Leviticus Chapters

Burnt Offering

1 | •  ¹The Lord called Moses, and from the Tent of Meeting addressed him, saying,

²“Speak to the people of Israel; say to them: When anyone brings an offering of an animal to the Lord, it can be from either his cattle or sheep and goats.

³If the offering is a burnt offering of one of his cattle, he is to offer a bull without any defect. He shall offer it at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting so that his offering may be accepted before the Lord. ⁴He is to lay his hand on the bull’s head. It shall be accepted as a sacrifice to take away his sins. ⁵Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall offer the blood. They will pour it out on the sides of the altar, which stands at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. ⁶Then he shall skin the victim and quarter it. ⁷The sons of Aaron, the priests, must put fire on the altar and arrange wood on this fire. ⁸Then the sons of Aaron, the priests, are to put the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood on the altar fire. ⁹The man shall wash the internal organs and legs in the water, and the priest will burn all of it on the altar. This will be a burnt offering, and its sweet-smelling odor will please the Lord.

¹⁰If his offering is an animal out of the flock, a lamb or a goat offered as a burnt offering, he is to offer a male without any defect. ¹¹He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall pour out the blood on the sides of the altar. ¹²Then he is to quarter it, and the priest is to arrange the quarters, as well as the head and the fat on the wood on the altar fire. ¹³The man shall wash the internal organs and legs in the water, and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar. This will be a burnt offering, and its sweet-smelling odor will please the Lord.

¹⁴If the man offers a bird as a burnt offering, he is to offer a turtledove or a young pigeon. ¹⁵The priest shall offer it at the altar and wring off its head, which he is to burn on the altar, then its blood is to be drained out on the side of the altar. ¹⁶Then he shall remove the crop and the feathers: these he is to throw on the eastern side of the altar, where the ashes from the fat are placed. ¹⁷He is to divide it into two halves with a wing on each side, but without separating the two parts. Then the priest shall burn it on the altar and the wood on the fire. This will be a burnt offering, and its sweet-smelling odor will please the Lord.

The Grain Offering

2 | ¹If anyone offers the Lord a grain offering, his offering is to be fine flour on which he is to pour oil and put incense. ²He shall bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests; he is to take a handful of the fine flour and oil and all the incense, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as a memorial, a burnt offering whose sweet-smelling odor will please the Lord. ³The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; this is a most holy share, for it comes from the burnt offerings of the Lord.

⁴When you offer a grain offering of bread baked in the oven, the fine flour is to be prepared as unleavened cakes mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil.

⁵If your offering is a grain offering fried on the griddle, the fine flour mixed with oil is to have no leavening. ⁶You must break it into pieces and pour oil over it. It is a grain offering. ⁷If your offering is a grain offering cooked in the pan, the fine flour will be prepared in oil. ⁸You must bring to the Lord the grain offering that has been thus prepared, presenting it to the priest, who will bring it to the altar. ⁹The priest shall take part in this offering and burn it on the altar to recall before the Lord, the person who is offering it. And it will be an offering whose sweet-smelling odor will please the Lord. ¹⁰The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons; this is a most holy share of the Lord’s burnt offering.

¹¹None of the grain offerings you offer to the Lord is to be prepared with yeast, for you must never burn yeast or honey as a burnt offering for the Lord. ¹²You may offer them up to the Lord, as an offering of firstfruits. Still, they must not go up as a sweet-smelling odor to please the Lord. 13 You must salt every grain offering. You must never fail to put on your grain offering the salt of the Covenant with your God: to every offering you are to join an offering of salt to the Lord your God. ¹⁴If you offer the Lord a grain offering of firstfruits, it may be from either roasted corn or bread made from ground corn. ¹⁵You are to add oil and put incense on it; it is a grain offering, ¹⁶and the priest is to burn part of the bread and oil (together with all the incense) as a burnt offering for the Lord.

The Peace Offering

3 | ¹If anyone offers a peace sacrifice, offering from his cattle, male or female, whatever he offers before the Lord must be without any defect. ²He is to lay his hand on the victim’s head and kill it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. Then the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall pour the blood on the altar's sides. ³Then he is to offer the following as a burnt offering for the Lord: the fat that covers the internal organs, all the fat that is on the internal organs, ⁴the two kidneys, the fat on them and the loins, the best part which he is to remove from the liver and kidneys. ⁵The sons of Aaron shall burn all this on the altar along with the burnt offering, on the wood on the fire. It will be a burnt offering, and its sweet-smelling odor will please the Lord.

⁶If he offers a sheep or goat as a peace offering for the Lord, he is to offer a male or female without any defect. ⁷If he offers a sheep, he is to offer it before the Lord; ⁸he is to lay his hand on the sheep’s head and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting; then the sons of Aaron shall pour out its blood on the sides of the altar. ⁹Of the peace offering, he is to offer the following as a burnt offering for the Lord: the fat, all the tail taken off near the backbone, the fat that covers the internal organs, all the fat that is on the internal organs, ¹⁰the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and the loins, the best part which he will remove from the liver and kidneys. ¹¹The priest shall burn this part on the altar as food, as a burnt offering for the Lord.

¹²If his offering is a goat, he is to offer it before the Lord: ¹³he is to lay his hand on the goat’s head and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting, and the sons of Aaron shall pour out its blood on the sides of the altar. ¹⁴Then he is to offer the following as a burnt offering for the Lord: the fat that covers the internal organs, all the fat that is on the internal organs, ¹⁵the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and the loins, the best part which he will remove from the liver and kidneys. ¹⁶The priest shall burn these pieces on the altar as food, a burnt offering for the Lord.

¹⁷All the fat belongs to the Lord. This is a law forever for all your descendants, wherever they may live: never eat either fat or blood.”

Offering for an Unintentional Sin

4 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

 ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say: Anyone may sin without intending to do so against any of the commandments of the Lord and do one of the forbidden things; in such a case:

³If the one who sins is the anointed priest, his sin defiles the people. Then, for the sin which he has committed, he is to offer to the Lord a young bull, an animal from the herd without any defect, as a sacrifice for sin. ⁴He is to bring the bull before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and lay his hand on its head and kill it before the Lord. ⁵Then the anointed priest shall take a little of the bull's blood into the Tent of Meeting. ⁶He shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it over the veil of the Sanctuary seven times before the Lord. ⁷Then the priest shall put a little of the blood of the bull on the corners of the altar of incense that sends up the smoke before the Lord in the Tent of Meeting, and he is to pour all the rest of the bull’s blood at the foot of the altar for burnt offerings that are at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

⁸From this bull offered as a sacrifice for sin, the priest will remove all the fat: the fat that covers the internal organs, all the fat that is on the internal organs, ⁹the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and the loins, the best part which he will remove from the liver and kidneys, ¹⁰precisely as was done with what was set apart in the peace offering, and the priest shall burn these on the altar for burnt offerings.

¹¹The bull’s skin, all its flesh, its head, legs, internal organs, and intestines, ¹²the whole of the bull, must be carried outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes from the fat are thrown away, and the bull must be burnt there.

¹³If the whole community of Israel has sinned without intending to do so, and, without being aware of it, has done something that is forbidden by the commandments of the Lord, ¹⁴the community is to offer a young bull as a sacrifice for sin, an animal of the herd without any defect, as soon as the sin of which they have been guilty is discovered. The animal must be brought before the Tent of Meeting; ¹⁵the community elders shall lay their hands on the bull’s head before the Lord, and it must be killed before the Lord.

¹⁶Then the anointed priest is to carry a little of the bull's blood into the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁷He is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it on the veil before the Lord seven times. ¹⁸Then he shall put a little of the blood on the corners of the altar that stands before the Lord inside the Tent of Meeting, and pour out all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar for burnt offerings at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

¹⁹Then the priest shall remove all the fat from the animal and burn it on the altar. ²⁰He shall do the same thing with this bull as he did with the bull for the sacrifice of sin. When the priest has performed the sacrifice for the people’s sins, they will be forgiven. ²¹The priest must have the bull taken out of the camp and burn it as he burned the first one. This is the sacrifice for the sin of the community.

²²When a leader sins and without intending to do so does one of the things forbidden by the commandments of the Lord his God, thus becoming guilty, ²³and after that he recalls it, or anyone calls his attention to the sin thus committed, he is to bring a goat as an offering, a male without any defect. ²⁴He is to lay his hand on the goat’s head and kill it in the place where the animals for the burnt offerings are killed. This is a sacrifice for sin: ²⁵The priest shall take a little of the goat’s blood on his finger and put it on the corners of the altar for burnt offerings. Then he shall pour out its blood at the foot of the altar for burnt offering ²⁶and burn all the fat on the altar, as with the fat in the peace offering. This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for the sin of this leader to free him from his sin, and he will be forgiven.

²⁷If one of the people sins without intending to do so and makes himself guilty by doing something forbidden by the commandments of the Lord, ²⁸and after that, he recalls it, or anyone calls his attention to the sin he has committed, he is to bring a goat as an offering, a female without any defect. ²⁹He is to lay his hand on the goat’s head and kill it in the place where the animals for the burnt offerings are killed. ³⁰The priest shall take a little of the goat’s blood on his finger and put it on the corners of the altar for burnt offerings. Then he shall pour out all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. ³¹He shall remove all the fat, as it was removed for the peace offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as a sweet-smelling sacrifice pleasing to the Lord. This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for the man’s sin, and he will be forgiven.

³²If anyone wishes to bring a lamb as an offering for this kind of sacrifice, he is to bring a female without any defect. ³³He is to lay his hand on the lamb’s head and kill it as a sacrifice for sin in the place where the animals for the burnt offerings are killed. ³⁴The priest shall take a little of the blood of this sacrifice on his finger and put it on the corners of the altar for burnt offerings. Then he shall pour out all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. ³⁵He shall remove its fat as was done for the sheep in the peace offering, and the priest shall burn it all on the altar, in addition to the burnt offering for the Lord. This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for the man’s sin, and he will be forgiven.

Some Cases Requiring Sacrifice for Sin

5 | ¹Sacrifice for sin is required in the following cases:

A man should have come forward to give evidence in court when officially summoned, but he did not speak and give information about something he had seen or heard, so he is guilty.

²Otherwise, he becomes unclean and guilty if he accidentally touches something unclean—the dead body of an unclean animal, wild or tame, or the dead body of one of the unclean beings that swarm—without realizing it.

³Or else he accidentally touches some human uncleanness, whatever it may be, and contact with it makes him unclean, so he becomes guilty as soon as he realizes what he has done.

⁴Or else a man makes a careless vow to do either evil or good in any of those matters on which he may swear unthinkingly; he does not notice it then, but when he realizes it later, he becomes guilty.

⁵He who is guilty in any of these cases shall confess the sin committed, ⁶and bring to the Lord a female of the flock (sheep or goat) as a sacrifice for the sin committed, and the priest shall offer the sacrifice for the man’s sin to free him from his sin.

⁷If a man cannot afford a sheep or a goat, he shall offer to the Lord, as payment for the sin he has committed, two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sacrifice for sin and the other for a burnt offering. ⁸He will bring them to the priest, who will first offer the one intended to sacrifice for sin. The priest shall wring its neck without removing the head. ⁹He shall sprinkle the side of the altar with the victim’s blood and then drain out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. This is a sacrifice for sin. ¹⁰Of the other birds, he is to make a burnt offering according to the regulations. He will be forgiven when the priest offers the sacrifice for the man’s sin.

¹¹If this man cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, he is to bring two pounds of flour as an offering for the sin committed, but he shall not mix oil with it or put incense on it, for it is a sacrifice for sin. ¹²He is to bring it to the priest, who will take a handful of it to be put on the burnt offering for the Lord to recall this man to the Lord. This is a sacrifice for sin. ¹³This is how the priest is to offer the sacrifice for the sin the man committed in any of these cases, and he will be forgiven. In this case, as in the case of a grain offering, the rest of the flour belongs to the priest.”

¹⁴The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

¹⁵“If anyone is guilty of unintentionally cheating by failing to hand over the sacred payments to the Lord, he is to bring a ram with no defects to the Lord as a payment sacrifice. This ram is to be valued according to the official standard. This is a sacrifice of repayment. ¹⁶He must make the payments he has failed to hand over, pay an extra fifth, and give it to the priest. The priest shall offer the ram as a sacrifice for the man’s sin, and he will be forgiven.

¹⁷If anyone sins and does one of the things forbidden by the commandments of the Lord without realizing it, he is guilty and must pay the penalty for his fault. ¹⁸As a sacrifice of repayment, he is to bring a ram without any defect to the priest. Its value will be according to the official standard. The priest shall offer the sacrifice for the sin he has committed without realizing it, and he will be forgiven. ¹⁹This is a sacrifice of repayment for the man was guilty in the eyes of the Lord.”

Sacrifices for Evildoing

²⁰The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

²¹“This refers to the man who sins against the Lord by not returning to his neighbor a deposit or security or withholding something due to him or cheating him; ²²and also to the one who finds lost property and swears he has not found it; and also to the man who swears falsely in one of the cases in which people usually swear. ²³In all these cases, the man who sins and becomes guilty is to give back what he has taken or demanded that does not belong to him: the deposit entrusted to him, the lost property he found, 24 or any object he has sworn untruthfully. He must repay the owner in full and give an extra fifth on the day he is found guilty. ²⁵Then he is to bring a ram without any defect to the Lord as a sacrifice of repayment. ²⁶The priest shall offer the sacrifice for the man’s sin, and he will be forgiven, whatever the act of which he became guilty.”

Priesthood and Sacrifice

6 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: ²“Give these regulations to Aaron and his sons. This is the regulation for burnt offerings: the burnt offering shall stay on the altar all night until morning, and the fire is to be kept burning.

³The priest is to wear his linen shirt and drawers. Then, he must remove the greasy ashes of the sacrifice consumed by the altar fire and place them at the side of the altar. ⁴Then he is to change his clothes and carry the ashes to some clean place, outside the camp.

⁵The fire that consumes the burnt offering on the altar must not be allowed to go out. The priest must put firewood on it every morning, arrange the burnt offerings, and burn the fat from the peace offerings. ⁶An undying fire must always burn on the altar; it must not go out.

⁷This is the regulation for the grain offering: One of the priests, a son of Aaron, is to bring it into the presence of the Lord in front of the altar; ⁸he is to take a handful of the fine flour (with the oil and incense which have been added to it) and burn it on the altar as a memorial, to recall to the Lord the person making the offering so that it becomes a sweet-smelling odor pleasing to the Lord. ⁹After that, the remainder will be given to Aaron and his sons; they shall eat it as unleavened loaves. They are to eat it in a sacred place within the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁰The share I give them of my burnt offering must not be baked with yeast. It is most holy, like the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of repayment. ¹¹All the males of Aaron’s family may eat this part of the Lord’s burnt offering—this is a law forever for all your descendants. Everything that touches the offering becomes consecrated as well.”

¹²The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

¹³“This is the offering Aaron and his sons are to make to the Lord on the day of their anointing as priests: two pounds of flour as a daily offering, half in the morning and half in the evening. ¹⁴It must be fried on the griddle and mixed with oil; you must bring the paste as a grain offering in several pieces, offering them a sweet-smelling odor pleasing to the Lord. ¹⁵Every descendant of Aaron who succeeds him as the high priest shall do the same. This is a law forever. This grain offering shall be completely burned as a sacrifice for the Lord. ¹⁶Every grain offering a priest makes must be a total sacrifice; none is to be eaten.”

¹⁷The Lord spoke to Moses; he said, ¹⁸“Say to Aaron and his sons: This is the regulation for the sacrifice for sin:

The victim for the sacrifice is to be killed before the Lord in the place where the animals for the burnt offerings are killed. It is a most holy offering. ¹⁹The priest who offers this sacrifice is to eat it. It must be eaten in a sacred place within the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting. ²⁰Everything that touches the flesh of this animal will become consecrated; if any of the blood splashes on clothing, the stain must be cleaned in some holy place. ²¹The clay pot where the meat is cooked must be broken; if a bronze pot has been used for the cooking, it must be scrubbed and thoroughly rinsed with water. ²²Any male who is a priest may eat the meat. It is a most holy thing. ²³But no one may eat any part of the animals offered for sin, whenever any blood is brought into the Tent and used in the sacrifice to take away sin. The meat must be thrown on the fire.

The Sacrifice of Repayment

7 | ¹This is the regulation for the sacrifice of repayment:

²It is a most holy offering. The animal for this offering is to be killed in the place where the animals for the burnt offerings are killed, and the priest must pour out the blood on the sides of the altar. ³Then he is to offer all the fat: the tail, the fat that covers the internal organs, ⁴the two kidneys, the fat that is on them and the loins, and the best part he will remove from the liver and kidneys. ⁵The priest must burn these pieces on the altar as a burnt offering for the Lord. This is a sacrifice of repayment. ⁶Any male priest may eat it, but it must be eaten in a holy place because it is a most holy thing.

⁷As with the sacrifice for sin, so with the sacrifice of repayment, the regulation is the same for both. The offering, which he has used in the sacrifice for sin, belongs to the priest. ⁸The skin of the animal presented by a man to the priest to be offered as a burnt offering belongs to the priest. ⁹Every grain offering baked in the oven, every grain offering fried in the pan or on the griddle shall belong to the priest who offered it. ¹⁰Every grain offering, mixed with oil or dry, belongs to all Aaron's sons equally.

The Peace Offering

¹¹This is the regulation for the peace offering presented to the Lord:

¹²If it is offered as a thanksgiving offering, there must be added to it an offering of unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and fine flour in the form of cakes mixed with oil. ¹³This offering, then, must be added to the loaves of leavened bread and the thanksgiving offering. ¹⁴One of the cakes of this offering is to be presented as an offering to the Lord; it shall belong to the priest who pours out the blood of the peace offering. ¹⁵The animal's flesh must be eaten when the offering is made; nothing must remain until the following day.

¹⁶If the animal is presented before the Lord as a sacrifice freely offered, it is to be eaten on the day it is offered and the following day; ¹⁷but on the third day, whatever remains of the animal’s flesh must be thrown on the fire. ¹⁸If the meat offered as a peace offering is eaten on the third day, the man who has offered it shall not be accepted nor receive credit for it, for it is defiled meat, and the man who eats it should suffer the penalty of his fault.

¹⁹If this meat touches anything unclean, it cannot be eaten and must be thrown on the fire.

²⁰Anyone clean may eat the meat of the peace offering, but who­ever eats the meat of a peace offering presented to the Lord even though he is unclean shall be cut off from his people. ²¹If anyone touches anything unclean, whether human or animal, or any crawling creature, and then eats the meat of a peace offering presented to the Lord, this man shall be cut off from his people.

²²The Lord spoke to Moses; he said, ²³“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them:

You must not eat the fat of ox, sheep, or goat. ²⁴The fat of an animal that has died a natural death or been killed by a wild animal may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it. ²⁵Anyone who eats the fat of an animal offered as a burnt offering to the Lord shall be cut off from his people.

²⁶Wherever you live, you must not eat blood from a bird or animal. ²⁷Anyone who eats blood, whoever he may be, shall be cut off from his people.”

The Priests’ Share

²⁸The Lord spoke to Moses; he said, ²⁹“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them:

Anyone who offers peace to the Lord is to bring himself the part of his sacrifice that is offered to the Lord. ³⁰He is to bring the Lord’s burnt offering, the fat near the breast and the breast, with his own hands. Then, he will make the gesture of offering before the Lord. ³¹The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, and the breast shall belong to Aaron and his sons. ³²You must set aside and give the priest the right hind leg from your peace offering. ³³The right hind leg shall be the share of the son of Aaron who offers the blood and fat of the peace offering. ³⁴Thus, I keep back this breast and hind leg out of every peace offering presented by the sons of Israel, and give these to Aaron, the priest, and his sons: this is a law for the sons of Israel forever.”

³⁵This is the share of Aaron and his sons in the Lord’s burnt offerings since he called them his priests. ³⁶This is what the Lord commands the sons of Israel to give them from the day they are ordained as priests: this is a law for all their descendants for all time to come.

³⁷Such is the regulation for burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices for sin, sacrifices of repayment, ordination, and peace offerings. ³⁸This is what the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai when he told the people of Israel to make their offerings to the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai.

Ordination Ceremonies

8 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Take Aaron, his sons with him, and the vestments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sacrifice for sin, the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread. ³Then call the whole community together at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.”

⁴Moses did as the Lord commanded; the community gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, ⁵and Moses said to them, “This is what the Lord has commanded.”

⁶He made Aaron and his sons come forward and washed them with water. ⁷He put the shirt on Aaron, passed the sash around his waist, dressed him with the robe, and put the Ephod on him. Then he tied the woven band of the Ephod with which he clothed him around his waist. ⁸He put the embroidered linen breastpiece on him and placed the Urim and Thummim in it. ⁹He put the turban on his head, with the golden ornament on the front; this is the sacred sign of dedication as the Lord commanded Moses to do.

¹⁰Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the Holy Tent and everything in it, to consecrate them. ¹¹He sprinkled the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and its furnishings, the basin, and its stand, to dedicate them all to the Lord. ¹²Then he ordained Aaron by pouring the anointing oil on his head.

¹³Then Moses made Aaron’s sons come forward; he put on the shirts, tied the sashes around their waists, and put on their headdresses, as the Lord had commanded him to do.

¹⁴Then he had the bull for the sacrifice for sin brought forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the bull’s head, ¹⁵and Moses slaughtered it. Then he took the blood and, with his finger, put some of it on the corners around the altar to take away its sin. Then he poured out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar, which he dedicated to the Lord by performing the atonement over it. ¹⁶Then he took all the fat that covers the internal organs, the best part of the liver, the two kidneys, and their fat, and he burned them all on the altar. ¹⁷After that, he burned outside the camp the bull’s skin, its flesh, and its intestines as the Lord had commanded him to do.

¹⁸Then he had the ram for the burnt offering brought forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head, ¹⁹and Moses slaughtered it. He poured its blood out on the sides of the altar. ²⁰Then he quartered the ram and burned the head, the pieces, and the fat. ²¹He washed the internal organs and legs and burned the whole ram on the altar. This was a burnt offering, a sweet-smelling offering to the Lord, a burnt offering by fire for the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²²Then he had the other ram brought forward for the sacrifice of the ordination of priests. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the ram’s head, ²³and Moses slaughtered it. He took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. ²⁴Then he made the sons of Aaron come forward, and he put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, the thumbs of their right hands, and the big toes of their right feet. Next, Moses poured the rest of the blood on the altar's sides. ²⁵Then he took the fat: the tail, all the fat that is on the internal organs, the best part of the liver, the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right hind leg. ²⁶From the basket of unleavened bread placed before the Lord, he took an unleavened cake, a loaf of bread made with oil, and a wafer; he placed these on the fat and the right hind leg, ²⁷put it all into Aaron’s hands and those of his sons, who waved them before the Lord. ²⁸Then Moses took them back and burned them on the altar in addition to the burnt offering. This was the sacrifice for the ordination of priests, a sweet-smelling offering to the Lord, an offering by fire to the Lord. ²⁹Then Moses took the breast and made the offering before the Lord. This was the share of the ram of ordination for Moses, as the Lord had commanded.

³⁰Then Moses took the anointing oil and the blood on the altar and sprinkled Aaron and his vestments with it, as well as his sons and their vestments. In this way, he consecrated Aaron and his vestments, as well as his sons and their vestments, to the Lord.

³¹Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Cook the meat at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and eat it there, and also the bread for the sacrifice of priestly ordination that is in the basket, as I commanded when I said: Aaron and his sons are to eat it. ³²What remains of the meat and bread you will burn. ³³For seven days, you must not leave the entrance of the Tent of Meeting until your ordination ends, for your hands will be consecrated for seven days. ³⁴All that we have done today is the rite of atonement for you as the Lord has commanded us to do ³⁵and for seven days, day and night, you must remain at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, doing what the Lord has commanded, lest you die. For this is the commandment I received.” ³⁶And Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord commanded through Moses.

The Priests Offer Sacrifices

9 | ¹On the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. ²He said to Aaron, “Take a calf to offer a sacrifice for sin, and a ram for a burnt offering, both without any defect and bring them before the Lord. ³Then say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a goat to be offered as a sacrifice for sin, and as burnt offering a calf and a lamb both one-year-old and without any defect, ⁴and for peace offering an ox and a ram to be slaughtered before the Lord; and finally a grain offering mixed with oil. For the Lord will appear to you today.’”

⁵They brought what Moses had commanded in front of the Tent of Meeting; then the whole community gathered and stood before the Lord. ⁶Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done, so that his glory may appear to you.” ⁷Moses told Aaron, “Go to the altar and offer your sacrifice for sin and your burnt offering to take away your sins. Then present the people’s offering to take away their sins as the Lord has commanded.”

⁸Aaron went to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sacrifice for his own sin. ⁹Then, Aaron's sons presented the blood to him; he dipped his finger in it and put some on the corners of the altar, then poured out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. ¹⁰The fat of the sacrifice for sin and the kidneys and the best part of the liver, he burned on the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses; ¹¹the flesh and the skin he burned outside the camp.

¹²Next, Aaron slaughtered the animal, which was for his own burnt offering; his sons handed him the blood, and he poured it on the sides of the altar. ¹³Then they handed him the quartered animal and its head too, and he burned these on the altar. ¹⁴He washed the internal organs and legs and burned them on the altar in addition to the burnt offering.

¹⁵He then presented the people’s offering. He took the goat for the peo­ple’s sacrifice for sin, killed it, and offered it as a sacrifice for sin in the same way as the first. ¹⁶Then he had the animal for the burnt offering brought forward and offered it according to the regulations. ¹⁷Next, he brought the grain offering forward, took a handful, and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering.

¹⁸Finally, he slaughtered the ox and the ram as a peace offering for the people. Aaron’s sons handed him the blood, and he poured it out on the sides of the altar. ¹⁹The fat of the ox and of the ram—the tail, the fatty covering, the kidneys, the best part of the liver—²⁰all of this he laid on the breasts and burned it all on the altar. ²¹With the breasts and the right hind leg, Aaron made the gesture of offering by waving them as the Lord had commanded.

²²Then Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. Having thus performed the sacrifice for sin, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, ²³he came down and entered the tent of meeting with Moses. Then they came out together to bless the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to the whole people—²⁴a flame leaped forth from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. At this sight, the people shouted for joy and fell on their faces.

The Story of Nadab and Abihu

10 | •  ¹Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, each took his censer, put fire in it and incense on the fire, and presented unlawful fire before the Lord, fire which he had not commanded them to present. ²Then from the Lord’s presence a flame leaped out and burned them to death in the presence of the Lord. ³And Moses said to Aaron, “That is what the Lord meant when he said:

‘I will show my holiness through those who approach me, and before all the people, I will show my glory.’”

And Aaron had to remain silent.

⁴Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said, “Come and take the corpses of your brothers far away from the Sanctuary, out of the camp.” ⁵They came and carried them away, still in their shirts, out of the camp as Moses had commanded.

⁶Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not leave your hair uncombed nor tear your clothes to show that you are mourning; lest you die and the punishment extends to the whole community. All the people of Israel shall mourn the death of your brothers, who died because of the Lord’s fire. ⁷But you shall not leave the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, lest you die; for the anointing oil of the Lord is on you.” And they obeyed Moses.

⁸The Lord spoke to Aaron; he said:

⁹“Before coming to the Tent of Meeting, you and your sons with you, do not drink wine or strong drink; lest you die. This is a law for all your descendants for all time to come, ¹⁰so that you may be able to recognize the difference between what belongs to God and what is for general use, between what is clean and what is unclean. ¹¹For you must teach the people of Israel all the laws that the Lord has given for them through Moses.”

¹²Moses said to Aaron and his two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from the Lord’s burnt offering, and eat it without leaven beside the altar because it is a most holy thing. ¹³Eat it in a sacred place for it is the share of the Lord’s burnt offering, which belongs to you and your sons. This is what the Lord commanded me.

¹⁴The breast that was offered up and the hind leg that was set aside you will eat in some clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; this is the share of the peace offerings of the people of Israel that belongs to you and your sons. ¹⁵The hind leg that was set aside and the breast that was offered up, when the fat was burned, belong to you, to you and your sons with you, after they have been presented before the Lord by the gesture of offering because the Lord has commanded this forever.”

¹⁶Then Moses inquired about the goat offered as a sacrifice for sin and found that they had burned it. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s two remaining sons. ¹⁷“Why,” he asked, “did you not eat this goat in the holy place? For it is a most holy thing given to you to bear and take away the community's fault. ¹⁸Since its blood was not taken inside the Sanctuary, you should have eaten its flesh there, as I commanded you.” ¹⁹Aaron said to Moses, “They have offered their sacrifice for sin and their burnt offering before the Lord on this day of mourning. If I had eaten the goat offered in sacrifice for sin today, would that have seemed good to the Lord?” ²⁰And when Moses heard this, he was satisfied.

Clean and Unclean Animals

11 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said to them, ²“Speak to the people of Israel and say:

‘Of all the animals on the earth, these are the animals you may eat. ³You may eat any animal that has divided hoofs, divided into two parts, and that also chews the cud. ⁴You may not eat the camel, because though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; ⁵the rabbit, because though it chews the cud, it does not have divided hoofs; ⁶the hare, as well; ⁷the pig, because though it has divided hoofs, it does not chew the cud. ⁸You must not eat the meat of such animals nor their dead bodies; they are unclean for you.

⁹Of all that live in the water, you may eat anything with fins and scales and live in the sea or river. ¹⁰But anything living in the sea or river without fins and scales must not be eaten. ¹¹They are unclean for you; you shall not eat their flesh nor even touch their dead bodies. ¹²Anything that lives in water but does not have fins and scales is unclean for you.

¹³Among the birds, here are those you must consider unclean and not eat:

¹⁴the vulture, the eagle, the osprey, the hawk, the several kinds of predators, ¹⁵all kinds of ravens, ¹⁶the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull, ¹⁷the horned owl, the night owl, the seabird, the barn owl, ¹⁸the ibis, the pelican, the white vulture, ¹⁹the stork, the several kinds of heron, and the bat.

²⁰All winged insects that move on four feet shall be unclean for you. ²¹Of all the winged insects, you may eat only the following: those with legs above their feet so they can leap over the ground. ²²These are the ones you may eat: the several kinds of locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers. ²³But all other winged insects with four legs you are to consider unclean. ²⁴Anyone who touches ²⁵or picks up the dead bodies of one of these animals will be unclean until evening. ²⁶The same with animals that have hoofs, unless their hoofs are divided and they chew the cud; ²⁷and four-footed animals walk on the flat of their feet. ²⁸Anyone who picks up their dead bodies must wash his clothing and will be unclean until evening.

²⁹These small animals crawling on the ground shall be unclean for you: rats, mice, and several kinds of lizards: ³⁰ the gecko, the chameleon, the agama, the skink, and the mole. ³¹Anyone who touches them when they are dead will be unclean until evening.

³²Anything on which the dead body of any of these creatures falls becomes unclean: wooden utensils, clothing, skin, sackcloth—any utensil. It must be dipped in water and remain unclean until evening; then, it will be clean. ³³If the creature falls into a clay pot, the pot must be broken; whatever the pot contains is unclean. ³⁴Any food on which water from such a pot has poured will be unclean. ³⁵Anything on which the dead body of such a creature may fall will be unclean: if it is a clay stove or oven, this must be broken, for they are unclean, and you must treat them as unclean. ³⁶A spring or cistern for collecting water remains clean, but whoever touches the dead body becomes unclean. ³⁷If one of their dead bodies falls on any seed whatever, the seed will remain clean; ³⁸but if the seed has been wet, and such a dead body falls on it, then you must consider it unclean.

³⁹If one of the animals you use as food dies, then anyone who touches the dead body will be unclean until evening; ⁴⁰ anyone who eats the meat of the dead animal must wash his clothing and will be unclean until evening. Anyone who picks up the dead body will also be unclean until evening and has to wash his clothing.

⁴¹All the creatures that swarm on the ground are unclean and may not be eaten. ⁴²Everything that crawls on its belly, goes on four legs, or has many legs may not be eaten. ⁴³Do not defile yourselves with any swarming creature that might defile you, ⁴⁴for I am the Lord your God. Take the way of holiness and be holy, for I am holy.

Do not make yourselves unclean with any creatures that swarm on the ground, ⁴⁵for I am the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt that I might be your God. Be holy because I am holy.

⁴⁶This is the law for animals, birds, and every living creature that moves in the water or crawls on the ground. ⁴⁷Let everyone distinguish between the clean and the unclean, between creatures that may be eaten and creatures that may not.”

Purification of a Woman After Childbirth

12 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Say to the Israelites: when a woman gives birth to a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days as in the days of her monthly period. ³On the eighth day, the child is to be circumcised; ⁴then she shall wait for thirty-three days to be purified of her bleeding. She shall not touch anything consecrated nor enter the Sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed.

⁵If she gives birth to a daughter, she shall be unclean for two weeks as in her menstruation; then she shall wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.

⁶And when the days of her purification are completed, whether for a son or daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the door of the Tent of Meeting, a lamb born that year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. ⁷The priest shall then offer it to the Lord to make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood.

This is the law for the woman who gives birth to a child, male or female. ⁸But if she cannot offer a lamb, she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering, the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be purified.”

A Regulation for Lepers

13 | •  ¹The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ²“If someone has a boil, inflammation or a sore on his skin which could develop into leprosy, he must be brought to Aaron, the priest, or one of the priests, his descendants. ³The priest shall examine him, and if the hair on the sore has turned white and the sore appears deeper than the surrounding skin, then it is indeed the sore of leprosy. When the priest sees this, he shall declare that person unclean.

⁴But if the sore is white and does not appear deeper than the skin around it and the hairs have not turned white, the priest is to isolate the sick person for seven days. ⁵On the seventh day, the priest shall again examine him. If he sees that the sore looks the same and has not spread on the skin, he shall isolate the sick person for another seven days and examine him again on the seventh day. ⁶If the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall declare that person clean: it was only eczema. Let him wash his clothes, and he will be clean.

⁷But if the sore spreads over the skin after the sick person has been examined by the priest and declared clean, then he must present himself again to the priest. ⁸After examining him and finding that the sore has spread over the skin, the priest must declare him unclean: it is leprosy.

⁹When a leprous disease strikes a man, he must be taken to the priest, ¹⁰who must examine him. If he finds on the skin a whitish swelling that turns the hairs white and an ulcer is forming, ¹¹ then it is leprosy in the skin, and the priest must declare him unclean. It is useless to isolate him for a time; he is unclean.

¹²But if leprosy spreads all through the skin if it covers him entirely from head to foot so far as the priest can see, ¹³then the priest must examine the sick person and, if he finds that leprosy covers his whole body, declare the sick person clean. Since it has all turned white, he is clean. ¹⁴But as soon as an open sore appears, he will be unclean. ¹⁵After examining the sore, the priest declares him unclean: the open sore is leprous. ¹⁶The man must go to the priest if the sore becomes white again. ¹⁷The priest shall examine him, and if he finds that the disease has turned white, he shall declare the sick person clean: he is clean.

¹⁸When an ulcer appears on a person’s skin, which, after healing, ¹⁹leaves a whitish swelling or a shiny spot of reddish-white, that person must show himself to the priest. ²⁰The priest shall examine him, and if he finds a spot deeper than the surrounding skin and the hairs in it have turned white, he shall declare him unclean: it is a case of leprosy that has broken out in a boil. ²¹But if on examination the priest finds neither white hair in it nor a deep spot on the skin, but it is lighter in color, he shall isolate the sick person for seven days. ²²If the disease has indeed spread over the skin, he shall declare him unclean: it is a case of leprosy. ²³But if the shiny spot remains unchanged and has not spread, it is only the scar of a boil, and the priest is to declare the man clean.

²⁴If someone has had a burn, and an ulcer forms on the burn, a shiny spot reddish-white or whitish, ²⁵then the priest must examine it. If he finds that the hairs in that spot have turned white and seem deeper than the surrounding skin, leprosy has broken out in the burn. The priest shall declare the man unclean: it is a case of leprosy. ²⁶If, on the other hand, the priest on examination does not find a white hair on the mark and it is not deeper than the surrounding skin but is light in color, then the priest shall isolate him for seven days. ²⁷On the seventh day, he shall examine him, and if the disease has spread on the skin, he shall declare him unclean: it is a case of leprosy. ²⁸If the mark is still unchanged and has not spread over the skin but is light in color, it is only a swelling due to the burn. The priest shall declare the man clean: it is merely a burn scar.

²⁹If a man or woman has a sore on the head or chin, ³⁰the priest must examine this sore; and if it seems deeper than the surrounding skin, with the hair on it yellow and thin, he must declare the sick person unclean. It is a dreaded skin disease, that is to say, leprosy of the head or chin. ³¹If the priest finds no spot, which seems deeper than the surrounding skin, and no yellow hair, on examining this case, he shall isolate the person for seven days. ³²He shall examine the infected part on the seventh day, and if he finds that the disease has not spread, that the hair on it is not yellow, and that there is no spot which seems deeper than the surrounding skin, ³³the sick person will shave his hair, all except the part affected with the disease. The priest is to isolate him again for seven days. ³⁴He must examine the infected part on the seventh day, and if he finds that it has not spread over the skin and that no spot seems deeper than the surrounding skin, the priest shall declare the sick person clean. After washing his clothes, he will be clean. ³⁵But if after this purification the disease does spread over the skin, ³⁶the priest must examine him; if he finds that it has indeed spread over the skin, this means that the sick person is unclean, and there is no need to look and see whether the hair is yellow. ³⁷Whereas if, so far as he can see, the disease has not spread and dark hair is beginning to grow on it, the sick person is cured. He is clean, and the priest is to declare him clean.

³⁸If shiny spots break out on the skin of a man or woman, and if these spots are white, ³⁹the priest must examine them. If he finds them to be a dull white, it is a rash that has broken out on the skin: the sick person is clean.

⁴⁰If a man loses the hair on top of his head, this is baldness of the scalp, but the man is clean. ⁴¹If he loses his hair from the front of the head, this is baldness of the forehead, but the man is clean. ⁴²If, however, a reddish-white sore appears on the top of his head or forehead, this means that leprosy has broken out. ⁴³The priest must examine it, and if he finds a reddish-white swelling on the head or forehead, which looks like leprosy of the skin, ⁴⁴this means that the man is leprous: he is unclean. The priest shall declare him unclean; he is suffering from leprosy of the head.

⁴⁵A person infected with leprosy must wear torn clothing and leave his hair uncombed; he must cover his upper lip and cry, “Unclean, unclean.” ⁴⁶As long as the disease lasts, he must be unclean and live away from others: he must live outside the camp.

“Leprosy” (Mildew) on Clothing

⁴⁷When a mark of mildew appears on a piece of clothing—woolen or linen clothing, ⁴⁸linen or woolen textile material or covering, leather or leatherwork—⁴⁹and if this clothing, textile material, covering, leather or leather-work appears greenish or reddish, it is spreading mildew to be shown to the priest. ⁵⁰The priest must examine it and put the object away for seven days. ⁵¹If, on the seventh day, he observes that the mildew has spread on the garment, textile material, covering, leather, or leatherwork, whatever it may be, it is a case of spreading mildew, and the object is unclean. ⁵²The priest will burn this clothing, textile material, linen or woolen covering, leather article of any kind, on which the mildew has spread and which must be destroyed by fire.

⁵³But if, on examination, the priest finds that the mildew has not spread on the clothing, textile material, covering, or leather object, ⁵⁴ he is to order the object to be washed. He is to isolate it again for seven days. ⁵⁵ After the cleansing, he must examine it again, and if he finds that the mildew has not changed color, even though it has not spread, the article is unclean. It must be destroyed by fire.

⁵⁶But if on examination the priest finds that the mildew has faded after the washing, he is to cut it out of the clothing, leather, textile material, or covering. ⁵⁷But if the mildew reappears on the same clothing, textile material, covering, or leather article, whatever it may be, the mildew spreads again, and the owner must destroy the article by fire. ⁵⁸The clothing, textile material, covering, or leather article, whatever it may be, from which the mildew disappears after washing, is to be cleaned after it has been washed a second time.

⁵⁹Such is the law for judging whether a case of leprosy in a linen or woolen garment, textile material, clothing, or anything of skin is clean or unclean.

Purification from Leprosy

14 | ¹The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“This shall be the law for the leper on the day of his purification.

He shall be brought to the priest, ³and the priest shall take him outside the camp and examine him. And if the person has been healed from leprosy, ⁴the priest shall order two live, clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop for the one to be cleansed. ⁵The priest shall also order one of the birds to be slain on an earthenware pot over fresh water. ⁶He shall take the live bird and the cedar wood, the crimson yarn, and the hyssop, and he will plunge them together, including the live bird, in the blood of the bird slain over fresh water. ⁷Then he will sprinkle the one to be purified seven times. After that, he shall declare him clean and let the live bird go free over the open fields.

⁸The person to be purified must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; then he will be clean. After this, he may enter the camp but must stay outside his tent for seven days. ⁹On the seventh day, he shall shave off all the hair on his head, chin, and eyebrows. He shall wash his clothes, bathe himself in water, and then he will be clean.

¹⁰On the eighth day, he is to take two lambs and a yearling ewe lamb, all without defects. Three-tenths of a measure of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering and a log of oil. ¹¹The priest who declares him clean shall present the man to be purified and his offerings before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹²The priest will then take the first lamb and present it as a guilt offering together with the log of oil. He shall wave them before the Lord. ¹³He shall slaughter the male lamb in the place where they slaughter the sin offering and the burnt offering—the holy place. The guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy.

¹⁴The priest shall then take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. ¹⁵The priest shall take the log of oil and pour it on the palm of his own left hand.

¹⁶Then, dipping his right forefinger in it, he shall sprinkle it seven times before the Lord.

¹⁷Then he is to take a little of the oil that remains in the palm of his hand and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the man who is being purified and on the thumb of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot, over the blood of the sacrifice of reparation. ^{18 He shall put The rest of the oil in his palm} on the head of the man being purified. In this way, he shall perform the rite of atonement before the Lord over him.

¹⁹Then the priest shall offer the sacrifice for sin and perform the rite of atonement for the man being purified. After this, he must slaughter the animal for the burnt offering ²⁰and offer it with the grain offering on the altar. When the priest has performed the rite of atonement over him in this way, the man will be clean.

²¹If the leper is poor and cannot afford all this, he shall take only one lamb for the guilt offering to be offered with the gesture of offering in the rite of atonement. And for the grain offering, he will bring only one-tenth of wheaten flour mixed with oil, and the log of oil, ²²and finally two turtledoves or two young pigeons—if he can afford them—one to be used as a sacrifice for sin and the other for the burnt offering. ²³On the eighth day, he must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting before the Lord for his purification. ²⁴The priest is to take the lamb for the guilt offering and the log of oil and present them before the Lord with the gesture of offering. ²⁵Then he must slaughter the lamb for the guilt offering, take some of its blood, and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the man who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot. ²⁶He is to pour the oil into the palm of his left hand, ²⁷and with this oil, he must make seven sprinklings with his finger before the Lord. ²⁸He is to put some of it on the lobe of the right ear of the man who is being purified, on the thumb of his right hand, and the big toe of his right foot as he did with the blood of the guilt offering. ²⁹The remainder of the oil in the palm of his hand he must put on the head of the man who is being purified, performing the rite of atonement over him before the Lord. ³⁰Of the two turtledoves or two young pigeons—if he can afford them—he is to offer ³¹a sacrifice for sin with one, and with the other a burnt offering together with a grain offering—if he can afford them. In this way, the priest will have performed before the Lord the rite of atonement over the person being purified.

³²Such is the law concerning a person afflicted by leprosy who cannot afford the means for his purification.”

“Leprosy” in Houses

³³The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron; he said:

³⁴“When you reach the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as your inheritance, if I strike a house with mildew in the land you are to possess, ³⁵the owner must come and warn the priest; he must say, ‘I have seen something like mildew in the house.’ ³⁶The priest is to give orders for the house to be emptied before he goes to examine the infection; thus, nothing in the house will be declared unclean. Then the priest must look at the house; ³⁷and if on examination he finds reddish or greenish spots that appear to be eating into the wall, ³⁸the priest is to go out of the house, to the door, and shut it up for seven days. ³⁹On the seventh day, he shall go back again, and if on examination he finds that the infection has spread over the house's walls, ⁴⁰he shall give orders for the affected stones to be removed and thrown into some unclean place outside the town. ⁴¹Then he shall have all the inside of the house scraped, and the plaster that comes off must be emptied into an unclean place outside the town. ⁴²New ones must replace the stones, and the house must be given a new coat of plaster.

⁴³If the infection spreads again after the stones have been removed and the house scraped and re-plastered, ⁴⁴the priest is to come and examine it. If he finds that the infection has spread, mildew is affecting the house: it is unclean. ⁴⁵It must be pulled down, and the stones, woodwork, and all the plaster be taken to an unclean place outside the town.

⁴⁶Anyone who enters the house while it is closed will be unclean until evening. ⁴⁷Anyone who sleeps there must wash his clothing. ⁴⁸But if the priest finds, when he comes to examine the infection, that it has not spread in the house since it was plastered, he is to declare the house clean, for the infection is cured.

⁴⁹As a sacrifice for the sin of the house, he is to take two birds, cedar wood, red cord, and a sprig of hyssop. ⁵⁰He shall slaughter one of the birds in an earthenware pot over running water. ⁵¹Then he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the red cord, and the live bird and dip them into the slaughtered bird's blood and the running water. ⁵²He shall sprinkle the house seven times; and after having offered a sacrifice for the sin of the house with the blood of the bird, the running water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the red cord ⁵³he shall set the live bird free to fly out of the town into the open country. When the rite of atonement has been performed over the house in this way, it will be clean.

⁵⁴Such is the law for all cases ⁵⁵of dreaded skin diseases, mildew of clothing and houses, ⁵⁶swellings, scabs, and shiny spots. It defines the cases when things are unclean and when they are clean. ⁵⁷Such is the law on leprosy.”

Sexual Impurities

15 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron; he said,

²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them:

³When a man has a discharge from his body, that discharge makes him unclean. The rules about his uncleanness are:

He is unclean whether his body allows the discharge to flow or retains it. ⁴Any bed the man lies on, and any seat he sits on shall be unclean. ⁵Anyone touching his bed must wash his clothing and bathe; it will be unclean until evening.

⁶Anyone who sits on a seat where the man has sat must wash his clothing and take a bath, and it will be unclean until evening. ⁷Anyone who touches the body of a man so affected must wash his clothing and take a bath, and it will be unclean until evening. ⁸If the sick man spits on someone clean, that person must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.

⁹Any saddle the sick man travels on will be unclean. ¹⁰All those who touch any object that may be under him will be unclean until evening. Anyone who picks up such an object must wash his clothing and take a bath, and it will be unclean until evening.

¹¹All those whom the sick man touches without washing his hands must wash their clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. ¹²Any clay pot the sick man touches must be broken, and any wooden utensil must be rinsed.

¹³When the man suffering from a discharge is cured, he must allow seven days for his purification. He must wash his clothing and bathe in running water, and he will be clean. ¹⁴On the eighth day, he must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, come before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and give them to the priest. ¹⁵The priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin with one of them and with the other a burnt offering. So, the priest will perform the rite of atonement before the Lord for the man’s discharge.

¹⁶When a man has a seminal discharge, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he shall be unclean until evening. ¹⁷Any clothing or leather touched by a seminal discharge must be washed, and it will be unclean until evening. ¹⁸When a woman sleeps with a man, both must bathe and be unclean until evening.

¹⁹When a woman has a discharge of blood, and blood flows from her body, this uncleanness of her monthly periods shall last for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. ²⁰Any bed she lies on will be unclean; any seat she sits on will be unclean.

²¹Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening. ²²Anyone touching any seat she has sat on must wash his clothing and bathe, which will be unclean until evening. ²³If there is anything on the bed or the chair on which she sat, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.

²⁴If a man sleeps with a woman who is unclean because of her monthly period, he shall be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.

²⁵If a woman has a flow of blood for several days outside her period, or if her period is prolonged, during the time this flow lasts, she shall be unclean as during her monthly periods. ²⁶Any bed she lies on during this flow will be unclean as during her monthly period. Any seat she sits on will be unclean, as it would be during her monthly periods. ²⁷Anyone who touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothing and take a bath and will be unclean until evening.

²⁸When she is cured of her flow, she will let seven days pass; then be clean. ²⁹On the eighth day, she is to take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. ³⁰With one of them, the priest is to offer a sacrifice for sin, and with the other, a burnt offering. This is how the priest will perform the rite of atonement over her before the Lord for the flow that made her unclean.

³¹Make the sons of Israel aware of everything unclean, lest they die because of defiling the Tent of my presence among them.

³²Such is the law concerning a man with a discharge, anyone made unclean by a seminal discharge, ³³a woman unclean because of her monthly periods, a man or a woman with a discharge, a man who sleeps with an unclean woman.”

The Great Day of Atonement

16 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, who died when they approached the presence of the Lord.

²The Lord said to Moses, “Tell your brother, Aaron, not to enter the Most Holy Place inside the veil, before the Mercy Seat, which is on the Ark, at any time he pleases, lest he die, for I appear in the cloud over the Mercy Seat.

³This is how Aaron will enter the Holy Place with a bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He is to put on the sacred linen tunic and linen undergarments next to his body, have the linen sash around him, and wear the linen turban. These are sacred garments, so he must bathe in water before he puts them on.

⁵The assembly of the Israelites has to give him two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶Then Aaron shall offer the bullock for sin, offering to make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷He shall take the two male goats and present them to the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. ⁸He is to cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and one lot for Azazel. ⁹Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord as a sin offering. ¹⁰But the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel will be placed alive before the Lord to make atonement by being sent into the wilderness as a scapegoat.

¹¹Aaron will then bring the bullock as a sin offering for himself to make atonement for himself and his household, and he shall slaughter the bullock for the sin offering for himself. ¹²Then he shall take a censer full of coals from the fire above the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of powdered, fragrant incense and take them inside the veil. ¹³He shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord and the cloud of incense will cover the Mercy Seat that is on the Ark of the Covenant so that he will not die. ¹⁴He will take the bullock's blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the Mercy Seat to the east, and also, in front of the Mercy Seat, he shall sprinkle blood seven times. ¹⁵Then he shall slay the goat for the sin offering of the people and take its blood inside the veil and do with its blood what he did with the blood of the bullock. He shall sprinkle it on the Mercy Seat and in front of it. ¹⁶In this way, he shall make atonement for the Holy Place because of the uncleanness of the Israelites and because of all their sins. And he shall do the same for the Tent of Meeting, which stands among them in all their uncleanness.

¹⁷No one shall be in the Tent of Meeting from when Aaron goes to make atonement until he comes out. After he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel, ¹⁸he shall go out to the altar before the Lord and make atonement for it. Then he shall take some of the bullock’s and goat’s blood and put it on the altar's horns on all sides. ¹⁹He shall sprinkle it with blood seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.

²⁰When he has finished making atonement for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat forward. ²¹He shall lay his hands on the head of the goat and confess over it all the wickedness of the sons of Israel and all the sins they have committed against me. So he will charge them on the head of the goat and send it away to the wilderness by the hand of an assistant. ²²So the goat will carry away all their wickedness to an arid land when the man releases it in the wilderness.

²³Then Aaron is to go into the tent of meeting and take off the linen garments he had put on before he entered the sacred place. He shall leave them there, ²⁴bathe himself with water in a sacred place, and put on his clothes. After that, he will come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people to make atonement for himself and the people. ²⁵The fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar.

²⁶The man who releases the scapegoat to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, after which he may re-enter the camp. ²⁷The bullock of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place shall be brought outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides, their flesh, and their dung in the fire. ²⁸The one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, after which he may re-enter the camp.

²⁹This shall be a lasting ordinance for you: on the tenth day of the seventh month, you must deny yourselves and do no work—neither the native nor the stranger living among you—³⁰for on this day, atonement will be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be cleansed of your sins before the Lord. ³¹It is a Sabbath of solemn rest when you must deny yourselves. It is a lasting ordinance. ³²The priest anointed and ordained to succeed his father will make atonement. He shall put on the linen garments, the holy garments, ³³and will make atonement for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar. He shall also make atonement for the priests and all the people of the assembly. ³⁴This shall be for you a lasting ordinance to make atonement for the people of Israel once a year because of all their sins.”

And Moses did as the Lord commanded him.

the law of holiness

17 | •  ¹The Lord said to Moses, ²“Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and say to them: This is what the Lord has commanded: ³Any man from the house of Israel who kills an ox, or a lamb or a goat in the camp or outside the camp ⁴and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to make an offering of it to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord—that man shall be considered guilty of bloodshed. He has shed blood, and he shall be cut off from among his people.

⁵This ordinance is so that the sons of Israel may bring the sacrifices they used to slay in the fields to the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to the priests and offer them as sacrifices of peace to the Lord.

⁶The priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as a sweet-smelling offering to the Lord. ⁷This way, they shall no longer slay their sacrifices for the goat idols to whom they prostituted themselves.

This will be a lasting ordinance for them in the coming generations.

You Shall Not Eat Blood

⁸Then you shall give them this ordinance: Any man from the house of Israel or any alien living among them who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice ⁹and does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from his people.

¹⁰If any man from the house of Israel or any alien living among them eats blood, I will set my face against that person, and I will cut him off from among his people. ¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to rescue your life on the al­tar. Offered blood makes atonement because of the life within it. That is why I said to the sons of Israel: No one among you shall eat blood, nor may any alien who lives among you eat blood.

¹²If any Israelite or any alien living among you snares in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten, ¹³he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. ¹⁴For the blood of every creature contains its life, and I have therefore said to the people of Israel: You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is within its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.

¹⁵And every person who eats an animal that dies or that is torn by wild beasts, whether he be a native or an alien, shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and remain unclean until evening; then he will be purified. ¹⁶But if he does not wash his clothes or bathe his body, he shall carry his guilt.”

The Law of Holiness

18 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: I am the Lord, your God.

³You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you used to live, nor shall you do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you; you shall not follow their practices. ⁴My practices instead you will follow, and you will carry out my ordinances; I am the Lord your God. ⁵Keep my practices and ordinances, for whoever keeps them finds life; I am the Lord.

⁶None of you shall have sexual intercourse with a blood relative; I am the Lord.

⁷Do not have intercourse with your father or your mother; she is your mother; don’t have intercourse with her.

⁸Do not have intercourse with your father’s wife: Respect your father.

⁹Do not have intercourse with your sister or your stepsister, whether born in the same house or elsewhere. ¹⁰Do not have intercourse with your granddaughter; that would dishonor you.

¹¹Do not have intercourse with a half-sister; she, too, is your sister. ¹²Do not have intercourse with an aunt, whether she is your father’s sister ¹³or your mother’s sister.

¹⁴Do not have intercourse with your uncle’s wife; she, too, is your aunt.

¹⁵Do not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law ¹⁶or with your brother’s wife.

¹⁷Do not have intercourse with both a woman and her daughter or her grand­daughter; they are blood relatives; that is wickedness.

¹⁸While your wife is living, do not take her sister as a wife so that you make her jealous.

¹⁹Do not have intercourse with a woman during her monthly period.

²⁰Do not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.

²¹Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, and do not profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

²²Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination.

²³Also, do not have sexual relations with an animal; that is infamous.

²⁴Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for this is how the nations I am driving out before you became defiled. ²⁵As the land was defiled, I came to punish it, and it vomited out its inhabitants.

²⁶You shall keep my practices and ordinances, and you shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the alien living among you. ²⁷Recall the people who did all these things before you in these lands and became defiled. ²⁸If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it did the nations before you. ²⁹The one who does any of these abominations shall be cut off from his people.

³⁰Keep my laws and do not follow any of these abominable customs practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord, your God.”

19 | ¹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ²“Speak to the entire assembly of the people of Israel and say to them: Be holy for I, the Lord, your God, am holy. ³You must revere his mother and father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths; I am the Lord, your God.

⁴Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods; I am the Lord, your God.

⁵When you offer a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. ⁶It shall be eaten on the day you offer it or the next. And whatever remains shall be burned on the third day. ⁷If it is eaten on the third day, it is unclean and will not be accepted. ⁸Whoever eats it will pay for his sin, for he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord, and this person shall be cut off from his people.

Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

•   ⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the extreme limits of your field or gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰Do not strip your vineyard bare and do not gather the grapes that have fallen; leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am the Lord, your God.

¹¹Do not steal, lie, or deceive one another. ¹²Do not swear falsely by my name to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

¹³Do not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning. ¹⁴You shall not curse a deaf man nor put a stumbling block in the way of the blind, but you shall fear your God; I am the Lord.

¹⁵Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor nor bow to the great; you are to judge your neighbor fairly to not share in his guilt. ¹⁶Do not go about as a slanderer of your people and do not seek the death of your neighbor; I am the Lord.

¹⁷Do not hate your brother in your heart; rebuke your neighbor frankly so as not to share in his guilt. ¹⁸Do not seek revenge or nurture a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.

•  ¹⁹Keep my practices. You shall not let your cattle breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with two seed types or wear clothing of two different materials.

²⁰If a man lies with a woman who is a slave promised to another man, and she has not been ransomed or given her freedom, there shall be punishment. They shall not be put to death because she was not free, ²¹but he shall bring a ram as a guilt offering to the Lord for himself, to the door of the Tent of Meeting. ²²The priest is to make atonement for him before the Lord with the ram of the guilt offering, and the sin he has committed will be forgiven.

²³When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, you shall count the fruit as unclean. For three years, it shall be unclean for you and must not be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year, all the fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. ²⁵But in the fifth year, you may eat of the fruit that its yield may increase. I am the Lord, your God.

²⁶Do not eat anything over the blood nor practice divination or astrology. ²⁷Do not round off the side-growth of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. ²⁸Do not make cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or make tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.

²⁹You shall not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land turns to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.

³⁰Keep my Sabbaths and revere my Sanctuary. I am the Lord.

³¹Do not turn to mediums or consult spirits; they will defile you. I am the Lord, your God.

³²Rise in the presence of the aged and honor the elderly; in doing this, you honor your God. I am the Lord.

³³When a stranger stays with you in your land, do him no wrong. ³⁴He shall be to you as the native among you. Love him as yourself, for you have been strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.

³⁵Do no wrong in judgment, measure, weight, or quantity. ³⁶ Use honest scales, honest weights, and exact containers. I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

³⁷You shall keep and follow all my laws and practices. I am the Lord.”

Some Punishments

20 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses ²saying, “To the Israelites, you shall say this:

Any man from the people of Israel or from among the aliens living in Israel who gives any of his children for the Molech sacrifice shall be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him. ³I shall set my face against that man and cut him off from among his people, for by giving his children to Molech, he has defiled my Sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁴ If the people of the land hide their eyes from what that man does and do not put him to death, ⁵then I will set my face against them and their family and cut them off from their people. I will do the same to all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech.

⁶I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spirits and prostitutes himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.

⁷Take the way of holiness so that you be holy for I am the Lord, your God. ⁸You shall keep my laws and practice them. I, the Lord, your God, make you holy. ⁹The man who curses his father or mother shall be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother. He himself shall account for his blood.

¹⁰If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. ¹¹If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has dishonored his father, and both of them shall be put to death. They themselves shall account for their blood. ¹²If a man sleeps with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death, for they have committed incest. They themselves shall account for their blood.

¹³When a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both have committed a detestable act, and they shall be put to death. They themselves shall account for their blood.

¹⁴It is wicked for a man to marry both a woman and her mother. He and they must be burned in the fire so that there may be no wickedness among you.

¹⁵A man who has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death and the animal killed. ¹⁶If a woman approaches an animal to mate with it, kill the woman and the animal. They shall be put to death. They themselves shall account for their blood.

¹⁷If a man takes his sister, the daughter of his father or his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a shameful thing, and they shall be cut off before the eyes of their people. He has dishonored his sister and carries his guilt.

¹⁸A man who lies with a woman during her monthly period and has intercourse with her has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered it. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people.

¹⁹You shall not have intercourse with the sister of your father or mother, for that would dishonor a close relative. Both would be guilty. ²⁰The man who lies with his aunt dishonors his uncle. They will be guilty and die childless. ²¹It is wickedness for a man to take his brother’s wife. He has dishonored his brother, and they will be childless.

²²Keep all my decrees and laws and act according to them so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out of it. ²³You shall not follow the customs of the nations I shall drive out before you. I felt hatred for them, for they did all these things. ²⁴Because of this, I said to you: You will possess their land, and I will give it to you as your possession, a land flowing with milk and honey.

I, the Lord, your God, have set you apart from the nations. ²⁵ You must, therefore, set the clean beast apart from the unclean and the clean bird apart from the unclean. You shall not defile yourselves by animal, bird, or anything that creeps along the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean.

²⁶You are to be holy for me as I am holy, the Lord, your God, and I have set you apart from the nations to be mine.

²⁷Now a man or a woman who is a spiritist shall be put to death; he or she shall be stoned, and they shall account for their own blood.”

21 | ¹The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, sons of Aaron, and tell them that not one of them shall make himself unclean for a dead person among his people ²except for those relatives nearest to him, that is for his mother, father, son, daughter or brother, ³or for an unmarried sister who is dependent on him because she has had no husband. For her, he may make himself unclean. ⁴As a husband, he must not make himself unclean for his family-in-law and so profane himself. ⁵They shall not make tonsures on their heads, shave off their beards' edges, or make any cuts in their flesh. ⁶They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God, for it is they who present offerings by fire, the bread of their God, so they shall be holy. ⁷They must not marry women unclean by prostitution or a woman divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You shall regard the priest as holy for he offers up the food of your God. Holy, he shall be for you because I, the Lord, am holy and who makes you holy.

⁹If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she profanes her father and shall be burned in the fire.

¹⁰The high priest, the one among his brothers on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head or tear his clothes. ¹¹He shall not go near any dead person or defile himself either for his father or his mother. ¹²He shall not leave the Sanctuary nor profane the Sanctuary of his God, for he has on him the consecration of the anointing oil of his God. I am the Lord.

¹³The woman he marries must be a virgin. ¹⁴He shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman or a woman defiled by prostitution, but only a virgin of his own people, ¹⁵that he may not defile his children among his peo­ple. I am the Lord who makes him holy.”

¹⁶The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷“Say to Aaron: No man among your descendants in future generations who has a defect shall approach to offer the bread of his God. ¹⁸No man who has a defect may come near, no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed ¹⁹or who has a broken foot or hand, ²⁰or is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect or eczema or scabs or damaged testicles. ²¹The descendant of Aaron, the priest with a defect, shall not approach to offer the burnt offering to the Lord. He must not approach to offer the bread of his God because of his defect. ²²He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy, ²³but he may not go as far as the veil or advance towards the altar because he has a defect. Let him not defile my Sanctuary, for I, the Lord, make them holy.”

²⁴Thus spoke Moses to Aaron and his sons and all Israel.

22 | ¹The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: ²“Tell Aaron and his sons when they have to abstain from the holy offerings of the people of Israel, lest they profane my holy name; for I am the one who makes them holy. I am the Lord. ³Tell them this:

Anyone of your descendants, in any generation, who approaches the holy offerings consecrated to the Lord by the people of Israel in a state of uncleanness shall be outlawed from my presence. I am the Lord.

⁴Anyone of Aaron’s line afflicted with leprosy or a discharge must not eat holy things until he is clean. Anyone who touches something made unclean by a dead body or has a seminal discharge, ⁵or is made unclean by touching either some creeping thing or some man who has communicated to him his own uncleanness of whatever kind, ⁶in short, anyone who has had any such contact shall be unclean until evening and must not eat holy things until he has taken a bath. ⁷At sunset, he will be clean and may then eat holy things, for these are his foods.

⁸He must not eat an animal that has died a natural death or been killed by wild animals; he would become unclean by doing this. I am the Lord.

⁹Let them keep these rules and not burden themselves with sin, lest they die because they have defiled this food. I am the Lord who makes them holy.

¹⁰No layperson may eat any of the sacred offerings: neither the guest of a priest nor his hired servant. ¹¹But if the priest has acquired a slave by purchase, the slave may eat them. Likewise, anyone born in the house may eat a share of the food.

¹²If a priest’s daughter marries someone who is not a priest, she must not eat the holy portion set aside; ¹³but if she is widowed or divorced and, being childless, has had to return to her father’s house as when she was young, she may eat her father’s food. No layperson may eat it; ¹⁴if someone does eat a holy thing unintentionally, he shall restore it to the priest with one-fifth added.

¹⁵They must not profane the holy offerings, which the people of Israel have set aside for the Lord. ¹⁶If they ate of them, they would have to pay a guilt offering. I am the Lord, who has sanctified these offerings.”

¹⁷The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

¹⁸“Tell this to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the people of Israel:

¹⁹This rule refers to any one of the Israelites or any stranger living in Israel who brings anything for a burnt offering either in payment of a vow or as a voluntary gift. He must offer a male ox, sheep, or goat without any defect to be welcomed. ²⁰You must not offer one with defects, for it would not make you acceptable.

²¹If anyone offers the Lord a peace offering to fulfill a vow or as a voluntary offering, the animal—from the herd or the flock—will not please the Lord unless it is without any defect. ²²You must not offer to the Lord an animal that is blind, lame, mutilated, ulcerous, or suffering from skin disease or a sore. No part of such an animal shall be laid on the altar as a burnt offering for the Lord. ²³As a voluntary offering, you may offer an underdeveloped or deformed bull or a lamb; however, such will not be accepted in payment of a vow. ²⁴Don’t offer the Lord an animal if its testicles have been bruised, crushed, removed, or cut. This is not permitted in your land, ^25 , and you are not to accept any such offer from the hands of a stranger as food for your God. Their deformity is a defect, and they would not make you acceptable.”

²⁶The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

²⁷“A calf, lamb, or kid shall stay with its mother seven days after birth. From the eighth day, it will be acceptable as a burnt offering to the Lord. ²⁸No animal, whether cow or ewe, shall be slaughtered on the same day as its young.

²⁹If you offer the Lord a thanksgiving sacrifice, do so that the Lord may be pleased. ³⁰You must eat it the same day, and nothing should be left till the morning. I am the Lord.

Final Exhortation

³¹You must keep my commands and put them into practice. I am the Lord. ³²You must not profane my holy name, so that I may be proclaimed holy among the people of Israel, I, the Lord who sanctifies you. ³³I who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God, I am the Lord.”

The Annual Feasts

23 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: You proclaim holy assemblies on the appointed feasts of the Lord, which are these:

³After six days of work, there is a Sabbath of complete rest on the seventh day, a holy assembly when no work shall be done; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your houses.

⁴Then there are the appointed feasts of the Lord at times fixed for them when you are to proclaim holy assemblies.

⁵At twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶And on the fifteenth day of this month, it is the Lord’s feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days, you shall eat bread without leaven. ⁷On the first day, there will be a sacred assembly, and the workers will do no work. ⁸For seven days, you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord, and on the seventh day, you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no work of a worker.”

The Offering of the First Sheaf

•  ⁹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I will give you, and you reap its harvest, you will bring to the priest a bundle, the firstfruits of your harvest ¹¹and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

¹²The day when you wave the sheaf, you shall sacrifice a lamb without defect, born that year, as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³And the grain offering with it shall be two-tenths of a measure of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord, a sweet-smelling offering, with its drink offering of a quarter of a measure of wine.

¹⁴You shall eat neither bread nor grain, whether roasted or new until you bring the offering to your God. This is to be an everlasting ordinance for all generations throughout your residences.

¹⁵From the day after the Sabbath, on which you bring the sheaf of offering, you are to count seven full weeks. ¹⁶The day after the seventh Sabbath will be the fiftieth day, and then you are to offer the Lord a new offering. ¹⁷You must bring bread from your houses to present with the gesture of offering—two loaves, made of two-tenths of wheaten flour baked with leaven; these are first fruits for the Lord. ¹⁸In addition to the bread, you must offer seven one-year-old lambs without any defect, a young bull, and two rams as a burnt offering to the Lord together with a grain offering and drink offering, as a sweet-smelling offering to the Lord.

¹⁹You are also to offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin and two one-year-old lambs as a peace offering. ²⁰The priest shall present them before the Lord with the gesture of offering and the bread of the firstfruits. These, and the two lambs, are holy things for the Lord and will belong to the priest.

²¹This same day you are to hold an assembly. This shall be a sacred assembly for you; you will do no work of a worker. This is a perpetual law for your descendants wherever you live.

²²When you gather the harvest in your country, you are not to harvest to the very end of your field, and you are not to gather the gleanings of the harvest. You are to leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.”

²³The Lord spoke to Moses; he said:

²⁴“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: The first day of the seventh month shall be a day of rest for you, a sacred assembly proclaimed with a trumpet call. ²⁵You must not do any work of a worker and offer a burnt offering to the Lord.”

²⁶The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: ²⁷“The tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly. You must fast and offer a burnt offering to the Lord. ²⁸You are not to do any work that day, for it is the Day of Atonement, on which the rite of atonement will be performed over you before the Lord your God. ²⁹Indeed, anyone who fails to fast that day shall be outlawed from his people; ³⁰anyone who works that day I will remove from his people. ³¹No work must be done—this is a perpetual law for your descendants wherever you live. ³²This is to be a day of Sabbath rest for you. You must fast; on the evening of the ninth day of the month, from this to the following evening, you must cease to work.”

³³The Lord spoke to Moses; he said: ³⁴“Speak to the Israelites and say to them:

The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of Tents for the Lord, lasting seven days. ³⁵The first day, you shall hold an assembly; you must do no work as a worker. ³⁶For seven days, you must offer a burnt offering to the Lord. On the eighth day, you are to hold a sacred assembly and offer a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a day of solemn assembly on which you shall do no work as a worker.

³⁷These are the appointed feasts of the Lord in which you are to proclaim holy assemblies to offer offerings by fire, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings to the Lord, according to the ritual of each day, ³⁸besides the Sabbaths of the Lord and the presents, and the votive and voluntary gifts that you make to the Lord.

³⁹On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have harvested the produce of the land, you are to celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days. On the first and eighth days, there shall be a complete rest. ⁴⁰On the first day, you shall take choice fruits, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees and willows from the riverbank, and for seven days you shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God. ⁴¹You are to celebrate a feast for the Lord in this way for seven days every year. This is a perpetual law for your descendants.

⁴²You are to keep this feast in the seventh month. For seven days, you are to live in tents and shelters: all natives of Israel must live in tents and shelters, ⁴³so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites live in tents when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

⁴⁴These are the regulations Moses gave to the sons of Israel regarding the feasts of the Lord.

24 | ¹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ²“Command the Israelites to bring you oil from pressed olives for the light, that a lamp may be kept burning continually. ³Aaron 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. ⁴He shall set the lamps on the pure gold lampstand to burn continually before the Lord.

⁵Then you shall take fine flour and make twelve cakes, two-tenths of a measure in each cake. ⁶Place them in two rows, six each, on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷On each row, put pure frankincense so that the bread may be a memorial, as an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁸Every Sabbath, Aaron shall set the bread in order before the Lord on behalf of the Israelites as a lasting covenant. ⁹The bread will be for Aaron and his sons; they are to consider it as a most holy portion of the sacrifices by fire to the Lord, and they shall eat it in a holy place. This is a lasting law.”

The Blasphemy

¹⁰The son of an Israelite woman, whose husband was an Egyptian, quarreled with a man of Israel in the camp, and ¹¹the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the name of the Lord with a curse, so they brought him to Moses. (His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan). ¹²They put him under guard until a decision from the Lord would be made known.

¹³The Lord said to Moses, “Take the man who has cursed out of the camp. ¹⁴All who have heard him curse will lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly shall stone him to death. ¹⁵Then say this to the Israelites: The man who curses God shall pay for his sin ¹⁶and whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death. The whole assembly shall stone him; the alien, like the native, shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name.

The Law of Retaliation

•  ¹⁷Whoever kills a man shall be put to death.

¹⁸Whoever kills an animal shall replace the loss, life for life. ¹⁹If a man injures his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him. ²⁰Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, just as he has injured another, so shall it be done to him. ²¹He who kills a beast shall make up for it, and he who kills a man shall be put to death.

²²There shall be one law, the same for the alien and the native, for I am the Lord, your God.”

²³So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they brought the man who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him. In this way, the Israelites did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Sabbatical Year and Jubilee

25 | •  ¹The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land I am giving you, let the land rest for the Lord every seventh year. ³For six years, you shall sow your field, prune your vineyard, and harvest the produce, ⁴in the seventh year, the land shall have a rest, or Sabbath, a Sabbath for the Lord. You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard; ⁵you shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest nor gather the grapes of your uncultivated vines.

This shall be a year of rest for the land, ⁶but whatever it produces will provide food for you, your male and female slaves, your hired servant, and the stranger who lives with you.

⁷Its produce will provide food for your livestock and the wild animals on your land.

⁸When seven Sabbaths of years have passed, seven times seven years, there shall be the time of the seven weeks of years, that is forty-nine years. ⁹Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, sound the trumpet loudly. The trumpet will be heard throughout the land on this Day of Atonement. ¹⁰Keep holy the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom for all the land's inhabitants. It shall be a jubilation year for you when each one shall recover his property and go back to his family. ¹¹In this fiftieth year, your year of Jubilee; you shall neither sow nor reap the aftergrowth nor gather the grapes from the uncultivated vines. ¹²This Jubilee year shall be holy for you, and you shall eat what the field yields of itself without cultivation.

¹³In this year of Jubilee, each of you shall recover his own property. ¹⁴When you sell something to your neighbor or buy something from him, do not wrong one another. ¹⁵According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall buy it from your neighbor, and according to the number of years left for harvesting crops, he shall sell to you. ¹⁶When the years are many, the price shall be greater, and when the years are few, the price shall be less, for it is the number of crops that he is selling to you. ¹⁷So you shall not wrong one another but fear your God, for I am your Lord.

¹⁸Carry out my precepts and obey my laws. In that way, you will live securely in the land. ¹⁹The land will give its fruit so you may have abundant food and live securely.

²⁰But if you ask: What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather crops? See that ²¹I will send you my blessing in the sixth year that it may produce enough for three years. ²²So, in the eighth year, the remains of the old crop will provide you with what to sow and eat until the ninth year's harvest is ready.

²³The land shall not be sold forever, for the land is mine, where you are but strangers and guests of mine. ²⁴The land is to be redeemed in all the territory you occupy.

²⁵When your brother becomes poor and sells his property, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. ²⁶If the man has no relatives to buy back his property but later has sufficient means to redeem it, ²⁷he will calculate the value based on the number of years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it. In that way, he shall recover his property. ²⁸But if he does not find the means to repay him, what has been sold shall remain with the buyer until the Jubilee year when it must be given back to its original owner.

²⁹Similarly, if a man sells a house in a walled city, his right of redemption shall last until the end of a year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a whole year. ³⁰If it is not redeemed by the end of a complete year, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the one who bought it and to his descendants, and it shall not be released in the Jubilee year.

³¹Houses in villages without a surrounding wall are considered fields; they have redemption rights and may be released in a Jubilee year.

³²As for the towns of the Levites, their houses belong to the Levites, and they have a permanent right to redeem what is bought from them. ³³Any house in a town of the Levites can return to them at the time of the Jubilee, for the houses in the towns of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites. ³⁴The field belonging to their towns must not be sold forever; it is their permanent possession.

How to Share with Your Neighbor

•  ³⁵If your brother becomes poor and cannot support himself, help him. Help this stranger or this guest that he may live with you. ³⁶Do not take interest from him, but fear your God, so that your brother may live among you. ³⁷Do not give him your silver at interest nor your food for gain.

³⁸I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of the Canaanites and to be your God.

³⁹If your brother becomes poor and sells himself to you, do not make him work as a slave, ⁴⁰but let him remain with you as a hired servant and an alien until the year of Jubilee. ⁴¹He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and return to his own family and the property of his fathers. ⁴²For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, and they are not to be sold as slaves. ⁴³Do not rule over them harshly, but fear your God.

⁴⁴As for the male and female slaves, it is from the nations around you that you are to buy them. ⁴⁵You may also buy from among the aliens who live with you and from their families, born in your land, and they may be your property. ⁴⁶So you may leave them to your children as inherited possessions and enslave them for life. But regarding your fellow Israelites, you must not rule over them harshly.

⁴⁷If an alien or temporary resident becomes prosperous and one of your brothers becomes so poor as to sell himself to a stranger living with you or a member of the stranger’s family, ⁴⁸he shall have the right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him, ⁴⁹or his uncle or the son of his uncle or a near relative may redeem him. ⁵⁰If he becomes rich, let him redeem himself. He shall reckon with his buyer from the time he sold himself until the year of Jubilee, and the price of his sale shall correspond to the number of years. If many years remain, he shall be reckoned at the price of a hired servant, according to the number of years. ⁵¹If redeemed when many years remain, he shall be refunded out of the price paid for him, according to the remaining time. ⁵²If only a few years remain until the Jubilee year, he will calculate and refund accordingly. ⁵³He shall be with him as a servant hired year by year, and he shall not be harshly dealt with.

⁵⁴If he is redeemed in any of these ways, he shall be released in the Jubilee year, he and his sons with him.

⁵⁵For it is to me that the Israelites are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.

26 | ¹You shall not make for yourselves idols or set up an image, pillar, or carved stone in your land to bow before it, for I am the Lord, your God.

²You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary. I am the Lord.

Promises of God

•  ³If you walk according to my precepts and obey my commandments, if you carry them out, ⁴I will give you rain in its season, and the land will yield its produce, the trees in the field their fruit; ⁵the threshing time will last to vintage time and the vintage till sowing time. You will have food in abundance, and you will live securely in your land.

⁶I will give you peace in your country, and you will sleep without anyone disturbing you. I will banish the wild beast and keep the sword of war from passing through the land. ⁷You will rout your enemies, and they will fall before your sword; 8 five of you will pursue a hundred of them, and a hundred of you ten thousand of them, and they will fall before you by the sword.

⁹I will turn towards you to make your families fruitful and your people numerous, and I will confirm my Covenant with you. ¹⁰When you are still eating from the old harvest, you must discard what is stored to make a place for the new. ¹¹ I will make my dwelling among you and not reject you. ¹²I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to be their slaves no longer. I have broken the bars of your yoke, letting you walk erect.

Punishment of Disobedience

¹⁴But if you do not heed me and keep my commandments, ¹⁵if you reject my precepts and ignore my decrees, refusing to obey all my com­mandments and so break my covenant, ¹⁶I, in turn, will do this: I will bring upon you a terror, tuberculosis, and fever, weakening your eyes and draining your life. In vain will you sow, for your enemies will eat it. ¹⁷I will turn away from you until your enemies beat you. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

¹⁸If you do not obey me after all this, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. ¹⁹I will break the pride of your power; I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. ²⁰Your strength shall be spent in vain; your land will give no produce and the trees no fruit. ²¹If you defy me and are unwilling to obey me, I will bring you seven times as many plagues for your sins. ²²I will let loose the wild animals, and they will rob you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you so few that your roads will be deserted.

²³If, with all this, you do not repent but remain hostile towards me, ²⁴then I will be hostile towards you and strike you seven times for your sins. ²⁵The sword I will bring against you, and with the sword I will avenge my Covenant with you, and when you gather together in your cities, I will send pestilence on you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. ²⁶When I cut off your supply of bread and ten women bake bread in one oven and bring back rationed bread, you will eat and not be satisfied.

²⁷But if with all that you do not obey me and remain defiant towards me, ²⁸I will go against you in fury and punish you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁹You shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will cast your corpses on those of your idols, and I shall hate you. 31 I will lay waste your cities and make desolate your Sanctuaries, and no longer shall I relish your sweet-smelling offerings. ³²I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be astonished. ³³I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword behind you as your land becomes desolate and your cities lie in ruins.

³⁴Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies waste, while you are in the land of your enemies; ³⁵then the land will rest and observe its Sabbaths. As long as the land lies desolate, it shall have the Sabbath rest that it did not have when you inhabited it.

³⁶As for those of you who are left, I will make them faint-hearted in the land of their enemies. The sound of a wind-blown leaf will chase them, and even when no one pursues them, 37 they will flee from the sword and fall. They will stumble against each other as if running from the sword even when they are not pursued, and you cannot stand up before your enemies. ³⁸You shall perish among the nations and die in the land of your enemies.

³⁹Those among you who remain will rot away because of their wickedness in the land of your enemies, and because of the wickedness of their fathers, they will rot away with them. ⁴⁰Then they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers. They will admit that their treacheries and their hostility towards me made me hostile towards them ⁴¹and caused me to bring them to the land of their enemies, and then their uncircumcised hearts may become humble, and they will accept the punishment for their sin. ⁴²Then I will remember my Covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and I will remember the land.

⁴³For they will abandon the land and observe its Sabbath; it will be desolate without them, while they pay for their sins because they spurned my ordinances and ignored my statutes.

⁴⁴Yet even so, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or ignore them to the point of destroying them and breaking my Covenant with them, for I am the Lord, their God. ⁴⁵For their sake, I will remember my Covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, and that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”

⁴⁶These are the statutes, ordinances, and teachings of the Lord's Covenant with the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Vows and Promises

27 | ¹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ²“Tell the Israelites about the fixed price for those who have to be ransomed because of a vow.

³A man between twenty and sixty years of age shall be valued at fifty pieces of silver—the official standard; ⁴a woman shall be valued at thirty silver coins; ⁵between five and twenty years, a boy shall be valued at twenty silver coins, a girl at ten silver coins; ⁶between one month and five years, a boy shall be valued at five silver coins, a girl at three silver coins; ⁷at sixty years and over, a man shall be valued at fifteen silver coins and a woman at ten silver coins. ⁸If the person who made the vow is too poor to pay the standard price, he must present the person concerned to the priest, and the priest shall set a value proportionate to the resources of the person who made the vow.

⁹As for an animal suitable for offering to the Lord, any such animal given to the Lord is holy. ¹⁰It cannot be exchanged or a substitute offered—good for bad, bad for good. If one animal is substituted for another, both shall belong to the Lord. ¹¹If it is an unclean animal and not suitable for offering to the Lord, whatever it may be, it must be presented to the priest. ¹²He shall set a price for it, judging it good or bad. ¹³You must abide by his price. The person who wishes to repurchase it must add one-fifth to the price set.

¹⁴If a man dedicates his house to the Lord, the priest shall price it, judging whether its value is great or little. You must abide by the priest’s price. ¹⁵If the man who has vowed his house wishes to repurchase it, he must add one-fifth to the price, which shall be returned to him.

¹⁶If a man dedicates one of the fields of his inheritance to the Lord, its value shall be calculated according to its productivity at the rate of fifty silver coins to one bushel of barley.

¹⁷He must stand by this price if he dedicates the field during the Jubilee year. ¹⁸But if he dedicates it after the Jubilee, the priest shall calculate the price based on the number of years still to run until the next Jubilee, and the price shall be reduced accordingly.

¹⁹If he wishes to buy back the field, he shall add one-fifth to the price, and the field shall be returned to him. ²⁰If he does not repurchase it but sells it to another, the right of redemption ceases; ²¹when the buyer has to give it up at the Jubilee year, it becomes a thing dedicated to the Lord, the same as a field laid under the ban: the man’s property passes to the priest.

²²If he dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, but which is not part of his inheritance, ²³the priest shall assess the price based on the number of years still to run before the Jubilee year; and the man shall pay this sum the same day, as for a thing dedicated to the Lord. ²⁴In the Jubilee year, the field shall return to the seller, to the man whose inheritance the land belongs. ²⁵All prices must be made according to the official Sanctuary standards at twenty gerahs to one silver piece.

²⁶No one may dedicate the firstborn of his cattle, for it belongs to the Lord by right: whether ox or sheep, it belongs to the Lord. ²⁷But if it is an unclean animal, it may be repurchased at the price with one-fifth added; if it is not repurchased, the animal shall be sold at the price set.

²⁸Nothing dedicated to the Lord by anathema may be repurchased, whether a man, an animal, or a field of patrimony. What is dedicated by anathema becomes a most holy and belongs to the Lord. ²⁹ A human being dedicated by anathema cannot be repurchased; he must be put to death.

³⁰One-tenth of all the earth's produce or tree fruits belongs to the Lord. ³¹If a man wishes to buy back part of his tithe, he must add one-fifth to its value.

³²In all tithes of flock or herd, the tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman’s staff shall be dedicated to the Lord; 33 there must be no picking out of good and bad, no substitution. If a substitution occurs, both the animal and its substitute shall be dedicated without possibly repurchasing them.

³⁴These are the commandments the Lord laid down for Moses on Mount Sinai, for the people of Israel.