Study Desk

This is the one who was in ^(ay)the ^[x]congregation in the wilderness together with ^(az)the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received ^(ba)living ^(bb)oracles to pass on to you.

Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but ^(bc)repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt,

^(bd) saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt — we do not know what happened to him .'

^[y]At that time ^(be)they made a ^[z]calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in ^(bf)the works of their hands.

But God ^(bg)turned away and delivered them up to ^[aa]serve the ^[ab]host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘^(bh) It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices ^(bi) forty years in the wilderness, was it , O house of Israel ?

^(bj) You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god ^[ac] Rompha, the images which you made to worship . I also will remove you beyond Babylon .'

"Our fathers had ^(bk)the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it ^(bl)according to the pattern which he had seen.

And having received it in their turn, our fathers ^(bm)brought it in with ^[ad]Joshua upon dispossessing the ^[ae]nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David.

^(bn)David found favor in God's sight, and ^(bo)asked that he might find a dwelling place for the ^[af]God of Jacob.

But it was ^(bp)Solomon who built a house for Him.

However, ^(bq)the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

‘^(br) Heaven is My throne , And earth is the footstool of My feet ; What kind of house will you build for Me ?' says the Lord, ‘ Or what place is there for My repose ?

‘^(bs) Was it not My hand which made all these things ?'