To The Word – Day 32

₁The LORD told Moses ₂to give the following orders to the people of Israel: Bring pure olive oil of the finest quality for the lamps in the Tent, so that a light may be kept burning regularly. ₃Each evening Aaron shall light them and keep them burning until morning, there in the LORD's presence outside the curtain in front of the Covenant Box, which is in the Most Holy Place. This regulation is to be observed for all time to come. ₄Aaron shall take care of the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold and must see that they burn regularly in the LORD's presence.

₅Take twelve kilogrammes of flour and bake twelve loaves of bread. ₆Put the loaves in two rows, six in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, which is in the LORD's presence. ₇Put some pure incense on each row, as a token food offering to the LORD to take the place of the bread. ₈Every Sabbath, for all time to come, the bread must be placed in the presence of the LORD. This is Israel's duty for ever. ₉The bread belongs to Aaron and his descendants, and they shall eat it in a holy place, because this is a very holy part of the food offered to the LORD for the priests.

_10-11There was a man whose father was an Egyptian and whose mother was an Israelite named Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri from the tribe of Dan. There in the camp this man quarrelled with an Israelite. During the quarrel he cursed God, so they took him to Moses, ₁₂put him under guard, and waited for the LORD to tell them what to do with him.

₁₃The LORD said to Moses, ₁₄“Take that man out of the camp. Everyone who heard him curse shall put his hands on the man's head to testify that he is guilty, and then the whole community shall stone him to death. ₁₅Then tell the people of Israel that anyone who curses God must suffer the consequences ₁₆and be put to death. Any Israelite or any foreigner living in Israel who curses the LORD shall be stoned to death by the whole community.

₁₇“Anyone who commits murder shall be put to death, ₁₈and anyone who kills an animal belonging to someone else must replace it. The principle is a life for a life.

₁₉“If anyone injures another person, whatever he has done shall be done to him. ₂₀If he breaks a bone, one of his bones shall be broken; if he blinds him in one eye, one of his eyes shall be blinded; if he knocks out a tooth, one of his teeth shall be knocked out. Whatever injury he causes another person shall be done to him in return. ₂₁Whoever kills an animal shall replace it, but whoever kills a human being shall be put to death. ₂₂This law applies to all of you, to Israelites and to foreigners living among you, because I am the LORD your God.”

₂₃When Moses had said this to the people of Israel, they took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death. In this way the people of Israel did what the LORD had commanded Moses.

₁The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and commanded him ₂to give the following regulations to the people of Israel. When you enter the land that the LORD is giving you, you shall honour the LORD by not cultivating the land every seventh year. ₃You shall sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and gather your crops for six years. ₄But the seventh year is to be a year of complete rest for the land, a year dedicated to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. ₅Do not even harvest the corn that grows by itself without being sown, and do not gather the grapes from your unpruned vines; it is a year of complete rest for the land. ₆Although the land has not been cultivated during that year, it will provide food for you, your slaves, your hired men, the foreigners living with you, ₇your domestic animals, and the wild animals in your fields. Everything that it produces may be eaten.

₈Count seven times seven years, a total of 49 years. ₉Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, send someone to blow a trumpet throughout the whole land. ₁₀In this way you shall set the fiftieth year apart and proclaim freedom to all the inhabitants of the land. During this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to the original owner or his descendants, and anyone who has been sold as a slave shall return to his family. ₁₁You shall not sow your fields or harvest the corn that grows by itself or gather the grapes in your unpruned vineyards. ₁₂The whole year shall be sacred for you; you shall eat only what the fields produce of themselves.

₁₃In this year all property that has been sold shall be restored to its original owner. ₁₄So when you sell land to your fellow-Israelite or buy land from him, do not deal unfairly. ₁₅The price is to be fixed according to the number of years the land can produce crops before the next Year of Restoration. ₁₆If there are many years, the price shall be higher, but if there are only a few years, the price shall be lower, because what is being sold is the number of crops the land can produce. ₁₇Do not cheat a fellow-Israelite, but obey the LORD your God.

₁₈Obey all the LORD's laws and commands, so that you may live in safety in the land. ₁₉The land will produce its crops, and you will have all you want to eat and will live in safety.

₂₀But someone may ask what there will be to eat during the seventh year, when no fields are sown and no crops gathered. ₂₁The LORD will bless the land in the sixth year so that it will produce enough food for two years. ₂₂When you sow your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating what you harvested during the sixth year, and you will have enough to eat until the crops you plant that year are harvested.

₂₃Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.

₂₄When land is sold, the right of the original owner to buy it back must be recognized. ₂₅If an Israelite becomes poor and is forced to sell his land, his closest relative is to buy it back. ₂₆Anyone who has no relative to buy it back may later become prosperous and have enough to buy it back. ₂₇In that case he must pay to the man who bought it a sum that will make up for the years remaining until the next Year of Restoration, when he would in any event recover his land. ₂₈But if he does not have enough money to buy the land back, it remains under the control of the man who bought it until the next Year of Restoration. In that year it will be returned to its original owner.

₂₉If someone sells a house in a walled city, he has the right to buy it back during the first full year from the date of sale. ₃₀But if he does not buy it back within the year, he loses the right of repurchase, and the house becomes the permanent property of the purchaser and his descendants; it will not be returned in the Year of Restoration. ₃₁But houses in unwalled villages are to be treated like fields; the original owner has the right to buy them back, and they are to be returned in the Year of Restoration. ₃₂However, Levites have the right to buy back at any time their property in the cities assigned to them. ₃₃If a house in one of these cities is sold by a Levite and is not bought back, it must be returned in the Year of Restoration, because the houses which the Levites own in their cities are their permanent property among the people of Israel. ₃₄But the pasture land round the Levite cities shall never be sold; it is their property for ever.

₃₅If a fellow-Israelite living near you becomes poor and cannot support himself or herself, you must provide for them as you would for hired servants, so that they can continue to live near you. ₃₆Do not charge them any interest, but obey God and let your fellow-Israelites live near you. ₃₇Do not make them pay interest on the money you lend them, and do not make a profit on the food you sell them. ₃₈This is the command of the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt in order to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

₃₉If a fellow-Israelite living near you becomes so poor that he sells himself to you as a slave, you shall not make him do the work of a slave. ₄₀He shall stay with you as a hired servant and serve you until the next Year of Restoration. ₄₁At that time he and his children shall leave you and return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. ₄₂The people of Israel are the LORD's slaves, and he brought them out of Egypt; they must not be sold into slavery. ₄₃Do not treat them harshly, but obey your God. ₄₄If you need slaves, you may buy them from the nations round you. ₄₅You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property, ₄₆and you may leave them as an inheritance to your sons, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any of your fellow-Israelites harshly.

₄₇Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while a fellow-Israelite becomes poor and sells himself as a slave to that foreigner or to a member of his family. ₄₈After he is sold, he still has the right to be bought back. One of his brothers ₄₉or his uncle or his cousin or another of his close relatives may buy him back; or if he himself earns enough, he may buy his own freedom. ₅₀He must consult the one who bought him, and they must count the years from the time he sold himself until the next Year of Restoration and must set the price for his release on the basis of the wages paid to a hired servant. _51-52He must refund a part of the purchase price according to the number of years left, ₅₃as if he had been hired on an annual basis. His master must not treat him harshly. ₅₄If he is not set free in any of these ways, he and his children must be set free in the next Year of Restoration. ₅₅An Israelite cannot be a permanent slave, because the people of Israel are the LORD's slaves. He brought them out of Egypt; he is the LORD their God.

₁The LORD said, “Do not make idols or set up statues, stone pillars, or carved stones to worship. I am the LORD your God. ₂Keep the religious festivals and honour the place where I am worshipped. I am the LORD.

₃“If you live according to my laws and obey my commands, ₄I will send you rain at the right time, so that the land will produce crops and the trees will bear fruit. ₅Your crops will be so plentiful that you will still be harvesting corn when it is time to pick grapes, and you will still be picking grapes when it is time to sow corn. You will have all that you want to eat, and you will live in safety in your land.

₆“I will give you peace in your land, and you will sleep without being afraid of anyone. I will get rid of the dangerous animals in the land, and there will be no more war there. ₇You will be victorious over your enemies; ₈five of you will be able to defeat a hundred, and a hundred will be able to defeat 10,000. ₉I will bless you and give you many children; I will keep my part of the covenant that I made with you. ₁₀Your harvests will be so plentiful that they will last for a year, and even then you will have to throw away what is left of the old harvest to make room for the new. ₁₁I will live among you in my sacred tent, and I will never turn away from you. ₁₂I will be with you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. ₁₃I, the LORD your God, brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves. I broke the power that held you down and I let you walk with your head held high.”

₁₄The LORD said, “If you will not obey my commands, you will be punished. ₁₅If you refuse to obey my laws and commands and break the covenant I have made with you, ₁₆I will punish you. I will bring disaster on you — incurable diseases and fevers that will make you blind and cause your life to waste away. You will sow your seed, but it will do you no good, because your enemies will conquer you and eat what you have grown. ₁₇I will turn against you, so that you will be defeated, and those who hate you will rule over you; you will be so terrified that you will run when no one is chasing you.

₁₈“If even after all this you still do not obey me, I will increase your punishment seven times. ₁₉I will break your stubborn pride; there will be no rain, and your land will be dry and as hard as iron. ₂₀All your hard work will do you no good, because your land will not produce crops and the trees will not bear fruit.

₂₁“If you still continue to resist me and refuse to obey me, I will again increase your punishment seven times. ₂₂I will send dangerous animals among you, and they will kill your children, destroy your livestock, and leave so few of you that your roads will be deserted.

₂₃“If after all this punishment you still do not listen to me, but continue to defy me, ₂₄then I will turn on you and punish you seven times harder than before. ₂₅I will bring war on you to punish you for breaking our covenant, and if you gather in your cities for safety, I will send incurable diseases among you, and you will be forced to surrender to your enemies. ₂₆I will cut off your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake all the bread they have. They will ration it out, and when you have eaten it all, you will still be hungry.

₂₇“If after all this you still continue to defy me and refuse to obey me, ₂₈then in my anger I will turn on you and again make your punishment seven times worse than before. ₂₉Your hunger will be so great that you will eat your own children. ₃₀I will destroy your places of worship on the hills, tear down your incense altars, and throw your dead bodies on your fallen idols. In utter disgust ₃₁I will turn your cities into ruins, destroy your places of worship, and refuse to accept your sacrifices. ₃₂I will destroy your land so completely that the enemies who occupy it will be shocked at the destruction. ₃₃I will bring war on you and scatter you in foreign lands. Your land will be deserted, and your cities left in ruins. _34-35Then the land will enjoy the years of complete rest that you would not give it; it will lie abandoned and get its rest while you are in exile in the land of your enemies.

₃₆“I will make those of you who are in exile so terrified that the sound of a leaf blowing in the wind will make you run. You will run as if you were being pursued in battle, and you will fall when there is no enemy near you. ₃₇You will stumble over one another when no one is chasing you, and you will be unable to fight against any enemy. ₃₈You will die in exile, swallowed up by the land of your enemies. ₃₉The few of you who survive in the land of your enemies will waste away because of your own sin and the sin of your ancestors.

₄₀“But your descendants will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, who resisted me and rebelled against me, ₄₁and made me turn against them and send them into exile in the land of their enemies. At last, when your descendants are humbled and they have paid the penalty for their sin and rebellion, ₄₂I will remember my covenant with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will renew my promise to give my people the land. ₄₃First, however, the land must be rid of its people, so that it can enjoy its complete rest, and they must pay the full penalty for having rejected my laws and my commands. ₄₄But even then, when they are still in the land of their enemies, I will not completely abandon or destroy them. That would put an end to my covenant with them, and I am the LORD their God. ₄₅I will renew the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I showed all the nations my power by bringing my people out of Egypt, in order that I, the LORD, might be their God.”

₄₆All these are the laws and commands that the LORD gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.

₁The LORD gave Moses ₂the following regulations for the people of Israel. When a person has been given to the LORD in fulfilment of a special vow, that person may be set free by the payment of the following sums of money, _3-7according to the official standard:

₈If anyone who made the vow is too poor to pay the standard price, he or she shall bring the person to the priest, and the priest will set a lower price, according to the ability of that person to pay.

₉If the vow concerns an animal that is acceptable as an offering to the LORD, then every gift made to the LORD is sacred, ₁₀and anyone who made the vow may not substitute another animal for it. If he does, both animals belong to the LORD. ₁₁But if the vow concerns a ritually unclean animal, which is not acceptable as an offering to the LORD, the man shall take the animal to the priest. ₁₂The priest shall fix a price for it, according to its good or bad qualities, and the price will be final. ₁₃If the person wishes to buy it back, he must pay the price plus an additional twenty per cent.

₁₄When someone dedicates his house to the LORD, the priest shall fix the price according to its good or bad points, and the price will be final. ₁₅If the one who dedicated the house wishes to buy it back, he must pay the price plus an additional twenty per cent.

₁₆If someone dedicates part of his land to the LORD, the price shall be fixed according to the amount of seed it takes to sow it, at the rate of ten pieces of silver for every twenty kilogrammes of barley. ₁₇If he dedicates the land immediately after a Year of Restoration, the full price applies. ₁₈If he dedicates it later, the priest shall estimate the cash value according to the number of years left until the next Year of Restoration, and fix a reduced price. ₁₉If the one who dedicated the field wishes to buy it back, he or she must pay the price plus an additional twenty per cent. ₂₀If they sell the field to someone else without first buying it back from the LORD, they lose the right to buy it back. ₂₁At the next Year of Restoration the field will become the LORD's permanent property; it shall belong to the priests.

₂₂If someone dedicates to the LORD a field that he has bought, ₂₃the priest shall estimate its value according to the number of years until the next Year of Restoration, and the person must pay the price that very day; the money belongs to the LORD. ₂₄At the Year of Restoration the field shall be returned to the original owner or to his descendants.

₂₅All prices shall be fixed according to the official standard.

₂₆The firstborn of an animal already belongs to the LORD, so no one may dedicate it to him as a freewill offering. A calf, a lamb, or a kid belongs to the LORD, ₂₇but the firstborn of an unclean animal may be bought back at the standard price plus an additional twenty per cent. If it is not bought back, it may be sold to someone else at the standard price.

₂₈No one may sell or buy back what he has unconditionally dedicated to the LORD, whether it is a human being, an animal, or land. It belongs permanently to the LORD. ₂₉Not even a human being who has been unconditionally dedicated may be bought back; he must be put to death.

₃₀One-tenth of all the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD. ₃₁If a man wishes to buy any of it back, he must pay the standard price plus an additional twenty per cent. ₃₂One out of every ten domestic animals belongs to the LORD. When the animals are counted, every tenth one belongs to the LORD. ₃₃The owner may not arrange the animals so that the poor animals are chosen, and he may not make any substitutions. If he does substitute one animal for another, then both animals will belong to the LORD and may not be bought back.

₃₄These are the commands that the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.