Day 114 of 365

¹"You shall make an altar to burn incense on. You shall make it of acacia wood.

²Its length shall be a cubit, and its breadth a cubit. It shall be square, and its height shall be two cubits. Its horns shall be of one piece with it.

³You shall overlay it with pure gold, its top, its sides around it, and its horns; and you shall make a gold molding around it.

⁴You shall make two golden rings for it under its molding; on its two ribs, on its two sides you shall make them; and they shall be for places for poles with which to bear it.

⁵You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold.

⁶You shall put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you.

⁷Aaron shall burn incense of sweet spices on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn it.

⁸When Aaron lights the lamps at evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.

⁹You shall offer no strange incense on it, nor burnt offering, nor meal offering; and you shall pour no drink offering on it.

¹⁰Aaron shall make atonement on its horns once in the year; with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once in the year he shall make atonement for it throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord."

¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

¹²"When you take a census of the children of Israel, according to those who are numbered among them, then each man shall give a ransom for his soul to the Lord, when you number them; that there be no plague among them when you number them.

¹³They shall give this, everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary; (the shekel is twenty gerahs;) half a shekel for an offering to the Lord.

¹⁴Everyone who passes over to those who are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the offering to the Lord.

¹⁵The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering of the Lord, to make atonement for your souls.

¹⁶You shall take the atonement money from the children of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the Tent of Meeting; that it may be a memorial for the children of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for your souls."

¹⁷The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁸"You shall also make a basin of brass, and its base of brass, in which to wash. You shall put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

¹⁹Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet in it.

²⁰When they go into the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, that they not die; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord.

²¹So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they not die: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his descendants throughout their generations."

²²Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²³"Also take fine spices: of liquid myrrh, five hundred shekels; and of fragrant cinnamon half as much, even two hundred and fifty; and of fragrant cane, two hundred and fifty;

²⁴and of cassia five hundred, after the shekel of the sanctuary; and a hin of olive oil.

²⁵You shall make it a holy anointing oil, a perfume compounded after the art of the perfumer: it shall be a holy anointing oil.

²⁶You shall use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony,

²⁷the table and all its articles, the menorah and its accessories, the altar of incense,

²⁸the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its base.

²⁹You shall sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy.

³⁰You shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and sanctify them, that they may minister to me in the priest's office.

³¹You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

³²It shall not be poured on man's flesh, neither shall you make any like it, according to its composition: it is holy. It shall be holy to you.

³³Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.'"

³⁴The Lord said to Moses, "Take to yourself sweet spices, gum resin, and onycha, and galbanum; sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be an equal weight;

³⁵and you shall make incense of it, a perfume after the art of the perfumer, seasoned with salt, pure and holy:

³⁶and you shall beat some of it very small, and put some of it before the testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be to you most holy.

³⁷The incense which you shall make, according to its composition you shall not make for yourselves: it shall be to you holy for the Lord.

³⁸Whoever shall make any like that, to smell of it, he shall be cut off from his people."

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²"Behold, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:

³and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,

⁴to devise skillful works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,

⁵and in cutting of stones for setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner of workmanship.

⁶I, behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the heart of all who are wise-hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

⁷the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, all the furniture of the Tent,

⁸the table and its vessels, the pure menorah with all its vessels, the altar of incense,

⁹the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, the basin and its base,

¹⁰the finely worked garments-the holy garments for Aaron the priest-the garments of his sons to minister in the priest's office,

¹¹the anointing oil, and the incense of sweet spices for the holy place: according to all that I have commanded you they shall do."

¹²The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

¹³"Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, 'Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

¹⁴You shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

¹⁶Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

¹⁷It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.'"

¹⁸He gave to Moses, when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with God's finger.

¹When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

²Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."

³All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord."

⁶They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

⁷The Lord spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"

⁹The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."

¹¹Moses begged the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

¹⁴The Lord repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁵Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.

¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp."

¹⁸He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear."

¹⁹It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.

²⁰He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

²¹Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"

²²Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

²³For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

²⁴I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

²⁵When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),

²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me!" All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

²⁷He said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'"

²⁸The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

²⁹Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day."

³⁰It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."

³¹Moses returned to the Lord, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.

³²Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin-and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."

³³The Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."

³⁵The Lord struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

¹When Israel went forth out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;

²Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

³The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.

⁴The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.

⁵What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?

⁶You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?

⁷Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.

¹The king's heart is in the Lord's hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.

²Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

³To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

⁴A high look, and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.

⁵The plans of the diligent surely lead to profit; and everyone who is hasty surely rushes to poverty.

⁶Getting treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor for those who seek death.

⁷The violence of the wicked will drive them away, because they refuse to do what is right.

⁸The way of the guilty is devious, but the conduct of the innocent is upright.

⁹It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than to share a house with a contentious woman.

¹⁰The soul of the wicked desires evil; his neighbor finds no mercy in his eyes.

¹¹When the mocker is punished, the simple gains wisdom. When the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

¹²The Righteous One considers the house of the wicked, and brings the wicked to ruin.

¹³Whoever stops his ears at the cry of the poor, he will also cry out, but shall not be heard.

¹⁴A gift in secret pacifies anger; and a bribe in the cloak, strong wrath.

¹⁵It is joy to the righteous to do justice; but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

¹⁶The man who wanders out of the way of understanding shall rest in the assembly of the dead.

¹⁷He who loves pleasure shall be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil shall not be rich.

¹⁸The wicked is a ransom for the righteous; the treacherous for the upright.

¹⁹It is better to dwell in a desert land, than with a contentious and fretful woman.

²⁰There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise; but a foolish man swallows it up.

²¹He who follows after righteousness and kindness finds life, righteousness, and honor.

²²A wise man scales the city of the mighty, and brings down the strength of its confidence.

²³Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

²⁴The proud and haughty man, "scoffer" is his name; he works in the arrogance of pride.

²⁵The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

²⁶There are those who covet greedily all day long; but the righteous give and do not withhold.

²⁷The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination: how much more, when he brings it with a wicked mind!

²⁸A false witness will perish, and a man who listens speaks to eternity.

²⁹A wicked man hardens his face; but as for the upright, he establishes his ways.

³⁰There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord.

³¹The horse is prepared for the day of battle; but victory is with the Lord.