Study Desk

Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get out of control. They were being wild, and all their enemies could see them acting like fools.

Then Moses said to them, "I will tell you what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘Every man must get his sword and go from one end of the camp to the other. You men must kill those who are against the Lord , even if they are your brothers, friends, or neighbors.'"

So now, go down and lead the people where I tell you to go. My angel will go before you and lead you. When the time comes to punish those who sinned, they will be punished."

The people heard this bad news and became very sad, so they stopped wearing jewelry.

Any time Moses went out to the tent, all the people watched him. They stood at the entrance of their tents and watched Moses until he entered the meeting tent.

So when the people saw the cloud at the entrance of the tent, they would go to the entrance of their own tents and bow down to worship God.

He shows his faithful love to thousands of people. He forgives people for the wrong things they do, but he does not forget to punish guilty people. Not only will he punish the guilty people, but their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren will also suffer for the bad things these people do."

So destroy their altars, break the stones they worship, and cut down their idols.

"Be careful not to make any agreements with the people who live in that land. If you do this, you might join them when they worship their gods. They will invite you to join them, and you will eat their sacrifices.

Aaron and all the people of Israel saw that Moses' face was shining bright. So they were afraid to go near him.

and the special woven clothes for the priest to wear in the Holy Place. These are the special clothes for Aaron the priest and his sons to wear when they serve as priests."

All the men and women who wanted to give brought gold jewelry of all kinds. They brought pins, earrings, rings, and other jewelry. They all gave their jewelry as a special offering to the Lord .

All the Israelites who wanted to help brought gifts to the Lord . They gave these gifts freely, because they wanted to. These gifts were used to make everything the Lord had commanded Moses and the people to make.

He has given both of these men special skills to do all kinds of work. They are able to do the work of carpenters and metalworkers. They can weave cloth with designs in it from blue, purple, and red yarn and fine linen. And they are able to weave things with wool.

Then Moses called Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the other skilled men who the Lord had given special skills to. And they came because they wanted to help with the work.

Moses gave them everything the Israelites had brought as gifts, and they used these things to build the holy place. The people continued to bring gifts each morning.

Finally, all the skilled workers left the work they were doing on the holy place, and they went to speak to Moses. They said,

Then the skilled workers began making the Holy Tent. They made the ten curtains from fine linen and blue, purple, and red yarn. And they sewed pictures of Cherub angels with wings into the curtains.

The workers joined the curtains together into two groups of curtains. They joined five curtains together to make one group and five curtains together to make the other group.

Then they used blue cloth to make loops along the edge of the end curtain of one group. And they did the same on the end curtain in the other group.