LEVITICUS
§ Burnt offering¤1
°1 Yahweh called Moses, and from the Tent of
Meeting addressed him, saying, °2 “Speak to the people of Israel; say to them: When
anyone brings an offering of an animal to Yahweh it can be from either his
cattle or sheep and goats. °3 If the offering is a burnt offering of one of his
cattle, he is to offer a bull without any defect. He shall offer it at the
entrance to the Tent of Meeting, so that his offering may be accepted before
Yahweh. °4 He is to lay his hand on the bull’s head, and it
shall be accepted as a sacrifice to take away his sins. °5 Then he shall kill the bull before Yahweh, and the
sons of Aaron, the priests, shall offer the blood. They will pour it out on
the sides of the altar which stands at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. °6 Then he shall skin the victim and quarter it. °7 The sons of Aaron, the priests, must put fire on the
altar and arrange wood on this fire. °8 Then
the sons of Aaron, the priests, are to put the pieces, the head and the fat
on the wood on the altar fire. °9 The man shall wash the internal organs
and legs in water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. This
will be a burnt offering and its sweet-smelling odor will please Yahweh. °10 If his offering is an animal out of the flock, a lamb
or a goat offered as a burnt offering, he is to offer a male without any
defect. °11 He shall kill it on the north side of the
altar before Yahweh, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall pour out the
blood on the sides of the altar. °12
Then he is to quarter
it, and the priest is to arrange the quarters, as well as the head and the
fat on the wood on the altar fire. °13 The
man shall wash the internal organs and legs in water, and the priest shall
burn all of it on the altar. This will be a burnt offering and its
sweet-smelling odor will please Yahweh. °14 If the man is offering a bird as a burnt offering,
he is to offer a turtledove or a young pigeon. °15 The
priest shall offer it at the altar and wring off its head, which he is to
burn on the altar; then its blood is to be drained out on the side of the
altar. °16 Then he shall remove the crop and the
feathers: these he is to throw on the eastern side of the altar, where the
ashes from the fat are placed. °17
He is to divide it in
two halves with a wing on each side, but without separating the two parts.
Then the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire.
This will be a burnt offering and its sweet-smelling odor will please Yahweh. § The grain offering
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°1 If anyone offers Yahweh a grain offering,
his offering is to be fine flour on which he is to pour wine and put incense.
°2 He shall bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests;
he is to take a handful of the fine flour and oil and all the incense, and
the priest shall burn it on the altar as a memorial, a burnt offering whose
sweet-smelling odor will please Yahweh. °3 The
remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; this is a most
holy share for it comes from the burnt offerings of Yahweh. °4 When you are going to offer a grain offering of
bread baked in the oven, the fine flour is to be prepared either in the form
of unleavened cakes mixed with oil, or in the form of unleavened wafers
spread with oil. °5 If your offering is a grain offering fried on the
griddle, the fine flour mixed with oil is to have no leavening. °6 You must break it in pieces and pour oil over it. It
is a grain offering. °7 If your offering is a grain offering
cooked in the pan, the fine flour is to be prepared in oil. °8 You must bring to Yahweh the grain offering that has
been thus prepared, presenting it to the priest, who is to bring it to the
altar. °9 The priest shall take part of this
offering and burn it on the altar to recall before Yahweh the person who is
offering it. And it will be an offering whose sweet-smelling odor will please
Yahweh. °10 The remainder of the grain offering
belongs to Aaron and his sons; this is a most holy share of Yahweh’s burnt
offering. °11 None of the grain offering that you offer to Yahweh
is to be prepared with yeast for you must never burn yeast or honey as a
burnt offering for Yahweh. °12 You may offer them up to Yahweh, as an
offering of firstfruits, but they must not go up as a sweet-smelling odor to
please Yahweh. °13 You must salt every grain offering that
you offer, and you must never fail to put on your grain offering the salt of
the Covenant with your God: to every offering you are to join an offering of
salt to Yahweh your God. °14 If you offer Yahweh a grain offering of
firstfruits, it may be from either roasted corn or bread made from ground
corn. °15 You are to add oil to it and put incense
on it; it is a grain offering °16 and the priest is to burn part of the
bread and oil (together with all the incense) as a burnt offering for Yahweh. § The peace offering
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°1 If anyone offers a peace sacrifice,
offering from his cattle, male or female, whatever he offers before Yahweh
must be without any defect. °2 He is to lay his hand on the victim’s
head and kill it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then the sons of
Aaron, the priests, shall pour out the blood on the sides of the altar. °3 Then he is to offer the following as a burnt
offering for Yahweh: the fat that covers the internal organs, all the fat
that is on the internal organs, °4
the two kidneys, the
fat on them and on the loins, the best part which he is to remove from the
liver and kidneys. °5 The sons of Aaron shall burn all this on
the altar along with the burnt offering, on the wood on the fire. It will be
a burnt offering and its sweet-smelling odor will please Yahweh. °6 If he offers a sheep or goat as a peace offering for
Yahweh, he is to offer a male or female without any defect. °7 If he offers a sheep, he is to offer it before
Yahweh; °8 he is to lay his hand on the sheep’s head
and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting; then the sons of Aaron shall
pour out its blood on the sides of the altar. °9 Of the peace
offering he is to offer the following as a burnt offering for Yahweh: the
fat, all the tail taken off near the backbone, the fat that covers the
internal organs, all the fat that is on the internal organs, °10 the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and on the
loins, the best part which he will remove from the liver and kidneys. °11 The priest shall burn this part on the altar as
food, as a burnt offering for Yahweh. °12 If his offering is a goat, he is to offer it before
Yahweh: °13 he is to lay his hand on the goat’s head
and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting, and the sons of Aaron shall pour
out its blood on the sides of the altar. °14 Then
he is to offer the following as a burnt offering for Yahweh: the fat that
covers the internal organs, all the fat that is on the internal organs, °15 the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and on the
loins, the best part which he will remove from the liver and kidneys. °16 The priest shall burn these pieces on the altar as
food, as a burnt offering for Yahweh. °17 All the fat belongs to Yahweh. This is a law forever
for all your descendants, wherever they may live: never eat either fat or
blood.” § Offering for an unintentional sin¤4
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say: Anyone may
sin without intending to do so against any of the commandments of Yahweh and
do one of the forbidden things; in such a case: °3 If the one who sins is the anointed priest, his sin
defiles the people. Then, for the sin which he has committed, he is to offer
to Yahweh a young bull, an animal from the herd without any defect, as a
sacrifice for sin. °4 He is to bring the bull before Yahweh at
the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and lay his hand on its head and kill it
before Yahweh. °5 Then the anointed priest shall take a
little of the blood of the bull and take it into the Tent of Meeting. °6 He shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it
over the veil of the sanctuary seven times, before Yahweh. °7 Then the priest shall put a little of the blood of
the bull on the corners of the altar of incense that sends up smoke before
Yahweh in the Tent of Meeting and he is to pour all the rest of the bull’s
blood at the foot of the altar for burnt offerings that is at the entrance to
the Tent of Meeting. °8 From this bull offered as a sacrifice for sin, the
priest will remove all the fat: the fat that covers the internal organs, all
the fat that is on the internal organs, °9 the two
kidneys, the fat that is on them and on the loins, the best part which he
will remove from the liver and kidneys, °10 exactly
as was done with what was set apart in the peace offering, and the priest
shall burn these on the altar for burnt offerings. °11 The bull’s skin, all its flesh, its head, legs,
internal organs and intestines, °12
the whole of the
bull, must be carried outside the camp to a place that is clean, the place
where the ashes from the fat are thrown away, and the bull must be burnt
there. °13 If the whole community of Israel has sinned without
intending to do so, and, without being aware of it, has done something that
is forbidden by the commandments of Yahweh, °14 the
community is to offer a young bull as sacrifice for sin, an animal of the
herd without any defect, as soon as the sin of which they have been guilty is
discovered. The animal must be brought before the Tent of Meeting; °15 the elders of the community shall lay their hands on
the bull’s head before Yahweh, and it must be killed before Yahweh. °16 Then the anointed priest is to carry a little of the
blood of the bull into the Tent of Meeting. °17 He is
to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it on the veil before Yahweh
seven times. °18 Then he shall put a little of the blood
on the corners of the altar that stands before Yahweh inside the Tent of
Meeting, and pour out all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar for
burnt offerings at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. °19 Then the priest shall remove all the fat from the
animal and burn it on the altar. °20
He shall do the same
thing with this bull as he did with the bull for the sacrifice of sin. When
the priest has performed the sacrifice for the people’s sin, they will be
forgiven. °21 The priest must have the bull taken out
of the camp and burn it as he burned the first one. This is the sacrifice for
the sin of the community. °22 When a leader sins and without intending to do so
does one of the things forbidden by the commandments of Yahweh his God, thus
becoming guilty, °23 and after that he recalls it, or anyone calls
his attention to the sin thus committed, he is to bring a goat as an
offering, a male without any defect. °24 He is
to lay his hand on the goat’s head and kill it in the place where the animals
for the burnt offerings are killed. This is a sacrifice for sin: °25 the priest shall take a little of the goat’s blood
on his finger and put it on the corners of the altar for burnt offerings.
Then he shall pour out its blood at the foot of the altar for burnt offering °26 and burn all the fat on the altar, as with the fat
in the peace offering. This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for
the sin of this leader to free him from his sin, and he will be forgiven. °27 If one of the people sins without intending to do so
and makes himself guilty by doing something forbidden by the commandments of
Yahweh, °28 and after that he recalls it or anyone
calls his attention to the sin he has committed, he is to bring a goat as an
offering, a female without any defect. °29 He is
to lay his hand on the goat’s head and kill it in the place where the animals
for the burnt offerings are killed. °30 The
priest shall take a little of the goat’s blood on his finger and put it on
the corners of the altar for burnt offerings. Then he shall pour out all the
rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. °31 He
shall remove all the fat, as the fat was removed for the peace offering, and
the priest shall burn it on the altar as a sweet-smelling sacrifice pleasing
to Yahweh. This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for the man’s
sin, and he will be forgiven. °32 If anyone wishes to bring a lamb as an offering for
this kind of sacrifice, he is to bring a female without any defect. °33 He is to lay his hand on the lamb’s head and kill it
as a sacrifice for sin in the place where the animals for the burnt offerings
are killed. °34 The priest shall take a little of the
blood of this sacrifice on his finger and put it on the corners of the altar
for burnt offerings. Then he shall pour out all the rest of the blood at the
foot of the altar. °35 He shall remove its fat as was done for
the sheep in the peace offering, and the priest shall burn it all on the
altar, in addition to the burnt offering for Yahweh. This is how the priest
is to offer the sacrifice for the man’s sin, and he will be forgiven. § Some cases requiring sacrifice for sin
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°1 Sacrifice for sin is required in the
following cases: A
man should have come forward to give evidence in court when officially
summoned; but he did not speak and give information about something he had
seen or heard; and so he is guilty. °2 Or else he accidentally touches something unclean,
whatever it may be – the dead body of an unclean animal, wild or tame; or the
dead body of one of the unclean beings that swarm – and so without realizing
it, he becomes unclean, and guilty. °3 Or else he accidentally touches some human
uncleanness, whatever it may be, and contact with it makes him unclean; so he
becomes guilty as soon as he realizes what he has done. °4 Or else a man makes a careless vow to do either evil
or good in any of those matters on which a man may swear unthinkingly; he
does not notice it, then, but when he realizes it later, he becomes guilty. °5 He who is guilty in any of these cases, shall
confess the sin committed, °6 and bring to Yahweh as a sacrifice for
the sin committed a female of the flock (sheep or goat); and the priest shall
offer the sacrifice for the man’s sin to free him from his sin. °7 If a man cannot afford a sheep or a goat, he shall
offer to Yahweh, as payment for the sin he has committed, two turtledoves or
two young pigeons, one for a sacrifice for sin and the other for a burnt
offering. °8 He will bring them to the priest who is
to offer first the one intended for the sacrifice for sin. The priest shall
wring its neck, without removing the head. °9 He
shall sprinkle the side of the altar with the victim’s blood, and then drain
out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. This is a sacrifice for
sin. °10 Of the other bird he is to make a burnt
offering according to the regulations. When the priest offers the sacrifice
for the man’s sin, he will be forgiven. °11 If this man cannot afford two turtledoves or two
young pigeons, he is to bring two pounds of flour as an offering for the sin
committed; but he shall not mix oil with it or put incense on it, for it is a
sacrifice for sin. °12 He is to bring it to the priest, who is
to take a handful of it to be put on the burnt offering for Yahweh in order
to recall this man to Yahweh. This is a sacrifice for sin. °13 This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for
the sin the man committed in any of these cases, and he will be forgiven. In
this case, as in the case of a grain offering, the rest of the flour belongs
to the priest.” °14 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °15 “If anyone is guilty of unintentionally cheating by
failing to hand over the payments that are sacred to Yahweh, he is to bring
to Yahweh as a sacrifice of payment a ram with no defects. This ram is to be
valued according to the official standard. This is a sacrifice of repayment. °16 He must make the payments he has failed to hand
over, pay an extra fifth as well, and give it to the priest. The priest shall
offer the ram as a sacrifice for the man’s sin and he will be forgiven. °17 If anyone sins and does one of the things forbidden
by the commandments of Yahweh without realizing it, he is guilty and must pay
the penalty for his fault. °18 As a sacrifice of repayment he is to
bring to the priest a ram without any defect. Its value will be according to
the official standard. The priest shall offer the sacrifice for the sin he
has committed without realizing it and he will be forgiven. °19 This is a sacrifice of repayment for the man was
guilty in the eyes of Yahweh.” § Sacrifices for evildoing
°20 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °21 “This refers to the man who sins against Yahweh by
not returning to his neighbor a deposit or a security, or withholding
something due to him or cheating him; °22 and
also to the one who finds lost property and swears he has not found it; and
also to the man who swears falsely in one of the cases in which people
usually swear. °23 In all these cases the man who sins and
becomes guilty is to give back what he has taken or demanded that does not
belong to him: the deposit entrusted to him, the lost property that he found,
°24 or any object about which he has sworn
untruthfully. He must repay the owner in full and give an extra fifth as well
on the day when he is found guilty. °25 Then
he is to bring a ram without any defect to Yahweh as a sacrifice of
repayment. °26 The priest shall offer the sacrifice for
the man’s sin and he will be forgiven, whatever the act of which he became
guilty.” § Priesthood and sacrifice¤6
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °2 “Give these regulations to Aaron and his sons. This
is the regulation for burnt offerings: the burnt offering shall stay on the
altar all night until morning and the fire is to be kept burning. °3 The priest is to put on his linen shirt and his
linen drawers. Then he must remove the greasy ashes of the sacrifice consumed
by the altar fire and place them at the side of the altar. °4 Then he is to change his clothes and carry the ashes
to some place that is clean, outside the camp. °5 The fire that consumes the burnt offering on the
altar must not be allowed to go out. Every morning the priest must put
firewood on it, arrange the burnt offering on it and burn the fat from the
peace offerings.
°6 An undying fire is always to burn on the
altar; it must not go out. °7 This is the regulation for the grain offering: One
of the priests, a son of Aaron, is to bring it into the presence of Yahweh in
front of the altar; °8 he is to take a handful of the fine flour
(with the oil and incense which have been added to it) and burn it on the
altar as a memorial, to recall to Yahweh the person making the offering so
that it becomes a sweet-smelling odor pleasing to Yahweh. °9 After that, the remainder is to be given to Aaron
and his sons; they shall eat it in the form of unleavened loaves. They are to
eat it in a sacred place within the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. °10 The share I give them of my burnt offering must not
be baked with yeast. It is most holy, like the sacrifice for sin and the
sacrifice of repayment. °11 All the males of Aaron’s family may eat
this part of Yahweh’s burnt offering – this is a law forever for all your
descendants. Everything that touches the offering becomes consecrated as
well.” °12 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °13 “This is the offering that Aaron and his sons are to
make to Yahweh on the day of their anointing as priests: two pounds of flour
as a daily offering, half in the morning and half in the evening. °14 It must be fried on the griddle and mixed with oil;
you must bring the paste as a grain offering in several pieces, offering them
as a sweet-smelling odor pleasing to Yahweh. °15 Every
descendant of Aaron who succeeds him as high priest shall do the same. This
is a law forever. This grain offering shall be completely burned as a
sacrifice for Yahweh. °16 Every grain offering made by a priest
must be a total sacrifice; none of it is to be eaten.” °17 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said, °18 “Say to Aaron and his sons: This is the regulation
for the sacrifice for sin: The
victim for the sacrifice is to be killed before Yahweh in the place where the
animals for the burnt offerings are killed. It is a most holy offering. °19 The priest who offers this sacrifice is to eat it.
It must be eaten in a holy place within the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
°20 Everything that touches the flesh of this
animal will become consecrated; if any of the blood splashes on clothing, the
stain must be cleaned in some holy place. °21 The
clay pot in which the meat is cooked must be broken; if a bronze pot has been
used for the cooking, it must be scrubbed and thoroughly rinsed with water. °22 Any male who is a priest may eat the meat. It is a
most holy thing. °23 But no one may eat any part of the animals
offered for sin, whenever any of the blood is brought into the Tent and used
in the sacrifice to take away sin. The meat must be thrown on the fire. § The sacrifice of repayment
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°1 This is the regulation for the sacrifice
of repayment: °2 It is a most holy offering. The animal for this
offering is to be killed in the place where the animals for the burnt
offerings are killed, and the priest must pour out the blood on the sides of
the altar. °3 Then he is to offer all the fat: the
tail, the fat that covers the internal organs, °4 the two
kidneys, the fat that is on them and on the loins, and the best part which he
will remove from the liver and kidneys. °5 The
priest must burn these pieces on the altar as a burnt offering for Yahweh.
This is a sacrifice of repayment. °6
Any male who is a
priest may eat it, but it must be eaten in a holy place because it is a most
holy thing. °7 As with the sacrifice for sin, so with the sacrifice
of repayment; the regulation is the same for both. The offering which he has
used in the sacrifice for sin belongs to the priest. °8 The skin of the animal presented by a man to the
priest to be offered as a burnt offering belongs to the priest. °9 Every grain offering baked in the oven, every grain
offering fried in the pan or on the griddle shall belong to the priest who
offered it. °10 Every grain offering, mixed with oil or
dry, is to belong to all the sons of Aaron equally. § The peace offering
°11 This is the regulation for the peace offering
presented to Yahweh: °12 If it is offered as a thanksgiving offering, there
must be added to it an offering of unleavened cakes mixed with oil,
unleavened wafers spread with oil, and fine flour in the form of cakes mixed
with oil. °13 This offering, then, must be added to the
loaves of leavened bread and to the thanksgiving offering. °14 One of the cakes of this offering is to be presented
as an offering to Yahweh; it shall belong to the priest who pours out the
blood of the peace offering. °15 The flesh of the animal must be eaten on
the day when the offering is made; nothing must remain until the next
morning. °16 If the animal is presented before Yahweh as a
sacrifice freely offered, it is to be eaten on the day it is offered and also
on the following day; °17 but on the third day whatever remains of
the animal’s flesh must be thrown on the fire. °18 If the
meat offered as a peace offering is eaten on the third day, the man who has
offered it shall not be accepted nor receive credit for it, for it is defiled
meat, and the man who eats it should suffer the penalty of his fault. °19 If this meat has touched anything unclean, it cannot
be eaten; and must be thrown on the fire. °20 Anyone who is clean may eat meat of the peace
offering, but whoever eats the meat of a peace offering presented to Yahweh
even though he is unclean shall be cut off from his people. °21 If anyone touches anything unclean, whether human or
animal, or any crawling creature, and then eats the meat of a peace offering
presented to Yahweh, this man shall be cut off from his people. °22 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said, °23 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: You
must not eat the fat of ox, sheep or goat. °24 The
fat of an animal that has died a natural death or been killed by a wild
animal may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it. °25 Anyone who eats the fat of an animal offered as a
burnt offering to Yahweh shall be cut off from his people. °26 Wherever you live, you must not eat blood, whether
it be of bird or animal. °27 Anyone who eats blood, whoever he may be,
shall be cut off from his people.” § The priests’ share
°28 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said, °29 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: Anyone
who offers a peace offering to Yahweh is to bring himself the part of his sacrifice
that is offered to Yahweh. °30 He is to bring Yahweh’s burnt offering,
that is, the fat that is near the breast and also the breast, with his own
hands. Then he will make the gesture of offering before Yahweh. °31 The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, and the
breast shall belong to Aaron and his sons. °32 You
must set aside and give to the priest the right hind leg from your peace
offering. °33 The right hind leg shall be the share of
the son of Aaron who offers the blood and fat of the peace offering. °34 Thus, I keep back this breast and hind leg out of
every peace offering presented by the sons of Israel, and give these to Aaron
the priest and to his sons: this is a law for the sons of Israel forever.” °35 This is the share of Aaron and his sons in Yahweh’s
burnt offerings since the day he called them to be his priests. °36 This is what Yahweh commands the sons of Israel to
give them from the day they are ordained as priests: this is a law for all
their descendants for all time to come. °37 Such is the regulation for burnt offerings, grain
offerings, sacrifices for sin, sacrifices of repayment, ordination and peace
offerings. °38 This is what Yahweh commanded Moses on
Mount Sinai when he told the people of Israel to make their offerings to Yahweh
in the wilderness of Sinai. § Ordination ceremonies
¤8 °1 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °2 “Take Aaron, his sons with him, and the vestments,
the anointing oil, the bull for the sacrifice for sin, the two rams and the
basket of unleavened bread. °3 Then call the whole community together at
the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.” °4 Moses did as Yahweh commanded; the community
gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, °5 and
Moses said to them, “This is what Yahweh has commanded.” °6 He made Aaron and his sons come forward, and washed
them with water. °7 He put the shirt on Aaron, passed the
sash around his waist, dressed him in the robe and put the Ephod on him. Then
he tied around his waist the woven band of the Ephod with which he clothed
him. °8 He put the embroidered linen breastpiece
on him, and placed the Urim and Thummim in it. °9 He put
the turban on his head, with the golden ornament on the front; this is the
sacred sign of dedication as Yahweh commanded Moses to do. °10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the
Holy Tent and everything in it, to consecrate them. °11 He sprinkled the altar seven times, and anointed the
altar and its furnishings, the basin and its stand, to dedicate them all to
Yahweh. °12 Then he ordained Aaron by pouring the
anointing oil on his head. °13 Then Moses made Aaron’s sons come forward; he put
the shirts on them, tied the sashes around their waists and put on their
headdresses, as Yahweh had commanded him to do. °14 Then he had the bull for the sacrifice for sin
brought forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the bull’s head °15 and Moses slaughtered it. Then he took the blood and
with his finger put some of it on the corners around the altar, to take away
its sin. Then he poured out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar,
which he dedicated to Yahweh by performing the atonement over it. °16 Then he took all the fat that covers the internal
organs, the best part of the liver, the two kidneys and their fat; and he
burned them all on the altar. °17 After that he burned outside the camp the
bull’s skin, its flesh and its intestines as Yahweh had commanded him to do. °18 Then he had the ram for the burnt offering brought
forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head °19 and Moses slaughtered it. He poured its blood out on
the sides of the altar. °20 Then he quartered the ram and burned the
head, the pieces and the fat. °21 He washed the internal organs and legs,
and burned the whole ram on the altar. This was a burnt offering, a sweet-smelling
offering to Yahweh, a burnt offering by fire for Yahweh, as Yahweh had
commanded Moses. °22 Then he had the other ram brought forward, for the
sacrifice of ordination of priests. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on
the ram’s head °23 and Moses slaughtered it. He took some of
its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right
hand, and the big toe of his right foot. °24 Then
he made the sons of Aaron come forward and he put some of the blood on the
lobes of their right ears, the thumbs of their right hands and the big toes
of their right feet. Next Moses poured the rest of the blood on the sides of
the altar. °25 Then he took the fat: the tail, all the
fat that is on the internal organs, the best part of the liver, the two
kidneys and their fat, and the right hind leg. °26 From
the basket of unleavened bread placed before Yahweh, he took an unleavened
cake, a loaf of bread made with oil, and a wafer; he placed these on the fat
and the right hind leg, °27 put it all into Aaron’s hands and those
of his sons, who waved them before Yahweh. °28 Then
Moses took them back and burned them on the altar in addition to the burnt
offering. This was the sacrifice for ordination of priests, a sweet-smelling
offering to Yahweh, an offering by fire to Yahweh. °29 Then
Moses took the breast and made the gesture of offering before Yahweh. This
was the share of the ram of ordination for Moses, as Yahweh had commanded. °30 Then Moses took the anointing oil and the blood that
was on the altar and sprinkled Aaron and his vestments with it, and his sons
and their vestments. In this way he consecrated Aaron and his vestments, and
his sons and their vestments to Yahweh. °31 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Cook the
meat at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and eat it there, and also the
bread for the sacrifice of priestly ordination that is in the basket, as I
commanded, when I said: Aaron and his sons are to eat it. °32 What remains of the meat and bread you will burn. °33 For seven days you must not leave the entrance to
the Tent of Meeting, until the time of your ordination is over, for your
hands will be consecrated for seven days. °34 All
that we have done today is the rite of atonement for you as Yahweh has
commanded us to do °35 and for seven days, day and night, you
must remain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, doing what Yahweh has
commanded, lest you die. For this is the commandment I received.” °36 And Aaron and his sons did everything that Yahweh
had commanded through Moses. § The priests offer sacrifices
¤9
°1 On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and
his sons and the elders of Israel. °2 He said
to Aaron, “Take a calf to offer a sacrifice for sin, and a ram for a burnt
offering, both without any defect, and bring them before Yahweh. °3 Then say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a goat to be
offered as a sacrifice for sin, and as burnt offering a calf and a lamb both
one year old and without any defect, °4 and for
peace offering an ox and a ram to be slaughtered before Yahweh; and finally a
grain offering mixed with oil. For Yahweh will appear to you today.” °5 They brought what Moses had commanded in front of
the Tent of Meeting; then the whole community gathered and stood before
Yahweh. °6 Moses said, “This is what Yahweh has
commanded to be done, so that his glory may appear to you.” °7 Moses then said to Aaron, “Go to the altar and offer
your sacrifice for sin and your burnt offering to take away your sins. Then
present the people’s offering to take away their sins as Yahweh has
commanded.” °8 Aaron went to the altar and slaughtered the calf as
a sacrifice for his own sin. °9 Then the sons of Aaron presented the
blood to him; he dipped his finger in it and put some on the corners of the
altar, and then poured out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. °10 The fat of the sacrifice for sin and the kidneys and
the best part of the liver, he burned on the altar, as Yahweh had commanded
Moses; °11 the flesh and the skin he burned outside
the camp. °12 Next Aaron slaughtered the animal which was for his
own burnt offering; his sons handed him the blood and he poured it on the
sides of the altar. °13 Then they handed him the quartered animal
and its head too, and he burned these on the altar. °14 He washed the internal organs and legs and burned
them on the altar in addition to the burnt offering. °15 He then presented the people’s offering. He took the
goat for the people’s sacrifice for sin, killed it and offered it as a
sacrifice for sin in the same way as the first. °16 Then
he had the animal for the burnt offering brought forward and offered it
according to the regulations. °17 Next he had the grain offering brought
forward, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the
morning burnt offering. °18 Finally, he slaughtered the ox and the ram as a
peace offering for the people. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood and he
poured it out on the sides of the altar. °19 The
fat of the ox and of the ram – the tail, the fatty covering, the kidneys, the
best part of the liver – °20 all of this he laid on the breasts and
burned it all on the altar. °21 With the breasts and the right hind leg
Aaron made the gesture of offering by waving them as Yahweh had commanded. °22 Then Aaron raised his hands toward the people and
blessed them. Having thus performed the sacrifice for sin, the burnt offering
and the peace offering, °23 he came down and entered the Tent of
Meeting with Moses. Then they came out together to bless the people and the
Glory of Yahweh appeared to the whole people – °24 a
flame leaped forth from before Yahweh and consumed the burnt offering and the
fat that was on the altar. At this sight the people shouted for joy and fell
on their faces. § The story of Nadab and Abihu
¤10
°1 Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, each took
his censer, put fire in it and incense on the fire, and presented unlawful
fire before Yahweh, fire which he had not commanded them to present. °2 Then from Yahweh’s presence a flame leaped out and
burned them to death in the presence of Yahweh. °3 And
Moses said to Aaron, “That is what Yahweh meant when he said: ‘I
will show my holiness through those who approach me, and before all the
people I will show my glory.’” And
Aaron had to remain silent. °4 Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s
uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come and take the corpses of your brothers
far away from the sanctuary, out of the camp.” °5 They
came and carried them away, still in their shirts, out of the camp as Moses
had commanded. °6 Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and
Ithamar, “Do not leave your hair uncombed nor tear your clothes to show that
you are mourning; lest you die and the punishment extend to the whole
community. All the people of Israel shall mourn the death of your brothers,
who died because of Yahweh’s fire. °7 But you
shall not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the
anointing oil of Yahweh is on you.” And they obeyed Moses. °8 Yahweh spoke to Aaron; he said: °9 “Before coming to the Tent of Meeting, you and your
sons with you, do not drink wine or strong drink; lest you die. This is a law
for all your descendants for all time to come, °10 so
that you may be able to recognize the difference between what belongs to God
and what is for general use, between what is clean and what is unclean. °11 For you must teach the people of Israel all the laws
that Yahweh has given for them through Moses.” °12 Moses said to Aaron and his two remaining sons,
Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from Yahweh’s
burnt offering, and eat it without leaven beside the altar, because it is a
most holy thing. °13 Eat it in a holy place for it is the
share of Yahweh’s burnt offering which belongs to you and your sons. This is
what Yahweh commanded me. °14 The breast that was offered up and the hind leg that
was set aside you will eat in some place that is clean, you and your sons and
your daughters with you; this is the share of the peace offerings of the
people of Israel that belongs to you and your sons. °15 The hind leg that was set aside and the breast that
was offered up, when the fat was burned, belong to you, to you and your sons
with you, after they have been presented before Yahweh by the gesture of offering,
because Yahweh has commanded this forever.” °16 Then Moses inquired about the goat offered as a
sacrifice for sin, and found that they had burned it. He was angry with
Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s two remaining sons. °17 “Why,”
he asked, “did you not eat this goat in the holy place? For it is a most holy
thing given to you to bear and take away the fault of the community. °18 Since its blood was not taken inside the sanctuary,
you should have eaten its flesh there, as I commanded you.” °19 Aaron said to Moses, “They have offered their
sacrifice for sin and their burnt offering before Yahweh on this day of
mourning. If I had eaten the goat offered in sacrifice for sin today, would
that have seemed good to Yahweh?” °20
And when Moses heard
this, he was satisfied. § Clean and unclean animals
¤11
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron and said
to them, °2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say: ‘Of
all the animals on the earth these are the animals you may eat. °3 You may eat any animal that has divided hoofs,
divided into two parts, and that also chews the cud. °4 You may not eat: the camel, because though it chews
the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; °5 the
rabbit, because though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; °6 the hare, as well; °7 the
pig, because though it has divided hoofs, it does not chew the cud. °8 You must not eat the meat of such animals nor their
dead bodies; they are unclean for you. °9 Of all that lives in water you may eat anything that
has fins and scales, and lives in sea or river. °10 But
anything living in sea or river that does not have both fins and scales must
not be eaten. °11 They are unclean for you; you shall not
eat their flesh nor even touch their dead bodies. °12 Anything
that lives in water, but does not have fins and scales, is unclean for you. °13 Among the birds, here are those you must consider
unclean and not eat: °14 the vulture, the eagle, the osprey, the hawk, the
several kinds of buzzards, °15 all kinds of ravens, °16 the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull, °17 the horned owl, the night owl, the seabird, the barn
owl, °18 the ibis, the pelican, the white vulture,
°19 the stork, the several kinds of heron,
and the bat. °20 All winged insects that move on four feet shall be
unclean for you. °21 Of all the winged insects you may eat
only the following: those that have legs above their feet so that they can
leap over the ground.
°22 These are the ones you may eat: the
several kinds of locusts, crickets and grasshoppers. °23 But all other winged insects that have four legs you
are to consider unclean. °24 Anyone who touches °25 or picks up the dead bodies of one of these animals
will be unclean until evening. °26
The same with animals
that have hoofs, unless their hoofs are divided and they chew the cud; °27 and also four-footed animals which walk on the flat
of their feet. °28 Anyone who picks up their dead bodies
must wash his clothing and will be unclean until evening. °29 These are the small animals crawling on the ground
that shall be unclean for you: rats, mice and several kinds of lizards: °30 the gecko, the chameleon, the agama, the skink and
the mole. °31 Anyone who touches them when they are
dead will be unclean until evening. °32 Anything on which the dead body of any of these
creatures falls becomes unclean: wooden utensil, clothing, skin, sackcloth
–any utensil at all. It must be dipped in water and will remain unclean until
evening: then it will be clean. °33
If the creature falls
into a clay pot, the pot must be broken; whatever the pot contains is
unclean. °34 Any food on which water from such a pot
has poured will be unclean. °35 Anything on which the dead body of such a
creature may fall will be unclean: if it is a clay stove or oven, this must
be broken; for they are unclean and you must treat them as unclean. °36 A spring or cistern for collecting water remains
clean; but whoever touches the dead body becomes unclean. °37 If one of their dead bodies falls on any seed
whatever, the seed will remain clean; °38 but if
the seed has been wet, and such a dead body falls on it, then you must
consider it unclean. °39 If one of the animals that you use as food dies,
then anyone who touches the dead body will be unclean until evening; °40 anyone who eats the meat of the dead animal must
wash his clothing and will be unclean until the evening. And anyone who picks
up the dead body will also be unclean until the evening and has to wash his
clothing. °41 All the creatures that swarm on the ground are
unclean and may not be eaten. °42 Everything that crawls on its belly or
goes on four legs, or has many legs, may not be eaten. °43 Do not defile yourselves with any swarming creature
that might defile you, °44 for I am Yahweh your God. Take the way of
holiness and be holy, for I am holy. Do
not make yourselves unclean with any of the creatures that swarm on the
ground, °45 for I am Yahweh who brought you from the
land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Be holy because I am holy. °46 This is the law for animals and birds and for every
living creature that moves in the water or that crawls on the ground. °47 Let everyone distinguish between the clean and the
unclean, between creatures that may be eaten and creatures that may not.” § Purification of a woman after childbirth
¤12
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses: °2 “Say to the Israelites: when a woman gives birth to
a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days as in the days of her
monthly period. °3 On the eighth day the child is to be
circumcised; °4 then she shall wait for thirty-three days
to be purified of her bleeding. She shall not touch anything that is
consecrated nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are
completed. °5 If she gives birth to a daughter she shall be
unclean for two weeks as in her menstruation; then she shall wait sixty-six
days to be purified from her bleeding. °6 And when the days of her purification are completed
whether for a son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of
the Tent of Meeting, a lamb born that year for a burnt offering, and a young
pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. °7 The
priest shall then offer it to Yahweh to make atonement for her and she shall
be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This
is the law for the woman who gives birth to a child, male or female. °8 But if she cannot offer a lamb, she shall take two
turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering, the other for
a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her and she will be
purified.” § A regulation for lepers¤13
°1 Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, °2 “If someone has a boil, an inflammation or a sore on
his skin which could develop into leprosy, he must be brought to Aaron the
priest, or to one of the priests, his descendants. °3 The priest shall examine him and if the
hair on the sore has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the
surrounding skin, then it is indeed the sore of leprosy. When the priest sees
this, he shall declare that person unclean. °4 But if the sore is white and does not appear to be
deeper than the skin around it and the hairs have not turned white, the
priest is to isolate the sick person for seven days. °5 On the seventh day the priest shall again examine
him. If he sees that the sore looks the same and has not spread on the skin,
he shall isolate the sick person for another seven days and once more examine
him on the seventh day. °6 If the sore has faded and has not spread
on the skin, the priest shall declare that person clean: it was only eczema.
Let him wash his clothes and he will be clean. °7 But if the sore spreads over the skin after the sick
person has been examined by the priest and declared clean, then he must
present himself again to the priest. °8 After
examining him and finding that the sore has spread over the skin, the priest
must declare him unclean: it is leprosy. °9 When a leprous disease strikes a man, he must be
taken to the priest, °10 who must examine him, and if he finds on
the skin a whitish swelling which turns the hairs white and an ulcer is
forming, °11 then it is leprosy in the skin and the
priest must declare him unclean. It is useless to isolate him for a time; he
is unclean. °12 But if the leprosy spreads all through the skin, if
it covers him entirely from head to foot so far as the priest can see, °13 then the priest must examine the sick person and, if
he finds that the leprosy covers his whole body, declare the sick person
clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean. °14 But as
soon as an open sore appears on him, he will be unclean. °15 After examining the sore, the priest is to declare
him unclean: the open sore is leprous. °16 But if
the sore becomes white again, the man must go to the priest. °17 The priest shall examine him and if he finds that
the disease has turned white, he shall declare the sick person clean: he is
clean. °18 When an ulcer appears on a person’s skin, which,
after healing, °19 leaves a whitish swelling or a shiny spot
of reddish white, that person must show himself to the priest. °20 The priest shall examine him, and if he finds a spot
deeper than the surrounding skin and the hairs in it have turned white he
shall declare him unclean: it is a case of leprosy that has broken out in a
boil. °21 But if on examination the priest finds
neither white hair in it nor a deep spot on the skin, but it is lighter in
color, he shall isolate the sick person for seven days. °22 If the disease has indeed spread over the skin, he
shall declare him unclean: it is a case of leprosy. °23 But if the shiny spot remains unchanged and has not
spread, then it is only the scar of a boil and the priest is to declare the
man clean. °24 If someone has had a burn, and on the burn an ulcer
forms, a shiny spot reddish white or whitish in color, °25 then the priest must examine it. If he finds that
the hairs in that spot have turned white and it seems to be deeper than the
surrounding skin, this means that leprosy has broken out in the burn. The
priest shall declare the man unclean: it is a case of leprosy. °26 If on the other hand the priest on examination does
not find white hair on the mark and it is not deeper than the surrounding
skin, but is light in color, then the priest shall isolate him for seven
days. °27 On the seventh day he shall examine him,
and if the disease has spread on the skin, he shall declare him unclean: it
is a case of leprosy. °28 If the mark is still unchanged and has
not spread over the skin, but instead is light in color, this means that it
is only a swelling due to the burn. The priest shall declare the man clean:
it is merely a burn scar. °29 If a man or woman has a sore on the head or chin, °30 the priest must examine this sore; and if it seems
to be deeper than the surrounding skin, with the hair on it yellow and thin,
he must declare the sick person unclean. It is a dreaded skin disease, that
is to say, leprosy of the head or chin. °31 If on
examining this case the priest finds no spot which seems deeper than the
surrounding skin, and no yellow hair, he shall isolate the person for seven
days. °32 He shall examine the infected part on the
seventh day, and if he finds that the disease has not spread, that the hair
on it is not yellow, and that there is no spot which seems deeper than the
surrounding skin, °33 the sick person will shave his hair, all
except the part affected with the disease, and the priest is to isolate him
again for seven days. °34 He must examine the infected part on the
seventh day, and if he finds that it has not spread over the skin, and that
there is no spot which seems deeper than the surrounding skin, the priest
shall declare the sick person clean. After washing his clothes he will be
clean. °35 But if after this purification the
disease does spread over the skin, °36 the
priest must examine him; if he finds that it has indeed spread over the skin,
this means that the sick person is unclean, and there is no need to look and
see whether the hair is yellow. °37
Whereas if, so far as
he can see, the disease has not spread and dark hair is beginning to grow on
it, this means that the sick person is cured. He is clean, and the priest is
to declare him clean. °38 If shiny spots break out on the skin of a man or
woman, and if these spots are white, °39 the
priest must examine them. If he finds them to be a dull white, it is a rash
that has broken out on the skin: the sick person is clean. °40 If a man loses the hair on top of his head, this is
baldness of the scalp but the man is clean. °41 If he
loses his hair from the front of the head, this is baldness of the forehead
but the man is clean. °42 If, however, a reddish white sore appears
on the top of his head or forehead, this means that leprosy has broken out. °43 The priest must examine it, and if he finds a
reddish white swelling on the head or forehead, which looks like leprosy of
the skin, °44 this means that the man is leprous: he is
unclean. The priest shall declare him unclean; he is suffering from leprosy
of the head. °45 A person infected with leprosy must wear torn
clothing and leave his hair uncombed; he must cover his upper lip and cry,
“Unclean, unclean.” °46 As long as the disease lasts he must be
unclean; and therefore he must live away from others: he must live outside
the camp. § “Leprosy” (mildew) on clothing°47 When a mark of mildew appears on a piece of clothing
– woolen or linen clothing, °48 linen or woolen textile material or
covering, leather or leatherwork – °49 and if
this clothing, textile material, covering, leather or leather-work appears
greenish or reddish, it is a spreading mildew to be shown to the priest. °50 The priest must examine it and put the object away
for seven days. °51 If on the seventh day he observes that
the mildew has spread on the garment, textile material, covering, leather or
leatherwork, whatever it may be, it is a case of spreading mildew and the
object is unclean. °52 The priest will burn this clothing,
textile material, linen or woolen covering, leather article of any kind, on
which the mildew has spread and which must be destroyed by fire. °53 But if on examination the priest finds that the
mildew has not spread on the clothing, textile material, covering or leather
object whatever it may be, °54 he is to order the object to be washed
and is to isolate it again for a period of seven days. °55 After the cleansing he must examine it again and if
he finds that the mildew has not changed color, even though it has not
spread, the article is unclean. It must be destroyed by fire. °56 But if on examination the priest finds that the
mildew has faded after washing, he is to cut it out of the clothing, leather,
textile material or covering. °57 But if the mildew reappears on the same
clothing, textile material, covering or leather article whatever it may be,
this means that the mildew is spreading again and the owner must destroy the
article by fire. °58 The clothing, textile material, covering
or leather article whatever it may be, from which the mildew disappears after
washing, is to be clean after it has been washed a second time. °59 Such is the law for a case of leprosy in a linen or
woolen garment, in textile material, in clothing or in anything of skin – for
judging whether it is clean or unclean.” § Purification from leprosy
¤14
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses: °2 “This shall be the law for the leper on the day of
his purification. He
shall be brought to the priest °3 and the priest shall take him outside the
camp and examine him. And if the person has been healed from leprosy, °4 the priest shall order two live, clean birds, cedar wood,
scarlet yarn and hyssop for the one who is to be cleansed. °5 The priest shall also give orders that one of the
birds be slain on an earthenware pot over fresh water. °6 He shall take the live bird and also the cedar wood,
the crimson yarn and the hyssop, and he will plunge them together, including
the live bird, in the blood of the bird that was slain over fresh water. °7 Then he will sprinkle the one to be purified seven
times. After that he shall declare him clean and he shall let the live bird
go free over the open fields. °8 The person to be purified must wash his clothes and
shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water; then he will be clean.
After this he may enter the camp but he must stay outside his tent for seven
days. °9 On the seventh day he shall shave off all
the hair on his head, chin and eyebrows. He shall wash his clothes, bathe
himself in water and then he will be clean. °10 On the eighth day he is to take two lambs and a
yearling ewe lamb, all without defect, and three-tenths of a measure of fine
flour mixed with oil for a grain offering and a log of oil. °11 The priest who declares him clean shall present the
man to be purified and his offerings before Yahweh at the entrance to the
Tent of Meeting. °12 The priest will then take the first lamb
and present it as a guilt offering together with the log of oil. He shall
wave them before Yahweh. °13 He shall slaughter the male lamb in the
place where they slaughter the sin offering and the burnt offering – the holy
place. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest;
it is most holy. °14 The priest shall then take some of the blood of the
guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be
purified, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right
foot. °15 The priest shall take the log of oil and
pour it on the palm of his own left hand. °16 Then, dipping his right forefinger in it, he shall
sprinkle it seven times before Yahweh. °17 Then he is to take a little of the oil that remains
in the palm of his hand and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the man
who is being purified, and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe
of his right foot, over the blood of the sacrifice of reparation. °18 The rest of the oil which is in his palm, he shall
put on the head of the man who is being purified. In this way he shall
perform over him the rite of atonement before Yahweh. °19 Then the priest shall offer the sacrifice for sin, and
perform the rite of atonement for the man who is being purified. After this
he must slaughter the animal for the burnt offering °20 and offer it with the grain offering on the altar.
When the priest has performed the rite of atonement over him in this way, the
man will be clean. °21 If the leper is poor and cannot afford all this, he
shall take only one lamb for the guilt offering to be offered with the
gesture of offering in the rite of atonement. And for the grain offering he
will bring only one tenth of wheaten flour mixed with oil, and the log of
oil, °22 and finally two turtledoves or two young
pigeons – if he can afford them – one to be used as a sacrifice for sin and
the other for the burnt offering. °23
On the eighth day he
must bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before
Yahweh, for his purification. °24 The priest is to take the lamb for the
guilt offering and the log of oil, and present them before Yahweh with the
gesture of offering. °25 Then he must slaughter the lamb for the
guilt offering, take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right
ear of the man who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand and on
the big toe of his right foot. °26
He is to pour the oil
into the palm of his left hand, °27
and with this oil he
must make seven sprinklings with his finger before Yahweh. °28 He is to put some of it on the lobe of the right ear
of the man who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand and on the
big toe of his right foot as he did with the blood of the guilt offering. °29 The remainder of the oil in the palm of his hand he
must put on the head of the man who is being purified, performing the rite of
atonement over him before Yahweh. °30
Of the two
turtledoves or two young pigeons – if he can afford them – he is to offer °31 a sacrifice for sin with one, and with the other a
burnt offering together with a grain offering – if he can afford them. In
this way the priest will have performed before Yahweh the rite of atonement
over the person who is being purified. °32 Such is the law concerning a person afflicted by
leprosy who cannot afford the means for his purification.” § “Leprosy” in houses°33 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron; he said: °34 “When you reach the land of Canaan, which I am
giving you as your inheritance, if I strike a house with mildew in the land
you are to possess, °35 the owner must come and warn the priest;
he must say, ‘I have seen something like mildew in the house.’ °36 The priest is to give orders for the house to be
emptied before he goes to examine the infection; thus nothing in the house
will be declared unclean. Then the priest must go and look at the house; °37 and if on examination he finds reddish or greenish
spots that appear to be eating into the wall, °38 the
priest is to go out of the house, to the door, and shut it up for seven days.
°39 On the seventh day he shall go back again
and if on examination he finds that the infection has spread over the walls
of the house, °40 he shall give orders for the affected
stones to be removed and thrown into some unclean place outside the town. °41 Then he shall have all the inside of the house
scraped, and the plaster that comes off must be emptied out into an unclean
place outside the town. °42 The stones must be replaced by new ones
and the house given a new coat of plaster. °43 If the infection spreads again after the stones have
been removed and the house scraped and replastered, °44 the priest is to come and examine it. If he finds
that the infection has spread, this means that mildew is affecting the house:
it is unclean. °45 It must be pulled down and the stones,
woodwork and all the plaster be taken to an unclean place outside the town. °46 Anyone who enters the house while it is closed will
be unclean until evening. °47 Anyone who sleeps there must wash his
clothing. °48 But if the priest finds, when he comes to
examine the infection, that it has not spread in the house since it was
plastered, he is to declare the house clean, for the infection is cured. °49 As a sacrifice for the sin of the house, he is to
take two birds, cedar wood, red cord and a sprig of hyssop. °50 He shall slaughter one of the birds in an
earthenware pot over running water. °51 Then
he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the red cord and the live bird, and
dip them into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered and into the running
water. °52 He shall sprinkle the house seven times;
and after having offered a sacrifice for the sin of the house with the blood of
the bird, the running water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and
the red cord °53 he shall set the live bird free to fly
out of the town into the open country. When the rite of atonement has been
performed over the house in this way it will be clean. °54 Such is the law for all cases °55 of dreaded skin diseases, mildew of clothing and
houses, °56 swellings, scabs and shiny spots. It
defines the cases when things are unclean and when they are clean. °57 Such is the law on leprosy.” § Sexual impurities¤15
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron; he said, °2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: °3 When a man has a discharge from his body, that
discharge makes him unclean. The rules about his uncleanness are: Whether
his body allows the discharge to flow or whether it retains it, he is
unclean. °4 Any bed the man lies on and any seat he
sits on shall be unclean. °5 Anyone who touches his bed must wash his
clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. °6 Anyone who sits on a seat where the man has sat must
wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. °7 Anyone who touches the body of a man so affected
must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. °8 If the sick man spits on someone who is clean, that
person must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until
evening. °9 Any saddle the sick man travels on will be unclean. °10 All those who touch any object that may be under him
will be unclean until evening. Anyone who picks up such an object must wash
his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. °11 All those whom the sick man touches without washing
his hands must wash their clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until
evening. °12 Any clay pot the sick man touches must be
broken and any wooden utensil must be rinsed. °13 When the man suffering from a discharge is cured, he
must allow seven days for his purification. He must wash his clothing and
take a bath in running water and he will be clean. °14 On the
eighth day he must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before
Yahweh at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest. °15 The priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin with one
of them, and with the other a burnt offering. So the priest will perform the
rite of atonement before Yahweh for the man’s discharge. °16 When a man has a seminal discharge, he must bathe
his whole body with water and he shall be unclean until evening. °17 Any clothing or leather touched by a seminal
discharge must be washed and it will be unclean until evening. °18 When a woman has slept with a man, both of them must
take a bath and they will be unclean until evening. °19 When a woman has a discharge of blood, and blood
flows from her body, this uncleanness of her monthly periods shall last for
seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. °20 Any bed she lies on will be unclean; any seat she
sits on will be unclean. °21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothing
and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. °22 Anyone
who touches any seat she has sat on must wash his clothing and take a bath
and will be unclean until evening.
°23 If there is anything on the bed or the
chair on which she sat, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening. °24 If a man sleeps with a woman who is unclean because
of her monthly period, he shall be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on
will be unclean. °25 If a woman has a flow of blood for several days
outside her period, or if her period is prolonged, during the time this flow
lasts she shall be unclean as during her monthly periods. °26 Any bed she lies on during the time this flow lasts
will be unclean as during her monthly period. Any seat she sits on will be
unclean; as it would be during her monthly periods. °27 Anyone who touches them will be unclean; he must
wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. °28 When she is cured of her flow, she will let seven
days pass; then she will be clean. °29 On the
eighth day she is to take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them
to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. °30 With one of them the priest is to offer a sacrifice
for sin and with the other a burnt offering. This is the way in which the
priest will perform the rite of atonement over her before Yahweh for the flow
that made her unclean. °31 Make the sons of Israel aware of everything unclean,
lest they die because of defiling the Tent of my presence among them. °32 Such is the law concerning a man with a discharge,
anyone made unclean by a seminal discharge, °33 a
woman unclean because of her monthly periods, a man or a woman with
discharge, a man who sleeps with an unclean woman.” § The great day of atonement¤16
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses after the death of
the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the presence of Yahweh. °2 Yahweh said to Moses, “Tell your brother, Aaron, not
to enter at any time he pleases the Most Holy Place inside the veil, before the
mercy Seat which is on the ark, lest he die, for I appear in the cloud over
the mercy Seat. °3 This is how Aaron will enter the Holy Place with a
bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. °4 He is to put on the sacred linen tunic and linen
undergarments next to his body; he is to have the linen sash around him and
wear the linen turban. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe in water
before he puts them on. °5 The assembly of the Israelites has to give him two
male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. °6 Then Aaron shall offer the bullock for a sin
offering for himself to make atonement for himself and for his household. °7 He shall take the two male goats and present them to
Yahweh at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. °8 He is
to cast lots for the two goats, one lot for Yahweh and one lot for Azazel. °9 Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot fell for
Yahweh as a sin offering. °10 But the goat on which the lot fell for
Azazel will be placed alive before Yahweh to make atonement by being sent
into the wilderness as a scapegoat. °11 Aaron will then bring the bullock as a sin offering
for himself to make atonement for himself and his household and he shall
slaughter the bullock for the sin offering which is for himself. °12 Then he shall take a censer full of coals from the
fire above the altar before Yahweh and two handfuls of powdered, fragrant
incense and take them inside the veil. °13 He shall put the incense on the fire
before Yahweh and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy Seat that is on
the ark of the Statement, so that he will not die. °14 He
will take the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger on the
mercy Seat to the east and also in front of the mercy Seat he shall sprinkle
blood seven times. °15 Then he shall slay the goat for the sin
offering of the people and take its blood inside the veil and do with its
blood what he did with the blood of the bullock. He shall sprinkle it on the
mercy Seat and in front of it. °16
In this way he shall
make atonement for the Holy Place because of the uncleanness of the
Israelites and because of all their sins. And he shall do the same for the
Tent of Meeting which stands among them in the midst of all their
uncleanness. °17 No one shall be in the Tent of Meeting from the time
Aaron goes to make atonement until he comes out. After he has made atonement
for himself, for his household and for the whole assembly of Israel, °18 he shall go out to the altar before Yahweh and make
atonement for it. Then he shall take some of the bullock’s blood and some of
the goat’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar on all sides. °19 He shall sprinkle it with blood seven times, and
cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. °20 When he has finished making atonement for the Holy
Place, for the Tent of Meeting and for the altar, he shall bring forward the
live goat. °21 He shall lay his hands on the head of the
goat and confess over it all the wickedness of the sons of Israel and all the
sins they have committed against me. So he will charge them on the head of
the goat and send it away to the wilderness by the hand of an assistant. °22 So the goat will carry away all their wickedness to
an arid land, when the man releases it in the wilderness. °23 Then Aaron is to go into the Tent of Meeting and
take off the linen garments he had put on before he entered the sacred place.
He shall leave them there, °24 bathe himself with water in a sacred
place and put on his clothes. After that he will come out and sacrifice the
burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people to make
atonement for himself and the people. °25 The
fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. °26 The man who releases the scapegoat to Azazel shall
wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, after which he may re-enter
the camp. °27 The bullock of the sin offering and the
goat of the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the
Holy Place, shall be brought outside the camp and they shall burn their
hides, their flesh and their dung in the fire. °28 The
one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, after
which he may re-enter the camp. °29 This shall be a lasting ordinance for you: on the
tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and do no work –
neither the native nor the stranger living among you – °30 for on this day atonement will be made for you to
cleanse you. You shall be cleansed of your sins before Yahweh. °31 It is a sabbath of solemn rest when you must deny
yourselves. It is a lasting ordinance. °32 The
priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father will make
atonement. He shall put on the linen garments, the holy garments, °33 and will make atonement for the Holy Place, for the
Tent of Meeting and for the altar. He shall also make atonement for the
priests and all the people of the assembly. °34 This
shall be for you a lasting ordinance to make atonement for the people of
Israel once a year, because of all their sins.” And
Moses did as Yahweh commanded him. §|THE LAW OF HOLINESS
¤17
°1 Yahweh said to Moses, °2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons and all the Israelites and
say to them: This is what Yahweh has commanded: °3 Any man
from the house of Israel who kills an ox, or a lamb or a goat in the camp or
outside the camp °4 and does not bring it to the entrance of
the Tent of Meeting to make an offering of it to Yahweh before the tabernacle
of Yahweh – that man shall be considered guilty of bloodshed. He has shed
blood and he shall be cut off from among his people. °5 The reason for this ordinance is so that the sons of
Israel may bring the sacrifices that they used to slay in the fields to
Yahweh at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, to the priests, and sacrifice
them as sacrifices of peace to Yahweh. °6 The priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of
Yahweh at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as a
sweet-smelling offering to Yahweh. °7 This
way they shall no longer slay their sacrifices for the goat idols to whom
they prostituted themselves. This
is to be a lasting ordinance for them in the generations to come. § You shall not eat blood°8 Then you shall give them this ordinance: Any man
from the house of Israel or any alien living among them who offers a burnt
offering or sacrifice °9 and does not bring it to the entrance of
the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to Yahweh, that man shall be cut off from
his people. °10 If any man from the house of Israel or any alien
living among them eats blood, I will set my face against that person and I
will cut him off from among his people. °11 For
the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to rescue
your life on the altar. Offered blood makes atonement because of the life
within it. That is why I said to the sons of Israel: No one among you shall
eat blood, nor may any alien who lives among you eat blood. °12 If any Israelite or any alien living among you
snares in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten, °13 he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. °14 For the blood of every creature contains its life
and I have therefore said to the people of Israel: You are not to eat the
blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is within its blood; whoever eats
it shall be cut off. °15 And every person who eats an animal that dies or
that is torn by wild beasts, whether he be a native or an alien, shall wash
his clothes and bathe in water and remain unclean until evening; then he will
be purified. °16 But if he does not wash his clothes or
bathe his body, he shall carry his guilt.” § The law of holiness¤18 °1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, °2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: I am Yahweh, your God. °3 You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you used to live, nor shall you do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not follow their practices. °4 My practices instead you will follow, and you will carry out my ordinances; I am Yahweh your God. °5 Keep my practices and ordinances, for whoever keeps them finds life; I am Yahweh. °6 None of you shall have sexual intercourse with a blood relative; I am Yahweh. °7 Do not have intercourse with your father or your mother; she is your mother, don’t have intercourse with her. °8 Do not have intercourse with your father’s wife: Respect your father. °9 Do not have intercourse with your sister or your stepsister, whether born in the same house or elsewhere. °10 Do not have intercourse with your granddaughter; that would dishonor you. °11 Do not have intercourse with a half sister; she, too, is your sister. °12 Do not have intercourse with an aunt, whether she is your father’s sister °13 or your mother’s sister. °14 Do not have intercourse with your uncle’s wife; she, too, is your aunt. °15 Do not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law °16 or with your brother’s wife. °17 Do not have intercourse with both a woman and her daughter or her granddaughter; they are blood relatives; that is wickedness. °18 While your wife is living, do not take her sister as a wife so that you make her jealous. °19 Do not have intercourse with a woman during her
monthly period. °20 Do not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife
and defile yourself with her. °21 Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to
Molech and do not profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh. °22 Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it
is an abomination. °23 Also do not have sexual relations with an animal;
that is infamous. °24 Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways for
this is how the nations I am driving out before you, became defiled. °25 As the land was defiled I came to punish it, and it
has vomited out its inhabitants. °26 You shall keep my practices and ordinances, and you
shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the alien
living among you. °27 Recall the people who did all these
things before you in these lands and became defiled. °28 If you defile the land it will vomit you out as it
did the nations before you. °29 The one who does any of these
abominations shall be cut off from his people. °30 Keep my laws and do not follow any of these
abominable customs which were practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves
by them; I am Yahweh, your God.” ¤19
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, °2 “Speak to the entire assembly of the people of
Israel and say to them: Be holy for I, Yahweh, your God, am holy. °3 Each of you must revere his mother and father; and you
shall keep my sabbaths; I am Yahweh, your God. °4 Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten
gods; I am Yahweh, your God. °5 When you offer a sacrifice of peace offering to
Yahweh, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. °6 It shall
be eaten on the day you offer it or on the next day. And whatever remains
shall be burned on the third day. °7
If it is eaten on the
third day it is unclean and will not be accepted. °8 Whoever
eats it will pay for his sin, for he has profaned a holy thing of Yahweh and
this person shall be cut off from his people. § Love your neighbor as yourself
°9 When you reap the harvest of your land do not reap to the extreme limits of your field or gather the gleanings after your harvest. °10 Do not strip your vineyard bare and do not gather the grapes that have fallen; leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am Yahweh, your God. °11 Do not steal or lie or deceive one another. °12 Do not swear falsely by my name so as to profane the name of your God; I am Yahweh. °13 Do not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. °14 You shall not curse a deaf man nor put a stumbling block in the way of the blind; but you shall fear your God; I am Yahweh. °15 Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor nor bow to the great; you are to judge your neighbor fairly so as not to share in his guilt. °16 Do not go about as a slanderer of your people and do not seek the death of your neighbor; I am Yahweh. °17 Do not hate your brother in your heart; rebuke your neighbor frankly so as not to share in his guilt. °18 Do not seek revenge or nurture a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am Yahweh. °19 Keep my practices. You shall not let your cattle
breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed
and you shall not wear clothing made of two different materials. °20 If a man lies with a woman who is a slave promised
to another man, and she has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there
shall be punishment. They shall not be put to death because she was not free,
°21 but he shall bring a ram as a guilt
offering to Yahweh for himself, to the door of the Tent of Meeting. °22 The priest is to make atonement for him before
Yahweh with the ram of the guilt offering, and the sin he has committed will
be forgiven. °23 When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees
for food, you shall count the fruit as unclean. For three years it shall be
unclean for you and it must not be eaten. °24 In the
fourth year all the fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. °25 But in the fifth year you may eat of the fruit, that
its yield may increase for you. I am Yahweh, your God. °26 Do not eat anything over the blood nor practice
divination or astrology. °27 Do not round off the side-growth of your
heads or clip off the edges of your beard. °28 Do not
make cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or make tattoo marks on
yourselves. I am Yahweh. °29 You shall not profane your daughter by making her a
prostitute, lest the land turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness. °30 Keep my sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am
Yahweh. °31 Do not turn to mediums or spiritists for you will be
defiled by them. I am Yahweh, your God. °32 Rise in the presence of the aged and honor the
elderly; in doing this you honor your God. I am Yahweh. °33 When a stranger stays with you in your land, do him
no wrong. °34 He shall be to you as the native among you.
Love him as yourself for you have been strangers in the land of Egypt. I am
Yahweh, your God. °35 Do no wrong in judgment or in measure or weight or
quantity. °36 Use honest scales and honest weights and
exact containers. I am Yahweh, your God who brought you out of the land of
Egypt. °37 You shall keep all my laws and all my practices and
follow them. I am Yahweh.” § Some punishments
¤20
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses °2 saying, “To the Israelites you shall say this: Any
man from the people of Israel or from among the aliens living in Israel who
gives any of his children for the Molech sacrifice, shall be put to death.
The people of the land shall stone him. °3 I shall
set my face against that man and cut him off from among his people, for by
giving his children to Molech he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my
holy name. °4 And if the people of the land hide their
eyes from what that man does and do not put him to death, °5 then I will set my face against them and against
their family and cut them off from their people. I will do the same to all
who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech. °6 I will set my face against the person who turns to
mediums and spiritists and prostitutes himself by following them, and I will
cut him off from his people. °7 Take the way of holiness so that you be holy for I
am Yahweh, your God. °8 You shall keep my laws and practice them.
I, Yahweh, your God am the one who makes you holy. °9 The man
who curses his father or mother shall be put to death. He has cursed his father
or mother. He himself shall account for his blood. °10 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife,
the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put
to death. °11 If a man lies with his father’s wife, he
has dishonored his father, both of them shall be put to death. They
themselves shall account for their blood. °12 If a
man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death for
they have committed incest. They themselves shall account for their blood. °13 When a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman,
both have committed a detestable act and they shall be put to death. They
themselves shall account for their blood. °14 It is wicked for a man to marry both a woman and her
mother. He and they must be burned in the fire so that there may be no
wickedness among you. °15 A man who has sexual relations with an animal must
be put to death and the animal killed. °16 If a
woman approaches an animal to mate with it, kill the woman and the animal.
They shall be put to death. They themselves shall account for their blood. °17 If a man takes his sister, the daughter of his
father or his mother and they have sexual relations, it is a shameful thing
and they shall be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has dishonored
his sister and carries his guilt. °18 A man who lies with a woman during her monthly
period and has intercourse with her has exposed the source of her flow and
she has uncovered it. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people. °19 You shall not have intercourse with the sister of
your father or mother, for that would dishonor a close relative. Both would
be guilty. °20 The man who lies with his aunt dishonors
his uncle. They will be guilty and die childless. °21 It is
a wickedness for a man to take his brother’s wife. He has dishonored his
brother and they will be childless. °22 Keep, therefore, all my decrees and laws and act
according to them so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not
vomit you out of it. °23 You shall not follow the customs of the
nations I shall drive out before you. I felt hatred for them for they did all
these things. °24 Because of this I said to you: You will
possess their land and it is I who give it to you as your possession, a land
flowing with milk and honey. I,
Yahweh, your God have set you apart from the nations. °25 You must therefore set the clean beast apart from
the unclean, and the clean bird apart from the unclean and you shall not
defile yourselves by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps along the
ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. °26 You are to be holy for me as I am holy, Yahweh, your
God, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine. °27 Now a man or a woman who is a spiritist shall be put
to death; he or she shall be stoned and they shall account for their own
blood.” ¤21
°1 Yahweh said to Moses, “Speak to the
priests, sons of Aaron and tell them that not one of them shall make himself
unclean for a dead person among his people °2 except
for those relatives nearest to him, that is for his mother, father, son,
daughter or brother, °3 or for an unmarried sister who is
dependent on him because she has had no husband. For her, he may make himself
unclean. °4 As a husband he must not make himself
unclean for his family-in-law and so profane himself. °5 They shall not make tonsures on their heads nor
shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh. °6 They shall be holy to their God and not profane the
name of their God, for it is they who present offerings by fire, the bread of
their God, so they shall be holy. °7
They must not marry
women unclean by prostitution or a woman divorced by her husband, for the
priest is holy to his God. °8 You shall regard the priest as holy for he
offers up the food of your God. Holy he shall be for you because I, Yahweh,
am holy who makes you holy. °9 If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a
prostitute, she profanes her father and shall be burned in the fire. °10 The high priest, the one among his brothers on whose
head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has been consecrated to wear
the garments, shall not uncover his head or tear his clothes. °11 He shall not go near any dead person or defile
himself either for his father or his mother. °12 He
shall not leave the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God for he has
on him the consecration of the anointing oil of his God. I am Yahweh. °13 The woman he marries must be a virgin. °14 He shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced
woman or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin of his own
people, °15 that he may not defile his children among
his people. I am Yahweh who makes him holy.” °16 Yahweh said to Moses, °17 “Say
to Aaron: No man among your descendants in future generations who has a
defect shall approach to offer the bread of his God. °18 No man who has a defect may come near, no man who is
blind or lame, disfigured or deformed °19 or who
has a broken foot or hand, °20 or is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an
eye defect or eczema or scabs or damaged testicles. °21 The descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect
shall not approach to offer the burnt offering to Yahweh. He must not
approach to offer the bread of his God because of the defect he has. °22 He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy
and the holy, °23 but he may not go as far as the veil or
advance towards the altar because he has a defect. Let him not defile my
sanctuary, for it is I, Yahweh, who make them holy.” °24 Thus spoke Moses to Aaron and to his sons and to all
Israel. ¤22
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °2 “Tell Aaron and his sons when they have to abstain
from the holy offerings of the people of Israel, lest they profane my holy name;
for I am the one who makes them holy. I am Yahweh. °3 Tell
them this: Anyone
of your descendants, in any generation, who in a state of uncleanness
approaches the holy offerings consecrated to Yahweh by the people of Israel,
shall be outlawed from my presence. I am Yahweh. °4 Anyone of Aaron’s line who is afflicted with leprosy
or a discharge must not eat holy things until he is clean. Anyone who touches
something made unclean by a dead body, or has a seminal discharge, °5 or is made unclean by touching either some creeping
thing or some man who has communicated to him his own uncleanness of whatever
kind, °6 in short, anyone who has had any such
contact shall be unclean until evening, and must not eat holy things until he
has taken a bath. °7 At sunset he will be clean and may then
eat holy things, for these are his food. °8 He must not eat an animal that has died a natural
death or been killed by wild animals; he would become unclean by doing this.
I am Yahweh. °9 Let them keep these rules and not burden themselves
with sin lest they die because of having defiled this food. I am Yahweh who
makes them holy. °10 No lay person may eat any of the sacred offerings:
neither the guest of a priest, nor his hired servant. °11 But if the priest has acquired a slave by purchase,
the slave may eat them. Likewise anyone born in the house may eat a share of
the food. °12 If a priest’s daughter marries someone who is not a
priest, she must not eat the holy portion set aside; °13 but if she is widowed or divorced and, being
childless, has had to return to her father’s house as when she was young, she
may eat her father’s food. No lay person may eat it; °14 if someone does eat a holy thing unintentionally, he
shall restore it to the priest with one fifth added. °15 They must not profane the holy offerings which the
people of Israel have set aside for Yahweh. °16 If
they ate of them, they would have to pay a guilt offering. I am Yahweh, who
have sanctified these offerings.” °17 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °18 “Tell this to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the
people of Israel: °19 This rule refers to anyone of the Israelites or to
any stranger living in Israel who brings anything for a burnt offering either
in payment of a vow or as a voluntary gift. To be welcomed, he must offer a
male ox, sheep or goat without any defect, °20 You
must not offer one that has defects; for it would not make you acceptable. °21 If anyone offers to Yahweh a peace offering either
to fulfill a vow or as a voluntary offering, the animal – from the herd or
from the flock – will not please Yahweh unless it be without any defect. °22 You must not offer to Yahweh an animal that is
blind, lame, mutilated, ulcerous, or suffering from skin disease or a sore.
No part of such an animal shall be laid on the altar as a burnt offering for
Yahweh. °23 As a voluntary offering, you may offer a
bull or a lamb that is underdeveloped or deformed; but such will not be
accepted in payment of a vow. °24 Don’t offer to Yahweh an animal if its
testicles have been bruised, crushed, removed or cut. This is not permitted
in your land, °25 and you are not to accept any such from
the hands of a stranger, to offer as food for your God. Their deformity is a
defect and they would not make you acceptable.” °26 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °27 “A calf, lamb, or kid shall stay with its mother
seven days after birth. From the eighth day it will be acceptable as a burnt
offering to Yahweh. °28 No animal, whether cow or ewe, shall be
slaughtered on the same day as its young. °29 If you offer Yahweh a sacrifice of thanksgiving, do
it so that Yahweh may be pleased. °30
You must eat it the
same day, and nothing should be left till the morning. I am Yahweh. § Final exhortation
°31 You must keep my commands and put them into practice.
I am Yahweh. °32 You must not profane my holy name, so
that I may be proclaimed holy among the people of Israel, I, Yahweh who
sanctify you. °33 I who brought you out of the land of
Egypt to be your God, I am Yahweh.” § The annual feasts¤23
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, °2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: You
proclaim holy assemblies on the appointed feasts of Yahweh, which are these: °3 After six days in which work shall be done, there is
a sabbath of complete rest on the seventh day, a holy assembly when no work
shall be done; it is a sabbath to Yahweh in all your houses. °4 Then there are the appointed feasts of Yahweh at the
times fixed for them, when you are to proclaim holy assemblies. °5 At twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month
is Yahweh’s Passover. °6 And on the fifteenth day of this month it
is Yahweh’s feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat bread
without leaven. °7 On the first day there will be a sacred
assembly and no work of a worker shall be done. °8 For seven
days you shall present an offering by fire to Yahweh and on the seventh day
you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no work of a worker.” § Offering of the first sheaf
°9 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, °10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I will give you and you reap its harvest, you will bring to the priest a sheaf, the firstfruits of your harvest °11 and he shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. °12 The day when you wave the sheaf, you shall sacrifice a lamb without defect, born that year, as a burnt offering to Yahweh. °13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of a measure of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to Yahweh, a sweet-smelling offering, with its drink offering of a quarter of a measure of wine. °14 You shall eat neither bread nor grain, whether roasted or new, until the very day you bring the offering to your God. This is to be an everlasting ordinance for all generations throughout your residences. °15 From the day after the sabbath, on which you bring
the sheaf of offering, you are to count seven full weeks. °16 The day after the seventh sabbath will be the
fiftieth day and then you are to offer Yahweh a new offering. °17 You must bring bread from your houses to present
with the gesture of offering – two loaves, made of two tenths of wheaten
flour baked with leaven; these are firstfruits for Yahweh. °18 In addition to the bread you must offer seven
one-year-old lambs without any defect, a young bull and two rams, as a burnt
offering to Yahweh together with a grain offering and drink offering, as a
sweet-smelling offering to Yahweh. °19 You are also to offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin,
and two one-year-old lambs as a peace offering. °20 The
priest shall present them before Yahweh with the gesture of offering, in
addition to the bread of the firstfruits. These, and the two lambs, are holy
things for Yahweh, and will belong to the priest. °21 This same day you are to hold an assembly; this
shall be a sacred assembly for you; you will do no work of a worker. This is
a perpetual law for your descendants wherever you live. °22 When you gather the harvest in your country, you are
not to harvest to the very end of your field, and you are not to gather the
gleanings of the harvest. You are to leave them for the poor and the
stranger. I am Yahweh your God.” °23 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °24 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: The first
day of the seventh month shall be a day of rest for you, a sacred assembly
proclaimed with trumpet call. °25 You must not do any work of a worker and
you must offer a burnt offering to Yahweh.” °26 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °27 “The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the
Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly. You must fast, and you
must offer a burnt offering to Yahweh. °28 You
are not to do any work that day, for it is the Day of Atonement, on which the
rite of atonement will be performed over you before Yahweh your God. °29 Indeed, anyone who fails to fast that day shall be
outlawed from his people; °30 anyone who works that day I will remove
from his people. °31 No work must be done – this is a
perpetual law for your descendants wherever you live. °32 This is to be a day of sabbath rest for you. You
must fast; on the evening of the ninth day of the month, from this to the
following evening, you must cease to work.” °33 Yahweh spoke to Moses; he said: °34 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: The
fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of Tents for Yahweh,
lasting seven days. °35 The first day you shall hold an assembly;
you must do no work of a worker. °36
For seven days you
must offer a burnt offering to Yahweh. On the eighth day you are to hold a
sacred assembly and you must offer a burnt offering to Yahweh. It is a day of
solemn assembly in which you shall do no work of a worker. °37 These are the appointed feasts of Yahweh in which
you are to proclaim holy assemblies for the purpose of offering offerings by
fire, burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings to Yahweh,
according to the ritual of each day, °38 besides
the sabbaths of Yahweh and the presents, and the votive and voluntary gifts
that you make to Yahweh. °39 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you
have harvested the produce of the land, you are to celebrate the feast of
Yahweh for seven days. On the first and eighth days there shall be a complete
rest. °40 On the first day you shall take choice
fruits, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees and willows from the riverbank,
and for seven days you shall rejoice in the presence of Yahweh your God. °41 You are to celebrate a feast for Yahweh in this way
for seven days every year. This is a perpetual law for your descendants. °42 You are to keep this feast in the seventh month. For
seven days you are to live in tents and shelters: all natives of Israel must
live in tents and shelters, °43 so that your descendants may know that I
made the Israelites live in tents when I brought them out of the land of
Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.” °44 These are the regulations that Moses gave to the
sons of Israel regarding the feasts of Yahweh. ¤24
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, °2 “Command the Israelites to bring you oil from
pressed olives for the light, that a lamp may be kept burning continually. °3 Aaron shall keep the flame in order from evening
until morning in the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil of the Statement. It
shall be a lasting ordinance for all generations. °4 He
shall set the lamps on the pure gold lampstand to burn continually before
Yahweh. °5 Then you shall take fine flour and make twelve
cakes, two tenths of a measure in each cake. °6 Place them in two rows, six in each, on
the pure gold table before Yahweh. °7 On each
row put pure frankincense, so that the bread may be a memorial, as an
offering by fire to Yahweh. °8 Every sabbath Aaron shall set the bread
in order before Yahweh on behalf of the Israelites as a lasting covenant. °9 The bread will be for Aaron and his sons; they are
to consider it as a most holy portion of the sacrifices by fire to Yahweh and
they shall eat it in a holy place. This is a lasting law.” § The blasphemy°10 The son of an Israelite woman quarreled with a man
of Israel in the camp and °11 the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed
the name of Yahweh with a curse, so they brought him to Moses. (His mother was
Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan). °12 They put him under guard until a decision from
Yahweh would be made known. °13 Yahweh said to Moses, “Take the man who has cursed
out of the camp. °14 All who have heard him curse will lay
their hands on his head and the entire assembly shall stone him to death. °15 Then say this to the Israelites: The man who curses
God shall pay for his sin °16 and whoever blasphemes the name of Yahweh
shall be put to death. The whole assembly shall stone him; the alien, like
the native, shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name. § The law of retaliation
°17 Whoever kills a man shall be put to death. °18 Whoever kills an animal shall replace the loss, life
for life. °19 If a man injures his neighbor, as he has
done, so shall it be done to him. °20
Fracture for
fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, just as he has injured another, so
shall it be done to him. °21 He who kills a beast shall make up for
it, and he who kills a man shall be put to death. °22 There shall be one law, the same for the alien and
the native, for I am Yahweh, your God.” °23 So Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought
the man who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him. In this way the
Israelites did as Yahweh had commanded Moses. § The sabbatical year and jubilee¤25 °1 Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: °2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, let the land rest for Yahweh every seventh year. °3 For six years you shall sow your field, prune your vineyard and harvest the produce, °4 but in the seventh year the land shall have a rest, or sabbath, a sabbath for Yahweh. You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard; °5 you shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest nor gather the grapes of your uncultivated vines. This shall be a year of rest for the land, °6 but whatever it produces of itself will provide food for you, for your male and female slaves, for your hired servant and for the stranger who lives with you. °7 Its produce will likewise provide food for your livestock and for the wild animals on your land. °8 When seven sabbaths of years have passed, that is, seven times seven years, there shall be the time of the seven weeks of years, that is forty-nine years. °9 Then on the tenth day of the seventh month sound the trumpet loudly. On this Day of Atonement sound the trumpet all through the land. °10 Keep holy the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom for all the inhabitants of the land. It shall be a jubilation year for you when each one shall recover his property and go back to his family. °11 In this fiftieth year, your year of Jubilee, you shall neither sow nor reap the aftergrowth, nor gather the grapes from the uncultivated vines. °12 This Jubilee year shall be holy for you, and you shall eat what the field yields of itself without cultivation. °13 In this year of Jubilee each of you shall recover his own property. °14 When you sell something to your neighbor or buy something from him, do not wrong one another. °15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy it from your neighbor and according to the number of years left for harvesting crops he shall sell to you. °16 When the years are many the price shall be greater and when the years are few the price shall be less, for it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. °17 So you shall not wrong one another but you shall fear your God, for I am Yahweh, your God. °18 Carry out my precepts and obey my laws. In that way you will live securely in the land. °19 The land will give its fruit so that you may have food in abundance and live securely. °20 But if you ask: What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather crops?; see that °21 I will send you my blessing in the sixth year that it may produce enough for three years. °22 So in the eighth year the remains of the old crop will provide you with what to sow and to eat until the harvest of the ninth year is ready. °23 The land shall not be sold forever for the land is mine, where you are but strangers and guests of mine. °24 In all the territory you occupy, the land is to be redeemed. °25 When your brother becomes poor and sells his property, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. °26 If the man has no relatives to buy back his property, but later has sufficient means to redeem it, °27 he will calculate the value based on the number of years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it and in that way he shall recover his property. °28 But if he does not find the means to repay him, what has been sold shall remain with the buyer until the Jubilee year when it must be given back to its original owner. °29 In the same way, if a man sells a house in a walled
city, his right of redemption shall last until the end of a year from the
time of its sale; his right of redemption lasts a whole year. °30 If it is not redeemed by the end of a complete year,
the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the one who bought
it and to his descendants, and it shall not be released in the Jubilee year. °31 Houses in villages which have no surrounding wall
are considered as fields; they have redemption rights and may be released in
a Jubilee year. °32 As for the towns of the Levites, their houses belong
to the Levites and they have a permanent right to redeem what is bought from
them. °33 Any house in a town of the Levites can
return to them at the time of the Jubilee, for the houses in the towns of the
Levites are their possession among the Israelites. °34 The
field also belonging to their towns must not be sold forever; it is their
permanent possession. § How to share with your neighbor°35 If your brother becomes poor and is unable to support himself, help him. Help this stranger or this guest that he may live with you. °36 Do not take interest from him, but fear your God, so that your brother may live among you. °37 Do not give him your silver at interest nor your food for gain. °38 I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of the Canaanites and to be your God. °39 If your brother becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave, °40 but let him remain with you as a hired servant and an alien until the year of Jubilee. °41 He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and return to his own family and to the property of his fathers. °42 For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt and they are not to be sold as slaves. °43 Do not rule over them harshly, but fear your God. °44 As for the male and female slaves, it is from the
nations around you that you are to buy them. °45 You
may also buy from among the aliens who live with you and from their families,
born in your land, and they may be your property. °46 So you
may leave them to your children as inherited possessions and make them slaves
for life. But regarding your fellow Israelites, you must not rule over them
harshly. °47 If an alien or temporary resident becomes prosperous
and one of your brothers becomes so poor as to sell himself to a stranger who
is living with you or to a member of the stranger’s family, °48 he shall have the right of redemption. One of his
brothers may redeem him, °49 or his uncle or the son of his uncle or a
near relative may redeem him. °50 If he becomes rich, let him redeem
himself. He shall reckon with his buyer from the time he sold himself until
the year of Jubilee and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number
of years. If many years remain, he shall be reckoned at the price of a hired
servant, according to the number of years. °51 If
redeemed when many years remain, he shall refund out of the price paid for
him, according to the remaining time. °52 If
only a few years remain until the Jubilee year, he will calculate and refund
accordingly. °53 He shall be with him as a servant hired
year by year and he shall not be harshly dealt with. °54 If he is redeemed in any of these ways, he shall be
released in the Jubilee year, he and his sons with him. °55 For it is to me that the Israelites are servants;
they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh,
your God. ¤26
°1 You shall not make for yourselves idols
or set up an image or pillar or carved stone in your land to bow before it
for I am Yahweh, your God. °2 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my
sanctuary. I am Yahweh. § Promises of God°3 If you walk according to my precepts and obey my commandments, if you carry them out, °4 I will give you rain in its season and the land will yield its produce, the trees in the field their fruit; °5 the threshing time will last to vintage time and the vintage till sowing time. You will have food in abundance and you will live securely in your land. °6 I will give you peace in your country and you will sleep without anyone disturbing you. I will banish the wild beast and keep the sword of war from passing through the land. °7 You will rout your enemies and they will fall before your sword; °8 five of you will pursue a hundred of them and a hundred of you ten thousand of them, and they will fall before you by the sword. °9 I will turn towards you to make your families fruitful and your people numerous, and I will confirm my covenant with you. °10 When you are still eating from the old harvest you will have to discard what is stored to make place for the new. °11 I will make my Dwelling among you and I will not reject you. °12 I will walk among you; I will be your God and you will be my people. °13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be their slaves no longer. I have broken the bars of your yoke letting you walk erect. § Curses°14 But if you do not heed me and keep my commandments, °15 if you reject my precepts and ignore my decrees,
refusing to obey all my commandments and so break my covenant, °16 I, in turn, will do this: I will bring upon you a
terror, a tuberculosis and fever, weakening your eyes and draining your life.
In vain will you sow, for your enemies will eat it. °17 I will turn away from you until you are beaten by
your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you and you shall flee when
no one pursues you. °18 If after all this you do not obey me, I will
continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. °19 I will
break the pride of your power; I will make your sky like iron and your earth
like bronze. °20 Your strength shall be spent in vain;
your land will give no produce and the trees no fruit. °21 If you defy me and are unwilling to obey me, I will
bring seven times as many plagues on you for your sins. °22 I will let loose the wild animals and they will rob
you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you so few that your
roads will be deserted. °23 If, with all this, you do not repent but remain
hostile towards me, °24 then I will be hostile towards you and
strike you seven times for your sins. °25 The sword I will bring against you, and
with the sword I will avenge my covenant with you; and when you gather
together in your cities I will send pestilence on you and you shall be delivered
into enemy hands. °26 When I cut off your supply of bread and
ten women bake bread in one oven and bring back rationed bread, you will eat
and not be satisfied. °27 But if with all that you do not obey me and remain
defiant towards me, °28 I will go against you in fury and punish
you sevenfold for your sins. °29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons and
the flesh of your daughters. °30 I will destroy your high places and cut
down your incense altars; I will cast your corpses on those of your idols and
I shall hate you. °31 I will lay waste your cities and make
desolate your sanctuaries and no longer shall I relish your sweet-smelling
offerings. °32 I will make the land desolate so that
your enemies who settle in it will be astonished. °33 I will
scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword behind you, as your
land becomes desolate and your cities lie in ruins. °34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it
lies waste while you are in the land of your enemies; °35 then the land will rest and observe its sabbaths. As
long as the land lies desolate it shall have the sabbath rest that it did not
have when you inhabited it. °36 As for those of you who are left, I will make them faint-hearted
in the land of their enemies. The sound of a wind-blown leaf will chase them
and even when no one pursues them,
°37 they will flee as from the sword and will
fall. They will stumble against each other as if running from the sword even
when they are not pursued, and you will be unable to stand up before your
enemies. °38 You shall perish among the nations and
die in the land of your enemies. °39 Those among you who remain will rot away because of
their wickedness in the land of your enemies and because of the wickedness of
their fathers they will rot away with them. °40 Then
they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers. They will admit
that their treacheries and their hostility towards me made me hostile towards
them °41 and caused me to bring them to the land
of their enemies, and then their uncircumcised hearts may become humble and
they will accept the punishment for their sin. °42 Then I
will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my
covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. °43 For the land will be abandoned by them and it shall
observe its sabbath; it will be desolate without them, while they pay for
their sin because they spurned my ordinances and ignored my statutes. °44 Yet even so, when they are in the land of their
enemies I will not reject them or ignore them to the point of destroying them
and breaking my covenant with them, for I am Yahweh, their God. °45 For their sake I will remember my covenant with
their forefathers whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the
nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.” °46 These are the statutes, the ordinances and the
teachings of the covenant Yahweh made with the Israelites, through Moses, on
Mount Sinai. § Vows and promises¤27
°1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, °2 “Tell the Israelites about the fixed price for those
who have to be ransomed because of a vow. °3 A man between twenty and sixty years of age shall be
valued at fifty pieces of silver – the official standard; °4 a woman shall be valued at thirty silver coins; °5 between five and twenty years, a boy shall be valued
at twenty silver coins, a girl at ten silver coins; °6 between one month and five years, a boy shall be
valued at five silver coins, a girl at three silver coins; °7 at sixty years and over, a man shall be valued at
fifteen silver coins and a woman at ten silver coins. °8 If the person who made the vow is too poor to pay
the standard price, he must present the person concerned to the priest, and the
priest shall set a value proportionate to the resources of the person who
made the vow. °9 As for an animal suitable for offering to Yahweh,
any such animal given to Yahweh is holy. °10 It
cannot be exchanged or a substitute offered – good for bad, bad for good. If
one animal is substituted for another, both of them shall belong to Yahweh. °11 If it is an unclean animal, and not suitable for
offering to Yahweh, whatever it may be it must be presented to the priest °12 and he shall set a price for it, judging it good or
bad. °13 You must abide by his price. The person
who wishes to buy it back must add one fifth to the price set. °14 If a man dedicates his house to Yahweh, the priest
shall set a price for it, judging whether its value is great or little. You
must abide by the priest’s price. °15
If the man who has
vowed his house wishes to buy it back, he must add one fifth to the price and
it shall be given back to him. °16 If a man dedicates one of the fields of his
patrimony to Yahweh, its value shall be calculated according to its
productivity, at the rate of fifty silver coins to one bushel of barley. °17 If he dedicates the field during the Jubilee year,
he must stand by this price. °18 But if he dedicates it after the Jubilee,
the priest shall calculate the price on the basis of the number of years
still to run until the next Jubilee and the price shall be reduced
accordingly. °19 If he wishes to buy back the field, he shall add one
fifth to the price, and the field shall be given back to him. °20 If he does not buy it back but sells it to another,
the right of redemption ceases; °21
when the buyer has to
give it up at the Jubilee year, it becomes a thing dedicated to Yahweh, the
same as a field laid under the ban: the man’s property passes to the priest. °22 If he dedicates to Yahweh a field which he has
bought, but which is not part of his patrimony, °23 the
priest shall assess the price on the basis of the number of years still to
run before the Jubilee year; and the man shall pay this sum the same day, as
for a thing dedicated to Yahweh. °24
In the Jubilee year,
the field shall return to the seller, to the man to whose patrimony the land
belongs. °25 All prices must be made according to the
official sanctuary standards at the rate of twenty gerahs to one silver
piece. °26 No one may dedicate the firstborn of his cattle, for
it belongs to Yahweh by right: whether ox or sheep, it belongs to Yahweh. °27 But if it is an unclean animal it may be bought back
at the price with one fifth added; if it is not bought back, the animal shall
be sold at the price set. °28 Nothing that is dedicated to Yahweh by anathema may
be bought back; nothing whether a man, an animal, or a field of patrimony.
What is dedicated by anathema becomes a most holy thing and belongs to
Yahweh. °29 A human being dedicated by anathema
cannot be bought back, he must be put to death. °30 One tenth of all the produce of the earth or the
fruits of trees, belongs to Yahweh. °31 If a
man wishes to buy back part of his tithe, he must add one fifth to its value. °32 In all tithes of flock or herd, the tenth animal of
all that pass under the herdsman’s staff shall be a thing dedicated to
Yahweh; °33 there must be no picking out of good and
bad, no substitution. If substitution takes place, both the animal and its
substitute shall be things dedicated without possibility of buying them
back.” °34 These are the commandments that Yahweh laid down for
Moses on Mount Sinai, for the people of Israel. The End |