Daily Text and Bible Reading: Tuesday, January 28 [Press play below]

31.1 Jehovah continued to speak to Moses, saying:
31.2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel the son of Uri the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah.
31.3 I will fill him with the spirit of God, giving him wisdom, understanding, and knowledge of every kind of craftsmanship,
31.4 for making artistic designs, for working with gold, silver, and copper,
31.5 for cutting and setting stones, and for making every kind of wood product.
31.6 Moreover, to assist him I have appointed Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan, and I am putting wisdom into the heart of all those who are skillful, so that they may make everything I have commanded you:
31.7 the tent of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the cover that is on it, all the equipment of the tent,
31.8 the table and its utensils, the lampstand of pure gold and all its utensils, the altar of incense,
31.9 the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin and its stand,
31.10 the finely woven garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, the garments of his sons to serve as priests,
31.11 the anointing oil, and the perfumed incense for the sanctuary. They will do everything I have commanded you.”
31.12 Jehovah said further to Moses:
31.13 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘Especially, you are to keep my sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you during your generations in order that you may know that I, Jehovah, am sanctifying you.
31.14 You must keep the Sabbath, for it is something holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does any work on it, then that person must be cut off from among his people.
31.15 Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest. It is something holy to Jehovah. Anyone doing work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.
31.16 The Israelites must keep the Sabbath; they must observe the Sabbath during all their generations. It is a lasting covenant.
31.17 It is an enduring sign between me and the people of Israel, for in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and refreshed himself.’”
31.18 Now as soon as he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone written on by God’s finger.
32.1 Meanwhile, the people saw that Moses was taking a long time coming down from the mountain. So the people gathered around Aaron and said to him: “Get up, make for us a god who will go ahead of us, because we do not know what has happened to this Moses, the man who led us up out of the land of Egypt.”
32.2 At this Aaron said to them: “Take the gold earrings from the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.”
32.3 So all the people began taking off the gold earrings that were in their ears and bringing them to Aaron.
32.4 Then he took the gold from them, and he formed it with an engraving tool and made it into a statue of a calf. They began to say: “This is your God, O Israel, who led you up out of the land of Egypt.”
32.5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. Then Aaron called out: “There is a festival to Jehovah tomorrow.”
32.6 So they got up early on the next day and began offering up burnt offerings and presenting communion sacrifices. After that the people sat down to eat and drink. Then they got up to have a good time.
32.7 Jehovah now said to Moses: “Go, descend, because your people, whom you led up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
32.8 They have quickly deviated from the way I commanded them to go. They have made for themselves a statue of a calf, and they keep bowing down to it and sacrificing to it and saying, ‘This is your God, O Israel, who led you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
32.9 Jehovah went on to say to Moses: “I have seen that this is an obstinate people.
32.10 So now let me be, and I will exterminate them in my burning anger, and let me make a great nation from you instead.”
32.11 Then Moses appealed to Jehovah his God and said: “Why, O Jehovah, should you turn your burning anger against your people after bringing them out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
32.12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He had evil intentions when he led them out. He wanted to kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the surface of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and reconsider your decision to bring this calamity on your people.
32.13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom you swore by yourself and said: ‘I will multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens, and I will give all this land that I have designated to your offspring, so that they may take it as a permanent possession.’”
32.14 So Jehovah began to reconsider the calamity that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
32.15 Moses then turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hand. The tablets were inscribed on both sides; they were written on the front and on the back.
32.16 The tablets were the workmanship of God, and the writing was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.
32.17 When Joshua began to hear the noise of the people because of their shouting, he said to Moses: “There is the sound of battle in the camp.”
32.18 But Moses said: “It is not the sound of singing over a victory, And it is not the sound of wailing over a defeat; I hear the sound of another kind of singing.”
32.19 As soon as Moses got near the camp and saw the calf and the dances, his anger began to blaze, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.
32.20 He took the calf that they had made and he burned it with fire and crushed it into powder; then he scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
32.21 And Moses said to Aaron: “What did this people do to you that you have brought a great sin upon them?”
32.22 Aaron replied: “Do not be enraged, my lord. You well know that the people are inclined to do evil.
32.23 So they said to me, ‘Make for us a god who will go ahead of us, for we do not know what has happened to this Moses, the man who led us up out of the land of Egypt.’
32.24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold must take it off and give it to me.’ Then I threw it into the fire and out came this calf.”
32.25 Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, for Aaron had let them go unrestrained, so that they were a disgrace before their opposers.
32.26 Then Moses took his position in the gate of the camp and said: “Who is on Jehovah’s side? Come to me!” And all the Levites gathered around him.
32.27 He now said to them: “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘Each of you must fasten on his sword and pass through all the camp from gate to gate, killing his brother, his neighbor, and his close companion.’”
32.28 The Levites did what Moses said. So about 3,000 men were killed on that day.
32.29 Then Moses said: “Set yourselves apart for Jehovah today, for each of you has gone against his own son and his own brother; today he will give you a blessing.”
32.30 On the very next day, Moses said to the people: “You committed a very great sin, and now I will go up to Jehovah to see if I can make amends for your sin.”
32.31 So Moses returned to Jehovah and said: “What a great sin this people has committed! They made themselves a god of gold!
32.32 But now if you are willing, pardon their sin; if not, please wipe me out from your book that you have written.”
32.33 However, Jehovah said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against me, I will wipe him out of my book.
32.34 Go now, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Look! My angel will go ahead of you, and on the day when I make an accounting, I will bring punishment on them for their sin.”
32.35 Then Jehovah began plaguing the people because they had made the calf, the one that Aaron had made.
33.1 Jehovah said further to Moses: “Go on your way from here with the people whom you led up out of the land of Egypt. Journey to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’
33.2 I will send an angel ahead of you and drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
33.3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go in the midst of you, for you are an obstinate people, and I might exterminate you on the way.”
33.4 When the people heard this harsh word, they began to mourn, and not one of them put on his ornaments.
33.5 Jehovah said to Moses: “Say to the Israelites, ‘You are an obstinate people. In one moment I could go through the midst of you and exterminate you. So now keep your ornaments off while I consider what to do to you.’”
33.6 So from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites refrained from wearing their ornaments.
33.7 Now Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, at some distance from the camp, and he called it a tent of meeting. Everyone inquiring of Jehovah would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.
33.8 As soon as Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, and they would gaze after Moses until he entered into the tent.
33.9 As soon as Moses would go into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stand at the entrance of the tent while God spoke with Moses.
33.10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, each of them rose and bowed down at the entrance of his own tent.
33.11 Jehovah spoke to Moses face-to-face, just as one man would speak to another man. When he returned to the camp, Joshua the son of Nun, his minister and attendant, would not depart from the tent.
33.12 Now Moses said to Jehovah: “See, you are saying to me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Moreover, you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my eyes.’
33.13 Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, make me know your ways, so that I may know you and continue to find favor in your eyes. Consider, too, that this nation is your people.”
33.14 So he said: “I myself will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
33.15 Then Moses said to him: “If you yourself are not going along, do not lead us up from here.
33.16 How will it be known that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your people? Is it not by your going along with us, so that I and your people will be distinguished from every other people on the face of the earth?”
33.17 Jehovah went on to say to Moses: “I will also do this thing that you request, because you have found favor in my eyes and I know you by name.”
33.18 Then he said: “Please show me your glory.”
33.19 But he said: “I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will declare before you the name of Jehovah; and I will favor the one whom I favor, and I will show mercy to the one to whom I show mercy.”
33.20 But he added: “You cannot see my face, for no man can see me and live.”
33.21 Jehovah said further: “Here is a place near me. Station yourself on the rock.
33.22 When my glory is passing by, I will place you in a crevice of the rock, and I will shield you with my hand until I have passed by.
33.23 After that I will take my hand away, and you will see my back. But my face may not be seen.”