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Exodus 33

The LORD spoke to Moses: Go! You and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt are to go up from here to the land about which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: I will give it to your descendants.^a

2Driving out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, I will send an angel before you^b

3to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I myself will not go up in your company, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise I might consume you on the way.

4When the people heard this painful news, they mourned, and no one wore any ornaments.

5The LORD spoke to Moses: Speak to the Israelites: You are a stiff-necked people. Were I to go up in your company even for a moment, I would destroy you. Now off with your ornaments! Let me think what to do with you.

6So, from Mount Horeb onward, the Israelites stripped off their ornaments.

Moses’ Intimacy with God.

7Moses used to pitch a tent^c outside the camp at some distance. It was called the tent of meeting. Anyone who wished to consult the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp.

8Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.

9As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the LORD spoke with Moses.

10On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down at the entrance of their own tents.

11The LORD used to speak to Moses face to face,^d as a person speaks to a friend. Moses would then return to the camp, but his young assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, never left the tent.

12Moses said to the LORD, “See, you are telling me: Lead this people.^e But you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said: You are my intimate friend;^* You have found favor with me.

13Now, if I have found favor with you, please let me know your ways so that, in knowing you, I may continue to find favor with you. See, this nation is indeed your own people.

14The LORD answered: I myself^* will go along, to give you rest.

15Moses replied, “If you are not going yourself, do not make us go up from here.

16For how can it be known that I and your people have found favor with you, except by your going with us? Then we, your people and I, will be singled out from every other people on the surface of the earth.”

17The LORD said to Moses: This request, too, which you have made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend.

18Then Moses said, “Please let me see your glory!”

19The LORD answered: I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim my name, “LORD,” before you; I who show favor to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will.^f

20But you cannot see my face,^g for no one can see me and live.^*

21Here, continued the LORD, is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock.

22When my glory passes I will set you in the cleft of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by.

23Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face may not be seen.

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Exodus 34

Renewal of the Tablets.

1The LORD said to Moses: “Cut two stone tablets like the former,^a that I may write on them the words^* which were on the former tablets that you broke.

2Get ready for tomorrow morning, when you are to go up Mount Sinai and there present yourself to me on the top of the mountain.

3No one shall come up with you, and let no one even be seen on any part of the mountain;^b even the sheep and the cattle are not to graze in front of this mountain.”

4Moses then cut two stone tablets like the former, and early the next morning he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him, taking in his hand the two stone tablets.

5The LORD came down in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “LORD.”

6So the LORD passed before him and proclaimed: The LORD, the LORD, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity,^*

7continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation!^c

8Moses at once knelt and bowed down to the ground.

9Then he said, “If I find favor with you, Lord, please, Lord, come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and claim us as your own.”

Religious Laws.

10The LORD said: Here is the covenant I will make. Before all your people I will perform marvels never before done^* in any nation anywhere on earth, so that all the people among whom you live may see the work of the LORD. Awe-inspiring are the deeds I will perform with you!

11As for you, observe what I am commanding you today.^d

See, I am about to drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

12^e Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land that you are to enter; lest they become a snare among you.

13Tear down their altars; smash their sacred stones, and cut down their asherahs.^*

14You shall not bow down to any other god, for the LORD—“Jealous”^* his name—is a jealous God.

15Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land; else, when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to them, one of them may invite you and you may partake of the sacrifice.

16And when you take their daughters as wives for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves with their gods, they will make your sons do the same.

17You shall not make for yourselves molten gods.^f

18You shall keep the festival of Unleavened Bread.^g For seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you; for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.

19To me belongs every male that opens the womb among all your livestock, whether in the herd or in the flock.^h

20The firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. The firstborn among your sons you shall redeem.

No one shall appear before me empty-handed.

21Six days you may labor,ⁱ but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the seasons of plowing and harvesting you must rest.

22^j You shall keep the feast of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest, likewise, the feast of the Ingathering at the close of the year.^*

23Three times a year all your men shall appear before the Lord, the LORD God of Israel.

24Since I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your territory, no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD, your God.

25You shall not offer me the blood of sacrifice with anything leavened, nor shall the sacrifice of the Passover feast be kept overnight for the next day.

26The choicest first fruits of your soil you shall bring to the house of the LORD, your God.

You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.^k

Radiance of Moses’ Face.

27Then the LORD said to Moses: Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.

28So Moses was there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights,^l without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

29As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant^* while he spoke with the LORD.

30When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him.

31Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the leaders of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them.

32Later, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the LORD had told him on Mount Sinai.

33When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

34Whenever Moses entered the presence of the LORD to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out again.^m On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that he had been commanded.

35Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.

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Mark 14: 43-72

The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus.

43^l Then, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived, accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.

44His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying, “The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him and lead him away securely.”

45He came and immediately went over to him and said, “Rabbi.” And he kissed him.

46At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.

47One of the bystanders drew his sword, struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear.

48Jesus said to them in reply, “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to seize me?

49Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area, yet you did not arrest me; but that the scriptures may be fulfilled.”

50And they all left him and fled.

51Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him,

52but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.

Jesus Before the Sanhedrin.

53^{* m} They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.

54Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest’s courtyard and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.

55The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus in order to put him to death, but they found none.

56Many gave false witness against him, but their testimony did not agree.

57^* Some took the stand and testified falsely against him, alleging,

58“We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands and within three days I will build another not made with hands.’”ⁿ

59Even so their testimony did not agree.

60The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus, saying, “Have you no answer? What are these men testifying against you?”

61^* But he was silent and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him and said to him, “Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One?”

62Then Jesus answered, “I am;

and ‘you will see the Son of Man

seated at the right hand of the Power

and coming with the clouds of heaven.’”^o

63At that the high priest tore his garments and said, “What further need have we of witnesses?

64You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?” They all condemned him as deserving to die.

65Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, “Prophesy!” And the guards greeted him with blows.^p

Peter’s Denial of Jesus.

66^q While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s maids came along.

67Seeing Peter warming himself, she looked intently at him and said, “You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus.”

68^* But he denied it saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” So he went out into the outer court. [Then the cock crowed.]

69The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”

70Once again he denied it. A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more, “Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean.”

71He began to curse and to swear, “I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”

72And immediately a cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times.” He broke down and wept.^r

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