Day 35: Leviticus 24-27

The Lamp, the Sabbath Year, Jubilee, Blessings, Curses, and Vows

Leviticus 24

1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the children of Israel to bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 3 Outside of the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4 He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before Yahweh continually.

5 “You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it. Two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake. 6 You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure table before Yahweh. 7 You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 8 Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually. It is on the behalf of the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant. 9 It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”

10 A son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. 11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the name of Yahweh, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12 They put him in custody until Yahweh’s will should be declared to them.

13 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 14 “Bring him who cursed out of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born, when he blasphemes Yahweh’s name, shall be put to death.

17 “‘He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death.

18 “‘He who strikes an animal mortally shall make it good, life for life.

19 “‘If anyone injures his neighbor; as he has done, so shall it be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured someone, so shall it be done to him. 21 He who kills an animal shall make it good; and he who kills a man shall be put to death. 22 You shall have one kind of law, for the foreigner as well as the native-born; for I am Yahweh your God.’”

23 Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.

Leviticus 25

1 Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. 5 You shall not reap that which grows of itself in your harvest, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. 7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.

8 “‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather the grapes of your undressed vine. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its increase out of the field.

13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.

14 “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years since the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he sells the number of the crops to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.

18 “‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 If you say, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase,” 21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years. 22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old harvest until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you shall eat of the old harvest.

23 “‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. 24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

25 “‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his property, then his nearest kinsman shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. 28 But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his property.

29 “‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30 But if it isn’t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not go out in the Jubilee.

31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be considered as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the Jubilee.

32 “‘Nevertheless, the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. 33 If one of the Levites redeems, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their perpetual possession.

35 “‘If your brother becomes poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like a stranger or a foreigner. 36 Take no interest or increase from him, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor your food for increase. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

39 “‘If your brother becomes poor beside you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant, and as a foreigner, he shall be with you. He shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.

44 “‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover, of the children of the foreigners who live as foreigners among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your possession. 46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers, the children of Israel, you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

47 “‘If a stranger or foreigner living with you becomes rich, and your brother becomes poor beside him, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living with you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any one of his close relatives of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.

50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. His sale price shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant he shall be with him. 51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remain but a few years to the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him. According to his years he shall give back the price of his redemption. 53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.

54 If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him. 55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.

Leviticus 26

1 “‘You shall make no idols for yourselves, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am Yahweh your God.

2 “‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.

3 “‘If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them, 4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time. You shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

6 “‘I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will remove evil animals out of the land, and no sword shall go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

9 “‘I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new. 11 I will set my tent among you, and my soul won’t abhor you. 12 I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright.

14 “‘But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments, 15 and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, 16 I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes and make the soul to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you. You shall flee when no one pursues you.

18 “‘If you won’t yet for these things listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power. I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like bronze. 20 Your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land won’t yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

21 “‘If you walk contrary to me, and won’t listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you, according to your sins. 22 I will send the wild animals among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, make you few in number, and your roads shall become desolate.

23 “‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me, 24 then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins. 25 I will bring a sword on you, that shall execute the vengeance for the covenant. You shall be gathered into your cities, and I will send the pestilence among you. You shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight. You shall eat, and you shall not be satisfied.

27 “‘If you won’t for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.

31 I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the sweet odors of your offerings. 32 I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies who dwell therein will be astonished at it. 33 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you. Your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land. Even then the land will rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn’t have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it.

36 “‘As for those of you who remain, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when no one pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

39 Those of you who remain shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers they shall pine away with them.

40 “‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their treachery which they committed against me; and also that they have walked contrary to me, 41 I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, 42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.

43 The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its Sabbaths, while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity, because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.

44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God. 45 But I will remember for them the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am Yahweh.’”

46 These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.

Leviticus 27

1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When a man makes a vow to Yahweh in which he promises to give the equivalent value of a person, 3 then your valuation shall be for the male from twenty years old even to sixty years old: fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. 4 If it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. 5 If it is from five years old even to twenty years old, then your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 6 If it is from a month old even to five years old, then your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 If it is from sixty years old and upward, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels.

8 “‘But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall stand before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him. According to his ability who vowed shall the priest value him.

9 “‘If it is an animal of which men offer an offering to Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh becomes holy. 10 He shall not alter it, nor exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good. If he shall at all exchange animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy.

11 If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer an offering to Yahweh, then he shall set the animal before the priest; 12 and the priest shall set its value, whether it is good or bad. As you, the priest, value it, so shall it be. 13 But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of it to its valuation.

14 “‘When a man dedicates his house as a holy thing to Yahweh, then the priest shall set its value, whether it is good or bad. As the priest shall set its value, so shall it stand.

15 If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.

16 “‘If a man dedicates to Yahweh part of the field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed needed for it: a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. 18 But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon the price for him according to the years that remain to the Year of Jubilee; and a reduction shall be made from your valuation.

19 If he who dedicates the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall remain his. 20 If he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more; 21 but the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy to Yahweh, as a devoted field. It shall be owned by the priests.

22 “‘If he dedicates to Yahweh a field which he has bought, which is not of the field of his possession, 23 then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and he shall give your valuation on that day, as a holy thing to Yahweh. 24 In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongs. 25 All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.

26 “‘Only the firstborn among animals, which belongs to Yahweh as a firstborn, no man may dedicate, whether an ox or a sheep. It is Yahweh’s. 27 If it is of an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add a fifth part of it to it; or if it isn’t redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

28 “‘Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man shall devote to Yahweh of all that he has, whether of man or animal, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to Yahweh.

29 “‘No one devoted to destruction, who shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed. He shall surely be put to death.

30 “‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh’s. It is holy to Yahweh. 31 If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth part to it.

32 All the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh. 33 He shall not search whether it is good or bad, neither shall he exchange it. If he exchanges it at all, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”

34 These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.

Scripture: World English Bible (WEB), public domain.