Daily Text and Bible Reading: Friday, January 24 [Press play below]

19.1 In the third month after the Israelites went out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai.
19.2 They pulled away from Rephidim and came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. Israel camped there in front of the mountain.
19.3 Then Moses went up to the true God, and Jehovah called to him from the mountain, saying: “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and to tell the Israelites,
19.4 ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to the Egyptians, in order to carry you on wings of eagles and bring you to myself.
19.5 Now if you will strictly obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will certainly become my special property out of all peoples, for the whole earth belongs to me.
19.6 You will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”
19.7 So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people and declared to them all these words that Jehovah had commanded him.
19.8 After that all the people answered unanimously: “All that Jehovah has spoken, we are willing to do.” Moses immediately took the people’s response to Jehovah.
19.9 And Jehovah said to Moses: “Look! I am coming to you in a dark cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they may always put faith in you as well.” Then Moses reported the words of the people to Jehovah.
19.10 Then Jehovah said to Moses: “Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and they must wash their clothing.
19.11 And they must be ready for the third day, because on the third day Jehovah will come down upon Mount Sinai before the eyes of all the people.
19.12 You must set boundaries for the people all around it and tell them, ‘Beware of going up to the mountain or touching its border. Anybody touching the mountain will surely be put to death.
19.13 No hand is to touch him, but he will either be stoned or be shot through. Whether beast or man, he will not live.’ But at the sound of the ram’s horn they may come up to the mountain.”
19.14 Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and he began to sanctify the people, and they washed their clothing.
19.15 He said to the people: “Get ready for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.”
19.16 On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, and there was a heavy cloud on the mountain and a very loud sound of a horn, and all the people in the camp began to tremble.
19.17 Moses now brought the people out of the camp to meet the true God, and they took their place at the base of the mountain.
19.18 Mount Sinai smoked all over, because Jehovah came down upon it in fire; and its smoke was rising like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain was trembling violently.
19.19 As the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and the voice of the true God answered him.
19.20 So Jehovah came down upon Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. Then Jehovah called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
19.21 Jehovah now said to Moses: “Go down and warn the people not to try to force their way through to look at Jehovah, or many of them will perish.
19.22 And let the priests who regularly come near to Jehovah sanctify themselves, so that Jehovah may not strike them.”
19.23 Moses then said to Jehovah: “The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai because you already warned us, saying, ‘Set boundaries around the mountain, and make it sacred.’”
19.24 However, Jehovah said to him: “Go, descend, and come back up, you and Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people force their way through to come up to Jehovah, so that he may not strike them.”
19.25 So Moses descended to the people and told them.
20.1 Then God spoke all these words:
20.2 “I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
20.3 You must not have any other gods besides me.
20.4 “You must not make for yourself a carved image or a form like anything that is in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.
20.5 You must not bow down to them nor be enticed to serve them, for I, Jehovah your God, am a God who requires exclusive devotion, bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation of those who hate me,
20.6 but showing loyal love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
20.7 “You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way, for Jehovah will not leave unpunished the one who takes up His name in a worthless way.
20.8 “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it sacred.
20.9 You are to labor and do all your work for six days,
20.10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah your God. You must not do any work, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your slave man nor your slave girl nor your domestic animal nor your foreign resident who is inside your settlements.
20.11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and he began to rest on the seventh day. That is why Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred.
20.12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you.
20.13 “You must not murder.
20.14 “You must not commit adultery.
20.15 “You must not steal.
20.16 “You must not testify falsely when you are a witness against your fellow man.
20.17 “You must not desire your fellow man’s house. You must not desire your fellow man’s wife nor his slave man nor his slave girl nor his bull nor his donkey nor anything that belongs to your fellow man.”
20.18 Now all the people were witnessing the thunder and lightning, the sound of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and seeing this made them tremble and stand at a distance.
20.19 So they said to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, for fear that we will die.”
20.20 So Moses said to the people: “Do not be afraid, for the true God has come to put you to the test, in order that the fear of him may continue with you so that you may not sin.”
20.21 So the people kept standing at a distance, but Moses went near to the dark cloud where the true God was.
20.22 Then Jehovah said to Moses: “This is what you are to say to the Israelites, ‘You have seen for yourselves that I spoke with you from heaven.
20.23 You must not make gods of silver alongside me, and you must not make gods of gold for yourselves.
20.24 An altar of earth you are to make for me, and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings, your communion sacrifices, your flock, and your herd. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and I will bless you.
20.25 If you make an altar of stones for me, you must not build it using stones cut with tools. For if you do use your chisel on it, you will profane it.
20.26 And you must not go up by steps to my altar, that your private parts may not be exposed upon it.’
21.1 “These are the judicial decisions that you are to convey to them:
21.2 “If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve as a slave for six years, but in the seventh year, he will be set free without paying anything.
21.3 If he came by himself, he will go out by himself. If he is the husband of a wife, then his wife must go out with him.
21.4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will become her master’s, and he will go out by himself.
21.5 But if the slave should insist and say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my sons; I do not want to be set free,’
21.6 his master must bring him before the true God. Then he will bring him up against the door or the doorpost, and his master will pierce his ear through with an awl, and he will be his slave for life.
21.7 “If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not go free the same way that a slave man does.
21.8 If her master is not pleased with her and he does not designate her as a concubine but causes her to be purchased by someone else, he will not be entitled to sell her to foreigners, for he has betrayed her.
21.9 If he selects her for his son, he is to grant her the rights of a daughter.
21.10 If he takes another wife for himself, the sustenance, the clothing, and the marriage due of the first wife are not to be diminished.
21.11 If he will not render these three things to her, then she is to go free without paying any money.
21.12 “Anyone who strikes a man so that he dies must be put to death.
21.13 But if he does it unintentionally and the true God lets it happen, I will designate for you a place where he can flee.
21.14 If a man becomes very angry with his fellow man and he deliberately kills him, the man must die even if you have to take him from my altar.
21.15 One who strikes his father or his mother must be put to death.
21.16 “If anyone kidnaps a man and sells him or is caught holding him, he must be put to death.
21.17 “Anyone who curses his father or his mother must be put to death.
21.18 “This is what should happen if men quarrel and one strikes his fellow man with a stone or a fist and he does not die but is confined to his bed:
21.19 If he is able to get up and walk around outdoors with the aid of a staff, then the one who struck him must be free from punishment. He will only make compensation for the time the injured man lost from his work until he is completely healed.
21.20 “If a man strikes his slave man or his slave girl with a stick and that one dies by his hand, that one must be avenged.
21.21 However, if he survives for one or two days, he is not to be avenged, because he is someone bought with his owner’s money.
21.22 “If men should struggle with each other and they hurt a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but no fatality results, the offender must pay the damages imposed on him by the husband of the woman; and he must pay it through the judges.
21.23 But if a fatality does occur, then you must give life for life,
21.24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
21.25 burn for burn, wound for wound, blow for blow.
21.26 “If a man strikes the eye of his slave man or the eye of his slave girl and he destroys it, he is to let the slave go free in compensation for his eye.
21.27 And if he knocks out the tooth of his slave man or of his slave girl, he is to let the slave go free in compensation for his tooth.
21.28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman and that one dies, the bull must be stoned to death and its meat is not to be eaten; but the owner of the bull is free from punishment.
21.29 But if a bull was in the habit of goring and its owner had been warned but he would not keep it under guard and it killed a man or a woman, the bull is to be stoned and its owner is also to be put to death.
21.30 If a ransom is imposed on him, he must give as the redemption price for his life all that may be imposed on him.
21.31 Whether it gored a son or a daughter, it is to be done to the bull’s owner according to this judicial decision.
21.32 If the bull gored a slave man or a slave girl, he will give the price of 30 shekels to that one’s master, and the bull will be stoned to death.
21.33 “If a man uncovers or digs a pit and does not cover it and a bull or a donkey falls into it,
21.34 the owner of the pit is to make compensation. He is to pay the price to its owner, and the dead animal will become his.
21.35 If a man’s bull hurts another’s bull and it dies, then they must sell the live bull and divide the price paid for it; they should also divide the dead animal.
21.36 Or if it was known that a bull had been in the habit of goring but its owner would not keep it under guard, he must make compensation with bull for bull, and the dead one will become his own.