Hello, this is Father Paul and I'm glad we're taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year.
Yesterday we heard about the manna and the water that God provided for His people in
the wilderness.
We also heard about Jethro's advice for Moses to set up judges over the people to help him
in the administrative tasks that were before him.
And today we're going to hear about how the Israelites approached the mountain of God,
Mount Sinai, and the preparations that they needed to take.
We also are going to hear about the receiving of the Ten Commandments by Moses.
And we're also going to hear that famous verse, eye for an eye, and how it was to be applied.
Alright, let's begin.
Today's reading is from Exodus 19 to 21.
Chapter 19.
In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the
same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.
For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the
wilderness.
So Israel camped there before the mountain.
And Moses went up to God and the Lord called to him from the mountain saying,
Thus, you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel,
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles wings, and brought
you to myself.
Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall
be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine.
And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
So Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before them all these
words which the Lord commanded him.
Then all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will
do.
So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, Behold,
I come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe
you forever.
So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and
let them wash their clothes, and let them be ready for the third day.
For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, Take heed for yourselves, that you
do not go up to the mountain or touch its base.
Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.
Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow.
Whether man or beast, he shall not live.
When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain.
So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they
washed their clothes.
And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day, do not come near your wives.
Then it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings,
and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that
all the people who were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot
of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.
Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long, and became louder and louder, Moses
spoke, and God answered him by voice.
Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the top of the mountain, and the Lord called
Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze
at the Lord, and many of them perish.
Also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break
out against them.
But Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us,
saying, Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it.
Then the Lord said to him, Away, get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you.
But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest
he break out against them.
So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
Chapter 20
And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of
the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them.
For I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to
thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him
guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
LORD your God.
In it you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant,
nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in
them, and rested the seventh day.
Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD
your God is giving you.
You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not
bear false witness against your neighbor, 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 is your neighbor's.
Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet
and the mountain smoking, and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off.
Then they said to Moses, You speak with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with
us lest we die.
But Moses said to the people, Do not fear, for God has come to test you, and that his
fear may be before you, so that you may not sin, so that people stood afar off.
But Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
Then the LORD said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, You have seen
that I have talked with you from heaven, you shall not make anything to be with me.
Gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves, an altar of earth
you shall make for me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace
offerings, your sheep and your oxen.
In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you, and if you
make me an altar of stone you shall not build it of hewn stone, for if you use your tool
on it you have profaned it.
Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on
it.
Chapter 21
Now these are the judgments which you shall set before them.
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go
out free and pay nothing.
If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself.
If he comes in married, then his wife shall go out with him.
If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife
and her children shall be her masters and he shall go out by himself.
But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not
go out free.
Then his master shall bring him to the judges, he shall also bring him to the door or to
the door-post, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him
forever.
And if a man sells his daughter to be a female slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves
do.
If she does not please her master, who has betrothed her to himself, then he shall let
her be redeemed.
He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with
her.
If he has betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her according to the custom of daughters.
If he takes another wife, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing and her marriage rights.
And if he does not do these three for her, then she shall go out free without paying
money.
He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.
However, if he did not lie and wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint
for you a place where he may flee.
But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor to kill him by treachery, you
shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
He who kidnaps a man and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, shall surely be put
to death.
And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
If men contend with each other and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and
he does not die but is confined to his bed, if he rises again and walks about outside
with his staff, then he who struck him shall be acquitted.
He shall only pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for him to be thoroughly
healed.
And if a man beats his male or female servant with a rod, so that he dies under his hand,
he shall surely be punished.
Notwithstanding, if he remains alive a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is
his property.
If men fight and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no
harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes
on him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined.
But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
If a man strikes the eye of his male or female servant and destroys it, he shall let him
go free for the sake of his eye.
And if he knocks out the tooth of his male or female servant, he shall let him go free
for the sake of his tooth.
If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and its
flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted.
But if the ox tended to thrust with its horn in times past, and it has been made known
to his owner, and he has not kept it confined, so that it has killed a man or a woman, the
ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.
If there is imposed on him a sum of money, then he shall pay to redeem his life, whatever
is imposed on him.
Whether it has gored a son or gored a daughter, according to this judgment, it shall be done
to him.
If the ox gores a male or female servant, he shall give to their master thirty shekels
of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.
And 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 in it, the owner of the pit shall make it good, he shall give money to
their owner, but the dead animal shall be his.
If one man's ox hurts another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox
and divide the money from it, and the dead ox they shall also divide.
Or if it was known that the ox tended to thrust in times past, and its owner has not kept
it confined, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead animal shall be his own.
I hope you enjoyed today's reading as much as I did, and I look forward to seeing you
again tomorrow to continue on our journey.
God bless you and have a great day.