The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:

Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, select an animal from the flock according to your families, and slaughter the Passover animal.

Now at midnight the Lord struck every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the prisoner who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.

He summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and said, “Get up, leave my people, both you and the Israelites, and go, worship Yahweh as you have asked.

Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!”

And the Lord gave the people such favor in the Egyptians’ sight that they gave them what they requested. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the statute of the Passover: no foreigner may eat it.

Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, for the Lord brought you out of here by the strength of His hand. Nothing leavened may be eaten.

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road to the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearby; for God said, “The people will change their minds and return to Egypt if they face war.”

They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about the people and said: “What have we done? We have released Israel from serving us.”

They said to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?

But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again.

The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to break camp.

The Egyptians set out in pursuit—all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen—and went into the sea after them.

He caused their chariot wheels to swerve and made them drive with difficulty. “Let’s get away from Israel,” the Egyptians said, “because Yahweh is fighting for them against Egypt!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back on the Egyptians, on their chariots and horsemen.”

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord. They said:

I will sing to the Lord,
for He is highly exalted;
He has thrown the horse
and its rider into the sea.

The enemy said:
“I will pursue, I will overtake,
I will divide the spoil.
My desire will be gratified at their expense.
I will draw my sword;
my hand will destroy them.”

He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. This way I will test them to see whether or not they will follow My instructions.

So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites: “This evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt;

Moses said to them, “No one is to let any of it remain until morning.”

He told them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you want to bake, and boil what you want to boil, and set aside everything left over to be kept until morning.’”

So they set it aside until morning as Moses commanded, and it didn’t smell or have any maggots in it.

“Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the Lord. Today you won’t find any in the field.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep My commands and instructions?

Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.”

The house of Israel named the substance manna. It resembled coriander seed, was white, and tasted like wafers made with honey.

Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Two quarts of it are to be preserved throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

But the people thirsted there for water, and grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

I am going to stand there in front of you on the rock at Horeb; when you hit the rock, water will come out of it and the people will drink.” Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Moses said to Joshua, “Select some men for us and go fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with God’s staff in my hand.”

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

The Lord then said to Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven.”

He said, “Indeed, my hand is lifted up toward the Lord’s throne. The Lord will be at war with Amalek from generation to generation.”

along with her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom (because Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land”)

and the other Eliezer (because he had said, “The God of my father was my helper and delivered me from Pharaoh’s sword”).

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

“What you’re doing is not good,” Moses’ father-in-law said to him.

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

Then Moses said good-bye to his father-in-law, and he journeyed to his own land.

The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you and will always believe you.” Then Moses reported the people’s words to the Lord.

and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

He said to the people, “Be prepared by the third day. Do not have sexual relations with women.”

“You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

“These are the ordinances that you must set before them:

“Whoever sacrifices to any gods, except the Lord alone, is to be set apart for destruction.

Do the same with your cattle and your flock. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but on the eighth day you are to give them to Me.

Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent and the just, because I will not justify the guilty.

“Pay strict attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.

I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates River. For I will place the inhabitants of the land under your control, and you will drive them out ahead of you.

Then He said to Moses, “Go up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of Israel’s elders, and bow in worship at a distance.

And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early the next morning and set up an altar and 12 pillars for the 12 tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain.

Moses took half the blood and set it in basins; the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.

Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there so that I may give you the stone tablets with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”

Cast four gold rings for it and place them on its four feet, two rings on one side and two rings on the other side.

Make a mercy seat of pure gold, 45 inches long and 27 inches wide.

Make two cherubim of gold; make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat.

Make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end. At its two ends, make the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat.

The cherubim are to have wings spread out above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and are to face one another. The faces of the cherubim should be toward the mercy seat.

Set the mercy seat on top of the ark and put the testimony that I will give you into the ark.

I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the testimony; I will speak with you from there about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.

Six branches are to extend from its sides, three branches of the lampstand from one side and three branches of the lampstand from the other side.

“Make seven lamps on it. Its lamps are to be set up so they illuminate the area in front of it.

Make loops of blue yarn on the edge of the last curtain in the first set, and do the same on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.

Make 50 loops on the one curtain and make 50 loops on the edge of the curtain in the second set, so that the loops line up together.

Make 50 loops on the edge of the one curtain, the outermost in the first set, and make 50 loops on the edge of the corresponding curtain of the second set.

The half yard on one side and the half yard on the other of what is left over along the length of the tent curtains should be hanging down over the sides of the tabernacle on either side to cover it.

Make the planks for the tabernacle as follows: 20 planks for the south side,

20 planks for the second side of the tabernacle, the north side,

and make six planks for the west side of the tabernacle.

“You are to make five crossbars of acacia wood for the planks on one side of the tabernacle,

five crossbars for the planks on the other side of the tabernacle, and five crossbars for the planks of the back side of the tabernacle on the west.

You are to set up the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you have been shown on the mountain.

Put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

Place the table outside the veil and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle, opposite the table; put the table on the north side.

Set it below, under the altar’s ledge, so that the mesh comes halfway up the altar.

“You are to make the courtyard for the tabernacle. Make the hangings on the south of the courtyard out of finely spun linen, 150 feet long on that side.

Then make the hangings on the north side 150 feet long. There are to be 20 posts and 20 bronze bases. The hooks and bands of the posts must be silver.

Make the hangings of the courtyard on the west side 75 feet long, including their 10 posts and 10 bases.

Make the hangings of the courtyard on the east side toward the sunrise 75 feet.

Make the hangings on one side of the gate 22½ feet, including their three posts and their three bases.

And make the hangings on the other side 22½ feet, including their three posts and their three bases.

“You are to place the altar in front of the veil by the ark of the testimony—in front of the mercy seat that is over the testimony—where I will meet with you.

“Make a bronze basin for washing and a bronze stand for it. Set it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it.

The Lord said to Moses: “Take fragrant spices: stacte, onycha, and galbanum; the spices and pure frankincense are to be in equal measures.

the tent of meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on top of it, and all the other furnishings of the tent—

The Lord said to Moses:

When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”

He took the gold from their hands, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf.

Then they said, “Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”

Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to play.

They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them; they have made for themselves an image of a calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘Israel, this is your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

So the Lord relented concerning the disaster He said He would bring on His people.

When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”

They said to me, ‘Make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’

So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off,’ and they gave it to me. When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!”