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LEVITICUS: CHAPTER
24-25
LEVITICUS: CHAPTER
24
The Lamp
and the Bread of the Sanctuary
1 Then the LORD spoke
to Moses, saying,
2 "Command the sons of Israel that they bring
to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn
continually.
3 "Outside the veil of testimony in the tent
of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before
the LORD continually; it shall be a perpetual
statute throughout your generations.
4 "He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure
gold lampstand before the LORD continually.
5 "Then you shall take fine flour and
bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in
each cake.
6 "You shall set them in two rows, six
to a row, on the pure gold table before the LORD.
7 "You shall put pure frankincense on each row
that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering
by fire to the LORD.
8 "Every sabbath day he shall set it in order
before the LORD continually; it is an everlasting
covenant for the sons of Israel.
9 "It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they
shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the LORD'S
offerings by fire, his portion forever."
10 Now the son of an Israelite woman,
whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the sons of Israel; and
the Israelite woman's son and a man of Israel struggled with each other
in the camp.
11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed
the Name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother's
name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)
12 They put him in custody so that the command
of the LORD might be made clear to them.
13 Then the LORD
spoke to Moses, saying,
14 "Bring the one who has cursed outside the
camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then let
all the congregation stone him.
15 "You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying,
'If anyone curses his God, then he will bear his sin.
16 'Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name
of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all
the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the
native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
"An Eye for
an Eye"
17 'If a man takes the life of any human
being, he shall surely be put to death.
18 'The one who takes the life of an animal shall
make it good, life for life.
19 'If a man injures his neighbor, just as he
has done, so it shall be done to him:
20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on
him.
21 'Thus the one who kills an animal shall make
it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death.
22 'There shall be one standard for you; it shall
be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the LORD
your God.' "
23 Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and
they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him
with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just as the LORD
had commanded Moses.
LEVITICUS: CHAPTER
25
The Sabbatic
Year and Year of Jubilee
1 The LORD then spoke
to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,
2 "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them,
'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall
have a sabbath to the LORD.
3 'Six years you shall sow your field, and six
years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop,
4 but during the seventh year the land shall
have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you
shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
5 'Your harvest's aftergrowth you shall not reap,
and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall
have a sabbatical year.
6 'All of you shall have the sabbath products
of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and
your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with
you.
7 'Even your cattle and the animals that are
in your land shall have all its crops to eat.
8 'You are also to count off seven sabbaths
of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the
time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years.
9 'You shall then sound a ram's horn abroad on
the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall
sound a horn all through your land.
10 'You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year
and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall
be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property,
and each of you shall return to his family.
11 'You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee;
you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from
its untrimmed vines.
12 'For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to
you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
13 'On this year of jubilee each of you
shall return to his own property.
14 'If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend
or buy from your friend's hand, you shall not wrong one another.
15 'Corresponding to the number of years after
the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according
to the number of years of crops.
16 'In proportion to the extent of the years
you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the
years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops
he is selling to you.
17 'So you shall not wrong one another, but you
shall fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.
18 'You shall thus observe My statutes
and keep My judgments, so as to carry them out, that you may live securely
on the land.
19 'Then the land will yield its produce, so
that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.
20 'But if you say, "What are we going to eat
on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?"
21 then I will so order My blessing for you in
the sixth year that it will bring forth the crop for three years.
22 'When you are sowing the eighth year, you
can still eat old things from the crop, eating the old until
the ninth year when its crop comes in.
The Law of
Redemption
23 'The land, moreover, shall not be sold
permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and
sojourners with Me.
24 'Thus for every piece of your property, you
are to provide for the redemption of the land.
25 'If a fellow countryman of yours becomes
so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman
is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.
26 'Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers
his means as to find sufficient for its redemption,
27 then he shall calculate the years since its
sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return
to his property.
28 'But if he has not found sufficient means
to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the
hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee
it shall revert, that he may return to his property.
29 'Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling
house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until
a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.
30 'But if it is not bought back for him within
the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city
passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does
not revert in the jubilee.
31 'The houses of the villages, however, which
have no surrounding wall shall be considered as open fields; they have
redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.
32 'As for cities of the Levites, the Levites
have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which
are their possession.
33 'What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may
be redeemed and a house sale in the city of this possession reverts
in the jubilee, for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their
possession among the sons of Israel.
34 'But pasture fields of their cities shall
not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.
Of Poor Countrymen
35 'Now in case a countryman of yours
becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to
sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you.
36 'Do not take usurious interest from him, but
revere your God, that your countryman may live with you.
37 'You shall not give him your silver at interest,
nor your food for gain.
38 'I am the LORD your
God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of
Canaan and to be your God.
39 'If a countryman of yours becomes so
poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not
subject him to a slave's service.
40 'He shall be with you as a hired man, as if
he were a sojourner; he shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.
41 'He shall then go out from you, he and his
sons with him, and shall go back to his family, that he may return to
the property of his forefathers.
42 'For they are My servants whom I brought out
from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale.
43 'You shall not rule over him with severity,
but are to revere your God.
44 'As for your male and female slaves whom you
may have—you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan
nations that are around you.
45 'Then, too, it is out of the sons of
the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition,
and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced
in your land; they also may become your possession.
46 'You may even bequeath them to your sons after
you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves.
But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not
rule with severity over one another.
Of Redeeming
a Poor Man
47 'Now if the means of a stranger or
of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours
becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger
who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger's family,
48 then he shall have redemption right after
he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him,
49 or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem
him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or
if he prospers, he may redeem himself.
50 'He then with his purchaser shall calculate
from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee;
and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. It
is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with him.
51 'If there are still many years, he shall refund
part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption;
52 and if few years remain until the year of
jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years
he is to refund the amount for his redemption.
53 'Like a man hired year by year he shall be
with him; he shall not rule over him with severity in your sight.
54 'Even if he is not redeemed by these means,
he shall still go out in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.
55 'For the sons of Israel are My servants; they
are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the
LORD your God. |
