Leviticus 21-27

New American Standard Bible 1995

Regulations concerning Priests

21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘^(A)No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, ^2 (B)except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother, ³ also for his virgin sister, who is near to him ^[a]because she has had no husband; for her he may defile himself. ⁴ He shall not defile himself as a ^[b]relative by marriage among his people, and so profane himself. ^5 (C)They shall not make any baldness on their heads, ^(D)nor shave off the edges of their beards, ^(E)nor make any cuts in their flesh. ⁶ They shall be holy to their God and ^(F)not profane the name of their God, for they present the offerings by fire ^[c]to the Lord, ^(G)the food of their God; so they shall be holy. ^7 (H)They shall not take a woman who is profaned by harlotry, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God. ⁸ You shall consecrate him, therefore, for he offers ^(I)the food of your God; he shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy. ^9 (J)Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰ ‘The priest who is the highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and ^[d]who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(K)shall not ^[e]uncover his head nor tear his clothes; ^11 (L)nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother; ^12 (M)nor shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for ^(N)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 (O)A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by harlotry, these he may not take; but rather he is to ^[f]marry a virgin of his own people, ¹⁵ so that he will not profane his ^[g]offspring among his people; for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.’”

¹⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷ “Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘No man of your ^[h]offspring throughout their generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the ^(P)food of his God. ^18 (Q)For no one who has a defect shall approach: a blind man, or a lame man, or he who has a ^[i](R)disfigured face, or any deformed limb, ¹⁹ or a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, ²⁰ or a hunchback or a dwarf, or one who has a ^[j]defect in his eye or eczema or scabs or ^(S)crushed testicles. ²¹ No man among the ^[k]descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect is to come near to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has a defect, he shall not come near to offer ^(T)the food of his God. ²² He may eat ^(U)the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy, ²³ only he shall not go in to the veil or come near the altar because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries. For I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’” ²⁴ So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel.

Sundry Rules for Priests

22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they dedicate to Me, so as not to profane My holy name; I am the Lord. ³ Say to them, ‘^(V)If any man among all your ^[l]descendants throughout your generations approaches the holy gifts which the sons of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from before Me; I am the Lord. ^4 (W)No man of the ^[m]descendants of Aaron, who is a leper or who has a discharge, may eat of the holy gifts until he is clean. ^(X)And if one touches anything made unclean by a corpse or if ^(Y)a man has a seminal emission, ⁵ or ^(Z)if a man touches any teeming things by which he is made unclean, or any man by whom he is made unclean, whatever his uncleanness; ⁶ a ^[n]person who touches any such shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy gifts unless he has bathed his ^[o]body in water. ⁷ But when the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he shall eat of the holy gifts, for ^(AA)it is his ^[p]food. ⁸ He shall not eat ^(AB)an animal which dies or is torn by beasts, becoming unclean by it; I am the Lord. ⁹ They shall therefore keep ^(AC)My charge, so that ^(AD)they will not bear sin because of it and die thereby because they profane it; I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹⁰ ‘^(AE)No ^[q]layman, however, is to eat the holy gift; a sojourner with the priest or a hired man shall not eat of the holy gift. ^11 (AF)But if a priest buys a ^[r]slave as his property with his money, ^[s]that one may eat of it, and those who are born in his house may eat of his ^[t]food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter is married to a ^[u]layman, she shall not eat of the ^[v]offering of the gifts. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or divorced, and has no child and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat of her father’s ^[w]food; ^(AG)but no ^[x]layman shall eat of it. ^14 (AH)But if a man eats a holy gift unintentionally, then he shall add to it a fifth of it and shall give the holy gift to the priest. ^15 (AI)They shall not profane the holy gifts of the sons of Israel which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶ and so cause them ^(AJ)to bear ^[y]punishment for guilt by eating their holy gifts; for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Flawless Animals for Sacrifice

¹⁷ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(AK)Any man of the house of Israel or of the aliens in Israel who presents his offering, whether it is any of their ^[z]votive or any of their freewill offerings, which they present to the Lord for a burnt offering— ^19 (AL)for you to be accepted—it must be a male without defect from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. ^20 (AM)Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you. ²¹ When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord ^(AN)to ^[aa]fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. ²² Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. ²³ In respect to an ox or a lamb which has an ^[ab]overgrown or stunted member, you may present it for a freewill offering, but for a vow it will not be accepted. ²⁴ Also ^(AO)anything with its testicles bruised or crushed or torn or cut, you shall not offer to the Lord, or ^[ac]sacrifice in your land, ²⁵ nor shall you accept any such from the hand of a foreigner for offering ^(AP)as the ^[ad]food of your God; for their corruption is in them, they have a defect, they shall not be accepted for you.’”

²⁶ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall ^[ae]remain ^(AQ)seven days ^[af]with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the Lord. ^28 (AR)But, whether it is an ox or a sheep, you shall not kill both it and its young in one day. ²⁹ When you sacrifice ^(AS)a sacrifice 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 until morning; I am the Lord. ^31 (AT)So you shall keep My commandments, and do them; I am the Lord.

³² “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctifies you, ^33 (AU)who brought you out from the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the Lord.”

Laws of Religious Festivals

23 The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(AV)The Lord’s appointed times which you shall ^(AW)proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:

³ ‘^(AX)For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.

⁴ ‘These are the ^(AY)appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. ^5 (AZ)In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month ^[ag]at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶ Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the ^(BA)Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall ^(BB)not do any laborious work. ⁸ But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’”

⁹ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and ^(BC)reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹² Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³ Its ^(BD)grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a ^[ah]hin of wine. ¹⁴ Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, ^(BE)you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

¹⁵ ‘^(BF)You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. ¹⁶ You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a ^(BG)new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷ You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ^[ai]ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked ^(BH)with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. ¹⁸ Along with the bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹ You shall also offer ^(BI)one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. ²⁰ The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹ On this same day you shall ^(BJ)make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious ^(BK)work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

²² ‘^(BL)When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the Lord your God.’”

²³ Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴ “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘^(BM)In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a ^[aj]rest, a ^(BN)reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ²⁵ You shall ^(BO)not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”

The Day of Atonement

²⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷ “On exactly ^(BP)the tenth day of this seventh month is ^(BQ)the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ You shall not do any work on this same day, for it is a ^(BR)day of atonement, ^(BS)to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. ²⁹ If there is any ^[ak]person who will not humble himself on this same day, ^(BT)he shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰ As for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. ³¹ You shall do no work at all. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. ³² It is to be a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall humble your souls; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening you shall keep your sabbath.”

³³ Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴ “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On ^(BU)the fifteenth of this seventh month is the ^(BV)Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. ³⁵ On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do ^(BW)no laborious work of any kind. ^36 (BX)For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On ^(BY)the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.

³⁷ ‘These are ^(BZ)the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, ^(CA)each day’s matter on its own day— ³⁸ besides those of the sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your ^[al]votive and freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

³⁹ ‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, ^(CB)when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a ^[am]rest on the first day and a ^[an]rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰ Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the ^[ao]foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴² You shall ^[ap]live ^(CC)in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall ^[aq]live in booths, ⁴³ so that ^(CD)your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” ⁴⁴ So Moses declared to the sons of Israel ^(CE)the appointed times of the Lord.

The Lamp and the Bread of the Sanctuary

24 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you ^(CF)clear oil from beaten olives for the ^[ar]light, to make a lamp ^[as]burn continually. ³ Outside the veil of testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. ⁴ He shall keep the lamps in order on the ^(CG)pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.

⁵ “^(CH)Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. ⁶ You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the ^(CI)pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷ You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be ^(CJ)a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord. ^8 (CK)Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord ^(CL)continually; it is an everlasting covenant ^[at]for the sons of Israel. ^9 (CM)It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever.”

¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel struggled with each other in the camp. ¹¹ The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the ^(CN)Name 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 ^[au]custody ^[av]so that ^(CO)the command of the Lord might be made clear to them.

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴ “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard him ^(CP)lay their hands on his head; then ^(CQ)let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘^(CR)If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin. ¹⁶ Moreover, the one who ^(CS)blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

“An Eye for an Eye”

¹⁷ ‘^(CT)If a man ^[aw]takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death. ^18 (CU)The one who ^[ax]takes the life of an animal shall make it good, life for life. ¹⁹ If a man ^[ay]injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: ^20 (CV)fracture for fracture, ^(CW)eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has ^[az]injured a man, so it shall be ^[ba]inflicted on him. ²¹ Thus the one who ^[bb]kills an animal shall make it good, but ^(CX)the one who ^[bc]kills a man shall be put to death. ²² There shall be ^(CY)one ^[bd]standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.’” ²³ Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee

25 The Lord then spoke to Moses ^[be]at Mount Sinai, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the Lord. ^3 (CZ)Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, ⁴ but during ^(DA)the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ⁵ Your harvest’s ^[bf]aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. ^6 (DB)All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. ⁷ Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.

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 You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on ^(DC)the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. ¹⁰ You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and ^(DD)proclaim ^[bg]a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, ^[bh]and ^(DE)each of you shall return to his own property, ^[bi]and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹ You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. ¹² For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.

¹³ ‘^(DF)On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. ¹⁴ If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend’s hand, ^(DG)you shall not wrong one another. ¹⁵ Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your ^[bj]friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. ^16 (DH)In proportion to the ^[bk]extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you. ¹⁷ So ^(DI)you shall not wrong one another, but you shall ^[bl]fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ ‘You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that ^(DJ)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 But if you say, “^(DK)What are we going to eat on the seventh year ^[bm]if we do not sow or gather in our crops?” ²¹ then ^(DL)I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years. ²² When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat ^(DM)old things from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.

The Law of Redemption

²³ ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for ^(DN)the land is Mine; for ^(DO)you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. ²⁴ Thus for every ^[bn]piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵ ‘^(DP)If a ^[bo]fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his ^[bp]relative has sold. ²⁶ Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so ^[bq]recovers his means as to find sufficient for its redemption, ^27 (DQ)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 property. ²⁸ But if ^[br]he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall ^[bs]revert, that ^(DR)he may return to his property.

²⁹ ‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. ³⁰ But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not ^[bt]revert in the jubilee. ³¹ The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall shall be considered ^[bu]as open fields; they have redemption rights and ^[bv]revert in the jubilee. ³² As for ^(DS)cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. ³³ What, therefore, ^[bw]belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house sale ^[bx]in the city of this possession ^[by]reverts in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. ^34 (DT)But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.

Of Poor Countrymen

³⁵ ‘^(DU)Now in case a ^[bz]countryman of yours becomes poor and his ^[ca]means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. ^36 (DV)Do not take ^[cb]usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your ^[cc]countryman may live with you. ³⁷ You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain. ^38 (DW)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and ^(DX)to be your God.

³⁹ ‘^(DY)If a ^[cd]countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service. ⁴⁰ He shall be with you as a hired man, as ^(DZ)if he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee. ⁴¹ He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers. ⁴² For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale. ^43 (EA)You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God. 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 Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have ^[ce]produced in your land; they also may become your possession. ⁴⁶ You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. ^(EB)But in respect to your ^[cf]countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.

Of Redeeming a Poor Man

⁴⁷ ‘Now if the ^[cg]means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a ^[ch]countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family, ⁴⁸ then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or ^[ci](EC)if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him. ⁵¹ If there are still many years, ^(ED)he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption; ⁵² and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption. ⁵³ Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; ^(EE)he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight. ⁵⁴ Even if he is not redeemed by ^[cj]these means, ^(EF)he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. ⁵⁵ For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Blessings of Obedience

26 ‘You shall not make for yourselves ^[ck](EG)idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ^(EH)an image or ^(EI)a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a ^(EJ)figured stone in your land to bow down ^[cl]to it; for I am the Lord your God. ^2 (EK)You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord. ^3 (EL)If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, ⁴ then ^(EM)I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ^5 (EN)Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your ^[cm]food to the full and ^(EO)live securely in your land. ^6 (EP)I shall also grant peace in the land, so that ^(EQ)you may lie down with no one making you tremble. ^(ER)I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and ^(ES)no sword will pass through your land. ⁷ But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the sword; ^8 (ET)five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹ So I will turn toward you and ^(EU)make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will ^(EV)confirm My covenant with you. ^10 (EW)You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. ^11 (EX)Moreover, I will make My ^[cn]dwelling among you, and My soul will not ^[co]reject you. ^12 (EY)I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ^13 (EZ)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and ^(FA)I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴ ‘^(FB)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵ if, instead, you ^(FC)reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so ^(FD)break My covenant, ¹⁶ I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a ^(FE)sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the ^(FF)soul to pine away; also, ^(FG)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. ¹⁷ I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and ^(FH)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(FI)you will flee when no one is pursuing you. ¹⁸ If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ^(FJ)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will also ^(FK)break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ^20 (FL)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 ^[cp](FM)act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(FN)seven times according to your sins. ^22 (FO)I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that ^(FP)your roads lie deserted.

²³ ‘^(FQ)And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁴ then I will ^(FR)act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(FS)seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(FT)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send ^(FU)pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands. ^26 (FV)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^[cq]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(FW)eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷ ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁸ then ^(FX)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹ Further, ^(FY)you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. ³⁰ I then ^(FZ)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(GA)incense altars, and heap your ^[cr]remains on the ^[cs]remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. ³¹ I will ^[ct]lay ^(GB)waste your cities as well and will make your ^(GC)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(GD)smell your soothing aromas. ³² I will make ^(GE)the land desolate ^(GF)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. ³³ You, however, I ^(GG)will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.

³⁴ ‘^(GH)Then the land will ^[cu]enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and ^[cv]enjoy its sabbaths. ³⁵ All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶ As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring ^(GI)weakness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[cw]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ^37 (GJ)They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength ^[cx]to stand up before your enemies. ³⁸ But ^(GK)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ^39 (GL)So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

⁴⁰ ‘^(GM)If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹ I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(GN)or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that ^(GO)they then make amends for their iniquity, ⁴² then I will remember ^(GP)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(GQ)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(GR)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ^43 (GS)For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, ^[cy]because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(GT)soul abhorred 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 ^(GU)abhor them as ^(GV)to destroy them, ^(GW)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵ But I will remember for them the ^(GX)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that ^(GY)I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

^46 (GZ)These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[cz]through Moses at Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Valuations

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(HA)When a man makes a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging to the Lord. ³ If your valuation is of the male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after ^(HB)the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴ Or if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. ⁵ If it be from five years even to twenty years old then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels. ⁶ But if they are from a month even up to five years old, then your valuation shall be ^(HC)five shekels of silver for the male, and for the female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷ If they are from sixty years old and upward, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. ⁸ But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be placed before the priest and the priest shall value him; ^(HD)according to ^[da]the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall value him.

⁹ ‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which ^[db]men can present as an offering to the Lord, any such that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. ^10 (HE)He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. ¹¹ If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which ^[dc]men do not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest. ¹² The priest shall value it ^[dd]as either good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be. ¹³ But if he should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of it to your valuation.

¹⁴ ‘Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall value it ^[de]as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. ¹⁵ Yet if the one who consecrates it should wish to redeem his house, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶ ‘Again, if a man consecrates to the Lord part of the fields of his own property, then your valuation shall be ^[df]proportionate to the seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. ¹⁸ If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for ^[dg]him ^[dh]proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation. ¹⁹ If the one who consecrates it should ever wish to redeem the field, then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may pass to him. ²⁰ Yet if he will not redeem the field, ^[di]but has sold the field to another man, it may no longer be redeemed; ²¹ and when it ^[dj]reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field ^[dk]set apart; ^(HF)it shall be for the priest as his ^[dl]property. ²² Or if he consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own ^[dm]property, ²³ then the priest shall calculate for ^[dn]him the amount of your valuation up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your valuation as holy to the Lord. ²⁴ In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. ²⁵ Every valuation of yours, moreover, shall be after ^(HG)the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

²⁶ ‘^(HH)However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may consecrate it; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷ But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ^[do]redeem it according to your valuation and add to it one-fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

²⁸ ‘Nevertheless, ^(HI)anything which a man ^[dp]sets apart to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything ^[dq]devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹ No ^[dr]one who may have been ^[ds]set apart among men shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

³⁰ ‘Thus ^(HJ)all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it one-fifth of it. ³² For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever ^(HK)passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. ^33 (HL)He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”

^34 (HM)These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai.