To The Word – Day 20

₁“If someone steals a cow or a sheep and kills it or sells it, he must pay five cows for one cow and four sheep for one sheep. _2-4He must pay for what he stole. If he owns nothing, he shall be sold as a slave to pay for what he has stolen. If the stolen animal, whether a cow, a donkey, or a sheep, is found alive in his possession, he shall pay two for one.

“If a thief is caught breaking into a house at night and is killed, the one who killed him is not guilty of murder. But if it happens during the day, he is guilty of murder.

₅“If someone lets his animals graze in a field or a vineyard and they stray away and eat up the crops growing in someone else's field, he must make good the loss with the crops from his own fields or vineyards.

₆“If someone starts a fire in his own field and it spreads through the weeds to someone else's field and burns up corn that is growing or that has been cut and stacked, the one who started the fire is to pay for the damage.

₇“If anyone agrees to keep someone else's money or other valuables for him and they are stolen from his house, the thief, if found, shall repay double. ₈But if the thief is not found, the one who was keeping the valuables is to be brought to the place of worship and there he must take an oath that he has not stolen the other one's property.

₉“In every case of a dispute about property, whether it involves cattle, donkeys, sheep, clothing, or any other lost object, the two people claiming the property shall be taken to the place of worship. The one whom God declares to be guilty shall pay double to the other one.

₁₀“If someone agrees to keep a neighbour's donkey, cow, sheep, or other animal for him, and the animal dies or is injured or is carried off in a raid, and if there was no witness, ₁₁the man must go to the place of worship and take an oath that he has not stolen the other man's animal. If the animal was not stolen, the owner shall accept the loss, and the other man need not repay him; ₁₂but if the animal was stolen, the man must repay the owner. ₁₃If it was killed by wild animals, the man is to bring the remains as evidence; he need not pay for what has been killed by wild animals.

₁₄“If anyone borrows an animal from someone else and it is injured or dies when its owner is not present, he must pay for it. ₁₅But if that happens when the owner is present, he need not repay. If it is a hired animal, the loss is covered by the hiring charge.

₁₆“If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, he must pay the bride price for her and marry her. ₁₇But if her father refuses to let him marry her, he must pay the father a sum of money equal to the bride price for a virgin.

₁₈“Put to death any woman who practises magic.

₁₉“Put to death any man who has sexual relations with an animal.

₂₀“Condemn to death anyone who offers sacrifices to any god except to me, the LORD.

₂₁“Do not ill-treat or oppress a foreigner; remember that you were foreigners in Egypt. ₂₂Do not ill-treat any widow or orphan. ₂₃If you do, I, the LORD, will answer them when they cry out to me for help, ₂₄and I will be angry and kill you in war. Your wives will become widows, and your children will be fatherless.

₂₅“If you lend money to any of my people who are poor, do not act like a moneylender and require him to pay interest. ₂₆If you take someone's cloak as a pledge that he will pay you, you must give it back to him before the sun sets, ₂₇because it is the only covering he has to keep him warm. What else can he sleep in? When he cries out to me for help, I will answer him because I am merciful.

₂₈“Do not speak evil of God, and do not curse a leader of your people.

₂₉“Give me the offerings from your corn, your wine, and your olive oil when they are due.

“Give me your firstborn sons. ₃₀Give me the firstborn of your cattle and your sheep. Let the firstborn male stay with its mother for seven days, and on the eighth day offer it to me.

₃₁“You are my people, so you must not eat the meat of any animal that has been killed by wild animals; instead, give it to the dogs.

₁“Do not spread false rumours, and do not help a guilty person by giving false evidence. ₂Do not follow the majority when they do wrong or when they give evidence that perverts justice. ₃Do not show partiality to a poor person at his trial.

₄“If you happen to see your enemy's cow or donkey running loose, take it back to him. ₅If his donkey has fallen under its load, help him get the donkey to its feet again; don't just walk off.

₆“Do not deny justice to a poor person when he appears in court. ₇Do not make false accusations, and do not put an innocent person to death, for I will condemn anyone who does such an evil thing. ₈Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe makes people blind to what is right and ruins the cause of those who are innocent.

₉“Do not ill-treat a foreigner; you know how it feels to be a foreigner, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

₁₀“For six years sow your field and gather in what it produces. ₁₁But in the seventh year let it rest, and do not harvest anything that grows on it. The poor may eat what grows there, and the wild animals can have what is left. Do the same with your vineyards and your olive trees.

₁₂“Work six days a week, but do no work on the seventh day, so that your slaves and the foreigners who work for you and even your animals can rest.

₁₃“Listen to everything that I, the LORD, have said to you. Do not pray to other gods; do not even mention their names.

₁₄“Celebrate three festivals a year to honour me. ₁₅In the month of Abib, the month in which you left Egypt, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the way that I commanded you. Do not eat any bread made with yeast during the seven days of this festival. Never come to worship me without bringing an offering.

₁₆“Celebrate the Harvest Festival when you begin to harvest your crops.

“Celebrate the Festival of Shelters in the autumn, when you gather the fruit from your vineyards and orchards. ₁₇Every year at these three festivals all your men must come to worship me, the LORD your God.

₁₈“Do not offer bread made with yeast when you sacrifice an animal to me. The fat of animals sacrificed to me during these festivals is not to be left until the following morning.

₁₉“Each year bring to the house of the LORD your God the first corn that you harvest.

“Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.

₂₀“I will send an angel ahead of you to protect you as you travel and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. ₂₁Pay attention to him and obey him. Do not rebel against him, for I have sent him, and he will not pardon such rebellion. ₂₂But if you obey him and do everything I command, I will fight against all your enemies. ₂₃My angel will go ahead of you and take you into the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will destroy them. ₂₄Do not bow down to their gods or worship them, and do not adopt their religious practices. Destroy their gods and break down their sacred stone pillars. ₂₅If you worship me, the LORD your God, I will bless you with food and water and take away all your illnesses. ₂₆In your land no woman will have a miscarriage or be without children. I will give you long lives.

₂₇“I will make the people who oppose you afraid of me; I will bring confusion among the people against whom you fight, and I will make all your enemies turn and run from you. ₂₈I will throw your enemies into a panic; I will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites as you advance. ₂₉I will not drive them out within one year; if I did, the land would become deserted, and the wild animals would be too many for you. ₃₀Instead, I will drive them out little by little, until there are enough of you to take possession of the land. ₃₁I will make the borders of your land extend from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Mediterranean Sea and from the desert to the Euphrates River. I will give you power over the inhabitants of the land, and you will drive them out as you advance. ₃₂Do not make any agreement with them or with their gods. ₃₃Do not let those people live in your country; if you do, they will make you sin against me. If you worship their gods, it will be a fatal trap for you.”

₁The LORD said to Moses, “Come up the mountain to me, you and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel; and while you are still some distance away, bow down in worship. ₂You alone, and none of the others, are to come near me. The people are not even to come up the mountain.”

₃Moses went and told the people all the LORD's commands and all the ordinances, and all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has said.” ₄Moses wrote down all the LORD's commands. Early the next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stones, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ₅Then he sent young men, and they burnt sacrifices to the LORD and sacrificed some cattle as fellowship offerings. ₆Moses took half the blood of the animals and put it in bowls; and the other half he threw against the altar. ₇Then he took the book of the covenant, in which the LORD's commands were written, and read it aloud to the people. They said, “We will obey the LORD and do everything that he has commanded.”

₈Then Moses took the blood in the bowls and threw it on the people. He said, “This is the blood that seals the covenant which the LORD made with you when he gave all these commands.”

₉Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the leaders of Israel went up the mountain ₁₀and they saw the God of Israel. Beneath his feet was what looked like a pavement of sapphire, as blue as the sky. ₁₁God did not harm these leading men of Israel; they saw God, and then they ate and drank together.

₁₂The LORD said to Moses, “Come up the mountain to me, and while you are here, I will give you two stone tablets which contain all the laws that I have written for the instruction of the people.” ₁₃Moses and his helper Joshua got ready, and Moses began to go up the holy mountain. ₁₄Moses said to the leaders, “Wait here in the camp for us until we come back. Aaron and Hur are here with you; and so whoever has a dispute to settle can go to them.”

₁₅Moses went up Mount Sinai, and a cloud covered it. _16-17The dazzling light of the LORD's presence came down on the mountain. To the Israelites the light looked like a fire burning on top of the mountain. The cloud covered the mountain for six days, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from the cloud. ₁₈Moses went on up the mountain into the cloud. There he stayed for forty days and nights.

₁The Lord said to Moses, ₂“Tell the Israelites to make an offering to me. Receive whatever offerings anyone wishes to give. ₃These offerings are to be: gold, silver, and bronze; ₄fine linen; blue, purple, and red wool; cloth made of goats' hair; ₅rams' skin dyed red; fine leather; acacia wood; ₆oil for the lamps; spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet-smelling incense; ₇carnelians and other jewels to be set in the ephod of the High Priest and in his breastpiece. ₈The people must make a sacred tent for me, so that I may live among them. ₉Make it and all its furnishings according to the plan that I will show you.

₁₀“Make a box out of acacia wood, 110 centimetres long, 66 centimetres wide, and 66 centimetres high. ₁₁Cover it with pure gold inside and out and put a gold border all round it. ₁₂Make four carrying rings of gold for it and attach them to its four legs, with two rings on each side. ₁₃Make carrying poles of acacia wood and cover them with gold ₁₄and put them through the rings on each side of the box. ₁₅The poles are to be left in the rings and must not be taken out. ₁₆Then put in the box the two stone tablets that I will give you, on which the commandments are written.

₁₇“Make a lid of pure gold, 110 centimetres long and 66 centimetres wide. ₁₈Make two winged creatures of hammered gold, ₁₉one for each end of the lid. Make them so that they form one piece with the lid. ₂₀The winged creatures are to face each other across the lid, and their outspread wings are to cover it. ₂₁Put the two stone tablets inside the box and put the lid on top of it. ₂₂I will meet you there, and from above the lid between the two winged creatures I will give you all my laws for the people of Israel.

₂₃“Make a table out of acacia wood, 88 centimetres long, 44 centimetres wide, and 66 centimetres high. ₂₄Cover it with pure gold and put a gold border round it. ₂₅Make a rim 75 millimetres wide round it and a gold border round the rim. ₂₆Make four carrying rings of gold for it and put them at the four corners, where the legs are. ₂₇The rings to hold the poles for carrying the table are to be placed near the rim. ₂₈Make the poles of acacia wood and cover them with gold. ₂₉Make plates, cups, jars, and bowls to be used for the wine offerings. All of these are to be made of pure gold. ₃₀The table is to be placed in front of the Covenant Box, and on the table there is always to be the sacred bread offered to me.

₃₁“Make a lampstand of pure gold. Make its base and its shaft of hammered gold; its decorative flowers, including buds and petals, are to form one piece with it. ₃₂Six branches shall extend from its sides, three from each side. ₃₃Each of the six branches is to have three decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ₃₄The shaft of the lampstand is to have four decorative flowers shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals. ₃₅There is to be one bud below each of the three pairs of branches. ₃₆The buds, the branches, and the lampstand are to be a single piece of pure hammered gold. ₃₇Make seven lamps for the lampstand and set them up so that they shine towards the front. ₃₈Make its tongs and trays of pure gold. ₃₉Use 35 kilogrammes of pure gold to make the lampstand and all this equipment. ₄₀Take care to make them according to the plan that I showed you on the mountain.