Care of the Tabernacle Lamps^(A)

24 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ^2 (B)“Command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually. ³ Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the tabernacle of meeting, Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a statute forever in your generations. ⁴ He shall ^[a]be in charge of the lamps on ^(C)the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.

The Bread of the Tabernacle

⁵ “And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve ^(D)cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. ⁶ You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, ^(E)on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷ And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a ^(F)memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord. ^8 (G)Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. ⁹ And ^(H)it shall be for Aaron and his sons, ^(I)and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”

The Penalty for Blasphemy

¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. ¹¹ And the Israelite woman’s son ^(J)blasphemed the name of the Lord and ^(K)cursed; and so they ^(L)brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹² Then they ^(M)put him ^[b]in custody, ^(N)that ^[c]the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.

¹³ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴ “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him ^(O)lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

¹⁵ “Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God ^(P)shall ^[d]bear his sin. ¹⁶ And whoever ^(Q)blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.

^17 (R)‘Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death. ^18 (S)Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal.

¹⁹ ‘If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as ^(T)he has done, so shall it be done to him— ²⁰ fracture for ^(U)fracture, ^(V)eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him. ²¹ And whoever kills an animal shall restore it; but whoever kills a man shall be put to death. ²² You shall have ^(W)the^[e] same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the Lord your God.’ ”

²³ Then Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they took outside the camp him who had cursed, and stoned him with stones. So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Sabbath of the Seventh Year^(X)

25 And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount ^(Y)Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall ^(Z)keep a sabbath to the Lord. ³ Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; ⁴ but in the ^(AA)seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn ^(AB)rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ^5 (AC)What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. ⁶ And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, ⁷ for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

⁸ ‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; ^(AD)on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. ¹⁰ And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and ^(AE)proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; ^(AF)and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it ^(AG)you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. ¹² For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; ^(AH)you shall eat its produce from the field.

^13 (AI)‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. ¹⁴ And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not ^(AJ)oppress one another. ^15 (AK)According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you. ¹⁶ According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops. ¹⁷ Therefore ^(AL)you shall not ^[f]oppress one another, ^(AM)but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

Provisions for the Seventh Year

^18 (AN)‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; ^(AO)and you will dwell in the land in safety. ¹⁹ Then the land will yield its fruit, and ^(AP)you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.

²⁰ ‘And if you say, ^(AQ)“What shall we eat in the seventh year, since ^(AR)we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” ²¹ Then I will ^(AS)command My blessing on you in the ^(AT)sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. ^22 (AU)And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat ^(AV)old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

Redemption of Property

²³ ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for ^(AW)the land is Mine; for you are ^(AX)strangers and sojourners with Me. ²⁴ And in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land.

^25 (AY)‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and if ^(AZ)his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. ²⁶ Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, ²⁷ then ^(BA)let him count the years since its sale, and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. ²⁸ But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee; ^(BB)and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

²⁹ ‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year he may redeem it. ³⁰ But if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. ³¹ However the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. ³² Nevertheless ^(BC)the cities of the Levites, and the houses in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. ³³ And if a man purchases a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold in the city of his possession shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. ³⁴ But ^(BD)the field of the common-land of their cities may not be ^(BE)sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

Lending to the Poor

³⁵ ‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and ^[g]falls into poverty among you, then you shall ^(BF)help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. ^36 (BG)Take no usury or interest from him; but ^(BH)fear your God, that your brother may live with you. ³⁷ You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. ^38 (BI)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

The Law Concerning Slavery

³⁹ ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. ⁴⁰ As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. ⁴¹ And then he shall depart from you—he and his children ^(BJ)with him—and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers. ⁴² For they are ^(BK)My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. ^43 (BL)You shall not rule over him ^(BM)with ^[h]rigor, but you ^(BN)shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ Moreover you may buy ^(BO)the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property. ⁴⁶ And ^(BP)you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.

⁴⁷ ‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, ⁴⁸ after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him; or if he is able he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ Thus he shall reckon with him who bought him: The price of his release shall be according to the number of years, from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Jubilee; it shall be ^(BQ)according to the time of a hired servant for him. ⁵¹ If there are still many years remaining, according to them he shall repay the price of his redemption from the money with which he was bought. ⁵² And if there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him, and according to his years he shall repay him the price of his redemption. ⁵³ He shall be with him as a yearly hired servant, and he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee—he and his children with him. ⁵⁵ For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

The Earthly Sanctuary^(A)

9 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and ^(B)the earthly sanctuary. ² For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the ^[a]sanctuary; ^3 (C)and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All, ⁴ which had the ^(D)golden censer and ^(E)the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were ^(F)the golden pot that had the manna, ^(G)Aaron’s rod that budded, and ^(H)the tablets of the covenant; ⁵ and ^(I)above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Limitations of the Earthly Service

⁶ Now when these things had been thus prepared, ^(J)the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. ⁷ But into the second part the high priest went alone ^(K)once a year, not without blood, which he offered for ^(L)himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance; ⁸ the Holy Spirit indicating this, that ^(M)the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. ⁹ It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered ^(N)which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience— ¹⁰ concerned only with ^(O)foods and drinks, ^(P)various ^[b]washings, ^(Q)and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.

The Heavenly Sanctuary

¹¹ But Christ came as High Priest of ^(R)the good things ^[c]to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² Not ^(S)with the blood of goats and calves, but ^(T)with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place ^(U)once for all, ^(V)having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³ For if ^(W)the blood of bulls and goats and ^(X)the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, ^[d]sanctifies for the ^[e]purifying of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without ^[f]spot to God, ^(Y)cleanse your conscience from ^(Z)dead works ^(AA)to serve the living God? ¹⁵ And for this reason ^(AB)He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that ^(AC)those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

The Mediator’s Death Necessary

¹⁶ For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. ¹⁷ For ^(AD)a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. ^18 (AE)Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. ¹⁹ For when Moses had spoken every ^[g]precept to all the people according to the law, ^(AF)he took the blood of calves and goats, ^(AG)with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, ^(AH)“This is the ^(AI)blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” ²¹ Then likewise ^(AJ)he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. ²² And according to the law almost all things are ^[h]purified with blood, and ^(AK)without shedding of blood there is no ^[i]remission.

Greatness of Christ’s Sacrifice

²³ Therefore it was necessary that ^(AL)the copies of the things in the heavens should be ^[j]purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For ^(AM)Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are ^[k]copies of ^(AN)the true, but into heaven itself, now ^(AO)to appear in the presence of God for us; ²⁵ not that He should offer Himself often, as ^(AP)the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— ²⁶ He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. ^27 (AQ)And as it is appointed for men to die once, ^(AR)but after this the judgment, ²⁸ so ^(AS)Christ was ^(AT)offered once to bear the sins ^(AU)of many. To those who ^(AV)eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

An Appeal for Israel’s Repentance

To the Chief Musician. ^(A)On^[a] an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of Asaph.