You are to put into the ark the testimony ¹  that I will give to you.

He said ¹  to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, along with your wife and her two sons with her.”

¹ Moses answered again, ²  “And if ³  they do not believe me or pay attention to me, ⁴  but say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you’?”

“that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

and I said to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve ¹  me,’ but since you have refused to let him go, ²  I will surely kill ³  your son, your firstborn!”’”

he said to him, ¹  “I am the Lord. Tell ²  Pharaoh king of Egypt all that ³  I am telling ⁴  you.”

Tell him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to you to say, ¹  “Release my people, that they may serve me ²  in the desert!” But until now ³  you have not listened. ⁴ 

“I will send my terror ¹  before you, and I will destroy ²  all the people whom you encounter; I will make all your enemies turn their backs ³  to you.

You are to put the atonement lid on top of the ark, and in the ark you are to put the testimony I am giving you.

“You are to command the Israelites that they bring ¹  to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, so that the lamps ²  will burn ³  regularly. ⁴ 

“This will be a regular ¹  burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet ²  with you to speak to you there.

Isn’t this what we told you ¹  in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we can serve the Egyptians, ²  because it is better for us to serve ³  the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” ⁴ 

They will judge ¹  the people under normal circumstances, ²  and every difficult case ³  they will bring to you, but every small case ⁴  they themselves will judge, so that ⁵  you may make it easier for yourself, ⁶  and they will bear the burden ⁷  with you.

The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come ¹  to you in a dense cloud, ²  so that the people may hear when I speak with you and so that they will always believe in you.” ³  And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.

‘You must make for me an altar made of earth, ¹  and you will sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, ²  your sheep and your cattle. In every place ³  where I cause my name to be honored ⁴  I will come to you and I will bless you.

¹ “And you, bring near ²  to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests ³  – Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.