Every morning they gathered it, according to what each needed to eat; and when the sun became hot, it melted.

On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, about two omers per person. Then all the leaders of the congregation came and reported to Moses,

and he told them, "This is what the LORD said: "Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil, and put aside whatever remains to be kept for yourselves until morning.'"

So they put it away until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not smell bad, and there were no maggots in it.

Moses said, "Eat it today, since today is a Sabbath to the LORD, and today you won't find it in the field.

Nevertheless, that seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find any.

Then the LORD asked Moses, "How long will you people refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?

You see that the LORD has given you the Sabbath, and so on the sixth day he gives you food for two days. Let each person stay where he is; let no one leave his place on the seventh day."

The Israelis named it "manna". It was white like coriander seed, and tasted like a wafer made with honey.

Then Moses told Aaron, "Take a jar, fill it with about one omer of manna, and place it in the LORD's presence, to be preserved throughout future generations."

But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

So Moses cried out to the LORD: "What am I to do with these people? Just a little more and they'll stone me."

Then the LORD told Moses, "Go over in front of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

I'll be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock and water will come out of it, so the people can drink." Moses did this in front of the elders of Israel.

He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelis quarreled and tested the LORD by saying: "Is the LORD really among us or not?"

After this, the Amalekites came and fought with the Israelis at Rephidim.

Moses told Joshua, "Choose some men for us and go out to fight against the Amalekites. Tomorrow I'll stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand."

So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

When Moses' hands became heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other, and so his hands were steady until the sun went down.

Joshua defeated Amalek and his army using swords.

Then the LORD told Moses, "Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua: "I'll certainly wipe out the memory of the Amalekites from under heaven.'"

Moses built an altar and named it "The LORD is My Banner."

Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses and for his people Israel, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

while the name of the other was Eliezer, because he would say, "My father's God helped me and delivered me from Pharaoh's sword."

Moses' father-in-law Jethro, together with Moses' two sons and his wife, came to Moses in the desert where he was camped at the mountain of God.

He told Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you along with your wife and her two sons."

When Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, he bowed low and kissed him, and they greeted one another. Then they went into the tent.

Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians on Israel's behalf, all the hardships that they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who delivered the people from the oppression of the Egyptians.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to dine with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God.

The next day Moses sat down to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.

When they have a dispute, it comes to me and I decide between a person and his neighbor, and make known the statutes of God and his instructions."

You will certainly wear yourself out, both you and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you. You cannot do it by yourself.

Now listen to me. I'll advise you, and may God be with you. You are to represent the people before God and bring the disputes to God.

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.

You are to look for capable men among the people, men who fear God, men of integrity who hate dishonest gain. You are to set these men over them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

They are to judge the people at all times. Let them bring every major matter to you, but let them judge every minor matter. It will lighten your burden, and they'll bear it with you.

If you do this, and God so commands you, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will also go to their homes in peace."

Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.

Moses chose capable men from all Israel and appointed them as heads over the people, as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and he went to his own land.

On the third New Moon after the Israelis went out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came to the desert of Sinai.

They had set out from Rephidim and arrived at the desert of Sinai where they camped in the desert. Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain: "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and declare to the sons of Israel,

"You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the nations, because the whole earth belongs to me,

but you are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to me.' These are the words you are to declare to the Israelis."

When Moses came, he summoned the elders of the people and told them everything that the LORD had commanded him.

Then Moses reported all the words of the people back to the LORD. The LORD told Moses, "Look, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may listen when I speak with you and always believe you." Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

The LORD told Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes,

and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

When Moses went down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated the people, and they washed their clothes.

When morning came on the third day, there was thunder and lightning, with a heavy cloud over the mountain, and the very loud sound of a ram's horn. All the people in the camp trembled.

Moses brought the people from the camp to meet God, and they stood at the base of the mountain.

Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke because the LORD had come down in fire on it. Smoke went up from it like smoke from a kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently.

As the sound of the ram's horn grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer with thunder.

When the LORD came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

The LORD told Moses, "Go down and warn the people so they don't break through to look at the LORD, and many of them perish.

Moses told the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai because you warned us: "Set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.'"

The LORD told him, "Go down, and come back up with Aaron, but the priests and the people must not break through to go up to the LORD. Otherwise, he will attack them."

So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

You are not to bow down to them in worship or serve them, because I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of parents on children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

but showing gracious love to the thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Six days you are to labor and do all your work,

because the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them in six days. Then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

All the people experienced the thunder and lightning, the sound of the ram's horn, and the smoking mountain. And as the people experienced it, they trembled and stood at a distance.

They told Moses, "You speak to us and we will listen, but don't let God speak with us, or we may die.

Then the people stood at a distance, and Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.

You are to make an altar of earth for me, and you are to sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep, and your cattle. Everywhere I cause my name to be remembered, I'll come to you and bless you.

"When you acquire a Hebrew servant, he is to serve for six years, and in the seventh he is to go out a free man without paying anything.

If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and children belong to her master, and he is to go out by himself.

But if the servant, in fact, says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I won't go out a free man,'

then his master is to bring him before the judges and he is to bring him to the door or to the doorpost. His master is to pierce his ear with an awl, and he is to serve him permanently.

If he didn't lie in wait, but God let him fall into his reach, then I'll appoint for you a place to which he may flee.

"If people quarrel and one strikes the other with a rock or his fist, and he does not die but ends up in bed,

and the injured person then gets up and walks around outside with the help of his staff, the one who struck him is not liable, except that he is to compensate him for his loss of time and take care of his complete recovery.

"If a man strikes his male or female servant with a stick and he or she dies as a direct result, the master must be punished.

"If two men are fighting and they strike a pregnant woman and her children are born prematurely, but there is no harm, he is certainly to be fined as the husband of the woman demands of him, and he will pay as the court decides.

burn for burn, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.

"If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he is to release him as a free man in exchange for his eye.

"If an ox gores a man or woman so that they die, the ox is certainly to be stoned and its flesh may not be eaten, but the owner of the ox is free from liability.

But if the ox has gored previously, and its owner has been warned about it but didn't restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, the ox is to be stoned and its owner also is to be put to death.

"If the ox gores a male or female servant, the owner is to give 30 shekels of silver to the servant's master, and the ox is to be stoned.

If a man opens a pit or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or donkey falls into it,

the owner of the pit is to make restitution. He is to pay money to its owner, and the dead animal will become his.

"If a man's ox strikes his neighbor's ox and it dies, they are to sell the live ox and divide the money. They also are to divide the dead animal.

But if it was known that the ox had gored previously, and its owner didn't restrain it, he shall certainly repay ox for ox, and the dead ox will become his."

"If a man steals an ox or sheep and slaughters it or sells it, he is to repay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.

"If a thief is found while breaking into a house, and is struck down and dies, it is not a capital crime in that case,

"When a fire breaks out and spreads into thorn bushes and consumes stacked grain or standing grain or the field, the one who started the fire certainly is to make restitution.

"When a man gives his neighbor money or goods for safekeeping and it's stolen from the neighbor's house, the thief, if found, is to repay double.

"In every ownership dispute involving an ox, donkey, sheep, garment, or anything that is lost where a person says, "This is mine,' the case between the two of them is to come before the judges, and the one that the judges declare guilty is to repay double to his neighbor.

"When a man gives a donkey, ox, sheep, or any animal to his neighbor for safe keeping, and it dies or is injured or is driven away when no one is looking,

the two of them are to take an oath in the LORD's presence that the accused has not taken his neighbor's property. Its owner is to accept this, and the neighbor is not to make restitution.

If it was torn to pieces, let the neighbor bring the remains as evidence, and he is not to make restitution for what was torn apart.

"When a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it's injured or dies while its owner was not with it, he is certainly to make restitution.

"When a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married and has sexual relations with her, he must pay her bride price, and she is to become his wife.

If you do mistreat them, they'll certainly cry out to me, and I'll immediately hear their cry.

And I'll be angry and will kill you with swords, and your wives will become widows and your children orphans.