\v 1 While Moses was standing near the entrance to the sacred tent, Yahweh called to him from inside the tent. He said to Moses
\v 2 to say this to the Israelite people: "When any of you brings an offering to Yahweh, bring one of your sheep or goats or cattle.
\s5
\p
\v 3 If what you are offering is a bull to be completely burned on the altar, it must be without any defect. You must take it to the entrance to the sacred tent, in order that it may be acceptable to Yahweh.
\v 4 You must lay your hands on the head of the bull. When you do that, Yahweh will accept its death in your place to forgive you for the sins that you have committed.
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\v 5 You must slaughter the young bull in front of Yahweh. Then Aaron's sons, who are priests, will bring the blood and throw it against all sides of the altar near the entrance to the sacred tent.
\v 6 You must remove the skin of the animal and cut the animal into pieces. You must wash the inner parts and the legs of the bull.
\v 11 You must slaughter it in front of Yahweh, on the north side of the altar, and drain all the blood into a bowl. Then Aaron's sons will sprinkle the blood against all sides of the altar.
\v 12 You must cut the animal into pieces. You must wash the inner parts and the legs of the animal. Then the priests will arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood.
\v 13 Then one of the priests will take all of it and completely burn all of it on the altar. And the good odor as the sacrifice burns will be pleasing to Yahweh.
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\p
\v 14 If what you are offering to Yahweh is birds, you must offer a dove or a young pigeon.
\v 15 The priest will take it to the altar and wring off its head. Then he will burn the head on the altar. He will drain out the bird's blood onto the side of the altar.
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\v 16 Then he will remove the bird's craw and what is inside it, and throw it on the east side of the altar, where they also throw the ashes.
\v 17 Then he will grasp the bird's wings and tear the bird open partially, but never all the way. Then he will burn it completely in the fire on the altar. And the good odor will be pleasing to Yahweh.
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\c 2
\p
\v 1 If you bring to Yahweh an offering of flour, it must consist of finely ground flour. You must pour olive oil on it, as well as some incense,
\v 2 and take it to one of the priests. The priest will take a handful of it and burn it on the altar. That part will symbolize how our prayers go up to Yahweh as we give him thanks for his goodness.
\v 3 The part of that flour offering that is not burned will belong to Aaron and his sons. It is something set apart for the priests out of the offerings that you will give to Yahweh.
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\p
\v 4 If you bring an offering that is made from flour, something that is baked in an oven, it must be made from finely ground flour. You may bring loaves made from flour mixed with olive oil but without yeast, or you may bring wafers with olive oil smeared on them, but also made without yeast.
\v 5 If your flour offering is cooked on a griddle, it must be made from finely ground flour mixed with olive oil and without yeast.
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\v 6 You must crumble it and pour olive oil on it. That will be your offering made from flour.
\v 7 If your offering that is made from flour is cooked in a pan, it must be made of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil.
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\v 8 Bring to Yahweh your flour offering. Give it to the priest, and he will take it to the altar.
\v 9 He will take a part of it that will symbolize that all the flour offering belongs to Yahweh. He will burn that part on the altar, and the good odor as it burns will be pleasing to Yahweh.
\v 10 The part of the flour offering that is not burned will belong to Aaron and his sons. It is something set apart for God from the offerings given to Yahweh by burning them in a fire.
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\p
\v 11 Every flour offering that is made from grain and that you bring to Yahweh must be made without yeast, because you must not put any yeast or honey in any offering to Yahweh that a priest burns on the altar.
\v 12 You may bring to Yahweh an offering of the first part of your harvest, but that offering is not to be burned on the altar to produce a good odor that will be pleasing to Yahweh.
\v 13 Put salt on all your offerings that are made from flour. The salt represents the covenant that your God made with you, so be sure that you do not forget to put salt on those flour offerings.
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\p
\v 14 If you bring to Yahweh a flour offering from the first part of your harvest of grain, offer some new grain that has been crushed and roasted in a fire.
\v 15 Put olive oil and incense on it, and that will be your offering made from flour.
\v 16 The priest will take a part of it that will symbolize that all the offering truly belongs to Yahweh. He will burn that part on the altar, to be an offering given to Yahweh by burning it in a fire.
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\c 3
\p
\v 1 When you offer to Yahweh an animal to promise friendship with him, you may bring a bull or a cow from your herd of cattle, but what you present to Yahweh must be an animal that has no defects.
\v 2 You must bring the animal to the entrance to the sacred tent. You must lay your hands on its head. Then you must slaughter it and catch some of its blood in a bowl. Then one of Aaron's sons, one of the priests, will sprinkle the blood against all sides of the altar.
\v 3 From that offering you must bring to Yahweh a sacrifice that a priest will burn in the fire. That will consist of all the fat that covers the inner parts of the animal, or that is attached to them—
\v 4 the kidneys and the fat that is attached to them near the lower back muscle, and the fat that covers the liver.
\v 5 Then one of the priests will burn those things on the altar, along with the other parts of the animal that he will completely burn as an offering to Yahweh. And the good odor will be pleasing to Yahweh.
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\p
\v 6 If that offering to promise friendship with Yahweh is a sheep or a goat, it must also be an animal that has no defects.
\v 7 If you offer a lamb, you must present it to Yahweh at the entrance to the sacred tent. You must lay your hands on the lamb's head and then slaughter it. You must catch some of its blood in a bowl.
\v 8 Then one of the priests will sprinkle that blood against all sides of the altar.
\v 9 From that offering you must separate these things to be a sacrifice to Yahweh that is burned: its fat, the fat tail that you must cut off close to the backbone, and all the fat that covers the inner parts of the lamb or which is attached to them—
\v 10 the kidneys with the fat that is on them near the lower back muscle, and the fat that covers the liver.
\v 11 One of the priests will burn those things on the altar to be an offering to Yahweh. Those things will come from your food supplies.
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\p
\v 12 If your offering is a goat, you must take it to Yahweh.
\v 13 You must lay your hands on its head. Then you must slaughter it in front of the sacred tent. Then one of Aaron's sons will sprinkle the blood against all sides of the altar.
\v 14 From that offering you must separate these things to be a sacrifice to Yahweh that is burned: all the fat that covers the inner parts of the animal or that is attached to them.
\v 15 Also separate the kidneys with the fat that is on them near the lower back muscle, and the fat that covers the liver.
\v 16 The priest will burn those things on the altar to be an offering to Yahweh. Those things will come from your food supplies. And the good odor will be pleasing to Yahweh. All the fat of the animals that are sacrificed belongs to Yahweh.
\p
\v 17 This is a command that must be obeyed by you and your descendants forever, wherever you live. You must not eat the fat or the blood of any animal."
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\c 4
\p
\v 1 Then Yahweh told Moses
\v 2 to say this to the Israelite people, "This is what anyone must do if he sins without intending to sin, that is, if he does something that breaks any of Yahweh's commands.
\p
\v 3 If the high priest sins and that causes all the people to be guilty, he must bring to Yahweh a young bull that has no defects. That will be an offering for the sin that he has committed.
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\v 4 He must bring the bull to the entrance to the sacred tent. He must lay his hands on its head. Then he must slaughter it in front of Yahweh and catch some of the blood in a bowl.
\v 5 Then the priest must take some of that blood into the sacred tent.
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\v 6 He must dip one of his fingers into the blood and sprinkle it seven times in the presence of Yahweh, in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the very holy place.
\v 7 Then he must put some of the blood on the projections at the corners of the altar where fragrant incense is burned in the sacred tent in the presence of Yahweh. The remaining part of the bull's blood that is still in the bowl, he must pour out at the base of the altar, where sacrifices are burned, at the entrance to the sacred tent.
\v 8 From that offering the high priest must separate these things from the bull that is to be burned: the fat that covers the inner parts of the bull or that is attached to them—
\v 9 the kidneys and the fat that is attached to them near the lower back muscle, and the fat that covers the liver.
\v 10 Then the high priest must completely burn those things on the altar. That will be just like when the fat is removed from an animal that is sacrificed to promised friendship with Yahweh.
\v 12 he must take outside the camp and throw them in a place that is made acceptable to Yahweh, where the ashes are thrown, and he must burn them in a fire on the pile of ashes.
\s5
\p
\v 13 If all the Israelite people sin without intending to sin, doing something that is forbidden in any of Yahweh's commands, they will be guilty, even if they do not realize that they have sinned.
\v 14 When they realize that they have committed a sin, together they must bring a young bull to be an offering for their sin, to the front of the sacred tent.
\v 15 The elders must lay their hands on the bull's head in the presence of Yahweh and slaughter it and catch some of the blood in a bowl.
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\v 16 Then the high priest must take some of that blood into the sacred tent.
\v 17 He must dip one of his fingers into the blood and sprinkle it seven times in the presence of Yahweh, in front of the curtain that separates the holy place from the very holy place.
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\v 18 Then he must put some of the blood on the projections at the corners of the altar that is in the presence of Yahweh in the sacred tent. The remaining part of the bull's blood he must pour out at the base of the altar where sacrifices are burned, at the entrance of the sacred tent.
\v 19 He must remove all the animal's fat and burn it on the altar.
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\v 20 He must do with this bull the same things that he did with the bull that was an offering for his own sins, and they will be forgiven.
\v 21 Then the priest must take the other parts of the bull outside the camp and burn them, like he does when he himself has sinned. That will be the offering for the sin that all the people have committed, and they will be forgiven.
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\p
\v 22 When one of the leaders sins without intending to sin, doing something that is forbidden in any of the commands of Yahweh his God, he will be guilty.
\v 23 When he realizes that he has committed a sin, he must bring as his offering a male goat that has no defects.
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\v 24 He must lay his hands on the goat's head in the presence of Yahweh and slaughter it at the place where they slaughter the animals that will be completely burned on the altar. That will be an offering for his sin.
\v 25 Then the priest must put some of the animal's blood into a bowl and dip one of his fingers in it and put some of the blood on the corners of the projections of the altar. Then he must pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.
\s5
\v 26 Then he must burn all the fat on the altar, like was done with the fat of the offering to promise friendship with Yahweh. As a result of the priest's doing that, the leader will no longer be guilty for his sin and he will be forgiven.
\s5
\p
\v 27 If one of the Israelite people who is not a priest sins without intending to sin, and does something that is forbidden in any of the commands of Yahweh his God, he will be guilty.
\v 28 When he realizes that he has committed a sin, he must bring as his offering a female goat that has no defects.
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\v 29 He must lay his hands on the goat's head and slaughter it at the place where they slaughter the animals that they will burn completely on the altar, and catch some of the blood in a bowl.
\v 30 Then the priest must dip one of his fingers in it, and put some of the blood on the projections at the corners of the altar. Then he must pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.
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\v 31 Then he must remove all the goat's fat, and burn all the fat on the altar, like was done with the fat of the offering to maintain fellowship with Yahweh. And the good odor will be pleasing to Yahweh. As a result of the priest doing that, the person will no longer be guilty for his sin, and he will be forgiven.
\s5
\p
\v 32 If that person brings a lamb to be his offering for sin, he must bring a female lamb that has no defects.
\v 33 He must lay his hands on the lamb's head and slaughter it at the place where they slaughter the animals that will be completely burned on the altar, and catch some of the blood in a bowl.
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\v 34 Then the priest must dip one of his fingers in it and put some of the blood on the projections at the corners of the altar. Then he must pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.
\v 35 Then he must remove all the lamb's fat, and burn all the fat on the altar, like was done with the fat of the offering to promise friendship with Yahweh. He must burn it on top of the other offerings to Yahweh that are being burned. As a result, the priest will request God to forgive that person for his sin, and he will be forgiven.
\s5
\c 5
\p
\v 1 If a judge orders any of you to tell in court something that you have seen or something that you heard someone say, but if you refuse to say what you know to be true, you must pay a penalty for refusing to tell what you know.
\v 2 If you accidentally touch something that God considers impure such as the carcass of a wild animal or the carcass of one of your animals that has died, or of an animal that crawls along the ground, you must pay a penalty.
\v 3 If you touch anything that has made anyone else unacceptable to God, even if you did not intend to touch it, when you realize what you have done, you must pay a penalty.
\p
\v 4 If you carelessly make a solemn promise to do something that is either good or that is bad, when you realize that you cannot do it, you must pay a penalty.
\s5
\p
\v 5 If you are guilty of committing any of those sins, you must confess what you have done.
\v 6 And as a penalty, you must bring to Yahweh a female lamb or female goat as an offering for the sin that you have committed, and the priest will sacrifice it, and then you will no longer be guilty for your sin.
\s5
\p
\v 7 If you are poor and cannot afford to bring a lamb, you must bring to Yahweh two doves or two pigeons. One will be an offering for your sin, and the other will be an offering that will be completely burned on the altar.
\v 8 You must bring them to the priest. First he will offer one of them to be an offering for your sin. He will wring its neck to kill it, but he must not pull off its head completely.
\v 9 Then he must sprinkle some of the blood against the side of the altar. The remaining blood must be drained out at the base of the altar. That will be an offering for your sin.
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\v 10 The priest will then do what I have commanded and offer the other bird to be completely burned on the altar. Then you will no longer be guilty for the sin you have committed, and Yahweh will forgive you.
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\p
\v 11 However, if you are very poor and cannot afford two doves or two pigeons, you must bring to be an offering for your sin two liters of fine flour. You must not put olive oil or incense on it, because it is an offering for sin.
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\v 12 You must take it to the priest. He will take a handful of it to symbolize that the whole offering truly belongs to Yahweh, and burn it on the altar, on top of the other offerings.
\v 13 When he does that, the priest will enable you to no longer be guilty for any of the sins that you have committed, and God will forgive you. The part of the offering that is not burned will belong to the priest, just as in the case of the offerings made from flour."
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\p
\v 14 Yahweh also said to Moses to tell the people:
\v 15 "When you sin, without intending to do what I have forbidden you to do, but you sinned especially by misusing the objects that were dedicated and set aside only for the purpose of worshiping me, then there is a penalty that must be paid. The penalty is that you must bring to me a ram that has no defects, and determine how much silver it is worth using the official standard of the sacred tent. It will be an offering to take away the guilt of your sin, when you violated my law and you misused the objects in a way that dishonored me.
\v 16 But you must also make restitution for failing to pay me what has been set apart only for me. Also, you must add one-fifth of its value. You must give that to the priest and he will offer the ram as a sacrifice for the sin that you have committed and cause you to no longer be guilty, and I will forgive you.
\v 17 If you sin by doing something that is forbidden in any of my commands, even if you do not know that you have disobeyed one of my commands, you are still guilty; you must pay a penalty to me.
\v 18 When you realize what you have done, you must bring a ram to the priest as an offering in order that you will no longer be guilty. You must bring one that has no defects. The priest will offer the ram to be a sacrifice to me, and as a result you will no longer be guilty for the sin that you have committed, and I will forgive you.
\v 19 It is an offering to cause you to no longer be guilty for sinning against me."
\s5
\c 6
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 2 "If you sin against me by deceiving someone—if you refuse to return what someone has lent you, or if you steal something of his,
\v 3 or if you find something and swear that you do not have it, you are guilty.
\v 4 You must return to its owner what you have stolen or what someone has lent to you and you have not returned, or what you found that someone else had lost, or whatever you lied about.
\v 5 You must not only return anything like that to its owner, but you must also pay to the owner an additional one-fifth of its value.
\v 6 You must also bring to the priest a ram to be an offering to me, in order that you will no longer be guilty. The ram that you bring must be one that has no defects, one that has the value that has been officially determined.
\v 7 Then the priest will offer that ram to be a sacrifice that will cause you to no longer be guilty, and I will forgive you for the wrong things that you did."
\s5
\p
\v 8 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 9 "Tell this to Aaron and his sons: These are the regulations concerning the offerings that will be completely burned on the altar: The offering must remain on the altar all during the night, and the fire on the altar must always be kept burning.
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\v 10 The next morning the priest must put on his linen underclothes and linen outer clothes. Then he must remove the ashes of the offering from the fire and put them beside the altar.
\v 11 Then he must take off those clothes and put on other clothes, and take the ashes outside the camp, to a place that has been made acceptable to me.
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\v 12 The fire on the altar must always be kept burning. The priest must not allow it to go out. Each morning the priest must put more firewood on the fire. Then he must arrange more offerings on the fire, and burn on the altar the fat of the offerings to be burned to promise friendship with Yahweh.
\v 15 The priest must take a handful of fine flour mixed with olive oil and incense and burn that on the altar. That handful will signify that the whole offering truly belongs to me. And the good odor, while the offering burns, will be pleasing to me.
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\v 16 Aaron and his sons may eat the remaining part of the grain offering. But they must eat it in a place that is set apart for God, in the courtyard of the sacred tent.
\v 17 It must not have yeast mixed with it. Like the offerings for sin and the offerings to cause people to no longer be guilty of sin, that offering is very special, reserved for me.
\v 18 Any male descendants of Aaron are permitted to eat it, because it is their permanent regular share of the offerings given to me and burned in the fire on the altar. Whoever touches them will be considered to be set apart for the honor of Yahweh."
\s5
\p
\v 19 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 20 "Tell Aaron and his sons that this is the offering that they must bring to me on the day that any of them is ordained: That person must bring two liters of fine flour as an offering made from grain flour. He must bring half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening.
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\v 21 He must mix it well with olive oil and bake it in a shallow pan. He must then break it into small pieces to be burned on the altar. And the good odor, while it burns, will be pleasing to me.
\v 22 I have commanded that the descendants of Aaron who are appointed to become the high priests after Aaron dies are the ones who must prepare those things. They must be completely burned on the altar to be sacrifices to me.
\v 23 Every offering that a priest gives that is made from flour must be completely burned. No one is to eat any of it."
\v 25 "Tell Aaron and his sons: These are the regulations concerning the offerings for the sins of the people. The priest will kill the sacrifice at the place where the offerings are burned; it is killed before Yahweh and the offering is dedicated to Yahweh.
\v 26 The priest who makes the offering for sin may eat the offering given to Yahweh. The priest can only eat it in the place in the courtyard that has been set apart for eating sacrifices.
\v 27 Any other person who touches any of its meat will belong to me. And if its blood is splattered on your clothes, you must wash the clothes in a holy place.
\v 28 If the meat is cooked in a clay pot, the pot must be broken afterwards. But if it is cooked in a bronze pot, the pot must be scoured afterwards and rinsed with water.
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\v 29 Any male in a priest's family may eat some of the cooked meat. That meat is very special.
\v 30 But if the blood of those offerings is brought into the sacred tent to enable the people to be forgiven for having sinned, the meat of those animals must not be eaten. The priest must burn that meat completely."
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\c 7
\p
\v 1 "These are the regulations concerning the offerings for when people are guilty of not giving to Yahweh the things that are required to be given to him. Those are very sacred offerings.
\v 2 A priest must slaughter each animal that people offer for this purpose in the same place where they slaughter the animals that they will completely burn. The priest must sprinkle the animal's blood on all sides of the altar.
\v 3 All their fat, the fat tails that are cut close to the backbone and all the fat that covers the inner parts of the animals or that is attached to them, must be burned on the altar.
\v 4 This includes the kidneys with their fat near the lower back muscle, and the fat that covers the liver. The priest must remove all these fatty pieces.
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\v 5 The priest must burn these pieces on the altar to be offerings to me, Yahweh. They are an offering for the people, for me to forgive them when they have not done what I required them to do.
\v 6 All the males in the priest's family are permitted to eat its meat, but it must be eaten in a place set apart for me, because it is very special to me.
\s5
\p
\v 7 The regulation is the same for the offerings to cause people to become acceptable to me again and the offerings for when they are guilty of not giving to me the things that I required from them. The meat of those offerings belongs to the priest who offers them.
\v 8 When a priest slaughters an animal that he will completely burn on the altar, he may keep the animal's hide for himself.
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\v 9 Offerings of things made from flour that are baked in an oven or cooked in a pan or in a shallow pan belong to the priest who sacrifices those things for another person.
\v 10 And offerings of things made from flour, whether they were mixed with olive oil or not, also belong to the Aaron's descendants.
\s5
\p
\v 11 These are the regulations concerning the offerings that people make to promise friendship with Yahweh.
\p
\v 12 If you bring an offering to thank Yahweh, along with the animal that you slaughter you must offer loaves of bread made with olive oil mixed with the flour but without yeast, and wafers that are made without yeast but with olive oil smeared on them, and loaves made from fine flour with olive oil mixed well with the flour.
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\v 13 Along with that offering to thank Yahweh, you must bring an offering of loaves made with yeast.
\v 14 You must bring one of each kind for an offering to Yahweh, but they belong to the priest who sprinkles against the altar the blood of the animal that is slaughtered as an offering to promise friendship with Yahweh.
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\v 15 The meat of that offering must be eaten on the day that it is offered. None of it may be left to be eaten on the next day.
\p
\v 16 However, if your offering is the result of a vow that you made to Yahweh, or if it is an offering that you make voluntarily, you may eat some of the meat on the day it is offered, and anything that is left may be eaten on the next day.
\s5
\v 17 But any meat that is left until the third day must be completely burned.
\v 18 If any meat from the offering to promise friendship with Yahweh is eaten on the third day, Yahweh will not accept that offering. It will be useless to offer it because Yahweh will consider that it is worthless. Anyone who eats some of it will have to pay a penalty to Yahweh.
\v 19 Meat that touches something that God considers to be impure must not be eaten. It must be completely burned. But as for other meat, anyone who has performed the rituals to become acceptable to God is allowed to eat it.
\v 20 If anyone who has not performed those rituals eats some of the meat of the offering to promise friendship with Yahweh, meat that belongs to Yahweh, he must no longer be allowed to associate with God's people.
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\v 21 If anyone touches something that God considers to be impure and very displeasing to him, whether it is from a human or from an animal, and then he eats any of the meat of the offering to promise friendship with Yahweh, meat that belongs to Yahweh, he must no longer be allowed to associate with God's people."
\s5
\p
\v 22 Yahweh also said to Moses:
\v 23 "Say this to the Israelite people: 'Do not eat any of the fat of cattle or sheep or goats.
\v 24 The fat of an animal that is found dead or that has been killed by a wild animal may be used for other purposes, but you must not eat it.
\s5
\v 25 Anyone who eats the fat of an animal from which an offering has been made to Yahweh must no longer be allowed to associate with God's people.
\v 26 And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal.
\v 29 "Tell the Israelite people this: 'Anyone who brings an offering to promise friendship with Yahweh must bring part of it to be a sacrifice to Yahweh.
\v 30 He himself must bring the offering that will be burned in the fire. He must bring the fat along with the breast of the animal and lift it high in front of Yahweh to present it as an offering to him.
\s5
\v 31 The priest must burn the fat on the altar, but the breast belongs to Aaron and all his descendants.
\v 32 You must give to the priest the right thigh of the animal that you presented to promise friendship with Yahweh.
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\v 33 The son of Aaron who offers the blood and the fat of that sacrifice will receive the right thigh of the animal as his share.
\v 34 From the offerings that the Israelite people give to promise friendship with Yahweh, he has declared that he has given to Aaron and his descendants the breast that is lifted high and the right thigh that is offered. Those portions will always be their regular share from the Israelite people.
\s5
\p
\v 35 Those are the portions of the offerings brought to Yahweh and burned in fire that are allotted to Aaron and his descendants on the day that you, Moses, will set apart to serve Yahweh as priests.
\v 36 Yahweh commands that on the day that the priests are appointed, that the Israelite people must always give those portions to the priests.'"
\s5
\p
\v 37 So those are the regulations for the offerings that are to be completely burned on the altar, the offerings made from flour, the offerings to cause people to become acceptable to God again, the offerings for when people are guilty of not giving to Yahweh the things that are required to be given to him, the offerings given when the priests are appointed, and the offerings to promise friendship with Yahweh.
\v 38 They are regulations that Yahweh gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the Israelite people to start bringing their offerings to him, in the wilderness around Sinai.
\s5
\c 8
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 2 "Bring Aaron and his sons, and bring their special clothes, the oil for anointing them, the bull to be offered to cause them to become acceptable to God, the two rams to be slaughtered, and the basket containing bread made without yeast.
\v 3 Then gather all the people at the entrance to the sacred tent."
\s5
\v 4 Moses did what Yahweh told him to do, and all the people gathered there.
\p
\v 5 Then Moses said to the people, "This is what Yahweh has commanded us to do."
\s5
\v 6 Then he brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them.
\v 7 He put the special tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, put on him the special robe, and put on him the sacred vest. He fastened the sacred vest around him, using the finely woven waistband.
\s5
\v 8 He put the sacred pouch on his chest and put into it the two stones for him to use to determine what God wants.
\v 9 Then he wrapped the turban around Aaron's head and fastened on the front of it the gold ornament, the object that showed that he was dedicated to God, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
\v 11 He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times. He anointed the altar and all the things used with it, and its washbasin and its stand, to dedicate them to Yahweh.
\v 12 He poured some of the oil on Aaron's head and anointed him, to dedicate him to Yahweh.
\v 13 Then he brought forward Aaron's sons. He put tunics on them, tied sashes around them, and wrapped turbans around their heads, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
\s5
\p
\v 14 Then he brought the bull for the offering to cause people to become acceptable to God. Then Aaron and his sons put their hands on the bull's head.
\v 15 Then Moses slaughtered the bull, caught some of its blood in a bowl, and with his finger put some of it on the projections at the corners of the altar, to purify the altar. He poured the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. By doing that, he caused it to be a suitable place for burning sacrifices for sin.
\s5
\v 16 Moses took all the fat that covers the inner parts of the animal, including the liver and kidneys, and burned them on the altar.
\v 17 He took the rest of the bull, including the hide and intestines, and burned them outside the camp, like Yahweh had commanded Moses.
\s5
\p
\v 18 Then he brought the ram for the offering that would be completely burned on the altar, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.
\v 19 Then Moses slaughtered the ram and sprinkled its blood on all sides of the altar.
\s5
\v 20-21 He cut the ram into pieces and washed the inner parts and hind legs. Then he put the head, the fat, and the other parts of the ram on the altar. As it burned, the aroma of the smoke was pleasing to Yahweh. It was an offering to Yahweh that was burned, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
\s5
\p
\v 22 Then he brought the other ram, the one for consecrating the priests, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.
\v 23-24 Moses slaughtered that ram, caught some of its blood in a bowl, and put some of that blood on the lobes of the right ears, the thumbs of the right hands, and the big toes of the right feet of Aaron and his sons to indicate that what they listened to and what they did and where they went should be directed by Yahweh.
\s5
\v 25 He picked up all the fat of the ram, its fat tail, the fat that covered the inner parts, including the fat that covered the liver and kidneys, and the right thigh of the ram.
\v 26-27 Then from the basket containing the bread that was made without yeast, the bread which had been dedicated to Yahweh, he picked up one loaf of bread made without olive oil, and one loaf that was made by mixing the flour with olive oil, and one wafer. He put those on top of the portions of fat, and put them into the hands of Aaron and his sons. Then they lifted them up in the presence of Yahweh to show that it was an offering that belonged to him.
\s5
\v 28 Then Moses took those things from their hands and burned them on the altar. That was the offering that was burned to appoint Aaron and his sons as priests. And the aroma while it burned was pleasing to Yahweh.
\v 29 Moses also took the breast of the second ram and lifted it high before Yahweh to offer it to him, as Yahweh had commanded. The breast was Moses's share of the ram that was sacrificed to dedicate the priests.
\v 30 Then Moses took some of the olive oil for anointing Aaron and his sons, and some of the blood that was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron and his sons and on their clothes. By doing that, he set apart Aaron to be priest, together with his sons and their clothes.
\v 31 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, "Boil the meat of the second ram at the entrance of the sacred tent, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket, as I told you to do.
\v 32 Burn up any of the meat and bread that remains.
\v 33 The time for you to be set apart as priests will be seven days, so do not leave the entrance of the sacred tent for seven days.
\s5
\v 34 What we have done today is what Yahweh commanded to cause you to be forgiven for your sins.
\v 35 You must stay at the entrance to the sacred tent for seven days and seven nights and do what Yahweh requires, in order that you will not die because of disobeying him. I am telling you that because that is what Yahweh has commanded me to tell you."
\p
\v 36 So Aaron and his sons did everything that Yahweh told Moses to tell them.
\v 1 Eight days later Moses summoned the elders of Israel.
\v 2 Then he said to Aaron, "Take a young bull so you can offer it for your sins, and a ram so that you can burn it whole on the altar, both of them without any defects, and offer them to Yahweh.
\s5
\v 3 Then say to the Israelite people, 'Take a male goat to offer it for your sins. Also take a calf and a lamb that have no defects, so that you can burn them whole on the altar.
\v 4 Also take an ox and a ram to offer them, so you may promise friendship with Yahweh, along with an offering of flour mixed with olive oil. Do this because today Yahweh is going to appear to you.'"
\p
\v 5 After Moses gave these instructions to the Israelites, some of them brought these things and went to the courtyard in front of the sacred tent. Then all the people came near and stood in front of Yahweh.
\s5
\v 6 Then Moses said, "This is what Yahweh has commanded you to do, in order that his glory will appear to you."
\p
\v 7 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Come to the altar and sacrifice the animal that is your offering to enable you to be forgiven for the sins you have committed. Also bring the animal that you will burn whole on the altar. Because of those offerings, God will forgive you and the people for the sins that you have committed. Do these things that Yahweh has commanded you to do."
\s5
\p
\v 8 So Aaron came up to the altar and slaughtered the calf as an offering for his sins.
\v 9 His sons brought its blood to him in a bowl. He dipped his finger into the blood and put some of it on the projections at the corners of the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.
\s5
\v 10 He burned the fat, including that which covered the kidneys and the liver, as Yahweh had commanded him.
\v 11 Then Aaron went outside the camp and there burned the rest of the meat and the hide.
\s5
\p
\v 12 Then Aaron slaughtered the animal that he was going to burn whole on the altar. His sons handed him the bowl containing its blood, and he sprinkled the blood on all sides of the altar.
\v 13 Then they handed him the head and the pieces of the animal that would be burned, and he burned them on the altar.
\v 14 He washed the inner parts and the legs of the animal, and he burned them on the altar, on top of the other pieces of the animal.
\s5
\p
\v 15 Then Aaron brought the animals that would be sacrifices for the Israelite people. He took a goat and slaughtered it for the people's sins, as he had done with the goat for his own offering.
\p
\v 16 Then he brought the animal for the offering in order to burn it whole. He slaughtered it and offered it in the way that Yahweh had commanded him to do.
\v 17 He also brought the offering made from flour. He took a handful of it and burned it on the altar, as he had done with the animal that he had sacrificed earlier that morning.
\s5
\p
\v 18 Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram to be an offering for the Israelite people to promise friendship with Yahweh. His sons handed him the bowl containing the blood, and he sprinkled the blood against all sides of the altar.
\v 19 But he took the fat from the ox and the ram, including their fat tails that were cut close to the backbone, and all the fat that covered the livers and the kidneys.
\s5
\v 20 He put these parts on top of the breasts of those animals and carried them to the altar to burn them.
\v 21 Then, doing what Moses had commanded, he lifted up in front of Yahweh the breast and the right thigh of those animals to show that those two animals completely belonged to Yahweh.
\s5
\p
\v 22 Then Aaron lifted his arms toward the people and asked Yahweh to bless them. Then having finished making all those offerings, he stepped down from the place where the altar was.
\p
\v 23 Then Aaron and Moses entered the sacred tent. When they came out later, they asked Yahweh to bless the people. And suddenly the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people.
\v 24 A fire from Yahweh appeared and burned up the entire offering, together with the fat that was on the altar. When all the people saw this happen, they shouted joyfully and prostrated themselves on the ground to worship Yahweh.
\s5
\c 10
\p
\v 1 Two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, took the pans in which they burned incense. They put some burning coals in them and put incense on top of the coals, but this fire was not acceptable to Yahweh because it was not the kind that he had commanded them to burn.
\v 2 So suddenly a fire from Yahweh appeared and burned them up in his own presence.
\s5
\v 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what Yahweh was talking about when he said,
\q1 'Those priests who come near to me—
\q2 I will show them that they must honor me;
\q1 in the presence of all the people
\q2 I am the one whom they must honor.'"
\m But Aaron said nothing.
\p
\v 4 Then Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, who were the sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, "Take the corpses of your cousins outside the camp, away from being in front of the sacred tent."
\s5
\v 5 So they carried the corpses, on which were still the special tunics, outside the camp, and buried them.
\p
\v 6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his other two sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "You are sad because Nadab and Abihu died, but you must act like you always do. Do not allow the hair on your heads to remain uncombed, and do not tear your clothes. If you do, Yahweh will be angry with all the people. But you must let your relatives and all your fellow Israelites engage in mourning ceremonies for those whom Yahweh has destroyed by fire.
\v 7 But you must not leave the entrance of the sacred tent to join those who are mourning, because if you do that, you also will die. Do not forget that Yahweh has set you apart to work for him here, and he does not want you to become defiled by touching a corpse." So they obeyed Moses.
\v 9 "You and your two sons who are still alive must not drink wine or other fermented drinks before you enter the sacred tent. If you do that, you will die. That is a command that you and your descendants must obey forever.
\v 10 You must do that in order to learn what things are holy and what things are not holy; you must also learn what things I will accept and what I will not accept.
\v 11 And you must teach the Israelite people all the laws that I gave to them by telling them to Moses."
\s5
\p
\v 12 Moses said to Aaron and his two sons who were still alive, Eleazar and Ithamar, "Take the offering made from flour that is left after a portion of it has been offered to Yahweh to be burned, and eat it alongside the altar. It should not be eaten elsewhere because it is very holy.
\v 13 Eat it in a holy place. It is the share for you and your sons from the meat that you have burned as offerings. Yahweh has commanded me to tell you this.
\s5
\v 14 But you and your sons and daughters are permitted to eat the breast and the thigh that were lifted up in front of Yahweh. Eat them in any place that is holy. They have been given to you and your descendants as your share of the offerings when the Israelites promise friendship with Yahweh.
\v 15 The thigh and the breast that were lifted up in front of Yahweh must be brought with the portions of fat to be burned, to be lifted up and offered in his presence. They will be the regular share for you and your descendants, as Yahweh has commanded."
\s5
\p
\v 16 When Moses inquired about the goat that the priests had sacrificed for the people's sins, he found out that the priests had burned it all. So he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar and asked them,
\v 17 "Why did you not eat near the sacred tent the meat of the sin offering? It was very special for Yahweh; he gave it to you so he could forgive the sins of the people.
\v 18 Since its blood was not taken into the holy place inside the sacred tent, you should have eaten the meat of the goat outside the sacred tent, as I commanded."
\s5
\p
\v 19 Aaron replied to Moses, "Today the people brought to Yahweh their offering for him to forgive their sins, and also the offering we burned completely to please Yahweh. But think about the terrible thing that happened to my other two sons! Would Yahweh have been pleased if I had eaten some of the people's sin offering today?"
\v 20 When Moses heard that, he was satisfied and said nothing more.
\v 4 There are some animals that chew their cud but do not have split hooves, and some animals that have split hooves but do not chew their cud. You must not eat any of those animals. For example, camels chew their cud but do not have split hooves, so they are unacceptable for you to eat.
\v 19 storks, any kind of heron, hoopoes, and bats.
\s5
\p
\v 20 You must detest and not eat flying insects that also walk on the ground.
\v 21 But you are permitted to eat creatures with wings that sometimes walk on the ground if they have jointed legs for hopping around.
\v 22 They include locusts, katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers.
\v 23 But you must detest and not eat other insects with wings that have four legs.
\s5
\p
\v 24 There are certain creatures that will make you unacceptable to me if you touch their carcasses. Anyone who touches their carcasses must not touch other people until that evening.
\v 25 Anyone who picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes and not touch other people until that evening.
\s5
\p
\v 26 The animals whose carcasses you must not touch are those that have hooves that are not completely divided or animals that do not chew their cud. Anyone who touches the carcasses of any of those animals becomes defiled.
\v 27 From all the animals that walk on the ground, you must not touch the carcasses of those that have paws to walk on. Anyone who touches one of their carcasses must not touch other people until that evening.
\v 28 Anyone who picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes and not touch other people until that evening, because touching their carcasses makes you unacceptable to me.
\s5
\p
\v 29 Of all the animals that walk on the ground, these are the ones that make you unacceptable if you touch them: Weasels, rats, any kind of big lizard,
\v 30 geckos, monitor lizards and other lizards, skinks, and chameleons.
\s5
\v 31 The creatures that crawl along the ground make you unacceptable to me. Anyone who touches one of their carcasses must not touch other people until the evening.
\v 32 When one of those creatures dies and falls on something, the thing that it falls on, whatever it is used for, will become defiled, whether it is made of wood, cloth, the hide of some animal or from rough cloth. You must put the object into water. Then you must not use it until that evening.
\v 33 If one of those unclean creatures falls into a clay pot, everything in it becomes defiled, and you must break that pot.
\s5
\v 34 If you pour water from that pot onto any food, you must not eat that food. And you must not drink any water from that pot.
\v 35 Anything that one of the carcasses of those creatures falls on becomes defiled, even if the creature falls into an oven or a cooking pot. Anything that it falls on must be broken. It becomes unacceptable to me, and you must not use it again.
\s5
\v 36 If one of their carcasses falls into a spring or a pit for storing water, the water may still be drunk, but anyone who touches one of those carcasses becomes unacceptable to me.
\v 37 If one of those carcasses falls on seeds that are to be planted, those seeds are still acceptable to be planted.
\v 38 But if water has been put on the seeds and then a carcass falls on it, the seeds must be thrown away; you must regard them as unacceptable.
\s5
\p
\v 39 If an animal whose meat you are permitted to eat dies, anyone who touches its carcass must not touch other people until that evening.
\v 40 Anyone who eats some meat from that carcass must wash his clothes, and then he must not touch anyone until that evening.
\s5
\p
\v 41-42 All creatures that crawl along the ground, including those that move on their bellies and those that crawl along, are detestable, and they must not be eaten.
\s5
\v 43 Do not defile yourselves by eating any of those creatures. Be very careful about this.
\v 44 I am Yahweh your God, and I am holy, so you must set yourselves apart for my honor, and you must be holy. You must avoid eating things that cause you to be unacceptable to me. Do not cause yourselves to become unacceptable to me by eating creatures that crawl along on the ground.
\v 45 I am Yahweh, the one who freed you from being slaves in Egypt, in order that you might worship me. Therefore, because I am holy, you must be holy.
\s5
\p
\v 46 Those are the regulations concerning animals and birds, all the living creatures that live in water or creep along on the ground.
\v 47 You must learn what things I say are acceptable to me and what things are not, and learn what things you are permitted to eat and what things you are not permitted to eat.'"
\s5
\c 12
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 2 "Tell this to the Israelite people. If a woman gives birth to a boy, she must be avoided for seven days, as she must be avoided when she is menstruating each month.
\v 3 The baby boy must be circumcised eight days after he is born.
\s5
\v 4 Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding during childbirth. She must not touch anything that is sacred, that belongs to me only, or enter the area of the sacred tent, until that time is ended.
\v 5 If a woman gives birth to a baby girl, she must be avoided for two weeks, as she must be avoided when she is menstruating each month. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding when the baby was born.
\s5
\p
\v 6 When that time for her to be purified is ended, that woman must bring to the priest at the entrance of the sacred tent a one year old lamb. The priest will burn it whole on the altar. The woman must also bring a dove or a young pigeon for the priest to sacrifice it, so that Yahweh will accept her again.
\s5
\v 7 The priest will offer these animals to Yahweh in order that she may be made acceptable to him again. Then she will be purified from her flow of blood when the baby was born.
\p Those are the regulations for women who give birth to a baby boy or girl.
\v 8 If a woman who gives birth to a child cannot afford a lamb, she must bring two doves or two pigeons. One will be burned completely on the altar, and one will be an offering to enable her to become acceptable to God again. By doing that, the priest will cause her to be forgiven for any sins she has committed, and she no longer will need to be avoided."
\s5
\c 13
\p
\v 1 Yahweh said this to Aaron and Moses:
\v 2 "When someone has on his skin a swelling, a scab, or a shiny spot that seems to be infected, then someone must bring him to Aaron or to one of his sons who are also priests.
\s5
\v 3 The priest must examine that part of the person's skin. If the hair in that area has become white and it appears that the sore is deeper than just on the skin, then it is a skin disease that other people are in danger of receiving from him. If that is what the priest sees, he must declare that this sick person is not fit to be with other people.
\v 4 If the spot on the person's skin is white but it does not appear that the sore is deeper than the surface of the skin, the priest must keep him away from all other people for seven days.
\s5
\v 5 After seven days, the priest must examine the person again. If the priest sees that the sore has not changed and has not spread, he must keep the person away from people for yet another seven days.
\v 6 Again, after those seven more days have passed, the priest must examine the person once more. If the sore has faded and has not spread, the priest will declare that the person is fit to be with other people again. His skin condition is only a rash; it is not contagious. After the person washes his clothes, the priest will allow him to be with other people again.
\s5
\v 7 But if the sore spreads after the priest has examined him, the person must go to the priest again.
\v 8 The priest will examine him; if the sore has spread to more of the skin, it is a contagious skin disease, and the priest will declare that the person is not fit to be with other people.
\s5
\p
\v 9 When anyone has a contagious skin disease, someone must bring him to the priest.
\v 10 The priest must examine him. If there is a white swelling in the skin that has caused the hair there to become white, and if the flesh in that area is painful,
\v 11 then it is a permanent skin disease; the priest will declare that the person is not fit to be with other people. The priest does not need to keep that person away from others for seven days in order to examine him again, because he already knows that the person is unfit to be with others.
\s5
\p
\v 12 If the disease spreads all over someone's body, and the priest examines that person and sees that it is covering his skin from his head to his feet,
\v 13 and it has caused all his skin to become white which will indicate that the disease has ended, the priest will declare that the person does not have to stay away from other people.
\v 14 But if the person has open sores, he has a contagious skin disease.
\s5
\v 15 When the priest sees that, he must declare that the person has a contagious skin disease and is unfit to be with other people.
\v 16 But if the person's flesh changes and becomes white, he must go to the priest again.
\v 17 The priest must examine him again, and if the sores have become white, the priest will declare that this person is now fit to be with other people again.
\s5
\p
\v 18 When someone had a boil on his skin and it has now healed,
\v 19 but in the place where the boil was, there is now a white swelling or a bright spot, he must go to the priest.
\v 20 The priest must examine it. If it seems to be deeper than the surface of the skin, and if the hair in that spot has become white, it is a contagious skin disease that has appeared where the boil had been. And the priest must declare that the person is unfit to be with other people.
\s5
\v 21 But when the priest examines it, if he finds no white hair in that spot, and if he finds that it is only on the surface of the skin and has become less bright, then the priest must keep him away from other people for seven days.
\v 22 But if it is spreading, it is contagious, and the priest must declare that the person is unfit to be with other people.
\v 23 But if that spot is unchanged and has not spread, it is only a scar from the boil, and the priest will declare that the person is fit to be with other people again.
\s5
\p
\v 24 When someone has a burn on his skin and a bright or white spot appears, and the flesh in that area is painful,
\v 25 the priest must examine the spot. If the hair in that spot has turned white and it seems to be deeper than just the surface of the skin, it is a contagious skin disease that has appeared where the burn was, and the priest must declare that the person is unfit to be with other people.
\s5
\v 26 But if the priest examines it and sees that there is no white hair in that spot and it is only on the surface of the skin, and that the spot has faded, the priest must keep the person away from other people for seven days.
\v 27 After seven days, the priest will examine him again. If the sore is spreading, it is a contagious skin disease, and the priest will declare that the person is unfit to be with other people.
\v 28 However, if the spot is not changed and has not spread but has faded, then it is only a scar from the burn; the priest must declare that the person is fit to be with other people.
\s5
\p
\v 29 If a man or a woman has a sore on the head or chin,
\v 30 the priest must examine that person. If the sore seems to be deeper than just on the surface of the skin, and if the hair in that spot has thinned out and has become yellowish, then it is a contagious skin disease that causes itching. In that case, the priest must declare that the person is unfit to be with other people.
\s5
\v 31 But when the priest examines that kind of sore, if it seems to be only on the surface of the skin and there is no healthy hair in it, the priest will keep the person away from other people for seven days.
\s5
\v 32 On the seventh day, the priest must examine the sore again. If it has not spread and if there is no yellow hair in that spot, and if it appears to be only on the surface of the skin,
\v 33 the person must shave the hair near the sore but not the hair on the sore. And the priest will keep the person away from other people for seven more days.
\v 34 On the seventh day, the priest must examine that spot again. If it has not spread and it appears to be only on the surface of the skin, the priest will declare that the person is fit to be with people again. The person must wash his clothes, and then he can be with other people.
\v 36 the priest must examine him again. If the itch has spread, the priest does not need to look for yellow hair, because it is clear that the person has a contagious skin disease.
\v 37 However, if the priest thinks that the spot has not changed, and if healthy hair is growing in that area, it is clear that the itch has healed, and the priest will declare that the person is fit to be with other people again.
\s5
\p
\v 38 When a man or a woman has white spots on the skin,
\v 39 the priest should examine them. But if the spots are dull white, it is only a rash, and the priest will declare that the person is fit to be with other people.
\s5
\p
\v 40 If a man loses all his hair and becomes bald, he does not need to stay away from other people.
\v 41 The same is true if he has lost his hair at the front of his scalp and his forehead has become bald.
\s5
\v 42 But if he gets a bright sore on his bald head or on his forehead, then he has a contagious skin disease.
\v 43 The priest must examine him. If the swollen sore is a bright spot like a spot on someone who has a contagious skin disease,
\v 44 the priest will declare that the man has a contagious skin disease and is not fit to be with other people.
\s5
\p
\v 45 Anyone who has a contagious skin disease must wear torn clothes and not comb his hair. When he is near other people, he must cover the lower part of his face and call out, 'Do not come near me! I have a contagious skin disease!'
\v 46 He is not allowed to be with other people as long as he has the disease. He must live alone, outside the camp."
\s5
\p
\v 47-48 "Sometimes a person's clothing gets mildew on it. It may be clothing that is woven from wool or made from linen or from leather, or it may be another item that has leather in it.
\v 49 If the contaminated part is greenish or reddish, there is spreading mildew, and the owner must show it to a priest.
\s5
\v 50 The priest must examine it and then put it in a separate place by itself for seven days.
\v 51 On the seventh day he must examine it again. If the mildew has spread, it is clear that it is mildew that destroys what it is on, and the clothing or item must not be used again.
\v 52 The owner must completely burn the item that has the mildew in it, whatever kind of item it is.
\s5
\p
\v 53 But when the priest examines it, if the mildew has not spread,
\v 54 he must tell the person who owns it to wash it. Then he must put it in a separate place for another seven days.
\v 55 After seven days, the priest must examine it again. If the color of the mildew has not changed, even though it has not spread, that item must not be used again. It does not matter if the mildew is on the inside of the item or on the outside. It must be burned.
\s5
\v 56 But when the priest examines it after it has been washed, if the mildew has faded, he must tear out the part that had the mildew in it.
\v 57 If the mildew reappears on that item, it is clear that it is spreading, and the owner must burn the entire item.
\v 58 But after the clothing is washed and the mildew disappears, the owner must wash it again, and then he may use it again.
\s5
\p
\v 59 These are the regulations concerning mildew on things made of wool or linen or leather, for deciding whether the owner may continue to use those things or not."
\s5
\c 14
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 2 "These are the regulations for anyone who has been healed of a contagious skin disease.
\s5
\v 3 Other people must tell the priest about that person. The priest will go outside the camp and examine him. If the skin disease has been healed,
\v 4 the priest will say that someone must bring two live birds that are acceptable to Yahweh, along with some cedar wood, some scarlet yarn, and some hyssop.
\v 5 Then the priest will command that one of the birds be killed while it is being held over a clay pot containing water from a spring; that is, fresh water.
\v 6 Then the priest will dip the other bird, along with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into that water, which now has blood from the bird that was killed.
\v 7 Then he must sprinkle some of the water and blood on the person who was healed. He must sprinkle it on him seven times. Then he will declare that the person is permitted to be with other people again. And the priest will release the other bird and allow it to fly away.
\s5
\p
\v 8 Then the person who was healed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe. After he does those things, he is allowed to return to the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days.
\v 9 On the seventh day, he must again shave off all his hair, including his beard and his eyebrows. Then he must again wash his clothes and bathe. After he does those things, he will be allowed to be with other people again.
\s5
\p
\v 10 The next day that person must bring two male lambs and one female lamb; the female lamb must be one year old, and the animals must have no defects. He must also bring about six and one-half liters of a fine flour offering, mixed with olive oil, to be an offering, and about one-third liter of olive oil.
\v 11 The priest who declared that the person's skin disease has ended must bring that person and his offerings to Yahweh at the entrance to the sacred tent.
\s5
\p
\v 12 Then the priest must take one of the male lambs and lift it high, along with the olive oil, to show that he is giving this to Yahweh as a guilt offering—because the sick person was not able to give to Yahweh the things that he was required to give him.
\v 13 Then the priest must slaughter the lamb in the special place where the priests kill the other sacrifices as well. Like the offering to enable people to be forgiven, God considers this guilt offering to be very special, and so the meat from it belongs to the priest.
\v 15 Then the priest must take some of the olive oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand.
\v 16 Then he must dip his right forefinger into that oil and sprinkle it in front of Yahweh seven times.
\s5
\v 17 Next, the priest must put some of that oil in his hand on the person's right earlobe, on his right thumb, and on his right big toe. He must put the oil in those three places, exactly where he has already put the blood.
\v 18 The priest must put what is left of the oil in his hand onto the person's head; this will show that Yahweh has forgiven that person's sins.
\s5
\p
\v 19 Then the priest must slaughter the female lamb that the person brought; this will be the offering for the person's sins, so that Yahweh will forgive him. After that, the priest will slaughter the second male lamb and burn it whole on the altar.
\v 20 He will also burn on the altar the offering made from flour, along with the whole burnt offering. Then the person will be acceptable in the camp; he will be allowed to be with the other people.
\v 21 But if the person who has gotten well is poor and cannot afford to bring all those animals, he must bring to the priest one male lamb for the priest to lift it up and offer it to Yahweh. This will be a sacrifice because the sick person was not able to give to Yahweh the things that he was required to give him. He must also bring about two liters of flour offering mixed with about one-third liter of olive oil; this will be an offering made from flour. He must also bring about one-third liter of olive oil.
\v 22 He must also bring doves or two pigeons, one to offer to Yahweh for his sins, and one for the priest to burn completely on the altar.
\v 23 On that same day, the eighth day, that person must take those things to the priest at the entrance to the sacred tent, to offer them to Yahweh.
\s5
\v 24 Then the priest will take the lamb for the guilt offering and the olive oil, and he will raise them up as an offering to Yahweh and present them to him.
\v 25 Then the priest will slaughter that lamb and catch some of the blood in a bowl. He will take some of the blood and put it onto the person's right earlobe, his right thumb, and his right big toe.
\s5
\v 26 Then the priest must take some of the olive oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand.
\v 27 Then he must dip his right forefinger into that oil and sprinkle it in front of Yahweh seven times.
\s5
\v 28 He must put some of the oil in his palm on exactly the same places where he put the blood.
\v 29 He must put the rest of the oil that is in his hand on the head of the person whose has gotten well. This will show that Yahweh has forgiven that person's sins.
\s5
\v 30 Then the priest must sacrifice the doves or young pigeons, whichever kind that person has brought.
\v 31 One will be a sin offering and the other will be completely burned on the altar, along with the offering made from flour. By doing that, the priest will atone for that person's sins.
\p
\v 32 These are the regulations for anyone who has a contagious skin disease and who is poor and cannot afford the usual offerings, in order that he can be with people again."
\s5
\p
\v 33 Yahweh also said to Aaron and Moses,
\v 34 "I am about to give you the land of Canaan to belong to your people permanently. When you enter that land, there will be times when I cause mildew to appear inside one of your houses.
\v 35 If that happens, the owner of that house must go to the priest and tell him, 'There is something in my house that looks like mildew.'
\s5
\v 36 Then the priest will say to him, 'Take everything out of the house before I enter it to examine the mildew. If you do not do that, I will declare that everything in the house is contaminated.'
\v 37 After the owner takes everything outside of his house, the priest will go in and inspect the house. If the mildew has caused greenish or reddish spots on the walls that seem to be deeper than only on the surface of the walls,
\v 38 the priest will go outside of the house and lock it up for seven days.
\s5
\v 39 On the seventh day, he must go into the house and inspect it again. If the mildew on the walls has spread,
\v 41 Then the owner must scrape all the walls inside the house, and everything that is scraped off must be thrown into a dump outside the town.
\v 42 Then the owner must get new stones to replace the ones that had mildew on them, and take new clay and plaster to cover the stones in the walls of the house.
\s5
\p
\v 43 If the mildew appears again in the house after that is done,
\v 44 the priest must go and examine the house again. If the mildew has spread inside the house, it will be clear that the mildew is the kind that destroys houses, and no one will be allowed to live in it.
\s5
\v 45 It must be completely torn down—the stones, the timber and the plaster—and all those things must be thrown into a dump outside the town.
\p
\v 46 Anyone who goes into that house while it is locked up will not be allowed to be with other people until sunset of that day.
\v 47 Anyone who sleeps in that house or eats in that house during that time must wash his clothes.
\s5
\p
\v 48 But when the priest comes to examine the house after it has been plastered, if the mildew has not spread, he will declare that people may live in it, because the mildew is gone.
\s5
\v 49 But before people are allowed to live in it, the priest must take two birds, some cedar wood, some red yarn, and some hyssop.
\v 50 He must kill one of the birds while holding it over a clay pot containing water taken from a spring.
\v 51 Then he must take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the red yarn, and the living bird, and dip them into the blood of the dead bird, and sprinkle some of that blood and water on the house seven times.
\v 52 By doing all those things he will enable the house to be fit for the owner to live in again.
\v 53 Then he must release the other bird and allow it to fly away. By doing that, he will finish the ritual for causing the house to be acceptable for people to live in it again.
\s5
\p
\v 54 Those are the regulations for contagious diseases, for itching sores,
\v 55 for mildew on clothes or in a house,
\v 56 and for swellings, rashes, or bright spots on sores;
\v 57 these regulations will determine whether people will still be permitted to touch those things or not."
\s5
\c 15
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses and Aaron,
\v 2 "Tell this to the Israelites: When an unusual, infected fluid comes out of a man's private parts, no one should touch that man.
\v 3 Whether that fluid is blocked or continues to drip, no one should touch him.
\s5
\p
\v 4 No one should touch any bed that such a man lies on, nor anything he sits on.
\v 5 Anyone who touches that person's bed must wash his clothes and bathe, and allow no one to touch him until that evening.
\s5
\v 6 Anyone who sits on something that man has sat on must wash his clothes and bathe, and allow no one to touch him until that evening.
\p
\v 7 Anyone who touches such a man must wash his clothes and bathe, and allow no one to touch him until that evening.
\s5
\p
\v 8 If such a man spits on someone else, that person must allow no one to touch him. He must wash his clothes, and he must allow no one to touch him until evening.
\p
\v 9 Everything that a man who has such a flow of fluid sits on while he is riding a horse or a donkey should not be touched.
\s5
\v 10 Anyone who touches a seat or saddle that he was sitting on also should allow no one to touch him until that evening. And anyone who picks up those things must wash his clothes and bathe, and no one should touch him until that evening.
\v 11 If the person with the flow of fluid wishes to touch someone else, he must first rinse his hands in water; if he touches anyone without doing that first, the one he touched must wash his clothes and bathe, and allow no one to touch him until that evening.
\p
\v 12 If such a man touches a clay pot, someone must break it. Anything made from wood that he touches—someone must rinse it in water.
\s5
\p
\v 13 If such a man gets well from his flow of fluid, he must wait for seven days. Then he must wash his clothes and bathe in water from a spring or stream. Then he will be able to be with others.
\v 14 On the eighth day, he must take two doves or two pigeons and come in front of Yahweh at the entrance of the sacred tent, and give them to the priest.
\v 15 The priest will sacrifice them. One bird will be an offering for the man's sin, and the priest will completely burn the other one on the altar. Then the man will be pure again and acceptable to Yahweh.
\s5
\p
\v 16 When semen accidentally flows from a man's private parts, he must bathe his whole body, and no one may touch him until that evening.
\v 17 Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed, and no one may touch it until that evening.
\v 18 When a man has slept with a woman and gives her semen, both of them must bathe, and no one may touch them until that evening.
\s5
\p
\v 19 When a woman has her menstrual period, no one may touch her for seven days. If anyone touches her during that time, no one may touch the person who touched her until that evening.
\v 20 No one may touch anything that she lies on or sits on during that time.
\s5
\v 21 Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe, and no one may touch that person until that evening.
\v 22-23 Anyone who touches something that she has been sitting on, a bed or anything else, must wash his clothes, and no one may touch that person until that evening.
\s5
\p
\v 24 If a man sleeps with a woman during that time and some of her menstrual blood touches him, no one may touch him for seven days, and no one may touch the bed that he has lain on.
\s5
\p
\v 25 If a woman has a flow of blood for many days, a flow that is not her normal menstrual flow of blood, or if her flow of blood continues after her menstrual flow ends, no one may touch her until it stops.
\v 26 And no one may touch the bed that she lies on or anything that she sits on while that flow of blood continues, just as during her normal menstrual period.
\v 27 Anyone who touches those things must not touch anyone else. He must wash his clothes and bathe, and he may not touch anyone else until that evening.
\s5
\p
\v 28 If the woman is healed of her flow of blood, she must wait seven days before she touches anyone.
\v 29 On the eighth day, she must take doves or young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the sacred tent.
\v 30 The priest must sacrifice one of them as an offering for her sins, and he must completely burn the other one on the altar. Then she will be pure again and acceptable to Yahweh.
\s5
\p
\v 31 You must do these things in order that the people, at the times when they are unacceptable to me, do not defile my sacred tent, where I live among them. For it they do defile it, they will die.
\v 32 Those are the regulations for a man who has a discharge from his body, and for a man who has an emission of semen—when that happens he is unclean,
\v 33 and for any woman during her menstrual period, and for any man who sleeps with a woman during her menstrual period.'"
\s5
\c 16
\p
\v 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.
\v 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!
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 7 Then he must bring the two male goats to me at the entrance to the sacred tent.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 9 Aaron must bring to me the goat that was chosen to be sacrificed. It will be an offering for the people's sins.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 22 I will view the goat as carrying away into the wilderness the guilt for all the sins that the people have committed.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 25 He must also burn on the altar all the fat of the two animals that were sacrificed.
\p
\v 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.
\v 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 be burned. The hides of these animals, their inner organs, and their dung must be burned.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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,
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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."
\p Moses obeyed all the instructions that Yahweh had given to him.
\s5
\c 17
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 2 "Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the other Israelites. Tell them that I am giving them the following commands:
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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 Yahweh 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 7 You people must no longer give sacrifices to the images that resemble goats. You people must obey this command for all time."
\s5
\p
\v 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,
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 12 That is why I say that neither you Israelites, nor any foreigner living among you, may consume any blood.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 16 If you do not obey this rule, I will certainly punish you.'"
\s5
\c 18
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 2 "Speak to the Israelite people and tell them that I, Yahweh, say this, 'I am Yahweh, your God.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 4 You must obey all of my laws; you must do everything that I, Yahweh your God, am commanding you.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 6 Do not sleep with any of your close relatives. It is I, Yahweh, who am commanding that.
\p
\v 7 Do not disgrace your father by sleeping with your mother. Do not disgrace your mother in this manner.
\p
\v 8 Do not sleep with any of your father's other wives, because that would disgrace your father.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 10 Do not sleep with your granddaughter, because that would disgrace you.
\p
\v 11 Do not sleep with your half-sister, one whose father is also your father; she is your sister.
\s5
\p
\v 12 Do not sleep with your father's sister, because she is your father's close relative.
\p
\v 13 Do not sleep with your mother's sister, because she is your mother's close relative.
\p
\v 14 Do not disgrace your father's brother by sleeping with his wife, because she is your aunt.
\s5
\p
\v 15 Do not sleep with your daughter-in-law, because she is your son's wife.
\p
\v 16 Do not sleep with your brother's wife, because that would disgrace your brother.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 18 While your wife is still living, do not marry your wife's sister and sleep with her.
\s5
\p
\v 19 Do not sleep with any woman while she is having her menstrual period.
\p
\v 20 Do not defile yourself by sleeping with someone else's wife.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 22 No man should sleep with another man. That is detestable.
\p
\v 23 No one, man or woman, should defile himself by sleeping with an animal. That is a perverse action.
\v 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 peoples that I will drive out as you advance into the land that I am giving you.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 27 As for all those detestable things, before you came, the people who lived in this land did them, and they defiled the land.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 29 You must not allow people who do any of those detestable things to associate with you, who are my people.
\v 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.'"
\s5
\c 19
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.'
\v 5 Yahweh also says this: 'When you bring an offering to promise friendship with me, offer it in a way that I will accept.
\v 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.
\v 7 For any of it to be eaten on the third day is very displeasing to me, and I will not accept that offering.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 11 Do not steal anything.
\p Do not tell lies.
\p Do not deceive each other.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 13 Do not cheat anyone or steal from anyone.
\p 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 15 Always judge people fairly. Do not do special favors for either poor people or rich people.
\p
\v 16 Do not spread false rumors about other people.
\p Do not remain silent in court if your testimony would keep an innocent person being executed. I, Yahweh, am commanding this.
\s5
\p
\v 17 Do not hate anyone. Instead, honestly rebuke others who ought to be rebuked, in order that you also will not be guilty.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 19 Obey my laws.
\p Do not allow two different kinds of animals to mate with each other.
\p Do not plant two different kinds of seed in the same field.
\p Do not wear clothing made from two different kinds of material.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 22 The priest will offer that ram to me. Then I will forgive that man for the sin which he committed.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 26 Do not eat any meat that still has the animal's blood in it.
\p Do not consult spirits to find out what will happen in the future, and do not practice sorcery.
\p
\v 27 Do not shave the hair at the sides of your heads as pagan people do.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 30 Honor my Sabbath days and revere my sacred tent, because I am Yahweh.
\v 31 Do not seek advice from those who try to get the spirits of dead people to give them advice. If you do that, I will no longer accept you. I am Yahweh your God.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 33 When foreigners live among you in your land, do not mistreat them.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 35 When you are measuring things, to see how long they are or how much they weigh or how many there are,
\v 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.
\p
\v 37 Obey carefully all my laws and decrees. It is I, Yahweh, who am commanding you these things.'"
\s5
\c 20
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said this to Moses:
\v 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.
\s5
\v 3 I will reject such people and cause them to no longer be with my people.
\v 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,
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 7 Set yourselves apart for my honor, so that you may belong to me, because I am Yahweh your God.
\s5
\v 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.
\p
\v 9 If anyone curses his father or his mother, you must execute him. He himself will be responsible for his own death.
\s5
\p
\v 10 If a man commits adultery with some other man's wife, then you must execute both of them, the man and the woman.
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 15 If a man sleeps with an animal, you must execute both him and that animal.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 20 If a man sleeps with his uncle's wife, he has dishonored his uncle. For what they have done, they must be responsible for their actions. They will die, not having any children.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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."
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.'"
\s5
\c 21
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them,
\v 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 brother.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 4 You priests must not cause yourselves to become unfit to do my work by touching the dead bodies of other relatives of yours.
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\p
\v 9 If a priest's daughter becomes a prostitute, she disgraces her father, and you must burn her in a fire.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 13 Women whom you priests marry must be virgins.
\v 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.'"
\s5
\p
\v 16 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
\v 18 No one who is blind or lame or deformed should come near to the altar to give an offering. The same is true of anyone whose face is disfigured,
\v 19 or who has a crippled foot or a crippled hand,
\v 20 or who has a hunchback or an abnormally short person, and who has eyes that are defective, or who has a skin disease or whose private parts have been damaged.
\v 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.
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\v 22 Priests who have defects are permitted to eat the various kinds of holy food offered to me.
\v 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.'"
\p
\v 24 So Moses told this to Aaron and to his sons and to all the Israelite people.
\s5
\c 22
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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 as an emission of semen,
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 7 After the sun sets, he may eat food from the sacred offerings, because they are now his food that is to be eaten.
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\v 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 who has been hired by the priest is permitted to eat it.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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;
\v 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."
\v 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,
\v 19 you must bring from your cattle or sheep or goats an animal that has no defects, in order that I may accept it.
\s5
\v 20 Do not bring any animals that have defects, because I will not accept them for you.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 22 Do not offer to me animals that are blind or injured or maimed, or any animal that has warts or a festering sore.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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,
\v 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.'"
\s5
\p
\v 26 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
\s5
\v 28 Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its newborn young on the same day.
\p
\v 29 When you sacrifice an animal to thank me for what I have done, sacrifice it in a way that I will accept.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 31 Obey all my commands. I, Yahweh, am commanding them.
\v 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.
\v 33 And I am the one who brought you out of Egypt in order that I, Yahweh, will be your God."
\s5
\c 23
\p
\v 1 Yahweh said to Moses,
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 4 There are festivals that I am establishing for you. These will be sacred days when you must gather together to worship me.
\v 5 The first festival is the Passover. That festival will begin at twilight on the appointed day each spring and end the following day.
\v 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.
\v 7 On the first day of that festival, all of you must stop your regular work and gather together to worship me.
\v 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."
\v 10 "Speak to the Israelite people and say to them, 'When 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 15 Count seven weeks and one day after the priest offers that bundle of grain to me.
\v 16 Then on the day after the seventh Sabbath, each family must bring to me an offering from the new crop of grain.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.'"
\v 24 "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.
\v 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."
\s5
\p
\v 26 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 29 You must drive out from the people anyone who does not go without eating on that day.
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\v 30 I will get rid of anyone who does any kind of work on that day.
\v 31 You must not work at all! You and all your descendants must always obey these commands, wherever you live.
\v 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."
\s5
\p
\v 33 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
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\v 35 On the first day of that festival, the people must gather together to worship me, and they must not do any regular work.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
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\v 42 During the seven days of that festival, all of you people who have been Israelites all of your lives must live in shelters.
\v 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."
\p
\v 44 So Moses gave to the Israelite people all these instructions concerning the festivals that Yahweh wanted them to celebrate each year.
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\c 24
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 4 The priests must constantly take care of the lamps that burn in my presence.
\v 6 Put the loaves in two rows, with six loaves in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, in my presence.
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\v 7 Along each row, place on the gold table some pure incense to be burned as an offering to me instead of the bread.
\v 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.
\v 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."
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 13 Then Yahweh said to Moses,
\v 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.
\s5
\v 15 Tell the Israelites, 'If anyone curses me, he must endure the consequences.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 17 Also, if anyone murders another person, the people must execute him.
\v 18 And anyone who kills another person's animal must give that person a live animal to replace the one that he killed.
\s5
\v 19 And if one person injures another person, the injured person is allowed to injure the person who injured him in the same way.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\c 25
\p
\v 1 Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai,
\v 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.
\s5
\v 3 During six years, you are to plant crops in your fields, prune your grapevines, and harvest your crops.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 7 And your livestock and the wild animals in your land are permitted to eat them during that year as well.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 17 Do not cheat each other. Instead, honor Yahweh. It is Yahweh, whom we Israelites worship, who is commanding us to do these things.
\s5
\p
\v 18 Obey all my laws carefully. If you do that, you will continue to live safely in your country.
\v 19 The crops will grow well on the land, and you will have plenty to eat.
\s5
\v 20 But you may ask, "If we do not plant or harvest our crops during the seventh year, what will we have to eat?"
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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,
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\s5
\v 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.
\v 34 But the pastureland near their towns must not be sold. It must belong to the original owners permanently.
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\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 39 If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not force him to work like a slave.
\v 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.
\v 41 During that year, you must free him, and he may go back to his family and to the property that his ancestors owned.
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\v 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.
\v 43 And do not treat the Israelites whom you buy cruelly. Instead, honor Yahweh, our God.
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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,
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\p
\v 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,
\v 55 because it is as though you Israelites are my slaves, whom I, Yahweh your God, freed from being slaves in Egypt.'"
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\c 26
\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 2 Honor the Sabbath days and revere my sacred tent, because I, Yahweh, live there.
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\p
\v 3 If you carefully obey all my commands,
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 7 You will pursue your enemies and kill them with your swords.
\v 8 Five of you will pursue a hundred of them, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand of them and kill them.
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\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\v 11 I will live among you in my sacred tent, and I will never reject you.
\v 12 I will live among you and continue to be your God, and you will continue to be my people.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 14 But suppose you pay no attention to me; suppose you refuse to obey what I have told you to do.
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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,
\v 24 I myself will act against you, and I will punish you for your sins again and again.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 27 After all those things happen, if you still do not obey me, if you still act against me,
\v 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.
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\v 29 You will be so hungry that you will kill your sons and daughters and eat their flesh.
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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 peoples. I will make sure that they ruin your country and destroy your cities.
\v 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.
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 38 Many of you will die in your enemies' countries.
\v 39 And those of you who remain alive will slowly die and rot there because of your sins and the sins of your ancestors.
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\p
\v 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,
\v 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.
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\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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."
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\p
\v 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.
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\c 27
\p
\v 1 Yahweh also said to Moses,
\v 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.
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\v 3 These are the amounts that Yahweh has set for this kind of transaction:
\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 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.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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,
\v 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.
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\v 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.
\v 25 All the silver that is paid must be calculated in terms of the official pieces of silver in the sacred tent.
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\p
\v 26 No one is permitted to dedicate the firstborn of any cow or sheep for any purpose, because the firstborn already belongs to Yahweh.
\v 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.
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\p
\v 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.
\p
\v 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.
\v 30 One tenth of all that the land produces, whether it is from the grain that grows from the soil or from the fruit that grows on the trees, is holy and it belongs to Yahweh.
\v 32 And one of 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.
\v 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."
\s5
\p
\v 34 Those are the commands that Yahweh gave to Moses on Mount Sinai to tell to the people.
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