The Lamp

24 The Lord spoke to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelis that they are to bring to you pure oil made from beaten olives in order to keep the lamp burning continuously. ³ Outside the Canopy of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to arrange it continually in the Lord’s presence from evening until morning as an eternal ordinance throughout your generations. ⁴ He is to arrange the lamps so that they burn continuously on a ceremonially pure lamp stand in the Lord’s presence. ⁵ Take fine flour and bake twelve cakes using two tenths of a measure^[a] for each cake. ⁶ Arrange them in two rows—six in each row—on a ceremonially pure table in the Lord’s presence. ⁷ Put pure frankincense on each row for a memorial offering. It will serve as an offering made by fire to the Lord. ⁸ They are to be arranged every Sabbath day^[b] in the Lord’s presence as a gift^[c] from the Israelis—an eternal covenant. ⁹ This gift^[d] will belong to Aaron and his sons, and they are to eat it in a sacred place, because it’s the most holy thing for him of all the offerings made by fire to the Lord. This is to be an eternal ordinance.”

A Case History of Blasphemy

¹⁰ Now a son of an Israeli woman and an Egyptian man^[e] went out among the Israelis. The Israeli woman’s son got into a fight with an Israeli man in the camp. ¹¹ Then the Israeli woman’s son blasphemed the Name and cursed, so they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan. ¹² They placed him in custody until a decision would be made^[f] to them according to the word^[g] of the Lord. ¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, ¹⁴ “Take the one who cursed outside the camp. Everyone who heard him is to lay their hands on his head. Then the entire congregation is to stone him to death. ¹⁵ Moreover, tell the Israelis that anyone who curses his God will bear the consequences of his own sin, ¹⁶ because the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord is certainly to be put to death. The entire congregation is to stone him to death. As it is for the resident alien, so it is to be with the native born: when he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death.

¹⁷ “If a man beats a human being^[h] to death,^[i] he is certainly to be executed, ¹⁸ but whoever beats an animal to death is to replace it—life for life. ¹⁹ If a man disfigures his fellow, whatever he did is to be done to him also. ²⁰ Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth—just as he had caused a disfigurement against another man, so it is to be done against him. ²¹ Whoever beats an animal to death is to replace it, but whoever beats a human being to death^[j] is to be put to death. ²² You are to have for yourselves consistent^[k] procedures in deciding a case. As it is for the resident alien, so it is for the native born. I am the Lord your God.”

²³ So Moses spoke to the Israelis and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him to death with boulders. The Israelis did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.