Study Desk

He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings to the Lord .

He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, "We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken."

and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear like the sky itself.

But he did not lay a hand on the leaders of the Israelites, so they saw God, and they ate and they drank.

"They are to make an ark of acacia wood—its length is to be three feet nine inches, its width two feet three inches, and its height two feet three inches.

At the two corners they must be doubled at the lower end and finished together at the top in one ring. So it will be for both.

"And you, bring near to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests—Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons.

Now these are the garments that they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a fitted tunic, a turban, and a sash. They are to make holy garments for your brother Aaron and for his sons, that they may minister as my priests.

"They are to make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen, the work of an artistic designer.

and the fourth row, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a jasper. They are to be enclosed in gold in their filigree settings.

They are to tie the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod by blue cord, so that it may be above the waistband of the ephod, and so that the breastpiece will not be loose from the ephod.

"You are to put the Urim and the Thummim into the breastpiece of decision; and they are to be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord . Aaron is to bear the decisions of the Israelites over his heart before the Lord continually.

"You are to clothe them—your brother Aaron and his sons with him—and anoint them and ordain them and set them apart as holy, so that they may minister as my priests.

These must be on Aaron and his sons when they enter to the tent of meeting, or when they approach the altar to minister in the Holy Place, so that they bear no iniquity and die. It is to be a perpetual ordinance for him and for his descendants after him.

"Now this is what you are to do for them to consecrate them so that they may minister as my priests. Take a young bull and two rams without blemish;

"The holy garments that belong to Aaron are to belong to his sons after him, so that they may be anointed in them and consecrated in them.

They are to eat those things by which atonement was made to consecrate and to set them apart, but no one else may eat them, for they are holy.

"So I will set apart as holy the tent of meeting and the altar, and I will set apart as holy Aaron and his sons, that they may minister as priests to me.

and they will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, so that I may reside among them. I am the Lord their God.

they must wash their hands and their feet so that they do not die. And this will be a perpetual ordinance for them and for their descendants throughout their generations."