Chronological
Ritual Purity
19 The Lord spoke to Moses, 2 “Tell the entire assembly of Israel that they are to be holy, since I, the Lord your God, am holy.
3 “Each of you is to fear his mother and father.
“Observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.
4 “You are not to turn to their idols or cast gods out of melted metal for yourselves. I am the Lord your God.
5 “When you offer a peace offering to the Lord, you are to offer it for your acceptance. 6 Your sacrifice is to be eaten on that day and the next day. Anything that remains to the third day is to be incinerated. 7 If it is eaten on the third day, it’s unclean. It won’t be accepted. 8 Anyone who eats it will bear the punishment of his sin, since he will have defiled himself regarding the Lord’s holy things. That person[a] is to be eliminated from contact with his people.”[b]
Harvesting and Gleaning
9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to completely finish harvesting the corners of the field—that is, you are not to pick what remains after you have reaped your harvest. 10 You are not to gather your vineyard or pick up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. Leave something for the poor and the resident alien who lives among you. I am the Lord your God.”
Just Dealings
11 “You are not to steal or lie or deal falsely with your neighbor.
12 “You are not to use my name to deceive, thereby defiling the name of your God. I am the Lord.
13 “You are not to oppress your neighbor or rob him.[c]
“The wages of a hired laborer are not to remain in your possession until morning.
14 “You are not to curse a deaf person or put a stumbling block before the blind.
“You are to fear God. I am the Lord.
15 “You are not to be unjust in deciding a case. You are not to show partiality to the poor or honor the great. Instead, decide the case of your neighbor with righteousness.”
Social Responsibility
16 “You are not to go around slandering your people.
“You are not to stand idle[d] when your neighbor’s life is at stake.[e] I am the Lord.
17 “You are not to hate your relative in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor if you must, but you are not to incur guilt on account of him.
18 “You are not to seek vengeance or hold a grudge against the descendants of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
On Preserving Distinctiveness
19 “Observe my statutes.
“You are not to let your cattle breed with a different species.[f]
“You are not to sow your fields with two different kinds of seeds.[g]
“You are not to wear clothing made from two different kinds of material.
20 “When a person has sexual relations[h] with a woman servant who is engaged to another man, but she has not been completely redeemed nor has her freedom been granted to her, there is to be an inquiry, but they won’t be put to death, since she has not been freed. 21 The perpetrator[i] is to bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting—that is, a ram as a guilt offering. 22 Then the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering in the Lord’s presence on account of his sin which he has committed, but which will be forgiven him.”
Restrictions on Initial Harvests
23 “When you have entered the land and planted all sorts of trees for food, regard its fruit as uncircumcised for the first three years for you. It is not to be eaten. 24 During the fourth year, all its fruit is to be offered as a holy token of praise to the Lord. 25 But on the fifth year, you may eat its fruits to increase its produce for you.”
Prohibited Practices
26 “You are not to eat anything containing blood, engage in occult practices,[j] or practice fortune telling.[k]
27 “You are not to cut your hair in ritualistic patterns[l] on your head or deface the edges of your beard.
28 “You are not to make incisions in your flesh on account of the dead nor submit to cuts or tattoos. I am the Lord.
29 “You are not to defile your daughter by engaging her in prostitution so the land won’t become filled with wickedness.
30 “Observe my Sabbath and stand in awe of my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
31 “You are to consult neither mediums nor familiar spirits. You are never to seek them—you’ll just be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.
32 “Rise in the presence of the aged[m] and honor the elderly face-to-face.
“Fear your God. I am the Lord.
33 “If a resident alien lives with you in your land, you are not to mistreat him. 34 You are to treat the resident alien the same way you treat the native born among you—love him like yourself, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
35 “You are not to act unjustly in deciding a case[n] or when measuring weight and quantity. 36 You are to maintain just balances and reliable standards for weights, dry volumes, and liquid volumes.[o] I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 Observe all my statutes and all my ordinances in order to practice them. I am the Lord.”
Prohibiting Child Sacrifice
20 The Lord spoke to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelis that when an Israeli or a resident alien[p] who lives in Israel offers[q] his child to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death.[r] The people who live in the land are to stone him with stones. 3 As for me, I’ll oppose that man. I’ll eliminate him from contact with his people[s] for sacrificing his children to Molech, thereby defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. 4 If the people avoid dealing[t] with that man when he offers his child to Molech—that is, if they fail to execute him— 5 then I’ll oppose that man and his family and eliminate him from contact with his people,[u] along with all the prostitutes who accompany him and who have committed prostitution with Molech.”
Consulting the Dead Prohibited
6 “I’ll oppose and eliminate from contact with his people[v] whoever consults mediums or familiar spirits, thereby committing spiritual prostitution with them. 7 Therefore, separate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 8 Keep my statutes and observe them. I am the Lord, who has set you apart.”
Honoring Parents
9 “Anyone who curses his father or mother is certainly to be put to death.[w] He has cursed his father or mother, so his guilt will remain his responsibility.”
Honoring the Seventh Commandment
10 “If anyone commits adultery with another man’s wife, including when someone commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to die.
11 “If a man has sexual relations with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness, so both of them are to be put to death. Their guilt will remain their responsibility.
12 “If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, the two are to be put to death. They’ve committed a repulsive act. Their guilt[x] will remain their responsibility.
13 “If a man has sexual relations with another male as he would with a woman, both have committed a repulsive act. They are certainly to be put to death.
14 “If a man takes a wife along with her mother, that’s wickedness. They are to be burned with fire—that is, both him and them, so that there will be no wickedness in your midst.
15 “If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he is to be put to death, and you are also to kill the animal.
16 “If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual relations with it, both the woman and the animal are to be put to death. Their guilt[y] will remain their responsibility.
17 “If a man takes his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter, so that he exposes her nakedness and she exposes his nakedness, it’s a shameful thing. They are to be eliminated from contact with their people[z] in front of their people’s children. He has exposed his sister’s nakedness. He’ll continue to bear responsibility for[aa] his iniquity.
18 “If a man has sexual relations with a menstruating woman, he has exposed her nakedness, laying bare her fountain. He has exposed the source of her blood. Both are to be eliminated from contact with their people.[ab]
19 “You are not to have sexual relations with your mother’s sister or your father’s sister, because that is laying bare the nakedness of his close relative. They’ll continue to bear responsibility for[ac] their iniquity.
20 “If a man has sexual relations with his uncle’s wife, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness. They are to bear responsibility for[ad] punishment of their sin. They’ll die childless.
21 “If a man takes his brother’s wife, it’s immoral.[ae] He has exposed his brother’s nakedness. They’ll be childless.”
Living Distinctively in Holiness
22 “Be sure to keep all my statutes and observe all my ordinances, so that the land where I’m about to bring you to live won’t vomit you out. 23 You are not to live[af] by the customs of the nations, whom I’ve cast away right in front of you. Because they did all of these things, I detested them. 24 But I’ve promised[ag] you that you’ll inherit the land that I’m about to give you as your permanent possession[ah]—a land flowing with milk and honey.
“I am your God. I’ve separated you from the people. 25 You are to differentiate between the clean animal and the unclean and between the unclean bird and the clean. You are not to make yourselves detestable on account of any animal, bird, or any creeping creature of the ground that I’ve separated for you as unclean.
26 “You are to be holy toward me, because I, the Lord, am holy. I’ve separated you from among the people to be mine.
27 “Moreover, a man or a woman who has a ritual spirit or a familiar spirit is certainly to die. They are to be stoned to death with boulders. They will continue to bear responsibility for their guilt.”[ai]
Priestly Holiness
21 The Lord told Moses, “Speak to the priests, Aaron’s sons, and tell them that no priest is to defile himself on account of the dead among his people, 2 except his close relatives—his mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or 3 virgin sister (who is a near relative of him and did not have a husband—[aj] he may defile himself for her). 4 Because he is a husband among his people, he is not to defile himself, thereby polluting himself.
5 “They are not to cut their hair in ritualistic patterns[ak] on their heads, deface the edges of their beards, or make incisions in their flesh. 6 They are to be holy to their God. They are not to defile the name of their God, because they’re the ones who bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire—the food of their God—so they are to be holy.
7 “They are not to marry[al] a prostitute or a woman who has been dishonored or who was divorced from her husband, because the priest[am] is holy to his God. 8 Consecrate him, because he’s the one who offers the food of your God. He is to be holy for you, because I, the Lord, the one who sanctifies you, am holy.
9 “Now if the daughter of any priest defiles herself by being a prostitute, she defiles her father. She is to be incinerated.
10 “The high priest among his relatives—whose head has been anointed with oil and who has been consecrated to put on the priestly clothing—is not to let his hair hang loose or to tear his clothes. 11 He is not to come near any dead body—whether the deceased[an] is his father or his mother—so as not to defile himself. 12 He is not to go out of the sanctuary or defile the sanctuary of his God, because his God’s consecrating oil of anointing rests on him. I am the Lord.
13 “Furthermore, he is to marry a true virgin.[ao] 14 He is not to marry a widow or one who has been divorced, has been defiled, or has been a prostitute. Instead, he is to take a virgin from among his people as his wife.
15 “He is not to defile his children[ap] among his people, because I am the Lord, who sets him apart.”
On Physical Defects
16 The Lord told Moses, 17 “Tell Aaron that whoever of your descendants throughout their generations has a bodily defect is not to approach to offer the food of his God. 18 Indeed, any person who has a defect is not to approach the Tent of Meeting—[aq] the blind, the lame, one who is mutilated in the face or who has a very long limb, 19 or a person who has a fractured foot or hand, 20 has scoliosis,[ar] is a dwarf, or has an eye defect, an itching disease, scabs, or a crushed testicle. 21 None of the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a defect is to approach to bring offerings of the Lord made by fire, since he has a defect. He is not to approach to offer the food of his God. 22 However, he may eat the food of his God, including the most holy and the holy offerings, 23 but he is not to enter through the curtain nor approach the altar, since he has a defect. That way, he won’t defile my sanctuary, since I am the Lord, who sets you apart.”
24 Moses told all of this[as] to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelis.
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