Today's Reading

¹When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

²Aaron said to them, "Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me."

³All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

⁵When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord."

⁶They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

⁷The Lord spoke to Moses, "Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!

⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"

⁹The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.

¹⁰Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."

¹¹Moses begged the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

¹²Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

¹⁴The Lord repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.

¹⁵Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.

¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tables.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is the noise of war in the camp."

¹⁸He said, "It isn't the voice of those who shout for victory, neither is it the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear."

¹⁹It happened, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.

²⁰He took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

²¹Moses said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?"

²²Aaron said, "Do not let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.

²³For they said to me, 'Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'

²⁴I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:' so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

²⁵When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),

²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is on the Lord's side, come to me!" All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

²⁷He said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'"

²⁸The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

²⁹Moses said, "Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may bestow on you a blessing this day."

³⁰It happened on the next day, that Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the Lord. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin."

³¹Moses returned to the Lord, and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.

³²Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin-and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."

³³The Lord said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

³⁴Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."

³⁵The Lord struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

¹The Lord spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people that you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your seed.'

²I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

³to a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way."

⁴When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry.

⁵The Lord said to Moses, "Tell the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you.'"

⁶The children of Israel stripped themselves of their jewelry from Mount Horeb onward.

⁷Now Moses used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it "The Tent of Meeting." It happened that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.

⁸It happened that when Moses went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, everyone at their tent door, and watched Moses, until he had gone into the Tent.

⁹It happened, when Moses entered into the Tent, that the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door of the Tent, and spoke with Moses.

¹⁰All the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, and all the people rose up and worshiped, everyone at their tent door.

¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. He turned again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart out of the Tent.

¹²Moses said to the Lord, "Behold, you tell me, 'Bring up this people:' and you haven't let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.'

¹³Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you, so that I may find favor in your sight: and consider that this nation is your people."

¹⁴He said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

¹⁵He said to him, "If your presence doesn't go with me, do not carry us up from here.

¹⁶For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn't it in that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?"

¹⁷The Lord said to Moses, "I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."

¹⁸He said, "Please show me your glory."

¹⁹He said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."

²⁰He said, "You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live."

²¹The Lord also said, "Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock.

²²It will happen, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by;

²³then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back; but my face shall not be seen."

¹The Lord said to Moses, "Chisel two stone tablets like the first: and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

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

³No one shall come up with you; neither let anyone be seen throughout all the mountain; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mountain."

⁴He chiseled two tablets of stone like the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two stone tablets.

⁵The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

⁶The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,

⁷keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, on the third and on the fourth generation."

⁸Moses hurried and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshiped.

⁹He said, "If now I have found favor in your sight, Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us; although this is a stiff-necked people; pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance."

¹⁰He said, "Behold, I make a covenant: before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been worked in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among which you are shall see the work of the Lord; for it is an awesome thing that I do with you.

¹¹Observe that which I command you this day. Behold, I drive out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

¹²Be careful, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you:

¹³but you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and you shall cut down their Asherim;

¹⁴for you shall worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁵Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest they play the prostitute after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and one call you and you eat of his sacrifice;

¹⁶and you take of their daughters to your sons, and their daughters play the prostitute after their gods, and make your sons play the prostitute after their gods.

¹⁷You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.

¹⁸"You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.

¹⁹All that opens the womb is mine; and all your livestock that is male, the firstborn of cow and sheep.

²⁰The firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb: and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. No one shall appear before me empty.

²¹"Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.

²²You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year's end.

²³Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

²⁴For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders; neither shall any man desire your land when you go up to appear before the Lord, your God, three times in the year.

²⁵"You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left to the morning.

²⁶You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."

²⁷The Lord said to Moses, "Write you these words: for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."

²⁸He was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

²⁹It happened, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mountain, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone by reason of his speaking with him.

³⁰When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him.

³¹Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.

³²Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them all of the commandments that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

³³When Moses was done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.

³⁴But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out, and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

³⁵The children of Israel saw Moses' face, that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

¹Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

²Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat on it.

³His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

⁴For fear of him, the guards shook, and became like dead men.

⁵The angel answered the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified.

⁶He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said. Come, see the place where he was lying.

⁷Go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has risen from the dead, and behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you."

⁸They departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word.

⁹And behold, Jesus met them, saying, "Rejoice!" They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers that they should go into Galilee, and there they will see me."

¹¹Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all the things that had happened.

¹²When they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave a large amount of silver to the soldiers,

¹³saying, "Say that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.

¹⁴If this comes to the governor's ears, we will persuade him and make you free of worry."

¹⁵So they took the money and did as they were told. This saying was spread abroad among the Jewish people, and continues until this day.

¹⁶But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them.

¹⁷When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.

¹⁸Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

¹⁹Therefore go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

¹ To you, Lord, I call. My rock, do not be deaf to me; lest, if you are silent to me, I would become like those who go down into the pit.

²Hear the voice of my petitions, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place.

³Do not draw me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace with their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

⁴Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them according to the operation of their hands. Bring back on them what they deserve.

⁵Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands, he will break them down and not build them up.

⁶Blessed be the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my petitions.

⁷The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart has trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. With my song I will thank him.

⁸The Lord is their strength. He is a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.

⁹Save your people, and bless your inheritance. Be their shepherd also, and bear them up forever.

¹The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²In rebellion, a land has many rulers, but order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge.

³A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake the Law praise the wicked; but those who keep the Law contend with them.

⁵Evil men do not understand justice; but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.

⁶Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich.

⁷Whoever keeps the Law is a wise son; but he who is a companion of gluttons shames his father.

⁸He who increases his wealth by excessive interest gathers it for one who has pity on the poor.

⁹He who turns away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer is an abomination.

¹⁰Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he will fall into his own trap; but the blameless will inherit good.

¹¹The rich man is wise in his own eyes; but the poor who has understanding sees through him.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

¹³He who conceals his sins doesn't prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the man who always fears; but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

¹⁵As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.

¹⁶A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.

¹⁷A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.

¹⁸Whoever walks blamelessly is kept safe; but one with perverse ways will fall suddenly.

¹⁹One who works his land will have an abundance of food; but one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

²⁰A faithful man is rich with blessings; but one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good; yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

²²A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn't know that poverty waits for him.

²³One who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than one who flatters with the tongue.

²⁴Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, "It's not wrong." He is a partner with a destroyer.

²⁵One who is greedy stirs up strife; but one who trusts in the Lord will prosper.

²⁶One who trusts in himself is a fool; but one who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

²⁷One who gives to the poor has no lack; but one who closes his eyes will have many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous thrive.