But the people were very thirsty ¹  there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, “Why in the world ²  did you bring us up out of Egypt – to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” ³ 

The Lord said to Moses, “Go over before the people; ¹  take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile and go.

So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our ¹  men and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”

The Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in the ¹  book, and rehearse ²  it in Joshua’s hearing; ³  for I will surely wipe out ⁴  the remembrance ⁵  of Amalek from under heaven.

Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him; ¹  they each asked about the other’s welfare, and then they went into the tent.

Moses ¹  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 ²  of Israel:

Moses said to the Lord, “The people are not able to come up to Mount Sinai, because you solemnly warned us, ¹  ‘Set boundaries for the mountain and set it apart.’” ² 

Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, ¹  that the fear of him ²  may be before you so that you do not ³  sin.”

¹ But to Moses the Lord ²  said, “Come up ³  to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from a distance. ⁴ 

Moses came ¹  and told the people all the Lord’s words ²  and all the decisions. All the people answered together, ³  “We are willing to do ⁴  all the words that the Lord has said,”

and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built ¹  an altar at the foot ²  of the mountain and arranged ³  twelve standing stones ⁴  – according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

So Moses took the blood and splashed it on ¹  the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant ²  that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

¹ The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me to the mountain and remain there, and I will give you the stone tablets ²  with ³  the law and the commandments that I have written, so that you may teach them.” ⁴ 

The glory of the Lord resided ¹  on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. ²  On the seventh day he called to Moses from within the cloud.

But Moses sought the favor ¹  of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?

Moses turned and went down from the mountain with ¹  the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides – they were written on the front and on the back.

Moses ¹  said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, ²  nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, ³  but the sound of singing ⁴  I hear.” ⁵ 

When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ¹  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ² 

They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

Moses said, “You have been consecrated ¹  today for the Lord, for each of you was against his son or against his brother, so he has given a blessing to you today.” ²