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Laws concerning Offerings

15 Then the Lord told Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“When you finally settle in the land I am giving you, you will offer special gifts as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. These gifts may take the form of a burnt offering, a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, a voluntary offering, or an offering at any of your annual festivals, and they may be taken from your herds of cattle or your flocks of sheep and goats. When you present these offerings, you must also give the Lord a grain offering of two quarts[a] of choice flour mixed with one quart[b] of olive oil. For each lamb offered as a burnt offering or a special sacrifice, you must also present one quart of wine as a liquid offering.

“If the sacrifice is a ram, give a grain offering of four quarts[c] of choice flour mixed with a third of a gallon[d] of olive oil, and give a third of a gallon of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

“When you present a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord, you must also give a grain offering of six quarts[e] of choice flour mixed with two quarts[f] of olive oil, 10 and give two quarts of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

11 “Each sacrifice of a bull, ram, lamb, or young goat should be prepared in this way. 12 Follow these instructions with each offering you present. 13 All of you native-born Israelites must follow these instructions when you offer a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 14 And if any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, they must follow these same procedures. 15 Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the Lord and are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation. 16 The same instructions and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigners living among you.”

17 Then the Lord said to Moses, 18 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“When you arrive in the land where I am taking you, 19 and you eat the crops that grow there, you must set some aside as a sacred offering to the Lord. 20 Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor. 21 Throughout the generations to come, you are to present a sacred offering to the Lord each year from the first of your ground flour.

22 “But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the Lord has given you through Moses. 23 And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the Lord has commanded through Moses. 24 If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It must be offered along with its prescribed grain offering and liquid offering and with one male goat for a sin offering. 25 With it the priest will purify the whole community of Israel, making them right with the Lord,[g] and they will be forgiven. For it was an unintentional sin, and they have corrected it with their offerings to the Lord—the special gift and the sin offering. 26 The whole community of Israel will be forgiven, including the foreigners living among you, for all the people were involved in the sin.

27 “If one individual commits an unintentional sin, the guilty person must bring a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering. 28 The priest will sacrifice it to purify[h] the guilty person before the Lord, and that person will be forgiven. 29 These same instructions apply both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you.

30 “But those who brazenly violate the Lord’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the Lord, and they must be cut off from the community. 31 Since they have treated the Lord’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”

Penalty for Breaking the Sabbath

32 One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community. 34 They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him. 35 Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.” 36 So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Tassels on Clothing

37 Then the Lord said to Moses, 38 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord. 39 When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. 40 The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. 41 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!”

Footnotes

  1. 15:4a Hebrew 1⁄10 of an ephah [2.2 liters].
  2. 15:4b Hebrew 1⁄4 of a hin [1 liter]; also in 15:5.
  3. 15:6a Hebrew 2⁄10 of an ephah [4.4 liters].
  4. 15:6b Hebrew 1⁄3 of a hin [1.3 liters]; also in 15:7.
  5. 15:9a Hebrew 3⁄10 of an ephah [6.6 liters].
  6. 15:9b Hebrew 1⁄2 of a hin [2 liters]; also in 15:10.
  7. 15:25 Or will make atonement for the whole community of Israel.
  8. 15:28 Or to make atonement for.

Various Sacrifices and Offerings

15 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites[a] and say to them, ‘When you come into the land of your dwellings that I am about to give to you, you will make an offering by fire for Yahweh from the cattle or from the flock, a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, or as a freewill offering or at your feasts, to make a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh. And the one who presents an offering[b] for Yahweh, he will present a grain offering of finely milled flour; a tenth will be mixed with a fourth of the liquid measure of oil; and you will add a fourth of wine for the libation upon the burnt offering, or to the sacrifice for each ram-lamb. Or for the ram you will make a grain offering of two-tenths of finely milled flour mixed into a third of a liquid measure of oil. You will present a third of the liquid measure of wine for the libation, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh. When you prepare a bull[c] as a burnt offering or a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or a fellowship offering for Yahweh, you will present with the bull[d] a grain offering of three-tenths of finely milled flour mixed with half a liquid measure of oil, 10 and you will present half a liquid measure of wine as a libation, as an offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh.

11 “‘This is how it should be done for each bull, or for the each ram, or for the small four-footed mammal, or ram-lambs, or goats. 12 According to the number that you prepare, so should you do to each according to their number. 13 Every native must do these things to present an offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh. 14 If an alien dwells among you, or whoever is in your midst throughout your generations,[e] and prepares an offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh, he should do as you do. 15 For the assembly, there will be one decree for you and for the alien who dwells among you; it is an eternal decree for all your generations. You as well as the alien[f] will be before Yahweh.[g] 16 There will be one law and one stipulation for you and for the alien dwelling among you.’”

17 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 18 “Speak to the Israelites[h] and say to them, ‘When you come into the land to which I am about to bring you, 19 whenever you eat from the food of the land, you will lift up a contribution to Yahweh. 20 You must lift up a contribution of the first batch of your ring-shaped dough bread; you must lift it up as a contribution of the threshing floor. 21 You will give to Yahweh a contribution from the first of your dough throughout your generations.[i]

22 “‘But if you go astray and you do not follow[j] all these commandments that Yahweh commanded to Moses, 23 all that Yahweh commanded you by the hand of Moses[k] from the day that Yahweh commanded and beyond, throughout your generations,[l] 24 and if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge[m] of the community, then the entire community must prepare one young bull[n] as a burnt offering, as a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh, and its grain offering and its libation, according to the stipulation, and one male goat as a sin offering. 25 The priest will make atonement for all of the community of the Israelites,[o] and they will be forgiven[p] because it was unintentional; they will bring their offering, an offering made by fire for Yahweh, their sin offering before Yahweh[q] for their unintentional sin. 26 All of the community of the Israelites[r] will be forgiven, as well as the alien that dwells in their midst, because the whole community was involved in the unintentional wrong.

27 “‘If one person sins unintentionally, that person will present a female goat in its first year[s] as a sin offering. 28 And the priest will make atonement for the person who sinned unintentionally[t] before Yahweh,[u] to make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven. 29 For the native among the Israelites[v] and the alien that dwells in their midst, there will be one law for anyone who commits an unintentional wrong. 30 But the one who acts presumptuously[w] from among the native or alien blasphemes against Yahweh, and that person must be cut off from the midst of the people. 31 Because he despised the word of Yahweh and broke his command, that person will be surely cut off and bear the guilt.’”

Violation of the Sabbath

32 When the Israelites[x] were in the desert, they found a man who was gathering wood on the day of the Sabbath. 33 The ones who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to all the community. 34 And they put him under watch because it was not made clear what should be done to him. 35 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Surely the man must be put to death by stoning him; all the community must stone him with stones from outside the camp.” 36 So the entire community brought him out to a place outside the camp, and they stoned him to death[y] just as Yahweh commanded Moses.

Garment Fringes

37 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 38 “Speak to the Israelites,[z] and tell them to make for themselves tassels[aa] on the hems of their garments throughout their generations[ab] and to put a blue cord on the tassel of the hem. 39 You will have a tassel for you to look at[ac] and remember all the commands of Yahweh and do them, and not follow after the unfaithfulness of your own heart and eyes,[ad] 40 so that you will remember and do all my commandments, and you will be holy for your God. 41 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am Yahweh your God.”

Footnotes

  1. Numbers 15:2 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  2. Numbers 15:4 Hebrew “his offering”
  3. Numbers 15:8 Literally “a son of cattle”
  4. Numbers 15:9 Literally “the son of the cattle”
  5. Numbers 15:14 Hebrew “for your generations”
  6. Numbers 15:15 Literally “like you like the alien”
  7. Numbers 15:15 Literally “in the presence of Yahweh”
  8. Numbers 15:18 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  9. Numbers 15:21 Hebrew “for your generations”
  10. Numbers 15:22 Or “do”
  11. Numbers 15:23 Or “through Moses”
  12. Numbers 15:23 Hebrew “for your generations”
  13. Numbers 15:24 Literally “from the eyes”
  14. Numbers 15:24 Literally “a bull a son of cattle”
  15. Numbers 15:25 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  16. Numbers 15:25 Literally “it will be forgiven to them”
  17. Numbers 15:25 Literally “in the presence of Yahweh”
  18. Numbers 15:26 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  19. Numbers 15:27 Literally “a daughter of a year”
  20. Numbers 15:28 Literally “sinned unintentionally when sinning an unintentional wrong”
  21. Numbers 15:28 Literally “in the presence of Yahweh”
  22. Numbers 15:29 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  23. Numbers 15:30 Literally “who acts with a high hand”
  24. Numbers 15:32 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  25. Numbers 15:36 Literally “they stoned him with stones and he died”
  26. Numbers 15:38 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  27. Numbers 15:38 Hebrew “tassel”
  28. Numbers 15:38 Hebrew “for their generations”
  29. Numbers 15:39 Literally “and you will look at it”
  30. Numbers 15:39 Literally “after your heart and after your eyes, which you are unfaithful after them”