Leviticus 17-26

The Voice

Eternal One: ² Go, say to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites: Here is what the Eternal has commanded: ³ If an Israelite slaughters an ox, lamb, or goat inside or outside the camp ⁴ and does not present it at the entrance of the congregation tent as an offering to Me in front of My sanctuary, then he is to be considered guilty of murder. He has spilled blood and is to be cut off from the community. ⁵ I want the Israelites to stop sacrificing to Me in the open field and do it only at the entrance of the congregation tent. They must present their sacrifices to the priest and sacrifice them as peace offerings to Me. ⁶ The priest will splatter the blood on My altar at the entrance of the congregation tent and offer the fat on the altar; and the smoke of the sacrifice will rise and become a pleasant aroma to Me. ⁷ They must not offer any more sacrifices to the goat demons, the pagan gods with whom they’ve been unfaithful to Me until now. This directive stands for all time throughout their generations.

⁸ Then warn them that if any Israelite or outsider living among you presents a burnt offering or other sacrifice ⁹ and fails to present it to Me at the entrance of the congregation tent, then he will be cut off from the community.

¹⁰ If anyone from the community of Israel or an outsider living among you consumes any blood, I will be at odds with him and cut him off from the community of Israel. ¹¹ You see, the life of the body is in the blood, and I have directed that you are to take blood and offer it on the altar to atone for your lives and cover your sins. It is the life flowing in the blood that atones for you and covers you. ¹² This is why I told the people of Israel, “No one of you or any outsider living among you is allowed to eat blood.”

¹³ Now if any Israelite or outsider living among you hunts and kills an animal or a bird that is acceptable and may be eaten, then that person must drain its blood from it and cover it up with the soil of the earth.

¹⁴ You see, the life of every creature is its blood; blood represents life. Blood is life. This is why I told the people of Israel, “Do not eat the blood of any living creature; for the life of any creature is its blood.” Anyone who consumes blood will be cut off from the community. ¹⁵ Any time a person eats an animal that has died of natural causes or has been killed by another animal—regardless of whether that person is native-born or an outsider living among you—he is to wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be regarded as impure until dusk; afterward, he will be ritually pure again. ¹⁶ But if the person does not wash his clothes or bathe his body, then he carries his guilt and will suffer the consequences.

Eternal One: ² Go, talk with the Israelites. Tell them I am the Eternal One, your God. ³ You must not act as you saw the Egyptians do when you lived in Egypt, nor should you act as they do in Canaan where I am taking you. Do not follow their practices. ⁴ From here on out, you will live by My commands and honor My decrees and live your lives according to them alone. I am the Eternal One, your God. ⁵ Stay devoted to My decrees and commands. The person who observes them will live by them.^[a] I am the Eternal One.

⁶ You must not have sexual relations with anyone closely related to you. I am the Eternal One. ⁷ This includes your father and your mother. You are to honor her as your mother and not have sexual relations with her. ⁸ You are not to have sexual relations with your father’s wife; you might as well violate your father. ⁹ You are not to have sexual relations with your sister—whether she is your father’s daughter or mother’s daughter, regardless of where she has lived, with your family or elsewhere. ¹⁰ Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; since they are your own flesh and blood, such an act would bring shame to you. ¹¹ You are not to have sexual relations with your stepsister, the daughter of your father and his wife;^[b] for she is still your sister. ¹² Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister, your aunt; she is your father’s flesh and blood. ¹³ Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, your aunt; she is your mother’s flesh and blood. ¹⁴ You are not to dishonor your father’s brother, your uncle, by approaching his wife for sexual relations. She is your aunt. ¹⁵ You are not to have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. ¹⁶ You are not to have sexual relations with your brother’s wife, your sister-in-law;^[c] you might as well violate your brother. ¹⁷ You are not to have sexual relations with a woman and her daughter, her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter; they are blood relations. It would be a disgusting act. ¹⁸ As long as your wife is living, do not marry her sister or have sexual relations with her. This would make them rivals.

¹⁹ You are not to have sexual relations with a woman while she is in her menstrual impurity. ²⁰ Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife; such an act defiles you both. ²¹ Do not sacrifice your children to Molech. Such an unholy sacrifice desecrates your God’s name. I am your God, the Eternal One. ²² You are not to have sexual relations with a man in the same way you do with a woman; such a thing is detestable. ²³ Do not engage in a sexual act with an animal—this includes men as well as women; such behavior defiles you and perverts the proper order of things.

²⁴ Do not defile yourselves by engaging in any of these perverse things. I am driving out all these other nations ahead of you because they have corrupted themselves with disgusting acts like these. ²⁵ The entire land of Canaan is so impure that I will punish the land until it vomits out those who dwell upon it. ²⁶ I want you to keep My decrees and judgments. No Israelite and no outsider living among you should commit any of the detestable acts that ²⁷ the people who were in Canaan before you committed when they desecrated the land. ²⁸ Do not desecrate the land or the land will vomit you from it as it has done to those who were there before you. ²⁹ All those who commit these disgusting acts will be cut off from their community. ³⁰ Therefore, observe My laws and do not commit any of these disgusting acts which have been committed by the people who lived in the land before you. If you observe them, you will not defile yourselves like they did. I am the Eternal One, your God.

Eternal One: ² Go, talk with the community of Israel, and tell them that they are to be holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.^{[d] 3} I want all of you to honor your mothers and fathers and keep My Sabbaths, for I am the Eternal your God. ⁴ Do not turn from Me to follow useless idols or cast metal images of other gods, for I am the Eternal your God.

⁵ When you sacrifice a peace offering to Me, present it correctly so you are accepted. ⁶ Your peace offering should be consumed the same day you present it or the day after. But you must burn any of the offering that is still left on the third day. ⁷ If any of it is eaten on the third day, your offering will not be accepted; by then it has become foul. ⁸ Anyone who consumes the peace offering on the third day will bear his guilt and suffer the consequences, for he has desecrated what has been set apart for Me. That person must be cut off from his people.

⁹ When you harvest the crops of your land, do not gather the grain all the way to the edges of your fields or pick up what was overlooked during the first round of harvesting. ¹⁰ Likewise do not strip the vines bare in your vineyard or gather the fallen grapes. Leave the fallen fruit and some grapes on the vine for the poor and strangers living among you; for I am the Eternal your God.

Eternal One: ¹¹ Do not take what is not yours or conduct business dishonestly or lie to each other. ¹² Do not swear to a lie in My name. If you do, My name is profaned. I am the Eternal One.

¹³ Do not mistreat your neighbor or steal from him. Do not keep the payment of a hired hand overnight, but compensate him for work at the end of the day. ¹⁴ Do not mock the disabled by shouting a curse at a deaf person or putting something in the way to trip up the blind. Instead, honor and fear your God; I am the Eternal One.

¹⁵ In a court of law, do what is just, not unjust. Do not favor one side or the other, the poor or the wealthy; instead, judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶ Do not go around spreading malicious lies about other people. Do not take a stand that would endanger your neighbor’s life. I am the Eternal One.

¹⁷ Do not harbor a deep hatred for any of your relatives. If your neighbor is doing something wrong, correct him or else you could be held responsible for his sin.^{[e] 18} Do not seek revenge or hold a grudge against any of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as you love yourself,^[f] for I am the Eternal One.

¹⁹ Honor My decrees. Do not breed two different species. Do not plant two different sorts of seed in your fields. Do not wear clothing made from two different kinds of material.

²⁰ If a man has sexual relations with a slave woman who is promised to another man but has not yet been redeemed or freed, then they will face an inquiry. Neither the man nor the woman will be put to death because she was a slave and not a free woman when the offense took place. ²¹ The man must present to Me a ram as his guilt offering at the entrance of the congregation tent. ²² The priest is to sacrifice the ram of the guilt offering before Me to cover the man’s guilt; then the guilty man’s sin will be forgiven.

²³ When you go into the land and plant fruit-bearing trees, you are not to eat the fruit right away. It’s off-limits for three years.^{[g] 24} When the fourth year arrives, all the fruit of those trees must be regarded as sacred, a praise offering to Me. ²⁵ When the fifth year arrives, you are finally allowed to eat the fruits of those trees. If you demonstrate your faith by following this procedure, these trees will be even more productive. I am the Eternal One, your God.

²⁶ Do not consume any meat while the blood is still in it. Do not practice divination or fortune-telling. ²⁷ Do not cut the hair at your temples or trim your beard. ²⁸ Do not make cuts in your body for the dead or mark yourselves with tattoos. I am the Eternal One.

²⁹ Do not defile your daughter by forcing her into prostitution. If you do, you not only corrupt her but you also infect the land with prostitution and wickedness. ³⁰ Keep My Sabbaths and respect My sanctuary. I am the Eternal One.

³¹ Do not turn to mediums or consult with those who communicate with the spirits of the dead. Do not go near them, or else you will defile yourselves. I am the Eternal your God.

³² You are to stand in respect for the older people in your community. You must fear your God. I am the Eternal One.

³³ Don’t take advantage of any stranger who lives in your land. ³⁴ You must treat the outsider as one of your native-born people—as a full citizen—and you are to love him in the same way you love yourself; for remember, you were once strangers living in Egypt. I am the Eternal One, your God.

³⁵ In business dealings, be fair and do not cheat. Measure accurately length, weight, and volume. ³⁶ Your scales are to be accurate, your weights true, and your containers standard. I am the Eternal your God, who led you out of Egypt.

³⁷ You are to keep all My directives and all of My rules, and do as I have instructed. I am the Eternal One.

Eternal One: ² Tell the people of Israel that if any of them or any outsiders living among them present their children as human sacrifices to Molech, they will be put to death. The entire community must see to it that he is stoned to death. ³ I will turn against that man and cut him off from his community because he presented one of his children to Molech; he has desecrated My sanctuary and My sacred reputation. ⁴ If the people in the community fail to handle the situation and do not execute him after he presents his children to Molech, ⁵ then I will take the matter into My own hands and turn against the man and his family. I will cut him and all those who prostitute themselves with Molech off from their community.

Eternal One: ⁶ I will turn against any individual who prostitutes himself by turning to mediums and consulting with those who communicate with the spirits of the dead. I will cut him off from his community. ⁷ Dedicate yourselves exclusively to the one True God and become holy, for I, the Eternal your God, am holy.^{[h] 8} Keep My directives and practice My commands, for I am the Eternal who sanctifies you.

⁹ Anyone who utters a curse on his father or mother must be put to death,^[i] for he has dishonored them, and their blood is on him.

¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both offenders must be put to death. ¹¹ If a man has sexual relations with his father’s wife, he might as well have violated his father; both offenders must be put to death, for their blood is on them. ¹² If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, both offenders must be put to death; for they have engaged in a disgusting act and their blood is on them. ¹³ If a man has sexual relations with another man, they have participated in a detestable act. Both men are to be put to death, for their blood is on them. ¹⁴ Any man who marries a woman and her mother commits a depraved act. He and both women are to be burned to death so that such depravity will not exist in the community. ¹⁵ Any man who engages in a sexual act with an animal is to be put to death along with the animal. ¹⁶ Any woman who approaches an animal to engage in some sexual act must be put to death along with the animal, for their blood is on them.

¹⁷ It is a shameful and dishonorable act for any man to marry his sister and have sexual relations with her; it doesn’t matter whether she is his father’s daughter or mother’s daughter. Both of them must be cut off from their community. Any man who has sexual relations with his sister will bear his guilt and suffer the consequences. ¹⁸ If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is menstruating, he has uncovered the source of her flow and she has exposed it to him; both the man and the woman must be cut off from the community. ¹⁹ Do not have sexual relations with your aunt, whether she is the sister of your mother or father. Any man who does such a thing has disgraced his relative. Both offenders are guilty and must suffer the consequences. ²⁰ If a man has sexual relations with his uncle’s wife, he might as well have violated his uncle. Both offenders will suffer the consequences of their sin; they will die childless. ²¹ If a man has sexual relations with his brother’s wife, he has committed a disgraceful, dishonorable act;^[j] He might as well have violated his brother; they will die childless.

²² Therefore, keep all My directives and My rules so that the land I am giving you will not vomit you out. ²³ Do not follow in the footsteps of the people who lived in the land before you and whom I will remove from the land when you take possession of it, for they committed wicked acts like the ones described here; this is why I despise them. ²⁴ As I have already told you, “You will inherit the land that was theirs. I am giving you this land flowing with milk and honey as your possession.”^[k] I am the Eternal One your God who has set you apart from all the other people. ²⁵ Consequently you must know the difference between a ritually pure and impure animal and a pure and impure bird. Do not make yourselves detestable by eating an animal, a bird, or any small creature that I have designated as ritually impure. ²⁶ You must be holy, for I, the Eternal One, am holy, and I have chosen you from all the people of the world to be My people.

²⁷ Any person among you who is a medium or tries to communicate with the spirits of the dead must be put to death. They are to be stoned to death, for their blood will be required of them.

Eternal One: Go, talk to the priests, Aaron’s sons, and tell them that I don’t want any priest to make himself ritually impure by having contact with a dead person in Israel. ² There is an exception: a priest is allowed to touch the dead body of his closest family members—his mother, father, son, daughter, brother, ³ and any sister who is still a virgin when she dies. Since she has no husband, the priest is her closest relative, so he is allowed to make himself impure for her. ⁴ A priest must not render himself impure and defile himself by touching the corpse of a person related to him only by marriage. ⁵ Priests are not allowed to mourn like other people by shaving their heads, trimming their beards, or cutting gashes into their bodies. ⁶ Priests are to be holy to Me and not treat My sacred name with contempt. They bring the fire-offerings to Me, the food of their God, and so they must be sacred. ⁷ Priests are not to marry women defiled by prostitution or women who are divorced, for priests are holy to Me.

⁸ You must set the priest apart as special and treat him as holy, for he brings the food to your God. The priests must be considered holy to you because I, the Eternal, am holy, and I have set you apart from all other nations. ⁹ If a priest’s daughter dabbles in prostitution, then she desecrates herself and also her father. She is to be burned to death.

¹⁰ Of the brotherhood of priests, the high priest is the one whose head has been anointed with oil and who has been ordained to wear the sacred garments. He is not to leave his hair uncombed or tear his garments when he is mourning. ¹¹ He is not to go near any dead bodies—not even his father’s or mother’s—or else he will make himself impure. ¹² The high priest is not allowed to go outside the sanctuary during the time of mourning and thereby desecrate God’s sanctuary, for he has been anointed with the sacred oil of his God. I am the Eternal One. ¹³ He is to marry a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴ He is not allowed to choose a widow, a divorced woman, or a prostitute as a wife—any woman who has already had sexual relations. He is only allowed to marry a virgin from his own community. ¹⁵ This arrangement will guarantee that his future offspring will not be treated badly among his people, for I am the Eternal who makes him holy.

Eternal One: ^17-18 Go, talk with Aaron, and tell him that throughout future generations those who are physically marred are not allowed to approach the sanctuary and offer food to Me. This includes those who are blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed. ¹⁹ It includes those who have a broken foot or an injured hand, ²⁰ hunchbacks, dwarves, anyone with a defective eye or a festering rash or scabs or crushed testicles. ²¹ No one from Aaron’s offspring who has a physical defect is allowed to approach the sanctuary and present fire-offerings to Me; since he is not perfect, he must not approach to offer his God’s food. ²² He is allowed to eat a portion of the food offered to God, including the sacred and most sacred, ²³ but he is not allowed to go behind the veil or approach the altar because of his imperfection. This is the rule so that he does not desecrate My holy places. I am the Eternal One who consecrates him.

Eternal One: ² Instruct Aaron and his sons to be cautious with the sacred food offerings the Israelites bring—the ones they give in My honor so that they do not desecrate My sacred name and ruin My reputation. I am the Eternal One. ³ Tell them that anyone from your present and future generations who is ritually impure and goes near the sacred gifts the Israelites have presented to Me will be cut off from My presence, for I am the Eternal One. ⁴ None of Aaron’s offspring who has a serious skin disease or a discharge is allowed to consume the sacred food offerings until he is ritually pure again. If anyone touches something that has become impure by having contact with a dead body or if he has a semen emission, ⁵ or if he touches some small creature or anyone impure, whatever the impurity may be— ⁶ anyone who has contact with such impurity will be impure until evening; he is not allowed to consume the sacred gifts until he has bathed in water. ⁷ When evening arrives, it is a new day; he will be ritually pure. Then he can consume the sacred food offerings, which are his food. ⁸ He should not consume any animal that dies a natural death or is torn apart by another animal; if he does, he will become impure, for I am the Eternal One. ⁹ The priests are to respect and keep My instructions or they will have to bear the punishment for their sin and die for treating my instructions with contempt, for I am the Eternal One who makes them holy.

¹⁰ No laypeople, guests, or hired workers who enter a priest’s house are allowed to consume the sacred food offerings. ¹¹ But if a priest purchases a slave, then that slave and anyone born into his family can eat his food. ¹² When a priest’s daughter marries a non-priest, she is no longer allowed to eat any of the sacred food offerings. ¹³ But if she—after being childless, and divorced or widowed—goes back to live with her father as she did when she was young, then she is allowed to consume her father’s food; but no lay person is allowed to consume it. ¹⁴ If a man consumes a sacred food offering accidentally, then when he becomes aware, he must present the same amount of food plus ⅕ to the priest. ¹⁵ When the people of Israel present their sacred offerings to Me, the priests are not to treat them lightly, ¹⁶ or else they will bear the guilt and punishment for consuming the sacred gifts; for I am the Eternal One who makes them holy.

Eternal One: ¹⁸ Go, talk with Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites. Tell them that when any Israelite or outsider living among you brings an offering—whether accompanying a vow or out of free will—and offers it to Me as a burnt offering, ¹⁹ he must offer an unblemished male from the bulls, the sheep, or the goats in order to be accepted. ²⁰ You should not offer any animals that are diseased, weak, or injured or have any defects. Such a sacrifice is not acceptable for you. ²¹ Also when a man offers a sacrifice as a peace offering to Me from the herd or flock—whether he is fulfilling a vow or out of free will—he must offer a perfect, unblemished offering in order to be accepted. ²² Do not offer any animals that are blind, have broken bones, are deformed, have open wounds, a skin disease, or scabs. Do not offer such a sacrifice by fire on the altar to Me. ²³ You are allowed to offer an ox or a lamb with a limb that is too long or too short as long as it is a freewill offering, but not if it is an offering that accompanies a vow. ²⁴ You are not to offer any animal with bruised, crushed, torn, or removed testicles as a sacrifice to Me, and you will not offer these blemished animals anywhere in your land. ²⁵ You are not allowed to accept such an animal as a gift from a foreigner and then offer it as food for your God, because the animal is not whole and carries the foreigner’s corruption. Such a sacrifice is not acceptable for you.

Eternal One: ²⁷ Any time an ox or sheep or goat is born, you are to leave it with its mother for seven days. On the eighth day, the newborn is old enough to be sacrificed to Me as a fire-offering. ²⁸ But do not sacrifice both the newborn ox or sheep and its mother on the same day.

²⁹ When you slaughter a thanksgiving sacrifice to Me, do it in such a way that you will be accepted. ³⁰ Consume it on the same day it is slaughtered; do not leave any for the next day. I am the Eternal One.

³¹ This is how you must keep and follow My commands. I am the Eternal One.

³² You must not do anything that desecrates My sacred name and ruins My reputation so that the people of Israel will acknowledge that I am holy, for I am the Eternal One who consecrates you. ³³ I am the One who led you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Eternal One.

Eternal One: ² Go, talk to the Israelites. Tell them that I have appointed certain feasts to be celebrated. You are to honor these times and declare them as sacred assemblies.

³ You have six days to do your ordinary work; but when the seventh day arrives, it is a Sabbath and must be a day of complete rest, a time for sacred assembly. No work is allowed. Wherever you live, celebrate the Sabbath in My honor.

⁴ Here are times I have appointed for sacred assemblies; you are to celebrate these feasts and declare them publicly at their appointed times. ⁵ In the spring on the fourteenth day of the first month, My Passover begins at first light. ⁶ When the fifteenth day arrives, you are to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread in My honor.

For the next seven days, the only bread you are allowed to eat is unleavened bread. ⁷ On the first day of the feast, I want you to gather for a sacred assembly; you are not allowed to do any ordinary work. ⁸ On each of the seven days of the feast, present a fire-offering to Me. When the seventh day arrives, hold a sacred assembly; you are not allowed to do any ordinary work.

Eternal One: ¹⁰ Go, talk with the Israelites, and tell them that when you are settled in the land I am going to give you, and when you harvest there, you are to gather a bundle of stalks from the firstfruits of the barley harvest and present them to the priest. ¹¹ On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will raise up the bundle of stalks and wave them before Me so that you will be accepted. ¹² Also, on the day that the stalks are waved, you must present an unblemished, year-old male lamb to Me as a burnt offering. ¹³ The grain offering you bring with it is to be four quarts of the finest flour mixed with oil. The smoke of the fire-offering will rise and be a pleasant aroma to Me. Present it along with a drink offering of 2½ pints of wine. ¹⁴ Do not consume any bread, roasted grain, or any of the new harvest until this day when you have presented the offering to Me, your God. This directive stands for all time throughout your generations regardless of where you live.

^15-16 From the day after the Sabbath when you presented the bundled stalks—the firstfruits of the barley harvest—as a wave offering to Me, count off seven whole weeks. Count to the day after the seventh Sabbath, 50 days; then I want you to bring a fresh grain offering to Me. ¹⁷ Bring two loaves of bread from wherever you live as a wave offering. The loaves are to be made with yeast from four quarts of the finest flour as the firstfruits to Me. ¹⁸ With the bread, I want you to offer seven unblemished, year-old male lambs, a bull from the herd, and two rams. These will serve as a burnt offering to Me, along with their grain offering and drink offerings; the smoke of this fire-offering will rise and be a pleasant aroma to Me. ¹⁹ You must also present one male goat as a purification offering and two year-old male lambs as a peace offering. ²⁰ The priest will then lift them up along with the bread of the firstfruits and the two lambs as a wave offering before Me. These offerings, which are sacred to Me, will become the property of the priest. ²¹ On this day, you will make a proclamation and hold a sacred assembly. Refrain from doing any ordinary work. This directive stands for all time throughout your generations regardless of where you live.

²² Whenever you harvest the crops in your land, do not harvest all the way to the edges of the fields or pick up what was overlooked during harvest. Leave them for the poor and the strangers living with you. I am the Eternal your God.

Eternal One: ²⁴ Go, talk with the Israelites, and tell them to observe a day of Sabbath rest in the autumn on the first day of the seventh month. Commemorate this day and call together a sacred assembly by sounding the trumpets. ²⁵ You must not do any ordinary work that day, but you are to bring a fire-offering to Me.

Eternal One: ²⁷ The tenth day of the seventh month is set aside as the Day of Atonement. On that day, you must call together the people for a sacred assembly, humble and discipline yourselves by fasting, and bring a fire-offering to Me. ²⁸ Refrain from doing any work on the Day of Atonement, for it is to be a day when you make offerings before Me, your God, that cover your sins. ²⁹ If anyone does not humble and discipline himself on this day, he must be cut off from the community. ³⁰ If anyone from your community works on this day, I will destroy him from the midst of the community. ³¹ You must not do any of the work you normally do. This directive stands for all time throughout your generations regardless of where you live. ³² This is to be a Sabbath Day, a day of complete rest, a day when you humble and discipline yourselves. When the ninth day of the month arrives, you are to honor this Sabbath from dusk till dusk.

Eternal One: ³⁴ Go, talk with the Israelites and tell them that when the fifteenth day of the seventh month arrives, they must celebrate the Feast of Booths to Me for seven days.

Eternal One: ³⁵ The first day is to be a day devoted to sacred assembly, so refrain from doing any ordinary work. ³⁶ Then for seven days, I want you to bring a fire-offering to Me. When the eighth day arrives, hold another sacred assembly and bring another fire-offering to Me. This is to be a festive gathering, and no one is allowed to do any of their normal work.

³⁷ So these are the feasts that I have appointed. At these times, you are to call the people together for a sacred assembly and bring fire-offerings to Me—burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and drink offerings—each day will have its own offering. ³⁸ These feasts and their offerings are in addition to My Sabbaths and other prescribed offerings, offerings accompanying a vow or a freewill offering.

³⁹ When the fifteenth day of the seventh month arrives, after you have harvested the crops from the land, I want you to celebrate this feast of booths for seven days. Observe a day of complete rest on the first day and the eighth day. ^40-41 On the first day, gather some branches from the beautiful trees in the area: palm fronds, limbs thick with leaves, and branches from the river willow. Celebrate and feast before Me, your God, for seven days. This directive stands for all time throughout your generations; celebrate it every year in the seventh month. ⁴² All native-born Israelites are to live in booths for seven days. ⁴³ I want you to do this so that all present and future generations of your people remember that I sheltered the Israelites in booths like these after I led them out of Egypt. I am the Eternal One, your God.

Eternal One: ^2-3 Direct the Israelites to bring you clear oil from pressed olives in order to keep the lamps in the sanctuary outside the veil covering the covenant chest continually burning. Aaron is to make sure the lamps continue to burn in My presence from dusk till dawn. This directive stands for all time throughout your generations. ⁴ On a regular basis, Aaron and the priests are to tend to the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before Me.

⁵ I want you to take the finest flour and bake 12 loaves of bread. Each loaf is to be made of four quarts of flour. ⁶ Then arrange the 12 loaves into two rows on the pure gold table in My presence. Put six loaves in each row. ⁷ Place pure frankincense along each row to serve as a memorial portion for the bread, as a fire-offering to Me. ⁸ Every Sabbath Aaron is to make sure these rows of bread are in order before Me. These loaves, baked and presented by the people of Israel, symbolize the perpetual covenant. ⁹ They are reserved for Aaron and his sons, but they must be eaten only in a sacred space. These loaves are most holy gifts to Aaron out of all the fire-offerings presented to Me; they are his due for all time.

Eternal One: ¹⁴ Take the man who cursed and disparaged Me outside the camp and have everyone who was a witness to what he said place their hands on his head. Then have the entire community stone him. ¹⁵ Tell the Israelites, “Anyone who curses His God or disparages His name must bear his sin and suffer the punishment. ¹⁶ Any person who blasphemes My name must be put to death. Then you must have the entire community join in stoning him. Any person—whether native-born or an outsider—who disparages My name must be put to death.”

¹⁷ Anyone who kills another person must be put to death. ¹⁸ Anyone who kills an animal is to compensate his owner for it, life for life. ¹⁹ Anyone who injures his neighbor must have done to him what he did to the other. ²⁰ If he breaks a man’s bone, his own bone must be broken. If he puts out a man’s eye, his own eye must be put out. If he knocks out a man’s tooth, his own tooth must be knocked out.^[l] Whatever a person does to harm another must be done to him in return. ²¹ Any person who takes the life of an animal is to compensate his owner for it, but any person who takes the life of another human being must be put to death. ²² This law applies to everyone equally, both native-born Israelites and outsiders. I am the Eternal One, your God.

Eternal One: ² Go, talk with the Israelites and tell them that when you arrive in the land I have promised to give to you, you are to make sure the land observes a Sabbath rest before Me. ³ Plant your fields, take care of your vineyards, and harvest your crops for six years; ⁴ but when the seventh year arrives, I want the entire land to have a Sabbath rest to Me. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during this seventh year. ⁵ Do not harvest whatever grows on its own from earlier plantings, and do not pick grapes from the unpruned vines. The entire year is to be a year of Sabbath rest for the land. ^6-7 You, your slaves, your hired workers, the outsiders living among you, your domesticated and the wild animals may eat whatever the land produces naturally during the Sabbath year.

⁸ You are to count off seven Sabbath years (that’s seven times seven years), which gives you 49 years. ⁹ After the 49th year is over, sound a ram’s horn across the land in the 50th year on the tenth day of the seventh month. Sound the ram’s horn throughout the land on the Day of Atonement. ¹⁰ When the 50th year arrives, sanctify it and declare liberty throughout the land for all who live there—dramatic, radical liberty for all. It is to be your jubilee year. Each of you is allowed to go back to the land that belonged to your ancestors; and each of you may return to your own family. ^11-12 The 50th year is to be your jubilee year. Do not plant. Do not harvest anything that grows on its own or pick grapes from the unpruned vines. You may eat what the land produces naturally. For it is a jubilee, a special, sacred time for you.

Eternal One: ¹³ Everyone will return to his ancestral property during the year of jubilee. ¹⁴ If you sell something to a friend or buy something from your neighbor, do it honestly. ¹⁵ When you lease property from a friend, you should pay only for the time you get to use it. He will base the price on the number of harvest years remaining until the jubilee returns. ¹⁶ You will raise the price if the jubilee year is far away. You will lower the price if the year is near, for what you are really buying is the number of harvests you can get in before the next jubilee. ¹⁷ Do not cheat each other. Instead, fear the God who has power over you; for I am the Eternal One, your God.

¹⁸ So follow My directives and live by My rules; as you do, you and your people will most certainly be secure in the land I will give you. ¹⁹ The land will produce an abundance of food, and you will have all you need to eat and live safely in the land. ²⁰ You might ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant and harvest crops?” ²¹ Don’t worry. I will direct My blessing to come to you during the sixth year so that the land will produce three years’ worth of crops in that one year: ²² Even while you are planting during the eighth year, you will eat your fill of the previous crops harvested in the sixth year. You will eat those crops right up until the time when you harvest the new crops in the ninth year.

²³ You are not allowed to sell the land in perpetuity because it isn’t actually yours. The land belongs to Me. You will always be strangers and outsiders living in My land. ²⁴ So every plot of ground you possess carries a “right of redemption.”

²⁵ If your fellow citizen becomes so impoverished that he has no choice but to sell off a portion of his land, then his nearest family relation is to buy back the portion sold for him. ²⁶ If a man doesn’t have any relatives but finds a way to earn the money to redeem his land himself, ²⁷ then he will buy it back from the man who bought the land from him, less the profit the buyer would have made in the years since he leased it; then the original owner can go back to live on his land. ²⁸ But if a man does not earn or find the money he needs to buy back his land, then the man who leased the land will keep it until the year of jubilee. When the year of jubilee arrives, the land will return to the possession of its original owner.

²⁹ By the same token, anyone who sells a house that is located within the city walls has one year to buy the house back after it is sold. The right of redemption lasts only one year. ³⁰ If the seller does not buy back his house within a year of the date it was sold, then the house located within the city walls belongs to the new owner for all his generations. It will not go back to the original owner in the year of jubilee.

³¹ The houses in towns that have no walls are classified as fields. They are subject to the rights of redemption and return to their original owner in the year of jubilee, just like any other field. ³² In the Levites’ cities, the houses permanently carry the right of redemption: ³³ The Levites are able to redeem any and all property, and any house that is sold goes back to its original owner when the year of jubilee arrives because all the houses are the Levites’ inheritance from the other tribes of Israel. ³⁴ The open country around the cities and villages is not allowed to be sold because this land belongs to them for all time.

³⁵ If your fellow citizen becomes poor and cannot take care of his needs, then you must support him with what you have. Look after him, as you would a stranger or outsider, so he may keep living in your community. ³⁶ Let him borrow, but charge no interest and do not look for ways to profit from his need. Instead, fear God, and allow your fellow citizen to live alongside you. ³⁷ Do not ask for interest when you lend him money. Do not try to profit by selling him your food. ³⁸ I am the Eternal One, your God, the One who led you out of Egypt so that I could give you the land of Canaan and be your God.

³⁹ If your fellow citizen becomes so poor that he must sell himself to you as a slave, do not treat him as a slave. ⁴⁰ Have him work for you as a hired hand, as an outsider might, until the year of jubilee. ⁴¹ Then he and his children will be released from your service, and he will return to his family and to the property that belonged to his ancestors. ⁴² After all, they are My servants; I led them out of Egypt so they must never be sold as slaves. ⁴³ You are not allowed to treat them badly. Instead fear your God. ⁴⁴ On the other hand, you may acquire slaves, both men and women, from the nations surrounding you ⁴⁵ and from the outsiders who live among you. You can acquire their family members who have been born in the land. You can keep them as property ⁴⁶ and pass them down to your children as part of their inheritance for all time. You may continue to own them, even after jubilee. Remember if your slave is a fellow Israelite, then you must not deal with him harshly.

⁴⁷ If a foreigner or outsider living among you becomes rich enough to buy a slave, and one of your fellow citizens has become poor enough he has to sell himself as a slave to him or to his extended family, ^48-49 then your fellow citizen has the right to be redeemed. One of his brothers, his uncle, his cousin, or any more distant relative may buy him back. If he makes enough money, he can purchase his own freedom. ⁵⁰ As for the man who bought him, he and the buyer will determine the price based on how many years are between the year he sold himself and the year of jubilee. The time with his owner must be valued as if he were a hired hand. ^51-52 Whether there are many years left before the jubilee or just a few, the cost of his redemption is determined by those remaining years. ⁵³ He must be treated as a laborer hired year to year, and you need to make sure the owner does not treat him harshly. ⁵⁴ If he is not able to gain his freedom this way, he and his children will be freed in the year of jubilee. ⁵⁵ For the Israelites are truly My servants; I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Eternal One, your God.

26 Eternal One: Do not fashion any idols or blasphemous images. Do not erect any sacred pillars as the nations around you do. Do not set up any carved stones in your land and bow down to them. I am the Eternal your God. ² Honor My Sabbaths, and treat My sanctuary as a holy place. I am the Eternal One.

³ If you walk in My decrees and keep My commandments in your daily lives, ⁴ I will grant you plenty of rain in the seasons when you need it, and your land will produce abundant crops and your trees will be filled with fruit. ⁵ Your grain threshing will last until the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until it is time to plant again. You will fill your bellies with food and feel secure as you live in the land. ⁶ I will see to it that you have peace in your land. You will be able to go to bed at night without a worry on your mind. I will take away the dangerous animals that roam your land, and no armies will invade your land. ^7-8 When you go after your enemies, they will fall by your sword. Five of you will go after 100 of your enemies, and 100 of you will cause 10,000 to flee. ⁹ I will grant you My favor, and you will be fruitful, multiply, and have many healthy children, and I will continue to honor My covenant with you. ¹⁰ You will have so much surplus food from year to year that you will have to make room for the new harvest when it comes in. ¹¹ I will make my home among you and never turn away from you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.^{[m] 13} I am the Eternal One, your God, who led you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be their slaves. I have shattered the yokes that broke your backs and helped you walk straight and upright.

¹⁴ However, if you do not obey Me or live by all I have commanded, ¹⁵ if you turn your backs on My decrees and despise what I have commanded so that you fail to do as I have directed and break the covenant that exists between us, ¹⁶ then this is what you can expect: I will bring a horrific cloud of terror over you, and you will waste away in disease and burning fevers, your eyes will grow dark, and your restless souls will long for life. The seeds you plant will provide you no sustenance because raiders will consume whatever you grow. ¹⁷ I will turn My face against you and stand by as your enemies strike you down. Those who despise you will reign over you, and you will run away even when no one is chasing you. ¹⁸ If, after all this, you still do not listen to Me, then I will increase your punishment until you have paid seven times for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break you of your powerful pride, and I will make the heavens above you as cold as iron and your earth below you as hard as bronze. ²⁰ Your strength will be wasted because the land you work will not yield its crops, and the trees you plant will not bear fruit.

²¹ And if, after all this, you still rebel against Me and fail to listen to Me, I will strike you until you have paid seven times for your sins. ²² I will unleash ravenous wild beasts against you, and they will deprive you of your children and destroy your livestock; before long your numbers will dwindle and your busy roads will be deserted.

²³ And if, after all these punishments, you still have not turned back to Me but continue to rebel against Me, ²⁴ I will move against you, and this time I will punish you Myself until you have paid seven times for your sins. ²⁵ I will march armies against you that will execute My vengeance against you for the covenant you have broken. When you retreat into your cities, I will send a vicious plague among you until you fall to your adversaries. ²⁶ I will cut off your food supply until there is so little bread that 10 women will need only one oven to bake it. When they serve it, your portion will be carefully weighed and rationed and you won’t have enough to satisfy you.

²⁷ If, after all this, you still do not listen to Me but continue to rebel against Me, ²⁸ I will move against you with the full heat of My fury. I will punish you Myself until you have paid seven times for your sins. ²⁹ You will become so hungry that some of you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. ³⁰ I will demolish your high places where false worship taints the land and tear down your incense altars. I will pile your lifeless bodies on the rubble of your lifeless god-images. I will detest you. ³¹ I will turn your bustling cities into wastelands. I will empty and silence your pagan sanctuaries. When you do sacrifice to Me, I will pay no attention to the pleasant aromas. ³² Yes, I will move against the land until it lies in ruins, and those who conquer you and settle there will be horrified by what they see. ³³ I will scatter you among the nations. I will draw My sword against you. Your land will become an eerie wasteland, and your cities will lie in ruins.

³⁴ While you are scattered among your enemies, your land will bask in its Sabbaths. For as long as the land is barren, it will enjoy the Sabbaths and the rest it deserves. ³⁵ For all the days it lies desolate, it will have the rest it never had while you were living on the land. ^36-37 For those of you who may survive, I will make your hearts despair as you live in lands occupied by your enemies. You will be so fearful that the noise made by a windblown leaf will startle you and send you running away in panic. Even when no one is chasing after you, you will run away and trip over each other as if you are being chased by an army. You will have no power to stand up to your enemies. ³⁸ You will die far from home in foreign lands. The land of your adversaries will devour your corpses. ³⁹ Those of you who survive will waste away in the lands of your adversaries because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors; they will surely waste away to nothing.

⁴⁰ But if they own up to their sins and acknowledge the sins of their ancestors, if they admit that they have been unfaithful to Me, defied Me, and rebelled against Me— ⁴¹ which prompted Me to turn against them and scatter them among their enemies—if they humble their uncircumcised hearts and offer reparations for their sins, ⁴² then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and I will also remember the land. ⁴³ As long as the land lies deserted without them, it will catch up on the Sabbaths it has missed and be renewed. In the meantime, they must offer reparations for their sins because they turned their backs on My decrees and despised My commands. ⁴⁴ But even then, as long as My people are dwelling in the land of their adversaries, I will not reject them or hate them so much that I break My covenant with them and annihilate them. I am the Eternal One, their God. ⁴⁵ Still they will benefit when I remember the covenant I made with their ancestors when I led them out of the land of Egypt with the whole world watching so that I could be their God. I am the Eternal One.