The Second Tablets of Stone

341 And the Lord said to Moses, Make two other stones like the first two; and I will put on them the words which were on the first stones, which were broken by you. 2 And be ready by the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai, and come before me there in the morning, on the top of the mountain. 3 No one is to come up with you, and let no man be seen anywhere on the mountain; let no flocks or herds come near to get their food at its foot. 4 So Moses got two stones cut like the first; and early in the morning he went up Mount Sinai, as the Lord had said, with the two stones in his hand.

5 And the Lord came down in the cloud and took his place by the side of Moses, and Moses gave worship to the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord went past before his eyes, saying, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of pity and grace, slow to wrath and great in mercy and faith; 7 Having mercy on thousands, overlooking evil and wrongdoing and sin; he will not let wrongdoers go free, but will send punishment on children for the sins of their fathers, and on their children's children to the third and fourth generation. 8 Then Moses quickly went down on his face in worship. 9 And he said, If now I have grace in your eyes, let the Lord go among us, for this is a stiff-necked people, and give us forgiveness for our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us for your heritage.

10 And the Lord said, See, this is what I will undertake: before the eyes of your people I will do wonders, such as have not been done in all the earth or in any nation: and all your people will see the work of the Lord, for what I am about to do for you is greatly to be feared.

Israel Warned of the Idolatry of Canaan

11 Take care to do the orders which I give you today; I will send out from before you the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12 But take care, and do not make any agreement with the people of the land where you are going, for it will be a cause of sin to you. 13 But their altars are to be overturned and their pillars broken and their images cut down: 14 For you are to be worshippers of no other god: for the Lord is a God who will not give his honour to another. 15 So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts, 16 Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them. 17 Make for yourselves no gods of metal.

The Three Appointed Feasts

18 Keep the feast of unleavened bread; for seven days your food is to be bread without leaven, as I gave you orders, at the regular time in the month Abib; for in that month you came out of Egypt. 19 Every first male child is mine; the first male birth of your cattle, the first male of every ox and sheep. 20 A lamb may be given in payment for the young of an ass, but if you will not make payment for it, its neck will have to be broken. For all the first of your sons you are to make payment. No one is to come before me without an offering. 21 Six days let work be done, but on the seventh day take your rest: at ploughing time and at the grain-cutting you are to have a day for rest. 22 And you are to keep the feast of weeks when you get in the first-fruits of the grain, and the feast at the turn of the year when you take in the produce of your fields. 23 Three times in the year let all your males come before the Lord, the God of Israel. 24 For I will send out the nations before you and make wide the limits of your land; and no man will make an attempt to take your land while you go up to give worship to the Lord, three times in the year. 25 No leaven is to be offered with the blood of my offering, and the offering of the Passover feast may not be kept till the morning. 26 Take the first-fruits of your land as an offering to the house of the Lord your God. Let not the young goat be cooked in its mother's milk

Moses and the Tables of the Law

27 And the Lord said to Moses, Put all these words in writing; for on them is based the agreement which I will make with you.

28 And for forty days and forty nights Moses was there with the Lord, and in that time he had no food or drink. And he put in writing on the stones the words of the agreement, the ten rules of the law. 29 Now when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two stones in his hand, he was not conscious that his face was shining because of his talk with God. 30 But when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and the shining of his face, they would not come near him for fear. 31 Then Moses sent for them; and Aaron, with the chiefs of the people, came to him; and Moses had talk with them. 32 And later, all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all the orders which the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai. 33 And at the end of his talk with them, Moses put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to have talk with him, he took off the veil till he came out. And whenever he came out he said to the children of Israel what he had been ordered to say; 35 And the children of Israel saw that the face of Moses was shining: so Moses put the veil over his face again till he went to the Lord.

Regulations for the Sabbath

351 And Moses sent for all the children of Israel to come together, and said to them, This is what the Lord has said and these are his orders. 2 Six days let work be done, but the seventh day is to be a holy day to you, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on that day is to be put to death. 3 No fire is to be lighted in any of your houses on the Sabbath day.

Israel to Bring an Offering

4 And Moses said to all the meeting of the children of Israel, This is the order which the Lord has given: 5 Take from among you an offering to the Lord; everyone who has the impulse in his heart, let him give his offering to the Lord; gold and silver and brass; 6 And blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats' hair, 7 And sheepskins coloured red, and leather, and hard wood, 8 And oil for the lights, and spices for the holy oil and for the sweet perfumes for burning. 9 And beryls and jewels to be cut for the ephod and for the priest's bag.

The Tabernacle Articles

10 And let every wise-hearted man among you come and make whatever has been ordered by the Lord; 11 The House and its tent and its cover, its hooks and its boards, its rods and its pillars and its bases; 12 The ark with its cover and its rods and the veil hanging before it; 13 The table and its rods and all its vessels, and the holy bread; 14 And the support for the lights, with its vessels and its lights and the oil for the light; 15 And the altar for burning spices, with its rods, and the holy oil and the sweet perfume, and the curtain for the door, at the door of the House; 16 The altar of burned offerings, with its network of brass, its rods, and all its vessels, the washing-vessel and its base; 17 The hangings for the open space, its pillars and their bases, and the curtain for the doorway; 18 The nails for the House, and the nails for the open space and their cords; 19 The robes of needlework for the work of the holy place, the holy robes for Aaron the priest, and the robes for his sons when acting as priests.

The People Bring the Offering

20 And all the children of Israel went away from Moses. 21 And everyone whose heart was moved, everyone who was guided by the impulse of his spirit, came with his offering for the Lord, for whatever was needed for the Tent of meeting and its work and for the holy robes. 22 They came, men and women, all who were ready to give, and gave pins and nose-rings and finger-rings and neck-ornaments, all of gold; everyone gave an offering of gold to the Lord. 23 And everyone who had blue and purple and red and the best linen and goats' hair and sheepskins coloured red and leather, gave them. 24 Everyone who had silver and brass gave an offering of them to the Lord; and everyone who had hard wood, such as was needed for the work, gave it. 25 And all the women who were expert with their hands, made cloth, and gave the work of their hands, blue and purple and red and the best linen. 26 And those women who had the knowledge, made the goats' hair into cloth. 27 And the rulers gave the beryls and the cut jewels for the ephod and the priest's bag; 28 And the spice and the oil for the light, and the holy oil and the sweet perfumes. 29 The children of Israel, every man and woman, from the impulse of their hearts, gave their offerings freely to the Lord for the work which the Lord had given Moses orders to have done.

The Call of Bezalel and Aholiab

30 And Moses said to the children of Israel, See, the Lord has made selection of Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 And he has made him full of the spirit of God, in all wisdom and knowledge and art of every sort; 32 As an expert designer of beautiful things, working in gold and silver and brass; 33 Trained in the cutting of stones and the ornamenting of wood and in every sort of handwork. 34 And he has given to him, and to Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the power of training others. 35 To them he has given knowledge of all the arts of the handworker, of the designer, and the expert workman; of the maker of needlework in blue and purple and red and the best linen, and of the maker of cloth; in all the arts of the designer and the trained workman they are expert.

The Question about the Resurrection

23 On the same day there came to him the Sadducees, who say that there is no coming back from the dead: and they put a question to him, saying, 24 Master, Moses said, If a man, at the time of his death, has no children, let his brother take his wife, and get a family for his brother; 25 Now there were among us seven brothers; and the first was married and at his death, having no seed, gave his wife to his brother; 26 In the same way the second and the third, up to the seventh. 27 And last of all the woman came to her end. 28 When they come back from the dead, then, whose wife will she be of the seven? because they all had her. 29 But Jesus said to them in answer, You are in error, not having knowledge of the Writings, or of the power of God. 30 For when they come back from the dead there are no husbands and wives, but they are as the angels in heaven. 31 But about the dead coming back to life, have you no knowledge of what was said to you by God in the Writings: 32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead but of the living. 33 And the people hearing it were surprised at his teaching.

The Great Commandment

34 But the Pharisees, hearing how the mouths of the Sadducees had been stopped, came together; 35 And one of them, a teacher of the law, put a question to him, testing him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the chief rule in the law? 37 And he said to him, Have love for the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest rule. 39 And a second like it is this, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. 40 On these two rules all the law and the prophets are based.

The Question about David's Son

41 Now while the Pharisees were together, Jesus put a question to them, saying, 42 What is your opinion of the Christ? whose son is he? They say to him, The Son of David. 43 He says to them, How then does David in the Spirit give him the name of Lord, saying, 44 The Lord said to my Lord, Be seated at my right hand, till I put under your feet all those who are against you? 45 If David then gives him the name of Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no one was able to give him an answer, and so great was their fear of him, that from that day no one put any more questions to him.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Matthew 22:23-46

Commentary on Matthew 22:23-33

(Read Matthew 22:23-33)

The doctrines of Christ displeased the infidel Sadducees, as well as the Pharisees and Herodians. He carried the great truths of the resurrection and a future state, further than they had yet been reveled. There is no arguing from the state of things in this world, as to what will take place hereafter. Let truth be set in a clear light, and it appears in full strength. Having thus silenced them, our Lord proceeded to show the truth of the doctrine of the resurrection from the books of Moses. God declared to Moses that he was the God of the patriarchs, who had died long before; this shows that they were then in a state of being, capable of enjoying his favour, and proves that the doctrine of the resurrection is clearly taught in the Old Testament as well as in the New. But this doctrine was kept for a more full revelation, after the resurrection of Christ, who was the first-fruits of them that slept. All errors arise from not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God. In this world death takes away one after another, and so ends all earthly hopes, joys, sorrows, and connexions. How wretched are those who look for nothing better beyond the grave!

Commentary on Matthew 22:34-40

(Read Matthew 22:34-40)

An interpreter of the law asked our Lord a question, to try, not so much his knowledge, as his judgment. The love of God is the first and great commandment, and the sum of all the commands of the first table. Our love of God must be sincere, not in word and tongue only. All our love is too little to bestow upon him, therefore all the powers of the soul must be engaged for him, and carried out toward him. To love our neighbour as ourselves, is the second great commandment. There is a self-love which is corrupt, and the root of the greatest sins, and it must be put off and mortified; but there is a self-love which is the rule of the greatest duty: we must have a due concern for the welfare of our own souls and bodies. And we must love our neighbour as truly and sincerely as we love ourselves; in many cases we must deny ourselves for the good of others. By these two commandments let our hearts be formed as by a mould.

Commentary on Matthew 22:41-46

(Read Matthew 22:41-46)

When Christ baffled his enemies, he asked what thoughts they had of the promised Messiah? How he could be the Son of David and yet his Lord? He quotes Psalm 110:1. If the Christ was to be a mere man, who would not exist till many ages after David's death, how could his forefather call him Lord? The Pharisees could not answer it. Nor can any solve the difficulty except he allows the Messiah to be the Son of God, and David's Lord equally with the Father. He took upon him human nature, and so became God manifested in the flesh; in this sense he is the Son of man and the Son of David. It behoves us above all things seriously to inquire, "What think we of Christ?" Is he altogether glorious in our eyes, and precious to our hearts? May Christ be our joy, our confidence, our all. May we daily be made more like to him, and more devoted to his service.