These charts are explained in detail here.

A shorter explaination is found here.

The structured Hebrew text of Leviticus is found here.

 

 

The Holy Way

 

Unit 1 [1-3]

Unit 2 [4-5]

Unit 3 [6-7]

Unit 4 [8-10]

Unit 5 [11]

Unit 6 [12]

Unit 10 [16]

Unit 11 [17]

Unit 12 [18]

ARK
Unit 13 [19]

Unit 14 [20]

Unit 15 [21]

Unit 16 [22:1-25]

Unit 17 [22:26-end]

Unit 18 [23]

Unit 19 [24]

Unit 20 [25]

Unit 21 [26]

Unit 22 [27]

[Chapter numbers in parentheses]

The Impure Who Must Leave the Holy Place
(Used as a smokescreen in the text to hide the Holy of Holies)

 


First Block: The Inner Way, Purification
Second Block: The Outer Way, Redemption
The two blocks are mirror images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public
Transcendent

Life Force
 Animals

Private
Immanent

Outside
            Sacrifice

Unit 1 [1-3]

Courtyard

Unit 2 [4-5]

Large/Small

Unit 3 [6-7]

Job

Middle
            Purity

Unit 4 [8-10]

Holy Place

Unit 5 [11]

Clean/Unclean

Unit 6 [12]

Children

Inside
            Sanctity

Unit 10 [16]

Holy of Holies

Unit 11 [17]

Blood

Unit 12 [18]

Sex/Land

 

THE ARK
Unit 13 [19]

Inside/ Private
            Holiness

Unit 14 [20]

Sanctity of Private Individuals

Unit 15 [21]

The Priest and his Family
Generations

Unit 16 [22:1-25]

The Priestly Family and Consecrated Things

Middle
            Time

Unit 17 [22:26-end]

Private Observances

Unit 18 [23]

Individual and Group:
Public Holidays
Cyclical Historical

Unit 19 [24]

Priestly Functions within the holy place

Outside/ Public
            Redemption

Unit 20 [25]

Personal Redemption

Unit 21 [26]

God and Israel:
National Redemption

Unit 22 [27]

Redemption from Consecration

 

Immanent
Private

History

Transcendent
Public
Consecrated Things

 


Table of Paired Units

The Paired Units Schematic

The Public
Realm

 For God

1

22

 Between Man and God

2

21

For Man

3

20

 

 

 

 

Between Public and Private

Public

4

19

Public Meets Private

5

18

Private

6

17

 

 

 

 

The Private
Realm

Intimacy with the Holy

10

16

Blood

11

15

Profane Intimacy

12

14

 


The Paired Units Details

The Public
Realm:
Objective

For God

1
Offerings

22
Consecrating and Redeeming Consecrated Things

Between Man and God

2
Sin Offerings

21
Divine Rewards and Punishments

For People

3
The Priests’ Shares of Offerings

20
Redeeming Non-consecrated People and Property

 

 

 

 

 

Between Public and Private

Formal Similarity

Divine Revelation
Death
(Narrative with unique case)

4
Priestly Investment
Divine Fire and Strange Fire
Death by God’s Hand

19
Priestly Functions God Reveals the Law to Moses
Death by Human Hand

Mundane Meets Divine
(Set Pieces with Closure; foci of the two sections)

5
Animals
Edible and Inedible
Pure and Impure

18
God’s Holydays as social events and their Sacrifices

Mundane Birth
(short-8 verses)

6
Childbirth and its Purification/Sacrifice

17
Animal Birth and its Sacrifice

 

 

 

 

 

The Private
Realm:
Intimacy

Intimacy with the Holy

10
 The High Priest enters the Holy of Holies

16
The Priests and Holy Food

Between the Holy and the Profane
Sanctity of Blood

11
Animal Blood

15
Priestly “Blood” Relationships

Profane Intimacy

12
Forbidden Relationships

14
Capital Punishment for Forbidden Relationships


The following table (like those above) is offered more as an example of how to study the text according to its structure than as a finished work. Each reader, ideally, should try to work out similar tables for herself.

The Structure of Each Unit

U
n
I
t

C
h
a
p
t
e
r

R
o
w

C
o
l
u
m
n

Description

1

 

 

1-3

The first unit describes three classes of offerings: the burnt offering, the meal (cereal) offering and the well-being (peace) offering, and the specific ritual associated with each. They are ordered according to the inverse of their availability as food.

 

 

I

 

The burnt offering- only the altar “eats”

 

 

II

 

The meal offering- the altar and the priests eat

 

 

III

 

The well-being offering- the altar, the priests and the celebrant eat

2

4-5

Unit two details offerings of atonement. It categorizes them by:

 

 

I

 

Sinners

 

 

II

 

Type of penalty

 

 

III

 

Sin

3

6-7

Set piece concerning the priests, their obligations, and their portions of the sacrifices. The unit opens and closes with “the law of.” It is divided into three parts by degree of obligation

 

 

I

 

The obligatory daily priestly service

 

 

II

 

The priests’ share of the atonement sacrifice required for certain sins.

 

 

III

 

The priests’ share of the non-obligatory well-being sacrifice.

4

8-10

This Unit is one of only two narratives in Leviticus and is the structural parallel of the other, Unit 19. It consists of three “scenes”, each of which has a different cast of players.

 

 

I

 

God and Moses consecrate the priests and the altar before the people.

 

 

II

 

God and Moses teach the priests, by example and instruction, that excess “spirit” in the Tabernacle is deadly.

 

 

III

 

Moses teaches the priests the importance of properly eating their portion of the people’s offerings.

5

11

 

 

Clean and unclean creatures

 

 

I

 

Animals

 

 

II

 

Insects

 

 

 

L

As food

 

 

 

R

Regarding ritual purity

6

12

 

 

Childbirth

 

 

I

 

Length of impurity

 

 

II

 

Purification

7

13

 

 

Leprosy- Superficial signs in people requiring isolation outside the camp

The four sections are divided superficially by a linguistic key made up of parallel phrases near the beginning of each pericope. (With the exception of IV-L.)

 

 

I

 

“When a person…it shall be reported to the priest”

 

 

II

 

“The skin of one’s body”

 

 

III

 

“If a man or a woman”

 

 

IV

 

“leprous” or “leper” (Heb. Metzurah)

8

14

 

 

Purification from Leprosy

Each of the three rows ends with the phrase “Such is the procedure” (or ritual- Heb. in all cases “zot torah[t]”), can also be translated “the law of.”

 

 

I

 

Garments

 

 

II

 

People

 

 

III

 

Buildings

9

15

 

 

Ritual impurity from bodily flows that transmits further ritual impurity

 

 

I

 

Men

 

 

II

 

Women

10

16

 

 

Entering the inner sanctum: Day of Atonement

 

 

I

 

Specifically for Aaron

 

 

II

 

For all generations

11

17

 

 

Eating meat

 

 

I

 

As ritual

 

 

II

 

As food

12

18

 

 

“Abhorrent practices”

 

 

I

 

Divine, positive: God and His law

 

 

II

 

God’s law forbids abhorrent sexual practices

 

 

III

 

Mundane, negative: abhorrent local sexual practices

 

 

 

L

Personal

 

 

 

M

Relational

 

 

 

R

Objective

13

19

 

 

A collection of individual laws directed to the private individual.

 

 

I

 

The Spirit

 

 

II

 

Procreation: embodying the spirit

 

 

III

 

Embodied

14

20

 

 

Punishment for “abhorrent practices”

 

 

I

 

Sources of authority

 

 

II

 

Punishment for sexual offenses

 

 

III

 

Sources of behavior

 

 

 

L

Society

 

 

 

M

God

 

 

 

R

Individual

15

21

 

 

Regulations concerning the private lives of the priests

 

 

I

 

All priests

 

 

II

 

High priest

 

 

 

L

Parents

 

 

 

M

Mate

 

 

 

R

Offspring

16

22: 1-25

Sanctified objects

 

 

I

 

Human

 

 

II

 

Divine

 

 

 

L

God’s holiness

 

 

 

M

Those priests who may not eat of the sacred donations

 

 

 

R

Ritually impure bodies

17

22:26-end

 

 

 

I

 

Animal offspring

 

 

II

 

Animals sacrificed to God

 

 

III

 

God

18

23

 

 

Holidays

 

 

I

 

Seventh day

 

 

II

 

New sheaves

 

 

III

 

An offering by fire to the Lord

 

 

IV

 

Feast of Booths

19

24

 

 

Two independent sections

 

 

I

 

Permanent display in the Tent of Meeting

 

 

II

 

The narrative of the blasphemer

20

25

 

 

Redemption

 

 

I

 

The land

 

 

II

 

Property

 

 

III

 

Persons

21

26

 

 

Interaction between God and Israel

 

 

I

 

Israel’s commitment to God

 

 

II

 

God’s blessings and curses are dependent on Israel’s actions.

 

 

III

 

God’s commitment to Israel

22

27

 

 

Consecration and redemption

 

 

I

 

The priest is called upon to use his judgment in order to evaluate in all three sections.

 

 

II

 

The values are determined without the priests’ judgment. Even in the cases where the priest must determine an assessment, it is simply to do a calculation, not to evaluate.


Unit 1

I-L

[1]1The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people, and say to them: When any of you presents an offering of cattle to the Lord, (Lit. you shall offer your.)he shall choose his (Lit. you shall offer your.) offering from the herd or from the flock. 3If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall make his offering a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, for acceptance in his behalf before the Lord. 4He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, that it may be acceptable in his behalf, in expiation for him. 5The bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer the blood, dashing the blood against all sides of the altar which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 6The burnt offering shall be flayed and cut up into sections. 7The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay out wood upon the fire; 8and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall lay out the sections, with the head and the suet, on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. 9Its entrails and legs shall be washed with water, and the priest shall turn the whole into smoke on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord.

I-M

10If his offering for a burnt offering is from the flock, of sheep or of goats, he shall make his offering a male without blemish. 11It shall be slaughtered before the Lord on the north side of the altar, and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall dash its blood against all sides of the altar. 12When it has been cut up into sections, the priest shall lay them out, with the head and the suet, on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. 13The entrails and the legs shall be washed with water; the priest shall offer up and turn the whole into smoke on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, of pleasing odor to the Lord.

I-R

14If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, he shall choose his offering from turtledoves or pigeons. 15The priest shall bring it to the altar, pinch off its head, and turn it into smoke on the altar; and its blood shall be drained out against the side of the altar. 16He shall remove its crop with its contents, (Others: feathers.) and cast it into the place of the ashes, at the east side of the altar. 17The priest shall tear it open by its wings, without severing it, and turn it into smoke on the altar, upon the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire, of pleasing odor to the Lord.

II-L

[2]1When a person presents an offering of meal to the Lord, his offering shall be of choice flour; he shall pour oil upon it, lay frankincense on it, 2and present it to Aaron's sons, the priests. The priest shall scoop out of it a handful of its choice flour and oil, as well as all of its frankincense; and this token portion he shall turn into smoke on the altar, as an offering by fire, of pleasing odor to the Lord. 3And the remainder of the meal offering shall be for Aaron and his sons, a most holy portion from the Lords offerings by fire.

II-M

4When you present an offering of meal baked in the oven, [it shall be of] choice flour: unleavened cakes with oil mixed in, or unleavened wafers spread with oil. 5If your offering is a meal offering on a griddle, it shall be of choice flour with oil mixed in, unleavened. 6Break it into bits and pour oil on it; it is a meal offering. 7If your offering is a meal offering in a pan, it shall be made of choice flour in oil. 8When you present to the Lord a meal offering that is made in any of these ways, it shall be brought to the priest who shall take it up to the altar. 9The priest shall remove the token portion from the meal offering and turn it into smoke on the altar as an offering by fire, of pleasing odor to the Lord. 10And the remainder of the meal offering shall be for Aaron and his sons, a most holy portion from the Lords offerings by fire. 11No meal offering that you offer to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for no leaven or honey may be turned into smoke as an offering by fire to the Lord. 12You may bring them to the Lord as an offering of choice products; (Exact meaning of Heb. uncertain.) but they shall not be offered up on the altar for a pleasing odor. 13You shall season your every offering of meal with salt; you shall not omit from your meal offering the salt of your covenant with God; with all your offerings you must offer salt.

II-R

14If you bring a meal offering of first fruits to the Lord, you shall bring new ears parched with fire, grits of the fresh grain, as your meal offering of first fruits. 15You shall add oil to it and lay frankincense on it; it is a meal offering. 16And the priest shall turn a token portion of it into smoke: some of the grits and oil, with all of the frankincense, as an offering by fire to the Lord.

III-L

[3]1If his offering is a sacrifice of well-being (Others: peace offering. Exact meaning of shelamim uncertain.) If he offers of the herd, whether a male or a female, he shall bring before the Lord one without blemish. 2He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall dash the blood against all sides of the altar. 3He shall then present from the sacrifice of well-being, as an offering by fire to the Lord, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is about the entrails; 4the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, that is at the loins; and the protuberance on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys. 5Aaron's sons shall turn these into smoke on the altar, with the burnt offering which is upon the wood that is on the fire, as an offering by fire, of pleasing odor to the Lord.

III-M

6And if his offering for a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord is from the flock, whether a male or a female, he shall offer one without blemish. 7If he presents a sheep as his offering, he shall bring it before the Lord 8and lay his hand upon the head of his offering. It shall be slaughtered before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron's sons shall dash its blood against all sides of the altar. 9He shall then present, as an offering by fire to the Lord, the fat from the sacrifice of well-being: the whole broad tail, which shall be removed close to the backbone; the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is about the entrails; 10the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, that is at the loins; and the protuberance on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys. 11The priest shall turn these into smoke on the altar as food, an offering by fire to the Lord.

III-R

12And if his offering is a goat, he shall bring it before the Lord 13and lay his hand upon its head. It shall be slaughtered before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron's sons shall dash its blood against all sides of the altar. 14He shall then present as his offering from it, as an offering by fire to the Lord, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is about the entrails; 15the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, that is at the loins; and the protuberance on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys. 16The priest shall turn these into smoke on the altar as food, an offering by fire, of pleasing odor. All fat is the Lords. 17It is a law for all time throughout the ages, in all your settlements: you must not eat any fat or any blood.

Top
Unit 2

I-L

A [4]1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a person unwittingly incurs guilt in regard to any of the Lords commandments about things not to be done, and does one of them 3If it is the anointed priest who has incurred guilt, so that blame falls upon the people, he shall offer for the sin of which he is guilty a bull of the herd without blemish as a sin offering (So traditionally; more precisely offering of purgation.) to the Lord. 4He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord, and lay his hand upon the head of the bull. The bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord, 5and the anointed priest shall take some of the bulls blood and bring it into the Tent of Meeting. 6The priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, in front of the curtain of the Shrine. 7The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of aromatic incense, which is in the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord; and all the rest of the bulls blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 8He shall remove all the fat from the bull of sin offering: the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is about the entrails; 9the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, that is at the loins; and the protuberance on the liver, which he shall remove with the kidneys 10just as it is removed from the ox of the sacrifice of well-being. The priest shall turn them into smoke on the altar of burnt offering. 11But the hide of the bull, and all its flesh, as well as its head and legs, its entrails and its dung 12all the rest of the bull he shall carry to a clean place outside the camp, to the ash heap, and burn it up in a wood fire; it shall be burned on the ash heap.

B 13If it is the whole community of Israel that has erred and the matter escapes the notice of the congregation, so that they do any of the things which by the Lords commandments ought not to be done, and they realize their guilt 14when the sin through which they incurred guilt becomes known, the congregation shall offer a bull of the herd as a sin offering, and bring it before the Tent of Meeting. 15The elders of the community shall lay their hands upon the head of the bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the Lord. 16The anointed priest shall bring some of the blood of the bull into the Tent of Meeting, 17and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle of it seven times before the Lord, in front of the curtain. 18Some of the blood he shall put on the horns of the altar which is before the Lord in the Tent of Meeting, and all the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 19He shall remove all its fat from it and turn it into smoke on the altar. 20He shall do with this bull just as is done with the [priests] bull of sin offering; he shall do the same with it. Thus the priest shall make expiation for them, and they shall be forgiven. 21He shall carry the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering of the congregation.

I-M

22In case it is a chieftain who incurs guilt by doing unwittingly any of the things which by the commandment of the Lord his God ought not to be done, and he realizes his guilt 23or the sin of which he is guilty is brought to his knowledge he shall bring as his offering a male goat without blemish. 24He shall lay his hand upon the goats head, and it shall be slaughtered at the spot where the burnt offering is slaughtered (Cf. 1.11.) before the Lord; it is a sin offering. 25The priest shall take with his finger some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering. 26All its fat he shall turn into smoke on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of well-being. Thus the priest shall make expiation on his behalf for his sin, and he shall be forgiven.

I-R

A 27If any person from among the populace (Lit. people of the country.) unwittingly incurs guilt by doing any of the things which by the Lords commandments ought not to be done, and he realizes his guilt 28or the sin of which he is guilty is brought to his knowledge he shall bring a female goat without blemish as his offering for the sin of which he is guilty. 29He shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and the sin offering shall be slaughtered at the place of the burnt offering. 30The priest shall take with his finger some of its blood and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering; and all the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar. 31He shall remove all its fat, just as the fat is removed from the sacrifice of well-being; and the priest shall turn it into smoke on the altar, for a pleasing odor to the Lord. Thus the priest shall make expiation for him, and he shall be forgiven.

B 32If the offering he brings as a sin offering is a sheep, he shall bring a female without blemish. 33He shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and it shall be slaughtered as a sin offering at the spot where the burnt offering is slaughtered. 34The priest shall take with his finger some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and all the rest of its blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar. 35And all its fat he shall remove just as the fat of the sheep of the sacrifice of well-being is removed; and this the priest shall turn into smoke on the altar, over the Lords offering by fire. Thus the priest shall make expiation on his behalf for the sin of which he is guilty, and he shall be forgiven.

II-L

[5]1If a person incurs guilt When he has heard a public imprecation (Namely, against one who withholds testimony.) and although able to testify as one who has either seen or learned of the matter he does not give information, so that he is subject to punishment; 2Or when a person touches any unclean thing be it the carcass of an unclean beast or the carcass of unclean cattle or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing and the fact has escaped him, and then, being unclean, he realizes his guilt; 3Or when he touches human uncleanness any such uncleanness whereby one becomes unclean and, though he has known it, the fact has escaped him, but later he realizes his guilt; 4Or when a person utters (Lit. utters with his lips.) an oath to bad or good purpose whatever a man may utter in an oath and, though he has known it, the fact has escaped him, but later he realizes his guilt in any of these matters 5when he realizes his guilt in any of these matters, he shall confess that wherein he has sinned. 6And he shall bring as his penalty to the Lord, for the sin of which he is guilty, a female from the flock, sheep or goat, as a sin offering; and the priest shall make expiation on his behalf for his sin.

II-M

7But if his means do not suffice for a sheep, he shall bring to the Lord, as his penalty for that of which he is guilty, two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. 8He shall bring them to the priest, who shall offer first the one for the sin offering, pinching its head at the nape without severing it. 9He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar, and what remains of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar; it is a sin offering. 10And the second he shall prepare as a burnt offering, according to regulation. Thus the priest shall make expiation on his behalf for the sin of which he is guilty, and he shall be forgiven.

II-R

11And if his means do not suffice for two turtledoves or two pigeons, he shall bring as his offering for that of which he is guilty a tenth of an ephah of choice flour for a sin offering; he shall not add oil to it or lay frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering. 12He shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall scoop out of it a handful as a token portion of it and turn it into smoke on the altar, with the Lords offerings by fire; it is a sin offering. 13Thus the priest shall make expiation on his behalf for whichever of these sins he is guilty, and he shall be forgiven. It shall belong to the priest, like the meal offering.

III-L

14And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 15When a person commits a trespass, being unwittingly remiss about any of the Lords sacred things, he shall bring as his penalty to the Lord a ram without blemish from the flock, convertible into payment in silver by the sanctuary weight, as a guilt offering. 16He shall make restitution for that wherein he was remiss about the sacred things, and he shall add a fifth part to it and give it to the priest. The priest shall make expiation on his behalf with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.

III-M

17And when a person, without knowing it, sins in regard to any of the Lords commandments about things not to be done, and then realizes his guilt, he shall be subject to punishment. 18He shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock, or the equivalent, (I.e., in currency; cf. v. 15.) as a guilt offering. The priest shall make expiation on his behalf for the error that he committed unwittingly, and he shall be forgiven. 19It is a guilt offering; he has incurred guilt before the Lord.

III-R

20The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 21When a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by dealing deceitfully with his fellow in the matter of a deposit or a pledge, (Meaning of Heb. uncertain ) or through robbery, or by defrauding his fellow, 22or by finding something lost and lying about it; if he swears falsely regarding any one of the various things that one may do and sin thereby 23when one has thus sinned and, realizing his guilt, would restore that which he got through robbery or fraud, or the deposit that was entrusted to him, or the lost thing that he found, 24or anything else about which he swore falsely, he shall repay the principal amount and add a fifth part to it. He shall pay it to its owner when he realizes his guilt. 25Then he shall bring to the priest, as his penalty to the Lord, a ram without blemish from the flock, or the equivalent, (I.e., in currency; cf. v. 15.) as a guilt offering. 26The priest shall make expiation on his behalf before the Lord, and he shall be forgiven for whatever he may have done to draw blame thereby.

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Unit 3

I-L

[6]1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Command Aaron and his sons thus: This is the ritual of the burnt offering: The burnt offering itself shall remain where it is burned upon the altar all night until morning, while the fire on the altar is kept going on it. 3The priest shall dress in linen raiment, with linen breeches next to his body; and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and place them beside the altar. 4He shall then take off his vestments and put on other vestments, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. 5The fire on the altar shall be kept burning, not to go out: every morning the priest shall feed wood to it, lay out the burnt offering on it, and turn into smoke the fat parts of the offerings of well-being. 6A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out.

I-M

7And this is the ritual of the meal offering: Aaron's sons shall present it before the Lord, in front of the altar. 8A handful of the choice flour and oil of the meal offering shall be taken from it, with all the frankincense that is on the meal offering, and this token portion shall be turned into smoke on the altar as a pleasing odor to the Lord. 9What is left of it shall be eaten by Aaron and his sons; it shall be eaten as unleavened cakes, in the sacred precinct; they shall eat it in the enclosure of the Tent of Meeting. 10It shall not be baked with leaven; I have given it as their portion from My offerings by fire; it is most holy, like the sin offering and the guilt offering. 11Only the males among Aaron's descendants may eat of it, as their due for all time throughout the ages from the Lords offerings by fire. Anything that touches these shall become holy.

I-R

12The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 13This is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall offer to the Lord on the occasion of his (Or their.) anointment: a tenth of an ephah of choice flour as a regular meal offering, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening, 14shall be prepared with oil on a griddle. You shall bring it well soaked, and offer it as a meal offering of baked slices, (Meaning of Heb. tuphine uncertain.) of pleasing odor to the Lord. 15And so shall the priest, anointed from among his sons to succeed him, prepare it; it is the Lords a law for all time to be turned entirely into smoke. 16So, too, every meal offering of a priest shall be a whole offering: it shall not be eaten.

II-L

17The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18Speak to Aaron and his sons thus: This is the ritual of the sin offering: the sin offering shall be slaughtered before the Lord, at the spot (Cf. 1.11.) where the burnt offering is slaughtered: it is most holy. 19The priest who offers it as a sin offering shall eat of it; it shall be eaten in the sacred precinct, in the enclosure of the Tent of Meeting. 20Anything that touches its flesh shall become holy; and if any of its blood is spattered upon a garment, you shall wash the bespattered part in the sacred precinct. 21An earthen vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken; if it was boiled in a copper vessel, [the vessel] shall be scoured and rinsed with water. 22Only the males in the priestly line may eat of it: it is most holy. 23But no sin offering may be eaten from which any blood is brought into the Tent of Meeting for expiation in the sanctuary; any such shall be consumed in fire.

II-M

[7]1This is the ritual of the guilt offering: it is most holy. 2The guilt offering shall be slaughtered at the spot where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and the blood shall be dashed on all sides of the altar. 3All its fat shall be offered: the broad tail; the fat that covers the entrails; 4the two kidneys and the fat that is on them at the loins; and the protuberance on the liver, which shall be removed with the kidneys. 5The priest shall turn them into smoke on the altar as an offering by fire to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. 6Only the males in the priestly line may eat of it; it shall be eaten in the sacred precinct: it is most holy.

II-R

7The guilt offering is like the sin offering. The same rule applies to both: it shall belong to the priest who makes expiation thereby. 8So, too, the priest who offers a mans burnt offering shall keep the skin of the burnt offering that he offered. 9Further, any meal offering that is baked in an oven, and any that is prepared in a pan or on a griddle, shall belong to the priest who offers it. 10But every other meal offering, with oil mixed in or dry, shall go to the sons of Aaron all alike.

III-L

11This is the ritual of the sacrifice of well-being that one may offer to the Lord: 12If he offers it for thanksgiving, he shall offer together with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes with oil mixed in, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of choice flour with oil mixed in, well soaked. 13This offering, with cakes of leavened bread added, he shall offer along with his thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being. 14Out of this he shall offer one of each kind (Lit. offering.) as a gift to the Lord; it shall go to the priest who dashes the blood of the offering of well-being. 15And the flesh of his thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being shall be eaten on the day that it is offered; none of it shall be set aside until morning. 16If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a votive or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day that he offers his sacrifice, and what is left of it shall be eaten on the morrow. 17What is then left of the flesh of the sacrifice shall be consumed in fire on the third day. 18If any of the flesh of his sacrifice of well-being is eaten on the third day, it shall not be acceptable; it shall not count for him who offered it. It is an offensive thing, and the person who eats of it shall bear his guilt. 19Flesh that touches anything unclean shall not be eaten; it shall be consumed in fire. As for other flesh, only he who is clean may eat such flesh. 20But the person who, in a state of uncleanness, eats flesh from the Lords sacrifices of well-being, that person shall be cut off from his kin. 21When a person touches anything unclean, be it human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean creature, (Heb. sheqes\, lit. abomination ; several mss. and ancient versions read sheres\ swarming things.) and eats flesh from the Lords sacrifices of well-being, that person shall be cut off from his kin.

III-M

22And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 23Speak to the Israelite people thus: You shall eat no fat (I.e., hard, coarse fat (suet); cf. 3.35.) of ox or sheep or goat. 24Fat from animals that died or were torn by beasts may be put to any use, but you must not eat it. 25If anyone eats the fat of animals from which offerings by fire may be made to the Lord, the person who eats it shall be cut off from his kin. 26And you must not consume any blood, either of bird or of animal, in any of your settlements. 27Anyone who eats blood shall be cut off from his kin.

III-R

28And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 29Speak to the Israelite people thus: The offering to the Lord from a sacrifice of well-being must be presented by him who offers his sacrifice of well-being to the Lord: 30his own hands shall present the Lords offerings by fire. He shall present the fat with the breast, the breast to be elevated as an elevation offering before the Lord; 31the priest shall turn the fat into smoke on the altar, and the breast shall go to Aaron and his sons. 32And the right thigh from your sacrifices of well-being you shall present to the priest as a gift; 33he from among Aaron's sons who offers the blood and the fat of the offering of well-being shall get the right thigh as his portion. 34For I have taken the breast of elevation offering and the thigh of gift offering from the Israelites, from their sacrifices of well-being, and given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their due from the Israelites for all time. 35Those shall be the perquisites (Lit. anointment, i.e., accruing from anointment.) of Aaron and the perquisites of his sons from the Lords offerings by fire, once they have been inducted (Lit. brought forward.) to serve the Lord as priests; 36these the Lord commanded to be given them, once they had been anointed, as a due from the Israelites for all time throughout the ages. 37Such are the rituals of the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the offering of ordination, and the sacrifice of well-being, 38with which the Lord charged Moses on Mount Sinai, when He commanded that the Israelites present their offerings to the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.

 

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Unit 4

I-L

[8]1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Take Aaron along with his sons, and the vestments, the anointing oil, the bull of sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread; 3and assemble the whole community at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 4Moses did as the Lord commanded him. And when the community was assembled at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, 5Moses said to the community, "This is what the Lord has commanded to be done." 6Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. 7He put the tunic on him, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, girding him with the decorated band with which he tied it to him. 8He put the breastpiece on him, and put into the breastpiece the Urim and Thummim. (See note on Exod. 28.30.) 9And he set the headdress on his head; and on the headdress, in front, he put the gold frontlet, the holy diadem as the Lord had commanded Moses. 10Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Tabernacle and all that was in it, thus consecrating them. 11He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, anointing the altar, all its utensils, and the laver with its stand, to consecrate them. 12He poured some of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him, to consecrate him. 13Moses then brought Aaron's sons forward, clothed them in tunics, girded them with sashes, and wound turbans upon them, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 14He led forward the bull of sin offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull of sin offering, 15and it was slaughtered. Moses took the blood and with his finger put some on each of the horns of the altar, cleansing the altar; then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar. Thus he consecrated it in order to make expiation upon it. 16Moses then took all the fat that was about the entrails, and the protuberance of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and turned them into smoke on the altar. 17The rest of the bull, its hide, its flesh, and its dung, he put to the fire outside the camp as the Lord had commanded Moses. 18Then he brought forward the ram of burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the rams head, 19and it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood against all sides of the altar. 20The ram was cut up into sections and Moses turned the head, the sections, and the suet into smoke on the altar; 21Moses washed the entrails and the legs with water and turned all of the ram into smoke. That was a burnt offering for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. 22He brought forward the second ram, the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the rams head, 23and it was slaughtered. Moses took some of its blood and put it on the ridge (Or lobe.) of Aaron's right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 24Moses then brought forward the sons of Aaron, and put some of the blood on the ridges of their right ears, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet; and the rest of the blood Moses dashed against every side of the altar. 25He took the fat the broad tail, all the fat about the entrails, the protuberance of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat and the right thigh. 26From the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord, he took one cake of unleavened bread, one cake of oil bread, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat parts and on the right thigh. 27He placed all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and elevated them as an elevation offering before the Lord. 28Then Moses took them from their hands and turned them into smoke on the altar with the burnt offering. This was an ordination offering for a pleasing odor; it was an offering by fire to the Lord. 29Moses took the breast and elevated it as an elevation offering before the Lord; it was Moses portion of the ram of ordination as the Lord had commanded Moses. 30And Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it upon Aaron and upon his vestments, and also upon his sons and upon their vestments. Thus he consecrated Aaron and his vestments, and also his sons and their vestments. 31Moses said to Aaron and his sons: Boil the flesh at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of ordination as I commanded: (Or vocalizing s\uwwethi, I have been commanded ; cf. below, v. 35 and 10.13.) Aaron and his sons shall eat it; 32and what is left over of the flesh and the bread you shall consume in fire. 33You shall not go outside the entrance of the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the day that your period of ordination is completed. For your ordination will require seven days. 34Everything done today, the Lord has commanded to be done [seven days], to make expiation for you. 35You shall remain at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days, keeping the Lords charge that you may not die for so I have been commanded. 36And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord had commanded through Moses.

I-R

[9]1On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel. 2He said to Aaron: "Take a calf of the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and bring them before the Lord. 3And speak to the Israelites, saying: Take a he-goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering; 4and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the Lord; and a meal offering with oil mixed in. For today the Lord will appear to you." 5They brought to the front of the Tent of Meeting the things that Moses had commanded, and the whole community came forward and stood before the Lord. 6Moses said: "This is what the Lord has commanded that you do, that the Presence of the Lord may appear to you." 7Then Moses said to Aaron: "Come forward to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering, making expiation for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the peoples offering and make expiation for them, as the Lord has commanded." 8Aaron came forward to the altar and slaughtered his calf of sin offering. 9Aaron's sons brought the blood to him; he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 10The fat, the kidneys, and the protuberance of the liver from the sin offering he turned into smoke on the altar as the Lord had commanded Moses; 11and the flesh and the skin were consumed in fire outside the camp. 12Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron's sons passed the blood to him, and he dashed it against all sides of the altar. 13They passed the burnt offering to him in sections, as well as the head, and he turned it into smoke on the altar. 14He washed the entrails and the legs, and turned them into smoke on the altar with the burnt offering. 15Next he brought forward the peoples offering. He took the goat for the peoples sin offering, and slaughtered it, and presented it as a sin offering like the previous one. 16He brought forward the burnt offering and sacrificed it according to regulation. 17He then brought forward the meal offering and, taking a handful of it, he turned it into smoke on the altar in addition to the burnt offering of the morning. (See Exod. 29.3846.) 18He slaughtered the ox and the ram, the peoples sacrifice of well-being. Aaron's sons passed the blood to him which he dashed against every side of the altar 19and the fat parts of the ox and the ram: the broad tail, the covering [fat], the kidneys, and the protuberances of the livers. 20They laid these fat parts over the breasts; and Aaron (This word moved up from v. 21 for clarity.) turned the fat parts into smoke on the altar, 21and elevated the breasts and the right thighs as an elevation offering before the Lord as Moses had commanded. 22Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he stepped down after offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being. 23Moses and Aaron then went inside the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the Presence of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24Fire came forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar. And all the people saw, and shouted, and fell on their faces.

II-L

[10] 1Now Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu each took his fire pan, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered before the Lord alien fire, which He had not enjoined upon them. 2And fire came forth from the Lord and consumed them; thus they died (Others: before.)at the instance of (Others: before.) the Lord. 3Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord meant when He said: Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, And gain glory before all the people." And Aaron was silent. 4Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, "Come forward and carry your kinsmen away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp." 5They came forward and carried them out of the camp by their tunics, as Moses had ordered. 6And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not (Or dishevel your hair.)bare your heads (Or dishevel your hair.) and do not rend your clothes, lest you die and anger strike the whole community. But your kinsmen, all the house of Israel, shall bewail the burning that the Lord has wrought. 7And so do not go outside the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die, for the Lords anointing oil is upon you." And they did as Moses had bidden.

II-R

8And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying: 9Drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons, when you enter the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die. This is a law for all time throughout the ages, 10for you must distinguish between the sacred and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean; 11and you must teach the Israelites all the laws which the Lord has imparted to them through Moses.

III-L

12Moses spoke to Aaron and to his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar: Take the meal offering that is left over from the Lords offerings by fire and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. 13You shall eat it in the sacred precinct, inasmuch as it is your due, and that of your children, from the Lords offerings by fire; for so I have been commanded. 14But the breast of elevation offering and the thigh of gift offering you, and your sons and daughters with you, may eat in any clean place, for they have been assigned as a due to you and your children from the Israelites sacrifices of well-being. 15Together with the fat of fire offering, they must present the thigh of gift offering and the breast of elevation offering, which are to be elevated as an elevation offering before the Lord, and which are to be your due and that of your children with you for all time as the Lord has commanded.

III-R

16Then Moses inquired about the goat of sin offering, and it had already been burned! He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and said, 17"Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sacred area? For it is most holy, and He has given it to you to remove the guilt of the community and to make expiation for them before the Lord. 18Since its blood was not brought inside the sanctuary, (As is done in the case of the most solemn offerings; see 4.321; 16.1117.) you should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded." 19And Aaron spoke to Moses, "See, this day they brought their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and such things have befallen me! Had I eaten sin offering today, would the Lord have approved?" 20And when Moses heard this, he approved.

 

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Unit 5

I-L

A[11]1The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them: 2Speak to the Israelite people thus: These are the creatures that you may eat from among all the land animals: 3any animal that has true hoofs, with clefts through the hoofs, and that chews (Lit. brings up.) the cud such you may eat. 4The following, however, of those that either chew the cud or have true hoofs, you shall not eat: the camel although it chews the cud, it has no true hoofs: it is unclean for you; 5the daman although it chews the cud, it has no true hoofs: it is unclean for you; 6the hare although it chews the cud, it has no true hoofs: it is unclean for you; 7and the swine although it has true hoofs, with the hoofs cleft through, it does not chew the cud: it is unclean for you. 8You shall not eat of their flesh or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

 

B9These you may eat of all that live in water: anything in water, whether in the seas or in the streams, that has fins and scales these you may eat. 10But anything in the seas or in the streams that has no fins and scales, among all the swarming things of the water and among all the other living creatures that are in the water they are an abomination for you 11and an abomination for you they shall remain: you shall not eat of their flesh and you shall abominate their carcasses. 12Everything in water that has no fins and scales shall be an abomination for you.

 

C13The following (A number of these cannot be identified with certainty.) you shall abominate among the birds they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, and the black vulture; 14the kite, falcons of every variety; 15all varieties of raven; 16the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull; hawks of every variety; 17the little owl, the cormorant, and the great owl; 18the white owl, the pelican, and the bustard; 19the stork; herons of every variety; the hoopoe, and the bat.

 

D20All winged swarming things that walk on fours shall be an abomination for you. 21But these you may eat among all the winged swarming things that walk on fours: all that have, above their feet, jointed legs to leap with on the ground 22of these you may eat the following: (A number of these cannot be identified with certainty.) locusts of every variety; all varieties of bald locust; crickets of every variety; and all varieties of grasshopper. 23But all other winged swarming things that have four legs shall be an abomination for you.

I-R

A24And the following shall make you unclean whoever touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening, 25and whoever carries the carcasses of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening 26every animal that has true hoofs but without clefts through the hoofs, or that does not chew the cud. They are unclean for you; whoever touches them shall be unclean. 27Also all animals that walk on paws, among those that walk on fours, are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening. 28And anyone who carries their carcasses shall wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening. They are unclean for you.

 

B29The following (A number of these cannot be identified with certainty.) shall be unclean for you from among the things that swarm on the earth: the mole, the mouse, and great lizards of every variety; 30the gecko, the land crocodile, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon. 31Those are for you the unclean among all the swarming things; whoever touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening.

 

C32And anything on which one of them falls when dead shall be unclean: be it any article of wood, or a cloth, or a skin, or a sack any such article that can be put to use shall be dipped in water, and it shall remain unclean until evening; then it shall be clean. 33And if any of those falls into an earthen vessel, everything inside it shall be unclean and [the vessel] itself you shall break. 34As to any food that may be eaten, it shall become unclean if it came in contact with water; (I.e., if the food then came in contact with the carcass of any animal named in vv. 2930.) as to any liquid that may be drunk, it shall become unclean if it was inside any vessel. (I.e., a vessel that had become contaminated by such contact.) 35Everything on which the carcass of any of them falls shall be unclean: an oven or stove shall be smashed. They are unclean and unclean they shall remain for you. 36However, a spring or cistern in which water is collected shall be clean, but whoever touches such a carcass in it shall be unclean. 37If such a carcass falls upon seed grain that is to be sown, it is clean; 38but if water is put on the seed and any part of a carcass falls upon it, it shall be unclean for you.

 

D39If an animal that you may eat has died, anyone who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening; 40anyone who eats of its carcass shall wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening; and anyone who carries its carcass shall wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening.

II-L

41All the things that swarm upon the earth are an abomination; they shall not be eaten. 42You shall not eat, among all things that swarm upon the earth, anything that crawls on its belly, or anything that walks on fours, or anything that has many legs; for they are an abomination.

II-R

43You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through anything that swarms; you shall not make yourselves unclean therewith and thus become unclean. 44For I the Lord am your God: you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not make yourselves unclean through any swarming thing that moves upon the earth. 45For I the Lord am He who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God: you shall be holy, for I am holy. 46These are the instructions concerning animals, birds, all living creatures that move in water, and all creatures that swarm on earth, 47for distinguishing between the unclean and the clean, between the living things that may be eaten and the living things that may not be eaten.

 

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Unit 6

I-L

[12]1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people thus: When a woman at childbirth (Heb. tazria>, lit. brings forth seed.) bears a male, she shall be unclean seven days; she shall be unclean as at the time of her menstrual infirmity. 3On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4She shall remain in a state of blood purification (Meaning of Heb. uncertain ) for thirty-three days: she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until her period of purification is completed.

I-R

5If she bears a female, she shall be unclean two weeks as during her menstruation, and she shall remain in a state of blood purification (Meaning of Heb. uncertain ) for sixty-six days.

II-L

6On the completion of her period of purification, for either son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, a lamb in its first year for a burnt offering, and a pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. (See note at 4.3.) 7He shall offer it before the Lord and make expiation on her behalf; she shall then be clean from her flow of blood. Such are the rituals concerning her who bears a child, male or female.

II-R

8If, however, her means do not suffice for a sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make expiation on her behalf, and she shall be clean.

 

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Unit 7

I-L

[13]1The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling, a rash, or a discoloration, and it develops into a scaly affection on the skin of his body, it shall be reported (Or he shall be brought.) to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. 3The priest shall examine the affection on the skin of his body: if hair in the affected patch has turned white and the affection appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous affection; (Heb. s\ara>ath is used for a variety of diseases. Where a human being is declared unclean by reason of s\ara>ath, the traditional translation leprosy has been retained without regard to modern medical terminology.) when the priest sees it, he shall pronounce him unclean. 4But if it is a white discoloration on the skin of his body which does not appear to be deeper than the skin and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall isolate the affected person for seven days. 5On the seventh day the priest shall examine him, and if the affection has remained unchanged in color and the disease has not spread on the skin, the priest shall isolate him for another seven days. 6On the seventh day the priest shall examine him again: if the affection has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is a rash; he shall wash his clothes, and he shall be clean. 7But if the rash should spread on the skin after he has presented himself to the priest and been pronounced clean, he shall present himself again to the priest. 8And if the priest sees that the rash has spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy.

I-R

9When a person has a scaly affection, it shall be reported (See note a at 12.2.) to the priest. 10If the priest finds on the skin a white swelling which has turned some hair white, with (Others: quick raw flesh.)a patch of undiscolored flesh (Others: quick raw flesh.) in the swelling, 11it is chronic leprosy on the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean; he need not isolate him, for he is unclean. 12If the eruption spreads out over the skin so that it covers all the skin of the affected person from head to foot, wherever the priest can see 13if the priest sees that the eruption has covered the whole body he shall pronounce the affected person clean; he is clean, for he has turned all white. 14But as soon as undiscolored flesh appears in it, he shall be unclean; 15when the priest sees the undiscolored flesh, he shall pronounce him unclean. The undiscolored flesh is unclean; it is leprosy. 16But if the undiscolored flesh again turns white, he shall come to the priest, 17and the priest shall examine him: if the affection has turned white, the priest shall pronounce the affected person clean; he is clean.

II-L

18When an inflammation appears on the skin of ones body and it heals, 19and a white swelling or a white discoloration streaked with red develops where the inflammation was, he shall present himself to the priest. 20If the priest finds that it appears lower than the rest of the skin and that the hair in it has turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous affection that has broken out in the inflammation. 21But if the priest finds that there is no white hair in it and it is not lower than the rest of the skin, and it is faded, the priest shall isolate him for seven days. 22If it should spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is an affection. 23But if the discoloration remains stationary, not having spread, it is the scar of the inflammation; the priest shall pronounce him clean.

II-R

24When the skin of ones body sustains a burn by fire, and the patch from the burn is a discoloration, either white streaked with red, or white, 25the priest shall examine it. If some hair has turned white in the discoloration, which itself appears to go deeper than the skin, it is leprosy that has broken out in the burn. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous affection. 26But if the priest finds that there is no white hair in the discoloration, and that it is not lower than the rest of the skin, and it is faded, the priest shall isolate him for seven days. 27On the seventh day the priest shall examine him: if it has spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous affection. 28But if the discoloration has remained stationary, not having spread on the skin, and it is faded, it is the swelling from the burn. The priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is the scar of the burn.

III-L

29If a man or a woman has an affection on the head or in the beard, 30the priest shall examine the affection. If it appears to go deeper than the skin and there is thin yellow hair in it, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a scall, a scaly eruption in the hair or beard. 31But if the priest finds that the scall affection does not appear to go deeper than the skin, yet there is no black hair in it, the priest shall isolate the person with the scall affection for seven days. 32On the seventh day the priest shall examine the affection. If the scall has not spread and no yellow hair has appeared in it, and the scall does not appear to go deeper than the skin, 33the person with the scall shall shave himself, but without shaving the scall; the priest shall isolate him for another seven days. 34On the seventh day the priest shall examine the scall. If the scall has not spread on the skin, and does not appear to go deeper than the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; he shall wash his clothes, and he shall be clean. 35If, however, the scall should spread on the skin after he has been pronounced clean, 36the priest shall examine him. If the scall has spread on the skin, the priest need not look for yellow hair: he is unclean. 37But if the scall has remained unchanged in color, and black hair has grown in it, the scall is healed; he is clean. The priest shall pronounce him clean.

III-R

38If a man or a woman has the skin of the body streaked with white discolorations, 39and the priest sees that the discolorations on the skin of the body are of a dull white, it is a tetter broken out on the skin; he is clean.

IV-L

40If a man loses the hair of his head and becomes bald, he is clean. 41If he loses the hair on the front part of his head and becomes bald at the forehead, he is clean. 42But if a white affection streaked with red appears on the bald part in the front or at the back of the head, it is a scaly eruption that is spreading over the bald part in the front or at the back of the head. 43The priest shall examine him: if the swollen affection on the bald part in the front or at the back of his head is white streaked with red, like the leprosy of body skin in appearance, 44the man is leprous; he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him unclean; he has the affection on his head.

IV-R

45As for the person with a leprous affection, his clothes shall be rent, his head shall be left bare, (See note at 10.6.) and he shall cover over his upper lip; and he shall call out, "Unclean! Unclean!" 46He shall be unclean as long as the disease is on him. Being unclean, he shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

 

 

 

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Unit 8

I-L

47When an eruptive affection occurs in a cloth of wool or linen fabric, 48in the warp or in the woof of the linen or the wool, or in a skin or in anything made of skin; 49if the affection in the cloth or the skin, in the warp or the woof, or in any article of skin, is streaky green (Or yellow.) or red, it is an eruptive affection. It shall be shown to the priest; 50and the priest, after examining the affection, shall isolate the affected article for seven days.

I-M

51On the seventh day he shall examine the affection: if the affection has spread in the cloth whether in the warp or the woof, or in the skin, for whatever purpose the skin may be used the affection is a malignant eruption; it is unclean. 52The cloth whether warp or woof in wool or linen, or any article of skin in which the affection is found, shall be burned, for it is a malignant eruption; it shall be consumed in fire. 53But if the priest sees that the affection in the cloth whether in warp or in woof, or in any article of skin has not spread, 54the priest shall order the affected article washed, and he shall isolate it for another seven days. 55And if, after the affected article has been washed, the priest sees that the affection has not changed color and that it has not spread, it is unclean. It shall be consumed in fire; it is a fret, (Meaning of Heb. pehetheth uncertain.) whether on its inner side or on its outer side.

I-R

56But if the priest sees that the affected part, after it has been washed, is faded, he shall tear it out from the cloth or skin, whether in the warp or in the woof; 57and if it occurs again in the cloth whether in warp or in woof or in any article of skin, it is a wild growth; the affected article shall be consumed in fire. 58If, however, the affection disappears from the cloth warp or woof or from any article of skin that has been washed, it shall be washed again, and it shall be clean. 59Such is the procedure for eruptive affections of cloth, woolen or linen, in warp or in woof, or of any article of skin, for pronouncing it clean or unclean.

II-L

[14] 1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time that he is to be cleansed. When it has been reported (Cf. note a at 13.2.) to the priest, 3the priest shall go outside the camp. If the priest sees that the leper has been healed of his scaly affection, 4the priest shall order two live clean birds, cedar wood, crimson stuff, and hyssop to be brought for him who is to be cleansed. 5The priest shall order one of the birds slaughtered over fresh water in an earthen vessel; 6and he shall take the live bird, along with the cedar wood, the crimson stuff, and the hyssop, and dip them together with the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. 7He shall then sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the eruption and cleanse him; and he shall set the live bird free in the open country. 8The one to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water; then he shall be clean. After that he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent seven days. 9On the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair of head, beard, and eyebrows. When he has shaved off all his hair, he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; then he shall be clean.

II-M

10On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb in its first year without blemish, three-tenths of a measure of choice flour with oil mixed in for a meal offering, and one log of oil. 11These shall be presented before the Lord, with the man to be cleansed, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, by the priest who performs the cleansing. 12The priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it with the log of oil as a guilt offering, and he shall elevate them as an elevation offering before the Lord. 13The lamb shall be slaughtered at the spot in the sacred area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. (See 1.11; 4.23.) For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, goes to the priest; it is most holy. 14The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the ridge of the right ear of him who is being cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15The priest shall then take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. 16And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in the palm of his left hand and sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. 17Some of the oil left in his palm shall be put by the priest on the ridge of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot over the blood of the guilt offering. 18The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one being cleansed. Thus the priest shall make expiation for him before the Lord. 19The priest shall then offer the sin offering and make expiation for the one being cleansed of his uncleanness. Last, the burnt offering shall be slaughtered, 20and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meal offering on the altar, and the priest shall make expiation for him. Then he shall be clean.

II-R

21If, however, he is poor and his means are insufficient, he shall take one male lamb for a guilt offering, to be elevated in expiation for him, one-tenth of a measure of choice flour with oil mixed in for a meal offering, and a log of oil; 22and two turtledoves or two pigeons, depending on his means, the one to be the sin offering and the other the burnt offering. 23On the eighth day of his cleansing he shall bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, before the Lord. 24The priest shall take the lamb of guilt offering and the log of oil, and elevate them as an elevation offering before the Lord. 25When the lamb of guilt offering has been slaughtered, the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the ridge of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26The priest shall then pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand, 27and with the finger of his right hand the priest shall sprinkle some of the oil that is in the palm of his left hand seven times before the Lord. 28Some of the oil in his palm shall be put by the priest on the ridge of the right ear of the one being cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, over the same places as the blood of the guilt offering; 29and what is left of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one being cleansed, to make expiation for him before the Lord. 30He shall then offer one of the turtledoves or pigeons, depending on his means 31whichever he can afford the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, together with the meal offering. Thus the priest shall make expiation before the Lord for the one being cleansed. 32Such is the ritual for him who has a scaly affection and whose means for his cleansing are limited.

III-L

33The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 34When you enter the land of Canaan that I give you as a possession, and I inflict an eruptive plague upon a house in the land you possess, 35the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, "Something like a plague has appeared upon my house." 36The priest shall order the house cleared before the priest enters to examine the plague, so that nothing in the house may become unclean; after that the priest shall enter to examine the house. 37If, when he examines the plague, the plague in the walls of the house is found to consist of greenish (Or yellowish.) or reddish streaks (Meaning of Heb. sheqa>aruroth uncertain.) that appear to go deep into the wall, 38the priest shall come out of the house to the entrance of the house, and close up the house for seven days.

III-M

39On the seventh day the priest shall return. If he sees that the plague has spread on the walls of the house, 40the priest shall order the stones with the plague in them to be pulled out and cast outside the city into an unclean place. 41The house shall be scraped inside all around, and the coating (Lit. dust, mud.) that is scraped off shall be dumped outside the city in an unclean place. 42They shall take other stones and replace those stones with them, and take other coating and plaster the house. 43If the plague again breaks out in the house, after the stones have been pulled out and after the house has been scraped and replastered, 44the priest shall come to examine: if the plague has spread in the house, it is a malignant eruption in the house; it is unclean. 45The house shall be torn down its stones and timber and all the coating on the house and taken to an unclean place outside the city. 46Whoever enters the house while it is closed up shall be unclean until evening. 47Whoever sleeps in the house must wash his clothes, and whoever eats in the house must wash his clothes.

III-R

48If, however, the priest comes and sees that the plague has not spread in the house after the house was replastered, the priest shall pronounce the house clean, for the plague has healed. 49To purge the house, he shall take two birds, cedar wood, crimson stuff, and hyssop. 50He shall slaughter the one bird over fresh water in an earthen vessel. 51He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the crimson stuff, and the live bird, and dip them in the blood of the slaughtered bird and the fresh water, and sprinkle on the house seven times. 52Having purged the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the crimson stuff, 53he shall set the live bird free outside the city in the open country. Thus he shall make expiation for the house, and it shall be clean. 54Such is the ritual for every eruptive affection for scalls, 55for an eruption on a cloth or a house, 56for swellings, for rashes, or for discolorations 57to determine when they are unclean and when they are clean. Such is the ritual concerning eruptions.

 

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Unit 9

I-L

[15]1The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When any man has a discharge issuing from his member, (Lit. flesh.) he is unclean. 3The uncleanness from his discharge shall mean the following whether his member runs with the discharge or is stopped up so that there is no discharge, his uncleanness means this: 4Any bedding on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and every object on which he sits shall be unclean. 5Anyone who touches his bedding shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 6Whoever sits on an object on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 7Whoever touches the body of the one with the discharge shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 8If one with a discharge spits on one who is clean, the latter shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 9Any means for riding that one with a discharge has mounted shall be unclean; 10whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening; and whoever carries such things shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 11If one with a discharge, without having rinsed his hands in water, touches another person, that person shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 12An earthen vessel that one with a discharge touches shall be broken; and any wooden implement shall be rinsed with water. 13When one with a discharge becomes clean of his discharge, he shall count off seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in fresh water; then he shall be clean. 14On the eighth day he shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons and come before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest. 15The priest shall offer them, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. Thus the priest shall make expiation on his behalf, for his discharge, before the Lord.

I-R

16When a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and remain unclean until evening. 17All cloth or leather on which semen falls shall be washed in water and remain unclean until evening. 18And if a man has carnal relations with a woman, they shall bathe in water and remain unclean until evening.

II-L

19When a woman has a discharge, her discharge being blood from her body, she shall remain in her impurity seven days; whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. 20Anything that she lies on during her impurity shall be unclean; and anything that she sits on shall be unclean. 21Anyone who touches her bedding shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening; 22and anyone who touches any object on which she has sat shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 23Be it the bedding or be it the object on which she has sat, on touching it he shall be unclean until evening. 24And if a man lies with her, her impurity is communicated to him; he shall be unclean seven days, and any bedding on which he lies shall become unclean.

II-R

25When a woman has had a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her impurity, or when she has a discharge beyond her period of impurity, she shall be unclean, as though at the time of her impurity, as long as her discharge lasts. 26Any bedding on which she lies while her discharge lasts shall be for her like bedding during her impurity; and any object on which she sits shall become unclean, as it does during her impurity: 27whoever touches them shall be unclean; he shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening. 28When she becomes clean of her discharge, she shall count off seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29On the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. 30The priest shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering; and the priest shall make expiation on her behalf, for her unclean discharge, before the Lord. 31You shall put the Israelites on guard against their uncleanness, lest they die through their uncleanness by defiling My Tabernacle which is among them. 32Such is the ritual concerning him who has a discharge: concerning him who has an emission of semen and becomes unclean thereby, 33and concerning her who is in menstrual infirmity, and concerning anyone, male or female, who has a discharge, and concerning a man who lies with an unclean woman.

 

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Unit 10

I-L

[16] 1The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they drew too close to the presence of the Lord. 2The Lord said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come at will (Lit. at any time.) into the Shrine behind the curtain, in front of the cover that is upon the ark, lest he die; for I appear in the cloud over the cover.

I-M

3Thus only shall Aaron enter the Shrine: with a bull of the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4He shall be dressed in a sacral linen tunic, with linen breeches next to his flesh, and be girt with a linen sash, and he shall wear a linen turban. They are sacral vestments; he shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5And from the Israelite community he shall take two he-goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 6Aaron is to offer his own bull of sin offering, to make expiation for himself and for his household. 7Aaron (Moved up from v. 8 for clarity.) shall take the two he-goats and let them stand before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting; 8and he shall place lots upon the two goats, one marked for the Lord and the other marked for Azazel. 9Aaron shall bring forward the goat designated by lot for the Lord, which he is to offer as a sin offering; 10while the goat designated by lot for Azazel shall be left standing alive before the Lord, to make expiation with it and to send it off to the wilderness for Azazel. 11Aaron shall then offer his bull of sin offering, to make expiation for himself and his household. He shall slaughter his bull of sin offering, 12and he shall take a panful of glowing coals scooped from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense, and bring this behind the curtain. 13He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, so that the cloud from the incense screens the cover that is over [the Ark of] the Pact, lest he die. 14He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger over the cover on the east side; and in front of the cover he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. 15He shall then slaughter the peoples goat of sin offering, bring its blood behind the curtain, and do with its blood as he has done with the blood of the bull: he shall sprinkle it over the cover and in front of the cover. 16Thus he shall purge the Shrine of the uncleanness and transgression of the Israelites, whatever their sins; and he shall do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which abides with them in the midst of their uncleanness. 17When he goes in to make expiation in the Shrine, nobody else shall be in the Tent of Meeting until he comes out. When he has made expiation for himself and his household, and for the whole congregation of Israel, 18he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and purge it: he shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the goat and apply it to each of the horns of the altar; 19and the rest of the blood he shall sprinkle on it with his finger seven times. Thus he shall cleanse it of the uncleanness of the Israelites and consecrate it. 20When he has finished purging the Shrine, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, the live goat shall be brought forward. 21Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and transgressions of the Israelites, whatever their sins, putting them on the head of the goat; and it shall be sent off to the wilderness through a designated (Meaning of Heb. >itti uncertain.) man. 22Thus the goat shall carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

I-R

23And Aaron shall go into the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen vestments that he put on when he entered the Shrine, and leave them there. 24He shall bathe his body in water in the holy precinct and put on his vestments; then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, making expiation for himself and for the people. 25The fat of the sin offering he shall turn into smoke on the altar. 26He who set the Azazel-goat free shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may reenter the camp. 27The bull of sin offering and the goat of sin offering whose blood was brought in to purge the Shrine shall be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung shall be consumed in fire. 28He who burned them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may re-enter the camp.

II-L

29And this shall be to you a law for all time: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall practice self-denial; and you shall do no manner of work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you. 30For on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you of all your sins; you shall be clean before the Lord. 31It shall be a sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial; it is a law for all time.

II-M

32The priest who has been anointed and ordained to serve as priest in place of his father shall make expiation. He shall put on the linen vestments, the sacral vestments. 33He shall purge the innermost Shrine; he shall purge the Tent of Meeting and the altar; and he shall make expiation for the priests and for all the people of the congregation.

II-R

34This shall be to you a law for all time: to make atonement for the Israelites for all their sins once a year. And Moses did as the Lord had commanded him.

 

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Unit 11

I-L

[17] 1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelite people and say to them: This is what the Lord has commanded: 3if anyone of the house of Israel slaughters an ox or sheep or goat in the camp, or does so outside the camp, 4and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the Lord, before the Lords Tabernacle, bloodguilt shall be imputed to that man: he has shed blood; that man shall be cut off from among his people. 5This is in order that the Israelites may bring the sacrifices which they have been making in the open that they may bring them before the Lord, to the priest, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and offer them as sacrifices of well-being to the Lord; 6that the priest may dash the blood against the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and turn the fat into smoke as a pleasing odor to the Lord; 7and that they may offer their sacrifices no more to the goat-demons after whom they stray. This shall be to them a law for all time, throughout the ages.

I-M

8Say to them further: If anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who reside among them offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice, 9and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to offer it to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from his people.

I-R

10And if anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who reside among them partakes of any blood, I will set My face against the person who partakes of the blood, and I will cut him off from among his kin. 11For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for your lives upon the altar; it is the blood, as life, that effects expiation. 12Therefore I say to the Israelite people: No person among you shall partake of blood, nor shall the stranger who resides among you partake of blood.

II-L

13And if any Israelite or any stranger who resides among them hunts down an animal or a bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. 14For the life of all flesh its blood is its life.

II-M

Therefore I say to the Israelite people: You shall not partake of the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Anyone who partakes of it shall be cut off.

II-R

15Any person, whether citizen or stranger, who eats what has died or has been torn by beasts shall wash his clothes, bathe in water, and remain unclean until evening; then he shall be clean. 16But if he does not wash [his clothes] and bathe his body, he shall bear his guilt.

 

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Unit 12

I-L

[18] 1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: I the Lord am your God.

I-M

3You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws. 4My rules alone shall you observe, and faithfully follow My laws: I the Lord am your God.

I-R

5You shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which man shall live: I am the Lord.

II-L

6None of you shall come near anyone of his own flesh to uncover nakedness: I am the Lord. 7 (A man and his wife are one flesh (Gen. 2.24 ), even if he should die or divorce her.)Your fathers nakedness, that is, the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover; she is your mother you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8Do not uncover the nakedness of your fathers wife; (A man and his wife are one flesh (Gen. 2.24 ), even if he should die or divorce her.) it is the nakedness of your father. 9The nakedness of your sister your fathers daughter or your mothers, whether born into the household or outside do not uncover their nakedness. 10The nakedness of your sons daughter, or of your daughters daughter do not uncover their nakedness; for their nakedness is yours. (Meaning uncertain.) 11The nakedness of your fathers wifes daughter, who has born into your fathers household she is your sister; do not uncover her nakedness. 12Do not uncover the nakedness of your fathers sister; she is your fathers flesh. 13Do not uncover the nakedness of your mothers sister; for she is your mothers flesh. 14Do not uncover the nakedness of your fathers brother: do not approach his wife; she is your aunt. 15Do not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your sons wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. 16 (A man and his wife are one flesh (Gen. 2.24 ), even if he should die or divorce her.)Do not uncover the nakedness of your brothers wife; it is the nakedness of your brother. (A man and his wife are one flesh (Gen. 2.24 ), even if he should die or divorce her.)

II-M

17Do not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter; nor shall you marry her sons daughter or her daughters daughter and uncover her nakedness: they are kindred; it is depravity. 18Do not marry a woman as a rival to her sister and uncover her nakedness in the others lifetime. 19Do not come near a woman during her period of uncleanness to uncover her nakedness. 20Do not have carnal relations with your neighbors wife and defile yourself with her.

II-R

24Do not defile yourselves in any of those ways, for it is by such that the nations that I am casting out before you defiled themselves. 25Thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants.

III-L

24Do not defile yourselves in any of those ways, for it is by such that the nations that I am casting out before you defiled themselves. 25Thus the land became defiled; and I called it to account for its iniquity, and the land spewed out its inhabitants.

III-M

26But you must keep My laws and My rules, and you must not do any of those abhorrent things, neither the citizen nor the stranger who resides among you; 27for all those abhorrent things were done by the people who were in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28So let not the land spew you out for defiling it, as it spewed out the nation that came before you. 29All who do any of those abhorrent things such persons shall be cut off from their people.

III-R

30You shall keep My charge not to engage in any of the abhorrent practices that were carried on before you, and you shall not defile yourselves through them: I the Lord am your God.

 

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Unit 13

I-L

A [19]1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them: You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.

 

B 3You shall each revere his mother and his father, and keep My sabbaths: I the Lord am your God.

 

C 4Do not turn to idols or make molten gods for yourselves: I the Lord am your God.

 

D 5When you sacrifice an offering of well-being to the Lord, sacrifice it so that it may be accepted on your behalf. 6It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the day following; but what is left by the third day must be consumed in fire. 7If it should be eaten on the third day, it is an offensive thing, it will not be acceptable. 8And he who eats of it shall bear his guilt, for he has profaned what is sacred to the Lord; that person shall be cut off from his kin. 9When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.

I-R

A 11You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. 12You shall not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.

 

B 13You shall not defraud your fellow. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning. 14You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

 

C 15You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your kinsman fairly. 16Do not (Others: go about as a talebearer among ; meaning of Heb. uncertain.)deal basely with (Others: go about as a talebearer among ; meaning of Heb. uncertain.) your countrymen. Do not (Lit. stand upon ; precise meaning of Heb. phrase uncertain.)profit by (Lit. stand upon ; precise meaning of Heb. phrase uncertain.) the blood of your fellow: I am the Lord.

 

D 17You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kinsman but (Exact force of we- uncertain.) incur no guilt because of him. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord. 19You shall observe My laws.

II-L

You shall not let your cattle mate with a different kind;

 

you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed;

 

you shall not put on cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material.

II-M

20If a man has carnal relations with a woman who is a slave and has been designated for another man, but has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there shall be an indemnity; they shall not, however, be put to death, since she has not been freed.

 

21But he must bring to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, as his guilt offering to the Lord, a ram of guilt offering. 22With the ram of guilt offering the priest shall make expiation for him before the Lord for the sin that he committed;

 

and the sin that he committed will be forgiven him.

II-R

23When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. (Heb. root >rl, commonly to be uncircumcised.) Three years it shall be forbidden (Heb. root >rl, commonly to be uncircumcised.) for you, not to be eaten.

 

24In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before the Lord;

 

25and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit that its yield to you may be increased: I the Lord am your God.

III-L

A 26You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice divination or soothsaying. 27You shall not round off the side-growth on your head, or destroy the side-growth of your beard. 28You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

 

B 29Do not degrade your daughter and make her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land be filled with depravity. 30You shall keep My sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary: I am the Lord.

 

C 31Do not turn to ghosts and do not inquire of familiar spirits, to be defiled by them: I the Lord am your God.

III-R

A 32You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

 

B 33When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. 34The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the Lord am your God.

 

C 35You shall not falsify measures of length, weight, or capacity. 36You shall have an honest balance, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I the Lord am your God who freed you from the land of Egypt. 37You shall faithfully observe all My laws and all My rules: I am the Lord.

 

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Unit 14

I-L

[20] 1And the Lord spoke to Moses: 2Say further to the Israelite people: Anyone among the Israelites, or among the strangers residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall be put to death; the people of the land shall pelt him with stones. 3And I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he gave of his offspring to Molech and so defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. 4And if the people of the land should shut their eyes to that man when he gives of his offspring to Molech, and should not put him to death, 5I Myself will set My face against that man and his kin, and will cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in going astray after Molech.

I-M

6And if any person turns to ghosts and familiar spirits and goes astray after them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people. 7You shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I the Lord am your God. 8You shall faithfully observe My laws: I the Lord make you holy.

I-R

9If anyone insults his father or his mother, he shall be put to death; he has insulted his father and his mother his bloodguilt is upon him.

II-L

A10If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with another mans wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

 

B11If a man lies with his fathers wife, it is the nakedness of his father that he has uncovered; the two shall be put to death their bloodguilt is upon them.

 

C12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed incest their bloodguilt is upon them.

II-M

A13If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death their bloodguilt is upon them.

 

B14If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depravity; both he and they shall be put to the fire, that there be no depravity among you.

 

C15If a man has carnal relations with a beast, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the beast.

 

D16If a woman approaches any beast to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast; they shall be put to death their bloodguilt is upon them.

II-R

A17If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; they shall be excommunicated (Lit. cut off.) in the sight of their kinsfolk. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister, he shall bear his guilt.

 

B18If a man lies with a woman in her infirmity and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow and she has exposed her blood flow; both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

 

C19You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mothers sister or of your fathers sister, for that is laying bare ones own flesh; they shall bear their guilt.

 

D 20If a man lies with his uncles wife, it is his uncles nakedness that he has uncovered. They shall bear their guilt: they shall die childless.

 

E 21If a man marries the wife of his brother, it is indecency. It is the nakedness of his brother that he has uncovered; they shall remain childless.

III-L

22You shall faithfully observe all My laws and all My regulations, lest the land to which I bring you to settle in spew you out. 23You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. For it is because they did all these things that I abhorred them 24and said to you: You shall possess their land, for I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I the Lord am your God who has set you apart from other peoples.

III-M

25So you shall set apart the clean beast from the unclean, the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through beast or bird or anything with which the ground is alive, which I have set apart for you to treat as unclean. 26You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine.

III-R

27A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones their bloodguilt shall be upon them.

 

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Unit 15

 

I-L

[21] 1The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, 2except for the relatives that are closest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; 3also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not married, for her he may defile himself. 4But he shall not defile himself (Lit. as a husband among his kin ; meaning uncertain.)as a kinsman by marriage, (Lit. as a husband among his kin ; meaning uncertain.) and so profane himself. 5They shall not shave smooth any part of their heads, or cut the side-growth of their beards, or make gashes in their flesh. 6They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the Lords offerings by fire, the food of their God, and so must be holy.

I-M

7They shall not marry a woman defiled by harlotry, nor shall they marry one divorced from her husband. For they are holy to their God 8and you must treat them as holy, since they offer the food of your God; they shall be holy to you, for I the Lord who sanctify you am holy.

I-R

9When the daughter of a priest defiles herself through harlotry, it is her father whom she defiles; she shall be put to the fire.

II-L

10The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the vestments, shall not bare his head (See note at 10.6.) or rend his vestments. 11He shall not go in where there is any dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother. 12He shall not go outside the sanctuary and profane the sanctuary of his God, for upon him is the distinction of the anointing oil of his God, Mine the Lords.

II-M

13He may marry only a woman who is a virgin. 14A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is degraded by harlotry such he may not marry. Only a virgin of his own kin may he take to wife 15that he may not profane his offspring among his kin, for I the Lord have sanctified him.

II-R

16The Lord spoke further to Moses: 17Speak to Aaron and say: No man of your offspring throughout the ages who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the food of his God. 18No one at all who has a defect shall be qualified: no man who is blind, or lame, or (Or mutilated or has a limb too long.)has a limb too short or too long; (Or mutilated or has a limb too long.) 19no man who has a broken leg or a broken arm; 20or who is a hunchback, or a dwarf, or who has a growth in his eye, or who has a boil-scar, or scurvy, or crushed testes. 21No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall be qualified to offer the Lords offering by fire; having a defect, he shall not be qualified to offer the food of his God. 22He may eat of the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy; 23but he shall not enter behind the curtain or come near the altar, for he has a defect. He shall not profane these places sacred to Me, for I the Lord have sanctified them. 24Thus Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.

 

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Unit 16

I-L

[22] 1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Instruct Aaron and his sons to be scrupulous about the sacred donations that the Israelite people consecrate to Me, lest they profane My holy name, Mine the Lords.

I-M

3Say to them: Throughout the ages, if any man among your offspring, while in a state of uncleanness, partakes of any sacred donation that the Israelite people may consecrate to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from before Me: I am the Lord.

I-R

4No man of Aaron's offspring who has an eruption or a discharge (See chapters 13 and 15.) shall eat of the sacred donations until he is clean. If one touches anything made unclean by a corpse, or if a man has an emission of semen, 5or if a man touches any swarming thing by which he is made unclean or any human being by whom he is made unclean whatever his uncleanness 6the person who touches such shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat of the sacred donations unless he has washed his body in water. 7As soon as the sun sets, he shall be clean; and afterward he may eat of the sacred donations, for they are his food. 8He shall not eat anything that died or was torn by beasts, thereby becoming unclean: I am the Lord.

II-L

9They shall keep My charge, lest they incur guilt thereby and die for it, having committed profanation: I the Lord consecrate them.

II-M

10No lay person shall eat. No bound or hired laborer of a priest shall eat of the sacred donations; 11but a person who is a priests property by purchase may eat of them; and those that are born into his household may eat of his food. 12If a priests daughter marries a layman, she may not eat of the sacred gifts; 13but if the priests daughter is widowed or divorced and without offspring, and is back in her fathers house as in her youth, she may eat of her fathers food. No lay person may eat of it: 14but if a man eats of a sacred donation unwittingly, he shall pay the priest for the sacred donation, adding one-fifth of its value. 15But [the priests] must not allow the Israelites to profane the sacred donations that they set aside for the Lord, 16or to incur guilt requiring a penalty payment, by eating such sacred donations: for it is I the Lord who make them sacred.

II-R

17The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to all the Israelite people, and say to them: When any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering for any of the votive or any of the freewill offerings that they offer to the Lord, 19it must, to be acceptable in your favor, be a male without blemish, from cattle or sheep or goats. 20You shall not offer any that has a defect, for it will not be accepted in your favor. 21And when a man offers, from the herd or the flock, a sacrifice of well-being to the Lord for an explicit (Or unspecified or extraordinary ; meaning of Heb. lephalle uncertain.) vow or as a freewill offering, it must, to be acceptable, be without blemish; there must be no defect in it. 22Anything blind, or injured, or maimed, or with a wen, boil-scar, or scurvy such you shall not offer to the Lord; you shall not put any of them on the altar as offerings by fire to the Lord. 23You may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox or a sheep with a limb extended or contracted; but it will not be accepted for a vow. 24You shall not offer to the Lord anything [with its testes] bruised or crushed or torn or cut. You shall have no such practices (I.e., mutilations.) in your own land, 25nor shall you accept such [animals] from a foreigner for offering as food for your God, for they are mutilated, they have a defect; they shall not be accepted in your favor.

 

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Unit 17

I-L

[22] 26The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as an offering by fire to the Lord.

I-R

28However, no animal from the herd or from the flock shall be slaughtered on the same day with its young.

II

29When you sacrifice a thanksgiving offering to the Lord, sacrifice it so that it may be acceptable in your favor. 30It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall not leave any of it until morning: I am the Lord.

III-L

31You shall faithfully observe My commandments: I am the Lord.

III-R

32You shall not profane My holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the Israelite people I the Lord who sanctify you, 33I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God, I the Lord.

 

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Unit 18

 

I-L

[23] 1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions. 3On six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, a sacred occasion. You shall do no work; it shall be a sabbath of the Lord throughout your settlements.

I-R

4These are the set times of the Lord, the sacred occasions, which you shall celebrate each at its appointed time: 5In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to the Lord, 6and on the fifteenth day of that month the Lords Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days. 7On the first day you shall celebrate a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations. 8Seven days you shall make offerings by fire to the Lord. The seventh day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations.

II-L

9The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 10Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. 11He shall elevate the sheaf before the Lord for acceptance in your behalf; the priest shall elevate it on the day after the sabbath. 12On the day that you elevate the sheaf, you shall offer as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb of the first year without blemish. 13The meal offering with it shall be two-tenths of a measure of choice flour with oil mixed in, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord; and the libation with it shall be of wine, a quarter of a hin. 14Until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God, you shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears; (I.e., of the new crop.) it is a law for all time throughout the ages in all your settlements.

II-R

15And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering the day after the sabbath you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: 16you must count until the day after the seventh week fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering; each shall be made of two-tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after leavening, as first fruits to the Lord. 18With the bread you shall present, as burnt offerings to the Lord, seven yearling lambs without blemish, one bull of the herd, and two rams, with their meal offerings and libations, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the Lord. 19You shall also offer one he-goat as a sin offering and two yearling lambs as a sacrifice of well-being. 20The priest shall elevate these the two lambs (Meaning of Heb. uncertain ) together with the bread of first fruits as an elevation offering before the Lord; they shall be holy to the Lord, for the priest. 21On that same day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a law for all time in all your settlements, throughout the ages. 22And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.

III-L

23The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 24Speak to the Israelite people thus: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe complete rest, a sacred occasion commemorated with loud blasts. 25You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Lord.

III-R

26The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27Mark, the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a sacred occasion for you: you shall practice self-denial, and you shall bring an offering by fire to the Lord; 28you shall do no work throughout that day. For it is a Day of Atonement, on which expiation is made on your behalf before the Lord your God. 29Indeed, any person who does not practice self-denial throughout that day shall be cut off from his kin; 30and whoever does any work throughout that day, I will cause that person to perish from among his people. 31Do no work whatever; it is a law for all time, throughout the ages in all your settlements. 32It shall be a sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall observe this your sabbath.

IV-L

33The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 34Say to the Israelite people: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month there shall be the Feast of Booths (Others: Tabernacles.) to the Lord, [to last] seven days. 35The first day shall be a sacred occasion: you shall not work at your occupations; 36seven days you shall bring offerings by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall observe a sacred occasion and bring an offering by fire to the Lord; it is a solemn gathering: (Precise meaning of Heb. >as\ereth uncertain.) you shall not work at your occupations. 37Those are the set times of the Lord that you shall celebrate as sacred occasions, bringing offerings by fire to the Lord burnt offerings, meal offerings, sacrifices, and libations, on each day what is proper to it 38apart from the sabbaths of the Lord, and apart from your gifts and from all your votive offerings and from all your freewill offerings that you give to the Lord.

IV-R

39Mark, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the Lord [to last] seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. 40On the first day you shall take the product of hadar (Others: goodly ; exact meaning of Heb. hadar uncertain. Traditionally the product is understood as citron.) trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy (Meaning of Heb. aboth uncertain.) trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. 41You shall observe it as a festival of the Lord for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seventh month as a law for all time, throughout the ages. 42You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, 43in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I the Lord your God. 44So Moses declared to the Israelites the set times of the Lord.

 

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Unit 19

 

I-L

[24] 1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Command the Israelite people to bring you clear oil of beaten olives for lighting, for kindling lamps regularly. 3Aaron shall set them up in the Tent of Meeting outside the curtain of the Pact [to burn] from evening to morning before the Lord regularly; it is a law for all time throughout the ages. 4He shall set up the lamps on the pure (See note at Exod. 31.8.) lampstand before the Lord [to burn] regularly.

I-R

5You shall take choice flour and bake of it twelve loaves, two-tenths of a measure for each loaf. 6Place them on the pure (See note at Exod. 31.8.) table before the Lord in two rows, six to a row. 7With each row you shall place pure frankincense, which is to be a token offering (See Lev. 2.2.) for the bread, as an offering by fire to the Lord. 8He shall arrange them before the Lord regularly every sabbath day it is a commitment for all time on the part of the Israelites. 9They shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat them in the sacred precinct; for they are his as most holy things from the Lords offerings by fire, a due for all time.

II-L

10There came out among the Israelites one whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian. And a fight broke out in the camp between that half-Israelite (Lit. the son of an Israelite woman.) and a certain Israelite. 11The son of the Israelite woman pronounced the Name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses now his mothers name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan 12and he was placed in custody, until the decision of the Lord should be made clear to them.

II-R

13And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 14Take the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who were within hearing lay their hands upon his head, and let the whole community stone him. 15And to the Israelite people speak thus: Anyone who blasphemes his God shall bear his guilt; 16if he also pronounces the name Lord, he shall be put to death. The whole community shall stone him; stranger or citizen, if he has thus pronounced the Name, he shall be put to death. 17If anyone kills any human being, he shall be put to death. 18One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it: life for life. 19If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him. 21One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it; but one who kills a human being shall be put to death. 22You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike: for I the Lord am your God. 23Moses spoke thus to the Israelites. And they took the blasphemer outside the camp and pelted him with stones. The Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

 

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Unit 20

I-L

[25] 1The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: 2Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the Lord. 3Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. 4But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. 6But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, 7and your cattle and the beasts in your land may eat all its yield.

I-M

8You shall count off seven weeks of years seven times seven years so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years. 9Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month the Day of Atonement you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land 10and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release (Others: liberty.) throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee (Heb. yobel, ram or rams horn.) for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family. 11That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: yous hall not sow, neither shall you reap the aftergrowth or harvest the untrimmed vines, 12for it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you: you may only eat the growth direct from the field. 13In this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to his holding. 14When you sell property to your neighbor, (I.e., fellow Israelite; see v. 46.) or buy any from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15In buying from your neighbor, you shall deduct only for the number of years since the jubilee; and in selling to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years: 16the more such years, the higher the price you pay; the fewer such years, the lower the price; for what he is selling you is a number of harvests. 17Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I the Lord am your God.

I-R

18You shall observe My laws and faithfully keep My rules, that you may live upon the land in security; 19the land shall yield its fruit and you shall eat your fill, and you shall live upon it in security. 20And should you ask, "What are we to eat in the seventh year, if we may neither sow nor gather in our crops?" 21I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years. 22When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating old grain of that crop; you will be eating the old until the ninth year, until its crops come in. 23But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. 24Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

II-L

25If your kinsman is in straits and has to sell part of his holding, his nearest redeemer (I.e., the closest relative able to redeem the land.) shall come and redeem what his kinsman has sold. 26If a man has no one to redeem for him, but prospers and acquires enough to redeem with, 27he shall compute the years since its sale, refund the difference to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his holding. 28If he lacks sufficient means to recover it, what he sold shall remain with the purchaser until the jubilee; in the jubilee year it shall be released, and he shall return to his holding.

II-R

29If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the redemption period shall be a year. 30If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, the house in the walled city shall pass to the purchaser beyond reclaim throughout the ages; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31But houses in villages that have no encircling walls shall be classed as open country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released through the jubilee. 32As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities they hold the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption. 33 (Meaning of first half of verse uncertain.)Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites houses sold in a city they hold shall be released through the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their holding among the Israelites. 34But the unenclosed land about their cities cannot be sold, for that is their holding for all time.

III-L

35If your kinsman, being in straits, comes under your authority, and you hold him as though a resident alien, let him live by your side: 36do not exact from him advance or accrued interest, (I.e., interest deducted in advance, or interest added at the time of repayment.) but fear your God. Let him live by your side as your kinsman. 37Do not lend him your money at advance interest, or give him your food at accrued interest. 38I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.

III-M

39If your kinsman under you continues in straits and must give himself over to you, do not subject him to the treatment of a slave. 40He shall remain with you as a hired or bound laborer; he shall serve with you only until the jubilee year. 41Then he and his children with him shall be free of your authority; he shall go back to his family and return to his ancestral holding. 42For they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude. 43You shall not rule over him ruthlessly; you shall fear your God. 44Such male and female slaves as you may have it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male and female slaves. 45You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: 46you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves. But as for your Israelite kinsmen, no one shall rule ruthlessly over the other.

III-R

47If a resident alien among you has prospered, and your kinsman being in straits, comes under his authority and gives himself over to the resident alien among you, or to an offshoot of an aliens family, 48he shall have the right of redemption even after he has given himself over. One of his kinsmen shall redeem him, 49or his uncle or his uncles son shall redeem him, or anyone of his family who is of his own flesh shall redeem him; or, if he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50He shall compute with his purchaser the total from the year he gave himself over to him until the jubilee year; the price of his sale shall be applied to the number of years, as though it were for a term as a hired laborer under the others authority. 51If many years remain, he shall pay back for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price; 52and if few years remain until the jubilee year, he shall so compute: he shall make payment for his redemption according to the years involved. 53He shall be under his authority as a laborer hired by the year; he shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. 54If he has not been redeemed in any of those ways, he and his children with him shall go free in the jubilee year. 55For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants: they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt, I the Lord your God.

 

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Unit 21

I-L

[26] 1You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or pillars, or place figured (Meaning of Heb. maskith uncertain.) stones in your land to worship upon, for I the Lord am your God.

I-R

2You shall keep My sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lords.

II-L

A 3If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, 4I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit. 5Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and your vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your fill of bread

 

B and (you shall) dwell securely in your land. 6I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone;

C I will give the land respite from vicious beasts,

 

D and no sword shall cross your land. 7You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

 

E 9I will look with favor upon you, and make you fertile and multiply you; and I will maintain My covenant with you. 10You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make room for the new. 11I will establish My abode in your midst, and I will not spurn you. 12I will be ever present in your midst: I will be your God, and you shall be My people. 13I the Lord am your God who brought you out from the land of the Egyptians to be their slaves no more, who broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

II-R

A 14But if you do not obey Me and do not observe all these commandments, 15if you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My commandments and you break My covenant, 16I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you (Precise nature of these ills is uncertain.)consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it. 17I will set My face against you: you shall be routed by your enemies, and your foes shall dominate you. You shall flee though none pursues.

 

B 18And if, for all that, you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold for your sins, 19and I will break your proud glory. I will make your skies like iron and your earth like copper, 20so that your strength shall be spent to no purpose. Your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

 

C 21And if you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will go on smiting you sevenfold for your sins. 22I will loose wild beasts against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and wipe out your cattle. They shall decimate you, and your roads shall be deserted.

 

D 23And if these things fail to discipline you for Me, and you remain hostile to Me, 24I too will remain hostile to you: I in turn will smite you sevenfold for your sins. 25I will bring a sword against you to wreak vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. 26When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven; they shall dole out your bread by weight, and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.

 

E 27But if, despite this, you disobey Me and remain hostile to Me, 28I will act against you in wrathful hostility; I, for My part, will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. 29You shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. 30I will destroy your cult places and cut down your incense stands, and I will heap your carcasses upon your lifeless fetishes. I will spurn you. 31I will lay your cities in ruin and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not savor your pleasing odors. 32I will make the land desolate, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled by it. 33And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheath the sword against you. Your land shall become a desolation and your cities a ruin. 34Then shall the land make up for its sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate and you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land rest and make up for its sabbath years. 35Throughout the time that it is desolate, it shall observe the rest that it did not observe in your sabbath years while you were dwelling upon it. 36As for those of you who survive, I will cast a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight. Fleeing as though from the sword, they shall fall though none pursues. 37With no one pursuing, they shall stumble over one another as before the sword. You shall not be able to stand your ground before your enemies, 38but shall perish among the nations; and the land of your enemies shall consume you. 39Those of you who survive shall be heartsick over their iniquity in the land of your enemies; more, they shall be heartsick over the iniquities of their fathers; 40and they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in that they trespassed against Me, yea, were hostile to Me. 41When I, in turn, have been hostile to them and have removed them into the land of their enemies, then at last shall their obdurate (Others: uncircumcised ; lit. blocked.) heart humble itself, and they shall atone for their iniquity.

III-L

42Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land. 43For the land shall be forsaken of them, making up for its sabbath years by being desolate of them, while they atone for their iniquity; for the abundant reason that they rejected My rules and spurned My laws. 44Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them: for I the Lord am their God.

III-R

45I will remember in their favor the covenant with the ancients, whom I freed from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God: I, the Lord. 46These are the laws, rules, and instructions that the Lord established, through Moses on Mount Sinai, between Himself and the Israelite people.

 

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Unit 22

 

I-L

1The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When anyone explicitly (Cf. note at Lev. 22.21.) vows to the Lord the equivalent for a human being, 3the following scale shall apply: If it is a male from twenty to sixty years of age, the equivalent is fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary weight; 4if it is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. 5If the age is from five years to twenty years, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. 6If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and the equivalent for a female is three shekels of silver. 7If the age is sixty years or over, the equivalent is fifteen shekels in the case of a male and ten shekels for a female. 8But if one cannot afford the equivalent, he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; the priest shall assess him according to what the vower can afford.

I-M

9If [the vow concerns] any animal that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any such that may be given to the Lord shall be holy. 10One may not exchange or substitute another for it, either good for bad, or bad for good; if one does substitute one animal for another, the thing vowed and its substitute shall both be holy. 11If [the vow concerns] any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal shall be presented before the priest, 12and the priest shall assess it. Whether (Lit. good or bad.)high or low, (Lit. good or bad.) whatever assessment is set by the priest shall stand; 13and if he wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to its assessment.

I-R

14If anyone consecrates his house to the Lord, the priest shall assess it. Whether (Lit. good or bad.)high or low, (Lit. good or bad.) as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand; 15and if he who has consecrated his house wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall be his.

II-L

A 16If anyone consecrates to the Lord any land that he holds, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirement: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. 17If he consecrates his land as of the jubilee year, its assessment stands. 18But if he consecrates his land after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left until the jubilee year, and its assessment shall be so reduced; 19and if he who consecrated the land wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall pass to him. 20But if he does not redeem the land, and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable: 21when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the Lord, as land proscribed; it becomes the priests holding.

 

II-M

A 26A firstling of animals, however, which as a firstling is the Lords, cannot be consecrated by anybody; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lords. 27But if it is of unclean animals, it may be ransomed as its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment.

 

II-R

A 30All tithes from the land, whether seed from the ground or fruit from the tree, are the Lords; they are holy to the Lord. 31If anyone wishes to redeem any of his tithes, he must add one-fifth to them.

B 22If he consecrates to the Lord land that he purchased, which is not land of his holding, 23the priest shall compute for him the proportionate assessment up to the jubilee year, and he shall pay the assessment as of that day, a sacred donation to the Lord. 24In the jubilee year the land shall revert to him from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. 25All assessments shall be by the sanctuary weight, the shekel being twenty gerahs.

B 28But of all that anyone owns, be it man or beast or land of his holding, nothing that he has proscribed for the Lord may be sold or redeemed; every proscribed thing is totally consecrated to the Lord. 29No human being who has been proscribed can be ransomed: he shall be put to death.

B 32All tithes of the herd or flock of all that passes under the shepherds staff, every tenth one shall be holy to the Lord. 33He must not look out for good as against bad, or make substitution for it. If he does make substitution for it, then it and its substitute shall both be holy: it cannot be redeemed. 34These are the commandments that the Lord gave Moses for the Israelite people on Mount Sinai.

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[Chapter numbers in parentheses]

The Impure Who Must Leave the Holy Place
(Used as a smokescreen in the text to hide the Holy of Holies)