The Altar of Incense

301 And you are to make an altar for the burning of perfume; of hard wood let it be made. 2 The altar is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high, and its horns are to be made of the same. 3 It is to be plated with the best gold, the top of it and the sides and the horns, with an edging of gold all round it. 4 Under the edge on the two opposite sides, you are to make two gold rings, to take the rods for lifting it. 5 And make these rods of the same wood, plating them with gold. 6 And let it be placed in front of the veil before the ark of the law, before the cover which is over the law, where I will come face to face with you. 7 And on this altar sweet spices are to be burned by Aaron every morning when he sees to the lights. 8 And every evening, when he puts the lights up in their places, the spices are to be burned, a sweet-smelling smoke going up before the Lord from generation to generation for ever. 9 No strange perfume, no burned offering or meal offering, and no drink offering is to be offered on it. 10 And once every year Aaron is to make its horns clean: with the blood of the sin-offering he is to make it clean once every year from generation to generation: it is most holy to the Lord.

The Atonement Money

11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 When you are taking the number of the children of Israel, let every man who is numbered give to the Lord a price for his life, so that no disease may come on them when they are numbered. 13 And this is what they are to give; let every man who is numbered give half a shekel, by the scale of the holy place: (the shekel being valued at twenty gerahs:) this money is an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered, from twenty years old and over, is to give an offering to the Lord. 15 The man of wealth is to give no more and the poor man no less than the half-shekel of silver, when the offering is made to the Lord as the price for your lives. 16 And you are to take this money from the children of Israel to be used for the work of the Tent of meeting, to keep the memory of the children of Israel before the Lord and to be the price of your lives.

The Laver

17 And the Lord said to Moses, 18 You are to make a brass washing-vessel, with a brass base; and put it between the Tent of meeting and the altar, with water in it; 19 That it may be used by Aaron and his sons for washing their hands and feet; 20 Whenever they go into the Tent of meeting they are to be washed with water, to keep them from death; and whenever they come near to do the work of the altar, or to make an offering by fire to the Lord, 21 Their hands and feet are to be washed. so that they may be safe from death: this is an order to them for ever; to him and his seed from generation to generation.

The Anointing Oil and the Incense

22 And the Lord said to Moses, 23 Take the best spices, five hundred shekels' weight of liquid myrrh, and of sweet cinnamon half as much, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus, 24 And of cassia, five hundred shekels' weight measured by the scale of the holy place, and of olive oil a hin: 25 And make these into a holy oil, a perfume made by the art of the perfume-maker; it is to be a holy oil. 26 This oil is to be put on the Tent of meeting, and on the ark of the law, 27 And on the table and all its vessels, and on the support for the lights, with its vessels, and on the altar for burning spices, 28 And on the altar of burned offerings with its vessels, and on the washing-vessel and its base. 29 And you are to make them most holy; anything touching them will become holy. 30 And put the oil on Aaron and his sons, making them holy to do the work of priests to me. 31 And say to the children of Israel, This is to be the Lord's holy oil, from generation to generation. 32 It is not to be used for man's flesh, and no other is to be made like it: holy it is, and you are to keep it holy. 33 Whoever makes any like it, or puts it on one who is not a priest, will be cut off from his people. 34 And the Lord said to Moses, Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, with the best frankincense, in equal weights; 35 And make from them a perfume, such as is made by the art of the perfume-maker, mixed with salt, and clean and holy. 36 And put some of it, crushed very small, in front of the ark in the Tent of meeting, where I will come face to face with you; it is to be most holy. 37 You are not to make any perfume like it for yourselves: it is to be kept holy to the Lord. 38 Whoever makes any like it, for its sweet smell, will be cut off from his people.

The Call of Bezaleel and Aholiab

311 And the Lord said to Moses, 2 I have made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, by name, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: 3 And I have given him the spirit of God and made him wise and full of knowledge and expert in every sort of handwork, 4 To do all sorts of delicate work in gold and silver and brass; 5 In cutting stones for framing, and to do every form of woodwork. 6 And I have made selection of Oholiab with him, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are wise I have put the knowledge to make whatever I have given you orders to have made; 7 The Tent of meeting, and the ark of the law, and the cover which is on it, and all the things for the tent, 8 And the table with its vessels, and the holy light-support with all its vessels, and the altar for the burning of spices, 9 And the altar of burned offerings with all its vessels, and the washing-vessel with its base, 10 And the robes of needlework, the holy robes for Aaron and for his sons, for their use when acting as priests, 11 And the holy oil, and the perfume of sweet spices for the holy place; they will do whatever I have given you orders to have done.

The Sabbath as a Sign

12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 Say to the children of Israel that they are to keep my Sabbaths; for the Sabbath day is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you may see that I am the Lord who makes you holy. 14 So you are to keep the Sabbath as a holy day; and anyone not honouring it will certainly be put to death: whoever does any work on that day will be cut off from his people. 15 Six days may work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death. 16 And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it.

The Golden Calf

18 And when his talk with Moses on Mount Sinai was ended, he gave him the two stones of the law, two stones on which was the writing made by the finger of God.

321 And when the people saw that Moses was a long time coming down from the mountain, they all came to Aaron and said to him, Come, make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him. 2 Then Aaron said to them, Take off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters, and give them to me. 3 And all the people took the gold rings from their ears and gave them to Aaron. 4 And he took the gold from them and, hammering it with an instrument, he made it into the metal image of a young ox: and they said, This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt. 5 And when Aaron saw this, he made an altar before it, and made a public statement, saying, Tomorrow there will be a feast to the Lord. 6 So early on the day after they got up and made burned offerings and peace-offerings; and took their seats at the feast, and then gave themselves to pleasure.

7 And the Lord said to Moses, Go down quickly; for your people, whom you took out of the land of Egypt, are turned to evil ways; 8 Even now they are turned away from the rule I gave them, and have made themselves a metal ox and given worship to it and offerings, saying, This is your god, O Israel, who took you up out of the land of Egypt. 9 And the Lord said to Moses, I have been watching this people, and I see that they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now do not get in my way, for my wrath is burning against them; I will send destruction on them, but of you I will make a great nation. 11 But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is your wrath burning against your people whom you took out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength of your hand? 12 Why let the Egyptians say, He took them out to an evil fate, to put them to death on the mountains, cutting them off from the earth? Let your wrath be turned away from them, and send not this evil on your people. 13 Have in mind Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you gave your oath, saying, I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and all this land will I give to your seed, as I said, to be their heritage for ever. 14 So the Lord let himself be turned from his purpose of sending punishment on his people.

15 Then Moses came down the mountain with the two stones of the law in his hand; the stones had writing on their two sides, on the front and on the back. 16 The stones were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut on the stones. 17 Now when the noise and the voices of the people came to the ears of Joshua, he said to Moses, There is a noise of war in the tents. 18 And Moses said, It is not the voice of men who are overcoming in the fight, or the cry of those who have been overcome; it is the sound of songs which comes to my ear. 19 And when he came near the tents he saw the image of the ox, and the people dancing; and in his wrath Moses let the stones go from his hands, and they were broken at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the ox which they had made, burning it in the fire and crushing it to powder, and he put it in the water and made the children of Israel take a drink of it.

21 And Moses said to Aaron, What did the people do to you that you let this great sin come on them? 22 And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have seen how the purposes of this people are evil. 23 For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has come to him. 24 Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out. 25 And Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them loose to their shame before their haters: 26 Then Moses took his place at the way into the tents, and said, Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi came together to him. 27 And he said to them, This is the word of the Lord, the God of Israel: Let every man take his sword at his side, and go from one end of the tents to the other, putting to death his brother and his friend and his neighbour. 28 And the sons of Levi did as Moses said; and about three thousand of the people were put to death that day. 29 And Moses said, You have made yourselves priests to the Lord this day; for every one of you has made the offering of his son and his brother; the blessing of the Lord is on you this day.

30 And on the day after, Moses said to the people, Great has been your sin: but I will go up to the Lord, and see if I may get forgiveness for your sin. 31 Then Moses went back to the Lord and said, This people has done a great sin, making themselves a god of gold; 32 But now, if you will give them forgiveness—but if not, let my name be taken out of your book. 33 And the Lord said to Moses, Whoever has done evil against me will be taken out of my book. 34 But now, go, take the people into that place of which I have given you word; see, my angel will go before you: but when the time of my judging has come, I will send punishment on them for their sin. 35 And the Lord sent punishment on the people because they gave worship to the ox which Aaron made.