And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him.

Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me.

And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt.

And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord.

So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure.

Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I will make a great nation.

Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people.

Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever.

So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of sending punishment on his people.

Then Moses came down the mountain with the two stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their two sides, on the front and on the back.

The stones were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut on the stones.

Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the tents.

And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear.

And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of the mountain.

And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it.

And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them?

Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out.

Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him.

And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour.

And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day.

And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I may get forgiveness for your sin.

But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin.

And the Lord sent punishment on the people because they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made.

And the Lord said to Moses, Go forward from this place, you and the people whom you have taken up out of the land of Egypt, to that land about which I made an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your seed will I give it.

And I will send an angel before you, driving out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite:

Go up to that land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, for fear that I send destruction on you while you are on the way.

Hearing this bad news the people were full of grief, and no one put on his ornaments.

And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the children of Israel, You are a stiff-necked people: if I come among you, even for a minute, I will send destruction on you; so take off all your ornaments, so that I may see what to do with you.

So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at Mount Horeb, and did not put them on again.

And all the people saw the cloud at the door of the Tent, and they went down on their faces, everyone at the door of his tent.

And the Lord had talk with Moses face to face, as a man may have talk with his friend. And when Moses came back to the tents, his servant, the young man Joshua, the son of Nun, did not come away from the Tent.

And Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Be this people's guide on their journey, but you have not made clear to me whom you will send with me. But you have said, I have knowledge of you by name, and you have grace in my eyes.

If then I have grace in your eyes, let me see your ways, so that I may have knowledge of you and be certain of your grace; and my prayer is that you will keep in mind that this nation is your people.

And Moses said, If you yourself are not going with us, do not send us on from here.

For is not the fact of your going with us the sign that I and this people have grace in your eyes, so that we, that is, I and your people, are separate from all other people on the face of the earth?

And the Lord said to Moses, I will do as you say: for you have grace in my eyes, and I have knowledge of you by your name.

And he said, I will make all the light of my being come before you, and will make clear to you what I am; I will be kind to those to whom I will be kind, and have mercy on those on whom I will have mercy.

But it is not possible for you to see my face, for no man may see me and still go on living.

And the Lord said, See, there is a place near me, and you may take your place on the rock:

And when my glory goes by, I will put you in a hole in the rock, covering you with my hand till I have gone past:

And the Lord said to Moses, Make two other stones like the first two; and I will put on them the words which were on the first stones, which were broken by you.

And be ready by the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai, and come before me there in the morning, on the top of the mountain.

No one is to come up with you, and let no man be seen anywhere on the mountain; let no flocks or herds come near to get their food at its foot.

So Moses got two stones cut like the first; and early in the morning he went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had said, with the two stones in his hand.

And the Lord came down in the cloud and took his place by the side of Moses, and Moses gave worship to the name of the Lord.

And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and great in mercy and faith;

Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation.

Then Moses quickly went down on his face in worship.

And he said, If now I have grace in your eyes, let the Lord go among us, for this is a stiff-necked people, and give us forgiveness for our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us for your heritage.

And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake: before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to do for you is greatly to be feared.

So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts,

Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.

Keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days your food is to be bread without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib; for in that month you came out of Egypt.

A lamb may be given in payment for the young of an ass, but if you will not make payment for it, its neck will have to be broken. For all the first of your sons you are to make payment. No one is to come before me without an offering.

Six days let work be done, but on the seventh day take your rest: at ploughing time and at the grain-cutting you are to have a day for rest.

And you are to keep the feast of weeks when you get in the first-fruits of the grain, and the feast at the turn of the year when you take in the produce of your fields.

Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord, the God of Israel.

For I will send out the nations before you and make wide the limits of your land; and no man will make an attempt to take your land while you go up to give worship to the Lord, three times in the year.

Take the first-fruits of your land as an offering to the house of the Lord your God. Let not the young goat be cooked in its mother's milk

And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will make with you.

And for forty days and forty nights Moses was there with the Lord, and in that time he had no food or drink. And he put in writing on the stones the words of the agreement, the ten rules of the law.

Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two stones in his hand, he was not conscious that his face was shining because of his talk with God.

But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for fear.

And later, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the orders which the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to have talk with him, he took off the veil till he came out. And whenever he came out he said to the children of Israel what he had been ordered to say;

Six days let work be done, but the seventh day is to be a holy day to you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on that day is to be put to death.

No fire is to be lighted in any of your houses on the Sabbath day.

Take from among you an offering to the Lord; everyone who has the impulse in his heart, let him give his offering to the Lord; gold and silver and brass;

The robes of needlework for the work of the holy place, the holy robes for Aaron the priest, and the robes for his sons when acting as priests.

They came, men and women, all who were ready to give, and gave pins and nose-rings and finger-rings and neck-ornaments, all of gold; everyone gave an offering of gold to the Lord.

Everyone who had silver and brass gave an offering of them to the Lord; and everyone who had hard wood, such as was needed for the work, gave it.

And he has made him full of the spirit of God, in all wisdom and knowledge and art of every sort;

As an expert designer of beautiful things, working in gold and silver and brass;

Trained in the cutting of stones and the ornamenting of wood and in every sort of handwork.

To them he has given knowledge of all the arts of the handworker, of the designer, and the expert workman; of the maker of needlework in blue and purple and red and the best linen, and of the maker of cloth; in all the arts of the designer and the trained workman they are expert.

Then Moses sent for Bezalel and Oholiab, and for all the wise-hearted men to whom the Lord had given wisdom, even everyone who was moved by the impulse of his heart to come and take part in the work:

And they took from Moses all the offerings which the children of Israel had given for the building of the holy place. And still they went on giving him more free offerings every morning.

So Moses made an order and had it given out through all the tents, saying, Let no man or woman make any more offerings for the holy place. So the people were kept from giving more.

And they put twists of blue cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and in the same way on the outside curtain of the second group.

Fifty twists on the one curtain and fifty on the edge of the curtain of the other group; the twists being opposite to one another.

And they made fifty hooks of gold, joining the curtains one to another with the hooks; and so the House was made.

Five curtains were joined together to make one group, and six curtains were joined together to make the other group.

And they put fifty twists of cord on the edge of the outside curtain of the first group, and fifty twists on the edge of the outside curtain of the second group,

The boards were ten cubits long and one cubit and a half wide.

Every board had two tongues fixed into it; all the boards were made in this way.

And for the second side of the House, on the north, they made twenty boards,

These were joined together at the base and at the top to one ring, so forming the two angles.

And they made rods of hard wood; five for the boards on one side of the House,

And five for the boards on the other side of the House, and five for the boards at the back, on the west.

The middle rod was made to go right through the rings of all the boards from one end to the other.

Plating it inside and out with the best gold, and putting an edge of gold all round it.

And he made four gold rings for its four angles, two on one side and two on the other,

These rods he put in the rings at the sides of the ark, for lifting it.

And he made two winged ones, hammered out of one bit of gold, for the two ends of the cover;

Placing one at one end and one at the other; the winged ones were part of the cover.

And their wings were stretched out over the cover; the faces of the winged ones were opposite one another and facing the cover.

It had six branches coming out from its sides, three from one side and three from the other;

Every branch having three cups made like almond flowers, every cup with a bud and a flower on all the branches;

And on its pillar, four cups like almond flowers, every one with its bud and its flower;

The buds and the branches were made of the same metal, all together one complete work of the best hammered gold.