God and Israel at Mt Sinai
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📚✭In the third month after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, the same day, they came into the desert of Sinai. 2 📚When they set out from Rephidim they came to the desert of Sinai and camped in the desert. There Israel camped in front of the mountain.3 📚✭And Moses went up to God. And the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob, and tell to the children of Israel: 4 📚You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.
The covenant of law
5 📚✭Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be my special treasure out of all the peoples, for all the earth is mine. 6 📚And you will be for me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel”.
7 📚And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8 📚✭And all the people answered together, and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do”. And Moses took the words of the people back to the LORD.
9 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “See, I come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever”. And Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
10 📚✭And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people, and sanctify✭ them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their clothes, 11 📚and be ready by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 📚And you are to set limits to the people all around, saying, Watch out for yourselves, so that you do not go up to the mountain, or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 13 📚No hand is to touch him, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot with arrows; neither animal or man is to live. When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they are to come up to the mountain”.
14 📚And Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and sanctified the people. And they washed their clothes. 15 📚And he said to the people, “Be ready by the third day; do not go near your wives”.
16 📚And it came about on the morning of the third day that there were flashes of lightning and thunder, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a trumpet exceedingly loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17 📚And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. 18 📚And the whole of Mount Sinai was in smoke, because the LORD came down on it in fire✭, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently. 19 📚And when the sound of the trumpet made a long blast, and got louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice.
20 📚And the LORD came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain; and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mountain and Moses went up. 21 📚✭And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, warn the people so they will not break through to the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. 22 📚And have the priests also, who come near the LORD, sanctify themselves, so that the LORD does not break out against them”.
23 📚And Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, ‘Set limits around the mountain and sanctify it.’ ”
24 📚And the LORD said to him, “Away, go down. Then you are to come up, you, and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, so that he does not break out against them”.
25 So Moses went down to the people, and spoke to them.