for he said, "For a hand was lifted up to the throne of the Lord -- that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

You will surely wear out, both you and these people who are with you, for this is too heavy a burden for you; you are not able to do it by yourself.

Now listen to me, I will give you advice, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God, and you bring their disputes to God;

They will judge the people under normal circumstances, and every difficult case they will bring to you, but every small case they themselves will judge, so that you may make it easier for yourself, and they will bear the burden with you.

If you do this thing, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will be able to go home satisfied."

Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, "Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people of Israel:

And now, if you will diligently listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,

and you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites."

and all the people answered together, "All that the Lord has commanded we will do!" So Moses brought the words of the people back to the Lord.

The Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you." And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

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.

You must set boundaries for the people all around, saying, 'Take heed to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death!

No hand will touch him -- but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; he must not live.' When the ram's horn sounds a long blast they may go up on the mountain."

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain.

They said to Moses, "You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, lest we die."

The Lord said to Moses: "Thus you will tell the Israelites: 'You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.

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.

"These are the decisions that you will set before them:

"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything.

If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.

If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

But if the servant should declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.

"If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.

If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters.

If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, you will take him even from my altar that he may die.

"If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow, he will surely be punished.

However, if the injured servant survives one or two days, the owner will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss.

"If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman's husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides.

But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life,

"If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.

If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

"If an ox gores a man or a woman so that either dies, then the ox must surely be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.

If the ox gores a son or a daughter, the owner will be dealt with according to this rule.

the owner of the pit must repay the loss. He must give money to its owner, and the dead animal will become his.

If the ox of one man injures the ox of his neighbor so that it dies, then they will sell the live ox and divide its proceeds, and they will also divide the dead ox.

Or if it is known that the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner did not take the necessary precautions, he must surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal will become his.

"If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no blood guilt for him.

If the sun has risen on him, then there is blood guilt for him. A thief must surely make full restitution; if he has nothing, then he will be sold for his theft.

If the thief is not caught, then the owner of the house will be brought before the judges to see whether he has laid his hand on his neighbor's goods.

In all cases of illegal possessions, whether for an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any kind of lost item, about which someone says 'This belongs to me,' the matter of the two of them will come before the judges, and the one whom the judges declare guilty must repay double to his neighbor.

then there will be an oath to the Lord between the two of them, that he has not laid his hand on his neighbor's goods, and its owner will accept this, and he will not have to pay.

But if it was stolen from him, he will pay its owner.

If it is torn in pieces, then he will bring it for evidence, and he will not have to pay for what was torn.

"If a man borrows an animal from his neighbor, and it is hurt or dies when its owner was not with it, the man who borrowed it will surely pay.

If its owner was with it, he will not have to pay; if it was hired, what was paid for the hire covers it.

If you afflict them in any way and they cry to me, I will surely hear their cry,

and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless.

for it is his only covering -- it is his garment for his body. What else can he sleep in? And when he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

"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.

Keep your distance from a false charge -- do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not justify the wicked.

At three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord God.

Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my name is in him.

But if you diligently obey him and do all that I command, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will be an adversary to your adversaries.

For my angel will go before you and bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them completely.

You must serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst.

No woman will miscarry her young or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days.

"I will send my terror before you, and I will destroy all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

I will send hornets before you that will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you.

I will not drive them out before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild animals multiply against you.

Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you become fruitful and inherit the land.

I will set your boundaries from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

They must not live in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them."

You are to put into the ark the testimony that I will give to you.

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.

Their buds and their branches will be one piece, all of it one hammered piece of pure gold.

"You are to make its seven lamps, and then set its lamps up on it, so that it will give light to the area in front of it.

Now the part that remains of the curtains of the tent -- the half curtain that remains will hang over at the back of the tabernacle.

The foot and a half on the one side and the foot and a half on the other side of what remains in the length of the curtains of the tent will hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on one side and the other side, to cover it.

And for the back of the tabernacle on the west you will make six frames.

At the two corners they must be doubled at the lower end and finished together at the top in one ring. So it will be for both.

The middle bar in the center of the frames will reach from end to end.

You are to hang this curtain under the clasps and bring the ark of the testimony in there behind the curtain. The curtain will make a division for you between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.

You are to make for the hanging five posts of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, and their hooks will be gold, and you are to cast five bronze bases for them.

You are to make its four horns on its four corners; its horns will be part of it, and you are to overlay it with bronze.

You are to put it under the ledge of the altar below, so that the network will come halfway up the altar.

The poles are to be put into the rings so that the poles will be on two sides of the altar when carrying it.

"You are to command the Israelites that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, so that the lamps will burn regularly.

You are to put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod, stones of memorial for the sons of Israel, and Aaron will bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for a memorial.

the other two ends of the two chains you will attach to the two settings and then attach them to the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front of it.

They are to tie the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod by blue cord, so that it may be above the waistband of the ephod, and so that the breastpiece will not be loose from the ephod.

Aaron will bear the names of the sons of Israel in the breastpiece of decision over his heart when he goes into the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.

The robe is to be on Aaron as he ministers, and his sound will be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the Lord and when he leaves, so that he does not die.

You are to attach to it a blue cord so that it will be on the turban; it is to be on the front of the turban,

It will be on Aaron's forehead, and Aaron will bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the Israelites are to sanctify by all their holy gifts; it will always be on his forehead, for their acceptance before the Lord.

and wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons and put headbands on them, and so the ministry of priesthood will belong to them by a perpetual ordinance. Thus you are to consecrate Aaron and his sons.

For seven days you are to make atonement for the altar and set it apart as holy. Then the altar will be most holy. Anything that touches the altar will be holy.

"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.

"So I will set apart as holy the tent of meeting and the altar, and I will set apart as holy Aaron and his sons, that they may minister as priests to me.

I will reside among the Israelites, and I will be their God,

and they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, so that I may reside among them. I am the Lord their God.

Its length is to be a foot and a half and its width a foot and a half; it will be square. Its height is to be three feet, with its horns of one piece with it.

You are to make two gold rings for it under its border, on its two flanks; you are to make them on its two sides. The rings will be places for poles to carry it with.

"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 you take a census of the Israelites according to their number, then each man is to pay a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, so that there will be no plague among them when you number them.

You are to receive the atonement money from the Israelites and give it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the Lord, to make atonement for your lives."