Study Desk

So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments.

So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Then the LORD spoke to Moses: "Go down, warn the people, so that they do not break through to the LORD to stare, and many of them perish.

So Moses went down to the people and told them.

"Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged on the land which the LORD your God gives you.

However, Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin."

So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

'And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.'

"He who strikes someone so that he dies shall certainly be put to death.

"If, however, someone is enraged against his neighbor, so as to kill him in a cunning way, you are to take him even from My altar, to be put to death.

"Now if people struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, but there is no injury, the guilty person shall certainly be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide.

"And if someone's ox injures another's ox so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide its proceeds equally; and they shall also divide the dead ox.

"If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no guilt for bloodshed on his account.

"If someone lets a field or vineyard be grazed bare and lets his animal loose so that it grazes in another person's field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard.

"You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice;

but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie uncultivated, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

"For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as the stranger residing with you, may refresh themselves.

"And I will send hornets ahead of you so that they will drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from you.

"I will not drive them out from you in a single year, so that the land will not become desolate and the animals of the field become too numerous for you.

So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."