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¹Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.

²So the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water so that we may drink!” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?”

³But the people were thirsty for water there; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why is it that you have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

⁴So Moses cried out to the LORD, saying, “What am I to do with this people? A little more and they will stone me!”

⁵Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.

⁶Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

⁷Then he named the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us, or not?”

⁸Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim.

⁹So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”

¹⁰Joshua did just as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

¹¹So it came about, when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed; but when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed.

¹²And Moses’ hands were heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it; and Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So his hands were steady until the sun set.

¹³And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

¹⁵And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD is My Banner;

¹⁶and he said, “Because the LORD has sworn, the LORD will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

¹Now Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard about everything that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.

²And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took in Moses’ wife Zipporah, after he had sent her away,

³and her two sons, one of whom was named Gershom, for Moses said, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land.”

⁴And the other was named Eliezer, for he said, “The God of my father was my help, and saved me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

⁵Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness where he was camped, at the mountain of God.

⁶And he sent word to Moses: “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons with her.”

⁷Then Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed down and kissed him; and they asked each other about their welfare, and went into the tent.

⁸Moses told his father-in-law everything that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had confronted them on the journey, and how the LORD had rescued them.

⁹And Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness which the LORD had done for Israel, in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁰So Jethro said, “Blessed be the LORD who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; indeed, it was proven when they acted insolently against the people.”

¹²Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat a meal with Moses’ father-in-law before God.

¹³And it came about the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood before Moses from the morning until the evening.

¹⁴Now when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”

¹⁵Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.

¹⁶When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between someone and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

¹⁷Moses’ father-in-law then said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.

¹⁸You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, because the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.

¹⁹Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people’s representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God,

²⁰then admonish them about the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.

²¹Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²²Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that they will bring to you every major matter, but they will judge every minor matter themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will carry the burden with you.

²³If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their places in peace.”

²⁴So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything that he had said.

²⁵Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

²⁶Then they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult matter to Moses, but they would judge every minor matter themselves.

²⁷Then Moses said goodbye to his father-in-law, and Jethro went his way to his own land.

¹In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

²When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the mountain.

³And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “This is what you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel:

⁴‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.

⁵Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;

⁶and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”

⁷So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him.

⁸Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD.

⁹Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also trust in you forever.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.

¹⁰The LORD also said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their garments;

¹¹and have them ready for the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

¹²But you shall set boundaries for the people all around, saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it; whoever touches the mountain shall certainly be put to death.

¹³No hand shall touch him, but he shall certainly be stoned or shot through; whether animal or person, the violator shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.”

¹⁴So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments.

¹⁵He also said to the people, “Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman.”

¹⁶So it came about on the third day, when it was morning, that there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

¹⁷And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

¹⁸Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the entire mountain quaked violently.

¹⁹When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder.

²⁰Then the LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain; and the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

²¹Then the LORD spoke to Moses: “Go down, warn the people, so that they do not break through to the LORD to stare, and many of them perish.

²²Also have the priests who approach the LORD consecrate themselves, or else the LORD will break out against them.”

²³And Moses said to the LORD, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You warned us, saying, ‘Set boundaries around the mountain and consecrate it.’ ”

²⁴Then the LORD said to him, “Go down and come up again, you and Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, or He will break out against them.”

²⁵So Moses went down to the people and told them.

¹Then God spoke all these words, saying,

²“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³“You shall have no other gods before Me.

⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth.

⁵You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

⁶but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

⁷“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

⁸“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

⁹For six days you shall labor and do all your work,

¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the LORD your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you.

¹¹For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

¹²“Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged on the land which the LORD your God gives you.

¹³“You shall not murder.

¹⁴“You shall not commit adultery.

¹⁵“You shall not steal.

¹⁶“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

¹⁷“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

¹⁸And all the people were watching and hearing the thunder and the lightning flashes, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it all, they trembled and stood at a distance.

¹⁹Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but do not have God speak to us, or we will die!”

²⁰However, Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin.”

²¹So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

²²Then the LORD said to Moses, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.

²³You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.

²⁴You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

²⁵And if you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your chisel on it, you will profane it.

²⁶And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’