Oholiab and Bezalel
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 l“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have mfilled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. 6 And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 nthe tent of meeting, and othe ark of the testimony, and pthe mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, 8 qthe table and its utensils, and rthe pure lampstand with all its utensils, and sthe altar of incense, 9 and tthe altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and uthe basin and its stand, 10 and vthe finely worked garments,1 the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, 11 and wthe anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.”
The Sabbath
12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, x‘Above all you shall keep ymy Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who zprofanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be acut off from among his people. 15 bSix days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a ccovenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and don the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”
18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, etablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
The Golden Calf
1 fWhen the people saw that Moses gdelayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, hmake us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off ithe rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 jSo all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and kmade a golden2 calf. And they said, l“These are your gods, O Israel, mwho brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, n“Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And othe people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way pthat I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a qstiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore rlet me alone, sthat my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that tI may make a ugreat nation of you.”
11 But vMoses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, wwhy does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 xWhy should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you yswore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” 14 And the Lord zrelented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
15 Then Moses turned and awent down from the mountain with the two btablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written con both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 dThe tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 eHe took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that fyou have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you gkill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, heach one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make iatonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, jif you will forgive their sin—kbut if not, please blot me out of lyour book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will mblot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, nmy angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
The Command to Leave Sinai
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I oswore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ 2 I will send an pangel before you, and qI will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 3 Go up to ra land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, slest I consume you on the way, for you are a tstiff-necked people.”
4 uWhen the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you. So now take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’” 6 Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.
The Tent of Meeting
7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the vtent of meeting. And everyone who wsought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, xthe pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord3 would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses yface to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.
Moses’ Intercession
12 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please zshow me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, a“My presence will go with you, and I will give you brest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that cwe are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me dyour glory.” 19 And he said, e“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will fproclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And gI will hbe gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, i“you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and jI will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall ksee my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
The Parable of the Wedding Feast
1 pAnd again Jesus spoke to them in qparables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a rwedding sfeast for his son, 3 and sent his servants1 to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 tAgain he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and ukilled them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, vbut those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wwedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and xcast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but yfew are chosen.”
Paying Taxes to Caesar
15 zThen the Pharisees went and plotted how ato entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, bwe know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for cyou are not swayed by dappearances.2 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay etaxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you fhypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.3 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore grender to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
