Leviticus 20-27

New American Standard Bible

On Human Sacrifice and Immoralities

20 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“You shall also say to the sons of Israel:

‘Anyone from the sons of Israel or from the strangers residing in Israel ^(A)who gives any of his ^[a]children to Molech, shall certainly be put to death; ^(B)the people of the land shall stone him with stones. ³I will also set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given some of his ^[b]children to Molech, ^(C)so as to defile My sanctuary and ^(D)to profane My holy name. ⁴If the people of the land, however, ^[c]should ever disregard that man when he gives any of his ^[d]children to Molech, so as not to put him to death, ⁵then I Myself will set My face against that man and against his family, and I will cut off from among their people both him and all those who play the prostitute with him, by playing the prostitute with Molech.

⁶‘As for the person who turns to ^[e]^(E)mediums and to spiritists, to play the prostitute with them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. ⁷You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and ^(F)be holy, for I am the Lord your God. ⁸So ^(G)you shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

⁹‘^(H)If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall certainly be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother, and has brought his ^[f]own death upon himself.

¹⁰‘^(I)If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. ¹¹^(J)If there is a man who sleeps with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them must be put to death, they have brought their ^[g]own deaths upon themselves. ¹²^(K)If there is a man who sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed ^[h]incest, and have brought their ^[i]own deaths upon themselves. ¹³^(L)If there is a man who sleeps with a male as those who sleep with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they must be put to death. They have brought their ^[j]own deaths upon themselves. ¹⁴^(M)If there is a man who ^[k]marries a woman and her mother, it is an outrageous sin; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no such outrageous sin in your midst. ¹⁵^(N)If there is a man who has sexual intercourse with an animal, he must be put to death; you shall also kill the animal. ¹⁶If there is a woman who approaches any animal to ^[l]mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they must be put to death. They have brought their ^[m]own deaths upon themselves.

¹⁷‘^(O)If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he bears his guilt. ¹⁸^(P)If there is a man who sleeps with a menstruous woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has exposed her flow, and she has uncovered the flow of her blood; so both of them shall be cut off from among their people. ¹⁹^(Q)You shall also not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for such a one has uncovered his ^[n]blood relative; they will bear their guilt. ²⁰^(R)If there is a man who sleeps with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered his uncle’s nakedness; they will bear their sin. They will die childless. ²¹^(S)If there is a man who takes his brother’s wife, it is ^[o]detestable; he has uncovered his brother’s nakedness. They will be childless.

²²‘You are therefore to keep all My statutes and all My ordinances, and do them, so that the land to which I am bringing you to ^[p]live will not ^(T)vomit you out. ²³Furthermore, you shall not ^[q]follow ^(U)the customs of the nation which I am going to drive out before you, because they did all these things; ^(V)therefore I have felt disgust for them. ²⁴So I have said to you, “^(W)You are to take possession of their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has ^(X)singled you out from the peoples. ²⁵^(Y)You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make ^[r]yourselves detestable by animal or by bird, or by anything ^[s]that crawls on the ground, which I have distinguished for you as unclean. ²⁶So you are to be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy; and I ^(Z)have singled you out from the peoples to be Mine.

²⁷‘Now a man or a woman ^(AA)who is a medium or a spiritist ^[t]must be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; they have brought their ^[u]own deaths upon themselves.’”

Regulations concerning Priests

21 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘^(AB)No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people, ²^(AC)except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother, ³also for his virgin sister who is near to him ^[v]because she has not had a husband; for her, he may defile himself. ⁴He shall not defile himself as a ^[w]relative by marriage among his people, so as to profane himself. ⁵^(AD)They shall not shave any area on their heads bald, ^(AE)nor shave off the edges of their beards, ^(AF)nor make any cuts in their flesh. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and ^(AG)not profane the name of their God, because they present the offerings by fire ^[x]to the Lord, ^(AH)the food of their God; so they shall be holy. ⁷^(AI)They shall not take a woman who is a prostitute and ^[y]profaned, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God. ⁸You shall consecrate him, therefore, because he offers ^(AJ)the food of your God. He shall be holy to you; for I the Lord, who sanctifies you, am holy. ⁹^(AK)Also the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire.

¹⁰‘The priest who is ^[z]highest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and ^[aa]who has been consecrated to wear the garments, ^(AL)shall not ^[ab]uncover his head nor tear his clothes; ¹¹^(AM)nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother; ¹²^(AN)nor shall he leave the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for ^(AO)the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him; I am the Lord. ¹³He shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴^(AP)A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is profaned by prostitution, these he shall not take; but rather he is to ^[ac]marry a virgin of his own people, ¹⁵so that he will not profane his ^[ad]children among his people; for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.’”

¹⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁷“Speak to Aaron, saying, ‘None of your ^[ae]descendants throughout their generations who has an impairment shall approach to offer the ^(AQ)food of his God. ¹⁸^(AR)For no one who has an impairment shall approach: a man who is blind, or one who limps, or one who has a ^(AS)slit nose, or one with any conspicuous feature, ¹⁹or someone who has a broken foot or broken hand, ²⁰or a contorted back, or one who is a dwarf, or has a spot in his eye, or a festering rash or scabs, or ^(AT)crushed testicles. ²¹No man among the ^[af]descendants of Aaron the priest who has an impairment is to come forward to offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has an impairment, he shall not come forward to offer ^(AU)the food of his God. ²²He may eat ^(AV)the food of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy, ²³only he shall not come up to the veil or approach the altar, since he has an impairment, so that he does not profane My sanctuaries. For I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’” ²⁴So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel.

Various Rules for Priests

22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they dedicate to Me, so as not to profane My holy name; I am the Lord. ³Say to them, ‘^(AW)Any man among all your ^[ag]descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy gifts which the sons of Israel consecrate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from My presence; I am the Lord. ⁴^(AX)No man of the ^[ah]descendants of Aaron, who has ^[ai]leprosy or has a discharge, may eat of the holy gifts until he is clean. ^(AY)And one who touches anything made unclean by a corpse, or ^(AZ)a man who has a seminal emission, ⁵or ^(BA)a man who touches any swarming things by which he is made unclean, or touches any person by whom he is made unclean, whatever his uncleanness; ⁶a ^[aj]person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy gifts unless he has bathed his ^[ak]body in water. ⁷But when the sun sets, he will be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy gifts, for ^(BB)it is his ^[al]food. ⁸He shall not eat ^(BC)an animal which dies or is torn by animals, becoming unclean by it; I am the Lord. ⁹They shall therefore perform their ^(BD)duty to Me, so that ^(BE)they do not bear sin because of it and die by it because they profane it; I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹⁰‘^(BF)No ^[am]layman, however, is to eat the holy gift; a foreign resident with the priest or a hired worker shall not eat the holy gift. ¹¹^(BG)But if a priest buys a ^[an]slave as his property with his money, ^[ao]that person may eat of it, and those who are born in his house may eat of his ^[ap]food. ¹²If a priest’s daughter is married to a ^[aq]layman, she shall not eat of the ^[ar]offering of the holy gifts. ¹³But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or divorced, and has no child and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s ^[as]food; ^(BH)but no ^[at]layman shall eat of it. ¹⁴^(BI)If, however, someone eats a holy food unintentionally, then he shall add to it a fifth of it and shall give the holy food to the priest. ¹⁵And ^(BJ)they shall not profane the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, which they offer to the Lord, ¹⁶and thereby ^(BK)bring upon them ^[au]punishment for guilt by eating their holy gifts; for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Flawless Animals for Sacrifice

¹⁷Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁸“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, and to all the sons of Israel, and say to them, ‘^(BL)Anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel who presents his offering, whether it is any of their ^[av]vows or any of their ^[aw]voluntary offerings, which they present to the Lord as a burnt offering— ¹⁹^(BM)for you to be accepted—it must be a male without defect ^[ax]from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. ²⁰^(BN)Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you. ²¹When someone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord ^(BO)to fulfill a special vow or for a ^[ay]voluntary offering, ^[az]of the herd or ^[ba]of the flock, it must be without defect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. ²²Those that are blind, fractured, maimed, or have a wart, a festering rash, or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. ²³Now as for an ox or a lamb which has an ^[bb]overgrown or stunted member, you may present it as a ^[bc]voluntary offering, but for a vow it will not be accepted. ²⁴Also ^(BP)anything with its testicles squashed, crushed, torn off, or cut off, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor ^[bd]sacrifice in your land, ²⁵nor shall you offer any of these animals taken from the hand of a ^[be]foreigner ^(BQ)as the ^[bf]food of your God; for their deformity is in them, they have an impairment. They will not be accepted for you.’”

²⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷“When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall ^[bg]remain ^(BR)seven days ^[bh]with its mother, and from the eighth day on it will be considered acceptable as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁸^(BS)But, whether it is an ox or a sheep, you shall not slaughter both it and its young in one day. ²⁹When you sacrifice ^(BT)a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ³⁰It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it until morning. I am the Lord. ³¹^(BU)So you shall keep My commandments, and do them; I am the Lord.

³²“And you shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the Lord who sanctifies you, ³³^(BV)who brought you out from the land of Egypt, to be your God; I am the Lord.”

Laws of Holy Days

23 The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(BW)The Lord’s appointed times which you shall ^(BX)proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:

³‘^(BY)For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.

⁴‘These are the ^(BZ)appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. ⁵^(CA)In the ^[bi]first month, on the fourteenth day of the month ^[bj]at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the ^(CB)Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall ^(CC)not do any laborious work. ⁸But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’”

⁹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and you ^(CD)gather its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹²Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³Its ^(CE)grain offering shall then be ^[bk]two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a ^[bl]fourth of a hin of wine. ¹⁴Until this very day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, ^(CF)you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new produce. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

¹⁵‘^(CG)You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. ¹⁶You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a ^(CH)new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread as a wave offering, made of ^[bm]two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked ^(CI)with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. ¹⁸Along with the bread you shall present seven one-year-old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹You shall also offer ^(CJ)one male goat as a ^[bn]sin offering, and two male lambs one year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. ²⁰The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹On this very day you shall ^(CK)make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious ^(CL)work. It is to be a permanent statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.

²²‘^(CM)When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.’”

²³Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘^(CN)In the ^[bo]seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a ^[bp]rest, a ^(CO)reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ²⁵You shall ^(CP)not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”

The Day of Atonement

²⁶Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁷“On exactly ^(CQ)the tenth day of this seventh month is ^(CR)the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble ^[bq]yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁸You shall not do any work on this very day, for it is a ^(CS)Day of Atonement, ^(CT)to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God. ²⁹If there is any ^[br]person who does not humble himself on this very day, ^(CU)he shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰As for any person who does any work on this very day, that person I will eliminate from among his people. ³¹You shall not do any work. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. ³²It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble ^[bs]yourselves; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”

³³Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On ^(CV)the fifteenth of this ^[bt]seventh month is the ^(CW)Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord. ³⁵On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall ^(CX)not do any laborious work. ³⁶^(CY)For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On ^(CZ)the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall not do any laborious work.

³⁷‘These are ^(DA)the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, ^(DB)each day’s matter on its own day— ³⁸besides those of the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your ^[bu]vowed and ^[bv]voluntary offerings, which you give to the Lord.

³⁹‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, ^(DC)when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a ^[bw]rest on the first day and a ^[bx]rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the ^[by]foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and branches of trees with thick branches and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹So you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴²You shall live ^(DD)in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, ⁴³so that ^(DE)your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” ⁴⁴So Moses declared to the sons of Israel ^(DF)the appointed times of the Lord.

The Lamp and the Bread of the Sanctuary

24 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you ^(DG)clear oil from beaten olives for the ^[bz]light, to make a lamp ^[ca]burn continually. ³Outside the veil of the testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations. ⁴He shall keep the lamps in order on the ^(DH)pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.

⁵“^(DI)Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve ^[cb]cakes with it; ^[cc]two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. ⁶And you shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the ^(DJ)pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷You shall put pure frankincense on each row so that it may be ^(DK)a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁸^(DL)Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord ^(DM)continually; it is an everlasting covenant ^[cd]for the sons of Israel. ⁹And ^(DN)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.”

¹⁰Now the son of an Israelite woman—his father was an Egyptian—went out among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man had a fight within the camp. ¹¹And the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the ^(DO)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.) ¹²Then they put him in custody, waiting for Moses to give them a clear decision in accordance with ^(DP)the command of the Lord.

¹³Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴“Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and have all who heard him ^(DQ)lay their hands on his head; then ^(DR)have all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵You shall also speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘^(DS)If anyone curses his God, then he will bear the responsibility for his sin. ¹⁶Moreover, the one who ^(DT)blasphemes the name of the Lord must be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The stranger as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.

An Eye for an Eye

¹⁷‘Now ^(DU)if someone ^[ce]takes any human life, he must be put to death. ¹⁸But ^(DV)the one who ^[cf]takes the life of an animal shall make restitution, life for life. ¹⁹If someone injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so shall it be done to him: ²⁰^(DW)fracture for fracture, ^(DX)eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a person, so shall it be ^[cg]inflicted on him. ²¹So the one who ^[ch]kills an animal shall make restitution, but ^(DY)the one who ^[ci]kills a person shall be put to death. ²²There shall be only ^(DZ)one ^[cj]standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.’” ²³Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp, and stoned him with stones. So the sons of Israel did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Sabbatical Year and Year of Jubilee

25 The Lord then spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am going to give you, then the land shall have a Sabbath to the Lord. ³For ^(EA)six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce, ⁴but during ^(EB)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. ⁵You shall not reap your harvest’s ^[ck]aftergrowth, and you shall not gather your grapes of untrimmed vines; the land shall have a sabbatical year. ⁶^(EC)All of you shall have the Sabbath produce of the land as food; for yourself, your male and female slaves, and your hired worker and your foreign resident, those who live as strangers among you. ⁷Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its produce 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, that is, forty-nine years. ⁹You shall then sound a ram’s horn ^[cl]abroad on ^(ED)the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. ¹⁰So you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and ^(EE)proclaim ^[cm]a release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, ^[cn]and ^(EF)each of you shall return to his own property, ^[co]and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor harvest its aftergrowth, nor gather grapes from its untrimmed vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field.

¹³‘^(EG)On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. ¹⁴Furthermore, if you make a sale to your friend, or buy from your friend’s hand, ^(EH)you shall not ^[cp]wrong one another. ¹⁵Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your ^[cq]friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. ¹⁶^(EI)In proportion to ^[cr]a greater number of years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to ^[cs]fewer years you shall decrease its price, because it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. ¹⁷So ^(EJ)you shall not ^[ct]wrong one another, but you shall ^[cu]fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸‘You shall therefore ^[cv]follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that ^(EK)you may live securely on the land. ¹⁹Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it. ²⁰But if you say, “^(EL)What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?” ²¹then ^(EM)I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years. ²²When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat ^(EN)old things from the produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in.

The Law of Redemption

²³‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because ^(EO)the land is Mine; for ^(EP)you are only strangers and residents with Me. ²⁴So for every ^[cw]piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵‘^(EQ)If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest ^[cx]redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. ²⁶Or in case someone has no redeemer, but ^[cy]recovers to find sufficient means for its redemption, ²⁷^(ER)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. ²⁸But if ^[cz]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 ^[da]revert, so that ^(ES)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 after its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. ³⁰But 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 ^[db]revert in the jubilee. ³¹The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded ^[dc]as open fields; they have redemption rights and ^[dd]revert in the jubilee. ³²As for the ^(ET)cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession. ³³What, therefore, ^[de]belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale ^[df]in the city of this possession ^[dg]reverts in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel. ³⁴^(EU)But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.

Of Poor Countrymen

³⁵‘^(EV)Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his ^[dh]means among you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a resident, so that he may live with you. ³⁶^(EW)Do not take ^[di]any kind of interest from him, but ^[dj]fear your God, so that your countryman may live with you. ³⁷You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food ^[dk]for profit. ³⁸^(EX)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and ^(EY)to be your God.

³⁹‘Now ^(EZ)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. ⁴⁰He shall be with you as a hired worker, ^(FA)as if he were a foreign resident; he shall serve with you up to the year of jubilee. ⁴¹He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, so that he may return to the property of his forefathers. ⁴²For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale. ⁴³^(FB)You shall not rule over him with ^[dl]severity, but are to revere your God. ⁴⁴As 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. ⁴⁵You may also acquire them from the sons of the foreign residents who reside among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession. ⁴⁶You may also pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to receive as a possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. ^(FC)But in respect to your countrymen, the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with ^[dm]severity over one another.

Of Redeeming a Person Who Is Poor

⁴⁷‘Now if the ^[dn]means of a stranger or of a foreign resident with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes poor in relation to him and sells himself to a stranger who is residing with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family, ⁴⁸then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹or his uncle, or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him; or ^[do]^(FD)if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰He 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 calculated. It is like the days of a hired worker that he will be with him. ⁵¹If there are still many years remaining, ^(FE)he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them for his own redemption; ⁵²but 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. ⁵³He shall be with him like a worker hired year by year; ^(FF)he shall not rule over him with ^[dp]severity in your sight. ⁵⁴Even if he is not redeemed by ^[dq]these means, ^(FG)he shall still leave in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him. ⁵⁵For 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.

Blessings of Obedience

26 ‘You shall not make for yourselves ^(FH)idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves ^(FI)a carved image or ^(FJ)a memorial stone, nor shall you place a ^(FK)figured stone in your land to bow down ^[dr]to it; for I am the Lord your God. ²^(FL)You shall keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am the Lord. ³^(FM)If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, ⁴then ^(FN)I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. ⁵^(FO)Indeed, your threshing season will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. So you will eat your ^[ds]food to the full and ^(FP)live securely in your land. ⁶^(FQ)I shall also grant peace in the land, so that ^(FR)you may lie down, with no one to make you afraid. ^(FS)I shall also eliminate harmful animals from the land, and ^(FT)no sword will pass through your land. ⁷Instead, you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; ⁸^(FU)five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. ⁹So I will turn toward you and ^(FV)make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will ^(FW)confirm My covenant with you. ¹⁰And ^(FX)you will eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. ¹¹^(FY)Moreover, I will make My ^[dt]dwelling among you, and My soul will not ^[du]reject you. ¹²^(FZ)I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. ¹³^(GA)I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and ^(GB)I broke your yoke and made you walk erect.

Penalties of Disobedience

¹⁴‘^(GC)But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, ¹⁵if, instead, you ^(GD)reject My statutes, and if your soul loathes My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, but rather to ^(GE)break My covenant, ¹⁶I, in turn, will do this to you: I will ^[dv]summon a ^(GF)sudden terror against you, consumption and fever that will make the eyes fail and the ^(GG)soul languish; also, ^(GH)you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷And I will set My face against you so that you will be defeated before your enemies; and ^(GI)those who hate you will rule over you, and ^(GJ)you will flee when no one is pursuing you. ¹⁸If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you ^(GK)seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹I will also ^(GL)break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰^(GM)Your strength will be consumed uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.

²¹‘Yet if you ^[dw]^(GN)show hostility toward Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you ^(GO)seven times according to your sins. ²²^(GP)I will also let loose among you the animals of the field, which will deprive you of your children and eliminate your cattle, and reduce your number so that ^(GQ)your roads become deserted.

²³‘^(GR)And if by these things you do not learn your lesson regarding Me, but you show hostility toward Me, ²⁴then I in turn will ^(GS)show hostility toward you; and I, even I, will strike you ^(GT)seven times for your sins. ²⁵I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute ^(GU)vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send a ^(GV)plague among you, so that you will be handed over to the enemy. ²⁶^(GW)When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread ^[dx]in rationed amounts, so that you will ^(GX)eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, ²⁸then ^(GY)I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I for My part will punish you seven times for your sins. ²⁹Further, ^(GZ)you will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰I then ^(HA)will destroy your high places, and cut down your ^(HB)incense altars, and ^[dy]pile your ^[dz]remains on the ^[ea]remains of your idols, for My soul will loathe you. ³¹I will turn your cities into ^(HC)ruins as well and make your ^(HD)sanctuaries desolate, and I will not ^(HE)smell your soothing aromas. ³²And I will make ^(HF)the land desolate ^(HG)so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled at it. ³³You, however, I ^(HH)will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become ruins.

³⁴‘^(HI)Then the land will restore its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and restore its Sabbaths. ³⁵All the days of its desolation it will have the rest which it did not have on your Sabbaths, while you were living on it. ³⁶As for those among you who are left, I will also bring ^(HJ)despair into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a scattered leaf will chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee ^[eb]as though from the sword, and they will fall. ³⁷^(HK)They will then stumble over each other as if running from the sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand before your enemies. ³⁸Instead, ^(HL)you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land will consume you. ³⁹^(HM)So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their wrongdoing in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the wrongdoing of their forefathers they will rot away with them.

⁴⁰‘But ^(HN)if they confess their wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me— ⁴¹I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies—^(HO)or if their uncircumcised heart is humbled so that ^(HP)they then make amends for their wrongdoing, ⁴²then I will remember ^(HQ)My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also ^(HR)My covenant with Isaac, and ^(HS)My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land. ⁴³^(HT)For the land will be abandoned by them, and will restore its Sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their wrongdoing, ^[ec]because they rejected My ordinances and their ^(HU)soul loathed My statutes. ⁴⁴Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so ^(HV)loathe them as ^(HW)to destroy them, ^(HX)breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. ⁴⁵But I will remember for them the ^(HY)covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, so that ^(HZ)I might be their God. I am the Lord.’”

⁴⁶^(IA)These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established between Himself and the sons of Israel ^[ed]through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Rules concerning Assessments

27 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘^(IB)When someone makes an explicit vow, he shall be valued according to your assessment of persons belonging to the Lord. ³If your assessment is of a male from twenty years even to sixty years old, then your assessment shall be fifty shekels of silver, by ^(IC)the shekel of the sanctuary. ⁴Or if ^[ee]the person is a female, then your assessment shall be thirty shekels. ⁵And if the person is from five years even to twenty years old, then your assessment for a male shall be twenty shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁶But if the person is from a month even up to five years old, then your assessment shall be ^(ID)five shekels of silver for a male, and for a female your assessment shall be three shekels of silver. ⁷If the person is from sixty years old and upward, if a male, then your assessment shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten shekels. ⁸But if he is poorer than your assessment, then he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; ^(IE)according to ^[ef]the means of the one who vowed, the priest shall assess him.

⁹‘Now if it is an animal of the kind that ^[eg]one can present as an offering to the Lord, any such animal that one gives to the Lord shall be holy. ¹⁰^(IF)He shall not replace it nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; yet if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. ¹¹If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which ^[eh]one does not present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the priest. ¹²And the priest shall assess it ^[ei]as either good or bad; as you, the priest, assess it, so shall it be. ¹³But if he should ever want to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth of it to your assessment.

¹⁴‘Now if someone consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall assess it ^[ej]as either good or bad; as the priest assesses it, so shall it stand. ¹⁵Yet if the one who consecrates it should want to redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may be his.

¹⁶‘Again, if someone consecrates to the Lord part of the field of his own property, then your assessment shall be ^[ek]proportionate to the seed needed for it: a ^[el]homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver. ¹⁷If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to your assessment it shall stand. ¹⁸If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for ^[em]him ^[en]proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your assessment. ¹⁹If the one who consecrates it should ever want to redeem the field, then he shall add a fifth of your assessment price to it, so that it may belong to him. ²⁰Yet if he does not redeem the field, ^[eo]but has sold the field to another person, it may no longer be redeemed; ²¹and when it ^[ep]reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord, like a field banned from secular use; ^(IG)it shall be for the priest as his property. ²²Or if he consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not a part of the field of his own property, ²³then the priest shall calculate for ^[eq]him the amount of your assessment up to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your assessment as holy to the Lord. ²⁴In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs. ²⁵Every assessment of yours, moreover, shall be by ^(IH)the shekel of the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.

²⁶‘^(II)However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no one may consecrate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall ^[er]redeem it according to your assessment and add to it a fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your assessment.

²⁸‘Nevertheless, ^(IJ)^[es]anything which someone sets apart to the Lord for ^[et]destruction out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the field of his own property, shall not be sold nor redeemed. Anything set apart for destruction is most holy to the Lord. ²⁹No ^[eu]one who may have been ^[ev]set apart among mankind shall be ransomed; he must be put to death.

³⁰‘Now ^(IK)all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. ³¹If, therefore, someone should ever want to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add to it a fifth of it. ³²For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever ^(IL)passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. ³³^(IM)He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; yet if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”