February 8

Leviticus 23:33 — 25:55

       33 And Jehovah continued to speak to Moses, saying: 34 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the festival of booths for seven days to Jehovah. 35 On the first day is a holy convention. No sort of laborious work may YOU do. 36 Seven days YOU should present an offering made by fire to Jehovah. On the eighth day there should occur a holy convention for YOU, and YOU must present an offering made by fire to Jehovah. It is a solemn assembly. No sort of laborious work may YOU do.

37 “‘These are the seasonal festivals of Jehovah that YOU should proclaim as holy conventions, for presenting an offering made by fire to Jehovah: the burnt offering and the grain offering of the sacrifice and the drink offerings according to the daily schedule, 38 besides the sabbaths of Jehovah and besides YOUR gifts and besides all YOUR vow offerings and besides all YOUR voluntary offerings, which YOU should give to Jehovah. 39 However, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when YOU have gathered the produce of the land, YOU should celebrate the festival of Jehovah seven days. On the first day is a complete rest and on the eighth day is a complete rest. 40 And YOU must take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, the fronds of palm trees and the boughs of branchy trees and poplars of the torrent valley, and YOU must rejoice before Jehovah YOUR God seven days. 41 And YOU must celebrate it as a festival to Jehovah seven days in the year. As a statute to time indefinite during YOUR generations, YOU should celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 It is in the booths YOU should dwell seven days. All the natives in Israel should dwell in the booths, 43 in order that YOUR generations may know that it was in the booths that I made the sons of Israel to dwell when I was bringing them out of the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah YOUR God.’”

44 Accordingly Moses spoke of the seasonal festivals of Jehovah to the sons of Israel.

24 And Jehovah proceeded to speak to Moses, saying: 2 “Command the sons of Israel that they get for you pure, beaten olive oil for the luminary, to light up the lamp constantly. 3 Outside the curtain of the Testimony in the tent of meeting Aaron should set it in order from evening to morning before Jehovah constantly. It is a statute to time indefinite during YOUR generations. 4 Upon the lampstand of pure gold he should set the lamps in order before Jehovah constantly.

5 “And you must take fine flour and bake it up into twelve ring-shaped cakes. Two tenths of an ephah should go to each ring-shaped cake. 6 And you must place them in two sets of layers, six to the layer set, upon the table of pure gold before Jehovah. 7 And you must put pure frankincense upon each layer set, and it must serve as the bread for a remembrancer, an offering made by fire to Jehovah. 8 On one sabbath day after another he should set it in order before Jehovah constantly. It is a covenant to time indefinite with the sons of Israel. 9 And it must become Aaron’s and his sons’, and they must eat it in a holy place, because it is something most holy for him from Jehovah’s offerings made by fire, as a regulation to time indefinite.”

10 Now a son of an Israelite woman, who, however, was the son of an Egyptian man, went out into the midst of the sons of Israel, and the son of the Israelitess and an Israelite man began to struggle with each other in the camp. 11 And the son of the Israelite woman began to abuse the Name and to call down evil upon it. So they brought him to Moses. Incidentally, his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. 12 Then they committed him into custody till there should be a distinct declaration to them according to the saying of Jehovah.

13 And Jehovah proceeded to speak to Moses, saying: 14 “Bring forth the one who called down evil to the outside of the camp; and all those who heard him must lay their hands upon his head, and the entire assembly must pelt him [with stones]. 15 And you should speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In case any man calls down evil upon his God, he must then answer for his sin. 16 So the abuser of Jehovah’s name should be put to death without fail. The entire assembly should without fail pelt him with stones. The alien resident the same as the native should be put to death for his abusing the Name.

17 “‘And in case a man strikes any soul of mankind fatally, he should be put to death without fail. 18 And the fatal striker of the soul of a domestic animal should make compensation for it, soul for soul. 19 And in case a man should cause a defect in his associate, then just as he has done, so it should be done to him. 20 Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the same sort of defect he may cause in the man, that is what should be caused in him. 21 And the fatal striker of a beast should make compensation for it, but the fatal striker of a man should be put to death.

22 “‘One judicial decision should hold good for YOU. The alien resident should prove to be the same as the native, because I am Jehovah YOUR God.’”

23 After that Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought forth the one who had called down evil to the outside of the camp, and they pelted him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did just as Jehovah had commanded Moses.


25 And Jehovah spoke further to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying: 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you must say to them, ‘When YOU eventually come into the land that I am giving YOU, then the land must observe a sabbath to Jehovah. 3 Six years you should sow your field with seed, and six years you should prune your vineyard, and you must gather the land’s produce. 4 But in the seventh year there should occur a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath to Jehovah. Your field you must not sow with seed, and your vineyard you must not prune. 5 The growth from spilled kernels of your harvest you must not reap, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you must not gather. There should occur a year of complete rest for the land. 6 And the sabbath of the land must serve YOU people for food, for you and your slave man and your slave girl and your hired laborer and the settler with you, those who are residing as aliens with you, 7 and for your domestic animal and for the wild beast that is in your land. All its produce should serve for eating.

8 “‘And you must count for yourself seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven sabbaths of years must amount to forty-nine years for you. 9 And you must cause the horn of loud tone to sound in the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the day of atonement YOU people should cause the horn to sound in all YOUR land. 10 And YOU must sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants. It will become a Jubilee for YOU, and YOU must return each one to his possession and YOU should return each one to his family. 11 A Jubilee is what that fiftieth year will become for YOU. YOU must not sow seed nor reap the land’s growth from spilled kernels nor gather the grapes of its unpruned vines. 12 For it is a Jubilee. It should become something holy to YOU. From the field YOU may eat what the land produces.

13 “‘In this year of the Jubilee YOU should return each one to his possession. 14 Now in case YOU should sell merchandise to your associate or be buying from your associate’s hand, do not YOU wrong one another. 15 By the number of the years after the Jubilee you should buy from your associate; by the number of the years of the crops he should sell to you. 16 In proportion to the great number of years he should increase its purchase value, and in proportion to the fewness of years he should reduce its purchase value, because the number of the crops is what he is selling to you. 17 And YOU must not wrong anyone his associate, and you must be in fear of your God, because I am Jehovah YOUR God. 18 So YOU must carry out my statutes and YOU should keep my judicial decisions and YOU must carry them out. Then YOU will certainly dwell on the land in security. 19 And the land will indeed give its fruitage, and YOU will certainly eat to satisfaction and dwell in security on it.

20 “‘But in case YOU should say: “What are we going to eat in the seventh year seeing that we may not sow seed or gather our crops?” 21 in that case I shall certainly command my blessing for YOU in the sixth year, and it must yield its crop for three years. 22 And YOU must sow seed the eighth year and YOU must eat from the old crop until the ninth year. Until the coming of its crop YOU will eat the old.

23 “‘So the land should not be sold in perpetuity, because the land is mine. For YOU are alien residents and settlers from my standpoint. 24 And in all the land of YOUR possession YOU should grant to the land the right of buying back.

25 “‘In case your brother grows poor and has to sell some of his possession, a repurchaser closely related to him must also come and buy back what his brother sold. 26 And in case anyone proves to have no repurchaser and his own hand does make gain and he does find enough for its repurchase, 27 he must also calculate the years from when he sold it and he must return what money remains over to the man to whom he made the sale, and he must return to his possession.

28 “‘But if his hand does not find enough to give back to him, what he sold must also continue in the hand of its purchaser until the Jubilee year; and it must go out in the Jubilee, and he must return to his possession.

29 “‘Now in case a man should sell a dwelling house in a walled city, his right of repurchase must also continue till the year from the time of his sale finishes out; his right of repurchase should continue a whole year. 30 But if it should not be bought back before the complete year has come to the full for him, the house that is in the city that has a wall must also stand in perpetuity as the property of its purchaser during his generations. It should not go out in the Jubilee. 31 However, the houses of settlements that have no wall about them should be accounted as part of the field of the country. Right of repurchase should continue for it, and in the Jubilee it should go out.

32 “‘As for cities of the Levites with the houses of the cities of their possession, the right of repurchase should continue to time indefinite for the Levites. 33 And where property of the Levites is not bought back, the house sold in the city of his possession must also go out in the Jubilee; because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession in the midst of the sons of Israel. 34 Moreover, the field of pasture ground of their cities may not be sold, because it is a possession to time indefinite for them.

35 “‘And in case your brother grows poor and so he is financially weak alongside you, you must also sustain him. As an alien resident and a settler, he must keep alive with you. 36 Do not take interest and usury from him, but you must be in fear of your God; and your brother must keep alive with you. 37 You must not give him your money on interest, and you must not give your food out on usury. 38 I am Jehovah YOUR God, who brought YOU out of the land of Egypt to give YOU the land of Canaan, to prove myself YOUR God.

39 “‘And in case your brother grows poor alongside you and he has to sell himself to you, you must not use him as a worker in slavish service. 40 He should prove to be with you like a hired laborer, like a settler. He should serve with you till the Jubilee year. 41 And he must go out from you, he and his sons with him, and he must return to his family, and he should return to the possession of his forefathers. 42 For they are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They must not sell themselves the way a slave is sold. 43 You must not tread down upon him with tyranny, and you must be in fear of your God. 44 As for your slave man and your slave girl who become yours from the nations that are round about YOU people, from them YOU may buy a slave man and a slave girl. 45 And also from the sons of the settlers who are residing as aliens with YOU, from them YOU may buy, and from their families that are with YOU whom they had born to them in YOUR land; and they must become YOUR possession. 46 And YOU must pass them on as an inheritance to YOUR sons after YOU to inherit as a possession to time indefinite. YOU may use them as workers, but upon YOUR brothers the sons of Israel, you must not tread, the one upon the other, with tyranny.

47 “‘But in case the hand of the alien resident or the settler with you becomes wealthy, and your brother has become poor alongside him and must sell himself to the alien resident or the settler with you, or to a member of the family of the alien resident, 48 after he has sold himself, the right of repurchase will continue in his case. One of his brothers may buy him back. 49 Or his uncle or the son of his uncle may buy him back, or any blood relative of his flesh, one of his family, may buy him back.

“‘Or if his own hand has become wealthy, he must also buy himself back. 50 And he must reckon with his purchaser from the year he sold himself to him till the Jubilee year, and the money of his sale must correspond with the number of years. The way workdays of a hired laborer are reckoned he should continue with him. 51 If there are yet many years, he should in proportion to them pay his repurchase price over from the money of his purchase. 52 But if only a few remain of the years until the Jubilee year, he must then make a calculation for himself. In proportion to the years of his he should pay over his repurchase price. 53 He should continue with him like a hired laborer from year to year. He may not tread him down with tyranny before your eyes. 54 However, if he cannot buy himself back on these terms, he must then go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his sons with him.

55 “‘For to me the sons of Israel are slaves. They are my slaves whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah YOUR God.