Leviticus 24

Light, Bread, the Holy Name, and Equal Justice Before the LORD

The LORD commands Israel to bring pure olive oil so Aaron can keep the lamps burning continually before the LORD. The LORD then commands twelve loaves to be placed in two stacks on the pure gold table as a lasting covenant sign and priestly holy food. The chapter then narrates a case in which the son of an Israelite woman and Egyptian father blasphemes the Name. He is held until the LORD's will is made clear. The LORD commands that the blasphemer be taken outside the camp and stoned. The chapter gives principles concerning blasphemy, murder, killing animals, bodily injury, equal retaliation, and one law for native-born and foreigner.

World English Bible, Public Domain

Israel supplies pure oil, and Aaron tends the lampstand so light remains before the LORD from evening to morning.

Leviticus 24:1-4

God requires continual, ordered worship that is sustained by His people and maintained before His presence.

1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2 “Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually.

3 Outside of the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

4 He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure gold lamp stand before Yahweh continually.

Twelve loaves are arranged before the LORD each Sabbath as a lasting covenant sign and most holy priestly food.

Leviticus 24:5-9

God ordains continual covenant remembrance through ordered worship and provision.

5 “You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake.

6 You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before Yahweh.

7 You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh.

8 Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually. It is an everlasting covenant on the behalf of the children of Israel.

9 It shall be for Aaron and his sons. They shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire by a perpetual statute.”

A man who blasphemes the Name is held until the LORD's will is revealed and then judged by stoning outside the camp.

Leviticus 24:10-23

God’s name is holy, and His justice is to be upheld without partiality.

10 The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp.

11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.

12 They put him in custody until Yahweh’s will should be declared to them.

13 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

14 “Bring him who cursed out of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

15 You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.

16 He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name.

The law distinguishes murder, animal restitution, and bodily injury while requiring one standard for native-born and foreigner.

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

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

19 If anyone injures his neighbor, it shall be done to him as he has done:

20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. It shall be done to him as he has injured someone.

21 He who kills an animal shall make it good; and he who kills a man shall be put to death.

22 You shall have one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born; for I am Yahweh your God.’ ”

The Israelites carry out the sentence as commanded, taking the blasphemer outside the camp and stoning him.

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

Key Terms

שֶׁמֶן shemen H8081
זַךְ zakh H2134
כָּתִית katith H3795
מָאוֹר maor H3974
עָלָה alah H5927
נֵר ner H5216
תָּמִיד tamid H8548
פָּרֹכֶת paroket H6532
עֵדוּת eduth H5715
עֶרֶב erev H6153
בֹּקֶר boqer H1242
חֻקָּה chuqqah H2708

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