The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders (miracles) which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and make him stubborn so that he will not let the people go.

But Moses said, “It is not right [or even possible] to do that, for we will sacrifice to the Lord our God what is repulsive and unacceptable to the Egyptians [that is, animals that the Egyptians consider sacred]. If we sacrifice what is repulsive and unacceptable to the Egyptians, will they not riot and stone us?

your houses and those of all your servants and of all the Egyptians shall be filled with locusts, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from their birth until this day.’” Then Moses turned and left Pharaoh.

The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked. And so they plundered the Egyptians [of those things].

“In the greatness of Your majesty You overthrow and annihilate those [adversaries] who rise [in rebellion] against You;
You send out Your fury, and it consumes them like chaff.

This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let every man gather as much of it as he needs. Take an omer for each person, according to the number of people each of you has in his tent.’”

You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

but showing graciousness and steadfast lovingkindness to thousands [of generations] of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

“You shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the testimony and the cause of the righteous.

They shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration; but a layman shall not eat them, because they are holy [that is, set apart to the worship of God].

This is what everyone who is counted shall give [as he joins those already counted]: a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel (the shekel is twenty gerahs); a half shekel as a contribution to the Lord.

Everyone who is counted, from twenty years old and over, [as he joins those already counted], shall give this contribution to the Lord.

I said to them, ‘Let whoever has gold [jewelry], take it off.’ So they gave it to me; then I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

He has filled them with skill to do the work of an engraver, of a designer, and of an embroiderer, in blue, purple, and scarlet fabric, and in fine linen, and of a weaver; makers of every work and embroiderers of [excellent] designs.

The silver from those of the congregation who were assembled and counted was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary;

The stones corresponded to the names of the sons of Israel; they were twelve [in all], corresponding to their names, engraved like a signet, each with its name, for the twelve tribes.

They bound the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord, so that it would lie on the woven sash of the ephod, and so that the breastpiece would not come loose from the ephod, just as the Lord commanded Moses.