Moses Consecrates Aaron and His Sons

¹Then the LORD said to Moses,

²“Take Aaron and his sons, their garments, the anointing oil, the bull of the sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread,

³and assemble the whole congregation at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.”

⁴So Moses did as the LORD had commanded him, and the assembly gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

⁵And Moses said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded to be done.”

⁶Then Moses presented Aaron and his sons and washed them with water.

⁷He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him. He tied the woven band of the ephod around him and fastened it to him.

⁸Then he put the breastpiece on him and placed the Urim and Thummimin the breastpiece.

⁹Moses also put the turban on Aaron’s head and set the gold plate, the holy diadem, on the front of the turban, as the LORD had commanded him.

¹⁰Next, Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it; and so he consecrated them.

¹¹He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them.

¹²He also poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him.

¹³Then Moses presented Aaron’s sons, put tunics on them, wrapped sashes around them, and tied headbands on them, just as the LORD had commanded him.

The Priests’ Sin Offering

¹⁴Moses then brought the bull near for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁵Moses slaughtered the bull, took some of the blood, and applied it with his finger to all four horns of the altar, purifying the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it so that atonement could be made on it.

¹⁶Moses also took all the fat that was on the entrails, the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys and their fat, and burned it all on the altar.

¹⁷But the bull with its hide, flesh, and dung he burned outside the camp, as the LORD had commanded him.

The Priests’ Burnt Offering

¹⁸Then Moses presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

¹⁹Moses slaughtered the ram and splattered the blood on all sides of the altar.

²⁰He cut the ram into pieces and burned the head, the pieces, and the fat.

²¹He washed the entrails and legs with water and burned the entire ram on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

The Ram of Ordination

²²After that, Moses presented the other ram, the ram of ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.

²³Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on Aaron’s right earlobe, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.

²⁴Moses also presented Aaron’s sons and put some of the blood on their right earlobes, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he splattered the blood on all sides of the altar.

²⁵And Moses took the fat—the fat tail, all the fat that was on the entrails, the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with their fat—as well as the right thigh.

²⁶And from the basket of unleavened bread that was before the LORD, he took one cake of unleavened bread, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer, and he placed them on the fat portions and on the right thigh.

²⁷He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved them before the LORD as a wave offering.

²⁸Then Moses took these from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering. This was an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.

²⁹He also took the breast—Moses’ portion of the ram of ordination—and waved it before the LORD as a wave offering, as the LORD had commanded him.

³⁰Next, Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments, as well as Aaron’s sons and their garments.

³¹And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the meat at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’

³²Then you must burn up the remainder of the meat and bread.

³³You must not go outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are complete; for it will take seven days to ordain you.

³⁴What has been done today has been commanded by the LORD in order to make atonement on your behalf.

³⁵You must remain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days and keep the LORD’s charge so that you will not die, for this is what I have been commanded.”

³⁶So Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD had commanded through Moses.

The Song of Moses

¹Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

²Let my teaching fall like rainand my speech settle like dew,like gentle rain on new grass,like showers on tender plants.

³For I will proclaim the name of the LORD.Ascribe greatness to our God!

⁴He is the Rock, His work is perfect;all His ways are just.A God of faithfulness without injustice,righteous and upright is He.

⁵His people have acted corruptly toward Him;the blemish on them is not that of His children,but of a perverse and crooked generation.

⁶Is this how you repay the LORD,O foolish and senseless people?Is He not your Father and Creator?Has He not made you and established you?

⁷Remember the days of old;consider the years long past.Ask your father, and he will tell you,your elders, and they will inform you.

⁸When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,when He divided the sons of man,He set the boundaries of the peoplesaccording to the number of the sons of God.

⁹But the LORD’s portion is His people,Jacob His allotted inheritance.

¹⁰He found him in a desert land,in a barren, howling wilderness;He surrounded him, He instructed him,He guarded him as the appleof His eye.

¹¹As an eagle stirs up its nestand hovers over its young,He spread His wings to catch themand carried them on His pinions.

¹²The LORD alone led him,and no foreign god was with him.

¹³He made him ride on the heights of the landand fed him the produce of the field.He nourished him with honey from the rockand oil from the flinty crag,

¹⁴with curds from the herd and milk from the flock,with the fat of lambs,with rams from Bashan, and goats,with the choicest grains of wheat.From the juice of the finest grapesyou drank the wine.

¹⁵But Jeshurungrew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged.He abandoned the God who made himand scorned the Rock of his salvation.

¹⁶They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods;they enraged Him with abominations.

¹⁷They sacrificed to demons, not to God,to gods they had not known,to newly arrived gods,which your fathers did not fear.

¹⁸You ignored the Rock who brought you forth;you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹⁹When the LORD saw this, He rejected them,provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.

²⁰He said: “I will hide My face from them;I will see what will be their end.For they are a perverse generation—children of unfaithfulness.

²¹They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God;they have enraged Me with their worthless idols.So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people;I will make them angry by a nation without understanding.

²²For a fire has been kindled by My anger,and it burns to the depths of Sheol;it consumes the earth and its produce,and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

²³I will heap disasters upon them;I will spend My arrows against them.

²⁴They will be wasted from hungerand ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague;I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them,with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

²⁵Outside, the sword will take their children,and inside, terror will strikethe young man and the young woman,the infant and the gray-haired man.

²⁶I would have said that I would cut them to piecesand blot out their memory from mankind,

²⁷if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy,lest their adversaries misunderstand and say:‘Our own hand has prevailed;it was not the LORD who did all this.’”

²⁸Israel is a nation devoid of counsel,with no understanding among them.

²⁹If only they were wise, they would understand it;they would comprehend their fate.

³⁰How could one man pursue a thousand,or two put ten thousand to flight,unless their Rock had sold them,unless the LORD had given them up?

³¹For their rock is not like our Rock,even our enemies concede.

³²But their vine is from the vine of Sodomand from the fields of Gomorrah.Their grapes are poisonous;their clusters are bitter.

³³Their wine is the venom of serpents,the deadly poison of cobras.

³⁴“Have I not stored up these things,sealed up within My vaults?

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay.In due time their foot will slip;for their day of disaster is near,and their doom is coming quickly.”

³⁶For the LORD will vindicate His peopleand have compassion on His servantswhen He sees that their strength is goneand no one remains, slave or free.

³⁷He will say: “Where are their gods,the rock in which they took refuge,

³⁸which ate the fat of their sacrificesand drank the wine of their drink offerings?Let them rise up and help you;let them give you shelter!

³⁹See now that I am He;there is no God besides Me.I bring death and I give life;I wound and I heal,and there is no onewho can deliver from My hand.

⁴⁰For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare:As surely as I live forever,

⁴¹when I sharpen My flashing sword,and My hand grasps it in judgment,I will take vengeance on My adversariesand repay those who hate Me.

⁴²I will make My arrows drunk with blood,while My sword devours flesh—the blood of the slain and captives,the heads of the enemy leaders.”

⁴³Rejoice, O heavens, with Him,and let all God’s angels worship Him.Rejoice, O nations, with His people;for He will avenge the blood of His children.He will take vengeance on His adversariesand repay those who hate Him;He will cleanse His landand His people.

⁴⁴Then Moses came with Joshuason of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people.

⁴⁵When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel,

⁴⁶he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law.

⁴⁷For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Moses’ Death Foretold

⁴⁸On that same day the LORD said to Moses,

⁴⁹“Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession.

⁵⁰And there on the mountain that you climb, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.

⁵¹For at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence.

⁵²Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”

The Bronze Altar

¹Bezalel constructedthe altar of burnt offering from acacia wood. It was square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.

²He made a horn at each of its four corners, so that the horns and altar were of one piece, and he overlaid the altar with bronze.

³He made all the altar’s utensils of bronze—its pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks, and firepans.

⁴He made a grate of bronze mesh for the altar under its ledge, halfway up from the bottom.

⁵At the four corners of the bronze grate he cast four rings as holders for the poles.

⁶And he made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze.

⁷Then he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar for carrying it. He made the altar with boards so that it was hollow.

The Bronze Basin

⁸Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

The Courtyard

⁹Then he constructed the courtyard. The south side of the courtyard was a hundred cubits longand had curtains of finely spun linen,

¹⁰with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases, and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.

¹¹The north side was also a hundred cubits long, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases. The hooks and bands of the posts were silver.

¹²The west side was fifty cubits longand had curtains, with ten posts and ten bases. The hooks and bands of the posts were silver.

¹³And the east side, toward the sunrise, was also fifty cubits long.

¹⁴The curtains on one side of the entrance were fifteen cubits long,with three posts and three bases.

¹⁵And the curtains on the other side were also fifteen cubits long, with three posts and three bases as well.

¹⁶All the curtains around the courtyard were made of finely spun linen.

¹⁷The bases for the posts were bronze, the hooks and bands were silver, and the plating for the tops of the posts was silver. So all the posts of the courtyard were banded with silver.

¹⁸The curtain for the entrance to the courtyard was embroidered with blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and finely spun linen. It was twenty cubits longand, like the curtains of the courtyard, five cubits high,

¹⁹with four posts and four bronze bases. Their hooks were silver, as well as the bands and the plating of their tops.

²⁰All the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the surrounding courtyard were bronze.

An Inventory of Materials

²¹This is the inventory for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, as recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

²²Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything that the LORD had commanded Moses.

²³With him was Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen.

²⁴All the gold from the wave offering used for the work on the sanctuary totaled 29 talents and 730 shekels,according to the sanctuary shekel.

²⁵The silver from those numbered among the congregation totaled 100 talents and 1,775 shekels,according to the sanctuary shekel—

²⁶a beka per person, that is, half a shekel,according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone twenty years of age or older who had crossed over to be numbered, a total of 603,550 men.

²⁷The hundred talents of silverwere used to cast the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent per base.

²⁸With the 1,775 shekels of silverhe made the hooks for the posts, overlaid their tops, and supplied bands for them.

²⁹The bronze from the wave offering totaled 70 talents and 2,400 shekels.

³⁰He used it to make the bases for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the bronze altar and its bronze grating, all the utensils for the altar,

³¹the bases for the surrounding courtyard and its gate, and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and its surrounding courtyard.

I Will Open My Mouth in Parables

¹Give ear, O my people, to my instruction;listen to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in parables;I will utter things hidden from the beginning,

³that we have heard and knownand our fathers have relayed to us.

⁴We will not hide them from their childrenbut will declare to the next generationthe praises of the LORD and His mightand the wonders He has performed.

⁵For He established a testimony in Jacoband appointed a law in Israel,which He commanded our fathersto teach to their children,

⁶that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children

⁷that they should put their confidence in God,not forgetting His works,but keeping His commandments.

⁸Then they will not be like their fathers,a stubborn and rebellious generation,whose heart was not loyal,whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁹The archers of Ephraimturned back on the day of battle.

¹⁰They failed to keep God’s covenantand refused to live by His law.

¹¹They forgot what He had done,the wonders He had shown them.

¹²He worked wonders before their fathersin the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea and brought them through;He set the waters upright like a wall.

¹⁴He led them with a cloud by dayand with a light of fire all night.

¹⁵He split the rocks in the wildernessand gave them drink as abundant as the seas.

¹⁶He brought streams from the stoneand made water flow down like rivers.

¹⁷But they continued to sin against Him,rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

¹⁸They willfully tested Godby demanding the food they craved.

¹⁹They spoke against God, saying,“Can God really prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰When He struck the rock, water gushed outand torrents raged.But can He also give breador supply His people with meat?”

²¹Therefore the LORD heardand was filled with wrath;so a fire was kindled against Jacob,and His anger flared against Israel,

²²because they did not believe Godor rely on His salvation.

²³Yet He commanded the clouds aboveand opened the doors of the heavens.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat;He gave them grain from heaven.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels;He sent them food in abundance.

²⁶He stirred the east wind from the heavensand drove the south wind by His might.

²⁷He rained meat on them like dust,and winged birds like the sand of the sea.

²⁸He felled them in the midst of their camp,all around their dwellings.

²⁹So they ate and were well filled,for He gave them what they craved.

³⁰Yet before they had filled their desire,with the food still in their mouths,

³¹God’s anger flared against them,and He put to death their strongestand subdued the young men of Israel.

³²In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;despite His wonderful works, they did not believe.

³³So He ended their days in futility,and their years in sudden terror.

³⁴When He slew them, they would seek Him;they repented and searched for God.

³⁵And they remembered that God was their Rock,that God Most Highwas their Redeemer.

³⁶But they deceived Him with their mouths,and lied to Him with their tongues.

³⁷Their hearts were disloyal to Him,and they were unfaithful to His covenant.

³⁸And yet He was compassionate;He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them.He often restrained His angerand did not unleash His full wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh,a passing breeze that does not return.

⁴⁰How often they disobeyed Him in the wildernessand grieved Him in the desert!

⁴¹Again and again they tested Godand provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

⁴³when He performed His signs in Egyptand His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

⁴⁴He turned their rivers to blood,and from their streams they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,and frogs that devastated them.

⁴⁶He gave their crops to the grasshopper,the fruit of their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He killed their vines with hailstonesand their sycamore-figs with sleet.

⁴⁸He abandoned their cattle to the hailand their livestock to bolts of lightning.

⁴⁹He unleashed His fury against them,wrath, indignation, and calamity—a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger;He did not spare them from deathbut delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn of Egypt,the virility in the tents of Ham.

⁵²He led out His people like sheepand guided them like a flock in the wilderness.

⁵³He led them safely, so they did not fear,but the sea engulfed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to His holy land,to the mountain His right hand had acquired.

⁵⁵He drove out nations before themand apportioned their inheritance;He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁵⁶But they tested and disobeyed God Most High,for they did not keep His decrees.

⁵⁷They turned back and were faithless like their fathers,twisted like a faulty bow.

⁵⁸They enraged Him with their high placesand provoked His jealousy with their idols.

⁵⁹On hearing it, God was furiousand rejected Israel completely.

⁶⁰He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,the tent He had pitched among men.

⁶¹He delivered His strength to captivity,and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

⁶²He surrendered His people to the swordbecause He was enraged by His heritage.

⁶³Fire consumed His young men,and their maidens were left without wedding songs.

⁶⁴His priests fell by the sword,but their widows could not lament.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,like a mighty warrior overcome by wine.

⁶⁶He beat back His foes;He put them to everlasting shame.

⁶⁷He rejected the tent of Josephand refused the tribe of Ephraim.

⁶⁸But He chose the tribe of Judah,Mount Zion, which He loved.

⁶⁹He built His sanctuary like the heights,like the earth He has established forever.

⁷⁰He chose David His servantand took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹from tending the ewes He brought himto be shepherd of His people Jacob,of Israel His inheritance.

⁷²So David shepherded them with integrity of heartand guided them with skillful hands.