• Torah (T): Shemot (Exodus) 32:15 – 34:26
• Prophets (P): 2 Samuel 22:10-51 (cf. Psalms 18)
• Apostolic (A): Romans 9:14-16
• Additional (ADD): Jubilees 30:13-22

RELATED SCRIPTURES

• Exodus 32:16; 34:28 (T)
• Deuteronomy 9:9-21 (T)
• Acts 7:37-40 (T)
• Proverbs 29:18 (T)
• Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 18:23; Psalms 51:9-10 (T)
• Psalms 106:19-23 (T)
• Psalms 56:8; Psalms 139:16 (T)
• Psalms 69:27-28; Daniel 12:1-3; Luke 10:17-20; Philippians 4:1-3 (T)
• Revelation 3:1-6; Revelation 13:1-9; Revelation 20:1-1; Revelation 21:22-27 (T)
• Exodus 23:20 (T)
• Psalms 78:1-11 (T)
• Numbers 12:1-9 (T)
• John 15:14-17 (T)
• 2 Chronicles 20:7; Ya’aqov (James) 2:23 (T)
• Judges 13:22; John 1:18; John 5:37; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:12 (T)
• Deuteronomy 10:1-2 (T)
• Numbers 14:17-23; Jeremiah 30:11 (T)
• Joshua 5:13-15; 10:1-14 (T)
• Exodus 23:32-33; Numbers 33:50-56; Deuteronomy 7:1-4; 1 Kings 11:1-6; Ezra 9:10-12; Nehemiah 10:28-31 (T)
• Acts 15:18-29 (T)
• Exodus 23:14-17; Deuteronomy 16:16-17 (T)
• Exodus 23:10-33 (T)
• Deuteronomy 14:21 (T)
• Proverbs 3:9-10 (T)
• Romans 15:7-13 (P)

RELATED ADDITIONAL READINGS

• Jubilees 36:1-11 (T)
• Enoch 47:1-4; Enoch 81:1-4; Enoch 98:6-8; Enoch 108:1-3 (T)
• Baruch 4:7 (T)
• Sirach 45:1-5 (T)
• An Exorcism 4Q560 (T)
• Exodus 32:15 – 34:26 from the Jerusalem Targum aka Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (T)

Note: (T) means the verse relates to that week’s Torah portion. (P) means the verse relates to that week’s Prophets portion. (A) means the verse relates to that week’s Apostolic portion. (ADD) means the verse relates to that week’s Additional portion.

Torah Portion (T)

20:1 And [Elohim]^(LXX) spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Other elohim will not exist for you before my face. 4 You will not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the land beneath, or that is in the water under the land: 5 you will not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, YHWH your Elohim, am El Qanna, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, [and upon the sons' sons,]^{(mss)(cf. Exodus 34:7)}  on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and guard my commandments. 7 You will not misuse the name of YHWH your Elohim, for YHWH will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name. 8 Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart. 9 You will labor six days, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your Elohim. You will not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your maid, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; 11 for in six days YHWH made the heavens and land, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore YHWH blessed the [seventh]^(mss)(LXX) day, and made it holy. 12 Honor your father and your mother, that [it may be well with you,]^(LXX) that your days may be long in the land which YHWH your Elohim gives you. 13 [You will not commit adultery. 14 You will not murder.]^{(mss)(cf. Luke 18:20; Romans 13:9)} 15 You will not steal. 16 You will not give false witness against your neighbor. 17 You will not covet your neighbor's house. You will not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.” 18 All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the voice of the shofar, and the mountain smoking, [and the people were afraid]^{(mss)(LXX)(SP)} and trembled, and stayed at a distance. 19 They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don't let Elohim speak with us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Don't be afraid, for Elohim has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won't sin.” 21 The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where Elohim was. 22 YHWH said to Moses, "This is what you will tell the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from the heavens. 23 You will most certainly not make elohim of silver or elohim of gold for yourselves to be alongside me. 24 You will make an altar of earth for me, and will slaughter on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. 25 If you make me an altar of stone, you will not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it. 26 You will not go up by steps to my altar, that your indecency may not be exposed to it.'"

Prophets Portion (P)

22:10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 11 He rode on a keruv, and flew. Yes, he [gilded]^(mss)(Syr) on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness [his hiding place],^{(mss)(LXX)(Syr)} [his canopy] around him thick clouds [dark with water].^(LXX) 13 At the brightness before him [his thick clouds],^(Syr) [passed on, with hailstones and]^(LXX) coals of fire were kindled. 14 YHWH thundered from the heavens. The Most High uttered his voice. 15 He sent out arrows and scattered them, and he shot lightning [bolts]^(Syr) and confused them. 16 Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by YHWH’s rebuke, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. 17 He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters. 18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 19 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but YHWH was my support. 20 He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 21 YHWH rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands. 22 For I have kept YHWH’s ways, and have not wickedly departed from my Elohim. 23 For all his judgments were before me. As for his statutes [I did not put away from me].^(LXX) 24 I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 25 Therefore YHWH has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to [the cleanness of my hands]^(LXX) in his eyesight. 26 With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the [innocent]^(LXX) you will show yourself [innocent].^(LXX) 27 With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself [tortuous].^(mss) 28 You will save the afflicted people, but [the eyes of the proud you will humble].^(LXX) 29 For you [light]^(LXX) my lamp. [YHWH my Elohim]^(Syr) lights up my darkness. 30 For by you, I run against a troop. By my Elohim, I leap over a wall. 31 As for Elohim, his way is perfect. the word of YHWH is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. 32 For who is Elohim, besides YHWH? Who is a rock, besides our Elohim? 33 [The Elohim who girds me with strength],^{(DSS)(LXX)(Syr)} [and makes my way blameless?]^{(LXX)(mss)(Syr)} 34 He makes [my]^(mss) feet like those of a deer, and sets me on my high places. 35 He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of bronze. 36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation[, and your right hand holds me up,]^{(LXX)(mss)(Syr)} [and your help]^(DSS) has made me great. 37 You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped. 38 I have pursued my enemies and [overtook]^(Syr) them. I didn’t turn again until they were consumed. 39 I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can’t arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet. 40 For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 41 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me. 42 They [cry out],^{(mss)(LXX)(Syr)} but there was no one to save; even to YHWH, but he didn’t answer them. 43 Then I beat them as small as the dust [on the surface of a path].^(DSS) [Like the mud in the streets],^(DSS) I trampled them. 44 You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me; 45 [as soon as they hear of me they obey me. Foreigners come cringing to me;]^(DSS) 46 [they are not bound in chains.]^{(DSS)(LXX)(mss)} 47 YHWH lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be Elohim, the rock of my salvation, 48 even the Elohim who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me, 49 who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You [protect]^(DSS) me from the violent man. 50 Therefore I will give thanks to you, YHWH, among the nations, and will sing praises to your name. 51 He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his seed, forever more.”

Apostolic Portion (A)

9:14 What will we say then? Is there unrighteousness with Elohim? May it never be! 15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” (cf. Exodus 33:19) 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of Elohim who has mercy.

Additional Portion (ADD)

Between 1947 and 1956 approximately 15 Jubilees scrolls were found in five caves at Qumran, all written in Hebrew. The large number of manuscripts (more than for any biblical books except for Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Exodus, and Genesis, in descending order) indicates that Jubilees was widely used at Qumran. A comparison of the Qumran texts with the Ethiopic version, performed by James VanderKam, found that the Ethiopic was in most respects an accurate and literalistic translation. Scholars have dated Jubilees to have been written sometime around 160-150 B.C.

30:13 And it is a reproach to Israel, to those who live, and to those that take the daughters of the Nations; for this is unclean and abominable to Israel. 14. And Israel will not be free from this uncleanness if it has a woman of the daughters of the Nations, or has given any of its daughters to a man who is of any of the Nations. 15. For there will be plague upon plague, and curse upon curse, and every judgment and plague and curse will come upon him: if he do this thing, or hide his eyes from those who commit uncleanness, or those who defile the sanctuary of the Lord, or those who profane His holy name, (then) will the whole nation together be judged for all the uncleanness and profanation of this man. 16. And there will be no respect of persons [and no consideration of persons] and no receiving at his hands of fruits and offerings and burnt offerings and fat, nor the fragrance of sweet savour, so as to accept it: and so fare every man or woman in Israel who defiles the sanctuary. 17. For this reason I have commanded thee, saying: ‘Testify this witness to Israel: see how the Shechemites fared and their sons: how they were delivered into the hands of two sons of Jacob, and they slew them under tortures, and it was (reckoned) unto them for righteousness, and it is written down to them for righteousness. 18. And the seed of Levi was chosen for the priesthood, and to be Levites, that they might minister before the Lord, as we, continually, and that Levi and his sons may be blessed for ever; for he was zealous to execute righteousness and judgment and vengeance on all those who arose against Israel. 19. And so they inscribe as a witness in his favour on the heavenly tablets blessing and righteousness before the Elohim of all: 20. And we remember the righteousness which the man fulfilled during his life, at all periods of the year; until a thousand generations they will record it, and it will come to him and to his descendants after him, and he has been recorded on the heavenly tablets as a friend and a righteous man. 21. All this account I have written for thee, and have commanded thee to say to the sons of Israel, that they should not commit sin nor transgress the ordinances nor break the covenant which has been ordained for them, (but) that they should fulfil it and be recorded as friends. 22. But if they transgress and work uncleanness in every way, they will be recorded on the heavenly tablets as adversaries, and they will be destroyed out of the book of life, and they will be recorded in the book of those who will be destroyed and with those who will be rooted out of the land.

Related Scriptures

Exodus 32:16 The tablets were the work of Elohim, and the writing was the writing of Elohim, engraved on the tablets.

Exodus 34:28 He was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread, nor drank water. He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

9:9 When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive the stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant which YHWH made with you, then I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 YHWH delivered to me the two stone tablets written with Elohim’s finger. On them were all the words which YHWH spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire in the day of the assembly. 11 It came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights that YHWH gave me the two stone tablets, even the tablets of the covenant. 12 YHWH said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned away from the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!” 13 Furthermore YHWH spoke to me, saying, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people. 14 Leave me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under the heavens; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.” 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 I looked, and behold, you had sinned against YHWH your Elohim. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the way which YHWH had commanded you. 17 I took hold of the two tablets, and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes. 18 I fell down before YHWH, as at the first, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of YHWH, to provoke him to anger. 19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure with which YHWH was angry against you to destroy you. But YHWH listened to me that time also. 20 YHWH was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him. I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.

7:37 This is that Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord our Elohim will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’ 38 This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us, 39 to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us elohim that will go before us, for as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ 41 They made a calf in those days, and brought a slaughter to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

29:18 Where there is no vision, the people are uncovered; but one who guards the Torah is happy.

Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

Jeremiah 18:23 Yet, YHWH, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity. Don’t blot out their sin from your sight, Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger.

Psalms 51:9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O Elohim. Renew a right spirit within me.

Psalms 106:19-23 (T)

106:19 They made a calf in Horeb, and did bow down to a molten image. 20 Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. 21 They forgot Elohim, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, 22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Sea of Reeds. 23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them.

Psalms 56:8 You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your container. Aren’t they in your book?

Psalms 139:16 Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.

Psalms 69:27 Charge them with crime upon crime. Don’t let them come into your righteousness. 28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.

Daniel 12:1 At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands for the sons of your people; and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. At that time your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the land will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the expanse. Those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever.

Luke 10:17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 He said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from the heavens. 19 Behold, I give you authority to tread on nachashim and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing will in any way hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, don’t rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in the heavens.”

Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my brothers, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. 2 I exhort Euodia, and I exhort Syntyche, to think the same way in the Lord. 3 Yes, I beg you also, true partner, help these women, for they labored with me in the Good News with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Revelation 3:1 “And to the angel of the assembly in Sardis write: “He who has the seven Spirits of Elohim and the seven stars says these things: “I know your works, that you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which you were about to throw away, for I have found no works of yours perfected before my Elohim. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If therefore you won’t watch, I will come as a thief, and you won’t know what hour I will come upon you. 4 Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that didn’t defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.

Revelation 13:1 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names. 2 The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 One of his heads looked like it had been wounded fatally. His fatal wound was healed, and the whole land marveled at the beast. 4 They worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” 5 A mouth speaking great things and blasphemy was given to him. Authority to make war for forty-two new moons was given to him. 6 He opened his mouth for blasphemy against Elohim, to blaspheme his name, his dwelling, and those who dwell in the heavens. 7 It was given to him to make war with the holy ones and to overcome them. Authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation was given to him. 8 All who dwell on the land will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear.

Revelation 20:1 I saw an angel coming down out of the heavens, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 He seized the dragon, the old nachash, who is the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited land, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and cast him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years were finished. After this, he must be freed for a short time. 4 I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the witness of Yeshua and for the word of Elohim, and such as didn’t worship the beast nor his image, and didn’t receive the mark on their forehead and on their hand. They lived and reigned with Messiah for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead didn’t live until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of Elohim and of Messiah, and will reign with him one thousand years. 7 And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the land, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war, whose number is as the sand of the sea. 9 They went up over the width of the land and surrounded the camp of the holy ones and the beloved city. Fire came down out of the heavens from Elohim and devoured them. 10 The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11 I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, from whose face the land and the heavens fled away. There was found no place for them. 12 I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Sheol gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Death and Sheol were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord Elohim the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the very glory of Elohim illuminated it and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk in its light. The kings of the land bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 25 Its gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there), 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it so that they may enter. 27 There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

23:20 “Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.

78:1 Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, 3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their sons, telling to the generation to come the praises of YHWH, his strength, and his wondrous deeds that he has done. 5 For he established a covenant in Jacob, and appointed a Torah in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their sons; 6 that the generation to come might know, even the sons who should be born; who should arise and tell their sons, 7 that they might set their hope in Elohim, and not forget Elohim’s deeds, but preserve his commandments, 8 and might not be as their fathers— a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that didn’t make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with Elohim. 9 The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. 10 They didn’t guard Elohim’s covenant, and refused to walk in his Torah. 11 They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them.

12:1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 They said, “Has YHWH indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And YHWH heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all the men who were on the face of the land. 4 YHWH spoke suddenly to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, “You three come out to the Appointed Tent!” The three of them came out. 5 YHWH came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forward. 6 He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, YHWH, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he will see YHWH’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?” 9 the anger of YHWH burned against them; and he departed.

15:14 You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 “I command these things to you, that you may love one another.

2 Chronicles 20:7 Didn’t you, our Elohim, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the seed of Abraham your friend forever?

Ya’aqov (James) 2:23 So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed Elohim, and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of Elohim.

Judges 13:22 Manoah said to his wife, “We will surely die, because we have seen Elohim.”

John 1:18 No one has seen Elohim at any time. The [only son],^(mss) who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.

John 5:37 The Father himself, who sent me, has witnessed about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.

1 Timothy 6:16 He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.

1 John 4:12 No one has seen Elohim at any time. If we love one another, Elohim remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

10:1 At that time YHWH said to me, “Cut two stone tablets like the first, and come up to me onto the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2 I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke, and you will put them in the ark.”

Numbers 14:17 Now please let the power of the Lord be great, according as you have spoken, saying, 18 ‘YHWH is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’ 19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loving kindness, and just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” 20 YHWH said, “I have pardoned according to your word; 21 but in very deed—as I live, and as all the land will be filled with the glory of YHWH— 22 because all those men who have seen my glory and my signs, which I worked in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tested me these ten times, and have not listened to my voice; 23 surely they will not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither will any of those who despised me see it.

Jeremiah 30:11 ‘For I am with you,’ says YHWH, ‘to save you; for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.’

Joshua 5:13-15; Joshua 10:1-14 (T)

Joshua 5:13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?” 14 He said, “No; but I have come now as commander of YHWH’s army.” Joshua fell on his face to the land, and did bow down, and asked him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 The prince of YHWH’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals, for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

Joshua 10:1 Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them, 2 they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty. 3 Therefore Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon, saying, 4 “Come up to me and help me. Let’s strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with the sons of Israel.” 5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together and went up, they and all their armies, and encamped against Gibeon, and made war against it. 6 The men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, saying, “Don’t abandon your servants! Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill country have gathered together against us.” 7 So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and the whole army with him, including all the mighty men of valor. 8 YHWH said to Joshua, “Don’t fear them, for I have delivered them into your hands. Not a man of them will stand before you.” 9 Joshua therefore came to them suddenly. He marched from Gilgal all night. 10 YHWH confused them before Israel. He killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon, and struck them to Azekah and to Makkedah. 11 As they fled from before Israel, while they were at the descent of Beth Horon, YHWH hurled down great stones from the heavens on them to Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword. 12 Then Joshua spoke to YHWH in the day when YHWH delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel. He said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still on Gibeon! You, moon, stop in the valley of Aijalon!” 13 The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn’t this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the heavens, and didn’t hurry to go down about a whole day. 14 There was no day like that before it or after it, that YHWH listened to the voice of a man; for YHWH fought for Israel.

Exodus 23:32 You will make no covenant with them, nor with their elohim. 33 They will not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their elohim, it will surely be a snare to you.

Numbers 33:50 YHWH spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, 51 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, 52 then you will drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. 53 You will take possession of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it. 54 You will inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the larger groups you will give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you will give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that will be his. You will inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. 55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell. 56 It will happen that as I thought to do to them, so I will do to you.'”

Deuteronomy 7:1 When YHWH your Elohim brings you into the land where you go to possess it, and casts out many nations before you—the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite—seven nations greater and mightier than you; 2 and when YHWH your Elohim delivers them up before you, and you strike them, then you will utterly destroy them. You will make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them. 3 You will not make marriages with them. You will not give your daughter to his son, nor will you take his daughter for your son. 4 For that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve other elohim. So the anger of YHWH would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.

1 Kings 11:1 Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, 2 of the nations concerning which YHWH said to the sons of Israel, “You will not go among them, neither will they come among you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their elohim.” Solomon joined to these in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. His wives turned his heart away. 4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other elohim; and his heart was not perfect with YHWH his Elohim, as the heart of David his father was. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of YHWH, and didn’t go fully after YHWH, as David his father did.

Ezra 9:10 “Now, our Elohim, what will we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11 which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land to which you go to possess is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness. 12 Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons. Don’t take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever, that you may be strong and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your sons forever.’

Nehemiah 10:28 The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all those who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Torah of Elohim, their wives, their sons, and their daughters—everyone who had knowledge and understanding— 29 joined with their brothers, their nobles, and entered into an oath and into a vow, to walk in Elohim’s Torah, which was given by Moses the servant of Elohim, and to observe and do all the commandments of YHWH our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes; 30 and that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons; 31 and if the peoples of the land bring wares or any grain on the Sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and that we would forego the seventh year crops and the exaction of every debt.

15:18 “All of Elohim’s works are known to him from eternity. 19 Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Nations who turn to Elohim, 20 but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from whoring, from what is strangled, and from blood. 21 For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who proclaim him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” 22 Then it seemed good to the emissaries and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judah called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers. 23 They wrote these things by their hand: “The emissaries, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Nations in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings. 24 Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls,* to whom we gave no commandment; 25 it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 27 We have sent therefore Judah and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things: 29 that you abstain from things slaughtered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from whoring, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”

Exodus 23:14 “You will observe a feast to me three times a year. 15 You will guard the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the new moon Aviv (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one will appear before me empty. 16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field. 17 Three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord YHWH.

Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a year all of your males will appear before YHWH your Elohim in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They will not appear before YHWH empty. 17 Every man will give as he is able, according to YHWH your Elohim’s blessing which he has given you.

23:10 “For six years you will sow your land, and will gather in its increase, 11 but the seventh year you will let it rest and lie fallow, that the needy of your people may eat; and what they leave the beast of the field will eat. In the same way, you will deal with your vineyard and with your olive grove. 12 “Six days you will do your work, and on the seventh day you will rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the sojourner may be refreshed. 13 “Be careful to do all things that I have said to you; and don’t invoke the name of other elohim or even let them be heard out of your mouth. 14 “You will observe a feast to me three times a year. 15 You will guard the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the new moon Aviv (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one will appear before me empty. 16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field. 17 Three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord YHWH. 18 “You will not slaughter the blood of my slaughtering with leavened bread. The fat of my feast will not remain all night until the morning. 19 You will bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of YHWH your Elohim. “You will not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. 20 “Behold, I send an angel before you, to guard you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him. 22 But if you indeed listen to his voice, and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and an adversary to your adversaries. 23 For my angel will go before you, and bring you in to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I will cut them off. 24 You will not bow down to their elohim, nor serve them, nor follow their practices, but you will utterly overthrow them and demolish their pillars. 25 You will serve YHWH your Elohim, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you. 26 No one will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will fulfill the number of your days. 27 I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. 28 I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you. 29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate, and the animals of the field multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land. 31 I will set your border from the Sea of Reeds even to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. 32 You will make no covenant with them, nor with their elohim. 33 They will not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me, for if you serve their elohim, it will surely be a snare to you.”

14:21 You will not eat of anything that dies of itself. You may give it to the foreigner living among you who is within your gates, that he may eat it; or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to YHWH your Elohim. You will not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

3:9 Honor YHWH with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase; 10 so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.

Additional Readings​

36:1 And in the sixth year of this week [2162 A.M.] Isaac called his two sons Esau and Jacob, and they came to him, and he said unto them: ‘My sons, I am going the way of my fathers, to the eternal house where my fathers are. 2. Wherefore bury me near Abraham my father, in the double cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, where Abraham purchased a sepulchre to bury in; in the sepulchre which I dug for myself, there bury me. 3. And this I command you, my sons, that ye practice righteousness and uprightness on the land, so that the Lord may bring upon you all that the Lord said that he would do to Abraham and to his seed. 4. And love one another, my sons, your brothers as a man who loves his own soul, and let each seek in what he may benefit his brother, and act together on the land; and let them love each other as their own souls. 5. And concerning the question of idols, I command and admonish you to reject them and hate them, and love them not, for they are full of deception for those that worship them and for those that bow down to them. 6. Remember ye, my sons, the Lord Elohim of Abraham your father, and how I too worshiped Him and served Him in righteousness and in joy, that He might multiply you and increase your seed as the stars of the heavens in multitude, and establish you on the land as the plant of righteousness which will not be rooted out unto all the generations for ever. 7. And now I will make you swear a great oath -for there is no oath which is greater than it by the name glorious and honoured and great and splendid and wonderful and mighty, which created the heavens and the land and all things together- that ye will fear Him and worship Him. 8. And that each will love his brother with affection and righteousness, and that neither will desire evil against his brother from henceforth for ever all the days of your life so that ye may prosper in all your deeds and not be destroyed. 9. And if either of you devises evil against his brother, know that from henceforth everyone that devises evil against his brother will fall into his hand, and will be rooted out of the land of the living, and his seed will be destroyed from under the heavens. 10. But on the day of turbulence and execration and indignation and anger, with flaming devouring fire as He burnt Sodom, so likewise will He burn his land and his city and all that is his, and he will be blotted out of the book of the discipline of the children of men, and not be recorded in the book of life, but in that which is appointed to destruction, and he will depart into eternal execration; so that their condemnation may be always renewed in hate and in execration and in wrath and in torment and in indignation and in plagues and in disease for ever. 11. I say and testify to you, my sons, according to the judgment which will come upon the man who wishes to injure his brother.

The Book of Enoch (also known as 1 Enoch) was written during the second century B.C. The older sections (mainly in the Book of the Watchers) of the text are estimated to date from about 300–200 B.C., and the latest part (Book of Parables) probably to 100 B.C. Various Aramaic fragments found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as Koine Greek and Latin fragments, were proof that The Book of Enoch was known by early Jews and Christians.

You will note some abbreviations, brackets, and symbols specially used in the translation of 1 Enoch:

• ⌈ ⌉. The use of these brackets means that the words so enclosed are found in the Greek Version preserved In Syncellus but not in the Ethiopic Version.
• ⌈⌈ ⌉⌉. The use of these brackets means that the words so enclosed are found in E the Ethiopic Version but not in the Greek Version preserved In Syncellus or the Greek Version discovered at Akhmîm.
• 〉. The use of these brackets means that the words so enclosed are restored.
• [ ] The use of these brackets means that the words so enclosed are interpolations.
• ( ). The use of these brackets means that the words so enclosed are supplied by the editor.
• The use of thick type denotes that the words so printed are emended.
• † † corruption in the text.
• . . . = some words which have been lost.

Enoch 47:1 And in those days will have ascended the prayer of the righteous, And the blood of the righteous from the land before the Lord of Spirits. 2. In those days the holy ones who dwell above in the heavens Will unite with one voice And supplicate and pray [and praise, And give thanks and bless the name of the Lord of Spirits] On behalf of the blood of the righteous which has been shed, And that the prayer of the righteous may not be in vain before the Lord of Spirits, That judgement may be done unto them, And that they may not have to suffer for ever. 3. In those days I saw the Head of Days when He seated himself upon the throne of His glory, And the books of the living were opened before Him: And all His host which is in the heavens above and His counselors stood before Him, 4. And the hearts of the holy were filled with joy; Because the number of the righteous had been offered, And the prayer of the righteous had been heard, And the blood of the righteous been required before the Lord of Spirits.

Enoch 81:1 And he said unto me: ‘Observe, Enoch, these the heavenly tablets, And read what is written thereon, And mark every individual fact.’ 2 And I observed the heavenly tablets, and read everything which was written (thereon) and understood everything, and read the book of all the deeds of mankind, and of all the children of flesh that will be upon the land to the remotest generations. 3. And forthwith I blessed the great Lord the King of glory for ever, in that He has made all the works of the world, And I extolled the Lord because of His patience, And blessed Him because of the children of men. 4. And after that I said: ‘Blessed is the man who dies in righteousness and goodness, Concerning whom there is no book of unrighteousness written, And against whom no day of judgement will be found.’

Enoch 98:6 I have sworn unto you, ye sinners, by the Holy Great One, That all your evil deeds are revealed in the heavens, And that none of your deeds of oppression are covered and hidden. 7. And do not think in your spirit nor say in your heart that ye do not know and that ye do not see that every sin is every day recorded in the heavens in the face of the Most High. 8. From henceforth ye know that all your oppression wherewith ye oppress is written down every day till the day of your judgement.

Enoch 108:1 Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days. 2. Ye who have done good will wait for those days till an end is made of those who work evil; and an end of the might of the transgressors. 3. And wait ye indeed till sin has passed away, for their names will be blotted out of the book of life and out of the holy books, and their seed will be destroyed for ever, and their spirits will be slain, and they will cry and make lamentation in a place that is a chaotic wilderness, and in the fire will they burn; for there is no land there.

The Book of Baruch is named after Baruch ben Neriah, Jeremiah’s well-known scribe, who is mentioned at Baruch 1:1, and has been presumed to be the author of the whole work. Although not in the Hebrew Bible, it is found in the Septuagint, in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, and the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Russian Orthodox Churches. In some Bibles, Baruch chapter 6 is listed as a separate book called The Letter of Jeremiah, reflecting its separation from Baruch in some copies of the Greek Septuagint. Some scholars propose that it was written during or shortly after the period of the Maccabees. Although the earliest known manuscripts of Baruch are in Greek, linguistic features of the first parts of Baruch (1:1 – 3:8) have been proposed as indicating a translation from a Semitic language.

4:1 This is the book of the commandments of Elohim, and the law that endures forever: all those who hold it fast are appointed to life; but such as leave it will die. 2 Turn you, O Jacob, and take hold of it: walk toward her shining in the face of the light thereof. 3 Give not your glory to another, nor the things that are profitable to you to a strange nation. 4 O Israel, happy are we: for the things that are pleasing to Elohim are made known to us. 5 Be of good cheer, my people, the memorial of Israel. 6 You were sold to the nations, but not for destruction: because you moved Elohim to wrath, you were delivered to your adversaries. 7 For you provoked him that made you by slaughtering to demons, and not to Elohim.

Sirach, or Wisdom of Sirach, and also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus (abbreviated Ecclus.) or Ben Sira, is a work of ethical teachings, from approximately 200 to 175 B.C., written by the Jewish scribe Ben Sira of Jerusalem, on the inspiration of his father Joshua son of Sirach, sometimes called Jesus son of Sirach or Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira. The Sirach was almost completely uncovered in Hebrew in the Dead Sea Scrolls, at Masada, and the Cairo Geniza. The multiplicity of manuscript fragments uncovered in the Cairo Genizah evidence its authoritative status among Egyptian Jewry until the Middle Ages. Quotes from Sirach can be found in Rabbinic literature in multiple places  including the Talmud in Bava Kamma 92b:13 and Hagigah 13a:2. Additionally, the Gospels and other Apostolic Scriptures quote from the Book of Sirach including the Song of Miriam in Luke 1:52 (cf. Sirach 10:14); the description of the seed in Mark 4:5, 16–17 (cf. Sirach 40:15); the statement by Yeshua in Matthew 7:16,20 (cf. Sirach 27:6); and Ya’aqov (James) 1:19 (cf. Sirach 5:11).

45:1 And he brought out of him a man of mercy, Which found favor in the sight of all flesh; A man beloved of Elohim and men, even Moses, Whose memorial is blessed. 2 He made him like to the glory of the saints, And magnified him in the fears of his enemies. 3 By his words he caused the wonders to cease; He glorified him in the sight of kings; He gave him commandment for his people, And showed him part of his glory. 4 He sanctified him in his faithfulness and meekness; He chose him out of all flesh. 5 He made him to hear his voice, And led him into the thick darkness, And gave him commandments face to face, Even the law of life and knowledge, That he might teach Jacob the covenant, And Israel his judgments.

2 Esdras, consisting of chapters 3-14, (also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra) is the name of a book in many English versions of the Bible. Its authorship is ascribed to Ezra, a scribe and priest of the 5th century B.C., although modern scholarship places its composition between 70 and 218 A.D. It is reckoned among the apocrypha by Roman Catholics, Protestants, and most Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Ethiopian Church considers 4 Ezra to be canonical, written during the Babylonian captivity, and calls it “Izra Sutuel” (ዕዝራ ሱቱኤል). It was also often cited by the Fathers of the Church. In the Eastern Armenian tradition it is called 3 Ezra.

7:132 Then I answered, “I know, Lord, that the Most High is now called merciful, in that he has mercy upon those who have not yet come into the world; 133 and compassionate, in that he has compassion upon those who turn to his law; 134 and patient, in that he is patient with those who have sinned, since they are his creatures; 135 and bountiful, in that he is ready to give rather than to take away; 136 and very merciful, in that he multiplies more and more mercies to those who are present, and who are past, and also to those who are to come— 137 for if he wasn’t merciful, the world wouldn’t continue with those who dwell in it— 138 and one who forgives, for if he didn’t forgive out of his goodness, that those who have committed iniquities might be relieved of them, not even one ten thousandth part of mankind would remain living; 139 and a judge, for if he didn’t pardon those who were created by his word, and blot out the multitude of sins, 140 there would perhaps be very few left of an innumerable multitude.”

This scroll from Cave 4 is a record of early Jewish efforts to rebuke a demon. The discovery of this text among the Dead Sea Scrolls is significant because it is the earliest known Jewish example, antedating its closest rivals for that honour by several centuries. It is not clear whether this text was part of a larger scroll used as a kind of ‘recipe book’ by a scribe or magician, or whether it was wrapped up and placed in a case.

Column 1 […the midwife, the punishment of those who bear children, any evil visitant or d[emon…] […I adjure you, all who en]ter into the body: the male Wasting-demon and the female Wasting-demon {…I adjure you by the name of the LORD, “He Who re]moves iniquity and transgression” (Exod. 34:7), O Fever-demon* and Chills-demon and Chest Pain-demon […You are forbidden to disturb by night using dreams or by da]y during sleep, O male Shrine-spirit and female Shrine-spirit, O you demons who breach [walls…w]licked […] Column 2 before h[im…] before him and […] And I, O spirit, adjure [you against …] I adjure you, O spirit, [that you…] On the land, in clouds […]

*Luke 4:38 He rose up from the synagogue and entered into Shimon’s house. Shimon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him to help her. 39 He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them.

The above excerpt is from Wise, Michael Owen, et al. The Dead Sea Scrolls: a New Translation. HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.

Exodus 32:15 – 34:26 from the Jerusalem Targum aka Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (T)

Composed in Talmudic Israel (c.150 – c.250 AD). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is a western targum (translation) of the Torah (Pentateuch) from the land of Israel (as opposed to the eastern Babylonian Targum Onkelos). Its correct title was originally Targum Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Targum), which is how it was known in medieval times. But because of a printer’s mistake it was later labeled Targum Jonathan, in reference to Jonathan ben Uzziel. Some editions of the Pentateuch continue to call it Targum Jonathan to this day. Most scholars refer to the text as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. This targum is more than a mere translation. It includes much Aggadic material collected from various sources as late as the Midrash Rabbah as well as earlier material from the Talmud. It is effectively a combination of a commentary and a translation. In the portions where it is pure translation, it often agrees with the Targum Onkelos. The date of its composition is disputed. It cannot have been completed before the Arabic conquest as it refers to Mohammad’s wife Fatimah, but might have been initially composed in the 4th Century AD. However, some scholars date it in the 14th Century.

Chapter 32 …And Mosheh turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hands, inscribed on their two sides, here and there were they inscribed. And the tables were the work of the Lord, and the writing was the Lord’s writing, inscribed and manifested upon the tables.

And Jehoshua heard the voice of the people exulting with joy before the calf. [JERUSALEM. Doing evil.] And he said to Mosheh, There is the voice of battle in the camp. But he said, It is not the voice of the strong, who are victorious in battle, nor the voice of the weak, who are overcome by their adversaries in the fight; but the voice of them who serve with strange service, and who make merriment before it, that I hear. [JERUSALEM. The voice of them who praise in strange service.] And it was when Mosheh came near the camp, and saw the calf, and the instruments of music in the hands of the wicked, who were dancing and bowing before it, and Satana among them dancing and leaping before the people, the wrath of Mosheh was suddenly kindled, and he cast the tables from his hands, and brake them at the foot of the mountain;- the holy writing that was on them, however, flew, and was carried away into the air of the heavens;‑ and he cried, and said, Woe upon the people who heard at Sinai from the mouth of the Holy One, Thou shalt not make to thyself an image, or figure, or any likeness,- and yet, at the end of forty days, make a useless molten calf! And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it in fire, and bruised it into powder, and cast (it) upon the face of the water of the stream, and made the sons of Israel drink; and whoever had given thereto any trinket of gold, the sign of it came forth upon his nostrils. And Mosheh said unto Aharon, What did this people to thee, that thou hast brought upon them a great sin? And Aharon said, Let not my lord’s anger be strong: thou knowest the people, that they are the children of the Just; but evil concupiscence hath made them to err: and they said to me, Make us elohim that may go before us; for this Mosheh, the man who brought us up from the land of Mizraim, is consumed in the mountain, by the flaming fire from before the Lord, and we know not what hath been done to him in his end. And I said to them, Whoever hath gold, let him deliver and give it to me; and I cast it into the fire, and Satana entered into it, and there came out of it the similitude of this calf! And Mosheh saw that the people were naked; for they had been stripped by the hand of Aharon of the holy crown which was upon their head, inscribed and beautified with the great and glorious Name; and that their evil report would go forth among the nations of the earth, and they would get to them an evil name unto their generations. [JERUSALEM. And Mosheh saw the people that they were uncovered; for they had been stripped of the golden crown which was upon their head, whereon the Name had been engraven and set forth, at Mount Horeb.] And Mosheh stood in the sanhedrin gate of the camp, and said, Who feareth the Lord, let him come to me. And there gathered to him all the sons of Levi. And he said to them, Thus hath said the Lord, the Elohim of Israel, Whosoever hath slaughtered to the idols of the Gentiles, let him be slain with the sword. And now, go, pass through from the gate of the sanhedrin to the gate of the house of judgment, in the camp, and with prayer before the Lord that He will forgive you this sin, take vengeance upon the wicked workers of strange worship and slay, even a man his brother, and a man his companion, and a man his neighbour. And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Mosheh; and of the people who had the mark in their nostrils there fell that day by the slaughter of the sword about the number of three thousand men.

And Mosheh said, Offer your oblation for the shedding of the blood that is upon your hands, and make atonement for yourselves before the Lord, because you have smitten a man his son or his brother, and that you may bring a blessing upon you this day. And it came to pass on the day following, that Mosheh said to the people, You have sinned a great sin; but now I will go up and will pray before the Lord, if haply I may obtain forgiveness of your sin. And Mosheh returned, and prayed before the Lord, and said, I supplicate of Thee, Thou Lord of all the world, before whom the darkness is as the light! Now have this people sinned a great sin, and have made to them elohim of gold; but now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me, I pray, from the book of the just, in the midst of which Thou hast written my name. And the Lord said to Mosheh, It is not right that I should blot out thy name; but whosoever sinneth before Me, him will I blot from My book. But now, go lead the people to the place of which I have told thee; behold, My angel will proceed before thee; but in the day of My inspection I will visit upon them their sin. And the Word of the Lord plagued the people, because they had bowed themselves to the calf that Aharon had made.

Chapter 33 And the Lord spake with Mosheh, Go, remove thee hence, lest My anger grow hot against the people, and I consume them. Therefore proceed thou, and the people whom thou didst bring up out of the land of Mizraim, (to that land) which I have covenanted unto Abraham, to Izhak, and to Jakob, saying, Unto thy sons will I give it. And I will appoint before thee an angel, and by his hand will cast out the Kenaanaee, Amoraee, Hittaee, and Pherizaee, Hivaee, and Jebusaee; to the land producing milk and honey. For the Shekinah of My Glory cannot go up among you, nor My Majesty dwell in the habitation of their camp, because thou art a hard‑necked people, lest I destroy you in the way.

And the people heard this evil word, and mourned; and no man put on his accustomed ornaments,[2] which had been given them at Mount Sinai, and on which was inscribed and set forth the great and holy Name. And the Lord said to Mosheh, Speak to the sons of Israel, Ye are a hard‑necked people: were the glory of My Shekinah to go up with you, in one little hour I should destroy you. And now put thy accustomed ornaments from thee, that it may be manifest before Me what I may do to thee. And the sons of Israel were deprived of their usual adornments, on which was written and set forth the great Name; and which had been given them, a gift from Mount Horeb. And Mosheh took and hid them in his tabernacle of instruction. But the tabernacle he took away from thence, and spread it without the camp, and removed it from the camp of the people to the distance of two thousand cubits; and it was called the Tabernacle of the House of Instruction: and it was that when any one turned by repentance with a true heart before the Lord, he went forth to the Tabernacle of the House of Instruction that was without the camp, to confess and pray for the pardon of his sins; and praying he was forgiven. And it was when Mosheh passed forth from the camp to go to the tabernacle that all the wicked people arose, and stood, every man at the door of his tent, and looked with the evil eye after Mosheh, when he entered the tabernacle. And it came to pass when Mosheh had gone into the tabernacle, the column of the glorious Cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle; and the Word of the Lord spake with Mosheh. And all the people beheld the column of the Cloud standing at the door of the tabernacle, and the whole people at once rose up and worshipped towards the tabernacle, standing every man at the door of his tent.

And the Lord spake with Mosheh word for word,- the voice of the word was heard, but the Majesty of the Presence was not seen,- in the way that a man converseth with his companion: and after the speaking voice had ascended, he returned to the camp, and delivered the word to the congregation of Israel. But his minister, Jehoshua bar Nun, a young man, removed not from the tabernacle. [JERUSALEM. But his minister, Jehoshua bar Nun, a young man, passed not from within the tabernacle.]

And Mosheh said before the Lord, Lo, what hast Thou said to me, Take this people up? but Thou hast not made me to know whom Thou wilt send with me. By Thy Word Thou hast said, I have ordained thee with a goodly name, and thou hast found favour before Me. But now I pray, if I have found mercy before Thee, make me to know the way of Thy goodness, to understand Thy mercy when in Thy dealing with just men it falleth to them as it (falleth) to the guilty, and to the guilty as to the just; but, on the contrary how it (indeed) befalleth the just according to their righteousness and the guilty according to their guilt: that I may find mercy before Thee, and it be made manifest by Thee that this people is Thy people. And He said, Await, until the face of My displeasure will have gone away, and afterward I will give thee rest. And he said to Him, If Thy wrath go not from us, suffer us not to go up from hence under the frown of Thy displeasure. In what will it be known that I have found mercy before Thee but in the converse of Thy Shekinah with us, that distinguishing signs may be wrought for us, in the withholdment of the Spirit of prophecy from the nations, and by Thy speaking by the Holy Spirit to me and to Thy people, that we may be distinguished from all the peoples upon the face of the earth? And the Lord said to Mosheh, This thing also which thou hast spoken of, will I do; for thou hast found mercy before Me, and I have ordained thee with a goodly name. And he said, Show now unto me Thy glory: but He said, Behold, I will make all the measure of My good­ness pass before thee, and I will give utterance in the good name of the Word of the Lord before thee; and I will have compassion upon whom I see it right to have compassion, and will be merciful to whom I see it right to have mercy. [JERUSALEM. And He said, Behold, I will make all the measure of My goodness to pass before thee, and I will give utterance in the Name of the Lord before thee, and I will have compassion upon whom I see it right to have compassion, and will be merciful upon whom I see it right to have mercy.] And He said, Thou canst not see the visage of My face; for no man can see Me and abide alive. And the Lord said, Behold, a place is prepared before Me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock. And it will be that when the glory of My Shekinah passeth before thee, I will put thee in a cavern of the rock, and will overshadow thee with My Word until the time that I have passed by. [JERUSALEM. And I will overshadow with My hand.] And I will make the host of angels who stand and minister before Me to pass by, and thou shalt see the handborder of the tephilla of My glorious Shekinah; but the face of the glory of My Shekinah thou canst not be able to see. [JERUSALEM. And I will cause the hosts of angels who stand and minister before Me to pass by, and will make known the oracle; for the glory of My Shekinah thou art not able to behold.

Chapter 34 And the Lord said to Mosheh, Hew thee two tables of stone, as the former, and write upon the tables the words that were upon the former tables which thou didst break; and be ready in the morn; and at morning ascend thou Mount Sinai and stand there before Me on the summit of the mountain. No man will ascend with thee, nor any man be seen on all the mountain, nor sheep, nor oxen grazing on the side of the mount. And he hewed two tables of stone like the former: and Mosheh arose in the morning and ascended Mount Sinai, as the Lord had instructed him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone.

And the Lord revealed Himself in the cloud of the glory of His Shekinah, and Mosheh stood with Him there; and Mosheh called on the Name of the Word of the Lord. And the Lord made His Shekinah to pass by before his face, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord Elohim, merciful and gracious, long‑suffering, and nigh in mercies, abounding to exercise compassion and truth; keeping mercy and bounty for thousands of generations, absolving and remitting guilt, passing by rebellions, and covering sins; pardoning them who convert unto the law, but holding not guiltless in the great day of judg­ment those who will not convert; visiting the sins of fathers upon rebellious children upon the third and upon the fourth generation. And Mosheh made haste and bowed himself upon the earth and worshipped. [JERUSALEM. And the glory of the Shekinah of the Lord passed by before him; and Mosheh prayed, and said, Lord, Lord Elohim, merciful and gracious, slow to be angry but nigh to be merciful, and abounding to exercise kindness and truth; keeping goodness for thousands of generations; absolving and remitting sin and transgressions, but not to acquit the guilty in the great day of judgment; and remembering the sins of wicked fathers upon rebellious children upon the third and upon the fourth generation. And Mosheh hastened and prostrated himself upon the earth, and gave thanks and glorified.]

And he said, If now I have found mercy before the Lord let the Shekinah of the Glory of the Lord go among us; for it is a people of hard neck; but pardon Thou our guilt and our sin, and give us the inheritance of the land which Thou didst covenant unto our fathers, and change us not to become an alien people. And He said, Behold, I make covenant that I will not change this people to become an alien people; nevertheless from thee will proceed a multitude of the righteous; and with all thy people will I do wondrous things in the time when they go into captivity by the rivers of Bavel: for I will bring them up from thence, and make them dwell from within the river Sambation; and like wonders will not be created among all the inhabitants of the earth, nor among any nation. And all the people among whom thou wilt dwell will see in that day the work of the Lord; for terrible is the thing that I will do with thee.

Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out from before thee the Amoraee, and Kenaanaee, and Hittaee, and Pherizaee, and Hivaee, and Jebusaee. Take heed to thee, lest thou strike covenants with the inhabitants of that land into which thou art to enter; that it may not be a stumbling‑block unto thee. But thou shalt rather destroy their high places, and break their statues, and cut down their groves; for it is not lawful for thee to worship other elohim; for the Lord is zealous and avengeful; His Name is Elohim, the Zealous and the Avenger. Lest thou strike covenant with the dwellers in the land, and they draw thee astray after their idols, and they slaughter to their idols, and invite thee, and thou eat of the slaughters of their idols and thou take of their daughters for thy sons, and when their daughters wander after their idols they make thy sons also go astray after their idols. [JERUSALEM. And they cause to err.] Molten elohim you will not make to you.

You will observe the feast of the unleavened. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened (cakes), as I have commanded thee, in the time of the new moon Abiba; for in the new moon of Abiba you came out free from Mizraim. Whatever openeth the womb is Mine; and of all cattle thou art to consecrate the males, of oxen, and of sheep. But the firstling of an ass thou mayest redeem with a lamb; but if thou redeem him not, thou shalt cut him off with the blade. And each firstborn of thy sons thou must redeem; and they will not appear before Me empty [JERUSALEM. All firstlings opening the womb thou shalt sanctify unto My Name; all the firstborn of your males, the first that breaketh. through the womb, of oxen and of sheep. 20. My people of the house of Israel, it will not be allowed you to see the Lord your Elohim empty of any precept.]

Six days shalt thou work, and in the seventh day have rest; in ploughing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. [JERUSALEM. In ploughing.] The feast of weeks also shalt thou make to thee in the time of the firsts of the wheat harvest; and the feast of ingathering at the conclusion of the ear. Three times in the year will all thy males appear before the Master of the world, the Lord Elohim of Israel. For I will drive out the nations from before thee, and enlarge thy borders; and no man will covet thy land at the time of thy going up to appear before the Lord thy Elohim thrice in the year.

You will not slaughter the victim of My passover before you have done away with leaven; nor suffer the fat of the paschal slaughter to remain about the altar till the morning. [JERUSALEM. You will not slaughter with leaven the blood of the paschal victim, nor suffer the flesh which you slaughter on the night of the feast of the first of Pascha to remain from the evening till the morning.] The best of the firstfruits of your land ye will bring to the sanctuary of the Lord your Elohim. You are not allowed to boil or to eat flesh and milk mixed together, lest My displeasure be kindled against you, and the fruit of your trees, with the grapes in their branches and their leaves, be laid waste together [JERUSALEM. The first (best) of the firstfruits of your produce ye will bring to the sanctuary of the Lord your Elohim. My people of the house of Israel, ye will not be allowed to boil or to eat flesh and milk mixed together.]