Daily Bible Reading

Day 53

Today's reading: Exodus 19-21

Look for the promises in God’s word. As you read and find them, write them in your journal along with the scripture reference.

Exodus 19

Israel at Sinai

1. In the third month after the Israelites went out from the land of Egypt, on the very day, they came to the Desert of Sinai.
2. After they journeyed from Rephidim, they came to the Desert of Sinai, and they camped in the desert; Israel camped there in front of the mountain.
3. Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, “Thus you will tell the house of Jacob, and declare to the people of Israel:
4. ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I lifted you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
5. And now, if you will diligently listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the nations, for all the earth is mine,
6. and you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you will speak to the Israelites.”
7. So Moses came and summoned the elders of Israel. He set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him,
8. and all the people answered together, “All that the Lord has commanded we will do!” So Moses brought the words of the people back to the Lord.
9. The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you.” And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
10. The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and make them wash their clothes
11. and be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
12. You must set boundaries for the people all around, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves not to go up on the mountain nor touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death!
13. No hand will touch him – but he will surely be stoned or shot through, whether a beast or a human being; he must not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast they may go up on the mountain.”
14. Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.
15. He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.”
16. On the third day in the morning there was thunder and lightning and a dense cloud on the mountain, and the sound of a very loud horn; all the people who were in the camp trembled.
17. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain.
18. Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire, and its smoke went up like the smoke of a great furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.
19. When the sound of the horn grew louder and louder, Moses was speaking and God was answering him with a voice.
20. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and the Lord summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
21. The Lord said to Moses, “Go down and solemnly warn the people, lest they force their way through to the Lord to look, and many of them perish.
22. Let the priests also, who approach the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break through against them.”
23. Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai, because you solemnly warned us, ‘Set boundaries for the mountain and set it apart.’”
24. The Lord said to him, “Go, get down, and come up, and Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people force their way through to come up to the Lord, lest he break through against them.”
25. So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

Exodus 20

The Decalogue

1. God spoke all these words:
2. “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
3. “You shall have no other gods before me.
4. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below.
5. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,
6. and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7. “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold guiltless anyone who takes his name in vain.
8. “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy.
9. For six days you may labor and do all your work,
10. but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates.
11. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
12. “Honor your father and your mother, that you may live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving to you.
13. “You shall not murder.
14. “You shall not commit adultery.
15. “You shall not steal.
16. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
18. All the people were seeing the thundering and the lightning, and heard the sound of the horn, and saw the mountain smoking – and when the people saw it they trembled with fear and kept their distance.
19. They said to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak with us, lest we die.”
20. Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you so that you do not sin.”
21. The people kept their distance, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

The Altar

22. The Lord said to Moses: “Thus you will tell the Israelites: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken with you from heaven.
23. You must not make gods of silver alongside me, nor make gods of gold for yourselves.
24. ‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause my name to be honored I will come to you and I will bless you.
25. If you make me an altar of stone, you must not build it of stones shaped with tools, for if you use your tool on it you have defiled it.
26. And you must not go up by steps to my altar, so that your nakedness is not exposed.’

Exodus 21

The Decisions

1. “These are the decisions that you will set before them:

Hebrew Servants

2. “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he will go out free without paying anything.
3. If he came in by himself he will go out by himself; if he had a wife when he came in, then his wife will go out with him.
4. If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.
5. But if the servant should declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’
6. then his master must bring him to the judges, and he will bring him to the door or the doorposts, and his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him forever.
7. “If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do.
8. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her.
9. If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters.
10. If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one’s food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
11. If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.

Personal Injuries

12. “Whoever strikes someone so that he dies must surely be put to death.
13. But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.
14. But if a man willfully attacks his neighbor to kill him cunningly, you will take him even from my altar that he may die.
15. “Whoever strikes his father or his mother must surely be put to death.
16. “Whoever kidnaps someone and sells him, or is caught still holding him, must surely be put to death.
17. “Whoever treats his father or his mother disgracefully must surely be put to death.
18. “If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed,
19. and then if he gets up and walks about outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay for the injured person’s loss of time and see to it that he is fully healed.
20. “If a man strikes his male servant or his female servant with a staff so that he or she dies as a result of the blow, he will surely be punished.
21. However, if the injured servant survives one or two days, the owner will not be punished, for he has suffered the loss.
22. “If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides.
23. But if there is serious injury, then you will give a life for a life,
24. eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25. burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.
26. “If a man strikes the eye of his male servant or his female servant so that he destroys it, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the eye.
27. If he knocks out the tooth of his male servant or his female servant, he will let the servant go free as compensation for the tooth.

Laws about Animals

28. “If an ox gores a man or a woman so that either dies, then the ox must surely be stoned and its flesh must not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will be acquitted.
29. But if the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner was warned, and he did not take the necessary precautions, and then it killed a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned and the man must be put to death.
30. If a ransom is set for him, then he must pay the redemption for his life according to whatever amount was set for him.
31. If the ox gores a son or a daughter, the owner will be dealt with according to this rule.
32. If the ox gores a male servant or a female servant, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver, and the ox must be stoned.
33. “If a man opens a pit or if a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
34. the owner of the pit must repay the loss. He must give money to its owner, and the dead animal will become his.
35. If the ox of one man injures the ox of his neighbor so that it dies, then they will sell the live ox and divide its proceeds, and they will also divide the dead ox.
36. Or if it is known that the ox had the habit of goring, and its owner did not take the necessary precautions, he must surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal will become his.

{Exodus 16-18}   {Daily Reading Guide}   {Exodus 22-24}