Leviticus 14:33-26:26

Common English Bible

Houses with skin disease

³³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ³⁴ When you enter the land of Canaan, which I am giving to you as a possession, and I put an infection of skin disease on a house in the land you possess, ³⁵ the homeowner must come and tell the priest, “I think some sort of infection is in my house.” ³⁶ The priest will order that the house be emptied before he comes to examine it so that nothing else in the house will become unclean. After that, the priest will come to examine the house. ³⁷ If he examines the infection, and the infection in the walls of the house consists of greenish or reddish depressions, which appear to be deeper than the surface of the wall, ³⁸ the priest will exit the house, go to the front door, and quarantine the house for seven days. ³⁹ On the seventh day, the priest will return. If he finds that the infection has spread over the walls of the house, ⁴⁰ the priest will order the stones in which the infection is found to be pulled out and discarded outside the city in an unclean area. ⁴¹ The inside of the house will then be scraped on all sides, and the plaster that has been scraped off must be dumped outside the city in an unclean area. ⁴² Then different stones will be used in place of the first ones, and new coating will be used to replaster the house.

⁴³ If the infection breaks out again in the house after the stones have been pulled out and the house scraped and replastered, ⁴⁴ the priest will return. If he finds that the infection has spread throughout the house, it is a case of infectious skin disease in the house; the house is unclean. ⁴⁵ The house must be destroyed—its stones, wood, and all the plaster in the house. All of it must be taken outside the city to an unclean area. ⁴⁶ Anyone who enters the house during the entire period when it is quarantined will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷ Anyone who lies down in the house must wash their clothes. Anyone who eats in the house must also wash their clothes.

⁴⁸ But if the priest arrives and finds that the infection has not spread after the house was replastered, the priest will declare the house clean because the infection has been healed. ⁴⁹ To cleanse the house, the priest will take two birds, cedarwood, crimson yarn, and hyssop. ⁵⁰ He will slaughter one bird over fresh water in a pottery jar. ⁵¹ He will then take the cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson yarn, along with the wild^[a] bird, and will dip all of this into the fresh water and into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered. He will then sprinkle the house seven times. ⁵² In this way, the priest will cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the wild bird, the cedarwood, the hyssop, and the crimson yarn. ⁵³ Then he will release the wild bird outside the city into the countryside. In this way, he will make reconciliation for the house, and it will be clean.

Conclusion concerning skin disease

⁵⁴ This concludes the Instruction concerning every infection of skin disease: for scabies, ⁵⁵ for skin disease on clothing or in houses, ⁵⁶ and for swelling, scabs, or shiny spots, ⁵⁷ in order to determine when it is unclean or clean. This concludes the Instruction concerning skin disease.

Male genital emissions

15 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: Whenever a man has a genital emission, that emission is unclean. ³ This is the nature of the uncleanness brought about by his emission: regardless of whether his genital organ allows his emission to flow or blocks the flow, it is unclean to him. ⁴ Any bed on which someone with an emission lies will be unclean, and any object on which that person sits will be unclean. ⁵ Anyone who touches such a bed must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ⁶ Anyone who sits on something that the one with the emission also sat on must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ⁷ Anyone who touches the body of the one with the emission must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ⁸ If the one with the emission spits on a clean person, the clean person must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ⁹ Every saddle on which the person with the emission rode will be unclean. ¹⁰ Anyone who touches anything that has been under such a person will be unclean until evening. Anyone who carries such items must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ¹¹ If the one with the emission touches someone without first rinsing his hands with water, that person must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ¹² Any pottery jar that the one with the emission touches must be broken, and any wooden tool must be rinsed with water.

¹³ When the man with the emission is cleansed of his emission, he will count off seven days for his purification. He must wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water; then he will be clean again. ¹⁴ On the eighth day he will take two turtledoves or two pigeons and come before the Lord to the meeting tent’s entrance and give these to the priest. ¹⁵ The priest will offer them, one as a purification offering and the other as an entirely burned offering. In this way, the priest will make reconciliation for him before the Lord because of his emission.

¹⁶ If it is an emission of semen, the man must bathe his whole body in water and will be unclean until evening. ¹⁷ Any clothing or skin on which there is an emission of semen must be washed in water and will be unclean until evening. ¹⁸ If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them must bathe in water and will be unclean until evening.

Female genital emissions

¹⁹ Whenever a woman has a discharge of blood that is her normal bodily discharge, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Anything on which she lies or sits during her menstruation will be unclean. ²¹ Anyone who touches her bed must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ²² Anyone who touches anything on which she has sat must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. ²³ Whenever anyone touches something—whether it was on the bed or where she has been sitting—they will be unclean until evening. ²⁴ If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her menstruation gets on him, he will be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.

²⁵ Whenever a woman has a bloody discharge for a long time, which is not during her menstrual period, or whenever she has a discharge beyond her menstrual period, the duration of her unclean discharge will be like the period of her menstruation; she will be unclean.

²⁶ Any bed she lies on during the discharge should be treated like the bed she uses during her menstruation; and any object she sits on will be unclean, as during her menstruation. ²⁷ Anyone who touches these things will be unclean. They must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening.

²⁸ When the woman is cleansed of her discharge, she will count off seven days; after that, she will be clean again. ²⁹ On the eighth day she will take two turtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the meeting tent’s entrance. ³⁰ The priest will perform a purification offering with one and an entirely burned offering with the other. In this way, the priest will make reconciliation for her before the Lord because of her unclean discharge.

³¹ You must separate the Israelites from their uncleanness so that they don’t die on account of it, by making my dwelling^[b] unclean, which is in their midst.

³² This concludes the Instruction concerning those with discharges: men with emissions of semen that make them unclean, ³³ women during their menstruation, men or women with discharges, and men who have had sexual intercourse with an unclean woman.

The Day of Reconciliation

16 After the death of Aaron’s two sons, which happened when they approached the Lord and died, the Lord spoke to Moses: ² Tell your brother Aaron that he cannot come whenever he wants into the holy area inside the inner curtain, to the front of the cover^[c] that is on the chest, or else he will die, because I am present^[d] in the cloud above the cover. ³ No, but Aaron must enter the holy area as follows: with a bull from the herd as a purification offering and a ram as an entirely burned offering. ⁴ Aaron must dress in a holy linen tunic and wear linen undergarments on his body. He must tie a linen sash around himself and wrap a linen turban around his head. These are holy clothes—Aaron will first bathe his body in water and then put them on. ⁵ He will take from the Israelite community two male goats for a purification offering and one ram for an entirely burned offering.

⁶ Aaron will offer the bull as a purification offering to make reconciliation for himself and his household. ⁷ He will take the two male goats and place them before the Lord at the meeting tent’s entrance. ⁸ Aaron will cast lots over the two goats: one lot labeled “the Lord’s” and the other lot labeled “Azazel’s.”^{[e] 9} Aaron will present the goat selected by the Lord’s lot and perform a purification offering with it. ¹⁰ But the goat selected by Azazel’s lot will be left standing alive before the Lord in order to make reconciliation upon it^[f] by sending it away into the wilderness to Azazel.

¹¹ Aaron will offer the bull for his purification offering to make reconciliation for himself and his household. He will slaughter the bull for his purification offering. ¹² Then he will take an incense pan full of burning coals from the altar, from before the Lord, and two handfuls of finely ground perfumed incense and bring them inside the inner curtain. ¹³ He will put the incense on the fire before the Lord so that the cloud of incense conceals the cover that is on top of the covenant document, or else he will die. ¹⁴ He will take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the cover from the east side. He will then sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times in front of the cover. ¹⁵ Then he will slaughter the goat for the people’s purification offering, bring the blood inside the inner curtain, and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: he will sprinkle it on the cover and in front of the cover. ¹⁶ In this way, he will make reconciliation for the inner holy area because of the pollution of the Israelites and because of their rebellious sins, as well as for all their other sins.

Aaron must do the same for the meeting tent, which is with them among their pollution. ¹⁷ No one can be in the meeting tent from the time Aaron enters to make reconciliation in the inner holy area until the time he comes out. He will make reconciliation for himself, for his household, and for the whole assembly of Israel.

¹⁸ Aaron will then go to the altar that is before the Lord and make reconciliation for it: He will take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on each of the altar’s horns. ¹⁹ He will sprinkle some of the blood on the altar with his finger seven times. In this way, he will purify it and make it holy again from the Israelites’ pollution.

²⁰ When Aaron has finished reconciling the inner holy area, the rest of the meeting tent, and the altar, he will bring forward the live goat. ²¹ Aaron will press both his hands on its head and confess over it all the Israelites’ offenses and all their rebellious sins, as well as all their other sins, putting all these on the goat’s head. Then he will send it away into the wilderness with someone designated for the job.^{[g] 22} The goat will carry on itself all their offenses to a desolate region, then the goat will be released into the wild.

²³ After this, Aaron will enter the meeting tent, take off the linen clothes he was wearing when he entered the inner holy area, and will leave them there. ²⁴ He will bathe his body in water in a holy place and dress in his priestly clothing. Then he will go out and perform the entirely burned offerings for himself and for the people. In this way, he will make reconciliation for himself and for the people. ²⁵ He will completely burn the fat of the purification offering on the altar. ²⁶ The one who set the goat free for Azazel must wash their clothes and bathe their body in water; after that they can return to the camp. ²⁷ The bull and the goat for the purification offerings, whose blood was brought in to make reconciliation in the inner holy area, will be taken outside the camp. Their hides, flesh, and dung will be burned with fire. ²⁸ The person who burns them must wash their clothes and bathe their body in water; after that, they can return to the camp.

²⁹ This will be a permanent rule for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month,^[h] you must deny yourselves. You must not do any work—neither the citizen nor the immigrant who lives among you. ³⁰ On that day reconciliation will be made for you in order to cleanse you. You will be clean before the Lord from all your sins. ³¹ It will be a Sabbath of special rest for you, and you will deny yourselves. This is a permanent rule.

Conclusion concerning the Day of Reconciliation

³² The priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest after his father will perform the reconciliation, wearing the holy linen clothes. ³³ He will reconcile the holiest part of the sanctuary and will do the same for the meeting tent and the altar. He will make reconciliation for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. ³⁴ This will be a permanent rule for you, in order to make reconciliation for the Israelites from all their sins once a year.

It was done just as the Lord commanded Moses.

Sacrifice at the sanctuary

17 The Lord said to Moses, ² Say to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelites: This is what the Lord has commanded: ³ Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, sheep, or goat inside or outside the camp ⁴ but does not bring it to the meeting tent’s entrance to present it as an offering to the Lord in front of the Lord’s dwelling^[i] will be considered guilty of bloodshed; they have spilled blood. They will be cut off from their people. ⁵ This will make the Israelites bring the communal sacrifices, which they are sacrificing in the countryside, to the Lord, to the priest at the meeting tent’s entrance, and sacrifice them as communal sacrifices of well-being to the Lord. ⁶ The priest will toss the blood against the Lord’s altar at the meeting tent’s entrance and burn the fat completely as a soothing smell to the Lord. ⁷ The Israelites must no longer sacrifice their communal sacrifices to the goat demons that they follow so faithlessly.^[j] This will be a permanent rule for them throughout their future generations. ⁸ You will also say to them: Anyone from Israel’s house or from the immigrants who live with you who offers up an entirely burned offering or communal sacrifice ⁹ without bringing it to the meeting tent’s entrance in order to offer it to the Lord will be cut off from their people.

Consuming blood forbidden

¹⁰ I will oppose the person who consumes blood—whether they are from Israel’s house or from the immigrants who live with you—and I will cut them off from their people. ¹¹ A creature’s life is in the blood. I have provided you the blood to make reconciliation for your lives on the altar, because the blood reconciles by means of the life.^{[k] 12} That is why I have told the Israelites: No one among you can consume blood, nor can the immigrant who lives with you consume blood.

¹³ Anyone who hunts any animal or bird that can be eaten—whether the hunter is an Israelite or an immigrant who lives with you—must drain its blood out and cover it with dirt. ¹⁴ Again: for every creature’s life, its blood is its life. That is why I have told the Israelites: You must not consume any creature’s blood because every creature’s life is its blood. Anyone who consumes it will be cut off.

Eating meat

¹⁵ Anyone, whether citizen or immigrant, who eats an animal that has died naturally or that was killed by another animal, must wash their clothes, bathe in water, and will be unclean until evening. At that time, they will be clean again. ¹⁶ If they do not wash or bathe their body, they will be liable to punishment.

Sexual conduct

18 The Lord said to Moses, ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: I am the Lord your God. ³ You must not do things like they are done in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. And you must not do things like they are done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow the practices^[l] of those places. ⁴ No, my regulations and my rules are the ones you must keep by following them: I am the Lord your God. ⁵ You must keep my rules and my regulations; by doing them one will live; I am the Lord.

⁶ No one is allowed to approach any blood relative for sexual contact:^[m] I am the Lord. ⁷ You must not uncover your father’s nakedness, which is your mother’s nakedness. She is your mother; you must not have sexual contact with her. ⁸ You must not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is your father’s nakedness. ⁹ You must not have sexual contact with your sister—regardless of whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born into the same household as you or outside it. ¹⁰ You must not have sexual contact with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, because their nakedness is your own nakedness.^{[n] 11} You must not have sexual contact with the daughter of your father’s wife, who was born into your father’s family; she is your sister. ¹² You must not have sexual contact with your father’s sister; she is your father’s blood relative. ¹³ You must not have sexual contact with your mother’s sister because she is your mother’s blood relative. ¹⁴ You will not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother—that is, you will not approach his wife for sex; she is your aunt. ¹⁵ You must not have sexual contact with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have sexual contact with her. ¹⁶ You will not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness.

¹⁷ You must not have sexual contact with a woman and her daughter. You will not marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, thereby uncovering her nakedness. They are her blood relatives; it is shameful. ¹⁸ You must not marry your wife’s sister as a rival and have sexual contact with her while her sister is alive. ¹⁹ You must not approach a woman for sexual contact during her menstrual uncleanness. ²⁰ You must not have sexual relations with the wife of your fellow Israelite, becoming unclean by it.

²¹ You must not give any of your children^[o] to offer them over to Molech so that you do not defile your God’s name: I am the Lord. ²² You must not have sexual intercourse with a man as you would with a woman; it is a detestable practice. ²³ You will not have sexual relations with any animal, becoming unclean by it. Nor will a woman present herself before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.

Warning against uncleanness and moral pollution

²⁴ Do not make yourselves unclean in any of these ways because that is how the nations that I am throwing out before you became unclean. ²⁵ That is also how the land became unclean, and I held it liable for punishment, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But all of you must keep my rules and my regulations. You must not do any of these detestable things, neither citizen nor immigrant who lives with you (²⁷ because the people who had the land before you did all of these detestable things and the land became unclean), ²⁸ so that the land does not vomit you out because you have made it unclean, just as it vomited out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ Anyone who does any of these detestable things will be cut off from their people. ³⁰ You must keep my requirement of not doing any of the detestable practices^[p] that were done before you arrived so that you don’t make yourselves unclean by them; I am the Lord your God.

Living as holy people

19 The Lord said to Moses, ² Say to the whole community of the Israelites: You must be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy. ³ Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must keep my sabbaths; I am the Lord your God. ⁴ Do not turn to idols or make gods of cast metal for yourselves; I am the Lord your God. ⁵ When you sacrifice a communal sacrifice of well-being to the Lord, offer it so that it will be accepted on your account. ⁶ It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice or the following day; whatever is left over on the third day must be burned with fire. ⁷ If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is foul; it will not be accepted. ⁸ Anyone who eats it will be liable to punishment, because they defiled what is holy to the Lord. That person will be cut off from their people. ⁹ When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. ¹⁰ Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God.

¹¹ You must not steal nor deceive nor lie to each other. ¹² You must not swear falsely by my name, desecrating your God’s name in doing so; I am the Lord. ¹³ You must not oppress your neighbors or rob them. Do not withhold a hired laborer’s pay overnight. ¹⁴ You must not insult a deaf person or put some obstacle in front of a blind person that would cause them to trip. Instead, fear your God; I am the Lord.

¹⁵ You must not act unjustly in a legal case. Do not show favoritism to the poor or deference to the great; you must judge your fellow Israelites fairly. ¹⁶ Do not go around slandering your people.^[q] Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed;^[r] I am the Lord. ¹⁷ You must not hate your fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your fellow Israelite strongly, so you don’t become responsible for his sin.^{[s] 18} You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

¹⁹ You must keep my rules. Do not crossbreed your livestock, do not plant your field with two kinds of seed, and do not wear clothes made from two kinds of material. ²⁰ If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave engaged to another man, who hasn’t yet been released or given her freedom, there must be a punishment.^[t] But they will not be put to death because she had not yet been freed. ²¹ The man must bring as his compensation to the Lord at the meeting tent’s entrance a ram for a compensation offering. ²² The priest will use the ram for the compensation offering to make reconciliation for him before the Lord on account of the sin he committed. Then he will be forgiven of the sin that he committed.

²³ When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, you must consider its fruit off-limits.^[u] For three years it will be off-limits to you;^[v] it must not be eaten. ²⁴ In the fourth year, all of the tree’s fruit will be holy, a celebration for the Lord. ²⁵ In the fifth year you can eat the fruit. This is so as to increase its produce for you; I am the Lord your God.

²⁶ You must not eat anything with its blood. You must not participate in divination or fortune-telling. ²⁷ You must not cut off the hair on your forehead or clip the ends of your beard. ²⁸ Do not cut your bodies for the dead^[w] or put marks on^[x] yourselves; I am the Lord. ²⁹ Do not defile your daughter by making her sexually promiscuous or else the land will become promiscuous^[y] and full of shame. ³⁰ You must keep my sabbaths and treat my sanctuary with respect; I am the Lord. ³¹ Do not resort to dead spirits or inquire of spirits of divination—you will be made unclean by them; I am the Lord your God. ³² You must rise in the presence of an old person and respect the elderly. You must fear your God; I am the Lord.

³³ When immigrants live in your land with you, you must not cheat them. ³⁴ Any immigrant who lives with you must be treated as if they were one of your citizens. You must love them as yourself, because you were immigrants in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. ³⁵ You must not act unjustly in a legal case involving measures of length, weight, or volume. ³⁶ You must have accurate scales and accurate weights, an accurate ephah^[z] and an accurate hin.^[aa] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷ You must keep all my rules and all my regulations, and do them; I am the Lord.

Worship of Molech forbidden

20 The Lord said to Moses, ² You will also say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or any immigrant living in Israel who gives their children to Molech must be executed. The common people will stone such a person. ³ Moreover, I will set my own face against such a person, cutting them off from their people, because they gave their children to Molech, making my sanctuary unclean and degrading my holy name by doing so. ⁴ But if the common people choose to look the other way when someone gives their children to Molech and do not execute such a person, ⁵ I will set my own face against such a person and their extended family, cutting off from their people both the guilty party and anyone with them who faithlessly followed Molech. ⁶ I will also oppose anyone who resorts to dead spirits or spirits of divination and faithlessly follows those things. I will cut such an individual off from their people.

Sexual prohibitions

⁷ You must be holy and keep yourselves holy because I am the Lord your God. ⁸ You will keep my rules and do them; I am the Lord, who makes you holy. ⁹ If anyone curses their father or mother, they must be executed. They have cursed their own father and mother; that person’s blood is on their own heads. ¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with a neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be executed. ¹¹ If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹² If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be executed. They have acted perversely; their blood is on their own heads. ¹³ If a man has sexual intercourse with a man as he would with a woman, the two of them have done something detestable. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹⁴ If a man marries a woman and her mother as well, it is shameful. They will be burned with fire—the man and the two women—so that no such shameful thing will be found among you. ¹⁵ If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he must be executed and you must kill the animal. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any kind of animal to mate with it, you must kill the woman and the animal. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads. ¹⁷ If a man marries his sister—his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter—and they have sexual contact with each other, it is a disgrace. They will be cut off in the sight of their people. Such a man has had sexual contact with his sister; he will be liable to punishment. ¹⁸ If a man sleeps with a woman during her menstrual period and has sexual contact with her, he has exposed the source of her blood flow and she has uncovered the same. Both of them will be cut off from their people. ¹⁹ You must not have sexual contact with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, because that exposes your own close relative; both of you will be liable to punishment. ²⁰ If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. The man and the aunt will be liable to punishment; they will die childless. ²¹ If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is indecent. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; the man and the woman will be childless.

Conclusion concerning conduct

²² You must keep all my rules and all my regulations, and do them so that the land I am bringing you to, where you will live, won’t vomit you out. ²³ You must not follow the practices^[ab] of the nations that I am throwing out before you, because they did all these things and I was disgusted with them. ²⁴ But I have told you, “You will certainly possess their fertile land; I am giving it to you to possess. It is a land full of milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from all other peoples. ²⁵ So you must separate between clean and unclean animals, and between clean and unclean birds. Do not become detestable through some animal, bird, or anything that moves on the fertile ground that I have separated from you as unclean. ²⁶ You must be holy to me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from all other peoples to be my own. ²⁷ If someone, whether male or female, is a medium with the dead or a diviner,^[ac] they must be executed. They will be stoned; their blood is on their own head.

Rules for priests

21 The Lord said to Moses, Say to the priests, Aaron’s sons: None of you are allowed to make yourselves unclean by any dead person among your community ² except for your closest relatives: for your mother, father, son, daughter, brother; ³ also for your unmarried sister, who is close to you because she isn’t married—you may be polluted for her sake. ⁴ You must not make yourself unclean for in-laws, defiling yourself by doing so.

⁵ Priests must not shave bald patches on their heads or cut off the ends of their beards or make gashes in their bodies. ⁶ They must be holy to their God so that they do not make their God’s name impure. They must be holy because they offer the Lord’s food gifts, their God’s food. ⁷ Priests must not marry a woman who is promiscuous and defiled, nor can they marry a woman divorced from her husband, because priests must be^[ad] holy to their God. ⁸ You will treat the priests as holy, because they offer your God’s food. The priests will be holy to you, because I am the holy Lord, who makes you holy. ⁹ If the daughter of a priest defiles herself by being promiscuous, she defiles her father. She must be burned with fire.

¹⁰ The high priest^[ae]—the one whose head has been anointed with the anointing oil and who is ordained to dress in the priestly clothing—must not dishevel his hair or tear his clothing. ¹¹ He must not go near any dead bodies and cannot make himself unclean even for his father or mother. ¹² He must not exit the sanctuary, making his God’s sanctuary impure by doing so, because his God’s anointing oil, which separates,^[af] is upon him; I am the Lord. ¹³ The high priest must marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ He cannot marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by promiscuity. He can only marry a virgin from his own people ¹⁵ so that he doesn’t make his children impure among his people, because I am the Lord, who makes him holy.

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ Say to Aaron: None of your future descendants who have some kind of imperfection are allowed to offer their God’s food. ¹⁸ No one who has an imperfection will be allowed to make an offering: this includes anyone who is blind, crippled, disfigured, or deformed; ¹⁹ anyone who has a broken foot or hand; ²⁰ anyone who is a hunchback or too small; anyone who has an eye disease, a rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle.^{[ag] 21} No descendant of Aaron the priest who has an imperfection will be allowed to offer the Lord’s food gifts; since he has an imperfection, he will not be allowed to offer his God’s food. ²² He may, of course, eat of his God’s most holy or holy food, ²³ but since he has an imperfection, he cannot enter toward the inner curtain or officiate at the altar, making these parts of my sanctuary impure by doing so. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

²⁴ This is what Moses said to Aaron, his sons, and to all the Israelites.

Priestly uncleanness

22 The Lord said to Moses: ² Tell Aaron and his sons to be very careful how they treat the holy things that the Israelites devote to me so that they do not make my holy name impure: I am the Lord. ³ Say to them: If any descendant of yours should ever come near the holy things that the Israelites have dedicated to the Lord while he is in an unclean state, he will be cut off from before me; I am the Lord. ⁴ Any descendant of Aaron who is afflicted with skin disease^[ah] or has a discharge cannot eat of the holy things until he is clean. Anyone who touches anything made unclean by a dead body, or who has an emission of semen, ⁵ or who touches any swarming creature or another person who makes him unclean—whatever the uncleanness might be— ⁶ the person who touches these things will be unclean until evening. He must not eat of the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water. ⁷ Once the sun has set and he has become clean again, he may eat of the holy things, for that is his food. ⁸ He must not eat an animal that has died naturally or that was killed by another animal, becoming unclean by doing so; I am the Lord. ⁹ The priests must keep my requirement so that they don’t become liable to punishment and die for having made it impure.^[ai] I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

Unauthorized eating

¹⁰ No layperson is allowed to eat the holy offerings. No foreign guest or hired laborer of a priest can eat it. ¹¹ But if a priest purchases a servant, that person can eat it, and servants born into the priest’s household can also eat his food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter marries a layman, she is not allowed to eat the holy offerings. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced and has no children and so returns to her father’s household as when she was young, she can eat her father’s food. But, again, no layperson is allowed to eat it. ¹⁴ If someone eats a holy offering unintentionally, they must provide the priest with an equal item, plus one-fifth. ¹⁵ The Israelites must not make the holy offerings impure that they offer up to the Lord ¹⁶ or make themselves liable to punishment requiring compensation by eating their own holy offerings. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.

Unacceptable animal offerings

¹⁷ The Lord said to Moses: ¹⁸ Tell Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites: Whenever someone from Israel’s house or from the immigrants in Israel presents their offering to the Lord as an entirely burned offering—whether it is payment for a solemn promise or a spontaneous gift— ¹⁹ for it to be acceptable on your behalf, it must be a flawless male from the herd, the sheep, or the goats. ²⁰ You must not present anything that has an imperfection, because it will not be acceptable on your behalf. ²¹ Whenever someone presents a communal sacrifice of well-being to the Lord from the herd or flock—whether it is payment for a solemn promise or a spontaneous gift—it must be flawless to be acceptable; it must not have any imperfection. ²² You must not present to the Lord anything that is blind or that has an injury, mutilation, warts, a rash, or scabs. You must not put any such animal on the altar as a food gift for the Lord. ²³ You can, however, offer an ox or sheep that is deformed or stunted as a spontaneous gift, but it will not be acceptable as payment for a solemn promise. ²⁴ You must not offer to the Lord anything with bruised, crushed, torn, or cut-off testicles. You must not do that in your land. ²⁵ You are not allowed to offer such animals as your God’s food even if they come from a foreigner. Because these animals have blemishes and imperfections in them, they will not be acceptable on your behalf.

Additional rules for sacrifice

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁷ When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on it will be acceptable as an offering, a food gift for the Lord. ²⁸ But you will not slaughter an ox or sheep and its offspring on the same day. ²⁹ When you sacrifice a communal sacrifice of thanksgiving for the Lord, you must sacrifice it so that it will be acceptable on your behalf. ³⁰ It must be eaten on the same day; you must not leave any of it until morning; I am the Lord. ³¹ You must keep my commands and do them; I am the Lord. ³² You must not make my holy name impure so that I will be treated as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord—the one who makes you holy ³³ and who is bringing you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord.

Sacred times

23 The Lord said to Moses: ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: These are my appointed times, the Lord’s appointed times, which you will declare to be holy occasions: ³ Work can be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of special rest, a holy occasion. You must not do any work on it; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord. ⁴ These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy occasions, which you will celebrate at their appointed times:

⁵ The Lord’s Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month^[aj] at twilight. ⁶ The Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread is on the fifteenth day of the same month. You must eat unleavened bread for seven days. ⁷ On the first day you will hold a holy occasion and must not do any job-related work. ⁸ You will offer food gifts to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day will be a holy occasion; you must not do any job-related work.

⁹ The Lord said to Moses: ¹⁰ Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and harvest its produce, you must bring the first bundle of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ The priest will lift up the bundle before the Lord so that it will be acceptable on your behalf. The priest will do this on the day after the Sabbath. ¹² On the day the bundle is lifted up for you, you must offer a flawless one-year-old lamb as an entirely burned offering to the Lord. ¹³ The accompanying grain offering must be two-tenths of an ephah^[ak] of choice flour mixed with oil, as a food gift for the Lord, a soothing smell. The accompanying drink offering must be a quarter of a hin of wine. ¹⁴ You must not eat any bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until the exact day when you bring your God’s offering. This is a permanent rule throughout your future generations, wherever you live.

¹⁵ You must count off seven weeks starting with the day after the Sabbath, the day you bring the bundle for the uplifted offering; these must be complete. ¹⁶ You will count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷ From wherever you live, you will bring two loaves of bread as an uplifted offering. These must be made of two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour, baked with leaven, as early produce^[al] to the Lord. ¹⁸ Along with the bread you must present seven flawless one-year-old lambs, one bull from the herd, and two rams. These will be an entirely burned offering to the Lord, along with their grain offerings and drink offerings, as a food gift of soothing smell to the Lord. ¹⁹ You must also offer one male goat as a purification offering and two one-year-old lambs as a communal sacrifice of well-being. ²⁰ The priest will lift up the two sheep, along with the bread of the early produce, as an uplifted offering before the Lord. These will be holy to the Lord and will belong to the priest. ²¹ On that very same day you must make a proclamation; it will be a holy occasion for you. You must not do any job-related work. This is a permanent rule wherever you live throughout your future generations. ²² When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather every remaining bit of your harvest. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God.

²³ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁴ Say to the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month,^[am] you will have a special rest, a holy occasion marked by a trumpet signal. ²⁵ You must not do any job-related work, and you must offer a food gift to the Lord.

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses: ²⁷ Note that the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Reconciliation. It will be a holy occasion for you. You must deny yourselves and offer a food gift to the Lord. ²⁸ You must not do any work that day because it is a Day of Reconciliation to make reconciliation for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹ Anyone who does not deny themselves on that day will be cut off from their people. ³⁰ Moreover, I will destroy from their people anyone who does any work on that day. ³¹ You must not do any work! This is a permanent rule throughout your future generations wherever you live. ³² This is a Sabbath of special rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. You will observe your Sabbath on the ninth day of the month from evening to the following evening.

³³ The Lord said to Moses: ³⁴ Say to the Israelites: The Festival of Booths to the Lord will start on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and will last for seven days. ³⁵ The first day is a holy occasion. You must not do any job-related work. ³⁶ For seven days you will offer food gifts to the Lord. On the eighth day you will have a holy occasion and must offer a food gift to the Lord. It is a holiday: you must not do any job-related work.

³⁷ These are the Lord’s appointed times that you will proclaim as holy occasions, offering food gifts to the Lord: entirely burned offerings, grain offerings, communal sacrifices, and drink offerings—each on its proper day. ³⁸ This is in addition to the Lord’s sabbaths and in addition to your presents, all the payments for solemn promises, and all the spontaneous gifts that you give to the Lord.

³⁹ Note that on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the land’s crops, you will celebrate the Lord’s festival for seven days. The first day and the eighth day are days of special rest. ⁴⁰ On the first day you must take fruit from majestic trees,^[an] palm branches, branches of leafy trees,^[ao] and willows of the streams, and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ You will celebrate this festival to the Lord for seven days each year; this is a permanent rule throughout your future generations. You will celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴² For seven days you must live in huts. Every citizen of Israel must live in huts ⁴³ so that your future generations will know that I made the Israelites live in huts when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.

⁴⁴ So Moses announced the Lord’s appointed times to the Israelites.

The sanctuary’s lamp and bread

24 The Lord said to Moses: ² Command the Israelites to bring pure, pressed olive oil to you for the lamp, to keep a light burning constantly. ³ Aaron will tend the lamp, which will be inside the meeting tent but outside the inner curtain of the covenant document, from evening until morning before the Lord. This is a permanent rule throughout your future generations. ⁴ Aaron must continually tend the lights on the pure lampstand^[ap] before the Lord.

⁵ You will take choice flour and bake twelve loaves of flatbread, two-tenths of an ephah^[aq] for each loaf. ⁶ You must place them in two stacks, six in a stack, on the pure table^[ar] before the Lord. ⁷ Put pure frankincense on each stack, as a token portion for the bread; it is a food gift for the Lord. ⁸ Aaron will always set it out before the Lord, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of^[as] the Israelites, as a permanent covenant. ⁹ It will belong to Aaron and his sons. They must eat it in a holy place because it is the most holy part of their share of the Lord’s food gifts, a permanent portion.

Assault and blasphemy

¹⁰ The son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father came out among the Israelites. A fight broke out between this half-Israelite^[at] and another Israelite man in the camp, ¹¹ during which the half-Israelite blasphemed the Lord’s name and cursed. So he was brought to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, Dibri’s daughter from the tribe of Dan.) ¹² He was put under guard until they could determine the Lord’s verdict.

¹³ Then the Lord said to Moses: ¹⁴ Take the one who cursed outside the camp. All who heard him will press their hands on his head. Then the whole community will stone him. ¹⁵ Tell the Israelites: Anyone who curses God will be liable to punishment. ¹⁶ And anyone who blasphemes the Lord’s name must be executed. The whole community will stone that person. Immigrant and citizen alike: whenever someone blasphemes the Lord’s name, that person will be executed.

¹⁷ If anyone kills another person, they must be executed. ¹⁸ Someone who kills an animal may make amends for it: a life for a life. ¹⁹ If someone injures a fellow citizen, they will suffer the same injury they inflicted: ²⁰ broken bone for broken bone, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The same injury the person inflicted on the other will be inflicted on them. ²¹ Someone who kills an animal must make amends for it, but whoever kills a human being must be executed. ²² There is but one law on this matter for you, immigrant or citizen alike, because I am the Lord your God.

²³ Moses told this to the Israelites. So they took the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did just as the Lord commanded Moses.

The sabbatical year

25 The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ² Speak to the Israelites and say to them: Once you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must celebrate a sabbath rest to the Lord. ³ You will plant your fields for six years, and prune your vineyards and gather their crops for six years. ⁴ But in the seventh year the land will have a special sabbath rest, a Sabbath to the Lord: You must not plant your fields or prune your vineyards. ⁵ You must not harvest the secondary growth of your produce or gather the grapes of your freely growing vines. It will be a year of special rest for the land. ⁶ Whatever the land produces during its sabbath will be your food—for you, for your male and female servants, and for your hired laborers and foreign guests who live with you, ⁷ as well as for your livestock and for the wild animals in your land. All of the land’s produce can be eaten.

The Jubilee year

⁸ Count off seven weeks of years—that is, seven times seven—so that the seven weeks of years totals forty-nine years. ⁹ Then have the trumpet^[au] blown on the tenth day of the seventh month.^[av] Have the trumpet blown throughout your land on the Day of Reconciliation. ¹⁰ You will make the fiftieth year holy, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee year^[aw] for you: each of you must return to your family property and to your extended family. ¹¹ The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee year for you. Do not plant, do not harvest the secondary growth, and do not gather from the freely growing vines ¹² because it is a Jubilee: it will be holy to you. You can eat only the produce directly out of the field. ¹³ Each of you must return to your family property in this year of Jubilee.

¹⁴ When you sell something to or buy something from your fellow citizen, you must not cheat each other. ¹⁵ You will buy from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the Jubilee; he will sell to you according to the number of years left for harvests. ¹⁶ You will raise the price if there are more years, or lower the price if there are less years because it is the number of harvests that are being sold to you. ¹⁷ You must not cheat each other but fear your God because I am the Lord your God. ¹⁸ You will observe my rules, and you will keep my regulations and do them so that you can live securely on the land.

Food during fallow years

¹⁹ The land will give its fruit so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. ²⁰ Suppose you ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or gather our crops then?” ²¹ I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year so that it will make enough produce for three years. ²² You can plant again in the eighth year and eat food from the previous year’s produce until the ninth year. Until its produce comes, you will eat the food from the previous year.

Buying back family property

²³ The land must not be permanently sold because the land is mine. You are just immigrants and foreign guests of mine.

²⁴ Throughout the whole land that you possess, you must allow for the land to be bought back. ²⁵ When one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and must sell part of their family property, the closest relative^[ax] will come and buy back what their fellow Israelite has sold. ²⁶ If the person doesn’t have someone to buy it back, but then manages to afford buying it back, ²⁷ they must calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the person to whom they sold it. Then it will go back to the family property.^{[ay] 28} If they cannot afford to make a refund to the buyer, whatever was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Jubilee year. It will be released in the Jubilee year, at which point it will return to the family property.

²⁹ When a person sells a home in a walled city, it may be bought back until a year after its sale. The period for buying it back will be one year. ³⁰ If it is not bought back before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city will belong to the buyer permanently and their descendants forever. It will not be released at the Jubilee. ³¹ But houses in settlements that are unwalled will be considered as if they were country fields. They can be bought back, and they must be released at the Jubilee.

³² Levites will always have the right to buy back homes in the levitical cities that are part of their family property. ³³ Levite property that can be bought back—houses sold in a city that is their family property—must be released at the Jubilee, because homes in levitical cities are the Levites’ family property among the Israelites. ³⁴ But the pastureland around their cities cannot be sold, because that is their permanent family property.

Poor Israelites and slavery

³⁵ If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and is in a shaky situation with you,^[az] you must assist them as you would an immigrant or foreign guest so that they can survive among you. ³⁶ Do not take interest from them, or any kind of profit from interest, but fear your God so that your fellow Israelite can survive among you. ³⁷ Do not lend a poor Israelite money with interest or lend food at a profit. ³⁸ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you Canaan’s land and to be your God.

³⁹ If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty with you and sells themselves to you, you must not make him work as a slave. ⁴⁰ Instead, they will be like a hired laborer or foreign guest to you. They will work for you until the Jubilee year, ⁴¹ at which point the poor Israelite along with their children will be released from you. They can return to their extended family and to their family property. ⁴² You must do this because these people are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land. They must not be sold as slaves. ⁴³ You will not harshly rule over them but must fear your God.

⁴⁴ Regarding male or female slaves that you are allowed to have: You can buy a male or a female slave from the nations that are around you. ⁴⁵ You can also buy them from the foreign guests who live with you and from their extended families that are with you, who were born in your land. These can belong to you as property. ⁴⁶ You can pass them on to your children as inheritance that they can own as permanent property. You can make these people work as slaves, but you must not rule harshly over your own people, the Israelites.

⁴⁷ If an immigrant or foreign guest prospers financially among you, but your fellow Israelite faces financial difficulty and so sells themselves to the immigrant or foreign guest, or to a descendant of a foreigner, ⁴⁸ the Israelite will have the right to be bought back after they sold themselves. One of their relatives can buy them back: ⁴⁹ their uncle or cousin can buy them back; one of their blood relatives from their family can buy them back; or they may be able to afford their own purchase. ⁵⁰ The Israelite will calculate with their owner the time from the year they were sold until the Jubilee year. The price of their release will be based on the number of years they were with the owner, as in the case of a hired laborer. ⁵¹ If there are many years left before the Jubilee, the Israelite will pay for their purchase in proportion to their purchase price. ⁵² If only a few years are left, they will calculate that and pay for their purchase according to the years of service. ⁵³ Regardless, the Israelite will be to the buyer like a yearly laborer; the buyer must not harshly rule over them in your sight. ⁵⁴ If the Israelite is not bought back in one of these ways, they and their children must be released in the Jubilee year ⁵⁵ because the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants—I brought them out of Egypt’s land; I am the Lord your God.

Covenant blessings

26 You must not make any idols, and do not set up any divine image or sacred pillar. You must not place any carved^[ba] stone in your land, bowing down to it, because I am the Lord your God. ² You must keep my sabbaths and respect my sanctuary; I am the Lord.

³ If you live according to my rules, keep my commands, and do them, ⁴ I will give you rain at the proper time, the land will produce its yield, and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing season will last until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will last until planting time. You will eat your fill of food and live securely in your land. ⁶ I will grant peace in the land so that you can lie down without anyone frightening you. I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword will pass through it. ⁷ You will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you in battle. ⁸ Five of you will chase away a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase away ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you in battle. ⁹ I will turn my face to you, will make you fruitful and numerous, and will keep my covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will still be eating the previous year’s harvest when the time will come to clear it out to make room for the new! ¹¹ I will place my dwelling^[bb] among you, and I will not despise you. ¹² I will walk around among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt’s land—who brought you out from being Egypt’s slaves. I broke your bonds and made you stand up straight.

Covenant curses

¹⁴ But if you do not obey me and do not carry out all these commands— ¹⁵ if you reject my rules and despise my regulations, not doing all my commands and breaking my covenant— ¹⁶ then I will do the following to you:

I will bring horrific things:^[bc] wasting diseases and fevers that make the eyes fail and drain life away.

You will plant seed for no reason because your enemies will eat the food.

¹⁷ I will turn my face against you: you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you; and you will run away even when no one is chasing you.

¹⁸ If, despite all that, you still do not obey me, I will punish you for your sins seven more times: ¹⁹ I will destroy your prideful power. I will turn your sky to iron and your land to bronze ²⁰ so that your strength will be spent for no reason: your land will not produce its yield, and the trees of the land won’t produce their fruit.

²¹ If you continue to oppose me and are unwilling to obey me, I will strike you for your sins seven more times: ²² I will send wild animals against you, and they will kill your children and destroy your livestock. They will make you so few in number that your roads will seem deserted.

²³ If, despite these things, you still do not accept my discipline and continue to oppose me, ²⁴ then I will continue to oppose you. I will strike you for your sins seven more times: ²⁵ I will bring the sword against you, avenging the breaking of the covenant.^[bd] If you retreat into your cities, I will send a plague on you, and you will be handed over to the enemy. ²⁶ When I destroy your food supply, ten women will bake bread in a single oven, and they will ration out bread by weight. You will eat but will never get full.