Study Desk

Then Moses said [to the Levites], "Dedicate yourselves today to the LORD—for each man has been against his own son and his own brother [in his attempt to escape execution]—so that He may restore and bestow His blessing on you this day."

When the people heard this sad word, they mourned, and none of them put on his ornaments.

Now Moses used to take his own tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting [of God with His own people]. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the [temporary] tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each at his tent door, and look at Moses until he entered the tent.

When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tent door, all the people would rise and worship, each at his tent door.

And so the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses returned to the camp, his attendant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and he got up early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took the two tablets of stone in his hand.

—for you shall not worship any other god; for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous (impassioned) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His]—

otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the prostitute with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat his sacrifice (meal),

and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters would play the prostitute with their gods and cause your sons also to play the prostitute (commit apostasy) with their gods [that is, abandon the true God for man-made idols].

"You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your ground to the house of the LORD your God. "You shall not boil a young goat in his mother's milk [as some pagans do]."

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand, he did not know that the skin of his face was shining [with a unique radiance] because he had been speaking with God.

When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to approach him.

When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

the Israelites would see the face of Moses, how his skin shone [with a unique radiance]. So Moses put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with God.

the finely-woven garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons, to minister as priests.'"

Every man who had in his possession blue or purple or scarlet fabric, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red and porpoise skins, brought them.

Everyone who could make an offering of silver or bronze brought it as the LORD'S offering; every man who had in his possession acacia wood for any work of the service brought it.

And they made tunics of finely woven linen for Aaron and his sons,

the curtains of the courtyard, its support poles and sockets, and the screen (curtain) for the courtyard gate, its cords and pegs, and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the Tent of Meeting [of God with His people];