Moses built an altar, and he called it "The Lord is my Banner,"

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

Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; they each asked about the other's welfare, and then they went into the tent.

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

When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing for the people? Why are you sitting by yourself, and all the people stand around you from morning until evening?"

When they have a dispute, it comes to me and I decide between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the decrees of God and his laws."

Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good!

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.

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.

In the third month after the Israelites went out from the land of Egypt, on the very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai.

You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I lifted you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

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,

Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain.

Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.

Moses said to the Lord, "The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai, because you solemnly warned us, 'Set boundaries for the mountain and set it apart.'"

"Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy.

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking -- and when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance.

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.

If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it of stones shaped with tools, for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it.

"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,'

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

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.

and then if he gets up and walks about outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay for the injured person's loss of time and see to it that he is fully healed.

"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.

"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.

But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, and he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.

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

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 man steals an ox or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay back five head of cattle for the ox, and four sheep for the one sheep.

If the stolen item should in fact be found alive in his possession, whether it be an ox or a donkey or a sheep, he must pay back double.

"If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or standing grain or the whole field is consumed, the one who started the fire must surely make restitution.

"If a man gives his neighbor money or articles for safekeeping, and it is stolen from the man's house, if the thief is caught, he must repay double.

If a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it dies or is hurt or is carried away without anyone seeing it,

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.

"You must not afflict any widow or orphan.

If you do take the garment of your neighbor in pledge, you must return it to him by the time the sun goes down,

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.

"If you encounter your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, you must by all means return it to him.

If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, you must not ignore him, but be sure to help him with it.

But in the seventh year you must let it lie fallow and leave it alone so that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave any animal in the field may eat; you must do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove.

You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before me empty-handed.

"You are also to observe the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year when you have gathered in your harvest out of the field.

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

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."

and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and arranged twelve standing stones -- according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar.

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, "We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken."

So Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.

So Moses set out with Joshua his attendant, and Moses went up the mountain of God.

He told the elders, "Wait for us in this place until we return to you. Here are Aaron and Hur with you. Whoever has any matters of dispute can approach them."

The glory of the Lord resided on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses from within the cloud.

ram skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood,

According to all that I am showing you -- the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings -- you must make it exactly so.

"They are to make an ark of acacia wood -- its length is to be three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches.

You are to overlay it with pure gold -- both inside and outside you must overlay it, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold over it.

You are to cast four gold rings for it and put them on its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other side.

You are to make poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold,

and put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark in order to carry the ark with them.

The poles must remain in the rings of the ark; they must not be removed from it.

"You are to make an atonement lid of pure gold; its length is to be three feet nine inches, and its width is to be two feet three inches.

"You are to make a table of acacia wood; its length is to be three feet, its width one foot six inches, and its height two feet three inches.

You are to overlay it with pure gold, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for it.

You are to make a surrounding frame for it about three inches broad, and you are to make a surrounding border of gold for its frame.

You are to make four rings of gold for it and attach the rings at the four corners where its four legs are.

You are to make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, so that the table may be carried with them.

You are to make its plates, its ladles, its pitchers, and its bowls, to be used in pouring out offerings; you are to make them of pure gold.

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

with a bud under the first two branches from it, and a bud under the next two branches from it, and a bud under the third two branches from it, according to the six branches that extend from the lampstand.

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.

About seventy-five pounds of pure gold is to be used for it and for all these utensils.

The length of each curtain is to be forty-two feet, and the width of each curtain is to be six feet -- the same size for each of the curtains.

The length of each curtain is to be forty-five feet, and the width of each curtain is to be six feet -- the same size for the eleven curtains.

You are to join five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves. You are to double over the sixth curtain at the front of the tent.

You are to make fifty bronze clasps and put the clasps into the loops and join the tent together so that it is a unit.

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.

"You are to make a covering for the tent out of ram skins dyed red and over that a covering of fine leather.

"You are to make the frames for the tabernacle out of acacia wood as uprights.

Each frame is to be fifteen feet long, and each frame is to be two feet three inches wide,

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.

So there are to be eight frames and their silver bases, sixteen bases, two bases under the first frame, and two bases under the next frame.

"You are to make bars of acacia wood, five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle,