Exodus 34; Exodus 35; Exodus 36; Matthew 23:1-22

Exodus 34

1 The LORD said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

2 Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain.

3 No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain.”

4 So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones and went up Mount Sinai early in the morning, as the LORD had commanded him; and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands.

5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD.

6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.

9 “Lord,” he said, “if I have found favor in your eyes, then let the Lord go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

10 Then the LORD said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you.

11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.

13 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and cut down their Asherah poles.

14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

15 “Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices.

16 And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same.

17 “Do not make any idols.

18 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.

19 “The first offspring of every womb belongs to me, including all the firstborn males of your livestock, whether from herd or flock.

20 Redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem all your firstborn sons. “No one is to appear before me empty-handed.

21 “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

22 “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

23 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel.

24 I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.

25 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast, and do not let any of the sacrifice from the Passover Festival remain until morning.

26 “Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

27 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

28 Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.

30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.

31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them.

32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.

33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.

34 But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded,

35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

Exodus 35

1 Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do:

2 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death.

3 Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the LORD has commanded:

5 From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze;

6 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair;

7 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather ; acacia wood;

8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;

9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

10 “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the LORD has commanded:

11 the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases;

12 the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields it;

13 the table with its poles and all its articles and the bread of the Presence;

14 the lampstand that is for light with its accessories, lamps and oil for the light;

15 the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle;

16 the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the bronze basin with its stand;

17 the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard;

18 the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, and their ropes;

19 the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary—both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests.”

20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence,

21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.

22 All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the LORD.

23 Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or the other durable leather brought them.

24 Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the LORD, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.

25 Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun—blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen.

26 And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair.

27 The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

28 They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.

29 All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the LORD freewill offerings for all the work the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do.

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.

34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

Exodus 36

1 So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the LORD has commanded.”

2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work.

3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning.

4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing

5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.”

6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more,

7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

8 All those who were skilled among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by expert hands.

9 All the curtains were the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide.

10 They joined five of the curtains together and did the same with the other five.

11 Then they made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and the same was done with the end curtain in the other set.

12 They also made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other.

13 Then they made fifty gold clasps and used them to fasten the two sets of curtains together so that the tabernacle was a unit.

14 They made curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven altogether.

15 All eleven curtains were the same size—thirty cubits long and four cubits wide.

16 They joined five of the curtains into one set and the other six into another set.

17 Then they made fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set.

18 They made fifty bronze clasps to fasten the tent together as a unit.

19 Then they made for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of the other durable leather.

20 They made upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle.

21 Each frame was ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide,

22 with two projections set parallel to each other. They made all the frames of the tabernacle in this way.

23 They made twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle

24 and made forty silver bases to go under them—two bases for each frame, one under each projection.

25 For the other side, the north side of the tabernacle, they made twenty frames

26 and forty silver bases—two under each frame.

27 They made six frames for the far end, that is, the west end of the tabernacle,

28 and two frames were made for the corners of the tabernacle at the far end.

29 At these two corners the frames were double from the bottom all the way to the top and fitted into a single ring; both were made alike.

30 So there were eight frames and sixteen silver bases—two under each frame.

31 They also made crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle,

32 five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle.

33 They made the center crossbar so that it extended from end to end at the middle of the frames.

34 They overlaid the frames with gold and made gold rings to hold the crossbars. They also overlaid the crossbars with gold.

35 They made the curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker.

36 They made four posts of acacia wood for it and overlaid them with gold. They made gold hooks for them and cast their four silver bases.

37 For the entrance to the tent they made a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer;

38 and they made five posts with hooks for them. They overlaid the tops of the posts and their bands with gold and made their five bases of bronze.

Matthew 23:1-22

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacterieswide and the tassels on their garments long;

6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;

7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.

11 The greatest among you will be your servant.

12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’

17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?

18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’

19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.

22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.