God

Remember Avraham, Yitz'chak and Isra'el, your servants, to whom you swore by your very self. You promised them, 'I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky; and I will give all this land I have spoken about to your descendants; and they will possess it forever.'"

ADONAI then changed his mind about the disaster he had planned for his people.

The tablets were the work of God; and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

He answered, "That is neither the clamor of victory nor the wailings of defeat; what I hear is the sound of people singing."

Moshe stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, "Whoever is for ADONAI, come to me!"All the descendants of Levi rallied around him.

He told them, "Here is what ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, says: 'Each of you, put his sword on his side; and go up and down the camp, from gate to gate; and every man is to kill his own kinsman, his own friend and his own neighbor!"

Moshe said, "You have consecrated yourselves today to ADONAI, because every one of you has been against his own son and against his own kinsman, in order to bring a blessing on yourselves today."

The next day Moshe said to the people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to ADONAI ; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."

Moshe went back to ADONAI and said, "Please! These people have committed a terrible sin: they have made themselves a god out of gold.

Now, if you will just forgive their sin! But if you won't, then, I beg you, blot me out of your book which you have written!"

ADONAI answered Moshe, "Those who have sinned against me are the ones I will blot out of my book.

Now go and lead the people to the place I told you about; my angel will go ahead of you. Nevertheless, the time for punishment will come; and then I will punish them for their sin."

ADONAI struck the people with a plague because they had made the calf, the one Aharon made.

ADONAI said to Moshe, "Leave, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt; and move on from here toward the land of which I swore to Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov, 'I will give it to your descendants.'

I will send an angel ahead of you; and I will drive out the Kena'ani, Emori, Hitti, P'rizi, Hivi and Y'vusi.

You will go to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I myself will not go with you, because you are such a stiffnecked people that I might destroy you on the way."

ADONAI said to Moshe, "Tell the people of Isra'el, 'You are a stiffnecked people! If I were to go up with you for even one moment, I would exterminate you! Now, keep your ornaments off; then I will decide what to do to you.'"

Moshe would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp. He called it the tent of meeting. Everyone who wanted to consult ADONAI would go out to the tent of meeting, outside the camp.

Whenever Moshe entered the tent, the column of cloud would descend and station itself at the entrance to the tent; and ADONAI would speak with Moshe.

ADONAI would speak to Moshe face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then he would return to the camp; but the young man who was his assistant, Y'hoshua the son of Nun, never left the inside of the tent.

Moshe said to ADONAI, "Look, you say to me, 'Make these people move on!' But you haven't let me know whom you will be sending with me. Nevertheless you have said, 'I know you by name,' and also, 'You have found favor in my sight.'

Now, please, if it is really the case that I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways; so that I will understand you and continue finding favor in your sight. Moreover, keep on seeing this nation as your people."

He answered, "Set your mind at rest - my presence will go with you, after all."

Moshe replied, "If your presence doesn't go with us, don't make us go on from here.

For how else is it to be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, other than by your going with us? That is what distinguishes us, me and your people, from all the other peoples on earth."