Leviticus 23–24

HOLY DAYS

23The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: These are my appointed times,^a the times of the Lord that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies.^b

³“Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there is to be a Sabbath of complete rest,^c a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath^d to the Lord wherever you live.

⁴“These are the Lord’s appointed times, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times. ⁵The Passover^e to the Lord comes in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month. ⁶The Festival of Unleavened Bread^f to the Lord is on the fifteenth day of the same month. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. ⁷On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any daily work. ⁸You are to present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a sacred assembly; do not do any daily work.”

⁹The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you and reap its harvest,^A you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹He will present the sheaf before the Lord so that you may be accepted; the priest is to present it on the day after the Sabbath. ¹²On the day you present the sheaf, you are to offer a year-old male lamb^B without blemish^g as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³Its grain offering is to be four quarts of fine flour mixed with oil as a food offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, and its drink offering will be one quart^D of wine. ¹⁴You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or any new grain^E until this very day, and until you have brought the offering to your God. This is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live.

¹⁵“You are to count seven^F complete weeks^Gh starting from the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the presentation offering.^{i 16}You are to count fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷Bring two loaves of bread from your settlements as a presentation offering, each of them made from four quarts of fine flour, baked with yeast, as firstfruits^j to the Lord. ¹⁸You are to present with the bread seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offerings and drink offerings, a food offering of a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹You are also to prepare one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a fellowship sacrifice. ²⁰The priest will present the lambs with the bread of firstfruits as a presentation offering before the Lord; the bread and the two lambs will be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹On that same day you are to make a proclamation and hold a sacred assembly. You are not to do any daily work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live throughout your generations. ²²When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the resident alien;^k I am the Lord your God.”

²³The Lord spoke to Moses: ²⁴“Tell the Israelites: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you are to have a day of complete rest, commemoration, and trumpet blasts^l—a sacred assembly.^{m 25}You must not do any daily work, but you must present a food offering to the Lord.”

²⁶The Lord again spoke to Moses: ²⁷“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement.ⁿ You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial;^o you are to present a food offering to the Lord. ²⁸On this particular day you are not to do any work, for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the Lord your God. ²⁹If any person does not practice self-denial on this particular day, he is to be cut off from his people. ³⁰I will destroy among his people anyone who does any work on this same day. ³¹You are not to do any work. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live. ³²It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”

³³The Lord spoke to Moses: ³⁴“Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters^Ap to the Lord begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days. ³⁵There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work. ³⁶You are to present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly;^a you are not to do any daily work.

³⁷“These are the Lord’s appointed times that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting food offerings to the Lord, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. ³⁸These are in addition to the offerings for the Lord’s Sabbaths, your gifts, all your vow offerings, and all your freewill offerings that you give to the Lord.

³⁹“You are to celebrate the Lord’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰On the first day you are to take the product^b of majestic trees—palm fronds,^c boughs of leafy trees,^d and willows of the brook^e—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴²You are to live in shelters^f for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters, ⁴³so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” ⁴⁴So Moses declared the Lord’s appointed times to the Israelites.

TABERNACLE OIL AND BREAD

24The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil from crushed olives for the light, in order to keep the lamp burning regularly.^{g 3}Aaron is to tend it continually from evening until morning before the Lord outside the curtain^h of the testimonyⁱ in the tent of meeting. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations. ⁴He must continually tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand in the Lord’s presence.^j

⁵“Take fine flour and bake it into twelve loaves;^k each loaf is to be made with four quarts.^{A 6}Arrange them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table^l before the Lord. ⁷Place pure frankincense^m near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portionⁿ for the bread and a food offering^o to the Lord. ⁸The bread is to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a permanent covenant^p obligation on the part of the Israelites. ⁹It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, for it is the holiest portion for him from the food offerings to the Lord; this is a permanent rule.”

A CASE OF BLASPHEMY

¹⁰Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father was^B among the Israelites. A fight broke out in the camp between the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man. ¹¹Her son cursed and blasphemed the Name,^q and they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, a daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.^r) ¹²They put him in custody^s until the Lord’s decision^t could be made clear to them.

¹³Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹⁴“Bring the one who has cursed to the outside of the camp and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole community stone him.^{u 15}And tell the Israelites: If anyone curses his God, he will bear the consequences of his sin. ¹⁶Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death;^v the whole community is to stone him. If he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death, whether the resident alien or the native.

¹⁷“If a man kills anyone, he must be put to death.^{w 18}Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, life for life. ¹⁹If any man inflicts a permanent injury on his neighbor, whatever he has done is to be done to him: ²⁰fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever injury he inflicted on the person, the same is to be inflicted on him.^{x 21}Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, but whoever kills a person is to be put to death.^{y 22}You are to have the same law for the resident alien and the native, because I am the Lord your God.”

²³After Moses spoke to the Israelites, they brought the one who had cursed to the outside of the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses.