Leviticus 24–25

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 continually. ^o3Aaron is to tend it continually from evening until morning before the Lord outside the veil ^pof the testimony ^qin 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. ^r

⁵“Take fine flour and bake it into 12 loaves; ^seach loaf is to be made with four quarts. ^t6Arrange them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table ^ubefore the Lord. ⁷Place pure frankincense ^vnear each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion ^wfor the bread and a fire offering ^xto the Lord. ⁸The bread is to be set out before the Lord every Sabbath day as a perpetual covenant ^yobligation 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 fire 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 ^zamong 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, ^aand they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, a daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. ^b) ¹²They put him in custody ^cuntil the Lord’s decision ^dcould 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. ^e15And tell the Israelites: If anyone curses his God, he will bear the consequences of his sin. ¹⁶Whoever blasphemes the name of Yahweh is to be put to death; ^fthe whole community must stone him. If he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death, whether the foreign resident or the native.

¹⁷“If a man kills anyone, he must be put to death. ^g18Whoever 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. ^h21Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, but whoever kills a person is to be put to death. ⁱ²²You are to have the same law for the foreign resident and the native, because I am Yahweh 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.

Sabbath Years and Jubilee

25The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, the land will observe a Sabbath to the Lord. ³You may sow your field for six years, and you may prune your vineyard and gather its produce for six years. ⁴But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest ^jfor the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵You are not to reap what grows by itself from your crop, or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you—for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you. ⁷All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

⁸“You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to 49. ⁹Then you are to sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement. ^k10You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, ^lwhen each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan. ¹¹The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines. ¹²It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.

¹³“In this Year of Jubilee, each of you will return to his property. ¹⁴If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, do not cheat ^mone another. ¹⁵You are to make the purchase from your neighbor based on the number of years since the last Jubilee. He is to sell to you based on the number of remaining harvest years. ¹⁶You are to increase its price in proportion to a greater amount of years, and decrease its price in proportion to a lesser amount of years, because what he is selling to you is a number of harvests. ¹⁷You are not to cheat one another, but fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.

¹⁸“You are to keep My statutes and ordinances and carefully observe them, so that you may live securely in the land. ⁿ¹⁹Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat, be satisfied, and live securely in the land. ²⁰If you wonder: ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’ ²¹I will appoint My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. ²²When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.

²³“The land is not to be permanently sold because it is Mine, and you are only foreigners and temporary residents on My land. ^op24You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy. ²⁵If your brother becomes destitute and sells part of his property, his nearest relative may come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶If a man has no family redeemer, but he prospers ^qand obtains enough to redeem his land, ²⁷he may calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man he sold it to, and return to his property. ²⁸But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of its purchaser until the Year of Jubilee. It is to be released at the Jubilee, so that he may return to his property.

²⁹“If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year. ³⁰If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee. ³¹But houses in villages that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.

³²“Concerning the Levitical cities, ^rthe Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess. ³³Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem ^s—a house sold in a city they possess—must be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possession among the Israelites. ³⁴The open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.

³⁵“If your brother becomes destitute and cannot sustain himself among ^tyou, you are to support him as a foreigner or temporary resident, so that he can continue to live among you. ³⁶Do not profit or take interest from him, ^ubut fear your God and let your brother live among you. ³⁷You are not to lend him your silver with interest or sell him your food for profit. ³⁸I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹“If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, ^vyou must not force him to do slave labor. ⁴⁰Let him stay with you as a hired hand or temporary resident; he may work for you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹Then he and his children are to be released from you, and he may return to his clan and his ancestral property. ^w42They are not to be sold as slaves, ^xbecause they are My slaves that I brought out of the land of Egypt. ⁴³You are not to rule over them harshly ^ybut fear your God. ⁴⁴Your male and female slaves are to be from the nations around you; you may purchase male and female slaves. ⁴⁵You may also purchase them from the foreigners staying with you, or from their families living among you—those born in your land. These may become your property. ⁴⁶You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But concerning your brothers, the Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.

⁴⁷“If a foreigner or temporary resident living among you prospers, but your brother living near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner living among you, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, ⁴⁸he has the right of redemption after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. ⁴⁹His uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him. If he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰The one who purchased him is to calculate the time from the year he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years. It will be set for him like the daily wages of a hired hand. ⁵¹If many years are still left, he must pay his redemption price in proportion to them based on his purchase price. ⁵²If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he will calculate and pay the price of his redemption in proportion to his remaining years. ⁵³He will stay with him like a man hired year by year. A foreign owner is not to rule over him harshly in your sight. ⁵⁴If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children are to be released at the Year of Jubilee. ⁵⁵For the Israelites are My slaves. ^zThey are My slaves that I brought…