Amplified Bible (AMP)

Idolatry Forbidden

1 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lordyour God am holy.

3 ~‘Each of you shallrespect his mother and his father, and you shall keep My Sabbaths; I am the Lordyour God.

4 ~‘Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods (images cast in metal); I am the Lordyour God.

5 ‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted.

6 ~‘It shall be eaten the same day you offer it and on the day following; and if anything remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire.

7 ~‘But if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is repulsive; it will not be accepted [by God as an offering].

8 ~‘Everyone who eats it will bear [the responsibility for] his wickedness, for he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].

Various Laws

9 ‘Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings (grain left after reaping) of your harvest.

10 ~‘And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather its fallen grapes; you shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am the Lordyour God.

11 ‘You shall not steal, nor deal deceptively, nor lie to one another.

12 ~‘You shall not swear [an oath] falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

13 ‘You shall not oppressorexploit your neighbor, nor rob him. You shall not withhold the wages of a hired man overnight until morning.

14 ~‘You shall not curse a deaf man nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God [with profound reverence]; I am the Lord.

15 ‘You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor show a preference for the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

16 ~‘You shall not go around as a gossip among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor [with slander or false testimony]; I am the Lord.

17 ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you may most certainly rebuke your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.

18 ~‘You shall not take revenge nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor (acquaintance, associate, companion) as yourself; I am the Lord.

19 ‘You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear clothing of two kinds of material mixed together.

20 ‘Now if a man has intimate relations with a woman who is a slave acquired for [marriage to]anotherman, but who has not been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment [after an investigation]; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free;

21 but he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lordto the doorway of the Tent of Meeting, a ram as a guilt offering.

22 ~‘The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lordfor his sin which he has committed; and he shall be forgiven for his sin.

23 ‘When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall consider their fruitforbidden. For three years the fruit shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten.

24 ~‘In the fourth year all the fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord.

25 ~‘In the fifth year you may eat the fruit [of the trees], this is so that their yield may increase for you; I am the Lordyour God.

26 ‘You shall not eatanythingwith the blood, nor practice divination [using omens or witchcraft] or soothsaying.

27 ~‘You shall not trimandround off the side-growth of [the hair on] your heads, nor mar the edges of your beard.

28 ~‘You shall not make any cuts on your body [in mourning] for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves; I am the Lord.

29 ‘Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the land will not fall to prostitution and become full of wickedness.

30 ~‘You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary. I am the Lord.

31 ‘Do not turn to mediums [who pretend to consult the dead] or to spiritists [who have spirits of divination]; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lordyour God.

32 ‘You shall rise before the gray-headed and honor the aged, and you shall fear your God [with profound reverence]; I am the Lord.

33 ‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not oppressormistreat him.

34 ~‘But the stranger who resides with you shall be to you like someone native-born among you; and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lordyour God.

35 ‘You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measurement of weight or quantity.

36 ~‘You shall have justandaccurate balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a justhin. I am the Lordyour God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

37 ~‘You shall observeandkeep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them. I am the Lord.’”

On Human Sacrifice and Immoralities

1 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Moreover, you shall say to the children of Israel,

‘Any Israelite or any stranger residing in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech (the god of the Ammonites) [as a human sacrifice] shall most certainly be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

3 ~‘I will also set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him] and will cut him off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them], because he has given some of his children to Molech, so as to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name.

4 ~‘If the people of the land should ever tolerate that man when he gives any of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech, and fail to put him to death [as My law requires],

5 then I shall set My face against that man and against his [extended] family, and I will cut off from their people both him and all who follow him inplaying the prostitute (commit apostasy) with Molech.

6 ‘As for the person who turns to mediums [who consult the dead] or to spiritists, to play the prostitute after them, I shall set My face against that person and will cut him off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].

7 ~‘You shall consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lordyour God.

8 ~‘You shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lordwho sanctifies you.

9 ‘If anyone curses his father or mother, he shall most certainly be put to death; he has cursed his father or mother; his blood is on him [that is, he bears full responsibility for the consequences].

10 ‘The man who commits adultery with another’s wife, even his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall most certainly be put to death.

11 ~‘The man who lies [intimately] with his father’s wife hasuncovered his father’s nakedness; both of them shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them.

12 ~‘If a man lies [intimately] with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall most certainly be put to death; they have committed incest; their blood is on them.

13 ~‘If a man lies [intimately] with a male as if he were a woman, both men have committed a detestable (perverse, unnatural) act; they shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them.

14 ~‘It is immoralandshameful if a man marries a woman and her mother; all three shall be burned in fire, so that there will be no immorality among you.

15 ~‘If a man has intimate relations with an animal, he shall most certainly be put to death; you shall kill the animal also.

16 ~‘If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall most certainly be put to death; their blood is on them.

17 ‘If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears [responsibility for] his guilt.

18 ~‘If a man lies [intimately] with a woman during her menstrual cycle and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood; both of them shall be cut off from their people [excluding them from the atonement made for them].

19 ~‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of (have intimate relations with) your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for such a one has uncovered his blood relative; they will bear their guilt.

20 ~‘Ifthere isa man who lies [intimately] with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they will bear their sin. They will die childless.

21 ~‘If a man takes his brother’s wife, it is a hatedandunclean thing; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They will be childless.

22 ‘Therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out [as it did those before you].

23 ~‘You shall not follow the statutes (laws, practices, customs) of the nation which I am driving out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I have loathed them.

24 ~‘But I have said to you, “You are to inheritandtake possession of their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land [of plenty]flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lordyour God, who has separated you from the peoples (pagan nations).

25 ~‘You are therefore to make a distinction between the [ceremonially] clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have set apart from you as unclean.

26 ~‘You are to be holy to Me; for I the Lordam holy, and have set you apart from the peoples (nations) to be Mine.

27 ‘A man or woman who is a medium [who pretends to consults the dead] or who is a spiritist shall most certainly be put to death, and be stoned with stones; their blood is on them.’”

Regulations concerning Priests

1 Then the Lordsaid to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘No one shall defile himself [that is, become ceremonially unclean] for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial],

2 except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother,

3 also his virgin sister, who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may become unclean.

4 ~‘He shall not become unclean as a relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself.

5 ~‘The priestsshall not shave their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their body.

6 ~‘They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they present the offerings by fire to the Lord, the food of their God; so they shall be holy.

7 ~‘They shall not take [as a wife] a woman who is a prostitute, nor a woman who is divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his God.

8 ~‘You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.

9 ~‘The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by prostitution profanes her father; she shall be burned in fire.

10 ‘But he who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear the [sacred] garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes [in mourning],

11 nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother;

12 nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane (make ceremonially unclean) the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the Lord.

13 ~‘He shall take a wife in her virginity.

14 ~‘He may not marry a widow or a divorced woman or one who is profaned by prostitution, but he is to marry a virgin from his own people,

15 so that he will not profaneordishonor his children among his people; for I am the Lordwho sanctifies the high priest.’”

16 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

17 “Say to Aaron, ‘Throughout their generations none of your descendants who has any [physical] defect shall approach [the altar] to present the food of his God.

18 ~‘For no man who has a defect shall approach [God’s altar as a priest]: no man who is blind or lame, or who has a disfigured face, or any deformedlimb,

19 or a man who has a broken foot or a broken hand,

20 or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or crushed testicles.

21 ~‘No man among the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a [physical] defectandis disfiguredordeformed is to approach [the altar] to present the offerings of the Lordby fire. He has a defect; he shall not approach [the altar] to present the food of his God.

22 ~‘He may eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things,

23 but he shall not go within the veil or approach the altar [of incense], because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries; for I am the Lordwho sanctifies them.’”

24 So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the Israelites.

Various Rules for Priests

1 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy things (offerings, gifts) which the children of Israel dedicate to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name; I am the Lord.

3 Say to them, ‘Any one of your descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy things which the Israelites dedicate to the Lord, while he is [ceremonially] unclean, that person shall be cut off from My presenceandexcluded from the sanctuary; I am the Lord.

4 ~‘No man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a discharge may eat the holy things [the offerings and the showbread] until he is clean. And whoever touches any personorthing made unclean bycontact witha corpse or a man who has had a seminal emission,

5 or whoever touches any crawling thing by which he is made unclean, or any person by whom he is made unclean, whatever it may be,

6 the person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water.

7 ~‘When the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he may eat the holy things, for it is his food.

8 ~‘He shall not eat that which dies [of natural causes] or is torn by a predator, becoming unclean by it; I am the Lord.

9 ~‘Therefore the priests shall observe My ordinance, so that they will not bear sin because of it and die if they profane it; I am the Lordwho sanctifies them.

10 ‘No layman [that is, someone outside of Aaron’s family] is to eat the holygift[which has been offered to God]; a foreigner residing with the priest or a hired man shall not eat the holy thing.

11 ~‘But if a priest buys a slave as his property with his money, the slave may eat the holy thing, and those who are born in the priest’s house; they may eat his food.

12 ~‘If a priest’s daughter is married to a layman [one not part of the priestly tribe], she shall not eat the offering of the holy things.

13 ~‘But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat her father’s food; but no layman shall eat it.

14 ~‘But if a person unknowingly eats a holygift[which has been offered to God], then he shall add one-fifth of its value to it and give the holygiftto the priest.

15 ~‘The priests shall not profane the holy things the Israelites offer to the Lord,

16 and so cause them [by neglect of any essential observance] to bear thepunishment of guilt when they eat their holy things; for I am the Lordwho sanctifies them.’”

Flawless Animals for Sacrifice

17 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any stranger in Israel who presents his offering, whether tofulfillany of their vows or as any of their freewill (voluntary) offerings which they presented to the Lordas a burnt offering–

19 so that you may be accepted–it must be a male without blemish from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats.

20 ~‘You shall not offer anything which has a blemish, because it will not be accepted for you.

21 ~‘Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lordto fulfill a special vow to the Lordor as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish in it.

22 ~‘Animalsthat areblind or fractured or mutilated, or have a sore or a running wound or an itch or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lordnor make an offering of them by fire on the altar to the Lord.

23 ~‘For a freewill offering you may offer either a bull or a lamb which has an overgrown or stunted member (deformity), but for [the payment of] a vow it will not be accepted.

24 ~‘You shall not offer to the Lordany animal which has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut off, or sacrifice it in your land.

25 ~‘Nor shall you offer as the food of your God any such [animals obtained] from a foreigner, because their corruptionandblemish makes them unfit; there is a defect in them, they shall not be accepted for you.’”

26 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

27 “When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain for seven days with its mother; and after the eighth day it shall be accepted as an offering by fire to the Lord.

28 And whether [the mother] is a cow or a sheep, you shall not kill both it and its young in one day.

29 When you sacrifice an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.

30 It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it untilthe nextmorning; I am the Lord.

31 So you shall keep My commandments and do them; I am the Lord.

32 “You shall not profane My holy name [using it to honor an idol, or treating it with irreverence or contempt or as a byword]; but I will be sanctified (set apart as holy) among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who sanctifiesanddeclares you holy,

33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord.”

Laws of Religious Festivals

1 The Lordspoke again to Moses, saying,

2 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The appointed times (established feasts) of the Lordwhich you shall proclaim as holy convocations–My appointed times are these:

The Sabbath

3 ‘For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation (calling together). You shall not do any work [on that day]; it is the Sabbath of the Lordwherever you may be.

The Passover and Unleavened Bread

4 ‘These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times:

5 ~‘The Lord’sPassover is on the fourteenth day of the first monthat twilight.

6 ~‘The Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lordis on the fifteenth day of the same month; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

7 ~‘On the first day you shall have a holy convocation (calling together); you shall not do any laborious work [on that day].

8 ~‘But you shall present an offering by fire to the Lordfor seven days; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work [on that day].’”

The Feast of First Fruits

9 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

10 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am giving you and reap its harvest, you shall bring thesheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.

11 ~‘He shall wave the sheaf before the Lordso that you may be accepted; the priest shall wave it on the day after the Sabbath.

12 ~‘Now on the day when you wave the sheaf you shall offer a male lamb one year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord.

13 ~‘Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with [olive] oil, an offering by fire to the Lordfor a sweetandsoothing aroma, with its drink offering [to be poured out], a fourth of ahin of wine.

14 ~‘You shall not eat any bread or roasted grain or new growth, until this same day when you bring in the offering to your God; it is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you may be.

The Feast of Weeks

15 ‘You shall count from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf (tied bundle of grain) of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths (seven full weeks).

16 ~‘You shall countfifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.

17 ~‘You shall bring in from your places two loaves of bread as a wave offering, made from two-tenthsof an ephahof fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.

18 ~‘And you shall offer with the bread seven unblemished lambs, one year old, and one young bull and two rams. They are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings. It is an offering by fire, a sweetandsoothing aroma to the Lord.

19 ~‘And you shall sacrifice one male goat as a sin offering and two male lambs, one year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.

20 ~‘The priest shall wave them before the Lordas a wave offering, together with the bread of the first fruits and the two lambs. They are to be holy to the Lordfor the priest.

21 ~‘On this same day you shall make a proclamation, you are to have a holy convocation (calling together); you shall not do any laborious work [on that day]. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you may be.

22 ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the edges of your field, nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am the Lordyour God.’”

The Feast of Trumpets

23 Again the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

24 “Say to the children of Israel, ‘On the first day of the seventh month (almost October), you shall observe a day of solemn sabbatical rest, a memorial day announced by the blowingof trumpets, a holy convocation.

25 ~‘You shall not do any laborious work [on that day], but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”

The Day of Atonement

26 The Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

27 “Also the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shallhumble yourselves [by fasting] and present an offering by fire to the Lord.

28 You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lordyour God.

29 If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].

30 If there is any person who does any work on this same day, I will destroy that person from among his people.

31 You shall do no work at all [on that day]. It is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you may be.

32 It is to be to you a Sabbath of complete rest, and you shall humble yourselves. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your Sabbath.”

The Feast of Booths

33 Again the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

34 “Say to the children of Israel, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and for seven days, is the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) to the Lord.

35 ~‘The first day is a holy convocation (calling together); you shall not do any laborious work [on that day].

36 ~‘For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord. It is a festive assembly; you shall not do any laborious work [on that day].

37 ‘These are the appointed times (established feasts) of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to present an offering by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its own day.

38 ~‘This is in addition to the [weekly] Sabbaths of the Lord, and in addition to your gifts and all your vowed offerings and all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

39 ‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month (nearly October), when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lordfor seven days, with a Sabbath rest on the first day and a Sabbath rest on the eighth day.

40 ~‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick (leafy) trees, and willows of the brook [and make booths of them]; and you shall rejoice before the Lordyour God for seven days.

41 ~‘You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lordfor seven days in the year. It shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

42 ~‘You shall live in booths (temporary shelters) for seven days; all native-born in Israel shall live in booths,

43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lordyour God.’”

44 So Moses declared to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the Lord.

The Lamp and the Bread of the Sanctuary

1 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Command the children of Israel to bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light [of the golden lampstand], to make a lamp burn continually.

3 Outside the veil of the Testimony [between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place] in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall always keep the lampsburning before the Lordfrom evening until morning; it shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations.

4 He shall keep the lamps burning on the puregoldlampstand before the Lordcontinually.

5 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes (bread of the Presence, showbread) with it; two-tenths ofan ephahshall be in each cake (loaf).

6 You shall set the bread of the Presence (showbread) in two rows, six in a row, on the puregoldtable before the Lord.

7 You shall put pure frankincense [in two censers, one] beside each row, so that it may be with the bread as a memorial portion, an offering by fire to the Lord.

8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange the showbread before the Lordcontinually; it is an everlasting covenant for the Israelites.

9 The bread of the Presence shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a sacred place, for it is for Aaron a most holy portion of the offerings by fire to the Lord, his portion forever.”

10 Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the Israelites, and he and a man of Israel quarreledandstruggled with each other in the camp.

11 The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name [of the Lord] and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)

12 They put him in custody until the willandcommand of the Lordmight be made clear to them.

13 Then the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

14 “Bring the one who has cursed [the Lord] outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head [as witnesses to his guilt]; then let all the congregation stone him.

15 You shall speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God will bear his sin [through his own death].

16 ~‘Further, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lordshall most certainly be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him. The stranger as well as the native-born shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name [of the Lord].

“An Eye for an Eye”

17 ‘If a man takes the life of any human being [unlawfully], he shall most certainly be put to death.

18 ~‘The one who kills an animal shall replace it, animal for animal.

19 ~‘If a man injures his neighbor (fellow citizen), whatever he has done shall be done to him:

20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so shall the same be done to him.

21 ~‘The one who kills an animal shall replace it; but he who kills a human being [unlawfully] shall be put to death.

22 ~‘You shall have one standard of law for the strangeramong youas well as for the native, for I am the Lordyour God.’”

23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they brought the one who had cursed [the Lord] outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the Israelites did just as the Lordhad commanded Moses.

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

1 The Lordspoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,

2 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am giving you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord.

3 ~‘For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop.

4 ~‘But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow [seed in] your field nor prune your vineyard.

5 ~‘Whatever reseeds itself (uncultivated) in your harvest you shall not reap, nor shall you gather the grapes from your uncultivated vine, it shall be a year of sabbatical rest for the land.

6 ~‘And all of you shall have for food whatever the [untilled] land produces during its Sabbath year; yourself, and your male and female slaves, your hired servant, and the foreigners who reside among you,

7 even your domestic animals and the [wild] animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.

The Year of Jubilee

8 ‘You are also to count off seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven Sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.

9 ~‘Then you shall sound the ram’s horn everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month (almost October); on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout your land.

10 ~‘And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year andproclaim freedom [for the slaves] throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee (year of remission) for you, and each of you shall return to his own [ancestral] property [that was sold to another because of poverty], and each of you shall return to his family [from whom he was separated by bondage].

11 ~‘That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you; you shall not sow [seed], nor reap what reseeds itself, nor gather the grapes of the uncultivated vines.

12 ~‘For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its crops out of the field.

13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his own [ancestral] property.

14 ~‘If you sell anything to your friend or buy from your friend, you shall not wrong one another.

15 ~‘According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shallbuy from your friend. And he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops [which may be harvested before you must restore the property to him].

16 ~‘If the years [until the next Jubilee] are many, you shall increase the price, but if the years remaining are few, you shall reduce the price, because it is the number of crops that he is selling to you.

17 ~‘You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God [with profound reverence]; for I am the Lordyour God.

18 ‘Therefore you shall carry out My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them, so that you may live securely on the land.

19 ~‘Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.

20 ~‘And if you say, “What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow [seed] or gather in our crops?”

21 then [this is My answer:] I will order My [special] blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce [sufficient] crops for three years.

22 ~‘When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crops, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.

The Law of Redemption

23 ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; you are [only] foreigners and temporary residents with Me.

24 ~‘So in all the country that you possess, you are to provide for the redemption of the land [in the Year of Jubilee].

25 ‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell some of his property, then his nearest relative is to come and buy back (redeem) what his relative has sold.

26 ~‘Or in case a man has no relative [to redeem his property], but he has become more prosperousandhas enough to buy it back,

27 then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his [ancestral] property.

28 ~‘But ifhe is unable to redeem it, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of the purchaser until the Year of Jubilee; but at the Jubilee it shall revert, and he may return to his property.

29 ‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, then his right of redemption remains valid for a full year after its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.

30 ~‘But if it is not redeemed for him within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanentlyandirrevocably to the purchaser throughout his generations. It does not revert back in the Year of Jubilee.

31 ~‘The houses of the villages that have no surrounding walls, however, shall be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and revert in the Year of Jubilee.

32 ~‘As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses in the cities which they possess.

33 ~‘Therefore, what is [purchased] from the Levites may be redeemed [by a Levite], and the house that was sold in the city they possess reverts in the Year of Jubilee, for the houses in the Levite cities are their [ancestral] property among the Israelites.

34 ~‘But the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.

Of Poor Countrymen

35 ‘Now if your fellow countryman becomes poor and his hand falters with you [that is, he has trouble repaying you for something], then you are to helpandsustain him, [with courtesy and consideration] like [you would] a stranger or a temporary resident [without property], so that he may live among you.

36 ~‘Do not charge him usurious interest, but fear your God [with profound reverence], so your countryman may [continue to] live among you.

37 ~‘You shall not give him your money at interest, nor your food at a profit.

38 ~‘I am the Lordyour God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

39 ‘And if your fellow countryman becomes so poor [in his dealings] with you that he sells himself to you [as payment for a debt], you shall not let him do the work of a slave [who is ineligible for redemption],

40 but he is to be with you as a hired man, as if he were a temporary resident; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee,

41 and then he shall leave you, he and his children with him, and shall go back to his own family and return to the property of his fathers.

42 ~‘For the Israelites are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold in a slave sale.

43 ~‘You shall not rule over him with harshness (severity, oppression), but you are to fear your God [with profound reverence].

44 ~‘As for your male and female slaves whom you may have–you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.

45 ~‘Moreover, from the children of the strangers who live as aliens among you, from them you may buyslavesand from their families who are with you, whom they have produced in your land; they may become your possession.

46 ~‘You may even bequeath them as an inheritance to your children after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your fellow countrymen, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with harshness (severity, oppression).

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

47 ‘Now if the financial means of a stranger or temporary resident among you become sufficient, and your fellow countryman becomes poorin comparisonto him and sells himself to the stranger who is living among you or to the descendants of the stranger’s family,

48 then after he is sold he shall have the right of redemption. One of his relatives may redeem him:

49 either his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

50 ~‘Then he [or his redeemer] shall calculate with his purchaser from the year when he sold himself to the purchaser to the Year of Jubilee, and the [original] price of his sale shall be adjusted according to the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be considered as that of a hired man.

51 ~‘If there are still many years [before the Year of Jubilee], in proportion to them he must refund [to the purchaser] part of the price of his sale for his redemptionandrelease.

52 ~‘And ifonlya few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he shall so calculate it with him. He is to refund the proportionate amount for his release.

53 ~‘Like a man hired year by year he shall deal with him; he shall not rule over him with harshness in your sight.

54 ~‘Even if he is not redeemed during these yearsandunder these provisions, then he shall go free in the Year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

55 ~‘For the children of Israel are My servants; My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lordyour God.

Blessings of Obedience

1 ‘You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you erect an image, a sacred pillaroran obelisk, nor shall you place any figured stone in your land so that you may bow down to it; for I am the Lordyour God.

2 ~‘You shall keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the Lord.

3 ~‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and [obediently] do them,

4 then I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield her produce and the trees of the field bear their fruit.

5 ~‘And your threshing season will last until grape gathering and the grape gathering [time] will last until planting, and you will eat your bread and be filled and live securely in your land.

6 ~‘I will also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down and there will be no one to make you afraid. I will also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and no sword will pass through your land.

7 ~‘And you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.

8 ~‘Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight; your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

9 ~‘For I will turn toward you [with favor and regard] and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establishandconfirm My covenant with you.

10 ~‘You will eat the old supply of [abundant] produce, and clear out the old [to make room] for the new.

11 ~‘I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not rejectnorseparate itself from you.

12 ~‘I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.

13 ~‘I am the Lordyour God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves; and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright [with heads held high as free men].

Penalties of Disobedience

14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not [obediently] do all these commandments,

15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul rejects My ordinances, so that you will not [obediently] do all My commandments, and in this way break My covenant,

16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you sudden terror, consumption, and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to languish also. And you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat what you plant.

17 ~‘I will set My face against you so thatyou will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

18 ~‘If in spite of all this you still will not listen to Meandbe obedient, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.

19 ~‘I will break your pride in your power, and I will make your sky like iron [giving no rain and blocking all prayers] and your ground like bronze [hard to plow and yielding no produce].

20 ~‘Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

21 ‘If then, you act with hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times in accordance with your sins.

22 ~‘I will let loose the [wild] animals of the field among you, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you so few in number that your roads will lie desertedanddesolate.

23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but actwith hostility against Me,

24 then I also will act with hostility against you, and I will strike you seven times for your sins.

25 ~‘I will bring a sword on you that will execute vengeance for [breaking] the covenant; and when you gather together in your cities, I will send pestilence (virulent disease) among you, and you shall be handed over to the enemy.

26 ~‘When I break your staff of bread [that is, cut off your supply of food], ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will ration your bread; and you will eat and not be satisfied.

27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you will not [attentively] listen to Me but act with hostility against me,

28 then I will act with hostility against you in wrath, and I also will punish you seven times for your sins.

29 ~‘You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.

30 ~‘I will destroy your high places [devoted to idolatrous worship], and cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies upon the [crushed] bodies of your idols, and My soul will detest you [with deep and unutterable loathing].

31 ~‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your sweetandsoothing aromas [of offerings by fire].

32 ~‘I will make the land desolate, and your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it.

33 ~‘I will scatter you among the nations and draw out the sword [of your enemies] after you; your land will become desolate and your cities will become ruins.

34 ‘Then the land [of Israel] will enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

35 ~‘As long as it lies desolate, it will have rest, the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it.

36 ~‘As for those who are left of you, I will bring despair (lack of courage, weakness) into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a scattered leaf will put them to flight, and they will flee as if [running] from the sword, and will fall even when no one is chasing them.

37 ~‘They shall stumble over one another as ifto escapefrom a sword when no one is chasing them; and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.

38 ~‘You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will consume you.

39 ~‘Those of you who are left will rot away because of their wickedness in the lands of your enemies; also because of the wickedness of their forefathers they will rot away like them.

40 ‘If they confess their wickedness and the wickedness of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they have committed against Me–and also in their acting with hostility toward Me–

41 I also was acting with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies–then if their uncircumcised (sin-filled) hearts are humbled and they accept the punishment for their wickedness,

42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham, and remember the land.

43 ~‘But the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment for their wickednessandmake amends because they rejected My ordinances and their soul rejected My statutes.

44 ~‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so despise them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lordtheir God.

45 ~‘But I will, for their sake, [earnestly] remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I have brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

46 These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws which the Lordestablished between Himself and the Israelites through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Valuations

1 Again, the Lordspoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes aspecial vow [consecrating himself or a member of his family], heshall be valuedaccording to your [established system of] valuation of people belonging to the Lord[that is, the priest accepts from the man making the vow a specified amount of money for the temple treasury in place of the actual person].

3 ~‘If your valuation is of a male between twenty and sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

4 ~‘Or if the person is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.

5 ~‘If the person is between five years and twenty years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels.

6 ~‘But if the child is between one month and five years of age, then your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for the male and three shekels for the female.

7 ~‘If the person is sixty years old and above, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male, and ten shekels for the female.

8 ~‘But if the person is too poor to pay your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to the ability of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.

9 ‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering to the Lord, any such that one gives to the Lordshall be holy.

10 ~‘He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; but if he does exchange an animal for an animal, then both the original offering and its substitute shall be holy.

11 ~‘If it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall bring the animal before the priest,

12 and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; it shall be as you, the priest, value it.

13 ~‘But if he everwishes toredeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.

14 ‘If a man consecrates his house as sacred to the Lord, the priest shall appraise it as either good or bad; as the priest appraises it, so shall it stand.

15 ~‘If the one who consecrates his house shouldwish toredeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be his.

16 ‘And if a man consecrates to the Lordpart of a field of his own property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for it; a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

17 ~‘If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee, it shall stand according to your valuation.

18 ~‘But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price for him in proportion to the years that remain until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation.

19 ~‘If the one who consecrates the field should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of the appraisal price to it, so that it may return to him.

20 ~‘If he does not redeem the field, but has sold it to another man, it may no longer be redeemed.

21 ~‘When the field reverts in the Jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field set apart (devoted); the priest shall possess it as his property.

22 ~‘Or if a man consecrates to the Lorda field which he has bought, which is not part of the field of his [ancestral] property,

23 then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and the man shall give that [amount] on that day as a holy thing to the Lord.

24 ~‘In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was purchased, to whom the land belonged [as his ancestral inheritance].

25 ~‘Every valuation of yours shall be in accordance with the sanctuary shekel; twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.

26 ‘However, the firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may consecrate, whether an ox or a sheep. It is [already] the Lord’s.

27 ~‘If it is among the unclean animals, the owner may redeem it in accordance with your valuation, and add one-fifth to it; or if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold in accordance with your valuation.

28 ‘But nothing that a mansets apart [that is, devotes as an offering] to the Lordout of all that he has, of man or of animal or of the fields of his own property, shall be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction (banned, cursed) is most holy to the Lord.

29 ~‘No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed [from death], he shall most certainly be put to death.

30 ‘And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.

31 ~‘If a man wishes to redeem any part of his tithe, he shall add one-fifth to it.

32 ~‘For every tithe of the herd or flock, whateverpasses under the [shepherd’s] staff, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.

33 ~‘The man is not to be concerned whetherthe animal isgood or bad, nor shall he exchange it. But if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy; it shall not be redeemed.’”

34 These are the commandments which the Lordcommanded Moses on Mount Sinai for the children of Israel.