Leviticus

Care of the Temple

The Lord spoke to Moses and said:

“Command the Israelites to bring you oil from pressed olives for the light, that a lamp may be kept burning continually.

Aaron shall keep the flame in order from evening until morning in the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil of the Covenant. It shall be a lasting ordinance for all generations.

He shall set the lamps on the pure gold lampstand to burn continually before the Lord.

Then you shall take fine flour and make twelve cakes, each measuring two-tenths of a measure.

Place them in two rows, six in each row, on the pure gold table before the Lord.

On each row, place pure frankincense so that the bread may serve as a memorial, as an offering by fire to the Lord.

Every Sabbath, Aaron shall arrange the bread before the Lord on behalf of the Israelites as a lasting covenant.

The bread will be for Aaron and his sons; they are to regard it as the most holy portion of the offerings by fire to the Lord, and they shall eat it in a holy place. This is a lasting law.

Case of Blasphemy – Criminal Law

The son of an Israelite woman, whose husband was Egyptian, quarreled with a man of Israel in the camp, and

the son of the Israelite woman cursed the name of the Lord with blasphemy. They brought him to Moses. (His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.)

They placed him under guard until a decision from the Lord was made known.

The Lord said to Moses:

“Take the man who has cursed out of the camp. All who have heard him curse will lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly shall stone him to death.

Then say this to the Israelites: The man who curses God shall pay for his sin

and whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death. The whole assembly shall stone him; the foreigner, like the native, shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name.

Whoever kills a man shall be put to death.

Whoever kills an animal must compensate for the loss, life for life.

If a man injures his neighbor, he shall suffer the same injury.

Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has harmed another, so shall it be done to him.

Whoever kills a beast must make amends, and whoever kills a man shall be put to death.

There shall be one law, the same for the alien and the native, for I am the Lord, your God.”

So Moses spoke to the Israelites, who brought the man who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him. In this way, the Israelites followed the Lord’s command to Moses.