Study Desk

Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, because You warned us, saying, 'Set barriers around the mountain and consecrate it.'"

"If you purchase a Hebrew servant [because of his debt or poverty], he shall serve six years, and in the seventh [year] he shall leave as a free man, paying nothing.

"If she does not please her master who has chosen her for himself [as a wife], he shall let her be redeemed [by her family]. He does not have the authority to sell her to a foreign people, because he has been unfair to her.

"If a man hits the eye of his male servant or female servant and it is destroyed, he must let the servant go free because of [the loss of] the eye.

"And if he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or female servant, he must let the servant go free because of [the loss of] the tooth.

nor shall you favor or be partial to a poor man in his dispute [simply because he is poor].

"They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it is certain to be a trap for you [resulting in judgment]."

"They shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration; but a layman shall not eat them, because they are holy [that is, set apart to the worship of God].

"And if any of the meat of ordination or the bread remains until morning, you shall burn it in the fire; it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

So the LORD struck the people with a plague, because of what they had done with the calf which Aaron had made [for them].

"Go up to a land [of abundance] flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are a stiff-necked (stubborn, rebellious) people, and I might destroy you on the way."

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.

Moses was not able to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud remained on it, and the glory and brilliance of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

"You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your portion and your sons' portion, from the offerings by fire to the LORD; for so I have been commanded.

'Nevertheless, you are not to eat these, among those which chew the cud or divide the hoof: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is [ceremonially] unclean to you.

'And the shaphan, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is unclean to you.

'And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is unclean to you.

'And the swine, because it divides the hoof and makes a split hoof, but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you.

it is a chronic leprosy on the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; he shall not isolate him because he is [clearly] unclean.