"When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a bright spot on his skin that may become an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.


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The priest is to examine the sore on his skin, and if the hair in the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious skin disease. When the priest examines him, he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean.


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If the spot on his skin is white but does not appear to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest is to put the infected person in isolation for seven days.


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On the seventh day the priest is to examine him, and if he sees that the sore is unchanged and has not spread in the skin, he is to keep him in isolation another seven days.


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On the seventh day the priest is to examine him again, and if the sore has faded and has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a rash. The man must wash his clothes, and he will be clean.


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But if the rash does spread in his skin after he has shown himself to the priest to be pronounced clean, he must appear before the priest again.


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The priest is to examine him, and if the rash has spread in the skin, he shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious disease.


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The priest is to examine him, and if there is a white swelling in the skin that has turned the hair white and if there is raw flesh in the swelling,


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it is a chronic skin disease and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He is not to put him in isolation, because he is already unclean.


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"If the disease breaks out all over his skin and, so far as the priest can see, it covers all the skin of the infected person from head to foot,


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the priest is to examine him, and if the disease has covered his whole body, he shall pronounce that person clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean.


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When the priest sees the raw flesh, he shall pronounce him unclean. The raw flesh is unclean; he has an infectious disease.


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The priest is to examine him, and if the sores have turned white, the priest shall pronounce the infected person clean; then he will be clean.


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and in the place where the boil was, a white swelling or reddish-white spot appears, he must present himself to the priest.


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The priest is to examine it, and if it appears to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is an infectious skin disease that has broken out where the boil was.


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But if, when the priest examines it, there is no white hair in it and it is not more than skin deep and has faded, then the priest is to put him in isolation for seven days.


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But if the spot is unchanged and has not spread, it is only a scar from the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.


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"When someone has a burn on his skin and a reddish-white or white spot appears in the raw flesh of the burn,


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the priest is to examine the spot, and if the hair in it has turned white, and it appears to be more than skin deep, it is an infectious disease that has broken out in the burn. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious skin disease.


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But if the priest examines it and there is no white hair in the spot and if it is not more than skin deep and has faded, then the priest is to put him in isolation for seven days.


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On the seventh day the priest is to examine him, and if it is spreading in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an infectious skin disease.


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If, however, the spot is unchanged and has not spread in the skin but has faded, it is a swelling from the burn, and the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only a scar from the burn.


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the priest is to examine the sore, and if it appears to be more than skin deep and the hair in it is yellow and thin, the priest shall pronounce that person unclean; it is an itch, an infectious disease of the head or chin.


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But if, when the priest examines this kind of sore, it does not seem to be more than skin deep and there is no black hair in it, then the priest is to put the infected person in isolation for seven days.


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On the seventh day the priest is to examine the sore, and if the itch has not spread and there is no yellow hair in it and it does not appear to be more than skin deep,


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he must be shaved except for the diseased area, and the priest is to keep him in isolation another seven days.


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On the seventh day the priest is to examine the itch, and if it has not spread in the skin and appears to be no more than skin deep, the priest shall pronounce him clean. He must wash his clothes, and he will be clean.


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the priest is to examine him, and if the itch has spread in the skin, the priest does not need to look for yellow hair; the person is unclean.


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If, however, in his judgment it is unchanged and black hair has grown in it, the itch is healed. He is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.


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the priest is to examine them, and if the spots are dull white, it is a harmless rash that has broken out on the skin; that person is clean.


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But if he has a reddish-white sore on his bald head or forehead, it is an infectious disease breaking out on his head or forehead.


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The priest is to examine him, and if the swollen sore on his head or forehead is reddish-white like an infectious skin disease,


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the man is diseased and is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean because of the sore on his head.


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"The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!'


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As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.


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and if the contamination in the clothing, or leather, or woven or knitted material, or any leather article, is greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew and must be shown to the priest.


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On the seventh day he is to examine it, and if the mildew has spread in the clothing, or the woven or knitted material, or the leather, whatever its use, it is a destructive mildew; the article is unclean.


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He must burn up the clothing, or the woven or knitted material of wool or linen, or any leather article that has the contamination in it, because the mildew is destructive; the article must be burned up.


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"But if, when the priest examines it, the mildew has not spread in the clothing, or the woven or knitted material, or the leather article,


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he shall order that the contaminated article be washed. Then he is to isolate it for another seven days.


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After the affected article has been washed, the priest is to examine it, and if the mildew has not changed its appearance, even though it has not spread, it is unclean. Burn it with fire, whether the mildew has affected one side or the other.


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If, when the priest examines it, the mildew has faded after the article has been washed, he is to tear the contaminated part out of the clothing, or the leather, or the woven or knitted material.


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But if it reappears in the clothing, or in the woven or knitted material, or in the leather article, it is spreading, and whatever has the mildew must be burned with fire.


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The clothing, or the woven or knitted material, or any leather article that has been washed and is rid of the mildew, must be washed again, and it will be clean."


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These are the regulations concerning contamination by mildew in woolen or linen clothing, woven or knitted material, or any leather article, for pronouncing them clean or unclean.


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"These are the regulations for the diseased person at the time of his ceremonial cleansing, when he is brought to the priest:


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The priest is to go outside the camp and examine him. If the person has been healed of his infectious skin disease,


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the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.


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He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.


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Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the infectious disease and pronounce him clean. Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields.


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"The person to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. After this he may come into the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days.


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On the seventh day he must shave off all his hair; he must shave his head, his beard, his eyebrows and the rest of his hair. He must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and he will be clean.


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"On the eighth day he must bring two male lambs and one ewe lamb a year old, each without defect, along with three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil.


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The priest who pronounces him clean shall present both the one to be cleansed and his offerings before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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"Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering, along with the log of oil; he shall wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.


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He is to slaughter the lamb in the holy place where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy.


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The priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.


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dip his right forefinger into the oil in his palm, and with his finger sprinkle some of it before the LORD seven times.


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The priest is to put some of the oil remaining in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering.


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The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed and make atonement for him before the LORD.


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"Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from his uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering


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and offer it on the altar, together with the grain offering, and make atonement for him, and he will be clean.


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"If, however, he is poor and cannot afford these, he must take one male lamb as a guilt offering to be waved to make atonement for him, together with a tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, a log of oil,


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and two doves or two young pigeons, which he can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.


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"On the eighth day he must bring them for his cleansing to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, before the LORD.


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The priest is to take the lamb for the guilt offering, together with the log of oil, and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.


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He shall slaughter the lamb for the guilt offering and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.


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Some of the oil in his palm he is to put on the same places he put the blood of the guilt offering--on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.


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The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the LORD.


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one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the grain offering. In this way the priest will make atonement before the LORD on behalf of the one to be cleansed."


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These are the regulations for anyone who has an infectious skin disease and who cannot afford the regular offerings for his cleansing.


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"When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in that land,


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the owner of the house must go and tell the priest, 'I have seen something that looks like mildew in my house.'


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The priest is to order the house to be emptied before he goes in to examine the mildew, so that nothing in the house will be pronounced unclean. After this the priest is to go in and inspect the house.


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He is to examine the mildew on the walls, and if it has greenish or reddish depressions that appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall,


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On the seventh day the priest shall return to inspect the house. If the mildew has spread on the walls,


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he is to order that the contaminated stones be torn out and thrown into an unclean place outside the town.


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He must have all the inside walls of the house scraped and the material that is scraped off dumped into an unclean place outside the town.


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"If the mildew reappears in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house scraped and plastered,


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the priest is to go and examine it and, if the mildew has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew; the house is unclean.


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It must be torn down--its stones, timbers and all the plaster--and taken out of the town to an unclean place.


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"But if the priest comes to examine it and the mildew has not spread after the house has been plastered, he shall pronounce the house clean, because the mildew is gone.


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Then he is to take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet yarn and the live bird, dip them into the blood of the dead bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle the house seven times.


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He shall purify the house with the bird's blood, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet yarn.


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Then he is to release the live bird in the open fields outside the town. In this way he will make atonement for the house, and it will be clean."


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to determine when something is clean or unclean. These are the regulations for infectious skin diseases and mildew.


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When any man has a bodily discharge, the discharge is unclean.


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Whether it continues flowing from his body or is blocked, it will make him unclean. This is how his discharge will bring about uncleanness:


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"'Any bed the man with a discharge lies on will be unclean, and anything he sits on will be unclean.


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Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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Whoever sits on anything that the man with a discharge sat on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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"'Whoever touches the man who has a discharge must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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"'If the man with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, that person must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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and whoever touches any of the things that were under him will be unclean till evening; whoever picks up those things must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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"'Anyone the man with a discharge touches without rinsing his hands with water must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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"'A clay pot that the man touches must be broken, and any wooden article is to be rinsed with water.


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"'When a man is cleansed from his discharge, he is to count off seven days for his ceremonial cleansing; he must wash his clothes and bathe himself with fresh water, and he will be clean.


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On the eighth day he must take two doves or two young pigeons and come before the LORD to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest.


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The priest is to sacrifice them, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement before the LORD for the man because of his discharge.


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"'When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean till evening.


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When a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.


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"'When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.


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Whoever touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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Whoever touches anything she sits on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, he will be unclean till evening.


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"'If a man lies with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean.


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"'When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.


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Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period.


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Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.


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"'When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean.


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On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge.


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"'You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.'"


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These are the regulations for a man with a discharge, for anyone made unclean by an emission of semen,


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for a woman in her monthly period, for a man or a woman with a discharge, and for a man who lies with a woman who is ceremonially unclean.


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The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD.


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The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover.


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"This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.


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He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on.


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From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.


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"Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household.


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Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.


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"Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering.


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He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain.


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He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the Testimony, so that he will not die.


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He is to take some of the bull's blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.


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"He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull's blood: He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it.


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In this way he will make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the uncleanness and rebellion of the Israelites, whatever their sins have been. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which is among them in the midst of their uncleanness.


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No one is to be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel.


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"Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it on all the horns of the altar.


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He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.


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"When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat.


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He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task.


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The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.


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"Then Aaron is to go into the Tent of Meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the Most Holy Place, and he is to leave them there.


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He shall bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people.


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"The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp.


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The bull and the goat for the sin offerings, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; their hides, flesh and offal are to be burned up.


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The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp.


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"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work--whether native-born or an alien living among you--


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because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.


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The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest is to make atonement. He is to put on the sacred linen garments


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and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, for the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the community.


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"This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: Atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites." And it was done, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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"Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: 'This is what the LORD has commanded:


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instead of bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the LORD in front of the tabernacle of the LORD--that man shall be considered guilty of bloodshed; he has shed blood and must be cut off from his people.


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This is so the Israelites will bring to the LORD the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields. They must bring them to the priest, that is, to the LORD, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and sacrifice them as fellowship offerings.


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The priest is to sprinkle the blood against the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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They must no longer offer any of their sacrifices to the goat idols to whom they prostitute themselves. This is to be a lasting ordinance for them and for the generations to come.'


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"Say to them: 'Any Israelite or any alien living among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice


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and does not bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the LORD--that man must be cut off from his people.


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"'Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood--I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people.


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For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.


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Therefore I say to the Israelites, "None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood."


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"'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth,


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because the life of every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off."


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"'Anyone, whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then he will be clean.


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You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.


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"'Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father; she is your sister.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.


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"'Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.


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"'Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.


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"'Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.


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"'Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.


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But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things,


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for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled.


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And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.


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Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.'"


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"Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.


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"'Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God.


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"'When you sacrifice a fellowship offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.


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It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it or on the next day; anything left over until the third day must be burned up.


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Whoever eats it will be held responsible because he has desecrated what is holy to the LORD; that person must be cut off from his people.


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"'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.


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Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.


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"'Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the LORD.


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"'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.


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"'Do not go about spreading slander among your people. "'Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor's life. I am the LORD.


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"'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.


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"'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.


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"'Keep my decrees. "'Do not mate different kinds of animals. "'Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. "'Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.


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"'If a man sleeps with a woman who is a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. Yet they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed.


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The man, however, must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for a guilt offering to the LORD.


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With the ram of the guilt offering the priest is to make atonement for him before the LORD for the sin he has committed, and his sin will be forgiven.


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"'When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, regard its fruit as forbidden. For three years you are to consider it forbidden; it must not be eaten.


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But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit. In this way your harvest will be increased. I am the LORD your God.


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"'Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.


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"'Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.


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"'Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.


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The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.


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Use honest scales and honest weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.


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"Say to the Israelites: 'Any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone him.


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I will set my face against that man and I will cut him off from his people; for by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.


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If the people of the community close their eyes when that man gives one of his children to Molech and they fail to put him to death,


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I will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech.


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"'I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.


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"'If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood will be on his own head.


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"'If a man commits adultery with another man's wife--with the wife of his neighbor--both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.


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"'If a man sleeps with his father's wife, he has dishonored his father. Both the man and the woman must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.


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"'If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. What they have done is a perversion; their blood will be on their own heads.


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"'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.


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"'If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is wicked. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that no wickedness will be among you.


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"'If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal.


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"'If a woman approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it, kill both the woman and the animal. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.


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"'If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has dishonored his sister and will be held responsible.


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"'If a man lies with a woman during her monthly period and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them must be cut off from their people.


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"'Do not have sexual relations with the sister of either your mother or your father, for that would dishonor a close relative; both of you would be held responsible.


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"'If a man sleeps with his aunt, he has dishonored his uncle. They will be held responsible; they will die childless.


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"'If a man marries his brother's wife, it is an act of impurity; he has dishonored his brother. They will be childless.


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"'Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.


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You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.


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But I said to you, "You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations.


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"'You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground--those which I have set apart as unclean for you.


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You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.


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"'A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.'"


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The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: 'A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean for any of his people who die,


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or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband--for her he may make himself unclean.


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They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because they present the offerings made to the LORD by fire, the food of their God, they are to be holy.


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"'They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from their husbands, because priests are holy to their God.


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Regard them as holy, because they offer up the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the LORD am holy--I who make you holy.


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"'If a priest's daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.


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"'The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes.


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He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother,


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nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it, because he has been dedicated by the anointing oil of his God. I am the LORD.


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He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin from his own people,


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"Say to Aaron: 'For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God.


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or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles.


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No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the LORD by fire. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God.


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yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.'"


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"Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane my holy name. I am the LORD.


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"Say to them: 'For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.


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"'If a descendant of Aaron has an infectious skin disease or a bodily discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is cleansed. He will also be unclean if he touches something defiled by a corpse or by anyone who has an emission of semen,


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or if he touches any crawling thing that makes him unclean, or any person who makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be.


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The one who touches any such thing will be unclean till evening. He must not eat any of the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water.


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When the sun goes down, he will be clean, and after that he may eat the sacred offerings, for they are his food.


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He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, and so become unclean through it. I am the LORD.


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"'The priests are to keep my requirements so that they do not become guilty and die for treating them with contempt. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.


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"'No one outside a priest's family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it.


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But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food.


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If a priest's daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions.


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But if a priest's daughter becomes a widow or is divorced, yet has no children, and she returns to live in her father's house as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food. No unauthorized person, however, may eat any of it.


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"'If anyone eats a sacred offering by mistake, he must make restitution to the priest for the offering and add a fifth of the value to it.


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by allowing them to eat the sacred offerings and so bring upon them guilt requiring payment. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.'"


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"Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: 'If any of you--either an Israelite or an alien living in Israel--presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering,


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you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf.


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When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable.


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Do not offer to the LORD the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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You may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox or a sheep that is deformed or stunted, but it will not be accepted in fulfillment of a vow.


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You must not offer to the LORD an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn or cut. You must not do this in your own land,


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and you must not accept such animals from the hand of a foreigner and offer them as the food of your God. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and have defects.'"


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"When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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"When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf.


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Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.


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"'There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD.


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"'These are the LORD'S appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times:


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On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD'S Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast.


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For seven days present an offering made to the LORD by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.'"


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.


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He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.


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On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect,


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together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil--an offering made to the LORD by fire, a pleasing aroma--and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine.


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You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.


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"'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks.


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Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.


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From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.


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Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings--an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.


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Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering.


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The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest.


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On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.


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"'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.'"


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"Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.


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"The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God.


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You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.


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It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath."


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"Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD'S Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days.


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For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.


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("'These are the LORD'S appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing offerings made to the LORD by fire--the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day.


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These offerings are in addition to those for the LORD'S Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD.)


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"'So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest.


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On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.


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Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month.


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so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.'"


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"Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually.


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Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.


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Along each row put some pure incense as a memorial portion to represent the bread and to be an offering made to the LORD by fire.


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This bread is to be set out before the LORD regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant.


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It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the LORD by fire."


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Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.


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The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.)


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"Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him.


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anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.


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fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be injured.


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Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the LORD commanded Moses.


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD.


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But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.


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Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.


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Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you--for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,


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as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.


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"'Count off seven sabbaths of years--seven times seven years--so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.


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Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land.


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Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan.


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The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines.


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"'If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other.


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You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops.


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When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops.


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While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.


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"'The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.


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Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.


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"'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold.


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If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it,


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he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own property.


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But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property.


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"'If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time he may redeem it.


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If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and his descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee.


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But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee.


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"'The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess.


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So the property of the Levites is redeemable--that is, a house sold in any town they hold--and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites.


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"'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.


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Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you.


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I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.


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"'If one of your countrymen becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave.


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He is to be treated as a hired worker or a temporary resident among you; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.


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Then he and his children are to be released, and he will go back to his own clan and to the property of his forefathers.


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Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves.


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"'Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.


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You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property.


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You can will them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.


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"'If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan,


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An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.


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He and his buyer are to count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for his release is to be based on the rate paid to a hired man for that number of years.


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If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to compute that and pay for his redemption accordingly.


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He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year; you must see to it that his owner does not rule over him ruthlessly.


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"'Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee,


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for the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.


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"'Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God.


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I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit.


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Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.


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"'I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.


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Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.


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"'I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you.


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You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new.


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I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.


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and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,


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then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.


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I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.


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I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.


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Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land yield their fruit.


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"'If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.


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I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.


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And I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands.


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When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven, and they will dole out the bread by weight. You will eat, but you will not be satisfied.


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then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.


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I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols, and I will abhor you.


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I will turn your cities into ruins and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will take no delight in the pleasing aroma of your offerings.


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I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.


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Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.


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All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.


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"'As for those of you who are left, I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.


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They will stumble over one another as though fleeing from the sword, even though no one is pursuing them. So you will not be able to stand before your enemies.


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Those of you who are left will waste away in the lands of their enemies because of their sins; also because of their fathers' sins they will waste away.


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"'But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers--their treachery against me and their hostility toward me,


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which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies--then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,


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I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.


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For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees.


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Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God.


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But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.'"


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These are the decrees, the laws and the regulations that the LORD established on Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelites through Moses.


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If anyone makes a special vow to dedicate persons to the LORD by giving equivalent values,


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set the value of a male between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel;


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If it is a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels.


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If it is a person between one month and five years, set the value of a male at five shekels of silver and that of a female at three shekels of silver.


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If it is a person sixty years old or more, set the value of a male at fifteen shekels and of a female at ten shekels.


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If anyone making the vow is too poor to pay the specified amount, he is to present the person to the priest, who will set the value for him according to what the man making the vow can afford.


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"'If what he vowed is an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD, such an animal given to the LORD becomes holy.


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He must not exchange it or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if he should substitute one animal for another, both it and the substitute become holy.


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If what he vowed is a ceremonially unclean animal--one that is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD--the animal must be presented to the priest,


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who will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, that is what it will be.


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"'If a man dedicates his house as something holy to the LORD, the priest will judge its quality as good or bad. Whatever value the priest then sets, so it will remain.


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If the man who dedicates his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to its value, and the house will again become his.


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"'If a man dedicates to the LORD part of his family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed required for it--fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed.


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But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, the priest will determine the value according to the number of years that remain until the next Year of Jubilee, and its set value will be reduced.


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If the man who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, he must add a fifth to its value, and the field will again become his.


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If, however, he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold it to someone else, it can never be redeemed.


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When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the LORD; it will become the property of the priests.


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the priest will determine its value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the man must pay its value on that day as something holy to the LORD.


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In the Year of Jubilee the field will revert to the person from whom he bought it, the one whose land it was.


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"'No one, however, may dedicate the firstborn of an animal, since the firstborn already belongs to the LORD; whether an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD'S.


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If it is one of the unclean animals, he may buy it back at its set value, adding a fifth of the value to it. If he does not redeem it, it is to be sold at its set value.


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"'But nothing that a man owns and devotes to the LORD--whether man or animal or family land--may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.


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"'A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.


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The entire tithe of the herd and flock--every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod--will be holy to the LORD.


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He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.'"


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The LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said:


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"Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.


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You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army.


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from the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur;


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These were the men appointed from the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes. They were the heads of the clans of Israel.


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and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one,


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From the descendants of Reuben the firstborn son of Israel: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Simeon: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were counted and listed by name, one by one, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Gad: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Judah: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Issachar: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Zebulun: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the sons of Joseph: From the descendants of Ephraim: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Manasseh: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Benjamin: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Dan: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Asher: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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From the descendants of Naphtali: All the men twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army were listed by name, according to the records of their clans and families.


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These were the men counted by Moses and Aaron and the twelve leaders of Israel, each one representing his family.


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All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel's army were counted according to their families.


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Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony--over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it.


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Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall do it. Anyone else who goes near it shall be put to death.


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The Israelites are to set up their tents by divisions, each man in his own camp under his own standard.


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The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the Testimony."


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"The Israelites are to camp around the Tent of Meeting some distance from it, each man under his standard with the banners of his family."


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On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard. The leader of the people of Judah is Nahshon son of Amminadab.


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The tribe of Issachar will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Issachar is Nethanel son of Zuar.


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All the men assigned to the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, number,. They will set out first.


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On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur.


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The tribe of Simeon will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Simeon is Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.


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All the men assigned to the camp of Reuben, according to their divisions, number,. They will set out second.


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Then the Tent of Meeting and the camp of the Levites will set out in the middle of the camps. They will set out in the same order as they encamp, each in his own place under his standard.


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On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama son of Ammihud.


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The tribe of Manasseh will be next to them. The leader of the people of Manasseh is Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.


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All the men assigned to the camp of Ephraim, according to their divisions, number,. They will set out third.


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On the north will be the divisions of the camp of Dan, under their standard. The leader of the people of Dan is Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.


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The tribe of Asher will camp next to them. The leader of the people of Asher is Pagiel son of Ocran.


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These are the Israelites, counted according to their families. All those in the camps, by their divisions, number,.


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The Levites, however, were not counted along with the other Israelites, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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So the Israelites did everything the LORD commanded Moses; that is the way they encamped under their standards, and that is the way they set out, each with his clan and family.


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This is the account of the family of Aaron and Moses at the time the LORD talked with Moses on Mount Sinai.


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Nadab and Abihu, however, fell dead before the LORD when they made an offering with unauthorized fire before him in the Desert of Sinai. They had no sons; so only Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests during the lifetime of their father Aaron.


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They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the Tent of Meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle.


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They are to take care of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, fulfilling the obligations of the Israelites by doing the work of the tabernacle.


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Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary must be put to death."


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"I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine,


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for all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether man or animal. They are to be mine. I am the LORD."


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At the Tent of Meeting the Gershonites were responsible for the care of the tabernacle and tent, its coverings, the curtain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,


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the curtains of the courtyard, the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle and altar, and the ropes--and everything related to their use.


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To Kohath belonged the clans of the Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites and Uzzielites; these were the Kohathite clans.


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The number of all the males a month old or more was,. The Kohathites were responsible for the care of the sanctuary.


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They were responsible for the care of the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the articles of the sanctuary used in ministering, the curtain, and everything related to their use.


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The chief leader of the Levites was Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest. He was appointed over those who were responsible for the care of the sanctuary.


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The leader of the families of the Merarite clans was Zuriel son of Abihail; they were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle.


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The Merarites were appointed to take care of the frames of the tabernacle, its crossbars, posts, bases, all its equipment, and everything related to their use,


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Moses and Aaron and his sons were to camp to the east of the tabernacle, toward the sunrise, in front of the Tent of Meeting. They were responsible for the care of the sanctuary on behalf of the Israelites. Anyone else who approached the sanctuary was to be put to death.


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The total number of Levites counted at the LORD'S command by Moses and Aaron according to their clans, including every male a month old or more, was,.


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The LORD said to Moses, "Count all the firstborn Israelite males who are a month old or more and make a list of their names.


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Take the Levites for me in place of all the firstborn of the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites in place of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Israelites. I am the LORD."


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"Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites are to be mine. I am the LORD.


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From the firstborn of the Israelites he collected silver weighing, shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.


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Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work in the Tent of Meeting.


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When the camp is to move, Aaron and his sons are to go in and take down the shielding curtain and cover the ark of the Testimony with it.


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Then they are to cover this with hides of sea cows, spread a cloth of solid blue over that and put the poles in place.


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"Over the table of the Presence they are to spread a blue cloth and put on it the plates, dishes and bowls, and the jars for drink offerings; the bread that is continually there is to remain on it.


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Over these they are to spread a scarlet cloth, cover that with hides of sea cows and put its poles in place.


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"They are to take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand that is for light, together with its lamps, its wick trimmers and trays, and all its jars for the oil used to supply it.


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Then they are to wrap it and all its accessories in a covering of hides of sea cows and put it on a carrying frame.


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"Over the gold altar they are to spread a blue cloth and cover that with hides of sea cows and put its poles in place.


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"They are to take all the articles used for ministering in the sanctuary, wrap them in a blue cloth, cover that with hides of sea cows and put them on a carrying frame.


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Then they are to place on it all the utensils used for ministering at the altar, including the firepans, meat forks, shovels and sprinkling bowls. Over it they are to spread a covering of hides of sea cows and put its poles in place.


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"After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the Tent of Meeting.


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"Eleazar son of Aaron, the priest, is to have charge of the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the regular grain offering and the anointing oil. He is to be in charge of the entire tabernacle and everything in it, including its holy furnishings and articles."


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So that they may live and not die when they come near the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons are to go into the sanctuary and assign to each man his work and what he is to carry.


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Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the Tent of Meeting.


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They are to carry the curtains of the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, its covering and the outer covering of hides of sea cows, the curtains for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,


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the curtains of the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle and altar, the curtain for the entrance, the ropes and all the equipment used in its service. The Gershonites are to do all that needs to be done with these things.


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All their service, whether carrying or doing other work, is to be done under the direction of Aaron and his sons. You shall assign to them as their responsibility all they are to carry.


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This is the service of the Gershonite clans at the Tent of Meeting. Their duties are to be under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.


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This is their duty as they perform service at the Tent of Meeting: to carry the frames of the tabernacle, its crossbars, posts and bases,


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as well as the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, ropes, all their equipment and everything related to their use. Assign to each man the specific things he is to carry.


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This is the service of the Merarite clans as they work at the Tent of Meeting under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest."


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This was the total of all those in the Kohathite clans who served in the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them according to the LORD'S command through Moses.


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This was the total of those in the Gershonite clans who served at the Tent of Meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them according to the LORD'S command.


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This was the total of those in the Merarite clans. Moses and Aaron counted them according to the LORD'S command through Moses.


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All the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to do the work of serving and carrying the Tent of Meeting


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At the LORD'S command through Moses, each was assigned his work and told what to carry. Thus they were counted, as the LORD commanded Moses.


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"Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has an infectious skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body.


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Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them."


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The Israelites did this; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses.


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"Say to the Israelites: 'When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the LORD, that person is guilty


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and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged.


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But if that person has no close relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest, along with the ram with which atonement is made for him.


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by sleeping with another man, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act),


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and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure--or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure--


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then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder offering to draw attention to guilt.


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Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.


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After the priest has had the woman stand before the LORD, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse.


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Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, "If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you.


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But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have defiled yourself by sleeping with a man other than your husband"--


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here the priest is to put the woman under this curse of the oath--"may the LORD cause your people to curse and denounce you when he causes your thigh to waste away and your abdomen to swell.


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May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and your thigh wastes away." "'Then the woman is to say, "Amen. So be it."


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He shall have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water will enter her and cause bitter suffering.


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The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD and bring it to the altar.


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The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water.


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If she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then when she is made to drink the water that brings a curse, it will go into her and cause bitter suffering; her abdomen will swell and her thigh waste away, and she will become accursed among her people.


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If, however, the woman has not defiled herself and is free from impurity, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.


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"'This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and defiles herself while married to her husband,


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or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the LORD and is to apply this entire law to her.


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The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.'"


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"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite,


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he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins.


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As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.


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"'During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the LORD is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long.


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Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head.


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"'If someone dies suddenly in his presence, thus defiling the hair he has dedicated, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing--the seventh day.


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Then on the eighth day he must bring two doves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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The priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for him because he sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. That same day he is to consecrate his head.


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He must dedicate himself to the LORD for the period of his separation and must bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. The previous days do not count, because he became defiled during his separation.


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"'Now this is the law for the Nazirite when the period of his separation is over. He is to be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.


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There he is to present his offerings to the LORD: a year-old male lamb without defect for a burnt offering, a year-old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering, a ram without defect for a fellowship offering,


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together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and a basket of bread made without yeast--cakes made of fine flour mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil.


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He is to present the basket of unleavened bread and is to sacrifice the ram as a fellowship offering to the LORD, together with its grain offering and drink offering.


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"'Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite must shave off the hair that he dedicated. He is to take the hair and put it in the fire that is under the sacrifice of the fellowship offering.


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"'After the Nazirite has shaved off the hair of his dedication, the priest is to place in his hands a boiled shoulder of the ram, and a cake and a wafer from the basket, both made without yeast.


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The priest shall then wave them before the LORD as a wave offering; they are holy and belong to the priest, together with the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine.


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"'This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD in accordance with his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford. He must fulfill the vow he has made, according to the law of the Nazirite.'"


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When Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed it and consecrated it and all its furnishings. He also anointed and consecrated the altar and all its utensils.


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Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of families who were the tribal leaders in charge of those who were counted, made offerings.


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They brought as their gifts before the LORD six covered carts and twelve oxen--an ox from each leader and a cart from every two. These they presented before the tabernacle.


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"Accept these from them, that they may be used in the work at the Tent of Meeting. Give them to the Levites as each man's work requires."


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and he gave four carts and eight oxen to the Merarites, as their work required. They were all under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.


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But Moses did not give any to the Kohathites, because they were to carry on their shoulders the holy things, for which they were responsible.


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When the altar was anointed, the leaders brought their offerings for its dedication and presented them before the altar.


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For the LORD had said to Moses, "Each day one leader is to bring his offering for the dedication of the altar."


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The one who brought his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah.


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His offering was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering;


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.


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The offering he brought was one silver plate weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels, both according to the sanctuary shekel, each filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering;


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Nethanel son of Zuar.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Eliab son of Helon.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Elizur son of Shedeur.


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On the fifth day Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai, the leader of the people of Simeon, brought his offering.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Eliasaph son of Deuel.


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On the seventh day Elishama son of Ammihud, the leader of the people of Ephraim, brought his offering.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Elishama son of Ammihud.


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On the eighth day Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, the leader of the people of Manasseh, brought his offering.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Abidan son of Gideoni.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Pagiel son of Ocran.


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and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old, to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Ahira son of Enan.


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These were the offerings of the Israelite leaders for the dedication of the altar when it was anointed: twelve silver plates, twelve silver sprinkling bowls and twelve gold dishes.


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Each silver plate weighed a hundred and thirty shekels, and each sprinkling bowl seventy shekels. Altogether, the silver dishes weighed two thousand four hundred shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.


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The twelve gold dishes filled with incense weighed ten shekels each, according to the sanctuary shekel. Altogether, the gold dishes weighed a hundred and twenty shekels.


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The total number of animals for the burnt offering came to twelve young bulls, twelve rams and twelve male lambs a year old, together with their grain offering. Twelve male goats were used for the sin offering.


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The total number of animals for the sacrifice of the fellowship offering came to twenty-four oxen, sixty rams, sixty male goats and sixty male lambs a year old. These were the offerings for the dedication of the altar after it was anointed.


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When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with him.


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"Speak to Aaron and say to him, 'When you set up the seven lamps, they are to light the area in front of the lampstand.'"


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Aaron did so; he set up the lamps so that they faced forward on the lampstand, just as the LORD commanded Moses.


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This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold--from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.


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To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves.


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Have them take a young bull with its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil; then you are to take a second young bull for a sin offering.


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Aaron is to present the Levites before the LORD as a wave offering from the Israelites, so that they may be ready to do the work of the LORD.


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"After the Levites lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, use the one for a sin offering to the LORD and the other for a burnt offering, to make atonement for the Levites.


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Have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and then present them as a wave offering to the LORD.


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In this way you are to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.


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"After you have purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they are to come to do their work at the Tent of Meeting.


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They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman.


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Every firstborn male in Israel, whether man or animal, is mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set them apart for myself.


