² So Jacob said to his household^(A) and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods^(B) you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes.^(C)

³ Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God,^(A) who answered me in the day of my distress^(B) and who has been with me wherever I have gone.^(C)”

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

⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your father,^[a] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”^(A) At this, Moses hid^(B) his face, because he was afraid to look at God.^(C)

Bricks Without Straw

5 Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go,^(A) so that they may hold a festival^(B) to me in the wilderness.’”

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate^(A) them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes^{(B) 11} and be ready by the third day,^(C) because on that day the Lord will come down^(D) on Mount Sinai^(E) in the sight of all the people. ¹² Put limits^(F) for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. ¹³ They are to be stoned^(G) or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn^(H) sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”^(I)

²¹ and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see^(A) the Lord and many of them perish.^{(B) 22} Even the priests, who approach^(C) the Lord, must consecrate^(D) themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”^(E)

²³ Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai,^(F) because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits^(G) around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”

²⁴ The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron^(H) up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them.”^(I)