Leviticus 23:1-25:23

EasyEnglish Bible

Rules for the Seasons and for the special days

23 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell Israel's people about the special days when they must worship the Lord. They are holy days. The Israelites must come together and have a feast on these days.

³ There are six days when a person can work. The seventh day is the Sabbath day. A person must not do any work on that day. It is a day when people meet together for worship. You must not work in any place where you live. It is the Sabbath to the Lord, a day of rest.

Passover and bread without yeast

⁴ There are other special days. They are holy feasts. On these days you must tell the people how to obey the Lord's rules. ⁵ One special day is the 14th day of the first month. When the sun goes down, the Passover to the Lord begins. ⁶ The 15th day of the first month, the Feast of Flat Bread begins. It is a feast to the Lord. For seven days the people must eat bread that has no yeast in it. ⁷ On the first day the people must meet together and they must not work. ⁸ For seven days the people must give burnt offerings to the Lord. On the seventh day they must stop work and they must worship the Lord.’^[a]

Gifts of new grain

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ ‘Tell Israel's people this. They will go into the land that I will give to them. And then they will harvest the grain. They must take the first part of the harvest in their arms. They must give this to the priest. ¹¹ The priest will lift it to the Lord. Then the Lord will accept their gift. The priest will do this on the day after the Sabbath day. ¹² On the same day the priest will bring a young sheep that is perfect to the Lord. It must be one year old. It is a gift from the people. ¹³ He will also bring two tenths (2/10) of an ephah (about 4 litres) of the best flour mixed with oil. He will burn the gift as a sacrifice. The smell of it while it is burning will give the Lord pleasure. The people must also give a ¼ hin (about 1 litre) of wine as a gift to God. ¹⁴ The people must not eat any of the new grain until they have given their gift to God. They and their children must do this now and always. They must do it in any place that they live.

¹⁵ On the day after the Sabbath day the people will sacrifice their gifts to God. After this, they must count seven weeks. ¹⁶ They must count 50 days until the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then they must give another gift of new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷ Each family must bring two loaves of bread as a special gift to the Lord. They must make the bread with two tenths (2/10) of an ephah (about 4 litres) of good flour and yeast. This gift is from the first of their harvest fruits. ¹⁸ With the bread, all the people must bring seven perfect sheep. They must be males, each one year old. They must bring a bull. They must also bring two older male sheep. The priest will burn the grain and the animals as a gift to the Lord. The smell of them while they are burning will give the Lord pleasure. ¹⁹ The priest must sacrifice one male goat as a sin offering. The people must give two young sheep. They must be one year old. They are a gift to God. ²⁰ The priest will lift the animals and the bread to the Lord. They are a holy offering to the Lord. They are for the priest. ²¹ On this day, the people must not do any work. They must not work anywhere that they live. It is a special day to God now and for all time to come.^[b]

²² When the people harvest the grain, they must not cut it to the edge of the field. They must not pick up any grain that falls. Some grain must remain in the field. It is for the poor people and for foreign people. I am the Lord your God.’

²³ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ ‘Tell Israel's people this. On the first day of the seventh month, they must rest. It is a special day. They must worship together with the sound of trumpets. ²⁵ They must not work. They must burn an offering to the Lord.’

The Day of Atonement

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁷ ‘The tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. On that day, the people must come together. They must not eat any food. They must make an offering of food to the Lord. ²⁸ They must not do any work. It is a holy day. On this special day, the leader of the priests must come near to the Lord. He will make atonement for the sins of the people. ²⁹ You must punish any person who eats any food on that day. Send them away from my people. ³⁰ I will kill any person who works on that day. ³¹ Nobody must work on that day. This rule is for now and for all time to come. You must obey it in any place where you are living. ³² It is a Sabbath rest for all the people. They must not eat any food. They must rest from the evening of the ninth day until the evening of the tenth day.’

The Feast of Huts^[c]

³³ The Lord said to Moses, ³⁴ ‘Tell Israel's people that the Feast of Huts will start on the 15th day of the seventh month. The feast will continue for seven days, as people worship the Lord. ³⁵ The first day is a special day. The people must not do any work. ³⁶ For seven days each person must give a gift to the Lord. The eighth day is holy. The people must come together and they must give a burnt offering to the Lord. This is the last day of the feast. The people must not do any work on that day.

³⁷ These are the rules for the special days of the Lord. You must tell people that they must bring offerings to the Lord on these days. They will bring gifts for burnt offerings each day. They must bring offerings of grain, animals and wine. ³⁸ These are not the usual Sabbath gifts to the Lord. They are not gifts to give thanks or for promises to the Lord. But they are extra gifts for special days.

³⁹ When the people have picked the grain, they can enjoy seven feast days to the Lord. The special days will begin on the 15th day of the seventh month. On the first day and on the eighth day they can rest. ⁴⁰ On the first day, they must take fruit and leaves from the trees. Then for seven days they must praise the Lord. ⁴¹ They must do this to worship the Lord for seven days of each year. They must obey this rule in the seventh month now, and for all the years to come. ⁴² All Israel's people must live in huts for seven days. ⁴³ Your descendants in the future will know that God brought Israel's people out of Egypt. They will know that he caused them to live in huts as they travelled through the wilderness. I am the Lord, your God.’

⁴⁴ Moses told the people all that the Lord had told him.

Rules about oil and the bread that the people give to the Lord

24 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell Israel's people that they must bring to you the best oil. This will cause the light to burn all the time. ³ Aaron must put more oil in the lamp from evening to morning in front of the Lord. The lamp is outside the curtain. That curtain is in the Holy Place. The light must never go out. This rule is for now and for all time to come. ⁴ The lamps on the gold lampstand must burn always in front of the Lord.^[d]

⁵ The people must bake 12 loaves of bread. They must use the best flour. They must weigh the flour for each loaf. They must use two tenths (2/10) of an ephah (4 litres). ⁶ They must put the loaves on a table in two rows in front of the Lord. There must be six loaves in each row. ⁷ They must put incense near each row. They must burn the incense as a gift to the Lord instead of the bread. ⁸ They must put the bread on the table every Sabbath. It is a covenant between Israel's people and the Lord. ⁹ The bread is for Aaron and for his sons. They must eat it in a holy place. It is their holy part of the burnt offering to the Lord.’

The story of a man who said bad things about the Lord

¹⁰ There was a man. His mother was an Israelite and his father was a man from Egypt. The man had a quarrel with an Israelite man. ¹¹ The Israelite woman's son said bad things about God. The people took him to Moses. (The name of the mother was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri from the family of Dan.) ¹² They locked the man up. The Lord told them what to do with him.

¹³ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁴ ‘Take the man outside the camp. All the people who heard him speak must put a hand on him. All the people must throw stones at him until he is dead. ¹⁵ Tell Israel's people, “It is a sin if any man says bad things about God's name. ¹⁶ He must die. All the people must throw stones at him until he is dead.” You must kill anyone who says bad things about the Lord's name. They may be a foreigner or an Israelite. You must kill them.

¹⁷ If any man kills another man you must kill him. ¹⁸ A man might kill an animal that belongs to another man. Then he must give an animal that is alive to the man. You must give a living animal if you take a living animal's life. ¹⁹ If a man hurts another person, you must punish him as he deserves. Hurt him in the same way that he has hurt the other person. ²⁰ If he has broken one of the person's bones, break one of his bones. If he hurt the person's eye, hurt his eye. If he has broken a person's tooth, break his tooth. ²¹ A man might hit an animal so that it dies. That man must give back an animal that is alive. But if he kills a man, you must punish him with death. ²² This rule is for all the people. It is the same rule for Israelites and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.’

²³ Moses spoke to Israel's people. A man had said bad things about God. They took him outside the camp. They threw stones at him until he died. Israel's people did as the Lord had told Moses.

The Sabbath Year

25 Moses was on Sinai's mountain. The Lord spoke to him there. ² The Lord said, ‘Speak to Israel's people. They will go into the land that I will give to them. Then the land must have a Sabbath rest to the Lord. ³ They can plant seeds in the fields for six years. They can cut the leaves of the plants and they can harvest the fruit for six years. ⁴ In the seventh year, the land must have a rest. They must not plant seeds in the fields or cut the leaves. ⁵ They must not harvest fruit or grain. The land must have a year for rest. ⁶ All of the people can eat anything that grows by itself in the Sabbath year. That will be food for you and for your servants and for your animals. And other people who live among you can eat it. ⁷ The wild animals also can eat anything that grows by itself in the Sabbath year.

The Jubilee Year

⁸ The people must count seven lots of Sabbath years. That is 49 years. ⁹ In the 50th year they must make loud music. They must blow trumpets on the tenth day of the seventh month. That is the Day of Atonement. They must blow the trumpet through all the country. ¹⁰ The year will be special. It is a Jubilee year. It is a time for every one of my people to become free. Everyone can return to his own land and to his family. ¹¹ The 50th year is a Jubilee year. The people must not plant any seed in the fields. They must not harvest anything that grows by itself on the bushes. ¹² It is a Jubilee year for the people. And they can eat only food that they take from the fields.

¹³ In the Jubilee year every person must return to the land of his family.

¹⁴ If the people buy and sell land from each other, they must be honest with each other. ¹⁵ The person who is selling the land will decide the price. He must count the number of years until the next Jubilee year. ¹⁶ When there are many years, the price must be big. When there are few years, the price must be small. The number of years that the land will give food to eat is what is important. ¹⁷ Be honest with each other and respect God. I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸ The people must obey God's rules. If they do, they will be safe. ¹⁹ You will be able to grow food on the land. And the people will have plenty to eat. They will be safe. ²⁰ The people may ask what they will eat in the seventh year. They will not have planted any seeds. ²¹ God will cause a lot of food to grow in the sixth year. They will have food for three more years. ²² When a person plants seed in the eighth year he will still be eating the crops that he planted in the sixth year. The next time he will harvest the plants from the fields will be in the ninth year.

²³ The people must never sell the land for all time. The land belongs to God. He has said that the people can live on it.