and they made the Israelites serve rigorously.

They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

And because the midwives feared God, he made households for them.

The man replied, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, thinking, "Surely what I did has become known."

"The elders will listen to you, and then you and the elders of Israel must go to the king of Egypt and tell him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. So now, let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'

The Lord said to him, "Who gave a mouth to man, or who makes a person mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

Then the Lord became angry with Moses, and he said, "What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know that he can speak very well. Moreover, he is coming to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart.

Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him.

The Lord said to Aaron, "Go to the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and greeted him with a kiss.

And they said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey into the desert so that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword."

When they went out from Pharaoh, they encountered Moses and Aaron standing there to meet them,

and they said to them, "May the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the opinion of Pharaoh and his servants, so that you have given them an excuse to kill us!"

So the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

Go to Pharaoh in the morning when he goes out to the water. Position yourself to meet him by the edge of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake.

and in order that in the hearing of your son and your grandson you may tell how I made fools of the Egyptians and about my signs that I displayed among them, so that you may know that I am the Lord."

They will eat the meat the same night; they will eat it roasted over the fire with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs.

For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. Surely on the first day you must put away yeast from your houses because anyone who eats bread made with yeast from the first day to the seventh day will be cut off from Israel.

In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you will eat bread made without yeast until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.

For seven days yeast must not be found in your houses, for whoever eats what is made with yeast -- that person will be cut off from the community of Israel, whether a foreigner or one born in the land.

You will not eat anything made with yeast; in all the places where you live you must eat bread made without yeast.'"

They baked cakes of bread without yeast using the dough they had brought from Egypt, for it was made without yeast -- because they were thrust out of Egypt and were not able to delay, they could not prepare food for themselves either.

It must be eaten in one house; you must not bring any of the meat outside the house, and you must not break a bone of it.

Moses said to the people, "Remember this day on which you came out from Egypt, from the place where you were enslaved, for the Lord brought you out of there with a mighty hand -- and no bread made with yeast may be eaten.

For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord.

Bread made without yeast must be eaten for seven days; no bread made with yeast shall be seen among you, and you must have no yeast among you within any of your borders.

Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the Israelites solemnly swear, "God will surely attend to you, and you will carry my bones up from this place with you."

Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord drove the sea apart by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the water was divided.

You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, in the place you made for your residence, O Lord, the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.

He cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became safe to drink. There the Lord made for them a binding ordinance, and there he tested them.

The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger!"

Moses said, "You will know this when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to satisfy you, because the Lord has heard your murmurings that you are murmuring against him. As for us, what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord."

"I have heard the murmurings of the Israelites. Tell them, 'During the evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be satisfied with bread, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.'"

Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; they each asked about the other's welfare, and then they went into the tent.

Moses chose capable men from all Israel, and he made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

You must make for me an altar made of earth, and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause my name to be honored I will come to you and I will bless you.

"You will be holy people to me; you must not eat any meat torn by animals in the field. You must throw it to the dogs.

You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before me empty-handed.

So Moses took the blood and splashed 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."

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself.

I will meet with you there, and from above the atonement lid, from between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will command you for the Israelites.

"You are to make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand is to be made of hammered metal; its base and its shaft, its cups, its buds, and its blossoms are to be from the same piece.

"You are to make a special curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen; it is to be made with cherubim, the work of an artistic designer.

You are to make its pots for the ashes, its shovels, its tossing bowls, its meat hooks, and its fire pans -- you are to make all its utensils of bronze.

All the utensils of the tabernacle used in all its service, all its tent pegs, and all the tent pegs of the courtyard are to be made of bronze.

and bread made without yeast, and perforated cakes without yeast mixed with oil, and wafers without yeast spread with oil -- you are to make them using fine wheat flour.

But the meat of the bull, its skin, and its dung you are to burn up outside the camp. It is the purification offering.

and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a soothing aroma; it is an offering made by fire to the Lord.

and one round flat cake of bread, one perforated cake of oiled bread, and one wafer from the basket of bread made without yeast that is before the Lord.

Then you are to take them from their hands and burn them on the altar for a burnt offering, for a soothing aroma before the Lord. It is an offering made by fire to the Lord.

"You are to take the ram of the consecration and cook its meat in a holy place.

Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that was in the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

They are to eat those things by which atonement was made to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else may eat them, for they are holy.

If any of the meat from the consecration offerings or any of the bread is left over until morning, then you are to burn up what is left over. It must not be eaten, because it is holy.

The second lamb you are to offer around sundown; you are to prepare for it the same meal offering as for the morning and the same drink offering, for a soothing aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

"This will be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak to you there.

There I will meet with the Israelites, and it will be set apart as holy by my glory.

"You are to put it in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the testimony (before the atonement lid that is over the testimony), where I will meet you.

When they enter the tent of meeting, they must wash with water so that they do not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by burning incense as an offering made by fire to the Lord,

You are to beat some of it very fine and put some of it before the ark of the testimony in the tent of meeting where I will meet with you; it is to be most holy to you.

It is 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 rested and was refreshed.'"

He accepted the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord."

They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them -- they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.'"

He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

So Moses returned to the Lord and said, "Alas, this people has committed a very serious sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold.

And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf -- the one Aaron made.

Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way."

For the Lord had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I went up among you for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments, that I may know what I should do to you.'"

"You must keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you; do this at the appointed time of the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out of Egypt.

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."

All the skilled among those who were doing the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet; they were made with cherubim that were the work of an artistic designer.

He made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in the first set; he did the same along the edge of the end curtain in the second set.

He made fifty loops on the first curtain, and he made fifty loops on the end curtain that was in the second set, with the loops opposite one another.

He made fifty gold clasps and joined the curtains together to one another with the clasps, so that the tabernacle was a unit.

He made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains.

He made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in the first set and fifty loops along the edge of the curtain that joined the second set.

He made fifty bronze clasps to join the tent together so that it might be a unit.

He made a covering for the tent out of ram skins dyed red and over that a covering of fine leather.

He made the frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood as uprights.

with two projections per frame parallel one to another. He made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.

So he made frames for the tabernacle: twenty frames for the south side.

He made forty silver bases under the twenty frames -- two bases under the first frame for its two projections, and likewise two bases under the next frame for its two projections,

and for the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, he made twenty frames

And for the back of the tabernacle on the west he made six frames.

He made two frames for the corners of the tabernacle on the back.

He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle

He made the middle bar to reach from end to end in the center of the frames.

He overlaid the frames with gold and made their rings of gold to provide places for the bars, and he overlaid the bars with gold.

He made the special curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen; he made it with cherubim, the work of an artistic designer.

He made for it four posts of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold, with gold hooks, and he cast for them four silver bases.

He made a hanging for the entrance of the tent of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine twisted linen, the work of an embroiderer,

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; its length was three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches.

He overlaid it with pure gold, inside and out, and he made a surrounding border of gold for it.

He made poles of acacia wood, overlaid them with gold,

He made an atonement lid of pure gold; its length was three feet nine inches, and its width was two feet three inches.

He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered metal on the two ends of the atonement lid,

one cherub on one end and one cherub on the other end. He made the cherubim from the atonement lid on its two ends.

He made the table of acacia wood; its length was three feet, its width one foot six inches, and its height two feet three inches.