Leviticus

Chapter 1

¹ Yahweh summoned Moses from the sacred tent. He told him ² to tell the Israelite people, “When any of you offers an animal to Yahweh, you should offer it from your farm animals, from your cattle or from your sheep and goats.

³ If you want to offer a bull as a wholly burned sacrifice, then you should offer a totally healthy male. You should present this animal at the entrance of the sacred tent. When you do, Yahweh will regard it as acceptable. ⁴ You should place your hands on the head of the bull that the priest will burn completely on the altar. When you do that, Yahweh will accept the animal as an appropriate sacrifice for you, and he will remove your sins from you. ⁵ You should kill the bull that you want to present in the sacred precincts where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, should take the blood from the bull and splatter it onto every side of the altar that is at the entrance of the sacred tent. ⁶ You should remove the skin from the bull that you are presenting as a wholly burned sacrifice. Then you should cut the animal into pieces. ⁷ Then the sons of Aaron, who are priests themselves because Aaron was the first priest, will put burning coals on top of the altar and place pieces of wood on the coals so that the wood will catch fire. ⁸ Then the priests, Aaron's sons, will organize the pieces of the animal that you killed and cut up, including the head and the fat portions, on the wood fire that is burning on the top of the altar. ⁹ {Before the priest burns up} the stomach and intestines and legs of the animal, you should wash them carefully with water. {Make sure that only clean things go on Yahweh’s altar}. The priest should completely burn every part of the animal on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. This will fulfill the requirements for the wholly burned sacrifice. Yahweh will consider it to be a gift, and he will enjoy the smell of the smoke.

¹⁰ But if you want to offer a smaller animal as a wholly burned sacrifice, whether a sheep or a goat, then you should offer a totally healthy male. ¹¹ You should kill the sheep or goat that you want to present on the north side of the altar in the sacred precincts where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, should take the blood from the sheep or the goat and splatter it onto every side of the altar. ¹² You should then cut the animal into pieces, including its head and its fat portions. Then the priest should organize those pieces on a wood fire that he builds on the altar. ¹³ {Before the priest burns up} the stomach and intestines and legs of the animal, you should wash them with water. {Make sure that only clean things go on Yahweh’s altar.} The priest should present all these portions of the animal to Yahweh and completely burn it on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. This will fulfill the requirements for the wholly burned sacrifice. Yahweh will consider it to be a gift, and he will enjoy the smell of the smoke.

¹⁴ But if you want to offer a bird to Yahweh as a wholly burned sacrifice, then you should offer a dove or a pigeon. ¹⁵ The priest should bring the bird to the altar, break its neck and twist off its head. Then the priest should completely burn the head on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. Next, the priest should drain the bird's blood on the outer edge of the altar. ¹⁶ Then the priest should take out the bird’s esophagus, remove all the bird's feathers, and dispose of them on the east side of the altar. The priest should put them where the priests also dispose of the ashes from the fat of other sacrifices. ¹⁷ Then the priest should tear the bird open, holding it by its wings, but he should not tear it into two parts. Next, on the wood fire that he builds on the altar, the priest should burn the bird completely in a way that causes smoke to go up. This will fulfill the requirements for the wholly burned sacrifice. Yahweh will consider it to be a gift, and he will enjoy the smell of the smoke.

Chapter 2

¹ Now if you want to offer a grain offering to Yahweh, you should offer wheat flour. Pour out some olive oil on it and place incense on top of it. ² You should bring the offering of wheat flour to Aaron’s sons, the priests. A priest should scoop out of your offering a handful of the flour and olive oil, as well as all the incense—as large a handful as he is able to scoop. Then, the priest should burn the portion of your offering that he scooped out with his hand, doing it in a way that causes smoke to go up on the altar. When this happens, Yahweh will consider it to be a gift, and he will enjoy the smell of the smoke of the offering. ³ The rest of the wheat flour that you offer, as a sacrifice to Yahweh, you should preserve for Aaron and his sons. You should consider this portion of the offering as especially set apart for the priests among all the gifts that you offer to Yahweh and that are set apart for him.

⁴ But if you want to offer grain offering that consists of something that you baked in an oven, you should offer wheat flour that you mixed with olive oil into unleavened cakes. Or you could offer wheat flour that you shaped into unleavened crackers and coated with olive oil. ⁵ But if your grain offering consists of something that you pan-fried on a griddle, you should offer wheat flour that you mixed with olive oil into unleavened bread. ⁶ You should break the offering into pieces and pour out some olive oil onto it. These actions qualify the offering as a grain offering. ⁷ If your grain offering consists of something that you deep-fried in a pan, you should offer wheat flour that you mixed with olive oil. ⁸ In any case, you should bring to Yahweh the grain offering that you have made in this way with these ingredients. You should present the offering to the priest. He will bring it to the altar. ⁹ There he should lift out from the grain offering the portion that he will burn. Then he should burn that handful on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. When this happens, Yahweh will consider the offering to be a gift, and he will enjoy the smell of the smoke. ¹⁰ The rest of the grain offering you should preserve for Aaron and his sons. You should consider this portion of the sacrifice as especially set apart for the priests among all the gifts that you offer to Yahweh and that are set apart for him.

¹¹ You should not burn any gift to Yahweh that contains any yeast or any honey on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. Make sure that whenever you offer a grain offering to Yahweh, you have prepared it without using yeast. ¹² Any offerings to Yahweh that contain yeast or honey you should offer as a presentation of the produce of the field that has been harvested first. But do not burn these kinds of grain offerings on the altar so that they go up to Yahweh as pleasant-smelling smoke. ¹³ Likewise, you should season every grain offering with salt. You should never present a grain offering without the salt, which reminds you of Yahweh's promises to you. Every grain offering should contain salt that you have also presented to Yahweh.

¹⁴ But if you want to offer to Yahweh a grain offering that consists of the first harvest of ripened grains, do this. Offer the first ripe grains that you harvest, ears of grain in the early stage of ripening that you have roasted over a fire, that is, grains from freshly ripened ears of grain that you have crushed. ¹⁵ You should pour out some olive oil on these kinds of offerings and you should place incense on them. These kinds of offerings also qualify as grain offerings. ¹⁶ The priest should burn the portion of the offering that he scooped out with his handful—the crushed grains and the olive oil, as well as all of the incense—in a way that causes smoke to go up. When this happens, Yahweh will consider the offering to be a gift.

Chapter 3

¹ But if you want to offer a fellowship sacrifice, do this. If you want to offer a bovine, whether the animal is male or female, you should offer a totally healthy animal in the place where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. ² You should place your hands on the head of the bovine that you are offering. You should kill that animal in the entrance to the sacred tent. Then the priests, Aaron’s sons, should take the blood from the bovine and splatter it onto every side of the altar. ³ And from your fellowship sacrifice, you should offer a gift to Yahweh. This gift should consist of the caul fat that covers all the internal organs and all the visceral fat that is attached to the internal organs. ⁴ This gift should include both kidneys and the suet fat that is attached to them near the loin cuts. It should also include the lobes of the bovine's liver and the kidneys (which you should also remove). ⁵ Then {one of the priests} descended from Aaron should burn these fat portions and internal organs on the altar in such a way that it causes smoke to go up alongside the wholly burned sacrifices that the priest is burning on the wood fire {that he has built on the altar}. Yahweh will consider this sacrifice a gift, and he will enjoy the smell of the smoke.

⁶ But if you want to offer an animal from your flock to Yahweh as a fellowship sacrifice, whether the animal is male or female, you should offer a totally healthy animal. ⁷ If you want to offer a lamb, you should offer it in the place where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. ⁸ You should place your hands on the head of the lamb that you are offering. You should kill it in the entrance to the sacred tent. Then {one of the priests} descended from Aaron should take the blood from the lamb and splatter it onto every side of the altar. ⁹ And from your fellowship sacrifice, you should offer a gift to Yahweh. This gift should consist of all the sheep's intestinal fat, the entire portion of the tail fat (which you should cut off near the backbone), the caul fat that covers all the internal organs, and all the visceral fat that is attached to the internal organs. ¹⁰ Your gift should also include both kidneys, the suet fat that is attached to them near the loin cuts, the lobes of the lamb's liver, and the kidneys (which you should also remove). ¹¹ Then the priest should burn all the fat and the internal organs on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. You should consider this sacrifice as a gift of food for Yahweh’s holy purposes.

¹² Likewise, if you want to offer a goat to Yahweh, you should offer it in the place where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. ¹³ You should place your hands on the head of the goat that you are offering. You should kill the animal in the entrance to the sacred tent. Then {one of the priests} descended from Aaron should take the blood from the goat and splatter it onto every side of the altar. ¹⁴ And from your sacrifice, you should offer a gift to Yahweh. This gift should consist of the caul fat that covers all the internal organs, and all the visceral fat that is attached to the internal organs. ¹⁵ Your gift should also include both kidneys, the suet fat that is attached to them near the loin cuts, the lobes of the lamb's liver, and the kidneys (which you should also remove). ¹⁶ Then the priest should burn all the fat and the internal organs on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. You should consider this sacrifice as a gift of food for Yahweh’s holy purposes, and Yahweh will enjoy the smell of the smoke of the sacrifice. {You should not eat any of this fat,} because all of the fat of any animal that you sacrifice belongs exclusively to Yahweh.

¹⁷ This is an enduring and permanent command that must be observed by you and all your descendants, wherever you happen to live: {Because they belong exclusively to Yahweh,} you must not consume the fat or the blood of any animal that you sacrifice to Yahweh.”

Chapter 4

¹ Then Yahweh told Moses ² to tell the Israelite people, “It may happen that someone does wrong against Yahweh unintentionally and does something that Yahweh specifically commanded his people not to do.

³ It may happen that the high priest himself does wrong against Yahweh in a way that brings guilt on the whole people. If this happens, to address the wrongdoing that he has done, the high priest should offer a totally healthy bull to Yahweh as a purifying sacrifice. ⁴ He should bring the bull to the entrance of the sacred tent before Yahweh. He should place his hand on the head of the bull that he wants to offer and kill it in the place where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. ⁵ {After catching the draining blood of the bull in a bowl,} the high priest should take some of that blood and bring it into the sacred tent. ⁶ The priest should dip one of his fingers into the blood, and he should flick some of the bull's blood seven times in the direction of the front of the curtain that separates the rest of the sacred tent from the Most Holy Place, where Yahweh lives among the people of Israel. ⁷ Then, in the presence of Yahweh, who resides behind the sacred curtain, the priest should drip some of that blood onto the four projected corners of the altar where the priests burn fragrant incense, which is located inside the sacred tent. Next, the priest should pour the rest of the bull's blood onto the base of the altar where the priests offer the wholly burned sacrifices, which is located at the entrance of the sacred tent. ⁸ The priest should then carefully remove all the fat of the bull that he is offering as a purifying sacrifice. He should remove the caul fat that covers all the internal organs, all the visceral fat that is attached to the internal organs, ⁹ both kidneys, and the suet fat that is attached to them near the loin cuts. He should also remove the lobes of the bull's liver, and the kidneys (which the priest should also remove), ¹⁰ in the same way that you might remove the fat portions and the internal organs from the bovines that you offer as fellowship sacrifices. Then, on the altar where the priests offer the wholly burned sacrifices, the high priest should burn all these pieces of fat and the internal organs in a way that causes smoke to go up. ¹¹ But all the other parts of the animal, its skin and all its other meat, including the meat on the bull’s head and its legs below the knee, its other internal organs, and any excrement— ¹² someone else should take all of these remaining parts of the bull outside of the camp. That person should dispose of them in a place that is ceremonially clean, in the place where the priests also throw ashes from the fat of other sacrifices {so that the impurities of these pieces does not cause the people to become impure accidentally}. The person who does this should also burn all these remaining parts of the bull in a wood fire that he builds on the place where the priests also throw ashes from the fat of other sacrifices.

¹³ Or it may happen that the whole community of Israel does wrong against Yahweh unintentionally and does something that Yahweh specifically commanded his people not to do. Even if the community is unaware of the fact that they did wrong, nevertheless, they will be guilty. ¹⁴ When they become aware of the wrongdoing that they have done against Yahweh’s commandments, the whole community should offer a bull as a purifying sacrifice. They should bring the bull to the front of the sacred tent. ¹⁵ Then the oldest and most respected members of the community should lay their hands on the head of the bull in Yahweh’s presence. One of them should kill the bull in the sacred precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lives among the Israelite people. ¹⁶ {After catching the draining blood of the bull in a bowl,} the high priest should take some of that blood and bring it into the sacred tent. ¹⁷ The priest should dip one of his fingers into the blood and, while standing in the precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lives among the Israelite people, he should flick some of the bull’s blood seven times in the direction of the front of the curtain that separates the rest of the sacred tent from the Most Holy Place. ¹⁸ Then the priest should drip some of that blood onto the four projected corners of the altar that is directly in front of the curtain behind which Yahweh lives in the Most Holy Place. That is the altar which is located inside the sacred tent. Next, the priest should pour the rest of the bull's blood onto the base of the altar where the priests offer sacrifices that they burn completely. That altar is located at the entrance of the sacred tent. ¹⁹ The priest should then carefully remove all the fat of the bull, and he should burn it on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. ²⁰ He should prepare this bull in the same way that the high priest would prepare the bull that he would offer as a purifying sacrifice. When this happens, the priest will be able to offer a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the people. Yahweh will remove the people’s sins from them and forgive the people for their unintentional wrongdoing. ²¹ Then someone should take the remaining parts of the bull outside of the camp and burn them. He should burn them in the same way that a person would burn the remaining parts of the bull that the high priest offered as a purifying sacrifice. This is the way that the community should offer a purifying sacrifice.

²² Or it may happen that a leading member of the community does wrong against Yahweh unintentionally and does something that Yahweh specifically commanded his people not to do. If this happens, he will become guilty. ²³ When he becomes aware of the wrongdoing that he did against Yahweh’s commandments, he should bring a totally healthy male goat {to the sacred precincts where Yahweh lives among the Israelite people.} ²⁴ He should place his hand on the head of the goat that he wants to offer and he should kill it in the presence of Yahweh. He should do this in the same place where people would kill the animals that they offer as wholly burned sacrifices. This is the way to offer a purifying sacrifice. ²⁵ {After catching the draining blood of the bull in a bowl,} the priest should take some of the blood of the animal that the leader sacrificed as an offering to purify him from the impurities of his sin, {dip} one of his fingers into it, and drip some of the blood onto the four projected corners of the altar where the priests offer the wholly burned sacrifices. Next, the priest should pour the rest of the goat’s blood onto the base of the same altar. ²⁶ {After the leader carefully removes the appropriate portions of fat and internal organs,} the priest should burn all the fat of the goat on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. He should do this just as he would burn the fat of a fellowship sacrifice. When this happens, the priest will have offered a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the leader. Yahweh will remove the leader’s sins from him and forgive him for his unintentional wrongdoing.

²⁷ Or it may happen that an Israelite {who is not a priest} unintentionally does wrong against Yahweh. He may do something that Yahweh specifically commanded his people not to do. That person then will become guilty. ²⁸ When he becomes aware of the wrongdoing that he did, he should bring a totally healthy female goat as an offering to Yahweh to address his wrongdoing that he did. ²⁹ He should place his hand on the head of the goat that he wants to offer as a purifying sacrifice and kill it in the same place where people would kill the animals that they offer as wholly burned sacrifices. ³⁰ {After catching the draining blood of the bull in a bowl,} the priest should take some of the blood of the goat and dip one of his fingers into it. He should drip some of the blood onto the four projected corners of the altar where the priests offer the wholly burned sacrifices. Next, the priest should pour the rest of the goat’s blood onto the base of the same altar. ³¹ Then the individual offering the sacrifice should remove all the goat’s fat just as he would remove the fat from a goat the he would offer as a fellowship sacrifice. Next, the priest should burn the goat's fat on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. Yahweh will enjoy the smell of the smoke. When this happens, the priest will have offered a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. Yahweh will remove the individual’s sins from him and will forgive him.

³² But if that person wants to bring a lamb as his purifying sacrifice, he should bring a totally healthy female lamb. ³³ He should place his hand on the head of the lamb that he wants to offer as a purifying sacrifice. Once he has done this, he should kill it in the same place where people would kill the animals that they offer as wholly burned sacrifices. ³⁴ {After catching the draining blood of the lamb in a bowl,} the priest should take some of the blood of the animal that the individual wants to offer as a purifying sacrifice. He should {dip} one of his fingers into it and drip some of the blood onto the four projected corners of the altar where the priests offer the wholly burned sacrifices. The priest should pour the rest of the lamb’s blood onto the base of the same altar. ³⁵ Then the individual who offers the sacrifice should remove all the lamb’s fat just as he would remove the fat of a lamb that he would offer as a fellowship sacrifice. Next, the priest should burn the lamb’s fat on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up on top of the other gifts that people have offered to Yahweh. When this happens, the priest will have offered a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. Yahweh remove from him the person’s sins that he has done and will forgive him.

Chapter 5

¹ It may happen that a person hears someone publicly pronounce a curse against a person who did harm to them. If the individual witnessed the publicly spoken curse, it does not matter whether the individual saw the harmful action or if he only knew about it. If he does not testify in court against the person who did the harmful action, then he has done wrong against the person who pronounced the curse. He is now responsible for addressing his wrongdoing.

² Or it may happen that someone touches something unclean, whether the unclean dead body of a wild animal, the unclean dead body of a domesticated animal, or the unclean dead body of a swarming, winged insect. Even if the individual was unaware of touching the unclean thing, nevertheless, he has become unclean himself and he is legally guilty.

³ Or that person might touch something unclean that comes from a human source or any other unclean thing that might cause a person to become unclean. Even if the individual was unaware of touching the unclean thing, when the person realizes that he has done so, he has become legally guilty.

⁴ Or it may happen that a person makes a solemn promise carelessly and rashly. It does not matter whether the person made the promise with ill intention or with good intention. This instruction concerns any way in which a person might make a solemn promise carelessly or rashly. Even if the individual was unaware of speaking carelessly or rashly when he made the solemn promise, when he realizes that he has done so, he has become legally guilty.

⁵ Whenever anyone becomes guilty in any of these situations, the individual should confess that he has done wrong. ⁶ Then he should bring the required penalty for his guilt to Yahweh to address the wrongdoing that he has committed. {He should bring} a female flock animal, whether a lamb or a female goat, as a purifying sacrifice. When this happens, the priest will be able to offer a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. Yahweh will remove the guilt of the person's wrongdoing from him and will forgive him.

⁷ But if the individual cannot afford a sheep or a goat, then he should bring two doves or two pigeons to Yahweh as the required penalty for his guilt that he acquired through the wrongdoing that he committed. The priest will offer one of the birds as a purifying sacrifice and the other bird as a wholly burned sacrifice. ⁸ The individual should bring these two birds to the priest. The priest should first present the bird that will offer as a purifying sacrifice. He should break its neck and twist its head by pinching the bird behind its neck. However, the priest should not remove the head completely. ⁹ Then the priest should splatter some of the blood of this first bird on the side of the altar. Next, the priest should wring out any remaining blood of the bird on the base of the altar. This is the way to offer a bird as a purifying sacrifice. ¹⁰ Then the priest should prepare the second bird as a wholly burned sacrifice, according to the instructions that I have commanded. When this happens, the priest will have offered a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. Yahweh will remove from him the guilt that the individual acquired through the wrongdoing that he has done, and Yahweh will forgive that individual for his wrongdoing.

¹¹ But if the individual cannot afford the two doves or the two pigeons, then he should bring about two liters of wheat flour as his offering for the wrongdoing that he committed. This offering of wheat flour will serve as a purifying sacrifice. The individual should not pour any oil onto it, nor should he put a lump of incense on it, because it is intended to be a purifying sacrifice. ¹² The individual should bring the wheat flour to the priest. Then, taking as large a handful as he is able, the priest should scoop out of the offering the portion that he will burn. The priest should then burn that portion on the altar, on top of the other gifts that individuals have offered to Yahweh, doing it in a way that causes smoke to go up. This is the way to offer wheat flour as a purifying sacrifice. ¹³ When this happens, the priest will have offered a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. Yahweh will remove the guilt of the individual’s wrongdoing from him that he acquired through the wrongdoing that he committed regarding these specific situations. Then, Yahweh will forgive the individual for his wrongdoing. The portion of the wheat flour that is not burned completely on the altar belongs to the priest {for food} just like the remaining portions of grain offerings.

¹⁴ Then Yahweh told Moses, ¹⁵ “It may happen that someone breaks one of the commandments that I have given to the people of Israel and unintentionally desecrates the sacred space where Yahweh lives or the sacred items that are devoted to him. If that happens, that individual should bring the required penalty for his guilt to Yahweh. {He should bring} a totally healthy goat as a restoring sacrifice. The individual should determine the worth of the goat in silver according to the official standard for the weight of silver that priests dedicate to Yahweh in the sacred tent. ¹⁶ The individual should also repay the value of the sacred item that he desecrated. . He should add one-fifth of the value of that sacred object to his sacrifice and give the full amount of silver to the priest. When this happens, the priest will be able to offer the ram that the individual is offering as a restoring sacrifice. The priest will offer this sacrifice in a way that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. And Yahweh will remove the guilt of the individual’s wrongdoing from him. Yahweh will also forgive the individual for his unintentional wrongdoing.

¹⁷ Or it may happen that someone does wrong against Yahweh and does something that Yahweh specifically commanded that his people not to do. Even if the individual did not know that he had done wrong, nonetheless, he has become legally guilty. He is responsible for his guilt. ¹⁸ The individual should bring a totally healthy male goat to the priest in order to offer a restoring sacrifice. He should also determine its value in silver. When this happens, the priest will be able to offer a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. Yahweh will remove the guilt of the individual’s unintentional wrongdoing that he committed (even though he himself did not know that he had done wrong). Then, Yahweh will forgive the individual for his wrongdoing. ¹⁹ This is how an individual should offer a restoring sacrifice. That person is certainly legally guilty in Yahweh’s eyes.”

Chapter 6

¹ Then Yahweh told Moses, ² “It may happen that a person does wrong and breaks one of the commandments that I have given to the people of Israel. He might deceive another Israelite by failing to fulfill an oath that he swore he would keep by receiving a deposit or a pledge. Or {he might deceive another Israelite} by stealing his property or by extorting money from him. ³ Or {he might mistreat another Israelite} by finding someone's lost property and then lying about it. If someone does any of these various things that people do wrong, he has taken an oath falsely. ⁴ If this happens, when the person does wrong in any of these ways and becomes guilty, then he should first return the property that he stole or repay the money that he extorted from another Israelite. Or {if he received a deposit,} he should return the deposit that another Israelite gave to him as a sign that he would fulfill the oath between them. Or {if he found someone’s lost property,} he should return the lost property. ⁵ This same principle applies for any other way in which a person might swear an oath falsely. That person should restore the full monetary value of whatever he has stolen or found or the amount that he withheld. Moreover, he should add a fifth of that monetary value to the total amount. He should give it to whomever the amount properly belongs on the day that he recognizes that he is guilty of wrongdoing. ⁶ Then, to the precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lives among the Israelites, that individual should bring an animal to sacrifice. He should offer the animal as a restoring sacrifice. To offer this sacrifice, he should bring a totally healthy male ram to the priest from the flock animals that he owns. He should also determine its monetary value in silver. ⁷ When this happens, the priest will be able to offer in Yahweh’s presence a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual. And Yahweh will remove the guilt of the individual’s wrongdoing. Yahweh will also forgive the individual for whatever way he becomes guilty out of all the ways that people acquire guilt.”

⁸ Then Yahweh told Moses, ⁹ “Make sure that Aaron and his sons know that this is the way that a person should offer a wholly burned sacrifice. This kind of sacrifice must remain on the burning fire that is on the altar throughout the entire night. You should make sure that the fire on the altar is always burning. ¹⁰ {In the morning,} make sure that the priest puts on his linen coat and that he wears his linen undergarments on his bare skin. Then he should remove the ashes from the fat of other sacrifices that have accumulated where the fire has totally burned the sacrifices that are left on the altar. The priest should put the ashes in a pile beside the altar. ¹¹ After he has done this, the priest should remove those sacred linen clothes and put on other, everyday clothes. Then he should take the ashes outside of the camp and dispose of them in a place that is ceremonially clean. {This is so that the impurities of these parts of the animal do not cause the people to become impure accidentally}. ¹² Now, make sure that the fire on the altar is always burning. It must never go out. Rather, each and every morning, the priest should put more firewood on the fire. Then he should arrange more offerings on the fire. He should burn the fat of the fellowship sacrifices on that fire, doing it in a way that causes smoke to go up. ¹³ Make sure that the fire on the altar is continually burning. Remember, it must never go out!

¹⁴ And this is the way a person should offer a grain offering. The descendants of Aaron who are priests should present this kind of sacrifice in the precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lives among the Israelites, in front of the altar {that is at the entrance of the sacred tent}. ¹⁵ Then, with as large a handful as he can pick up, the priest should scoop out of the offering a handful of the wheat flour with its olive oil, as well as all the incense that is on the offering. The priest should burn the portion of the offering that he scooped out with his hand. He should burn it in a way that causes smoke to go up on the altar. Yahweh will enjoy the smell of the smoke of the offering. ¹⁶ Aaron and his sons who are priests may eat the rest of the grain offerings that you offer to Yahweh. They should eat any unleavened loaf of bread in a sacred place, inside the courtyard of the sacred tent. ¹⁷ Make sure that no one offers a grain offering that consists of a loaf of bread that he made with leaven. I have given this part of the grain offerings to the priests as their portion of the gifts that people offer to me. Out of all those gifts, the portion of the sacrifice that the priests keep for themselves for food is specially set apart. It is separated from all the sacred gifts that people offer to me, just like the priests’ portions of the purifying sacrifices and the priests’ portions of the restoring sacrifices. ¹⁸ Any male descendant of Aaron may eat these portions of the sacrifices. In fact, this practice is a permanent and enduring part of the portion of the gifts that people offer to Yahweh that belongs to the priests for every generation of the people of Israel. {These gifts are so sacred that} whoever or whatever touches them becomes just as sacred as the gifts themselves.”

¹⁹ Then Yahweh told Moses, ²⁰ “On the day when one of the male descendants of Aaron is consecrated as a priest, this is what he should offer. He should present to Yahweh about two liters of wheat flour, constituting a grain offering that will always be in Yahweh’s presence. {He should bring} half of the wheat flour in the morning and half of the wheat flour in the evening. ²¹ The priest who offers the grain offering should pan-fry the wheat flour on a griddle in olive oil after having combined it with the oil. He should then offer the broken pieces of the offering. {He should burn them on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up so that} Yahweh will enjoy the smell of the smoke of the offering. ²² The high priest who is in line to succeed the current high priest should perform the grain offering in this way. These instructions are a permanent and enduring regulation. Make sure that the priests burn these kinds of sacrifices in their entirety in a way that causes smoke to go up to Yahweh. ²³ The priests should offer every part of these grain offerings. No priest should eat any portion of this particular sacrifice.”

²⁴ Then Yahweh told Moses ²⁵ to tell Aaron and his sons, “This is the way a person should offer a purifying sacrifice. The individual should kill the animal that an individual selects for this kind of sacrifice at the same place where individuals kill the animals that someone might offer as a wholly burned sacrifice. This location is within the precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. Aaron and his descendants should consider this kind of sacrifice as specially set apart for the priests among all the sacred offerings that people offer to Yahweh that are set apart for him. ²⁶ The priest who performs the purifying sacrifice may eat its meat. However, the priest should only eat it in the place in the courtyard of the sacred tent that the priests have set apart for such sacred acts. ²⁷ {The meat of these sacrifices is so sacred that} whoever or whatever touches the meat of the sacrifice becomes just as sacred as the meat itself. And whoever splatters the blood of the purifying sacrifice on any clothing should wash the spots where the blood came into contact with the clothing. They should wash their clothing in a location that the priests have set apart for such sacred acts. ²⁸ If the priest boils the meat of the purifying sacrifice in a pot made from clay or potsherds, the priest must smash the pot afterward. However, if the priest boils the meat in a bronze pot, the priest may thoroughly scrub the pot with scalding water and rinse the pot with water. ²⁹ Any male in a priest’s family may eat the boiled meat of the purifying sacrifice. The people should consider that meat to be especially set apart for the priests out of all the gifts that people offer to Yahweh that are set apart for him. ³⁰ But there is one kind of sacrifice that neither the priests nor their family members should eat. Instead, the priests should completely burn such a sacrifice over the fire. They should not eat any purifying sacrifice that requires the priest to bring some of the blood of the animal into the sacred tent. The priest does this in the sacred space that priests have set apart for such sacred acts in order to offer a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of an individual.

Chapter 7

¹ “This is the way a person should offer the restoring sacrifice. The people of Israel should consider this kind of sacrifice as especially set apart among all the sacred offerings that people offer to Yahweh that are set apart for him. ² The people who offer this kind of sacrifice should kill the animal they are presenting in the same place where people might kill the animals people offer as wholly burned sacrifices. Then {after catching the animal’s blood in a bowl, the priest} should splatter the blood onto every side of the altar. ³ The individual should present all of the fat that he removed from the animal: the entire portion of the tail fat, the caul fat that covers all the internal organs, ⁴ both kidneys, and the suet fat that is attached to them near the loin cuts. He should also present the lobes of the lamb’s liver, and the kidneys (which the individual should also remove). ⁵ Then the priest should burn all these portions of fat and internal organs on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. Once burned, the fat and the internal organs will become gifts to Yahweh. This is how an individual should offer a restoring sacrifice ⁶ Any male descendant of Aaron may eat the meat that comes from this sacrifice. However, he should eat it in a place set apart for such purposes. The people of Israel should consider this kind of sacrifice as especially set apart for the priests among all the sacred offerings that people offer to Yahweh that are set apart for him.

⁷ The instructions for the restoring sacrifice are just the same as the instructions for the purifying sacrifice. There is one set of instructions for both of them. The meat of the sacrifice belongs to the priest who offers the sacrifice that Yahweh will accept for the sake of the individual, so that Yahweh will remove the individual’s sins from him and forgive him for his wrongdoing. ⁸ As for the priest who offers a wholly burned sacrifice for someone, the skin of the animal that the individual offered belongs to the priest. ⁹ Every grain offering that someone bakes in an oven, and every sacrifice that someone prepares by deep-frying in a pan or by pan-frying on a griddle also belongs to the priest who offered it for food. It will be his food. ¹⁰ Likewise, both the grain offering with olive oil and those without any olive oil belong to every male descendant of Aaron. Every priest is alike in this regard.

¹¹ This is how someone should offer any fellowship sacrifice that he offers to Yahweh. ¹² Someone might want to offer a fellowship sacrifice for the purpose of expressing gratitude to Yahweh. If so, he should present unleavened loaves of bread that he combined with olive oil, or unleavened crackers that he coated with olive oil, or well-mixed wheat flour that he combined with olive oil into loaves of bread. He should present those loaves in addition to the animal sacrifices that accompany the fellowship sacrifices that express gratitude to Yahweh. ¹³ Along with those leavened loaves of bread and the animal sacrifices that regularly accompany any fellowship sacrifice for the purpose of expressing gratitude to Yahweh, the individual should offer this grain offering. ¹⁴ And from those portions of the sacrifice, the individual should offer a portion of the whole sacrifice as a special contribution to Yahweh. These portions will belong to the priest who splatters the blood of the fellowship sacrifice. It will be his food. ¹⁵ As for the meat of the fellowship sacrifice that someone offers for the purpose of expressing gratitude to Yahweh, the priests should eat the meat on the same day that the individual offers it. The priests must not allow any of the meat to remain until the next morning.

¹⁶ Someone might want to offer a fellowship sacrifice because of a vow that he made to Yahweh. Or someone might also want to bring a fellowship sacrifice freely and unprompted. In either case, the priests should eat the meat of the sacrifice on the day that the individual offers the sacrifice. The priests may also eat the remaining meat of the sacrifice throughout the next day. ¹⁷ However, the priests must completely burn any remaining meat from the sacrifice on the third day. ¹⁸ If, for whatever reason, anyone ever eats the meat from a fellowship sacrifice on the third day after an individual offered it, Yahweh will no longer accept whatever sacrifice the individual offered. As for the person who offered the sacrifice, Yahweh will not forgive him, because the meat is now considered desecrated. Whoever eats that meat must now be held responsible for addressing his wrongdoing.

¹⁹ No one should ever eat any meat that comes into contact with anything unclean. The people of Israel should always completely burn contaminated meat. However, anyone who is able to remain clean can eat clean meat. ²⁰ Anyone who has not been able to remain ceremonially clean and still, nonetheless, eats the meat of a fellowship sacrifice, that meat that belongs to Yahweh alone, that person is now an outcast. The people of Israel should no longer consider that person to be a member of the people of Yahweh. ²¹ Likewise, anyone who comes into contact with anything unclean, whether an unclean person or an unclean domesticated animal or anything unclean that Yahweh considers an abomination and, nonetheless, eats some of the meat of a fellowship sacrifice, the meat that belongs to Yahweh alone, that person is now an outcast. The people of Israel should no longer consider that person to be a member of the people of Yahweh.

²² Then Yahweh told Moses ²³ to say to the Israelite people, “The people of Israel should never eat any of the fat of bovines or sheep or goats. ²⁴ As for the fat from an animal’s corpse or the fat from an animal that wild animals killed and someone later found it dead, anyone may use these portions of fat for various purposes. However, no one should ever eat this fat. ²⁵ If ever anyone eats the fat from these domesticated animals that people use to offer gifts to Yahweh, that person who ate the fat is now an outcast. The people of Israel should no longer consider that person to be a member of the people of Yahweh. ²⁶ And wherever you happen to live, no one should ever eat any blood, whether from a bird or from a domesticated animal. ²⁷ If ever any individual eats any blood, that person is now an outcast. The people of Israel should no longer consider that person to be a member of the people of Yahweh.”

²⁸ Then Yahweh told Moses, ²⁹ to say to the Israelite people, “Anyone who offers to Yahweh a fellowship sacrifice should bring part of that sacrifice to Yahweh. ³⁰ He himself should bring the gift that he is offering to Yahweh. He should bring the fat along with the meat of the animal’s breast in order to fan it in Yahweh’s presence as a special contribution to him. ³¹ Then the priest should burn the fat of the animal’s breast meat on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. However, the breast meat itself belongs to Aaron and to his male descendants for food. ³² And, as a special contribution, the person offering the fellowship sacrifice should give the animal’s right thigh to the priest who performed the sacrifice. ³³ The right thigh belongs to whichever priest, being a male descendant of Aaron, presented the blood and the fat of the fellowship sacrifice. It is his share of food. ³⁴ For, by instructing the people of God to offer sacrifices in this manner, I have taken the breast meat of the sacrifice that the priest fans in Yahweh’s presence and the special contribution of the right thigh from the people of Israel, from their fellowship sacrifices, and I have given these special portions to Aaron the priest and to his male descendants. These instructions guarantee that the people of Israel will provide a permanent and lasting portion of food for the priests.”

³⁵ Those are the allotments that belong to Aaron and the allotments that belong to his male descendants from the gifts that people offer to Yahweh. Yahweh commanded these instructions on the day that Moses presented Aaron and his sons to serve as priests to Yahweh. ³⁶ Yahweh made sure to give these instructions and regulations to the priests on the day that Moses anointed them and set them apart from the people of Israel. These portions of the sacrifices are a permanent and enduring regulation that the people of Israel and all their descendants should always observe.

³⁷ So, those are the ways in which people should offer the wholly burned sacrifices, the grain offerings, the purifying sacrifices, the restoring sacrifices, the appointing sacrifices, and the fellowship sacrifices. ³⁸ Yahweh made sure that Moses received all these instructions and regulations on Mount Sinai on the day that Yahweh commanded the people of Israel to begin offering their sacrifices to Yahweh in the desert wilderness around Sinai.

Chapter 8

¹ Then Yahweh told Moses, ² “Bring Aaron and his sons, their special clothes, the oil that you will use to anoint them, the bull that you will offer as a purifying offering, the two rams that you will also offer, and a basket that contains some bread that you have baked without leaven. ³ Then gather all the people together at the entrance to the sacred tent.” ⁴ Moses did exactly what Yahweh told him to do, and all the people gathered together at the entrance of the sacred tent.

⁵ Then Moses said to the whole people, “This is what Yahweh has told us to do.” ⁶ Moses then brought forth Aaron and his sons, and he washed them thoroughly. ⁷ Moses put the embroidered tunic on Aaron, tied the waistband around him, and clothed him with the robe and the priests’ sacred apron. He tied the carefully woven belt of the sacred apron around him, and so, clothed him in the priests’ sacred clothing. ⁸ He placed the chest pouch that attaches to the apron on Aaron's chest and put into it the {two stones called} the Urim and the Thummim. ⁹ Then Moses wrapped the turban around Aaron’s head and fastened the golden flower-shaped decoration, that sacred crown that demonstrates that Aaron serves Yahweh alone, to the front of the turban, exactly as Yahweh told Moses to do.

¹⁰ Then Moses took the olive oil that he was to use for dedicating people and objects to Yahweh, and he poured it out on the sacred tent and everything that was in it. By doing this, he set the entire space and everything in it apart and dedicated them wholly to Yahweh and his purposes. ¹¹ Then he flicked some of the sacred oil on the altar seven times. He anointed the altar and all the tools that accompanied the altar, its washbasin, and its stand so that he could dedicate them wholly to Yahweh and his purposes. ¹² He poured out on Aaron’s head some of the sacred olive oil that he was to use to dedicate people and objects wholly to Yahweh and so, he anointed him in order to set him apart and dedicate him wholly to Yahweh and to his purposes. ¹³ Then Moses brought forth Aaron’s sons, and he clothed them with the embroidered tunics, tied the waistbands around them, and wrapped the headbands on their heads, exactly as Yahweh told Moses to do.

¹⁴ Then Moses brought into the sacred tent the bull that he would offer as a purifying offering. Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the animal’s head. ¹⁵ Then Aaron and his sons killed the bull, {and, after collecting some of its blood in a bowl,} Moses took the blood, and, using his finger, put some of it on every one of the four projected corners of the altar. By doing this, Moses purified the altar from the impurity of sin. The rest of the blood Moses poured out on the base of the altar, and so, he set the altar apart and dedicated it as a suitable place on which to offer sacrifices that would remove people's sins from them and restore them to relationship with Yahweh. ¹⁶ Then Moses took all the visceral fat that was attached to the internal organs, the lobes of the bull’s liver, the two kidneys, and their suet fat. He completely burned these internal organs and fat portions on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up. ¹⁷ Another Israelite then completely burned the rest of the bull that Aaron and his sons had killed, including its skin, its other internal organs, and its excrement at a {clean place} outside the camp, exactly as Yahweh told Moses to do.

¹⁸ Then Moses presented the ram that he was going to offer as a wholly burned sacrifice, and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on its head. ¹⁹ Then, Aaron and his sons killed the ram, and Moses, {after collecting some of the ram's blood in a bowl,} flicked some of the blood on every side of the altar. ²⁰ After Aaron and his sons cut the ram into its appropriate portions, Moses burned the head, the portions of meat, and all the suet of the bull on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up. ²¹ But the internal organs and the legs of the bull Aaron and his sons thoroughly washed before Moses also burned these on the altar in the same manner. In doing so, Moses fulfilled the requirements for offering a wholly burned sacrifice. Yahweh enjoyed the smell of the smoke, and he considered the sacrifice to be a gift, exactly as he had told Moses to do.

²² Then Moses presented the second ram, the one that Moses would offer to appoint the priests and dedicate them as priests to Yahweh, and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on its head. ²³ Aaron and his sons slaughtered the ram. After Moses {caught some of its blood in a bowl,} he took the blood and daubed some of it on Aaron—on the lobe of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. ²⁴ Moses then took Aaron’s sons and did the same, daubing blood on them as well. {He did this to set their ears, their hands, and their feet apart for service to Yahweh alone.} Then Moses splashed the remaining blood on every side of the altar. ²⁵ Moses took the intestinal fat of the ram, including the tail fat and all the visceral that was attached to the intestines. He also took the lobes of the ram’s liver, the two kidneys and their suet fat, and the right thigh. ²⁶ Then Moses took a loaf of unleavened bread, a loaf of unleavened bread that he had covered in olive oil, and a cracker from the basket that was in Yahweh’s presence. He put these items on the fat portions and the right thigh of the ram that Aaron and his sons had killed. ²⁷ Moses placed all of these sacrifices into the upturned, open hands of Aaron and his sons, who held them up and moved them about in Yahweh’s presence. ²⁸ Then Moses took all those things from the upturned, open hands of Aaron and his sons, and completely burned them on the altar, on top of the sacrifices that Moses was already burning, in a way that caused smoke to go up. By offering these items in this way, the sacrifice fulfilled the requirements for the appointing sacrifice. Yahweh enjoyed the smell of the smoke, and he considered this sacrifice to be a gift to him. ²⁹ Moses then also took the breast meat from the second ram that Aaron and his sons offered as an appointing sacrifice. He held it up and moved it about in Yahweh’s presence in the precincts of the sacred tent as a special contribution to Yahweh. The breast meat belonged to Moses as his allotted share of food, exactly as Yahweh told Moses.

³⁰ Next, Moses took some of the olive oil that he used for anointing Aaron and his sons, and some of the blood that he had previously placed on the altar. He flicked both the blood and the olive oil on Aaron and his sons and on all their clothes {in order to cleanse them from the impurity of sin}. By doing this, he set apart Aaron, his sons, and all their clothing for service to Yahweh and dedicated them wholly to Yahweh.

³¹ Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the meat of the second ram at the entrance of the sacred tent. You should eat it there with the bread that is in the basket that you are using for the appointing sacrifice, exactly as I told you to do when I said that Aaron and his sons should eat the bread and the meat of the ram. ³² Make sure you completely burn any of the meat and bread that remains after you are finished eating. ³³ You should not leave the entrance of the sacred tent for seven days, until the day when your appointing ceremony is over. You should do this because Yahweh will give you the responsibilities of the priesthood over the course of the seven-day period. ³⁴ Yahweh told you to do all these things exactly as you have done them today in order to restore you to relationship with Yahweh. ³⁵ Again, make sure you remain in the entrance of the sacred tent from day to night for an entire week and carefully avoid exactly what Yahweh has told you to avoid. If you are careful to do this, Yahweh will not kill you, because Yahweh himself told me to do these things.”

³⁶ So, Aaron and his sons did everything that Yahweh told them through Moses.

Chapter 9

¹ Eight days later, Moses summoned Aaron, his sons, and the oldest and most respected people of Israel. ² He said to Aaron, “Take a totally healthy calf from the domesticated bulls that you own and offer it as a purifying sacrifice along with a totally healthy ram that you will offer as a wholly burned sacrifice. Present these animals to Yahweh. ³ Then tell the Israelite people to take a male goat and offer it as a purifying sacrifice, along with a calf and a lamb that they will offer as a wholly burned sacrifice. Tell them to make sure that both animals are a year old and totally healthy. ⁴ Also tell the Israelite people to take an ox and a ram and offer them as fellowship sacrifices when they sacrifice in Yahweh’s presence. They should offer these animals along with a grain offering that consists of wheat flour that they have combined with olive oil. Tell them that they should bring these offerings because Yahweh himself is going to appear to them today.”

⁵ {After Aaron relayed these instructions to the Israelite people,} the people brought to the courtyard in front of the sacred tent everything that Moses told them to bring. Then all the people presented the animals and the offerings, and they stood together in Yahweh’s presence. ⁶ Then Moses said, “This is exactly what Yahweh told you to do. Now you will see how glorious he is.”

⁷ Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and perform the purifying sacrifice and the wholly burned sacrifice that Yahweh told you to offer. Do this so that Yahweh will remove your sins from you and restore you and the people to relationship with him. Then perform the sacrifices that Yahweh told the people to offer. Do this so that Yahweh will remove the peoples’ sins from them and restore them to relationship with him. Perform these sacrifices exactly as Yahweh instructed.”

⁸ So Aaron approached the altar and killed the calf that he would offer as a purifying sacrifice {to cleanse the holy space dedicated to Yahweh from the impurity of his own sin}. ⁹ Then, {after they collected some of the calf’s blood in a bowl,} Aaron’s sons presented the blood to their father. Aaron dipped one of his fingers into the blood and applied some of it to the four projections on the corners of the altar. He poured the rest of the blood onto the base of the altar. ¹⁰ He then burned the calf’s fat, including the kidneys and the lobe of the liver of the calf that Aaron sacrificed as a purifying sacrifice, on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up Aaron did this exactly as Yahweh told Moses. ¹¹ But someone else completely burned the rest of the calf’s meat and its skin {at a clean place} outside of the camp.

¹² Then Aaron killed the ram that he was going to offer as a wholly burned sacrifice. {After collecting some of the blood of the ram,} his sons brought him some of the blood, and he splattered it on every side of the altar. ¹³ Then, {after cutting the ram into its appropriate portions,} Aaron’s sons brought him the appropriate portions of the ram’s meat, fat, and internal organs, including the animal's head. Aaron burned them on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up. ¹⁴ Then Aaron washed the ram’s intestines and legs, and he burned them on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up. He placed them on top of the other portions of the sacrifices that he was already burning on the altar.

¹⁵ Then Aaron brought the animals that the Israelite people offered to Yahweh. He took the goat that the people required for their purifying sacrifice, and he killed it. By offering it, Aaron cleansed the people from the impurity of their sin, just as he had done with the goat that he offered for himself.

¹⁶ In this way, he presented the animal that the people required for their sacrifice. Aaron offered this sacrifice in the way that Yahweh had instructed Moses. ¹⁷ Then Aaron presented the offering that consisted of a sacrifice of harvested grain. He took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up, in addition to the animal sacrifices that he had prepared and completely burned on the altar in the morning.

¹⁸ Then Aaron killed the ox and the ram that the Israelite people required for their sacrifice that promised friendship with Yahweh. {After catching some of the blood of the animals,} his sons brought him the blood, and he flicked the blood against every side of the altar. ¹⁹ He took the fat portions from the ox and the ram, including their fatty tails, their visceral fat that was attached to the animals' internal organs, their kidneys, and the lobes of their livers. ²⁰ Then he placed all these portions of fat and internal organs on top of the breast meat of those animals, and he burned these portions on the altar in a way that caused smoke to go up. ²¹ Next, Aaron wafted the breast meat and the right thigh of those animals in Yahweh's presence, exactly as Yahweh told Moses.

²² When he had finished offering all the sacrifices, Aaron lifted his hands over the people, and he asked Yahweh to bless them. Then, he came down from the altar where he had offered the purifying sacrifices, the wholly burned sacrifices, and the fellowship sacrifices that he and the people had required.

²³ Then Moses and Aaron entered into the Holy Place in the sacred tent. When they came out later, they asked Yahweh to bless the people again. When they did this, all the people saw how glorious Yahweh was. ²⁴ Fire came out from the sacred precincts where Yahweh lived among the Israelites and completely burned everything that was on the altar, including the wholly burned offerings and all the portions of fat. When all the people saw this happen, they shouted joyfully and bowed themselves down on the ground to worship Yahweh.

Chapter 10

¹ But then two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took the trays in which they burned incense. Into these trays, they placed some burning coals and put incense on top of the coals. They proceeded to waft the smoke of the incense in the precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lived among the Israelite people. However, the coals were not holy, as Yahweh said they should be, but rather, the coals had come from a common, everyday source. {Because the coals were not holy, their offering of incense was not acceptable to Yahweh.} ² Fire shot out from the precincts of the sacred tent where Yahweh lived among the Israelites, and the fire burned up Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu. The fire killed them right in Yahweh’s presence. ³ Moses turned and said to Aaron, “These events are exactly what Yahweh spoke of when he said,

     ‘In the presence of the holy priests who draw near to me,

         I will demonstrate that I am set apart from everything else;

     in the sight of everyone,

         I will demonstrate that I should always be honored and worshiped.’”

But Aaron was silent and said nothing.

⁴ So Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, Aaron’s cousins, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel. Moses said to them, “Offer yourselves for service and carry the corpses of your relatives from the front of the Holy Place in the sacred tent. Bring them to a place outside the camp.” ⁵ So Aaron’s cousins stepped forward and carried the two corpses of Aaron’s sons in the folds of their embroidered tunics. They carried them to a place outside the camp, exactly as Moses told them to do.

⁶ Then Moses said to Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not mourn for your brothers as is customary. You should not allow your hair to hang down, nor should you tear your clothing. If you do, Yahweh may also kill you, and his anger may extend to the whole congregation as well. However, your fellow Israelites, every single person, should mourn because Yahweh is angry with his priests, as his burning fire has demonstrated. ⁷ However, make sure that you do not leave the entrance of the sacred tent. If you do so, Yahweh will kill you just like your brothers. You should not forget that when I poured Yahweh’s holy oil on your heads, Yahweh set you apart to serve him here.” So, they did everything that Moses told them to do.

⁸ Then Yahweh said to Aaron, ⁹ “You and your two sons who are still alive should not drink wine or beer before you enter the sacred tent. If you drink alcohol before you enter the sacred precincts where Yahweh lives among the Israelites, Yahweh will kill you. This practice is a permanent and enduring instruction for how the priests should behave, which applies to every generation of the people of Israel. ¹⁰ As priests, you should learn how to distinguish what is set apart for Yahweh and his purposes from that which you may use for everyday, common purposes. You will also be able to distinguish what is unacceptable to Yahweh and unclean from that which is acceptable to Yahweh and clean. ¹¹ By learning how to distinguish these things from one another, the whole people of Israel will learn how to follow all the instructions that I told Moses, who then told them to you.”

¹² Moses then said to Aaron and his remaining two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take whatever grain offering now remains after Aaron has burned the gifts that he offered to Yahweh on the altar and eat the unleavened loaves of bread next to the altar. You should eat it here because these leftovers are set apart for the priests among all the gifts that people offer to Yahweh and that are set apart for him. ¹³ Make sure that you eat these leftovers in the place that priests have dedicated for such purposes. You should do this because these leftovers are the food that Yahweh has provided for you and for your children from all the gifts that people offer to Yahweh that are also set apart for himself. It is so because Yahweh has told me that this is what you should do. ¹⁴ You and your children may eat the breast meat that was held up and moved about in Yahweh’s presence and the meat of the right thigh that people have offered as a special contribution to Yahweh. You and your children should eat these portions of meat in any place that the priests have set apart for such holy purposes. Yahweh has given them to you and to your children as your portion of food that comes from the fellowship sacrifices that people offer to Yahweh. ¹⁵ In addition to the other fat portions that people offer to Yahweh, the priests should bring the meat of the right thigh that people have offered as a special contribution to Yahweh and the breast meat to hold them up and move them about in Yahweh’s presence. Remember that these portions of meat are food for you and for your children. These instructions should be perpetual and enduring, exactly as Yahweh has told you to do.

¹⁶ After asking about the location of the goat that the priests had offered as a purifying sacrifice, Moses diligently looked for it. He discovered that the priests had mistakenly burned it completely on the altar when they ought to have eaten it. So he was very angry with Aaron’s two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, and asked them, ¹⁷ “Why did you not eat the meat of the purifying sacrifice in a location that the priests have set apart for such holy purposes? You should have considered that meat to be specifically dedicated for you among all the gifts that people offer to Yahweh that are also set apart for him! He gave that meat to you not only so that you could eat it, but also so that it would address the wrongdoing of the whole congregation. When you ate that meat in Yahweh’s presence, he was going to forgive the whole congregation for their sins and restore their relationship with him! ¹⁸ Consider this: the sacrifice was not the type of purifying sacrifice that required the priest to bring any blood into the inner portion of the Holy Place in the sacred tent! You should certainly have eaten it in the place that the priests have set apart for such holy purposes, exactly as I told you to do!”

¹⁹ But Aaron replied, “Consider this: today, the people brought their purifying sacrifices and their wholly burned sacrifices to Yahweh in the precincts where he lives among the Israelite people. Yet, nonetheless, these horrible things have happened to me! Even if I myself had eaten the meat of the purifying sacrifice today, would Yahweh have approved of everything that has happened here today, even the death of my sons?” ²⁰ When Moses heard Aaron’s response, he was satisfied and said nothing further.

Chapter 11

¹ Then Yahweh spoke to Aaron and Moses. He said, ² “Tell the people of Israel that, out of all the animals that live on dry land, the following animals are the ones that they may eat. ³ {This is the rule:} any animal that has hooves (and those hooves are completely cloven) and also chews the cud—these are the types of animals that are acceptable to eat.

⁴ However, there are some animals that have one of these traits but not both. These types of animals are not acceptable to eat. For example, camels {are not acceptable to eat} because, while they chew the cud, they do not have a completely cloven hoof. The people of Israel should consider any animal like this to be impure and unacceptable for eating. ⁵ Likewise, rock badgers are not acceptable to eat because, while they chew the cud, they do not have completely cloven hooves, {because they do not have hooves at all}. The people of Israel should also consider any animal like this to be impure and unacceptable to eat. ⁶ Rabbits also are unacceptable to eat because, while they chew the cud, they do not have completely cloven hooves, {because they also do not have hooves at all}. The people of Israel should also consider any animal like a rabbit to be impure and unacceptable to eat. ⁷ Pigs are likewise unacceptable to eat because, while they have hooves (and those hooves are completely cloven), they do not chew cud. Because of this, the people of Israel should also consider any animal like a pig to be impure and not acceptable to eat. ⁸ No Israelite should ever eat any meat from these animals. They should not even touch their dead bodies. Rather, the people of Israel should consider all of these types of animals to be impure and unacceptable to eat.

⁹ Now, out of all the types of creatures that live in water, these are the ones that the people of Israel may eat. {This is the rule:} The people of Israel may eat anything that lives in water that has both fins and scales, whether in the ocean or in a freshwater stream. ¹⁰ However, there are many animals that live in the ocean or in freshwater streams but do not have both fins and scales. Whether they are smaller, swarming creatures or larger ones, these types of creatures should disgust the people of Israel. They should consider them to be completely unacceptable to eat. ¹¹ Because these creatures should disgust the people of Israel, the people of Israel should never eat meat from any of these creatures. Their dead bodies should also disgust them. ¹² Once again, {this is the rule:} the people of Israel should consider any creature that lives in the water but does not have both fins and scales to be disgusting. They should consider this kind of animal to be completely unacceptable to eat.

^13-14 Now, these are some examples of the types of birds that should disgust the people of Israel. They should never eat these birds but rather consider them disgusting. These birds include predatory birds of large to medium size that sometimes eat dead animals. ^15-19 In addition to those types of birds of prey, such as hawks, {the people of Israel should consider disgusting} all birds that inhabit desolate places. These might include birds such as owls, ostriches, and even bats. Likewise, the people of Israel should avoid certain waterbirds of large to medium size, specifically those that wade or hunt in water. Finally, any birds that occupy or hunt near excrement, such as hoopoes, should disgust the people of Israel. {These are the types of birds that the people of Israel should consider completely unacceptable for eating.}

²⁰ The people of Israel should also consider any kind of flying insect that swarms and has four legs to be disgusting and completely unacceptable to eat. ²¹ However, the people of Israel may eat any flying insect that both swarms and has four legs, if its legs are jointed and the insect jumps about on the ground. ²² For example, these are some examples of the types of insects that the people of Israel may eat. They may eat any kind of locust, any kind of bald locust, any kind of cricket, and any kind of grasshopper. ²³ But the people of Israel should consider any other winged insect that swarms and also has four legs to be disgusting and completely unacceptable to eat.

²⁴ These types of unacceptable and impure animals and insects will make the people of Israel impure. Anyone who touches their dead bodies will make themself impure {so that they cannot touch sacred objects or enter into holy space} until the evening of the day when they touched one of these animals or insects. ²⁵ Anyone who picks up one of their dead bodies should wash his clothes to purify himself from the impurity of the dead animal or insect. That person will be impure {and should not touch sacred objects or enter into holy space} until the evening of the day when he touched the dead animal or insect.

²⁶ Remember, the people of Israel should consider impure and unacceptable any animal that, while having hooves, does not have completely cloven hooves or does not also chew the cud. Anyone who touches one of these animals will make themself impure as well. ²⁷ Likewise, out of all the animals that have four legs, the people of Israel should consider any animal that has paws impure and unacceptable to eat. Anyone who touches the dead body of one of these animals will make themself impure {and should not touch any other person or any sacred object or enter into any sacred space} until the evening of the day when he touched the dead animal. ²⁸ Anyone who picks up one of the dead bodies of any of these animals should wash his clothes {to purify themself from the impurity of the animal's dead body}. That person will be impure {and so should not touch other people or sacred objects or enter into any sacred space} until the evening of the day when they touched the animal's dead body. For this reason, the people of Israel should consider these animals to be impure and not acceptable to eat.

²⁹ Out of all the animals that swarm on the ground, these are the ones that the people of Israel should consider to be impure: rats, mice, any kind of large lizard, ³⁰ geckos, spotted lizards, newts, skinks, and chameleons. ³¹ Remember, out of all the animals that swarm, the people of Israel should consider these types of animals to be impure and unacceptable to eat. Anyone who touches one of them after it has died will make themself impure {so that person should not touch anyone else or any sacred object or enter into any sacred space} until the evening of the day when he touched the animal's dead body. ³² Likewise, it may happen that one of these impure animals or insects falls onto something after it has died. If this happens, that object will become impure. Whether it is wood, cloth, leather, or burlap, if it is something that the people of Israel use for domestic purposes, whoever owns the object should soak it in water. The people of Israel should consider the object to be impure until the evening of the day on which the animal's dead body fell onto it. After that evening, whoever owns the object should consider it be to clean {and acceptable to use for its intended purpose}. ³³ It may happen that one of these impure animals or insects falls into a clay pot. If this happens, the people of Israel should consider everything in the pot to be impure. Whoever owns the pot should shatter it. ³⁴ It may also happen that the water from a clay pot into which an impure animal or insect has fallen happens to come into contact with anything edible. If this happens, that food will also be impure {and no one should eat it}. This is because once an impure animal or insect comes into contact with any drinkable liquid that is in a pot, that liquid also becomes impure. ³⁵ Any object onto which the dead body of any of these impure animals or insects falls will also become impure. Whether the dead body falls onto an oven or a small stove, whoever owns the object should smash it to pieces. The people of Israel should consider that object to be impure and unacceptable for its original intended purpose. It will not cease to be impure but will remain impure. ³⁶ However, {it may happen that the dead body of one of these impure animals or insects falls into} a spring or any system for collecting and storing water. If this happens, the water that comes out of it is still pure. {The people of Israel may drink it}. Nonetheless, anyone who touches one of those dead bodies will still become impure. ³⁷ Likewise, it may happen that the dead body of one of these impure animals or insects happens to fall onto any plantable seeds that someone was going to plant. If this happens, those seeds are still pure. {Whoever owns them may still plant them.} ³⁸ Alternatively, it may happen that the dead body of one of these impure animals or insects falls on those seeds after whoever planted the seeds has watered them. If this happens, then the people of Israel could consider those seeds to be impure and unacceptable.

³⁹ It may happen that an animal that the people of Israel may eat dies and someone touches it. If this happens, whoever has touched it has made himself impure {so that he should not touch another person or any sacred object or enter into any sacred space} until the evening of the day when he touched the animal's dead body. ⁴⁰ Furthermore, anyone who eats any meat from the animal's dead body should wash his clothes {to purify them}. He has made himself impure until the evening of the day when he ate the animal's meat. Likewise, anyone who carries the animal's dead body should wash his clothes {to purify them}. He has made himself impure until the evening of the day when he carried the animal's dead body.

⁴¹ The Israelite people should consider any animals or insects that swarm on the ground to be disgusting and completely unacceptable to eat. No Israelite should ever eat these animals. ⁴² This means that no Israelite should ever eat any animal that crawls on its belly and also has four legs or any animal that has many legs, like a swarming ground-dwelling insect. This is because the Israelite people should consider these animals and insects to be disgusting and completely unacceptable to eat. ⁴³ The Israelite people should never make themselves disgusting by eating or touching any of these swarming insects or animals. Neither should they make themselves impure or defile themselves by touching or eating them. ⁴⁴ Remember who I am: I am Yahweh your God, and I am holy. The people of Israel must likewise be holy people because I am holy. Do not cause yourselves to become impure by eating or touching swarming animals or insects that crawl along the ground. ⁴⁵ Remember that I, Yahweh, freed the Israelite people when they were slaves in Egypt. I did this so that I could be their God. Therefore, because I am holy, they should be holy people.

⁴⁶ These are the instructions for how the people of Israel should handle domestic animals, birds, any swarming fish that live in water, or any swarming insects or animals that live on dry land. ⁴⁷ The people of Israel should learn to distinguish what is unacceptable to Yahweh and impure from that which is acceptable to Yahweh and pure. This means that they should also learn to distinguish those living creatures that are acceptable to eat from those that are unacceptable to eat.”

Chapter 12

¹ Then Yahweh told Moses ² “Tell the people of Israel that when a woman is pregnant and gives birth to a boy, she has become impure for seven days. This is just like when she becomes impure from her regular menstruation; she has become impure. ³ She should make sure that the priests circumcise her baby boy eight days after he is born. ⁴ Then the woman should wait about a month in the impurity of the blood she bled from giving birth. During this time, she should not touch sacred objects or enter into holy space, like the sacred tent, until that time is over. ⁵ But if a woman gives birth to a baby girl, she has become impure for two weeks. This is just like when she is menstruating each month. The woman should wait about two months in the impurity of the blood she bled when she gave birth to the baby.

⁶ After the time in which she is waiting to purify herself is over, that woman should bring a one-year-old lamb to the priest at the entrance of the sacred tent. She should do this whether she gives birth to a baby boy or a baby girl. The priest should offer the lamb as a wholly burned sacrifice. The woman should also bring a dove or a pigeon to the priest. He should offer it as a purifying sacrifice. {This will purify her and allow her to be pure again before Yahweh.} ⁷ The priest should offer these animals in Yahweh's presence. When this happens, Yahweh will accept her again and purify her from the impurity of the blood that she bled when she gave birth to the baby. is the way that women who give birth, whether to a baby boy or girl, should offer sacrifices to purify themselves from the impurity of the blood that they bleed when they give birth to their children. ⁸ However, if any woman cannot afford a lamb, then she may bring two pigeons or two doves. The priest should offer one of the birds as a wholly burned sacrifice and the other as a purifying sacrifice. When the priest offers these birds, Yahweh will accept the woman again, and he will purify her from the impurity of the blood that she bled when she gave birth to her children.”

Chapter 13

¹ Then Yahweh told Aaron and Moses, ² “It may happen that someone finds a swelling, a scab, or a discolored spot on their skin. If their skin looks infected, like it may be an infectious skin disease, then someone should bring the infected person to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons or descendants who are also priests. ³ The priest should examine the person's infected skin. The priest should look to see if the hair on the infection is white and if the infection itself appears to be under their skin. If it is, then that infection is a symptom of an infectious skin disease. When the priest sees this kind of infection, he should judge the infected person to be impure. {The impure person should not touch other people or sacred objects or enter sacred space.} ⁴ However, the priest might see that the discolored spot on the person’s skin is white. He may also see that the infection is only skin-deep, and the hair on the infected spot is not white. If the priest sees this kind of infection, then he should quarantine the person with the infection for one week. ⁵ On the last day of that week, the priest should examine the infected person again. If the priest can see that the infection is still there, but it has not spread on the person's skin, then the priest should quarantine the infected person for another week. ⁶ On the last day of that second week, the priest should examine the infected person again. This time, he should look to see if the infection has spread on the skin. If it has not, but rather the infection has receded and is now fainter in color, then the priest should judge the infected person to be pure. {That person may now touch other people and sacred objects and enter sacred space.} The infection is just a benign scab. The person with the infection should wash and clean his clothes, and then he will be pure. ⁷ However, it may happen that the scab spreads aggressively on the skin after the priest has examined the infected person and judged them to be pure. If this happens, then the person with the infection must go and show himself to the priest again. ⁸ The priest should then examine the person with the infection. The priest should determine that the scab has really spread on the infected person's skin. If it has, then the priest should judge that person to be impure. The person has become impure because the scab is actually a symptom of an infectious skin disease.

⁹ It may also happen that someone develops an infection because of an infectious skin disease. In this case, the person with the infection should go to the priest. ¹⁰ When the priest examines him, the priest should look to see if there is a white swelling on the skin that has caused the hair on the infected spot to become white. If the priest also sees that the skin on the swelling is raw, ¹¹ then this infection on the person's skin is actually a symptom of a chronic, infectious skin disease. The priest should judge the person to be impure. {The impure person should not touch other people or sacred objects or enter into sacred space.} In this case, because the person with the infection is impure, the priest should not merely quarantine the person temporarily.

¹² Alternatively, {when the priest examines the person with the infection, he might see that} the infectious skin disease has broken out aggressively on the person's skin such that, as far as the priest can see, it now covers the infected person's entire body, from head to toe. ¹³ If this happens, then the priest should look to see whether the infectious skin disease has really covered the infected person's entire body. If this happens, {and the infected skin has turned white,} the priest should judge the person with the infection to be pure. Because the infection has turned entirely white, the person is pure, {and the infection is not a symptom of an infectious skin disease.} ¹⁴ However, whenever a person sees that there is raw skin on their infection, that person has become impure. {The impure person should not touch other people or sacred objects or enter into sacred space.} ¹⁵ Whenever the priest sees raw skin on an infection, he should judge the person to be impure. {The person is impure because} there is raw skin on their infection. This demonstrates that the infection is actually a symptom of an infectious disease. ¹⁶ But it may happen that the raw skin of the person with the infection changes and once again becomes white. If this happens, he should go to the priest. ¹⁷ The priest should examine him. This time, the priest should look to see if the infection has really become white. If it has, then the priest should judge the person with the infection to be pure. {Because the infection is white,} he is now pure. {The infection is not a symptom of an infectious disease.}

¹⁸ It may also happen that someone has a boil on their skin, but the boil eventually healed. ¹⁹ It may be that, where the boil used to be, there is now a white swelling or a discolored spot on their skin that is reddish-white in color. If there is, then that person must go and show themselves to the priest. ²⁰ The priest should examine the person's skin. The priest should look to see if the discolored or swollen spot of skin seems to be under the skin or if the hair on that spot has become white. If the priest sees these things, then the priest should judge the person to be impure. The person is impure because the swollen or discolored spot of skin is actually a symptom of an infectious skin disease that has broken out where the boil used to be. ²¹ Alternatively, the priest might examine the person's skin and see that there is no white hair on the discolored or swollen spot of skin. If, instead, the spot is only skin-deep, and it has receded and is now fainter in color, then the priest should quarantine the person with the infection for one week. ²² If, after a week, the swollen or discolored spot of skin has spread aggressively on the skin, then the priest should judge the person to be impure. That spot of skin is actually an infection. ²³ But if that discolored spot of skin has stayed where it was and has not spread, then it is merely a scar from the boil. The priest should judge the person to be pure again. {The pure person can touch other people and sacred objects and enter into sacred space once again.}

²⁴ It might also happen that a person has a burn from a fire on his skin. The raw skin from the burn may be discolored and reddish-white or pure white in color. ²⁵ If this happens, then the priest should examine the person who has the burn. The priest should look to see if the hair on the discolored spot of skin has become white or if the discolored spot seems to be under the skin. If the priest sees these things, then the discolored spot of skin is a symptom of an infectious skin disease that has broken out on the burn. Because the discolored skin from the burn is an infection and a symptom of an infectious skin disease, the priest should declare the person with the burn to be impure. ²⁶ Alternatively, the priest might examine the person's skin and see that there is no white hair on the discolored spot of skin, that the discolored spot is only skin-deep, and that the spot has receded and is now fainter in color. If the priest sees this, then he should quarantine the person with the burn for one week. ²⁷ On the last day of the week-long quarantine, the priest should examine the person with the burn again. If the discolored spot of skin has spread aggressively on the skin, then the priest should judge the person to be impure. The discolored spot is actually an infection and a symptom of an infectious skin disease. ²⁸ However, the priest might see that the discolored spot of skin has stayed where it was and has not spread on the skin but, instead, it has receded and is now fainter in color. If the priest sees this, then the discolored spot of skin is only swelling from the burn. Because the discolored spot of skin is actually just a scar from the burn, the priest should judge the person with the burn to be pure again.

²⁹ It may also happen that a man or a woman has an infection in any place where hair might grow, either on the head or on the lower portion of the face. ³⁰ If this happens, the priest should examine the person with the infection. The priest should look to see if the infection is under the skin or if the hair on the infection has become bright red in color and has thinned out. If the priest sees these things, then he should judge the person to be impure. The infection is actually an itchy and contagious skin infection that has come from an infectious skin disease on the head or on the lower portion of the face. ³¹ However, when the priest examines the person with the infection that appears to be an itchy, contagious skin infection, he might see that the infection does not seem to be under the skin and that the hair on the infection appears to be healthy. If the priest sees these things, then he should quarantine the person with the infection for one week. ³² On the last day of the week-long quarantine, the priest should examine the person with the infection again. The priest should look to see if the spot that looks like it might be an itchy, contagious skin infection has spread. If the hair on the infection is not bright red in color and the spot does not appear to be under the skin, ³³ the person with the infection should shave all of his or her hair. However, that person should not shave the hair that is near the spot that looks like it might be an itchy, contagious skin infection. Then the priest should quarantine the person for another week. ³⁴ On the last day of the week-long quarantine, the priest should again examine the person who has the infection that looks like it might be an itchy, contagious skin infection. If the infection has not spread on the skin, and it appears to only be skin-deep, then the priest should judge the person to be pure. The pure person should wash and clean his clothes, and then he will be pure once again. ³⁵ However, it may happen that the spot that looked like it might have been an itchy, contagious skin infection later aggressively spreads on the person's skin after the priest judged the person to be pure. ³⁶ If this happens, then the priest should examine him again. The priest should look to see if the spot has spread on the skin. If it has, then the priest need not look for hair that is bright red in color. The person that has the infection that has spread has become impure. ³⁷ However, if, as far as the priest can see, the spot is unchanged and the hair growing on the infected area is healthy, then the infection has healed. {Because it has healed and is not a symptom of an infectious skin disease,} the person is now pure again. So the priest should judge the person to be pure.

³⁸ It may also happen that a man or a woman finds discolored a white spot on their skin. ³⁹ The priest should examine that person. The priest should look to see if the discolored spot on their skin is dull white in color. If it is, then it is a benign rash that has broken out on the skin. {The discolored skin is not a symptom of an infectious skin disease} and the person is still pure.

⁴⁰ It may happen to some men that the hair on the crown of his head starts to thin. If this happens, he is simply balding. He is still pure. ⁴¹ The same is true if the hair at the front of his head starts to thin. He is simply developing a receding hairline. He is still pure. ⁴² However, it may happen that such a man discovers an infection that is reddish-white in color on his balding head, whether his crown is balding or he is developing a receding hairline. If this happens, then the infection is a symptom of an infectious skin disease that has broken out on his balding head, no matter the way in which he is balding. ⁴³ The priest should examine the balding man who has the infection. The priest should look to see if the swollen infection on his balding head—no matter the way in which he is balding—is reddish-white in color, like the way that an infectious skin disease looks on a person's skin. ⁴⁴ If the man's infection looks like this, then he has an infectious skin disease and he is impure. Because the infection on his head has the appearance that it does, the priest surely must judge the man to be impure.

⁴⁵ Anyone who has an infectious skin disease that develops an infection should tear his clothes and let his long hair hang down disheveled. He should also show his shame by covering his upper lip and crying out, ‘I am impure! I have a contagious skin disease! Do not come near me!’ ⁴⁶ As long as he has the infection, he is impure. Because he is impure, he should live alone in a residence outside of the area where everyone else lives.

⁴⁷ Likewise, it might happen that a piece of clothing has on it an infection that is a symptom of an infectious disease. The infection might be on a piece of woolen or linen clothing ⁴⁸ or on one of two linen or woolen threads that someone is weaving together. Alternatively, the infection might be on a scrap piece of leather or on something that is made of leather. ⁴⁹ If the infection on any of these fabrics is greenish or reddish in color, then the infection is a symptom of an infectious disease. Whoever owns the infected piece of clothing must show it to a priest. ⁵⁰ The priest should examine the infected piece of fabric. If it is indeed infected, then he should quarantine it for one week. ⁵¹ On the last day of the week-long quarantine, the priest should examine the infected fabric again. Whenever the infected spot spreads, the infection is actually a symptom of an infectious, malignant disease. This is true whether the fabric is part of a piece of clothing, two threads that the person is weaving together, or a scrap piece of leather (no matter what the person is making from the leather). The piece of fabric is now impure. ⁵² Whoever owns the impure item that has the infection on it should burn the item, no matter what fabric or material it is. Because the infection is a symptom of an infectious malignant disease, he must burn it completely.

⁵³ Alternatively, the priest might examine the infected fabric, and he might see that the infected spot has not spread on it—whether it is a piece of clothing, two threads that someone was weaving together, or anything that someone made from leather. ⁵⁴ If the priest sees that the fabric is indeed infected, then he should tell whoever owns it to wash the section that has the infection on it and put the entire item in a separate place for another week. ⁵⁵ The priest should examine the item a week after the owner has washed the infected fabric. The priest should look to see if the infected item has changed in color, regardless of whether the infection has spread. If the color has changed, the fabric is impure {and should not be used.} Because the infection is actually a rotting fungus, whether on the front or back side of the item, the owner should completely burn the entire item. ⁵⁶ However, when the priest examines the infected fabric after the owner has washed it, he may see that the infection has receded and is now fainter in color. If this has happened, the owner should tear the infected portion of fabric out from the item, whether it is an article of clothing, a scrap piece of leather, or two threads that the person is weaving together. ⁵⁷ The infection may reappear on the fabric, regardless of what type of item is infected. If this happens, the infection is actually a rotting fungus. This time, the owner of the infected fabric must completely burn the entire item. ⁵⁸ However, if, after the owner washes the item, the infection disappears, the owner should wash it a second time, and then it will be pure.

⁵⁹ This is the way that the people of Israel should handle infections that come from infectious diseases that appear on woolen or linen clothing or two threads that a person is weaving together or on a piece of leather. The people of Israel should use instructions to determine whether something is pure or impure.”

Chapter 14

¹ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ² “This is what an Israelite should do to be judged pure when he or she has had an infectious skin disease. The individual should first go to the priest. ³ The priest should meet the person with the infectious skin disease at a location outside the camp and there the priest should examine him. The priest should look to see if the infection is fully healed and no longer contagious. ⁴ If it is, then the priest should tell that person to acquire two living birds that are acceptable to eat, some cedar wood, crimson thread, and some hyssop branches. These items will be required for the priest to cleanse the infected person. ⁵ Next, the priest should tell the infected person to kill one of the birds while he suspends it over a clay pot that contains fresh water. ⁶ Then the priest should grab the bird that is still living, along with the cedar, the crimson thread, and the hyssop branches. The priest should dip all of these items, including the living bird, into the water that now also contains blood from the bird that the person killed. ⁷ The priest should then flick some of the water and blood on the previously infected person whom the priest now intends to cleanse. The priest must flick the blood and water on him seven times. Then the priest should declare that the person is pure {and that he may be with other people again.} Finally, the priest should release the living bird and allow it to fly away toward the open field.

⁸ Then the person whom the priest judged to be pure should go and wash his clothes, shave off all of his hair, and bathe himself thoroughly. When he has done these things, the people of Israel should know that he is pure; he may return to the camp, but he should remain outside his tent for a full week. ⁹ On the last day of that week-long period, that person should shave off all his hair once again, including his head, beard, and eyebrows. He should wash his clothes once again and thoroughly bathe himself. After he does these things, the people of Israel should consider him to be completely pure. {He may be with other people again.}

¹⁰ The very next day, that person should acquire two totally healthy male lambs and a totally healthy, year-old female lamb. He should also acquire about seven liters of wheat flour and mix it with olive oil in order to present it as a grain offering. Finally, he should acquire about a sixth of a liter of olive oil. ¹¹ The priest who judged the person to be pure should make the person whom he is cleansing, along with all of the required items and animals, stand in Yahweh's presence at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

¹² Then the priest should take one of the male lambs and present it to Yahweh to show that he will offer it as a restoring sacrifice. He should also do this with the olive oil. Then priest should wave his hands over the lamb and show the olive oil off in Yahweh's presence in order to demonstrate that he will offer them as a fanned sacrifice. ¹³ Then that person should kill the lamb in the same location in which people regularly kill the purifying and wholly burned sacrifices. This location should be somewhere that the priests have set apart for such sacred purposes. The person should kill the lamb here because the restoring sacrifice is like the purifying sacrifice in this regard: it belongs to the priest for his portion of food. Out of all the gifts that people offer to me, the portion of the sacrifice that the priests keep for themselves for food is specially set apart. ¹⁴ {After catching some of the lamb's blood in a bowl,} the priest should take the blood of the restoring sacrifice and put some of it on the person whom the priest is cleansing—on the lobe of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. ¹⁵ Then the priest should take some of the olive oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. ¹⁶ The priest should then dip his right forefinger into the oil on his left palm and flick that oil seven times with his forefinger toward Yahweh's presence in the Holy Place where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. ¹⁷ Whatever oil is left on the priest's palm he should put on the lobe of the right ear of the person whom the priest is cleansing, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. The priest should put the oil on top of the blood of the purifying sacrifice that he previously put on the person's extremities. ¹⁸ The priest should put whatever oil remains on his palm onto the head of the person whom he is cleansing. When the priest has done this, he will have cleansed the person in Yahweh's presence in the sacred tent. {Yahweh will restore the person and remove the impurity he acquired from his infectious skin disease.}

¹⁹ Then the priest should prepare the purifying sacrifice so that he might make a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept on behalf of the person whom the priest judged to be clean. If he does this, Yahweh will fully cleanse the individual from the impurity that he acquired from his infection. After the priest has offered the purifying sacrifice, the individual whom the priest is cleansing should kill the other lamb so that the priest can begin to prepare the wholly burned sacrifice. ²⁰ The priest should make the wholly burned sacrifice and the grain offering go up to Yahweh in heaven by burning them on the altar in a way that causes smoke to go up. If he does this, the priest will have offered a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept on behalf of the individual whom the priest is cleansing. Yahweh will remove the impurity of his infection from him so that he will be pure once again.

²¹ However, if the person whom the priest is cleansing is poor and cannot afford the two lambs, then he should acquire one lamb for the priest to offer as a restoring sacrifice by waving his hands over the lamb in Yahweh's presence. The individual should offer this lamb so that Yahweh might accept him and remove the impurity of his infection from him. In addition to the lamb, the individual should also acquire about two liters of wheat flour that he has mixed with olive oil and can offer as a grain offering. He should also acquire an additional sixth of a liter of olive oil. ²² He should also acquire two doves or two pigeons—whichever he can afford. He should offer one of these birds as a purifying sacrifice and the other as a wholly burned sacrifice.

²³ Seven days after the priest judged him to be pure, the individual should bring the animals, the flour, and olive oil to the priest at the entrance of the sacred tent, where he may offer them in Yahweh's presence. He should bring them all so that Yahweh may fully cleanse him from the impurity of his infection. ²⁴ Then the priest should take the lamb that the individual is offering as a restoring sacrifice. He should also take the olive oil. He should wave his hands over them to show Yahweh that these are sacrifices that the individual will offer in Yahweh's presence. ²⁵ Then the individual should kill the lamb that he is offering as a purifying sacrifice {and catch some of its blood in a bowl.} The priest should take some of the lamb's blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the person whom the priest is cleansing, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. ²⁶ Then the priest should take some of the olive oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. ²⁷ The priest {should then dip his right forefinger into the oil on his left palm and} flick that oil seven times toward Yahweh's presence in the Holy Place where Yahweh lives among the Israelites. ²⁸ Whatever oil is left on the priest's palm he should put on the lobe of the right ear of the person whom the priest is cleansing, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. The priest should put the oil on top of the blood of the restoring sacrifice that he previously put on the person's extremities. ²⁹ The priest should put whatever oil remains on his palm onto the head of the person whom the priest is cleansing. When the priest has done this, Yahweh will have cleansed the person in his presence. {Yahweh will restore the person and remove the impurity he acquired from his infectious skin disease.} ³⁰ Then the priest should take one of the birds that the person has been able to afford—whichever type, the dove or the pigeon—and prepare it for the sacrifice. ³¹ {The priest should kill the birds that the person acquired and butcher them in the usual way.} He should offer one as a purifying sacrifice and the other as a wholly burned sacrifice. The priest should do this by placing them on the altar so that he might offer in Yahweh's presence a sacrifice that Yahweh will accept on behalf of the person whom the priest has judged to be clean. Yahweh will restore the individual and remove the impurity of his infection from him.

³² This is what the person who contracts an infection from an infectious skin disease, who is also poor and cannot afford the usual offerings, should do so that Yahweh can cleanse him from the impurity of his infection.”

³³ Then Yahweh said to Aaron and Moses, ³⁴ “I am about to give the people of Israel the land of Canaan, which will belong to them permanently. When the people enter that land, it may happen that I cause an infectious mildew to appear in or on one of the people's family homes. ³⁵ Whenever that happens, the owner of the house should go and inform the priest that there is something in his house that looks like mildew. ³⁶ The priest should tell him to open all the windows and take everything out of the house before the priest comes to examine the mildew. If he does not do this, the priest should judge everything and everyone in the house to be impure. However, if the person does what the priest asks, then the priest should enter the house to examine it. ³⁷ The priest should then inspect the house for mildew. Specifically, he should look to see if the mildew has broken out into spots that are greenish or reddish in color on the plaster on the walls. He should also look to see if the mildew appears to be deeper than the surface of the plaster. ³⁸ If the priest sees these things, then he should immediately leave the house through the front door and quarantine the house for a full week. ³⁹ On the last day of that week-long quarantine, the priest should return to the house and inspect it again. He should look to see if the mildew on the plaster of the walls has spread. ⁴⁰ If it has, then the priest should tell the owner of the house to tear out every stone in the wall that bears the mildew and cast the infected stones wherever people dispose of impure items outside of the city ⁴¹ After the owner has removed all the infected stones, he must scrape every wall of the house clean, both inside and outside. The owner must dispose of all the plaster that he scrapes off in the same location where people dispose of impure items outside of the city ⁴² Then the owner of the house should acquire new stones to replace the ones that bear the mildew. He should also acquire new plaster and replaster the stones in the walls of the house.

⁴³ It may happen that the mildew returns and spreads on the walls of the house after the owner of the house has removed the infected stones, scraped the walls clean, and replastered them. ⁴⁴ If this has happened, then the priest should go to the house and examine it again. He should look to see if the mildew has spread on the plaster of the walls of the house. If it has, then the mildew is actually a malignant mold. The priest should judge the house to be impure {and no one should live in it.} ⁴⁵ The owner of the house must completely tear it down. He should remove the stones, the timber, and all the plaster. The owner of the house should dispose of everything wherever people dispose of impure items outside of the city.

⁴⁶ The priest should make sure that he judges anyone who goes into that house while he has quarantined it to be impure until the evening of the day on which they entered the house. ⁴⁷ Anyone who sleeps in that house or eats in it during that time must wash and clean his clothes.

⁴⁸ Alternatively, whenever the priest comes to examine the house after the owner has replastered it, the priest might see that the mildew has not spread on the walls. If it has not, then, because the cleaning process has stopped the mold, the priest should judge the house to be pure again. ⁴⁹ In order to purify the house, the owner should acquire two birds, some cedar wood, crimson thread, and some hyssop branches. ⁵⁰ The owner of the house should kill one of the birds while suspending it over a clay pot containing fresh water. ⁵¹ Then he should take the cedar wood, the hyssop branches, the crimson thread, and the bird that is still alive and dip them into the mixture of the blood of the bird that the owner of the house has just killed and the flesh water. He should flick some of that blood and water onto the house seven times. ⁵² By doing this with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop branches, and the crimson thread, the owner will be able to purify the house. ⁵³ The owner of the house should release the bird that is still alive and allow it to fly away outside the city toward an open field. By doing this, he will have asked Yahweh to accept the house and remove from it the impurity that the house acquired from the infectious mold. When Yahweh does this, the house will be pure once again.

⁵⁴ So, those are the instructions for handling any infections that are symptoms of infectious skin diseases, itchy skin irritations, ⁵⁵ infections in fabric or in a house, ⁵⁶ and swellings, rashes, or discolored spots on someone's skin. ⁵⁷ These instructions will teach the priests and the people of Israel how to determine when something or someone is impure and when they are impure. These are the instructions for handling various types of infectious diseases.”

Chapter 15

¹ Then Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, ² “Tell the people of Israel that any man might have a discharge come from his genitals. Whenever this happens, the people of Israel should consider this discharge to be impure. ³ Now, this is how the people of Israel should deal with these types of discharges that have the potential to make people impure. It does not matter whether the man's genitals have secreted the discharge or whether there is a blockage in the man's genitals; the people of Israel should consider this man to be impure.

⁴ The people should consider any bed on which the man who has had a discharge lies to also be impure. Additionally, they should consider any furniture on which the man sits to be impure. ⁵ Anyone who touches that man's bed should wash and clean his clothes and bathe thoroughly. That person should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the man's bed. ⁶ Anyone who sits on any furniture on which the man who has had a discharge has sat should also wash his clothes and bathe thoroughly. That person should likewise consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he sat on the impure man's furniture.

⁷ In the same way, anyone who touches the man who has had a discharge should wash his clothes and bathe thoroughly. The person should also consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the impure man.

⁸ It may happen that the man who has had a discharge spits on someone who is still pure. If this occurs, the person on whom the impure man spat should wash his clothes and bathe thoroughly. He should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which the impure man spat on him.

⁹ The people of Israel should also consider any clothing or saddle on which the man who has had a discharge rides to be just as impure. ¹⁰ Anyone who touches anything that was under him while he rode should also consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the impure man's clothing or saddle on which he rode. Likewise, anyone who picks up or carries whatever was under him while he rode should wash his clothes and bathe thoroughly. He should also consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he lifted or carried the impure man's means of riding. ¹¹ It may happen that the man who has had a discharge touches someone without first washing his hands. If this happens, the person he touched should wash his clothes and bathe thoroughly. That person should also consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which the impure man touched him.

¹² It may happen that the man who has had a discharge touches a clay pot. If this happens, whoever owns the pot should shatter it. However, if the man touches a wooden utensil, whoever owns the utensil may rinse it with water.

¹³ It may happen that a man who has had a discharge recovers and no longer experiences any discharge. If this happens, the man should remain as he is for one full week in order to prepare for the day when Yahweh will cleanse him from his impurity. During this time, he should wash his clothes and make sure to bathe and clean his genitals with fresh water. If he does this, he should consider himself to be pure once again. ¹⁴ On the last day of that week, he should acquire two doves or two pigeons and come into Yahweh's presence at the entrance of the sacred tent. There, the man should give the birds he acquired to the priest. ¹⁵ The priest should prepare the birds as sacrifices to Yahweh. One of the birds should be a purifying sacrifice and the other should be a wholly burned sacrifice. When the priest offers these sacrifices in Yahweh's presence, Yahweh will accept them and restore the man. Yahweh will remove from the man the impurity he acquired from his impure discharge.

¹⁶ It may also happen that a man experiences a seminal emission. When this happens, the man should bathe his whole body, including his genitals, thoroughly. The man should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he experienced the emission. ¹⁷ The man who had the emission should thoroughly wash any clothing or leather that came into contact with the semen. He should consider that piece of clothing or leather to be impure until the evening of the day on which they came into contact with the semen. ¹⁸ It may happen that a man has sexual relations with a woman and experiences a seminal emission. When this happens, both the man and the woman should bathe themselves thoroughly. They should consider themselves to be impure until the evening of the day on which they had sexual relations.

¹⁹ Similarly, it may happen that a woman experiences her menstrual period, such that blood discharges from her genitals. When this happens, she should remain as she is for a full week. During this period, whoever touches the menstruating woman should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched her. ²⁰ The people of Israel should consider any furniture on which the menstruating woman lies or sits to be impure. ²¹ Anyone who touches a menstruating woman's bed should wash and clean his clothes and bathe thoroughly. That person should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the menstruating woman's bed. ²² Anyone who touches any furniture on which a menstruating woman has sat should also wash his clothes and bathe thoroughly. That person should likewise consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the menstruating woman's bed or her furniture. ²³ It may happen that there was something on the menstruating woman's bed or on a piece of furniture on which the menstruating woman sat. When someone touches that object, he should consider himself to be unclean until the evening of the day on which he touched that object.

²⁴ It may occasionally happen that a man has sexual relations with a menstruating woman such that he comes into contact with her menstrual blood. If this happens, he should consider himself to be impure for a full week. The people of Israel should consider any bed on which that man lies to be impure as well.

²⁵ It may also happen that a woman experiences an extended discharge of blood when she is not normally menstruating, or her discharge continues for an inordinate amount of time. If this happens, as long as she experiences a discharge of blood, she should consider herself to be impure, just as when she experiences her normal menstruation. ²⁶ As long as the woman experiences this type of unusual bloody discharge, the people of Israel should consider any bed on which she lies or any furniture on which she sits to be impure, just as is the case when women normally menstruate and become temporarily impure. ²⁷ Anyone who touches the woman's bed or furniture should consider himself to be unclean. He should wash and clean his clothes and bathe thoroughly. That person should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the woman's bed or furniture.

²⁸ It may happen that a woman who has experienced an unusual bloody discharge recovers and no longer experiences any discharge. If this happens, the woman should remain as she is for one full week in order to prepare for the day when Yahweh will cleanse her from her impurity. After this period, she should consider herself to be pure once again. ²⁹ On the last day of that week, the woman should acquire two doves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the sacred tent. ³⁰ The priest should prepare the birds as sacrifices to Yahweh. One of the birds should be a purifying sacrifice and the other should be a wholly burned sacrifice. When the priest offers these sacrifices in Yahweh's presence, Yahweh will accept them and restore the woman. He will remove from her the impurity she acquired from her impure bloody discharge.

³¹ The people of Israel must follow these instructions in order to distinguish themselves from that which is impure among them. If they are able to do this, they will not desecrate the sacred place in which I live among them and so I will not kill them. {But if they continue to make themselves impure, I will kill them when they desecrate the sacred place in which I live among them.}

³² So, this is what the people of Israel should do when someone experiences a discharge—whenever a man has a seminal emission and so becomes impure, ³³ whenever any woman menstruates normally, whenever anyone, whether a man or a woman, has a bodily discharge, or whenever a man has sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period.”

Chapter 16

¹ After the two sons of Aaron died because they burned incense to Yahweh in a manner that was contrary to what he had commanded, Yahweh spoke to Moses. ² He said to him, “Tell your brother Aaron not to go into the very holy place, which is inside the inmost curtain, where the sacred chest and its lid are, and where I am present in the cloud that is over it. If Aaron goes in that room when it is not the proper time, he will die!

³ When Aaron enters the very holy place in the sacred tent, he must bring a bull that will be killed to become an offering for sins, and a ram to be killed to be an offering that the priests will burn whole on the altar. ⁴ Then Aaron must bathe his whole body and put on the linen underwear and the linen tunic. He must tie the linen sash around his waist and wrap the turban around his head. These are his sacred garments. ⁵ The Israelite people must then bring to him two male goats to be killed as an offering for sin, and a ram to be killed and burned whole on the altar.

⁶ Aaron must offer the bull to me to be a sacrifice in order that I will forgive his sins and his family’s sins. ⁷ Then he must bring the two male goats to me at the entrance to the sacred tent. ⁸ He must cast lots to determine which goat will be sacrificed to me and which will be the goat that he will set free. ⁹ Aaron must bring to me the goat that was chosen to be sacrificed. It will be an offering for the people’s sins. ¹⁰ Aaron must also bring to me the other goat. But it is not to be killed. It will be freed while it is still alive. When Aaron sends it into the wilderness, I will forgive the people’s sins.

¹¹ Then Aaron must bring the young bull to me, for it to be an offering for himself and for his family. He must slaughter that bull to be an offering for their sins, and he must drain the blood into a basin. ¹² Then he must take some burning coals from the bronze altar and put them into the incense burner. Then he must fill his hands with fragrant, finely ground incense. Then he must take the incense and the incense burner inside the curtain into the very holy place, in the sacred tent. ¹³ In the presence of Yahweh, he must put the incense on the burning coals. And a cloud of burning incense will rise up over the lid of the sacred chest. If he obeys these instructions, he will not die when he presents these offerings to Yahweh. ¹⁴ Then Aaron must dip his finger into the basin and sprinkle some blood on the lid of the sacred chest, and also sprinkle some blood seven times against the front of the chest.

¹⁵ Aaron must then go outside the sacred tent and slaughter the goat, for it to be an offering for the sins of the people. Then he must bring its blood into the very holy place behind the curtain. There he must sprinkle some of that blood on the lid of the sacred chest and against the front of the chest, as he did with the bull’s blood. ¹⁶ By doing that, he will purify the very holy place. And he must sprinkle more of the blood on the sacred tent, because I am present where the tent is, in the midst of the camp of the Israelite people, who have become unacceptable to me because of their sins. ¹⁷ When Aaron goes into the very holy place in the sacred tent to purify it, no one else is permitted to enter the other part of the sacred tent. Only after Aaron has performed rituals to enable me to forgive him and his family, and all the Israelite people, is any priest permitted to enter the sacred tent.

¹⁸ Then Aaron must go outside the tent to purify my altar. He must do this by smearing some of the blood from the bull and some of the blood from the goat on each of the projections at the corners of the altar. ¹⁹ Then Aaron must dip his finger into the basin of blood and sprinkle some of the blood over the altar seven times. By doing that, he will separate the altar from the Israelites’ deeds that are unacceptable to me. The altar will be set apart for me.

²⁰ When Aaron has finished purifying the very holy place inside the sacred tent and all of the sacred tent and the altar, he must bring the goat that was chosen to be set free. ²¹ He must put both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess all the sins of the Israelite people. By doing that, he will put the guilt of their sins on the goat’s head. Then he must give the goat to a man who is chosen, and that man will send the goat out into the wilderness. ²² I will view the goat as carrying away into the wilderness the guilt for all the sins that the people have committed.

²³ When Aaron leaves the very holy place and goes into the other part of the sacred tent, he must take off the linen clothes that he had put on; he must leave those special clothes there. ²⁴ Then he must bathe in a sacred place, put on his regular clothes, and sacrifice the animals that he will burn whole on the altar, for his own sins and for the sins of the Israelite people. Then Yahweh will forgive their sins. ²⁵ He must also burn on the altar all the fat of the two animals that were sacrificed.

²⁶ After the man who was to lead the goat into the wilderness has done that and set it free, then he must return, wash his clothes, and bathe himself. Then he may enter the camp again. ²⁷ The carcasses of the bull and the goat that were slaughtered as an offering for the people’s sins, to make atonement for them, must be carried outside the camp and burned. The hides of these animals, their inner organs, and their dung must be burned. ²⁸ The man who burns those things must then wash his clothes and bathe before he comes back into the camp.

²⁹ On the tenth day of the seventh month, on the day that I have appointed, you all must fast and not do any work. This is a rule that you must always obey—all you native born Israelites and all the foreigners living among you. ³⁰ On that day, Aaron will perform rituals to enable me to forgive you all, and then I will free you all from the guilt of all your sins. ³¹ That will be a day for you to rest and not do any work, like the Sabbath days, and you must fast all that day. That is a permanent command for you all to obey. ³² The priest who is anointed with olive oil and set apart from others to serve Yahweh, he will offer a sacrifice, put on linen clothes that are set apart for the honor of God, ³³ and offer sacrifices. He will do this to purify the very holy place, all of the sacred tent, the altar, the priests, and all the Israelites, as Aaron did. ³⁴ This will be a permanent command for you to obey once every year, to enable me to forgive you Israelite people for the sins that you have committed.”

Moses obeyed all the instructions that Yahweh had given to him.

Chapter 17

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, ² “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the other Israelites. Tell them that I am giving them the following commands: ³ If you sacrifice an ox, a lamb, or a goat, you must bring it to the priest at the entrance to the area of the sacred tent, so that he may present it to me there. ⁴ If you slaughter it anywhere else as a sacrifice, whether in the camp or outside of it, you will be guilty of shedding its blood in an unacceptable place. If you do that, you will no longer be allowed to be with Yahweh’s people. ⁵ Yahweh is telling you to do this so that you will no longer offer sacrifices in the open fields; instead, you must offer them to him in the proper manner: By taking them to the priest at the entrance to the area of the sacred tent, to be offerings to promise friendship with him. ⁶ After the priest slaughters the animal, he must sprinkle some of its blood against the altar at the entrance to the sacred tent, and burn its fat for an aroma that is pleasing to Yahweh. ⁷ You people must no longer give sacrifices to the images that resemble goats. You people must obey this command for all time.”

⁸ Yahweh also said this to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons to tell the people that if any Israelite or any foreigner living among them brings an offering for a priest to burn whole on the altar, or if he brings any other sacrifice, ⁹ but if he does not bring it to the entrance of the sacred tent area as be a sacrifice to me, that person will no longer be allowed to be with my people.

¹⁰ I will reject any Israelite or any foreigner who is living among you who consumes the blood of any animal, and he will no longer be allowed to associate with my people. ¹¹ That is because the life of every animal is in its blood. I have declared that it is blood that is to be offered on the altar, so that I will forgive people their sins. ¹² That is why I say that neither you Israelites, nor any foreigner living among you, may consume any blood.

¹³ If any of you Israelites or any foreigner who is living among you goes hunting and kills an animal or bird that I allow you to eat, you must drain out its blood onto the ground and cover it with earth. ¹⁴ This is because the life of every creature is in its blood. That is why I have said to you Israelites that anyone who consumes blood from an animal must no longer be allowed to associate with my people.

¹⁵ If any of you Israelites or any foreigner who is living among you eats any meat from an animal that died or that was killed by wild animals, you must wash your clothes and bathe. Then you must not touch anyone else until that evening. ¹⁶ If you do not obey this rule, I will certainly punish you.’”

Chapter 18

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, ² “Speak to the Israelite people and tell them that I, Yahweh, say this, ‘I am Yahweh, your God. ³ After seeing how the Egyptians behaved, among whom you also lived, you must not do what they did. And you must not behave as the Canaanites live, into whose land I am taking you. You must avoid their practices. ⁴ You must obey all of my laws; you must do everything that I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you. ⁵ If you obey all my decrees and laws, you will continue to remain alive for a long time. I, Yahweh, am promising you this. Here are some of my laws.

⁶ Do not sleep with any of your close relatives. It is I, Yahweh, who am commanding that.

⁷ Do not disgrace your father by sleeping with your mother. Do not disgrace your mother in this manner.

⁸ Do not sleep with any of your father’s other wives, because that would disgrace your father.

⁹ Do not sleep with either your full sister or half-sister. It does not matter whether she was born and raised in your house or somewhere else.

¹⁰ Do not sleep with your granddaughter, because that would disgrace you.

¹¹ Do not sleep with your half-sister, one whose father is also your father; she is your sister.

¹² Do not sleep with your father’s sister, because she is your father’s close relative.

¹³ Do not sleep with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.

¹⁴ Do not disgrace your father’s brother by sleeping with his wife, because she is your aunt.

¹⁵ Do not sleep with your daughter-in-law, because she is your son’s wife.

¹⁶ Do not sleep with your brother’s wife, because that would disgrace your brother.

¹⁷ Do not sleep with the daughter or granddaughter of any woman with whom you have previously slept. They are her close relatives. Sleeping with any of them would be an evil thing to do.

¹⁸ While your wife is still living, do not marry your wife’s sister and sleep with her.

¹⁹ Do not sleep with any woman while she is having her menstrual period.

²⁰ Do not defile yourself by sleeping with someone else’s wife.

²¹ Do not give any of your children to be burned to be as a sacrifice to the god Molech, because that would dishonor me, Yahweh, your God.

²² No man should sleep with another man. That is detestable.

²³ No one, man or woman, should defile himself by sleeping with an animal. That is a perverse action.

²⁴ Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because doing these things is how the people of the nations became unacceptable to me, the people groups that I will drive out as you advance into the land that I am giving you. ²⁵ They even caused the land to become defiled, so I punished them for their sins, and it was as though the land had vomited out the people who lived there. ²⁶ But you must all obey my laws and decrees. This includes both you people who were born here and the foreigners who live among you. ²⁷ As for all those detestable things, before you came, the people who lived in this land did them, and they defiled the land. ²⁸ So if you also defile the land, I will get rid of you as I got rid of the people of those nations that were here before you came.

²⁹ You must not allow people who do any of those detestable things to associate with you, who are my people. ³⁰ Obey all that I command you to do, and do not defile yourselves by following any of the disgusting habits of the people who were there before you came. I, Yahweh your God, am the one who is commanding these things.’”

Chapter 19

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, ² “Speak to all the people of Israel and tell them this: ‘You must be holy, because Yahweh your God is holy, and he wants you to be like him.

³ Each of you must respect your father and your mother. And you must honor the Sabbath days. It is Yahweh, your God, who is commanding you to do these things.

⁴ Do not worship idols, which are worth nothing, or make metal statues of gods for yourselves. Yahweh is your God; it is he who is telling you this. He is the only one you must worship.’

⁵ Yahweh also says this: ‘When you bring an offering to promise friendship with me, offer it in a way that I will accept. ⁶ The meat should be eaten on the day that you sacrifice it, but you may eat some of it on the next day. However, you must burn anything that remains until the third day. ⁷ For any of it to be eaten on the third day is very displeasing to me, and I will not accept that offering. ⁸ I will punish anyone who eats it after the second day, because he will have not respected what I say is holy. And that person must no longer be allowed to associate with my people.

⁹ When you harvest your grain, leave the grain standing at the edges of the field and in the corners. Do not pick up the sheaves that have fallen to the ground. ¹⁰ And when you harvest your grapes, do not go back a second time to try to harvest some more, and do not pick up the grapes that have fallen on the ground. Leave those things for the poor people and for foreigners who are living among you. I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you those things.

¹¹ Do not steal anything.

Do not tell lies.

Do not deceive each other.

¹² Do not call upon me to punish you if you say something that you know is false. If you do this, you will dishonor me. Do not forget that I am Yahweh, your God.

¹³ Do not cheat anyone or steal from anyone.

If you have agreed to pay your workers at the end of the day, do what you have promised. Do not keep those wages until the next day.

¹⁴ Do not curse deaf people, and do not put things in the path of blind people to cause them to stumble. I, Yahweh, am commanding this.

¹⁵ Always judge people fairly. Do not do special favors for either poor people or rich people.

¹⁶ Do not spread false rumors about other people.

Do not remain silent in court if your testimony would keep an innocent person being executed. I, Yahweh, am commanding this.

¹⁷ Do not hate anyone. Instead, honestly rebuke others who ought to be rebuked, in order that you also will not be guilty.

¹⁸ Do not try to get revenge against someone or be angry with someone for a long time. Instead, love other people like you love yourself. I, Yahweh your God, am commanding this.

¹⁹ Obey my laws.

Do not allow two different kinds of animals to mate with each other.

Do not plant two different kinds of seed in the same field.

Do not wear clothing made from two different kinds of material.

²⁰ If a man sleeps with a slave woman who has been promised to marry some other man, but if she has not been bought by that man and is still a slave, these two people must be punished. But because she was still a slave, she and the man who slept with her must not be executed. ²¹ However, that man must bring a ram to be slaughtered at the entrance of the sacred tent area, to be an offering in order that he no longer be guilty for his sin. ²² The priest will offer that ram to me. Then I will forgive that man for the sin which he committed.

²³ When you enter the land that I have promised to give to you, and when you plant various kinds of fruit trees, you must not eat any of their fruit for three years. ²⁴ In the fourth year you must set aside all of their fruit to belong to me; you must set it apart as holy, an offering to give me praise. ²⁵ But in the fifth year, you will be permitted to eat their fruit. If you do that, your trees will produce much fruit. I, Yahweh your God, am promising that.

²⁶ Do not eat any meat that still has the animal’s blood in it.

Do not consult spirits to find out what will happen in the future, and do not practice sorcery.

²⁷ Do not shave the hair at the sides of your heads as pagan people do.

²⁸ Do not cut your bodies when you are mourning for people who have died, and do not put tattoos on your bodies. I, Yahweh your God, am commanding this.

²⁹ Do not disgrace your daughters by forcing them to become prostitutes. If you cause them to become prostitutes, soon the land will be filled with prostitutes and all other kinds of people’s wicked behavior.

³⁰ Honor my Sabbath days and revere my sacred tent, because I am Yahweh.

³¹ Do not seek advice from those who try to get the spirits of dead people give them advice. If you do that, I will no longer accept you. I am Yahweh your God.

³² Stand up when old people enter the room, and show that you respect them. You must also honor me, your God; that is who I am.

³³ When foreigners live among you in your land, do not mistreat them. ³⁴ You must treat them like you treat your fellow citizens. Love them as you love yourselves, and do not forget that once when you were foreigners in Egypt you were badly mistreated by the people of Egypt. I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you to do this.

³⁵ When you are measuring things, to see how long they are or how much they weigh or how many there are, ³⁶ use correct measuring sticks and scales and weights on the scales and measuring baskets and other measuring containers. I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you out of Egypt.

³⁷ Obey carefully all my laws and decrees. It is I, Yahweh, who am commanding you these things.’”

Chapter 20

¹ Yahweh also said this to Moses: ² “Tell the Israelite people, ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner who is living in Israel who sacrifices any of his children as an offering to the idol Molech must die. The people of the town must kill him by throwing stones at him. ³ I will reject such people and cause them to no longer be with my people because he has given his child to Molech, so as to defile my holy place and profane my holy name. ⁴ If the people of that man’s town ignore it when he kills any of his children to offer him to Molech, and if they do not execute that person, ⁵ I myself will punish that person and his clan. I will command that he must no longer be with my people. And I will do the same thing to any others who are unfaithful to me and who worship Molech.

⁶ I will reject those who go to those who consult the spirits of dead people, or who go to fortune tellers who ask spirits to advise them. I will reject such people; they will no longer be with my own people.

⁷ Set yourselves apart for my honor, so that you may belong to me, because I am Yahweh your God. ⁸ Carefully obey everything that I have commanded you. I am Yahweh, the one who sets you apart from the other peoples so that I am honored.

⁹ If anyone curses his father or his mother, you must execute him. He himself will be responsible for his own death.

¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with some other man’s wife, then you must execute both of them, the man and the woman. They have committed adultery.

¹¹ If a man sleeps with one of his father’s wives, he has dishonored his father. So you must execute both that man and woman; they will be responsible for their own deaths.

¹² If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, you must execute them both. They have exchanged good for evil; they both deserve to die.

¹³ If two men have slept together, they have done something detestable. You must execute them both; they will be responsible for their own deaths.

¹⁴ If a man marries both a woman and her mother, that is a wicked thing. You must burn all three of them to death, in order that no one among you continues to commit such an evil deed.

¹⁵ If a man sleeps with an animal, you must execute both him and that animal.

¹⁶ Similarly, if a woman sleeps with an animal, you must execute both her and that animal. They will be responsible for their own deaths.

¹⁷ If a man sleeps with his sister, the daughter of either his mother or his father—if they have slept together, that is disgraceful. They will no longer be with my people. Because he has slept with his sister, he is guilty.

¹⁸ If a man sleeps with a woman during her menstrual period, they have both revealed her flowing blood, so neither of them must be with my people anymore.

¹⁹ No man must sleep with the sister of either his father or his mother, because he would be disgracing someone who is a close relative. You must punish such a man, as well as the woman.

²⁰ If a man sleeps with his uncle’s wife, he has dishonored his uncle. What for they have done, they must be responsible for their actions. And when they die, their children would be stripped of the rights to any inheritance they would have received from their parents.

²¹ If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is a sin because he has dishonored his brother’s marriage. The rights of inheritance would be stripped away from any children they would have received from from their parents.

²² Obey all my decrees and laws carefully, in order that you will not have to leave the land to which I am bringing you. ²³ Do not imitate the customs of the people of the land from which I am going to drive them out, as you advance into it. I hate them because they have done all those things. ²⁴ But I said to you, “You will take their land from them. I will give it to you to be yours, a land that is very fertile. I am Yahweh your God, who has set you apart from the people of other nations.”

²⁵ So you must distinguish between birds and animals that are unacceptable to me and those that are acceptable to me. Do not defile yourselves by eating birds or animals, or anything that crawls along on the ground, things that I have said are unacceptable for you. ²⁶ You must live as a people who are set apart for my honor, because I, Yahweh, am also set apart and I do everything for my honor. I have taken you out of the other nations, because you are mine.

²⁷ You must execute any man or woman among you who consults the spirits of dead people or other spirits. Kill them by throwing stones at them; they will be responsible for their own deaths.’”

Chapter 21

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, ² ‘You priests must not cause yourselves to become unfit to do my work by touching any dead body. You are permitted to touch only the corpses of close relatives, such as your mother, father, son, daughter or your brother. ³ You may also touch the corpse of a sister if she is not married and has been living in your house, because she has no husband to bury her. ⁴ You priests must not cause yourselves to become unfit to do my work by touching the dead bodies of other relatives of yours.

⁵ You priests must not shave your heads or the edges of your beards; you must not cut your bodies to show that you are mourning for someone who has died. ⁶ You must act in ways that I, your God, consider to be suitable for you, my priests; you must not disgrace me. You are the ones who will present to me the offerings that you will burn. These offerings will be made to me from your food supplies. So you must act in ways that are suitable, because you honor me.

⁷ You priests must not marry women who have been prostitutes or who have been divorced from their husbands, because you priests are set apart for God. ⁸ You must remember that I have set you apart to worship me. It is as though you were offering food to me, your God. Regard yourselves as belonging to me, because I, Yahweh, am the one who made you to be priests, and I have nothing to do with any evil—I am holy.

⁹ If a priest’s daughter becomes a prostitute, she disgraces her father, and you must burn her in a fire.

¹⁰ The high priest is the one among his relatives who has been appointed for that work by having his head anointed with olive oil. He is also the one who has been appointed to wear the garments that are made and set apart for the honor of Yahweh. He must not allow the hair on his head to remain uncombed, and he must not tear his clothes when he is mourning for someone. ¹¹ He must not enter any place where there is a corpse. He must not do that and cause himself to become unfit for his work, even if it is his father or his mother who has died. ¹² He must not leave the sacred tent to join those who are mourning, because he would cause himself to become unfit for his work and would also defile the sacred tent. He must not leave the sacred tent at that time, because by being anointed with olive oil he has been appointed to serve his God in the sacred tent. I, Yahweh, am the one who am commanding this.

¹³ Women whom you priests marry must be virgins. ^14-15 You priests must not marry widows or prostitutes or divorced women, because if you do that, and if you later have sons, they will not be acceptable to be priests among your people. You must marry only virgins from among your own people. I am Yahweh, who sets priests apart for my honor and for those who worship me.’”

¹⁶ Yahweh also said to Moses, ¹⁷ “Say this to Aaron: ‘For all future time, none of your descendants who has any defects on his body will be allowed to come near the altar to offer sacrifices to me which will be like my food. ¹⁸ No one who is blind or lame or deformed, or whose face is disfigured, ¹⁹ no man with a crippled foot or a crippled hand, ²⁰ no man who has a hunchback or an abnormally short person, no man whose eyes are defective, no man who has a skin disease or whose private parts have been damaged. ²¹ No descendant of Aaron, the first high priest, who has any defect is allowed to come to the altar to offer to me, his God, sacrifices that will be burned. ²² Priests who have defects are permitted to eat the various kinds of holy food offered to me. ²³ But because of their defects, they must not go near the curtain in the sacred tent or near the altar, because if they did that, they would desecrate my sacred tent. I am Yahweh, the one who sets those places apart for myself and for my honor.’”

²⁴ So Moses told this to Aaron and to his sons and to all the Israelite people.

Chapter 22

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, ² “Explain to Aaron and his sons about when they should not touch or eat any food that the people have dedicated to me by giving it as a sacrifice. They must not dishonor me or my name. I am Yahweh.

³ Tell them that for all future time, if they or any of their descendants become unfit for any reason to do the work that priests must do, they must not go near anything the people of Israel have dedicated to me as an offering. Anyone who violates this rule will no longer be part of my people. I am Yahweh.

⁴ If any descendant of Aaron has a contagious skin disease or a discharge from his private parts, he is not allowed to eat any of the sacred offerings until he is cured. He will also be unfit for his work if he touches anything that has touched a corpse, or if he touches anyone who has an emission of semen, ⁵ or if he touches anything that crawls on the ground, or if he touches any person who causes him to be unfit for his work. ⁶ Any priest who touches anything unclean will be unclean until evening. He must not eat any of the holy things, unless he first washes his body with water. ⁷ After the sun sets, he may eat food from the sacred offerings, because they are now his food that is to be eaten. ⁸ But he must not eat anything that has died a natural death or that has been killed by wild animals, because if he did that, he would be unfit to work for me. I, Yahweh, am commanding those things.

⁹ The priests must obey my commandments; they must not despise them, or they will become guilty and die. I am Yahweh, the one who sets them apart for my honor.

¹⁰ No one who does not belong to a priest’s family is permitted to eat from the sacred offering. No one who is visiting the priest, or one that has been hired by the priest, none of them is permitted to eat it. ¹¹ But if a priest buys a slave, or if a slave is born in his house, that slave is permitted to eat such food. ¹² If a priest’s daughter marries a man who is not a priest, she is no longer permitted to eat the sacred foods that were given to Yahweh as gifts or offerings. ¹³ But suppose that a priest’s daughter who has no children becomes a widow or becomes divorced, and suppose also that she returns to her father’s house to live there as she did when she was young. In that case, she may eat the same food that her father eats. But no other person is permitted to eat any of it.

¹⁴ If anyone who is not permitted to eat a sacred offering eats it without realizing that it is sacred, he must pay the priest for the food and add an extra one-fifth to it. ¹⁵ When the priests bring offerings to me, the sacred offerings that the Israelite people bring to them, they must not treat those offerings as though they were not special to me; ¹⁶ the people must not allow anyone who is not a priest to eat any of those offerings. If they did that, they would become guilty. I am Yahweh, the one who sets the Israelite people apart from other people and makes them holy for my honor.”

¹⁷ Yahweh also said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelite people and tell them that I say this to them, ‘If any of you Israelites or foreigners who live in Israel brings to me an animal that will be completely burned on the altar, either as a result of a solemn promise that you made to me or to be an offering that is given voluntarily, ¹⁹ you must bring from your cattle or sheep or goats an animal that has no defects, in order that I may accept it. ²⁰ Do not bring any animals that have defects, because I will not accept them for you. ²¹ Similarly, when someone brings from his cattle or sheep or goats an offering to promise friendship with me, either to fulfill a promise that he made to me or to be a voluntary offering—for me to accept it, it must have no defects or blemishes. ²² Do not offer to me animals that are blind or injured or maimed, or any animal that has warts or a festering sore. ²³ You may present to me to be a voluntary offering an ox or a sheep that is injured or stunted, but it will not be accepted to fulfill a promise made to me. ²⁴ You must not offer to me animals whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn or cut. You must not present these kind of damaged animals as offerings to Yahweh anywhere in the land where you live, ²⁵ and you must not accept such animals that are sold to you by a foreigner. You must not offer them to me as food for me. Such animals will not be accepted by me, because they are deformed or have defects.’”

²⁶ Yahweh also said to Moses, ²⁷ “When a calf or lamb or goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. After that, it can be accepted to be an offering to me that will be burned. ²⁸ Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its newborn young on the same day.

²⁹ When you sacrifice an animal to thank me for what I have done, sacrifice it in a way that I will accept. ³⁰ The meat must be eaten on that day. Do not leave any of it until the next morning. I, Yahweh, am the one who is commanding this.

³¹ Obey all my commands. I, Yahweh, am commanding them. ³² Do not dishonor me by disobeying them. You Israelite people must acknowledge that I, Yahweh, am holy, and I am the one who causes you to be holy. ³³ And I am the one who brought you out of Egypt in order that I, Yahweh, will be your God.”

Chapter 23

¹ Yahweh said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelites about the festivals for Yahweh, the days when you all must gather together in holy assemblies on set times each year, as festivals in which you worship me.

³ You may work for six days each week, but on the seventh day you must not do any work. You must rest. It is a sacred day when you must gather together to worship me. Wherever you live, you must rest on that day.

⁴ There are festivals that I am establishing for you. These will be sacred days when you must gather together to worship me. ⁵ The first festival is the Passover. That festival will begin at twilight on the appointed day each spring and end the following day. ⁶ The next day will begin the Festival of Bread with no Yeast. That festival will continue for seven days. During that time, the bread that you eat must be made without yeast. ⁷ On the first day of that festival, all of you must stop your regular work and gather together to worship me. ⁸ On each of the seven days, you must present to me several animals as an offering to be completely burned on the altar. On the seventh day, all of you must again stop your regular work and gather to worship me.”

⁹ Yahweh also told Moses ¹⁰ to tell the Israelite people about other festivals. He said, “After you arrive in the land which I am giving to you, and when you harvest your crops for the first time there, bring to the priest some of the first grain that you harvest. ¹¹ On the day after the next Sabbath day, the priest will lift it up high to dedicate it to me, in order that I may accept it as your gift. ¹² On that same day you must sacrifice to me a one year old male lamb that has no defects. You must burn it on the altar. ¹³ You must also burn a flour offering. That offering must consist of four and one-half liters of good flour, ground grain, mixed with olive oil. The smell of those things burning will be very pleasing to me. Along with that, you must also offer one liter of wine, which will be a liquid offering. ¹⁴ Do not eat any bread or any roasted or unroasted grain on that day until after you have brought those offerings to me, your God. You and all your descendants must always obey these commands, wherever you live.

¹⁵ Count seven weeks and one day after the priest offers that bundle of grain to me. ¹⁶ Then on the day after the seventh Sabbath, each family must bring to me an offering from the new crop of grain. ¹⁷ From your homes, bring two loaves of bread to the priest. He will lift them up high to dedicate them as an offering to me. Those loaves must be baked from four and one-half liters of good flour that has yeast mixed with it. That bread will be an offering to me from the first wheat that you harvest each year. ¹⁸ Along with this bread, you must present to me seven one year old lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams. They must all be completely burned on the altar. All those offerings, with the flour offering and the wine offering, will be burned, and the smell of all those things burning will be very pleasing to me. ¹⁹ Then you must also kill one male goat as an offering for your sins, and two one year old male lambs to be an offering for you to promise friendship with me. ²⁰ The priest will lift up these offerings high to dedicate them to me. He will also offer the loaves of bread that were baked from the first wheat that you harvest. Those offerings are special to me; but they are for the priest. ²¹ On that day, you must stop your regular work and gather to worship me. You and all your descendants must always obey these commands, wherever you live.

²² When you harvest the grain in your fields, do not harvest what is along the edges of the fields, and do not pick up the grain that the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor people and for the foreigners who are living among you. Do not forget that it is I, Yahweh your God, who am commanding those things!”

²³ Yahweh also told Moses ²⁴ to give these instructions to the Israelite people: “Each year in the seventh month, on the first day of that month, all of you must celebrate that day, on which you will completely rest. You must not do any work on that day. When the priests blow their trumpets loudly, you all must gather together as a holy assembly, to worship me. ²⁵ All of you must not do any regular work on that day. Instead, you must present offerings to me that will be burned on the altar.”

²⁶ Yahweh also said to Moses, ²⁷ “You must celebrate a day on which you request that I forgive you for the sins that you have committed. That day will be nine days after the festival when the priests blow the trumpets. On that day you must not eat. You must gather together to worship me and present offerings to me that will be burned on the altar. ²⁸ You must not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when the priests will offer sacrifices to me to atone for your sins. ²⁹ You must drive out from the people anyone who does not go without eating on that day. ³⁰ I will get rid of anyone who does any kind of work on that day. ³¹ You must not work at all! You and all your descendants must always obey these commands, wherever you live. ³² That day will be a day of complete rest for all of you, and on that day you must fast to show that you are sorry for having sinned. That day of rest and going without food will begin on the evening before the day in which you ask me to forgive you for your sins, and it will end on the evening of the following day.”

³³ Yahweh also said to Moses, ³⁴ “Tell the Israelite people that each year they must also celebrate the Festival of Shelters. That festival will begin five days after the Day of Atonement. This festival will last for seven days. ³⁵ On the first day of that festival, the people must gather together to worship me, and they must not do any regular work. ³⁶ On each of the seven days of this festival, they must present to me an offering of animals that will be burned on the altar. On the eighth day, they must gather again as a holy assembly to worship me and present to me another animal that will be burned on the altar. That also will be a sacred gathering, and they must not work on that day, either.

³⁷ To summarize, those are the festivals that I have appointed. Celebrate these festivals by gathering together to present to me all the various offerings that will be burned on the altar—animals that will be burned completely, and offerings of flour, offerings to promise friendship with me, and offerings of wine. Each offering must be brought on the day that I have indicated. ³⁸ You must celebrate these festivals in addition to worshiping me on the Sabbath days. And you must give me all those offerings in addition to the offerings that people personally decide to give, and in addition to the offerings that people make to accompany the solemn promises that they have made.

³⁹ Returning to my instructions about the Festival of Shelters, you must celebrate this festival after you have harvested all the crops. On the first day and on the last day of that festival, you must rest completely. ⁴⁰ But on the first day, you are permitted to pick the best fruit from trees. You will also take branches from the palm trees, leafy branches from other trees, and willow trees near the stream, and make shelters to live in for that week. Then rejoice in my presence for those seven days. ⁴¹ You must celebrate this festival for seven days every year. You and all your descendants must always obey these commands, wherever you live. You must celebrate this festival in the seventh month. ⁴² During the seven days of that festival, all of you people who have been Israelites all of your lives must live in shelters. ⁴³ This festival will always remind your descendants that their ancestors lived in shelters for many years after I rescued them from Egypt. Do not forget that I, Yahweh your God, am the one who is commanding this.”

⁴⁴ So Moses gave to the Israelite people all these instructions concerning the festivals that Yahweh wanted them to celebrate each year.

Chapter 24

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, ² “Command the Israelite people to constantly bring you clear oil made from pressed olives to burn in the lamps in the sacred tent, in order that those lamps will burn all the time. ³ Outside the curtain of the very holy place, Aaron must take care of the lamps in my presence continually, in order that they will burn all during the night. That regulation must be obeyed forever. ⁴ The priests must constantly take care of the lamps that burn in my presence.

⁵ Also, each week you must take some fine flour and bake twelve very big loaves of bread, using four and one-half liters of flour for each loaf. ⁶ Put the loaves in two rows, with six loaves in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, in my presence. ⁷ Along each row, place on the gold table some pure incense to be burned as an offering to me instead of the bread. ⁸ The priests must put new loaves of bread on the table each Sabbath day, to signify the covenant that will never end, which I have made with you Israelites. ⁹ When the loaves are removed from the table, they will belong to Aaron and his sons. They must eat them in a place set aside for this purpose, because they are part of the offerings—the offerings that belong only to me—that are given to me by being burned.”

^10-11 There was a man whose mother’s name was Shelomith. She was an Israelite whose father was Dibri from the tribe of Dan. Her son’s father was from Egypt. One day this man and another Israelite man started to fight inside the camp. And while they were fighting, that man cursed Yahweh. ¹² So the Israelite people seized him and guarded him until they could find out what Yahweh would reveal to them what they should do to that man.

¹³ Then Yahweh said to Moses, ¹⁴ “Tie up and take outside the camp the man who has cursed me. There all those who heard what he said must put their hands on his head to indicate that he is guilty, and then all the people must kill him by throwing stones at him. ¹⁵ Tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses me, he must endure the consequences. ¹⁶ So anyone who curses me must be executed. All the people must throw stones at him. It does not matter if he is a foreigner or an Israelite from birth. Anyone who curses me must be executed.

¹⁷ Also, if anyone murders another person, the people must execute him. ¹⁸ And anyone who kills another person’s animal must give that person a live animal to replace the one that he killed. ¹⁹ And if one person injures another person, the injured person is allowed to injure the person who injured him in the same way. ²⁰ If someone breaks one of another person’s bones, that person is allowed to break one of the bones of the person who injured him. If someone gouges out an eye of another person, that person is allowed to gouge out the eye of the person who injured him. If someone knocks out the tooth of another person, that person is allowed to knock out one of his teeth. What is done to the offender must be the same as what he did to the other person. ²¹ Whoever kills another person’s animal must give that person a live animal to replace the one that he killed, but the people must execute anyone who murders another person. ²² You Israelites and foreigners who live among you must all have that same law. I, Yahweh your God, am the one who has commanded it.”

²³ Then Moses told the Israelites what they must do to the man who cursed Yahweh, so they took the man outside the camp and killed him by throwing stones at him. They did what Yahweh commanded Moses to tell them to do.

Chapter 25

¹ Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai, ² “Tell the Israelites that Yahweh is giving these commands to them: When you enter the land that he is about to give you, every seventh year you must honor him by not planting any crops. You must allow the ground to rest. ³ During six years, you are to plant crops in your fields, prune your grapevines, and harvest your crops. ⁴ But during the seventh year you must allow your fields to rest, in order to honor Yahweh. Do not plant seeds in your fields or prune your grapevines during the seventh year. ⁵ In the seventh year, you must not bring workers together to harvest whatever grain has grown in your fields; you must not bring workers together to harvest whatever grapes have grown on the vines that you did not cut back. You must allow the land to rest for that one year. ⁶ But you are permitted to eat whatever crops have grown by themselves during that year. You and your male and female servants, and workers whom you have hired, and any foreigners who are living among you—you may all eat those things. ⁷ And your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat them during that year as well.

^8-9 After every forty-nine years has ended, you must do this for the celebration of Jubilee. On the tenth day of the seventh month of the next year, blow trumpets throughout the country, to announce the Day of Atonement. ¹⁰ Set apart that year in order to honor Yahweh. You must proclaim everywhere, to all the people, that this year will be the time for giving the land back to the families that first owned it when Yahweh brought you into your land. It will also be the time for setting free any of Yahweh’s people who are slaves. ¹¹ This year of Jubilee, the fiftieth year, will be a year in which you must rejoice and obey Yahweh’s special instructions. During that year do not plant anything, and do not harvest in your usual manner the crops or grapes that have grown by themselves. ¹² It will be a year for you to rejoice in, the year of Jubilee. You will treat it as special, and eat only what has grown by itself.

¹³ In that year of celebration, the year of Jubilee, and everyone must return to their property to the original owner of it.

¹⁴ If you sell some of your land to a fellow Israelite or if you buy some land from one of them, you must treat that person fairly. ¹⁵ If you buy land, the price that you will pay will depend on the number of years until the next celebration of Jubilee. If someone sells land to you, he will charge a price that reflects the number of years remaining until the next year of celebration of Jubilee, when all property will be returned to their original owners. ¹⁶ If there will be many years before the next time for the celebration of Jubilee, the price will be higher. If there will be only a few years until the next year of celebration, the price will be lower. You could say that what he is really selling you is the number of crops you could harvest before the next year of the celebration of Jubilee. ¹⁷ Do not cheat each other. Instead, honor Yahweh. It is Yahweh, whom we Israelites worship, who is commanding us to do these things.

¹⁸ Obey all my laws carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country. ¹⁹ The crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat. ²⁰ But you may ask, ‘If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?’ ²¹ Yahweh answers you that he will bless you very much during the sixth year, with the result that during that year there will be enough crops to provide food for you for three years. ²² Then, after you plant seed during the eighth year and wait for the crops to grow, you will eat the food grown in the sixth year; you will continue to eat it until you harvest your crops in the ninth year.

²³ You must not sell any of your land to belong to someone else permanently, because the land is not yours. It is really mine, and you are only living on it temporarily and farming it for me. ²⁴ Throughout the country that you will possess, you must remember that if someone sells some of his land to you, he is permitted to buy it back from you at any time.

²⁵ So if one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of his property to you for money, the person who is most closely related to him is permitted to come and buy back that land for him. ²⁶ However, if a man has no one to buy the land for him, but if he himself prospers again and has saved enough money to buy that land back, ²⁷ he must calculate how many years there will be until the next year of celebration. Then he must pay to the man who bought the land the money that the other man would have earned by growing crops on that land for those years. ²⁸ But if the original owner does not have enough money to buy back the land that he sold, it will continue to belong to the man who bought it until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee. In that year he will take possession of it again, and he will be able to farm it again.

²⁹ If someone sells a house in a city that has a wall around it, during the next year he will be permitted to buy it back from the man who bought it. ³⁰ If he does not buy it during that year, it will belong permanently to the man who bought it, and to that man’s descendants. He does not need to return it to the original owner in the year of celebration of Jubilee. ³¹ But houses that are in villages without walls are considered to be as though they were in a field. So if someone sells one of those houses, he is permitted to buy it back at any time. And even if he does not buy it, he will take possession of it again at the year of the celebration of Jubilee.

³² The descendants of Levi are a special case, however. If they sell their houses in the cities that belong to them, they are permitted to buy them back at any time. ³³ But even if they do not buy back those houses, they will become theirs again in the year of the celebration of Jubilee, because those houses are in their cities, on land that the other Israelites had given to them. ³⁴ But the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently.

³⁵ If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and is unable to buy what he needs, others of you must help him as you would help a foreigner who is living among you temporarily. ³⁶ If you lend money to him, do not charge any kind of interest. Instead, show by what you do that you honor your God; you must help that man, in order that he will be able to continue to live among you. ³⁷ If you lend him money, do not charge interest; and if you sell food to him, charge him only what you paid for it. Do not try to make a profit from it. ³⁸ Do not forget that it is Yahweh your God who is giving you these commands; it is, after all, Yahweh who brought you out of Egypt to be your God and to give you the land of Canaan.

³⁹ If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave. ⁴⁰ Treat him as you treat workers whom you hire or like someone who is living on your land temporarily. He must work for you only until the year of the celebration of Jubilee. ⁴¹ During that year, you must free him, and he may go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned. ⁴² It is as though we Israelites are all Yahweh’s slaves, whom he freed from being slaves in Egypt. So none of you should buy each other and make each other into slaves. ⁴³ And do not treat the Israelites whom you buy cruelly. Instead, honor Yahweh, our God.

⁴⁴ If you want to have slaves, you are permitted to buy them from nearby people groups. ⁴⁵ You are also permitted to buy some of the foreigners who are living among you, and members of their clans that were born in your country. You may own them. ⁴⁶ They will be your slaves for the remaining years of your life, and after you die, it is permitted for your children to own them. But you must not act in brutal ways toward your fellow Israelites.

⁴⁷ Suppose a foreigner who is living among you becomes rich, and if a fellow Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to that foreigner or to a member of his clan, ⁴⁸ it is permitted for someone to pay for him to be freed. It is permitted for one of his relatives to pay for him to be released. ⁴⁹ An uncle or a cousin or another relative in his clan may pay for him to be released. Or, if he prospers and gets enough money, he is permitted to pay for his own release. ⁵⁰ The man who wants to pay for his own release must count the number of years until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee. The price he pays to the man who bought him will depend on the pay that would be given to a hired worker for that number of remaining years. ⁵¹ If there are a lot of years that remain until the year of celebration, he must pay for his release a larger amount of the money. ⁵² If there are only a few years that remain until the year of the celebration of Jubilee, he must pay a smaller amount to be released. ⁵³ During those years that he is working for the man who bought him, the man who bought him must treat him like he would treat a hired worker, and all of you must make sure that his owner does not treat him cruelly.

⁵⁴ And even if a fellow Israelite who has sold himself to a rich man is not able to pay for himself to be freed by any of these ways, he and his children must be freed in the year of the celebration of Jubilee, ⁵⁵ because it is as though you Israelites are my slaves, whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from being slaves in Egypt.”

Chapter 26

¹ Yahweh also said this to Moses on Mount Sinai, “Do not make idols or set up carved figures or sacred stones to worship as if they were God. And do not put on your property a stone that you have carved so you can bow down to it. You must worship only me, Yahweh, your God.

² Honor the Sabbath days and revere my sacred tent, because I, Yahweh, live there.

³ If you carefully obey all my commands, ⁴ I will send rain for you at the proper times in order that crops will grow on your land and there will be plenty of fruit on your trees. ⁵ You will continue harvesting and threshing grain until it is time to harvest grapes, and you will continue to harvest grapes until it is time to start planting things in the following year. You will have all the food that you want to eat, and you will live safely in your land.

⁶ If you obey all my laws, there will be peace in your country, and when you lie down to sleep. Nothing will cause you to be afraid. I will get rid of the dangerous animals in your country, and there will be no wars in your country. ⁷ You will pursue your enemies and kill them with your swords. ⁸ Five of you will pursue a hundred of them, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand of them and kill them.

⁹ If you obey all my laws, I will bless you and cause you to have many children. And I will do what I said that I would do in the covenant that I made with you. ¹⁰ When you are still eating food from the harvest from the previous year, it will be necessary for you to throw away some of it to make space to store the new harvest. ¹¹ I will live among you in my sacred tent, and I will never reject you. ¹² I will live among you and continue to be your God, and you will continue to be my people. ¹³ I am Yahweh your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt in order that you would no longer be slaves of the people of Egypt. When you were there, it was as though you were animals that were pulling plows for the people of Egypt, but I broke the bars of the yokes that they had put around your necks; I made you able to walk with your heads up.

¹⁴ But suppose you pay no attention to me; suppose you refuse to obey what I have told you to do. ¹⁵ Suppose that you reject my decrees and laws, and do not obey me, but that instead you reject the covenant that I made with you. ¹⁶ In that case, these are the things that I will do to you. I will suddenly send disasters that will ruin you. You will have diseases that cannot be cured, and fevers that will cause you to become blind and will slowly kill you. It will be useless for you to plant your fields, because your enemies will eat the crops that grow. ¹⁷ I will reject you, so your enemies will conquer you. Then they will rule over you, and you will be so terrified that you will run away even if they do not pursue you.

¹⁸ But after all these things happen to you, if you still refuse to obey me, I will continue to punish you again and again for the sins that you have committed. ¹⁹ I will punish you so much that you will no longer be stubborn or proud. I will not let any rain fall in your land. It will be as though the sky were made of iron, and the ground were as hard as bronze. ²⁰ You will uselessly work very hard to plant seeds, because crops will not grow in the hard soil in your fields, and fruit will not grow on your trees.

²¹ If you continue to act against me and refuse to obey me, I will cause you to experience disasters again and again, as you deserve to experience because of your sins. ²² I will send wild animals to attack you, and they will kill your little children and destroy your cattle. There will be very few of you who will remain alive, with the result that there will be very few people traveling about on the roads in your country.

²³ When you experience those things that I do to punish you, if you still do not pay attention to me, and if you continue to act against me, ²⁴ I myself will act against you, and I will punish you for your sins again and again. ²⁵ I will send armies to you to punish you for not doing the things that I commanded you to do in the covenant that I made with you. If you try to escape from your enemies by hiding behind your city walls, I will send plagues to you, and I will allow your enemies to capture you. ²⁶ When I destroy your supplies of food, there will be very little flour with which to make bread. As a result, ten women will be able to bake all their bread in only one oven. When the bread is baked, each woman will divide it among the members of her family, but there will be very little for each one, and when they have eaten all of it, they will still be hungry.

²⁷ After all those things happen, if you still do not obey me, if you still act against me, ²⁸ I will be very angry with you, and I will act against you; I myself will punish you for your sins again and again. ²⁹ You will be so hungry that you will kill your sons and daughters and eat their flesh. ³⁰ I will make sure that other people destroy the hills where you have worshiped idols. I will smash the altars where you burn incense to worship your gods, and I will cause your corpses to be piled on the lifeless figures of your idols. And I will hate you. ³¹ I will cause your cities to become heaps of ruins, and I will cause the buildings that you built for your idols to collapse. And I will not be pleased at all with the aroma of your offerings that are burned on the altar. ³² I will completely ruin your country, with the result that even your enemies who capture it will be shocked when they see this happen. ³³ I will enable your enemies to kill you with their swords, and I will cause them to scatter the rest of you among other people groups. I will make sure that they ruin your country and destroy your cities. ³⁴ After that happens, as long as you are living in your enemies’ countries, I will allow your land to rest, as you should have done every seven years. ³⁵ During all the time that no one is in your land, it will be able to rest. This will be unlike you, who never allowed it to rest while you were there.

³⁶ As for you people who will remain alive in the countries to which your enemies will have taken you, I will make you very afraid, so when you hear the wind blowing leaves, you will run away. ³⁷ You will run as if a man with a sword were chasing you, and you will fall down, even though no one is coming behind you. You will stumble over each other trying to flee. You will not be able to stand and fight your enemies. ³⁸ Many of you will die in your enemies’ countries. ³⁹ And those of you who remain alive will slowly die and rot there because of your sins and the sins of your ancestors.

^40-41 But your descendants must confess their sins and the sins that their ancestors committed. Their ancestors acted unfaithfully toward me and were hostile to me, so I forced them to go to their enemies’ countries. But when your descendants humble themselves and stop being very stubborn and accept being punished for their sins, ⁴² I will keep in mind the covenant that I made with your ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and what I promised to them about the land of Canaan. ⁴³ But before that happens, my people will be forced to leave their land, with the result that the land will be able to rest while no one is in it, and while I am punishing the people for rejecting my laws and hating my decrees. ⁴⁴ But I will still not reject them or hate them and destroy them completely. I will not cancel the covenant that I made with them. I will still be Yahweh, the God whom they should worship. ⁴⁵ I will keep in mind the covenant that I made with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, something that the people of all nations heard about. I did this so that I, Yahweh, would be your God.”

⁴⁶ Those are the commandments, the decrees, and the laws that Yahweh established on Mount Sinai between himself and the Israelite people by giving them to Moses to tell to them.

Chapter 27

¹ Yahweh also said to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelite people these things for me: ‘If a man solemnly promises to set apart another person to belong only to Yahweh, Yahweh will be willing to set that person free from having to do that if the responsible man pays the priest an amount of money. The priest must calculate the amount of money in terms of the silver pieces that they use in Yahweh’s sacred tent. ³ These are the amounts that Yahweh has set for this kind of transaction:

         fifty pieces of silver for men who are between twenty and sixty years old;

         ⁴ thirty pieces of silver for adult women who are between twenty and sixty years old.

         ⁵ Twenty pieces of silver would be paid for young men who are between five and twenty years old;

         ten pieces of silver for young women who are between five and twenty years old;

         ⁶ five pieces of silver for boys who are between one month and five years old;

         three pieces of silver for girls who are between one month and five years old.

         ⁷ Fifteen pieces of silver would be paid for men who are more than sixty years old;

         ten pieces of silver for women who are more than sixty years old.

⁸ If anyone who has made such a solemn promise is very poor and unable to pay to set free the person whom he has given to Yahweh, he must take that person to the priest. The priest will set the price for freeing him to an amount that the person can pay.

⁹ If someone solemnly promises Yahweh to give him an animal that is acceptable to him, that animal becomes very special to Yahweh; it belongs to him alone. ¹⁰ The person who promised to give it must not give another animal instead of the one that he promised. He must not substitute a bad one for a good one or even a better one than the one offered. If he tries to do that, both animals will become dedicated to Yahweh. ¹¹ If the animal that he wishes to give to Yahweh is a kind that is unacceptable to be an offering, he must take the animal to the priest. ¹² The priest then will decide what its value is, according to the animal’s quality. Whatever value the priests sets will be the value, and that is the price of the animal. ¹³ If the man who gave the animal later decides that he wants to buy it back, he must pay to the priest that price plus an added one-fifth.

¹⁴ Similarly, if someone dedicates his house, and to set it apart for the honor of Yahweh, the priest will decide how much it is worth, which will depend on the house’s condition. Whatever the priest says that it is worth, that will be its value. ¹⁵ If a man set apart his house for the honor of Yahweh, but later he wants to buy it back, he must pay that price plus an added one-fifth, and then the house will belong to him again.

¹⁶ If someone sets apart for the honor of Yahweh some of the property that belongs to him and his family, its value will be determined by the quantity of seed that would be needed to sow that entire tract of land. It will be ten pieces of silver for each 220 liters of seed. ¹⁷ If the man sets apart for the honor of Yahweh the land during the year of the celebration of Jubilee, its value will be the full amount. ¹⁸ But if he sets apart his field to Yahweh after the year of the celebration of Jubilee, the priest will count the number of years until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee, and if there are not many years that remain, the price will be much lower than the full price. ¹⁹ If the person who set apart the field for Yahweh later wants to buy it back, he must pay to the priest the price that the priest says it is worth, plus an added one-fifth, and then the field will belong to that man again. ²⁰ However, if he does not buy it back, or if it has been sold to someone else, he will never be permitted to buy it back again. ²¹ In the year of the celebration of Jubilee, it will be permanently set apart as a holy gift for Yahweh, and it will be given to the priest.

²² If someone sets apart for the honor of Yahweh some land that he has bought, land which is not part of the land that his family has always owned, ²³ the priest must count the number of years until the next year of the celebration of Jubilee to determine how much it is worth, and the man must pay that amount to the priest on that day, and then that land will belong to him again, and his payment becomes a holy gift to Yahweh. ²⁴ However, in the year of the celebration of Jubilee, the land will again come into the possession of the person from whom he bought it, the person whose family had always owned that land. ²⁵ All the silver that is paid must be calculated in terms of the official pieces of silver in the sacred tent.

²⁶ No one is permitted to dedicate the firstborn of any cow or sheep for any purpose, because the firstborn already belongs to Yahweh. ²⁷ If someone gives to him an animal that is not acceptable to him, that person may later buy it back by paying what it is worth plus an added one-fifth of its value. If he does not buy it back, it must be sold for its standard price.

²⁸ However, no slave or animal or family land that someone owns can be sold or bought back after it has been dedicated to Yahweh. It becomes holy to Yahweh.

²⁹ No person who has done something that Yahweh considers to be very wicked is permitted to go free. The people must certainly execute such a person.

³⁰ One tenth of all the crops and grain or fruit that is produced on anyone’s land is sacred and belongs to Yahweh. ³¹ If anyone wants to buy back any of that tenth, he must pay to the priest what it is worth plus an added one-fifth. ³² And every ten domestic animals belongs to Yahweh. When a shepherd counts them as they pass under his walking stick, to decide which ones he will give to me, he must mark every tenth one as belonging to Yahweh. ³³ When he does that, he must not pick out the good ones or leave the bad ones, or substitute bad ones for good ones. If he substitutes one animal for another, both animals will belong to Yahweh, and the shepherd will not be permitted to buy them back.”

³⁴ Those are the commands that Yahweh gave to Moses on Mount Sinai to tell to the people.