Old Testament · 40 chapters

Exodus

• No. 19 Exodus 25:23-30

  At Sinai, God gives Moses long, exact instructions for the tabernacle, the portable tent where he will dwell among the people, and for each thing inside it. This passage covers one piece of furniture: a table...

• No. 20 Exodus 34:1-7

  This comes right after the worst rupture in the story so far. While Moses was up on Sinai, Israel had made a golden calf and worshipped it, and Moses, coming down and seeing it, had thrown down the stone...

• No. 30 Exodus 6:9-13

  Moses has been sent back to Egypt to bring Israel out of slavery, and his first attempt has made things worse. Pharaoh answered by ordering the Israelites to gather their own straw while making the same number...

• No. 64 Exodus 22:19-24

  After the Ten Commandments, Exodus gives a long body of case law for Israel's ordinary life, covering property, injury, lending, and worship. This passage sits in the middle of it and moves from crimes...

• No. 77 Exodus 18:1-6

  Israel is out of Egypt and camped at the mountain of God, and Moses is running the whole nation alone. This passage is the arrival of family. Jethro, priest of Midian, Moses's father-in-law, has heard what God...

• No. 124 Exodus 37:1-9

  Exodus gives the instructions for the tabernacle in one long block, and then repeats the whole thing as a construction report: what was commanded, and then what was made. This passage is the building of the...

• No. 152 Exodus 22:14-18

  This passage is a short run from the case law of Exodus, and its subjects sit oddly next to each other: borrowed animals, seduction, and sorcery. Ancient law codes group by situation rather than by theme, and...

• No. 160 Exodus 29:31-37

  Exodus 29 is the ordination service for Aaron and his sons, seven days of ritual. This passage is the meal at the center of it. The ram of ordination is boiled in a holy place, and the priests eat its meat...

• No. 176 Exodus 7:14-19

  Moses has been to Pharaoh once and been refused, and the Israelites' work has been made harder. This passage is the first plague being set up, and the staging is precise.

• No. 177 Exodus 4:24-31

  Moses has finally accepted the commission and is on the road back to Egypt with his wife and sons. This passage contains three verses that are among the strangest in the Bible, and no explanation is given for...

• No. 201 Exodus 3:7-11

  Moses is eighty years old, keeping his father-in-law's sheep in Midian, forty years after fleeing Egypt for killing a man. A bush is burning without being consumed, and God has just called him by name. This...

• No. 213 Exodus 4:1-6

  Moses is standing at the burning bush, and he is losing an argument. God has told him to go to Egypt and bring Israel out, and Moses keeps finding reasons he is the wrong man. His objection here is about...

• No. 265 Exodus 31:1-11

  God has been giving Moses the detailed plans for the tabernacle, the tent where Israel will meet him, and this passage answers a practical question: who is going to build it? The way God describes the builder...

• No. 291 Exodus 31:12-18

  This command lands at the very end of the long instructions for building the tabernacle, and its placement is the first thing to notice. After chapters of detailed plans for the holiest work Israel would ever...

• No. 308 Exodus 27:1-8

  This is the blueprint for the altar of burnt offering, the place where Israel's sacrifices were made, and it reads like a builder's spec sheet: acacia wood five cubits square, horns at the four corners, a...

• No. 353 Exodus 20:12-16

  These few verses are the second half of the Ten Commandments, the part that turns from our relationship with God to our relationships with each other. And it is worth noticing what they are actually about....

• No. 401 Exodus 39:27-31

  This passage is part of the careful making of the high priest's garments, the tunics and turban and sash of fine linen, and it comes to rest on one small object with an outsized meaning. They made a plate of...

• No. 440 Exodus 19:7-13

  Israel is camped at the foot of Mount Sinai, about to meet God directly, and the instructions for that meeting are striking in how serious they are. The people have agreed to everything God says, and God...

• No. 481 Exodus 12:33-42

  This is the night everything the book has been building toward finally happens: Israel walks out of Egypt. And two details in the account, easy to read past, hold a strange tension together. The first is the...

• No. 499 Exodus 5:1-9

  This is the very first confrontation, and it goes badly. Moses and Aaron, fresh from the burning bush and God's commission, walk in to Pharaoh and deliver the message exactly as told: the LORD says, let my...

• No. 529 Exodus 28:15-30

  This is part of the detailed design for the high priest's garments, and at its center is the breastplate of judgment, a square of fine cloth set with twelve precious stones, ruby and topaz and emerald and...

• No. 530 Exodus 20:22-26

  Right after the thunder of the Ten Commandments, God gives instructions for how he is to be worshiped, and what is striking is how plain they are. Make me an altar of earth, he says, or if of stone, then of...

• No. 532 Exodus 10:7-11

  The plagues have battered Egypt, and Pharaoh's own officials are pleading with him to give in: how long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go; do you not yet see that Egypt is ruined? So Pharaoh...

• No. 545 Exodus 30:11-16

  When Israel is counted in a census, God gives an unusual instruction: each person counted must give a half-shekel as a ransom for their life, atonement money for their soul. But the striking part is the rule...

• No. 564 Exodus 18:13-27

  Moses is doing something that looks admirable. He sits from morning to evening, day after day, personally judging every dispute the people bring, being the single point of contact between God and hundreds of...

• No. 714 Exodus 12:15-20

  On the night of the exodus, alongside the Passover lamb, God gives Israel a second observance to keep forever: seven days of unleavened bread. The command is thorough. From the first day you shall remove all...

• No. 716 Exodus 24:1-7

  After the thunder of the commandments and the laws that follow, the covenant is made official, and Exodus slows down to show the ceremony. Moses comes down and tells the people everything the LORD has said,...

• No. 743 Exodus 39:1-5

  The last chapters of Exodus are the making of everything God had described on the mountain, and the pace slows to admire the work. This is the making of the priestly garments, and it begins with the ephod, the...

• No. 813 Exodus 1:8-14

  Generations after Joseph saved Egypt from famine, a new king comes to the throne who, the text says pointedly, did not know Joseph. The debt is forgotten, and the Hebrews who had been welcomed are now seen...

• No. 816 Exodus 21:28-36

  Tucked into the ancient case law of Exodus is a set of rules about an ox that gores someone. At first the law seems lenient: if an ox suddenly gores a person to death, the ox is destroyed, but the owner is not...

• No. 836 Exodus 33:6-11

  After the disaster of the golden calf, Moses pitches a tent outside the camp and calls it the tent of meeting, and anyone who wanted to seek the LORD would go out to it, away from the settlement. When Moses...

• No. 860 Exodus 2:13-18

  Moses's first attempt to help his own people has just gone wrong. He had killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew, and now, the next day, he tries to break up a fight between two Hebrews, only to be thrown...

• No. 871 Exodus 27:9-21

  God is still giving Moses the plans for the tabernacle. This section lays out the courtyard, a hundred cubits long, walled with fine linen hangings on bronze pillars with silver hooks, and a screen for the...

• No. 875 Exodus 14:15-20

  Israel is trapped: the sea in front, Pharaoh's army behind. God tells Moses to stop crying out and tell the people to go forward, to lift his staff over the sea and divide it. Then the angel of God and the...

• No. 914 Exodus 15:22-27

  Only three days after the triumph at the Red Sea, Israel is already in trouble. They have gone into the wilderness of Shur and found no water, and when they finally reach Marah the water there is too bitter to...

• No. 920 Exodus 21:1-6

  Right after the Ten Commandments, God begins giving the everyday case laws, and the very first one is about a Hebrew servant. A man sold into service works six years and goes free in the seventh, owing...

• No. 974 Exodus 28:1-5

  God calls Aaron and his sons to serve as priests, and the first thing he addresses is what they will wear. Make holy garments for Aaron, he says, for glory and for beauty, a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a...

• No. 1002 Exodus 28:36-43

  The high priest's garments are being described, and here comes the crowning piece: a plate of pure gold engraved like a signet with the words HOLY TO THE LORD, fastened with a blue cord to the front of his...

• No. 1006 Exodus 15:17-21

  This is the close of the great song Moses and Israel sang after the Red Sea. It looks forward past the escape to the goal: you will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, the...

• No. 1013 Exodus 18:7-12

  Moses is reunited with his father-in-law Jethro, a Midianite priest, who has come to the wilderness bringing Moses' wife and sons. They greet each other warmly, and Moses tells Jethro the whole story: all the...

• No. 1084 Exodus 30:22-33

  God gives Moses the recipe for a holy anointing oil, a rich blend of liquid myrrh, cinnamon, fragrant cane, cassia, and olive oil, compounded like a perfumer's work. With it Moses is to anoint the tent of...

• No. 1097 Exodus 25:10-22

  God gives the plans for the ark of the covenant, a gold-covered chest of acacia wood carried on poles, with the tablets of the covenant inside. On top goes the mercy seat, a lid of pure gold with two cherubim...

• No. 1113 Exodus 4:18-23

  Moses, having met God at the bush, takes leave of his father-in-law and heads back to Egypt with his family and the staff of God in his hand. God tells him the men who wanted him dead are gone, and instructs...

• No. 1120 Exodus 9:27-35

  In the middle of the plague of hail, Pharaoh summons Moses and says the right words: I have sinned this time; the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Pray for the thunder and hail to stop, and I...

• No. 1152 Exodus 26:1-6

  God gives the plans for the tabernacle's inner covering: ten curtains of fine linen woven in blue, purple, and scarlet, with cherubim, all made to the same measure. Five are joined into one set and five into...

• No. 1172 Exodus 23:12-17

  In the middle of the covenant laws, God gives the rhythm of Israel's year. Six days you work, but the seventh is rest, and the rest extends beyond you, to your ox and donkey, your servant's children, and the...

• No. 1213 Exodus 8:16-24

  The plagues on Egypt continue. God has Aaron strike the dust, and it becomes swarms of gnats on man and beast throughout the land. This time Pharaoh's magicians, who had matched the earlier signs, cannot...

• No. 1239 Exodus 30:17-21

  God commands a bronze basin, filled with water, set between the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet in it whenever they enter the tent to serve or approach the...

• No. 1279 Exodus 32:6-10

  While Moses is on the mountain receiving the law, the people below grow impatient, make a golden calf, and worship it, saying, these are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt. They hold a feast,...

• No. 1302 Exodus 23:18-33

  God gives Israel instructions and promises for entering the land. He will send an angel before them, in whom his name dwells, to guard them and bring them to the place he has prepared; they are to heed the...

• No. 1346 Exodus 38:8-20

  This passage records the making of the tabernacle's courtyard, its bronze pillars and silver hooks, its hangings of fine twined linen, its embroidered gate screen of blue and purple and scarlet. But it opens...

• No. 1357 Exodus 36:1-5

  The work of building the sanctuary is underway, carried out by Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled worker in whom the LORD had put wisdom and whose heart stirred him to come and do it. They receive from Moses...

• No. 1367 Exodus 37:17-24

  This passage describes the making of the golden lampstand for the sanctuary, the menorah. It was hammered out of a single talent of pure gold, one solid piece, with a central shaft and six branches, each...

• No. 1398 Exodus 2:1-6

  In the time when Pharaoh had ordered every Hebrew boy drowned, a Levite woman bears a son and hides him for three months. When she can hide him no longer, she does a desperate and daring thing: she makes a...

• No. 1415 Exodus 9:8-12

  For the sixth plague, God tells Moses to take handfuls of soot from a furnace and toss them toward the sky before Pharaoh; the soot becomes fine dust over all Egypt, breaking out in boils on people and animals...

• No. 1426 Exodus 34:26-35

  After forty days on the mountain with God, Moses comes down carrying the tablets of the covenant, and something has happened to him that he does not know: the skin of his face is shining from having spoken...

• No. 1476 Exodus 22:1-5

  These are laws of restitution. A thief who steals and slaughters or sells an ox must repay five oxen for it, and four sheep for a sheep; if the stolen animal is found alive in his possession, he pays back...

• No. 1506 Exodus 12:21-27

  On the night of the first Passover, Moses instructs the elders: take a lamb for each household, kill it, and with a bunch of hyssop strike its blood on the lintel and doorposts. Stay inside until morning. For...

• No. 1523 Exodus 38:21-31

  This passage is an accounting of all the materials used in building the tabernacle: the gold, the silver, the bronze, each weighed and recorded. The silver, it notes, came from those who were counted in the...

• No. 1546 Exodus 32:11-16

  Israel has made the golden calf, and God's anger burns against them. But Moses stands in the gap and pleads. Why should your wrath burn against your people, he asks, whom you brought out of Egypt with great...

• No. 1575 Exodus 29:15-25

  In the ceremony consecrating Aaron and his sons as priests, a ram is sacrificed, and some of its blood is applied in a particular way: to the tip of the right ear of each priest, to the thumb of the right...

• No. 1603 Exodus 4:13-17

  God has called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, and Moses has raised objection after objection: who am I, what if they don't believe me, I am not eloquent. Now, out of excuses, he simply pleads: please,...

• No. 1605 Exodus 19:1-6

  Three months out of Egypt, Israel camps at the foot of Mount Sinai, and God calls to Moses from the mountain with words for the people. You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, God says, and how I bore you...

• No. 1607 Exodus 14:1-9

  God gives Israel a strange instruction: turn back and camp by the sea, in a place where they will appear trapped, hemmed in between the water and the wilderness. Pharaoh, God says, will think they are...

• No. 1657 Exodus 8:25-32

  In the plague of flies, Pharaoh begins to bargain. Go, sacrifice to your God, he says, but here, in the land. Moses refuses; that would provoke the Egyptians, and God had said to go into the wilderness. Then...

• No. 1664 Exodus 26:31-37

  God gives Moses the design for the veil of the tabernacle: a curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet, worked with cherubim, hung on pillars of gold. This veil is to separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy...

• No. 1741 Exodus 36:6-13

  The people of Israel have been bringing their gifts for the building of the tabernacle, and they bring so much that a remarkable command has to go out. Moses proclaims through the camp: let no one bring...

• No. 1754 Exodus 20:17-21

  The Ten Commandments close with one that reaches inward: you shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, servant, ox, or anything that is his. Then the scene at Sinai: the people, seeing the thunder and...

• No. 1825 Exodus 2:7-12

  Rescued from the river and, by God's quiet providence, nursed by his own mother in Pharaoh's household, Moses grows up. One day he goes out to his own people and sees their burdens, and sees an Egyptian...

• No. 1837 Exodus 14:10-14

  Trapped between Pharaoh's advancing army and the sea, the Israelites are terrified. They cry out, and then turn on Moses: were there no graves in Egypt, that you brought us here to die? Better to have served...

• No. 1866 Exodus 6:14-30

  After a genealogy setting Moses and Aaron within the tribe of Levi, the passage returns to the commission. These are the Moses and Aaron, it says, to whom the LORD said, bring out the children of Israel from...

• No. 1903 Exodus 40:6-11

  As the tabernacle is set up, God gives instructions for consecrating it. Set the altar and the basin in their places, arrange the court; and then take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything...

• No. 1919 Exodus 21:12-16

  The law distinguishes carefully between kinds of killing. One who strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death; but if it was unintentional, not planned, an accident that God allowed to happen, then a...

• No. 1954 Exodus 21:22-27

  Among the laws of justice comes the famous principle: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. If harm is done, the penalty is to match it, no more and no less. The passage also protects...

• No. 1962 Exodus 9:1-7

  God warns Pharaoh through Moses: let my people go, or a severe plague will strike the livestock of Egypt. And God adds a promise: the LORD will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the...

• No. 2007 Exodus 28:6-14

  The instructions for the high priest's garments include two onyx stones set on the shoulder straps of the ephod, engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, six on each. And the purpose is given:...

• No. 2124 Exodus 36:20-30

  The account of the tabernacle's construction describes its walls: many upright boards of acacia wood, each with two tenons to join it to the next, set into silver sockets, fitted together side by side to form...

• No. 2130 Exodus 1:1-7

  The book of Exodus opens by recalling the names of Jacob's sons who came into Egypt, seventy souls in all. Then it notes the passing of an era: Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. The...

• No. 2166 Exodus 12:1-14

  As the final plague approaches Egypt, God gives Israel the Passover. Each household is to take a lamb without blemish, kill it, and put its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. That night, God will...

• No. 2183 Exodus 9:13-19

  As the plagues fall on Egypt, God announces through Moses a devastating hail, heavier than any Egypt had known. It is a judgment on Pharaoh's stubborn refusal to let God's people go. But even in announcing...

• No. 2184 Exodus 3:1-6

  As Moses tends his flock in the wilderness, he sees an astonishing sight: a bush burning with fire, yet not consumed. He turns aside to look, and God calls to him from the bush. But before God gives Moses his...

• No. 2188 Exodus 29:38-46

  After all the detailed instructions for the altar and the continual daily offerings, two lambs offered morning and evening, God states the purpose of it all. There, he says, at the door of the tent of meeting,...

• No. 2198 Exodus 34:8-14

  As God renews his covenant with Israel, he warns them against making alliances with the peoples of the land and their gods, and he gives a reason rooted in his own character. You shall worship no other god, he...

• No. 2213 Exodus 36:14-19

  Among the detailed work of building the tabernacle, the craftsmen make its outer coverings: curtains of goats' hair, coupled together with clasps, and over them a covering of rams' skins dyed red, and above...

• No. 2215 Exodus 10:24-29

  As the plagues wear on Pharaoh, he begins to offer compromises. Earlier he said the people could go but only the men; now he says they may all go, but must leave their flocks and herds behind. It is a partial...

• No. 2217 Exodus 8:8-15

  When the plague of frogs overruns Egypt, Pharaoh summons Moses and makes a promise: pray to the LORD to take the frogs away, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to him. Moses prays, the frogs die, and...

• No. 2236 Exodus 40:12-16

  As the tabernacle is completed and Aaron and his sons are consecrated as priests, the account closes this section with a refrain that recurs throughout the building of the tabernacle. After the instructions...

• No. 2240 Exodus 22:6-13

  The law gives various cases about property and responsibility. If a fire someone kindles spreads and burns a neighbor's grain, the one who started the fire must make restitution. If goods entrusted for...

• No. 2249 Exodus 40:17-32

  When the tabernacle is finally raised up and everything set in its place, one of the last things Moses sets is the basin for washing, placed between the tent of meeting and the altar, filled with water. And a...

• No. 2279 Exodus 12:43-51

  As God gives the rules for the Passover, he addresses the question of the foreigner. The Passover was for Israel, but a stranger living among them who wished to keep it was not shut out. If he and his...

• No. 2293 Exodus 9:20-26

  As the plague of hail approaches Egypt, a division appears among Pharaoh's own officials. Those who feared the word of the LORD, the account says, made their servants and livestock flee into shelter; but...

• No. 2297 Exodus 16:1-5

  As Israel journeys in the wilderness and their food runs low, they grumble against Moses, wishing they had died in Egypt where they sat by the meat pots and ate their fill. God responds not with rebuke but...

• No. 2390 Exodus 19:21-25

  Israel is camped at the foot of Sinai as God descends on the mountain, and the warnings come sharp. Go down, God tells Moses, and warn the people not to break through to gaze, or they will perish. Even the...

• No. 2417 Exodus 33:12-16

  After the golden calf, Moses is bargaining with God over the journey ahead. God has told him to lead the people up to the land, but Moses is not satisfied with the destination or even with an angel escort. He...

• No. 2422 Exodus 11:1-10

  On the eve of the last plague, God announces that every firstborn in Egypt will die, from Pharaoh's house to the servant girl's, and a great cry will go up across the land. But then a strange, quiet detail:...

• No. 2425 Exodus 26:7-14

  The instructions for the tabernacle move to its coverings: eleven curtains of goat's hair, joined by loops and bronze clasps into one tent, and over that a covering of ram skins dyed red and a layer of sea cow...

• No. 2488 Exodus 1:15-22

  Pharaoh, bent on crushing the Hebrews, gives the midwives Shiphrah and Puah a monstrous order: when you deliver the Hebrew women, kill the baby boys. But the midwives feared God more than they feared the king,...

• No. 2502 Exodus 19:14-20

  Before Israel meets God at Sinai, there is preparation. Moses consecrates the people, they wash their clothes, and they are told to be ready by the third day. Then, on that morning, the mountain erupts:...

• No. 2517 Exodus 33:17-23

  Emboldened by God's favor, Moses makes a bold request: please show me your glory. God's answer is both a granting and a limit. I will make all my goodness pass before you, he says, and proclaim my name, but...

• No. 2520 Exodus 8:1-7

  The second plague descends on Egypt: frogs, swarming out of the Nile into houses, bedrooms, beds, ovens, kneading bowls, covering the land. Aaron stretches out his hand and the frogs come. And then a strange...

• No. 2521 Exodus 14:26-31

  The waters that stood as walls for Israel now close over Egypt. At Moses's outstretched hand the sea returns, and Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen are swept away, not one remaining, while Israel walks through...

• No. 2525 Exodus 37:10-16

  Among the furnishings of the tabernacle, Bezalel makes the table: acacia wood overlaid with pure gold, a molding around its edge, rings and poles to carry it, and gold vessels to go on it. On this table would...

• No. 2540 Exodus 32:22-26

  Moses has come down to find the people worshiping a golden calf, and he confronts his brother Aaron, who had made it. Aaron's answer is a study in evasion: the people are set on evil, they demanded a god, so I...

• No. 2639 Exodus 15:1-16

  On the far shore of the Red Sea, with the danger behind them, Israel does not simply move on; they stop and sing. Moses and the people break into a song of victory: I will sing to the LORD, for he has...

• No. 2680 Exodus 10:12-17

  This is the eighth plague. Moses stretches out his hand, an east wind blows all day and night, and by morning locusts cover Egypt until nothing green is left on tree or field. The land is stripped bare.

• No. 2720 Exodus 12:28-32

  Israel keeps the first Passover exactly as commanded, marking the doorposts and eating in haste. Then at midnight the last plague falls, and it should be read with grief, not triumph. Every firstborn in Egypt...

• No. 2739 Exodus 25:1-9

  God tells Moses to collect an offering to build the sanctuary, and he adds a striking condition: take it from everyone whose heart makes him willing. Then the list of materials, gold and silver and bronze,...

• No. 2798 Exodus 10:1-6

  God sends Moses back to Pharaoh and says something hard to hear: I have hardened his heart and his servants' hearts, so that I may work my signs among them, and so that you may tell your children and...

• No. 2825 Exodus 34:15-20

  As God renews the covenant, he warns Israel bluntly against making treaties with the peoples of the land. Such alliances, he says, will draw them into idolatry through shared sacrifices and through marriages...

• No. 2829 Exodus 40:33-38

  Exodus ends with Moses finishing the tabernacle exactly as commanded. And the moment the work is complete, the cloud covers the tent and the glory of the LORD fills it, so fully that Moses himself cannot...

• No. 2840 Exodus 13:1-10

  Fresh out of Egypt, Israel is given commands that are all about not forgetting. God claims the firstborn as his, and institutes the feast of unleavened bread as a yearly memorial: remember this day you came...

• No. 2854 Exodus 3:12-22

  At the burning bush, Moses asks the question that will echo through all of Scripture: when the people ask your name, what shall I tell them? God answers, I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you. He is the...

• No. 2871 Exodus 14:21-25

  Moses stretches out his hand, and through the night God drives the sea back with a strong east wind, turning it to dry land, the waters standing like walls on either side. Israel walks through on the seabed....

• No. 2895 Exodus 39:22-26

  This describes the making of the high priest's robe: woven all of blue, with a reinforced collar so it would not tear, and around the hem an alternating pattern of golden bells and pomegranates of colored...

• No. 2914 Exodus 37:25-29

  This describes the making of the golden altar of incense, small and square, overlaid with pure gold, with horns of one piece and rings for the carrying poles, along with the holy anointing oil and the pure...

• No. 2939 Exodus 17:8-16

  Amalek attacks Israel at Rephidim. Joshua leads the fighting below while Moses stands on the hilltop with the staff of God raised in his hand. As long as Moses holds up his hand, Israel prevails; when he lets...

• No. 2981 Exodus 23:6-11

  These are laws of justice, and they bend deliberately toward the vulnerable. Do not deny justice to your poor in their lawsuits. Keep far from a false charge; do not put the innocent to death. Take no bribe,...

• No. 2990 Exodus 28:31-35

  The high priest's robe is to be all of blue, its collar reinforced so it will not tear, and around its hem an alternating pattern of pomegranates and golden bells. And a striking reason is given: the bells are...

• No. 2998 Exodus 4:7-12

  God has given Moses signs to confirm his call, but Moses keeps protesting: O Lord, I am not eloquent; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. He hides behind his weakness as a reason he cannot possibly serve....

• No. 3104 Exodus 2:19-25

  Moses settles in Midian, marries Zipporah, and names his son Gershom, saying, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. Time passes. The king of Egypt dies, and Israel groans under its slavery and cries out,...

• No. 3106 Exodus 39:6-21

  This describes the making of the high priest's ephod and breastpiece. Two onyx stones on the shoulders are engraved with the names of Israel's tribes, as stones of memorial. And the breastpiece is set with...

• No. 3117 Exodus 16:6-12

  Israel grumbles in the wilderness for food, and Moses and Aaron answer: at evening you will know the LORD brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see his glory, for he has heard your grumbling....

• No. 3127 Exodus 17:1-7

  At Rephidim there is no water, and the people quarrel with Moses, so bitterly that he fears they will stone him. Their complaint carries a deeper doubt: they test the LORD, asking, is the LORD among us, or...

• No. 3135 Exodus 29:26-30

  In the consecration of Aaron, two provisions are set out. The breast of the ram is given to the priest as his portion, a perpetual due from the offerings. And the holy garments of Aaron are to pass to his sons...

• No. 3217 Exodus 20:1-6

  God speaks the Ten Commandments, and they open not with a demand but with a rescue: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Then the first commands: you...

• No. 3238 Exodus 5:15-23

  Things have gotten worse, not better. Pharaoh, angered by Moses' first demand, has ordered Israel to make bricks without straw while keeping the same quota, and the Israelite foremen are beaten and blame...

• No. 3254 Exodus 38:1-7

  This is the account of building the altar of burnt offering: acacia wood overlaid with bronze, five cubits square, with horns at its four corners, its pots and shovels and basins and forks, its bronze grating,...

• No. 3259 Exodus 16:13-28

  God feeds Israel in the wilderness with quail in the evening and manna in the morning, a small round bread on the ground. Each is to gather only an omer a head for the day; kept overnight it breeds worms and...

• No. 3296 Exodus 35:20-29

  The tabernacle is built entirely from freewill offerings, and one phrase repeats like a refrain: everyone whose heart stirred him, everyone whose spirit made him willing, brought the LORD's offering. Men and...

• No. 3327 Exodus 5:10-14

  Pharaoh's response to Moses' request is to make the burden crueler: gather your own straw, but produce the same number of bricks. The people scatter across Egypt scrounging stubble, and their own foremen are...

• No. 3350 Exodus 29:10-14

  In the ceremony ordaining the priests, a bull is offered as a sin offering. Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head, and it is killed; its blood is put on the altar's horns and poured out at its base,...

• No. 3537 Exodus 39:32-43

  The great work of building the tabernacle is finished, and the refrain repeats through the account: the Israelites had done everything just as the LORD commanded Moses; so they did. Every part is brought to...

• No. 3621 Exodus 21:7-11

  This is another hard law of the ancient world, and we read it as a restraint that inserts protection where there was often none. In a culture where a poor family might sell a daughter into servitude, this law...

• No. 3668 Exodus 7:1-5

  As Moses hesitates before his mission, God gives him a startling assurance: see, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. Moses, who felt inadequate and slow of...

• No. 3689 Exodus 35:1-9

  Moses gathers the people and gives two commands together: first, keep the Sabbath, a day of holy rest to the LORD; and then, bring a freewill offering for the building of the tabernacle from everyone whose...

• No. 3695 Exodus 32:17-21

  Moses descends from the mountain, carrying the tablets God had written, and hears the noise of revelry below. When he sees the golden calf and the dancing, his anger burns and he throws down the tablets,...

• No. 3726 Exodus 29:1-9

  This passage describes the elaborate ceremony for consecrating Aaron and his sons as priests: sacrifices offered, the priests washed with water, clothed in the sacred garments, and anointed with oil. Each...

• No. 3735 Exodus 40:1-5

  God commands Moses to set up the tabernacle, and to place each item in its appointed place: the ark behind the veil, the table, the lampstand, the golden altar of incense, and the screen at the entrance....

• No. 3769 Exodus 26:26-30

  Amid the detailed instructions for the tabernacle, this passage describes the bars that held the framework together and ends with a principle that governs the whole project: you shall set up the tabernacle...

• No. 3786 Exodus 30:34-38

  God gives Moses the recipe for the sacred incense used in the tabernacle, a fragrant blend of spices, and then adds a striking command: this incense is holy to the LORD, and no one is to make it for their own...

• No. 3795 Exodus 34:21-25

  Among these renewed commands, one line stands out for its pointed timing: six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. Plowing and harvest...

• No. 3814 Exodus 13:17-22

  As Israel leaves Egypt, God deliberately does not lead them by the short, direct road through Philistine country, though it was near. He knows that if they meet war too soon, they might lose heart and turn...

• No. 3842 Exodus 36:31-38

  This passage describes the skilled craftsmen at work on the tabernacle, making the bars that held the frame, the beautiful veil of blue and purple and scarlet with cherubim woven in by a skillful hand, and the...

• No. 3868 Exodus 7:20-25

  At God's command the Nile is struck and turned to blood, its fish dying, its water undrinkable, a devastating sign before Pharaoh's eyes. Yet the passage records Pharaoh's chilling response: he turned and went...

• No. 3874 Exodus 21:17-21

  Among these ancient case laws is one about a quarrel that turns violent: if two men fight and one injures the other so that he is confined to bed but later recovers, the one who struck him is held responsible;...

• No. 3901 Exodus 7:6-13

  At God's command, Aaron throws down his staff before Pharaoh, and it becomes a serpent. Pharaoh's magicians do the same, seeming to match the sign by their own arts, their staffs also becoming serpents. But...

• No. 3920 Exodus 23:1-5

  These commands guard justice and integrity in the face of pressure. You shall not spread a false report, God says, nor join hands with the wicked to be a malicious witness; and, strikingly, you shall not...

• No. 3943 Exodus 22:25-31

  These laws reveal God's tender concern for the poor and vulnerable in the ordinary dealings of economic life. If you lend to one of my people who is poor, God says, do not act like a moneylender or charge him...

• No. 3945 Exodus 35:30-35

  Moses tells Israel that God has called Bezalel by name and filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill and knowledge in every kind of craftsmanship, to design and work in gold, silver, bronze, stone, and...

• No. 3946 Exodus 30:1-10

  God instructs Moses to make an altar of incense, to stand before the veil, close to the ark, and on it Aaron is to burn fragrant incense every morning and every evening, a perpetual incense before the LORD...

• No. 3998 Exodus 16:29-36

  After describing the manna that God gave Israel in the wilderness, this passage records a striking command: keep a jar of it, an omer-full, to be preserved for future generations, that they may see the bread...

• No. 4014 Exodus 25:31-40

  God gives detailed instructions for a lampstand of pure gold, hammered from a single piece, with branches shaped like almond blossoms, and seven lamps to give light in the holy place. Its purpose was simple...

• No. 4019 Exodus 32:27-35

  In the terrible aftermath of the golden calf, when judgment has fallen on the people, Moses goes back up to God to plead for them. And his intercession reaches an astonishing depth. He confesses their great...

• No. 4026 Exodus 35:10-19

  As the work of building the tabernacle begins, Moses issues an invitation: let every skilled craftsman among you come and make all that the LORD has commanded. The work was vast, the tabernacle itself, its...

• No. 4049 Exodus 24:13-18

  Moses ascends Mount Sinai to meet with God, and the scene is one of awesome holiness. The glory of the LORD settles on the mountain like a devouring fire, and a cloud covers it. For six days Moses waits, and...

• No. 4058 Exodus 13:11-16

  As God gives instructions about consecrating the firstborn, he builds in something for the future: when your son asks you in time to come, what does this mean? you shall tell him the story, how by strength of...

• No. 4087 Exodus 20:7-11

  Among the ten commandments is one that guards something we might not think to protect: you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in...

• No. 4105 Exodus 10:18-23

  The ninth plague brings a thick darkness over Egypt, a darkness so heavy it could be felt, lasting three days, so that no one could see anyone else or rise from their place. It was a darkness of oppression and...

• No. 4113 Exodus 33:1-5

  After the golden calf, God tells Moses to lead the people on to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, but he adds a devastating condition: I will not go up among you, for you are a...

• No. 4114 Exodus 26:15-25

  Among the instructions for the tabernacle are directions for its wooden frames, the upright boards that formed its walls, each fitted with tenons and set into bases of silver. Every frame stood upright, but...

• No. 4169 Exodus 32:1-5

  While Moses is up on the mountain with God, the people below grow impatient. As for this Moses, they say, we do not know what has become of him; and they demand that Aaron make them gods to go before them....

• No. 4196 Exodus 6:1-8

  With Israel groaning under Egyptian bondage and Moses discouraged, God speaks a series of promises so emphatic they read like a drumbeat. I am the LORD, he declares, and then: I will bring you out from under...

• No. 4248 Exodus 24:8-12

  At Sinai, having read God's words to the people and received their consent, Moses takes the blood of the sacrifices and sprinkles it on the people, declaring: behold, the blood of the covenant that the LORD...