forth out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came
into the wilderness of Sinai.
019:002 When they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to
the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness;
and there Israel encamped before the mountain.
019:003 Moses went up to God, and Yahweh called to him out of the mountain,
saying, "This is what you shall tell the house of Jacob,
and tell the children of Israel:
019:004 'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore
you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself.
019:005 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant,
then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples;
for all the earth is mine;
019:006 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.'
These are the words which you shall speak to the children
of Israel."
019:007 Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set
before them all these words which Yahweh commanded him.
019:008 All the people answered together, and said, "All that Yahweh
has spoken we will do." Moses reported the words of the
people to Yahweh.
019:009 Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I come to you in a thick cloud,
that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe
you forever." Moses told the words of the people to Yahweh.
019:010 Yahweh said to Moses, "Go to the people, and sanctify them
today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments,
019:011 and be ready against the third day; for on the third day Yahweh
will come down in the sight of all the people on Mount Sinai.
019:012 You shall set bounds to the people round about, saying, 'Be careful
that you don't go up onto the mountain, or touch its border.
Whoever touches the mountain shall be surely put to death.
019:013 No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or
shot through; whether it is animal or man, he shall not live.'
When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mountain."
019:014 Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified
the people; and they washed their clothes.
019:015 He said to the people, "Be ready by the third day.
Don't have sexual relations with a woman."
019:016 It happened on the third day, when it was morning,
that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud
on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet;
and all the people who were in the camp trembled.
019:017 Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they
stood at the lower part of the mountain.
019:018 Mount Sinai, the whole of it, smoked, because Yahweh descended
on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace,
and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
019:019 When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke,
and God answered him by a voice.
019:020 Yahweh came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain.
Yahweh called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
019:021 Yahweh said to Moses, "Go down, charge the people, lest they
break through to Yahweh to gaze, and many of them perish.
019:022 Let the priests also, who come near to Yahweh, sanctify themselves,
lest Yahweh break forth on them."
019:023 Moses said to Yahweh, "The people can't come up to Mount Sinai,
for you charged us, saying, 'Set bounds around the mountain,
and sanctify it.'"
019:024 Yahweh said to him, "Go down and you shall bring Aaron up with you,
but don't let the priests and the people break through to come
up to Yahweh, lest he break forth on them."
019:025 So Moses went down to the people, and told them.
020:001 God{After "God," the Hebrew has the two letters "Aleph Tav"
(the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet), not as a word,
but as a grammatical marker.} spoke all these words, saying,
020:002 "I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
020:003 You shall have no other gods before me.
020:004 "You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything
that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth:
020:005 you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them,
for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth
generation of those who hate me,
020:006 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me
and keep my commandments.
020:007 "You shall not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain,
for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
020:008 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
020:009 You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
020:010 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God.
You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son,
nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant,
nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
020:011 for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day;
therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
020:012 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long
in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
020:013 "You shall not murder.
020:014 "You shall not commit adultery.
020:015 "You shall not steal.
020:016 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
020:017 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall
not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant,
nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey,
nor anything that is your neighbor's."
020:018 All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings,
the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking.
When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.
020:019 They said to Moses, "Speak with us yourself, and we will listen;
but don't let God speak with us, lest we die."
020:020 Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid, for God has
come to test you, and that his fear may be before you,
that you won't sin."
020:021 The people stayed at a distance, and Moses drew near to the thick
darkness where God was.
020:022 Yahweh said to Moses, "This is what you shall tell the children
of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen that I have talked
with you from heaven.
020:023 You shall most certainly not make alongside of me gods of silver,
or gods of gold for yourselves.
020:024 You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice
on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings,
your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record
my name I will come to you and I will bless you.
020:025 If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build
it of hewn stones; for if you lift up your tool on it,
you have polluted it.
020:026 Neither shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness
may not be exposed to it.'
021:001 "Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
021:002 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in
the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything.
021:003 If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself.
If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him.
021:004 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters,
the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall
go out by himself.
021:005 But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master,
my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;'
021:006 then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him
to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore
his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
021:007 "If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall
not go out as the male servants do.
021:008 If she doesn't please her master, who has married
her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed.
He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people,
seeing he has dealt deceitfully with her.
021:009 If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her after
the manner of daughters.
021:010 If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish
her food, her clothing, and her marital rights.
021:011 If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free
without paying any money.
021:012 "One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be
put to death,
021:013 but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen:
then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.
021:014 If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor
to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
021:015 "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely
put to death.
021:016 "Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found
in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
021:017 "Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely
be put to death.
021:018 "If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone,
or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed;
021:019 if he rises again and walks around with his staff,
then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay
for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing
until he is thoroughly healed.
021:020 "If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod,
and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished.
021:021 Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall
not be punished, for he is his property.
021:022 "If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives
birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely
fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow.
021:023 But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life,
021:024 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
021:025 burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
021:026 "If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye,
and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.
021:027 If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female
servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
021:028 "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall
surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten;
but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible.
021:029 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it
has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in,
but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned,
and its owner shall also be put to death.
021:030 If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption
of his life whatever is laid on him.
021:031 Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter,
according to this judgment it shall be done to him.
021:032 If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant,
thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master,
and the ox shall be stoned.
021:033 "If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it,
and a bull or a donkey falls into it,
021:034 the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money
to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
021:035 "If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies,
then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price;
and they shall also divide the dead animal.
021:036 Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring
in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely
pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
022:001 "If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it, or sells it;
he shall pay five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep.
022:002 If the thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies,
there shall be no guilt of bloodshed for him.
022:003 If the sun has risen on him, there shall be guilt of bloodshed
for him; he shall make restitution. If he has nothing,
then he shall be sold for his theft.
022:004 If the stolen property is found in his hand alive, whether it
is ox, donkey, or sheep, he shall pay double.
022:005 "If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten, and lets
his animal loose, and it grazes in another man's field,
he shall make restitution from the best of his own field,
and from the best of his own vineyard.
022:006 "If fire breaks out, and catches in thorns so that the shocks
of grain, or the standing grain, or the field are consumed;
he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.
022:007 "If a man delivers to his neighbor money or stuff to keep,
and it is stolen out of the man's house; if the thief is found,
he shall pay double.
022:008 If the thief isn't found, then the master of the house shall
come near to God, to find out if he hasn't put his hand
to his neighbor's goods.
022:009 For every matter of trespass, whether it be for ox, for donkey,
for sheep, for clothing, or for any kind of lost thing,
about which one says, 'This is mine,' the cause of both parties
shall come before God. He whom God condemns shall pay double
to his neighbor.
022:010 "If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, an ox, a sheep,
or any animal to keep, and it dies or is injured, or driven away,
no man seeing it;
022:011 the oath of Yahweh shall be between them both, whether he hasn't
put his hand to his neighbor's goods; and the owner of it
shall accept it, and he shall not make restitution.
022:012 But if it is stolen from him, he shall make restitution
to the owner of it.
022:013 If it is torn in pieces, let him bring it for evidence.
He shall not make good that which was torn.
022:014 "If a man borrows anything of his neighbor's, and it is injured,
or dies, the owner of it not being with it, he shall
surely make restitution.
022:015 If the owner of it is with it, he shall not make it good.
If it is a leased thing, it came for its lease.
022:016 "If a man entices a virgin who isn't pledged to be married,
and lies with her, he shall surely pay a dowry for her to
be his wife.
022:017 If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall
pay money according to the dowry of virgins.
022:018 "You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
022:019 "Whoever has sex with an animal shall surely be put to death.
022:020 "He who sacrifices to any god, except to Yahweh only,
shall be utterly destroyed.
022:021 "You shall not wrong an alien, neither shall you oppress him,
for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
022:022 "You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.
022:023 If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me,
I will surely hear their cry;
022:024 and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword;
and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
022:025 "If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor,
you shall not be to him as a creditor; neither shall you
charge him interest.
022:026 If you take your neighbor's garment as collateral, you shall
restore it to him before the sun goes down,
022:027 for that is his only covering, it is his garment for his skin.
What would he sleep in? It will happen, when he cries to me,
that I will hear, for I am gracious.
022:028 "You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
022:029 "You shall not delay to offer from your harvest and from
the outflow of your presses. "You shall give the firstborn
of your sons to me.
022:030 You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep.
Seven days it shall be with its mother, then on the eighth
day you shall give it me.
022:031 "You shall be holy men to me, therefore you shall not
eat any flesh that is torn by animals in the field.
You shall cast it to the dogs.
023:001 "You shall not spread a false report. Don't join your hand
with the wicked to be a malicious witness.
023:002 You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; neither shall you
testify in court to side with a multitude to pervert justice;
023:003 neither shall you favor a poor man in his cause.
023:004 "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray,
you shall surely bring it back to him again.
023:005 If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under
his burden, don't leave him, you shall surely help him with it.
023:006 "You shall not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
023:007 "Keep far from a false charge, and don't kill the innocent
and righteous: for I will not justify the wicked.
023:008 "You shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds those who have
sight and perverts the words of the righteous.
023:009 "You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien,
seeing you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
023:010 "For six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather
in its increase,
023:011 but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow,
that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave
the animal of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall
deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove.
023:012 "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you
shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest,
and the son of your handmaid, and the alien may be refreshed.
023:013 "Be careful to do all things that I have said to you;
and don't invoke the name of other gods, neither let them
be heard out of your mouth.
023:014 "You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
023:015 You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread.
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you,
at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came
out from Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty.
023:016 And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors,
which you sow in the field: and the feast of harvest,
at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out
of the field.
023:017 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before
the Lord Yahweh.
023:018 "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread,
neither shall the fat of my feast remain all night
until the morning.
023:019 The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring
into the house of Yahweh your God. "You shall not boil a kid
in its mother's milk.
023:020 "Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way,
and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
023:021 Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice.
Don't provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience,
for my name is in him.
023:022 But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak,
then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary
to your adversaries.
023:023 For my angel shall go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite,
the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite,
and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off.
023:024 You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them,
nor follow their practices, but you shall utterly overthrow
them and demolish their pillars.
023:025 You shall serve Yahweh your God, and he will bless your bread
and your water, and I will take sickness away from your midst.
023:026 No one will miscarry or be barren in your land.
I will fulfill the number of your days.
023:027 I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people
to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn
their backs to you.
023:028 I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite,
the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you.
023:029 I will not drive them out from before you in one year,
lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field
multiply against you.
023:030 Little by little I will drive them out from before you,
until you have increased and inherit the land.
023:031 I will set your border from the Red Sea{or, Sea of Reeds} even to
the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River;
for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand,
and you shall drive them out before you.
023:032 You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.
023:033 They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin
against me, for if you serve their gods, it will surely
be a snare to you."
024:001 He said to Moses, "Come up to Yahweh, you, and Aaron, Nadab,
and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship
from a distance.
024:002 Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh, but they shall not come near,
neither shall the people go up with him."
024:003 Moses came and told the people all the words of Yahweh, and all
the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice,
and said, "All the words which Yahweh has spoken will we do."
024:004 Moses wrote all the words of Yahweh, and rose up early
in the morning, and built an altar under the mountain,
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
024:005 He sent young men of the children of Israel, who offered burnt
offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to Yahweh.
024:006 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half
of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
024:007 He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing
of the people, and they said, "All that Yahweh has spoken
will we do, and be obedient."
024:008 Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people,
and said, "Look, this is the blood of the covenant,
which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words."
024:009 Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders
of Israel went up.
024:010 They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work
of sapphire{or, lapis lazuli} stone, like the skies for clearness.
024:011 He didn't lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel.
They saw God, and ate and drank.
024:012 Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain,
and stay here, and I will give you the tables of stone
with the law and the commands that I have written, that you
may teach them."
024:013 Moses rose up with Joshua, his servant, and Moses went up
onto God's Mountain.
024:014 He said to the elders, "Wait here for us, until we come
again to you. Behold, Aaron and Hur are with you.
Whoever is involved in a dispute can go to them."
024:015 Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.
024:016 The glory of Yahweh settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud
covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses
out of the midst of the cloud.
024:017 The appearance of the glory of Yahweh was like devouring fire on
the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
024:018 Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up
on the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days
and forty nights.
025:001 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
025:002 "Speak to the children of Israel, that they take an offering for me.
From everyone whose heart makes him willing you shall
take my offering.
025:003 This is the offering which you shall take from them:
gold, silver, brass,
025:004 blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen, goats' hair,
025:005 rams' skins dyed red, sea cow hides, acacia wood,
025:006 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for
the sweet incense,
025:007 onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and
for the breastplate.
025:008 Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
025:009 According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tent,
and the pattern of all of its furniture, even so you
shall make it.
025:010 "They shall make an ark of acacia wood. Its length shall
be two and a half cubits, its breadth a cubit and a half,
and a cubit and a half its height.
025:011 You shall overlay it with pure gold. Inside and outside shall
you overlay it, and shall make a gold molding around it.
025:012 You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them
in its four feet. Two rings shall be on the one side of it,
and two rings on the other side of it.
025:013 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.
025:014 You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark
to carry the ark.
025:015 The poles shall be in the rings of the ark. They shall not
be taken from it.
025:016 You shall put the testimony which I shall give you into the ark.
025:017 You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. Two and a half cubits
shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its breadth.
025:018 You shall make two cherubim of hammered gold. You shall make
them at the two ends of the mercy seat.
025:019 Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end.
You shall make the cherubim on its two ends of one piece
with the mercy seat.
025:020 The cherubim shall spread out their wings upward, covering the mercy
seat with their wings, with their faces toward one another.
The faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat.
025:021 You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark
you shall put the testimony that I will give you.