Lost Books of the Bible (137 page)

11 At the end of forty days and forty nights, when the Lord had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai,  the Lord gave to Moses the tablets of stone written with the finger of God.

12 When the children of Israel saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mount, they gathered round Aaron and said, As for this man Moses, we know not what has become of him.

13 Now therefore rise up, make to us a god who shall go before us, so that you shall not die.

14 Aaron was greatly afraid of the people, and he ordered them to bring him gold and he made it into a molten calf for the people.

15 The Lord said to Moses, before he had come down from the mount, Go down, for your people whom you brought forth from Egypt have corrupted themselves.

16 They have made to themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it; now therefore leave me, that I may consume them from off the earth for they are a stubborn people.

17 And Moses sought the countenance of the Lord, and he prayed to the Lord for the people on account of the calf which they had made; afterward he descended from the mount and in his hands were the two tablets of stone which God had given him to command the Israelites.

18 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf which the people had made, the anger of Moses was set ablaze and he broke the tablets under the mount.

19 Moses came to the camp; he took the calf and burned it with fire, and ground it till it became fine dust and scattered it on the water, and gave it to the Israelites to drink.

20 There died of the people by the swords of each other about three thousand men who had made the calf.

21 The next morning Moses said to the people, I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I may make atonement for your sins which you have sinned to the Lord.

22 And Moses again went up to the Lord, and he remained with the Lord forty days and forty nights.

23 And during the forty days Moses entreaed the Lord on behalf of the children of Israel, and the Lord listened to the prayer of Moses, and the Lord was begged of him on behalf of Israel.

24 Then spoke the Lord to Moses to cut out two stone tablets and to bring them up to the Lord, who would write on them the ten commandments.

25 Moses did so, and he came down and fashioned the two tablets and went up to Mount Sinai to the Lord, and the Lord wrote the ten commandments on the tablets.

26 Moses remained yet with the Lord forty days and forty nights, and the Lord instructed him in standards and judgments to give to Israel.

27 The Lord commanded him respecting the children of Israel that they should make a sanctuary
for the Lord that his name might rest therein, and the Lord showed him the likeness of the sanctuary and the likeness of all its vessels.

28 And at the end of the forty days, Moses came down from the mount and the two tablets were in his hand.

29 And Moses came to the children of Israel and spoke to them all the words of the Lord, and he taught them laws, rules and judgments which the Lord had taught him.

30 Moses told the children of Israel the word of the Lord, that a sanctuary should be made for him to dwell among the children of Israel.

31 And the people rejoiced greatly at all the good which the Lord had spoken to them through Moses, and they said, We will do all that the Lord has spoken to you.

32 And the people rose up like one man and they made generous offerings to the sanctuary of the Lord; each man brought the offering of the Lord for the work of the sanctuary and for all its service.

33 All the children of Israel brought each man of all that was found in his possession for the work of the sanctuary of the Lord, gold, silver and brass, and every thing that was serviceable for the sanctuary.

34 All the wise men who were practiced in work came and made the sanctuary of the Lord, according to all that the Lord had commanded, every man in the work in which he had skill; all the wise men in heart made the sanctuary and its furniture and all the vessels for the holy service as the Lord had commanded Moses.

35 And the work of the sanctuary of the tabernacle was completed at the end of five months; the children of Israel did all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

36 And they brought the sanctuary and all its furniture to Moses; like to the representation which the Lord had shown to Moses, so did the children of Israel.

37 And Moses saw the work, and behold they did it as the Lord had commanded him, so Moses blessed them.

CHAPTER 83

1 In the twelfth month, in the twenty-third day of the month, Moses took Aaron and his sons and  dressed them in their garments and anointed them, and did to them as the Lord had commanded him, and Moses brought up all the offerings which the Lord had on that day commanded him.

2 Moses afterward took Aaron and his sons and said to them, For seven days you shall remain at the door of the tabernacle, for thus am I commanded.

3 And Aaron and his sons did all that the Lord had commanded them through Moses, and they remained for seven days at the door of the tabernacle.

4 On the eighth day, being the first day of the first month, in the second year from the Israelites' departure from Egypt, Moses erected the sanctuary and put in all the furniture of the tabernacle and all the furniture of the sanctuary, and he did all that the Lord had commanded him.

5 Moses called to Aaron and his sons, and they brought the burnt offering and the sin offering for themselves and the children of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

6 On that day the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, took strange fire and brought it before the Lord
who had not commanded them to do it, and a fire went forth from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord on that day.

7 Then on the day when Moses had completed erecting the sanctuary, the princes of the children of Israel began to bring their offerings before the Lord for the dedication of the altar.

8 And they brought up their offerings each prince for one day, a prince each day for twelve days.

9 And all the offerings which they brought, each man in his day, one silver charger weighing one hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering;

10 One spoon, weighing ten shekels of gold, full of incense;

11 One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year for a burnt offering;

12 And one kid of the goats for a sin offering.

13 For a sacrifice of peace offering:   two oxen, five rams, five male goats, five lambs of a year old.

14 Thus did the twelve princes of Israel day by day, each man in his day.

15 It was after this in the thirteenth day of the month, that Moses commanded the children of Israel to observe the Passover.

16 And the children of Israel kept the Passover in its season in the fourteenth day of the month; as the Lord had commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel.

17 And in the second month, on the first day thereof, the Lord spoke to Moses saying,

18 Number the heads of all the males of the children of Israel from twenty years old and upward, you and your brother Aaron and the twelve princes of Israel.

19 And Moses did so, and Aaron came with the twelve princes of Israel, and they counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

20 And the number of the children of Israel by the houses of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty.

21 But the children of Levi were not numbered among their brothers the children of Israel.

22 And the number of all the males of the children of Israel from one month old and upward, was twenty-two thousand, two hundred and seventy-three.

23 And the number of the children of Levi from one month old and above, was twenty-two thousand.

24 Moses placed the priests and the Levites each man to his service and to his burden to serve the sanctuary of the tabernacle, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

25 And on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken away from the tabernacle of testimony.

26 At that time the children of Israel continued their journey from the wilderness of Sinai, they took a journey of three days and the cloud rested on the wilderness of Paran; there the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against Israel, for they had provoked the Lord in asking him for meat to eat.

27 And the Lord listened to their voice, and gave them meat which they ate for one month.

28 But after this the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against them, and he struck them with a great slaughter, and they were buried there in that place.

29 The children of Israel called that place Kebroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people that lusted flesh.

30 And they departed from Kebroth Hattaavah and pitched in Hazeroth, which is in the wilderness of Paran.

31 And while the children of Israel were in Hazeroth, the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against Miriam on account of Moses, and she became leprous, white as snow.

32 She was confined outside the camp for seven days until she had been received again after her leprosy.

33 The children of Israel afterward departed from Hazeroth and camped in the end of the wilderness of Paran.

34 At that time, the Lord spoke to Moses to send twelve men from the children of Israel, one man to a tribe, to go and explore the land of Canaan.

35 Moses sent the twelve men and they came to the land of Canaan to search and examine it, and they explored the whole land from the wilderness of Sin to Rechob as you come to Chamoth.

36 At the end of forty days they came to Moses and Aaron, and they brought him word as it was in their hearts; ten of the men brought up an evil report to the children of Israel, of the land which they had explored saying, It is better for us to return to Egypt than to go to this land, a land that consumes its inhabitants.

37 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephuneh, who were of those that explored the land said, The land is very good.

38 If the Lord delights in us, then he will bring us to this land and give it to us for it is a land flowing with milk and honey.

39 But the children of Israel would not listen to them, and they listened to the words of the ten men who had brought up an evil report of the land.

40 The Lord heard the murmurings of the children of Israel and he was angry and swore, saying,

41 Certainly not one man of this wicked generation shall see the land from twenty years old and upward except Caleb the son of Jephuneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

42 But certainly this wicked generation shall perish in this wilderness, and their children shall come to the land and they shall possess it.  So the anger of the Lord was set ablaze against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until the end of that wicked generation because they did not follow the Lord.

43 And the people lived in the wilderness of Paran a long time, and they afterward proceeded to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.

CHAPTER 84

1 At that time Korah the son of Jetzer the son of Kehath the son of Levi, took many men of the children of Israel and they rose up and quarreled with Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation.