But you're to impose the previous quota of bricks that they're making. You're not to reduce it! It is because they're lazy that they're crying out, "Let's go offer sacrifices to our God.'

We're all sons of a common father. We're honest men, your majesty. We're not spies!"

One of you is to be sent back so he can get your brother while the rest of you remain in custody. That way, we'll test whether or not you're telling the truth. If you're not, as surely as the Pharaoh lives, you're spies!"

"Bring out your luggage, like you're packing to go into exile, and do this during the daytime while they're watching you. Later that evening, leave while they're watching you like someone heading into exile.

Shall I continue to wait, since they're no longer talking? After all, they're only standing there; they're no longer responding.

Is it such an insignificant thing to you that you're feeding in good pastures but trampling down the other pastures with your feet? Or that as you're drinking from the clear streams you're muddying the rest with your feet?

Also, on the first day you're to hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day you're to hold a holy assembly. No work is to be done during those days, except for preparing what is to be eaten by each person.

You are to teach them the statutes and instructions and make known to them the way they're to go and the things they're to do.

"When you take a census of the Israelis to register them, each is to give a ransom for himself to the LORD when they're registered so there won't be a plague among them when they're registered.

So they got up early the next morning and traveled to the top of the mountain, telling themselves, "Look, we're here and we're going to go up to the place that the LORD had spoken about, even though we've sinned."

Then the Israelis told Moses, "We're sure to die! We're all going to perish all of us!

They'll come after us until we've drawn them away from the city, because they'll say, "They're running away from us just like they did before.' While we're running away from them,

You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you're buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You're made from dust and you'll return to dust."

The leading men of Judah asked, "Why have you invaded us?" They replied, "We're here to arrest Samson. Then we're going to do to him what he did to us."

Now please pay attention closely! My whole family is attacking your humble servant! They're saying, "Turn over the one who attacked his brother and we'll put him to death in retribution for his brother, whose life he took. That way, we'll kill the heir also!' They're going to extinguish the only light left in my family, leaving my late husband neither an ongoing name nor a survivor on the face of the earth!"

"Why, then," the woman asked, "are you planning to act just like this against God's people? Based on what your majesty has said, you're acting like one who is guilty himself, because you're not bringing back the one whom you've banished!

You're my relatives! You're my own flesh and blood! So why are you the last to bring back the king?'

"We're all guilty because of what we did to our brother!" they told each other. "We kept on watching his suffering while he pleaded with us! We're in this mess because we wouldn't listen!"

But we told him, "No! We're honest men! We're not spies!

Their father Jacob told them, "You're causing me to lose my children! Joseph is gone. Now Simeon is gone, and you're planning to take Benjamin, too. Everything's going against me!"

Meanwhile, Pharaoh continued commanding all of his people, "You're to throw every Hebrew son who is born into the Nile River, but you're to allow every Hebrew daughter to live."

They replied, "We met a man who told us, "Go back to the king who sent you and ask him, "Is it because there is no God in Israel that you're going to consult with Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you won't be getting up from that bed on which you're lying. You will most certainly die!"'"

Then Elijah spoke to the king, "This is what the LORD says: "Since you sent messengers to consult with Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron is it because there is no God in Israel with whom to consult regarding his word? therefore you're not getting up from the bed on which you're lying. You certainly will die!'"

But then they told each other, "We're not doing the right thing. This is a day of good news, but if we keep quiet until morning, we're sure to be punished! So let's leave and go tell the king's household!"

so the king got up in the middle of the night and ordered his servants: "Let me explain what the Arameans have done to us. They know that we're hungry, so they've left their encampment to conceal themselves in the surrounding fields. They're telling themselves, "When they come out of the city, we'll capture them alive and enter the city!'"

""Why are you so confident? You're saying but they're only empty words "I have enough advice and resources to conduct warfare!'

Look how they're rewarding us! They're coming to drive us from your property that you gave us to be our inheritance.

because you're not going to a people whose speech you cannot understand or whose language is difficult to speak. Instead, you're going to the house of Israel.

Later I visited Delaiah's son Shemaiah, a grandson of Mehetabel, who was confined at home. He kept urging me, "Let's meet together at the house of God, within the Temple, and take refuge there, because they're coming to kill you. In fact, they're coming at night to kill you!"

Later I told them, "You all are watching the predicament we're in, how Jerusalem lies desolate, with its gates burned by fire. Let's rebuild the Jerusalem wall so we're no longer a disgrace."

But when Sanballat the Horonite, his servant Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arab heard about it, they jeered at us and despised us when they said, "What is this thing that you're doing? You're rebelling against the king, aren't you?"

In reply to them, I said, "The God of Heaven will prosper us. That's why we're preparing to build. But as far as you're concerned, there exists no ancestral heritage, no legal right, nor any historic claim in Jerusalem.

Then the Spirit told me, "Son of Man, don't you see what they're doing? The house of Israel practices awful, detestable things here, so I'm going far away from my sanctuary. But you're about to see things even more detestable than these."

Then the Spirit told me, "You're about to see even more detestable practices that they're doing!"

"Do you see this, Son of Man?" he asked me. "Is it an insignificant thing for Judah's house to commit the detestable things that they're doing here? They've filled the land with violence and turned away from me, causing me to become angry again. Look how they're sniffing with their noses!

"So now, Son of Man, you are to prepare your luggage for a trip into exile, and then you are to leave during the daytime so they see you leaving. Leave from your place to another while they're watching. Then perhaps they'll realize that they're a rebellious house.

You've profaned me among my people for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread. You're causing people to die who shouldn't have to die, and you're causing people to live who shouldn't survive, when you deceive my people who tend to listen to lies."

"But now it's your turn, and you're the one who is worn out! Now it's striking you, and you're dismayed!

You're different from other women when you commit immorality no one can match you in that! After all, you pay fees, but no fee is given to you. You're certainly different!"

You're the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You're the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children.

The thing that you're imagining is never going to happen, since you're thinking, "We'll be like the nations, like the clans of other lands who serve gods made from wood and stone."'"

Why do you think we're like dumb animals? Do you think we're stupid?

Can one say to a king, "You're vile!' or to nobles, "You're wicked!'?

Is that when you'll say, "I'm God' to the face of those who will be killing you? After all, you're a man, and have never been a god, especially when you're under the control of those who will defile you!

You'll eat until you're fat and satiated. You'll drink blood until you're drunk from the sacrifice that I'm going to make for all of you.

The king responded, "I'm convinced that you're stalling for time because you're aware of what I've commanded.

"The kingdom has been taken from you! You're to be driven away from people. You're to live with the wild animals of the field. You are to be made to eat grass like cattle, and seven years will pass you by until you realize that the Most High is sovereign over human kingdoms and grants them to whomever he desires.'"

They cut meat on the right, but they're still hungry, and they devour also on the left, but they're not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own children.

"For my people are foolish, they don't know me. They're stupid children, they have no understanding. They're skilled at doing evil, but how to do good, they don't know."

When they're excited I'll serve them their banquet, and make them drunk until they're merry. They'll sleep forever and won't wake up," declares the LORD.

Now you're intending to make the men and women of Judah and Jerusalem to be your slaves. Surely you have your own sins against the LORD your God for which you're accountable, don't you?

You are not to ascend to my altar on steps, so that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.'"

Moses renamed Nun's son Hoshea to Joshua. Then he sent them out to explore the land of Canaan. He instructed them, "Go up from here through the Negev, then ascend to the hill country.

So take Aaron and his son Eleazar and ascend Mount Hor.

"Ascend this Abarim mountain range toward Mount Nebo in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and look out over the land of Canaan that I'm about to give to the Israelis as a possession.

You will die on the mountain that you are about to ascend and be taken to be with your ancestors, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was taken to be with his ancestors.

A passageway to the side chamber was constructed on the south side of the Temple by which people could ascend winding stairs to the middle story, then from there to the third story.

When the cherubim moved, the wheels went alongside them. But when the cherubim started to ascend, beating their wings to rise above the earth, the wheels beside them didn't turn.

Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his Holy Place?

"I will remove the northerners from you, driving them to a barren and desolate land the front toward the Dead Sea and the back toward the Mediterranean. Their stench will rise, and their stinking odor will ascend, because they have done great things."

To it the tribes ascend the tribes of the LORD as decreed to Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.

"Even if they burrow into Sheol, from there my hand will find them. Even if they ascend to the heavens, from there I will bring them down.

You said in your heart, "I'll ascend to heaven, above the stars of God. I'll erect my throne; I'll sit on the Mount of Assembly in the far reaches of the north;

I'll ascend above the tops of the clouds; I'll make myself like the Most High.'

Their slain will be thrown out; and as for their dead bodies their stench will ascend; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

Tell the entire congregation of Israel, "On the tenth of this month they're each to take a lamb for themselves, according to their ancestors' households, one lamb for each household.

They're to take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat the lamb.

That very night they're to eat the meat, roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Pharaoh will say about the Israelis, "They're wandering aimlessly in the land, and the desert has closed in on them.'

Moses told the people, "Don't be afraid! Stand still and watch how the LORD will deliver you today, because you will never again see the Egyptians whom you're looking at today.

Then the LORD told Moses, "I've seen these people and indeed they're obstinate.

Aaron said, "Sir, don't be angry. You know the people that they're intent on evil.

Whoever carries their carcass is to wash their clothes, because they've become unclean until evening. They're unclean for you.

These are unclean for you among the swarming creatures, so anyone who touches them when they're dead becomes unclean until evening.

Furthermore, anything on which they fall when they're dead becomes unclean, whether on an article of wood, clothing, skin, or a sack. And any vessel used for any work is to be washed in water, because it has become unclean until evening.

and anything into which their carcass falls becomes unclean. An oven or stove is to be broken in pieces. They're unclean and therefore unclean for you.

You are not to eat anything that crawls on its belly, anything that walks on four legs, anything that has many legs, or any of the swarming creatures that swarm the land, because they're detestable.

"If the contagion returns and spreads throughout the house after the stones have been removed, after the house has been scraped out, and after it has been re-coated,

"You are not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter. "You are not to have sexual relations with her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter. They're near blood relatives. It's wickedness.

They are to be holy to their God. They are not to defile the name of their God, because they're the ones who bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire the food of their God so they are to be holy.

A resident alien is not to offer as food to your God any of these items, because they are afflicted with ritual corruption due to their defects. They're not acceptable for you."

"The land is not to be sold with any finality, because the land belongs to me. You're sojourners and travelers with me.

Since they're my servants whom I've brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

because the Israelis are my servants. They're my servants, since I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

Yet, despite all of these things, when they're in the land of their enemies, I won't reject or despise them so as to completely destroy them and by doing so violate my covenant with them, because I am the LORD their God.

so he asked the LORD, "Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven't I found favor in your eyes? After all, you're putting the burden of this entire people on me!

Where am I going to get meat to give this people? After all, they're crying in front of me, "Give us meat to eat!'

"But give this command to the people: "You are to consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow you're going to eat meat, since you've complained where the LORD can hear it, "Who can give us meat to eat? After all, life was better with us in Egypt." Therefore, the LORD is going to give you meat and you'll eat

Moses responded, "I'm with 600,000 people on foot and you're saying I am to give them enough meat to eat for a whole month?

But the LORD responded to Moses, "Is the LORD short on power? You're now going to witness whether what I say will come to pass or not."

See what the land is like. Observe whether the people who live there are strong or weak, or whether they're few or numerous.

Look to see whether the land where they live is good or bad, and whether the cities in which they live are merely tents or if they're fortified.

"We can't attack those people," the men who were with him said, "because they're too strong compared to us."

We also saw the Nephilim, the descendants of Anak. Compared to the Nephilim, as we see things, we're like grasshoppers, and that's their opinion of us!"

they'll also proclaim to the inhabitants of this land that they've heard you're among this people, LORD, whom they've seen face to face, since your cloud stands guard over them. You've guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night.

and put fire and incense in them in the LORD's presence tomorrow. It will be that the man whom the LORD chooses will be holy. You're taking too much for yourselves, you descendants of Levi."

So Moses sent for Eliab's sons Dathan and Abiram, but they responded, "We're not coming.

Is it such an insignificant thing that you brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Now you're trying to make yourself be a prince and rule over us, aren't you?

Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram stood at the entrance to their tents with their wives, sons, and little children. Then Moses said, "This is how you'll know that the LORD has sent me to do all these awesome works they're not coming merely from me.

As for the censers of those rebels who died, fasten them into beaten plates to line the altar. Since they brought them into the LORD's presence, they're holy. They are to become a reminder to the Israelis."