Exodus 19 Cross References - MSB

¹ In the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai. ² After they had set out from Rephidim, they entered the Wilderness of Sinai, and Israel camped there in front of the mountain. ³ Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, “This is what you are to tell the house of Jacob and explain to the sons of Israel: ⁴ ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. ⁵ Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine. ⁶ And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.” ⁷ So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. ⁸ And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.” So Moses brought their words back to the LORD. ⁹ The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you, and they will always put their trust in you.” And Moses relayed to the LORD what the people had said. ¹⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes ¹¹ and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. ¹² And you are to set up a boundary for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful not to go up on the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. ¹³ No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows—whether man or beast, he must not live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.” ¹⁴ When Moses came down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. ¹⁵ “Be prepared for the third day,” he said to the people. “Do not draw near to a woman.” ¹⁶ On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled. ¹⁷ Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. ¹⁸ Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. ¹⁹ And as the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder. ²⁰ The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up, ²¹ and the LORD said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the LORD, lest many of them perish. ²² Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them.” ²³ But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, for You solemnly warned us, ‘Put a boundary around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’” ²⁴ And the LORD replied, “Go down and bring Aaron with you. But the priests and the people must not break through to come up to the LORD, or He will break out against them.” ²⁵ So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

² “This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.

⁶ You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.

¹ On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.

¹⁶ You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. ¹⁷ Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD. ¹⁸ Along with the bread you are to present seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

¹⁵ They set out from Rephidim and camped in the Wilderness of Sinai.

¹ Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

¹² “I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

¹ Then the whole congregation of Israel left the Desert of Sin, moving from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.

⁸ After this, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim.

⁵ Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the desert, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.

³⁰ After forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

³⁸ He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us.

²⁴ These things serve as illustrations, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children into slavery: This is Hagar.

⁴ When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered.

²¹ And the people stood at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, ¹⁶ and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. ¹⁷ And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites. ¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

² Be ready in the morning, and come up on Mount Sinai to present yourself before Me on the mountaintop.

⁵ At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said: ⁶ “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ⁷ You shall have no other gods before Me. ⁸ You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in the heavens above, on the earth below, or in the waters beneath. ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ¹⁰ but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments. ¹¹ You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain. ¹² Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. ¹⁶ Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. ¹⁷ You shall not murder. ¹⁸ You shall not commit adultery. ¹⁹ You shall not steal. ²⁰ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. ²¹ You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or field, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” ²² The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. ²³ And when you heard the voice out of the darkness while the mountain was blazing with fire, all the heads of your tribes and your elders approached me, ²⁴ and you said, “Behold, the LORD our God has shown us His glory and greatness, and we have heard His voice out of the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. ²⁵ But now, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us, and we will die, if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer. ²⁶ For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived? ²⁷ Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then you can tell us everything the LORD our God tells you; we will listen and obey.” ²⁸ And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ²⁹ If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever. ³⁰ Go and tell them: ‘Return to your tents.’ ³¹ But you stand here with Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and statutes and ordinances you are to teach them to follow in the land that I am giving them to possess.”

¹ The LORD answered Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ² You are to speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his land. ³ But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, ⁴ Pharaoh will not listen to you. Then I will lay My hand on Egypt, and by mighty acts of judgment I will bring the divisions of My people the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. ⁵ And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.” ⁶ So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded them. ⁷ Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. ⁸ The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ⁹ “When Pharaoh tells you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ you are to say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a serpent.” ¹⁰ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent. ¹¹ But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts. ¹² Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs. ¹³ Still, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said. ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.

⁹ Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen, and so that they do not slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and grandchildren.

³³ Has a people ever heard the voice of God speaking out of the fire, as you have, and lived? ³⁴ Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation—by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors—as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes? ³⁵ You were shown these things so that you would know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides Him. ³⁶ He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.

² Moses summoned all Israel and proclaimed to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land.

¹¹ As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions. ¹² The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him.

³¹ But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

⁹ In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁴ But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.

²⁹ Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.

²⁶ saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”

²² But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.

⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

²⁰ Yet the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of His inheritance, as you are today.

² The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

⁶ For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

¹⁴ Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it.

²⁷ a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today,

² for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.

²¹ You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people belonging to the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.

¹⁸ And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments,

¹ “Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.

⁸ When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. ⁹ But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.

²⁴ So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.”

²² But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

⁵³ For You, O Lord GOD, as Your inheritance, have set them apart from all the peoples of the earth, as You spoke through Your servant Moses when You brought our fathers out of Egypt.”

¹¹ Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

¹ A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein.

¹⁰ All the LORD’s ways are loving and faithful to those who keep His covenant and His decrees.

¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are Mine. ¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.

¹⁷ But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children— ¹⁸ to those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts.

⁴ For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.

¹² But my own vineyard is mine to give; the thousand shekels are for you, O Solomon, and two hundred are for those who tend its fruit.

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.

⁸ “But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend—

¹ Now this is what the LORD says—He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!

⁴ For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who choose what pleases Me and hold fast to My covenant—

²³ but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.

¹⁶ The Portion of Jacob is not like these, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the LORD of Hosts is His name.

⁴ which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.’ ⁵ This was in order to establish the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is to this day.” “Amen, LORD,” I answered. ⁶ Then the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant and carry them out. ⁷ For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey My voice.’

³¹ Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. ³² It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³ “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.

³⁴ But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives forever: “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. ³⁵ All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

¹⁷ “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.

²⁶ for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.”

²⁸ But if someone tells you, “This food was offered to idols,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience—for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof—

¹⁴ He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

⁴⁴ For I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground. ⁴⁵ For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt so that I would be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

² “Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

²⁴ But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.

²⁶ You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own.

⁷ A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸ You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy—I who set you apart.

²³ but because he has a defect, he must not go near the veil or approach the altar, so as not to desecrate My sanctuaries. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.’”

¹⁹ that He will set you high in praise and name and honor above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God, as He has promised.

⁹ The LORD will establish you as His holy people, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways.

² He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand. ³ Surely You love the people; all the holy ones are in Your hand, and they sit down at Your feet; each receives Your words— ⁴ the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob.

⁶ But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their riches.

¹² And they will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of The LORD; and you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

¹ Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

²⁷ I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the holy brothers.

¹⁵ But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

⁶ who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

¹⁰ You have made them to be kings and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”

⁶ Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

¹⁶ Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and assembled all the elders of the Israelites, ³⁰ and Aaron relayed everything the LORD had said to Moses. And Moses performed the signs before the people,

¹ Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm.

¹⁹ “Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”

³ When Moses came and told the people all the words and ordinances of the LORD, they all responded with one voice: “All the words that the LORD has spoken, we will do.”

²⁷ Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says. Then you can tell us everything the LORD our God tells you; we will listen and obey.” ²⁸ And the LORD heard the words you spoke to me, and He said to me, “I have heard the words that these people have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. ²⁹ If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children forever.

¹⁷ Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice. ¹⁸ And today the LORD has proclaimed that you are His people and treasured possession as He promised, that you are to keep all His commandments, ¹⁹ that He will set you high in praise and name and honor above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God, as He has promised.

²⁹ hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.

³¹ When Israel saw the great power that the LORD had exercised over the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and believed in Him and in His servant Moses.

¹⁶ On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, ¹⁶ and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.

¹¹ You came near and stood at the base of the mountain, a mountain blazing with fire to the heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² And the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form; there was only a voice.

³⁶ He let you hear His voice from heaven to discipline you, and on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the fire.

¹² Then Solomon declared: “The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud.

¹ Then Solomon declared: “The LORD has said that He would dwell in the thick cloud;

²⁰ Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”

¹¹ He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him. ¹² From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced—hailstones and coals of fire.

² Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.

⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.’”

¹ This is the burden against Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud; He is coming to Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him, and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.

⁵ While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

⁷ Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”

³⁴ While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵ And a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”

¹⁶ Whoever listens to you listens to Me; whoever rejects you rejects Me; and whoever rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”

²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to Him. ³⁰ In response, Jesus said, “This voice was not for My benefit, but yours.

⁷ Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

² So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

¹⁴ When Moses came down from the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. ¹⁵ “Be prepared for the third day,” he said to the people. “Do not draw near to a woman.”

²⁵ and whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening.

⁵ Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening.

⁷ This is what you must do to cleanse them: Sprinkle them with the water of purification. Have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes, and so purify themselves.

²¹ The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the LORD. Aaron also made atonement for them to cleanse them.

²⁴ On the seventh day you are to wash your clothes, and you will be clean. After that you may enter the camp.”

⁵ Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

¹³ Get up and consecrate the people, saying, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Among you, O Israel, there are things devoted to destruction. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.

⁵ “In peace,” he replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

⁵ “Listen to me, O Levites,” he said. “Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers. Remove from the Holy Place every impurity.

³⁴ However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had been consecrated. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

¹⁷ Since there were many in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, the Levites were in charge of slaughtering the Passover lambs for every unclean person to consecrate the lambs to the LORD. ¹⁸ A large number of the people—many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun—had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah interceded for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, provide atonement for everyone ¹⁹ who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not cleansed according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

⁵ And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

³ Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel. ⁴ So the angel said to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have removed your iniquity, and I will clothe you with splendid robes.”

¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

¹⁴ “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

⁸ I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

¹⁸ Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. And the smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently.

²⁰ The LORD descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,

⁵ And the LORD descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD.

¹⁷ And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

² He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand.

⁹ He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.

⁵ Part Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke.

¹ If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence, ² as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

³ God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His glory covered the heavens, and His praise filled the earth. ⁴ His radiance was like the sunlight; rays flashed from His hand, where His power is hidden. ⁵ Plague went before Him, and fever followed in His steps. ⁶ He stood and measured the earth; He looked and startled the nations; the ancient mountains crumbled; the perpetual hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting.

¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven—the Son of Man, who is in heaven.

³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

²⁸ “Depart from me!” Pharaoh said to Moses. “Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”

²¹ and the LORD said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the LORD, lest many of them perish.

²³ But Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, for You solemnly warned us, ‘Put a boundary around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”

¹² Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.

⁴ and command the people: ‘You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you, so you must be very careful.

⁴ But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between yourselves and the ark. Do not go near it, so that you can see the way to go, since you have never traveled this way before.”

²⁰ For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” ²¹ The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

¹⁹ And as the sound of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in the thunder.

²⁸ If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox must surely be stoned, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall not be held responsible. ²⁹ But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.

¹⁵ If a man lies carnally with an animal, he must be put to death. And you are also to kill the animal. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

⁵² in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise.

²⁰ For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”

¹⁰ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes ¹¹ and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

⁴ “There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread—provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ David answered, “Women have indeed been kept from us, as is usual when I set out. And the equipment of the young men is holy, as it is even on common missions, and all the more at this time.”

¹⁶ Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

¹² “Therefore, that is what I will do to you, O Israel, and since I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

³ the third white horses, and the fourth dappled horses—all of them strong.

³ by asking the priests of the house of the LORD of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”

¹² The land will mourn, each clan on its own: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴ and all the remaining clans and their wives.

² But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

¹⁰ The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹ I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. ¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

⁴⁴ For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.

⁵ Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to fasting and to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

¹¹ Since everything will be destroyed, then, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness ¹² as you anticipate and hasten the coming of the day of God, when the heavens will be destroyed by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.

²³ So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

²⁸ Pray to the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you do not need to stay any longer.” ²⁹ Moses said to him, “When I have left the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the LORD’s.

⁹ The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you, and they will always put their trust in you.” And Moses relayed to the LORD what the people had said.

¹⁸ When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sounding of the ram’s horn, and the mountain enveloped in smoke, they trembled and stood at a distance.

³⁴ Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

¹⁷ Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call on the LORD to send thunder and rain, so that you will know and see what a great evil you have committed in the sight of the LORD by asking for a king.” ¹⁸ So Samuel called to the LORD, and on that day the LORD sent thunder and rain. As a result, all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.

¹⁴ so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

¹ “At this my heart also pounds and leaps from its place. ² Listen closely to the thunder of His voice and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. ³ He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky and sends it to the ends of the earth. ⁴ Then there comes a roaring sound; He thunders with His majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when His voice resounds. ⁵ God thunders wondrously with His voice; He does great things we cannot comprehend.

²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

¹¹ He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him. ¹² From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced—hailstones and coals of fire. ¹³ The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded—hailstones and coals of fire. ¹⁴ He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

³ The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders; the LORD is heard over many waters. ⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. ⁵ The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD shatters the cedars of Lebanon. ⁶ He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. ⁷ The voice of the LORD strikes with flames of fire. ⁸ The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the Wilderness of Kadesh. ⁹ The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in His temple all cry, “Glory!” ¹⁰ The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever. ¹¹ The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace.

³ Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

¹⁸ Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.

⁴ His lightning illuminates the world; the earth sees and trembles.

²² Do you not fear Me?” declares the LORD. “Do you not tremble before Me, the One who set the sand as the boundary for the sea, an enduring barrier it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot cross it.

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to blackness, darkness, and storm; ¹⁹ to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken.

²¹ The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

¹⁰ On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

¹ After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven Spirits of God.

⁵ Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; and there were peals of thunder, and rumblings, and flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

¹⁹ Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord appeared in His temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and rumblings, and peals of thunder, and a great hailstorm.

¹⁰ The day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me, “Gather the people before Me to hear My words, so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach them to their children.”

⁵ At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the word of the LORD, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said:

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, behold, a smoking firepot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the carcasses.

²⁸ He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.

² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.

¹³ No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows—whether man or beast, he must not live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”

¹⁷ And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites.

²² The LORD spoke these commandments in a loud voice to your whole assembly out of the fire, the cloud, and the deep darkness on the mountain; He added nothing more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.

⁵ The mountains quaked before the LORD, the One of Sinai, before the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹¹ Then the LORD said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD. Behold, the LORD is about to pass by.” And a great and mighty wind tore into the mountains and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice.

¹ When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. ² The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it. ³ When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.”

⁷ O God, when You went out before Your people, when You marched through the wasteland, Selah ⁸ the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

³² He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smolder.

⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke.

²⁴ I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

⁵ The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles at His presence—the world and all its dwellers. ⁶ Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

⁵ You will flee by My mountain valley, for it will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him.

⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.

⁸ in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to blackness, darkness, and storm;

²⁶ At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”

¹⁰ But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

⁸ And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

¹³ You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them just ordinances, true laws, and good statutes and commandments.

⁷ You called out in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you from the cloud of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

³ Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, “This is what you are to tell the house of Jacob and explain to the sons of Israel:

¹² Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.” ¹³ So Moses set out with Joshua his attendant and went up on the mountain of God.

¹⁸ Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

⁴ So Moses chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals. He rose early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hands, he went up Mount Sinai as the LORD had commanded him.

⁹ When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.

³ So Moses thought, “I must go over and see this marvelous sight. Why is the bush not burning up?”

⁵ “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

¹² And you are to set up a boundary for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful not to go up on the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. ¹³ No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows—whether man or beast, he must not live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”

²⁰ But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

¹⁹ But God struck down some of the people of Beth-shemesh because they looked inside the ark of the LORD. He struck down seventy men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck them with a great slaughter.

¹ Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. ²⁹ “For our God is a consuming fire.”

⁵ Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁵ Then he sent out some young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD.

¹ Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. ² So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the LORD. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.

⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen had stumbled. ⁷ And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down on the spot for his irreverence, and he died there beside the ark of God. ⁸ Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah; so he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.

⁹ When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark, because the oxen had stumbled. ¹⁰ And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God. ¹¹ Then David became angry because the LORD had burst forth against Uzzah; so he named that place Perez-uzzah, as it is called to this day.

¹³ It was because you Levites were not with us the first time that the LORD our God burst forth in anger against us. For we did not consult Him about the proper order.”

³ since they had been unable to observe it at the regular time, because not enough priests had consecrated themselves and the people had not been gathered in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ And on the fourteenth day of the second month they slaughtered the Passover lamb. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD.

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing; come out from it, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.

⁵ On hearing these words, Ananias fell down and died. And great fear came over all who heard what had happened.

¹⁰ At that instant she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

³⁰ That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. ³¹ Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment. ³² But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

¹² And you are to set up a boundary for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful not to go up on the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.

⁴ But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits between yourselves and the ark. Do not go near it, so that you can see the way to go, since you have never traveled this way before.” ⁵ Then Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

²¹ and the LORD said to him, “Go down and warn the people not to break through to see the LORD, lest many of them perish. ²² Even the priests who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them.”

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to the LORD—you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders—and you are to worship at a distance.

⁹ Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,

¹² From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subject to violence, and the violent lay claim to it.

²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow gate. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

¹⁶ The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ because the law brings wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression.

⁷ Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness! ¹⁰ All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.” ¹¹ Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

¹⁹ Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.

²² But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

¹⁶ Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

¹⁹ Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body, ²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

¹⁸ For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to blackness, darkness, and storm; ¹⁹ to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken. ²⁰ For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” ²¹ The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” ²² Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels ²³ in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. ²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?

²⁹ “For our God is a consuming fire.”