Leviticus 24

₁The Lord said to Moses: ₂‘You must tell the Israelites that they must bring pure olive oil so that the lamps on the lamp-stand always burn. ₃Aaron must put the lamp-stand in front of the curtain in the tent of the Lord. The covenant box with the 10 commandments in it must be behind the curtain. The lamps must always burn before the Lord, from the evening to the morning. Your descendants must always do this. ₄Aaron must put the lamps on the golden lamp-stand. It must always be there in front of the Lord.’

₅The Lord said to Moses: ‘Take the best flour and bake 12 loaves of bread. You must bake each loaf with 2 10ths of an ephah of flour. ₆You must put the bread in 2 rows on the golden table in front of the Lord, 6 loaves in each row. ₇You must put pure incense in each row. The incense is a fire-offering to the Lord with the bread. ₈The priests must put fresh bread in front of the Lord every Sabbath day. The Israelites must always do this. ₉Aaron and his sons may eat the bread that was on the table. They must eat it at a holy place because this bread is most holy. This is the part that the priests must always get from the offerings that the people give to God. It must always be like that.’

_10-11There was a man who was the son of an Israelite woman and his father was from Egypt. His mother's name was Shelomith. She was a daughter of Dibri from the Dan tribe. He had a fight with a man of Israel. The son of the Israelite woman and the man from Egypt wanted to curse the other man and then he said bad things about the name of the Lord. They then took this man to Moses. ₁₂They guarded him and waited because they first wanted to listen to what God said. ₁₃The Lord said to Moses:

₁₄‘You must take away the man who has cursed the other man. Take him out of the camp. Everyone who heard what he said must put their hands on his head and all the people of the congregation must kill him with stones. ₁₅You must tell the Israelites: “Anyone who curses God is guilty, and you must punish him. ₁₆Anyone who says bad things about the name of the Lord must die. All the people of the congregation must kill him with stones. Anyone who says bad things about the name of the Lord must die, it does not_matter if they are strangers or Israelites.”

₁₇Someone who kills another person must die. ₁₈If someone kills an animal of another person, he must pay. He must give the owner another animal.

₁₉If a person hurts someone else, you must do the same to him. You must also hurt him. ₂₀You must punish him in the same way: If he has wounded someone, you must also wound him. If he has taken out someone's eye, you must also take out his eye. If he has taken out someone's tooth, you must take out his tooth. You must do the same to him as he has done to someone else.

₂₁Someone who kills an animal must pay, but someone who kills a person must die. ₂₂It must be the same law for everyone, for strangers and for Israelites, because I am the Lord your God.’

₂₃Moses told this to the Israelites and they took the man who said bad things about the Lord out of the camp and they killed him with stones. The Israelites did what the Lord told Moses.