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This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living oracles to give to us.
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Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,
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saying to Aaron, 'Make for us gods to go before us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'
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And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
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But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices, forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
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And you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of the god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon.'
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"Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.
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Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,
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who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.
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But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
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Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says,