not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day ¹  drawing near. ² 

Pure and undefiled religion before ¹  God the Father ²  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve ¹  him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. ² 

Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked – the God who has been my shepherd ¹  all my life long to this day,

And they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us go a three-day journey ¹  into the desert so that we may sacrifice ²  to the Lord our God, so that he does not strike us with plague or the sword.” ³ 

But you must require ¹  of them the same quota of bricks that they were making before. ²  Do not reduce it, for they are slackers. ³  That is why they are crying, ‘Let us go sacrifice to our God.’

But Moses said, “That would not be the right thing to do, ¹  for the sacrifices we make ²  to the Lord our God would be an abomination ³  to the Egyptians. ⁴  If we make sacrifices that are an abomination to the Egyptians right before their eyes, ⁵  will they not stone us? ⁶ 

Moses said, “We will go with our young and our old, with our sons and our daughters, and with our sheep and our cattle we will go, because we are to hold ¹  a pilgrim feast for the Lord.”

On the first day there will be a holy convocation, ¹  and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you. You must do no work of any kind ²  on them, only what every person will eat – that alone may be prepared for you.

When ¹  the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, ²  then you will keep ³  this ceremony ⁴  in this month.

For I will drive out ¹  the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one will covet ²  your land when you go up ³  to appear before the Lord your God three times ⁴  in the year.

Everyone ¹  whose heart stirred him to action ²  and everyone whose spirit was willing ³  came and brought the offering for the Lord for the work of the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments. ⁴ 

So Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person ¹  in whom the Lord has put skill ²  and ability ³  to know how ⁴  to do all the work for the service ⁵  of the sanctuary are to do the work ⁶  according to all that the Lord has commanded.”

“You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel ¹  who gives any of his children ²  to Molech ³  must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. ⁴ 

“Tell the Israelites, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must have a complete rest, a memorial announced by loud horn blasts, ¹  a holy assembly.

“‘Also, on the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord during your Feast of Weeks, you are to have a holy assembly. You must do no ordinary work.

When he ¹  blesses you, if the ²  place where he chooses to locate his name is distant,

We swear we have done this because we were worried that ¹  in the future your descendants would say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord God of Israel? ² 

Why are you ¹  scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place? ²  You have honored your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.’

Just as they have done ¹  from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and have served other gods. This is what they are also doing to you.