Beginning
Moral and Ceremonial Laws
19 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
3 Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you will keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.
4 Do not turn to idols, nor make for yourselves cast metal gods: I am the Lord your God.
5 When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you might be accepted. 6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the next day, and if any remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. 7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, then it is contaminated. It shall not be accepted. 8 Therefore everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has defiled what is holy of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from among his people.
9 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap up to the edge of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You shall not glean bare your vineyard, nor shall you gather every fallen grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.
11 You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
12 You shall not swear falsely by My name, and so defile the name of your God: I am the Lord.
13 You shall not defraud your neighbor or rob him. The wages of him who is hired shall not stay with you all night until the morning.
14 You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
15 You shall do no unrighteousness in a court. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person who is great, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, nor shall you stand by while the life of your neighbor is in danger: I am the Lord.
17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely reason honestly with your neighbor, and not suffer sin because of him.
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
19 You shall keep My statutes.
You shall not let your livestock breed with a different kind.
You shall not sow your field with mixed seed, nor shall your garment be mixed from two types of fabric.
20 Whoever lies with a slave woman who is betrothed to another man and not yet ransomed or given freedom, compensation will be made. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free. 21 He shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. 22 The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has done, and he will be forgiven for the sin that he has committed.
23 When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall count the fruit as forbidden.[a] Three years it shall be forbidden to you. It shall not be eaten. 24 But in the fourth year all the fruit shall be holy and an offering of praise to the Lord. 25 And in the fifth year you shall eat of the fruit that it may yield an increase to you: I am the Lord your God.
26 You shall not eat anything with the blood in it, nor shall you practice divination or fortune-telling.
27 You shall not round the corners of the hair on your head, nor shall you mar the edges of your beard.
28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.
29 Do not prostitute your daughter and cause her to be defiled, lest the land fall into whoredom and become full of wickedness.
30 You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary: I am the Lord.
31 Do not turn to spirits through mediums or necromancers. Do not seek after them to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
32 You shall rise up before a gray head, and honor the face of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.
33 When a foreigner sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. 34 The foreigner who dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
35 You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment regarding measures in length, weight, or quantity. 36 You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah,[b] and an honest hin:[c] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37 Therefore you shall observe all My statutes and all My judgments and do them: I am the Lord.
Penalties for Violating the Law
20 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: Whoever from the children of Israel or from the foreigners who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molek, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him. 3 I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molek to defile My sanctuary and to defile My holy name. 4 If the people of the land in any way hide their eyes from the man when he gives of his children to Molek and do not put him to death, 5 then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut them off from their people, both him and those who follow after him as whores after Molek.
6 The person who turns to spirits through mediums and necromancers in order to whore after them, I will even set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
7 Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. 8 You shall keep My statutes, and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
9 For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and his blood guilt shall be upon him.
10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have committed a perversion. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
13 If a man lies with another man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
14 If a man lies with a woman and also her mother, it is wickedness. Both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there is no wickedness among you.
15 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.
16 If a woman approaches an animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
17 If a man lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or mother, they have exposed each other’s nakedness; it is a wicked thing and they shall be cut off from the sight of their people. He has exposed his sister’s nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.
18 If a man lies with a woman during her menstrual period and exposes her nakedness, her fountain of blood is then exposed. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.
19 You shall not have relations with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, for this is to expose the nakedness of one’s relative. They shall bear their iniquity.
20 If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness. They shall bear their sin. They shall die childless.
21 If a man lies with his brother’s wife, it is impurity. He has exposed his brother’s nakedness. They shall be childless.
22 You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My decrees and do them, so that the land to where I am bringing you will not vomit you out. 23 You shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. 24 But I have said to you: You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land that flows with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from other peoples.
25 You shall therefore make distinction between the clean animal from the unclean, and the unclean fowl from the clean, and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that crawls on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. 26 You shall be holy unto Me; for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from other peoples, that you should be Mine.
27 A man or woman who speaks to spirits as a medium or necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them. Their blood guilt shall be upon them.
Rules for Priestly Conduct
21 Then the Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, 2 but for his closest relatives, that is, for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3 and his virgin sister (who is near him because she has not had a husband), for her he may be made unclean. 4 And he shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people because of the dead and so defile himself.
5 They shall not make bald areas on their heads, nor shall they shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. 6 They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and the food of their God. Therefore they shall be holy.
7 They shall not take a wife who is a whore or has been defiled, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband, for he is holy unto his God. 8 You shall sanctify him, for he offers the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy.
9 The daughter of any priest, if she defiles herself by being a whore, she also defiles her father. She shall be burned with fire.
10 He who is the high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his clothes; 11 nor shall he approach any dead body, nor make himself unclean, even for his father or his mother; 12 nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, so as not to defile the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord.
13 He shall take a wife in her virginity. 14 A widow, or a divorced woman, or a defiled woman, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry. But he shall take for a wife a virgin of his own people, 15 so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.
16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17 Speak to Aaron, saying: None of your offspring in their generations who has any blemish may approach to offer the food of his God. 18 For whoever has a blemish, he shall not approach, whether a blind or lame man, or one who has a physical flaw on his face or a limb that is too long, 19 or a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, 20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scabs, or is a eunuch. 21 No man who has a blemish from the offspring of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the food offerings of the Lord made by fire. He has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. 22 He shall eat the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy. 23 Only he shall not go in through the veil or come to the altar, because he has a blemish, so that he does not defile My sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
24 Moses spoke this to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.