Laws about Sacrifice

¹The Lord gave Moses

²the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them.

³A bull, a ram, a sheep, or a goat may be presented to the Lord as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfillment of a vow or as a freewill offering or as an offering at your regular religious festivals; the odor of these food offerings is pleasing to the Lord.

^4-5Whoever presents a sheep or a goat as a burnt offering to the Lord is to bring with each animal 2 pounds of flour mixed with 2 pints of olive oil as a grain offering, together with 2 pints of wine.

⁶When a ram is offered, 4 pounds of flour mixed with 3 pints of olive oil are to be presented as a grain offering,

⁷together with 3 pints of wine. The odor of these sacrifices is pleasing to the Lord.

⁸When a bull is offered to the Lord as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice in fulfillment of a vow or as a fellowship offering,

⁹a grain offering of 6 pounds of flour mixed with 4 pints of olive oil is to be presented,

¹⁰together with 4 pints of wine. The odor of this sacrifice is pleasing to the Lord.

¹¹That is what shall be offered with each bull, ram, sheep, or goat.

¹²When more than one animal is offered, the accompanying offering is to be increased proportionately.

¹³All native Israelites are to do this when they present a food offering, an odor pleasing to the Lord.

¹⁴And if at any time foreigners living among you, whether on a temporary or a permanent basis, make a food offering, an odor that pleases the Lord, they are to observe the same regulations.

¹⁵For all time to come, the same rules are binding on you and on the foreigners who live among you. You and they are alike in the Lord's sight;

¹⁶the same laws and regulations apply to you and to them.

¹⁷The Lord gave Moses

¹⁸the following regulations for the people of Israel to observe in the land that he was going to give them.

¹⁹When any food produced there is eaten, some of it is to be set aside as a special contribution to the Lord.

²⁰When you bake bread, the first loaf of the first bread made from the new grain is to be presented as a special contribution to the Lord. This is to be presented in the same way as the special contribution you make from the grain you thresh.

²¹For all time to come, this special gift is to be given to the Lord from the bread you bake.

²²But suppose someone unintentionally fails to keep some of these regulations which the Lord has given Moses.

²³And suppose that in the future the community fails to do everything that the Lord commanded through Moses.

²⁴If the mistake was made because of the ignorance of the community, they are to offer a bull as a burnt offering, an odor that pleases the Lord, with the proper grain offering and wine offering. In addition, they are to offer a male goat as a sin offering.

²⁵The priest shall perform the ritual of purification for the community, and they will be forgiven, because the mistake was unintentional and they brought their sin offering as a food offering to the Lord.

²⁶The whole community of Israel and the foreigners living among them will be forgiven, because everyone was involved in the mistake.

²⁷If any of you sin unintentionally, you are to offer a one-year-old female goat as a sin offering.

²⁸At the altar the priest shall perform the ritual of purification to purify you from your sin, and you will be forgiven.

²⁹The same regulation applies to all who unintentionally commit a sin, whether they are native Israelites or resident foreigners.

³⁰But any who sin deliberately, whether they are natives or foreigners, are guilty of treating the Lord with contempt, and they shall be put to death,

³¹because they have rejected what the Lord said and have deliberately broken one of his commands. They are responsible for their own death.

The Man Who Broke the Sabbath

³²Once, while the Israelites were still in the wilderness, a man was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath.

³³He was taken to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community,

³⁴and was put under guard, because it was not clear what should be done with him.

³⁵Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death; the whole community is to stone him to death outside the camp.”

³⁶So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord had commanded.

Rules about Tassels

³⁷The Lord commanded Moses

³⁸to say to the people of Israel: “Make tassels on the corners of your garments and put a blue cord on each tassel. You are to do this for all time to come.

³⁹The tassels will serve as reminders, and each time you see them you will remember all my commands and obey them; then you will not turn away from me and follow your own wishes and desires.

⁴⁰The tassels will remind you to keep all my commands, and you will belong completely to me.

⁴¹I am the Lord your God; I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.”

¹“Prophets or interpreters of dreams may promise a miracle or a wonder,

²in order to lead you to worship and serve gods that you have not worshiped before. Even if what they promise comes true,

³do not pay any attention to them. The Lord your God is using them to test you, to see if you love the Lord with all your heart.

⁴Follow the Lord and honor him; obey him and keep his commands; worship him and be faithful to him.

⁵But put to death any interpreters of dreams or prophets that tell you to rebel against the Lord, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Such people are evil and are trying to lead you away from the life that the Lord has commanded you to live. They must be put to death, in order to rid yourselves of this evil.

⁶“Even your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods, gods that you and your ancestors have never worshiped.

⁷Some of them may encourage you to worship the gods of the people who live near you or the gods of those who live far away.

⁸But do not let any of them persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no mercy or pity, and do not protect them.

⁹Kill them! Be the first to stone them, and then let everyone else stone them too.

¹⁰Stone them to death! They tried to lead you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves.

¹¹Then all the people of Israel will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing.

¹²“When you are living in the towns that the Lord your God gives you, you may hear

¹³that some worthless people of your nation have misled the people of their town to worship gods that you have never worshiped before.

¹⁴If you hear such a rumor, investigate it thoroughly; and if it is true that this evil thing did happen,

¹⁵then kill all the people in that town and all their livestock too. Destroy that town completely.

¹⁶Bring together all the possessions of the people who live there and pile them up in the town square. Then burn the town and everything in it as an offering to the Lord your God. It must be left in ruins forever and never again be rebuilt.

¹⁷Do not keep for yourselves anything that was condemned to destruction, and then the Lord will turn from his fierce anger and show you mercy. He will be merciful to you and make you a numerous people, as he promised your ancestors,

¹⁸if you obey all his commands that I have given you today, and do what he requires.

A Forbidden Mourning Practice

¹“You are the people of the Lord your God. So when you mourn for the dead, don't gash yourselves or shave the front of your head, as other people do.

²You belong to the Lord your God; he has chosen you to be his own people from among all the peoples who live on earth.

Clean and Unclean Animals

³“Do not eat anything that the Lord has declared unclean.

⁴You may eat these animals: cattle, sheep, goats,

⁵deer, wild sheep, wild goats, or antelopes—

⁶any animals that have divided hoofs and that also chew the cud.

⁷But no animals may be eaten unless they have divided hoofs and also chew the cud. You may not eat camels, rabbits, or rock badgers. They must be considered unclean; they chew the cud but do not have divided hoofs.

⁸Do not eat pigs. They must be considered unclean; they have divided hoofs but do not chew the cud. Do not eat any of these animals or even touch their dead bodies.

⁹“You may eat any kind of fish that has fins and scales,

¹⁰but anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales may not be eaten; it must be considered unclean.

¹¹“You may eat any clean bird.

^12-18But these are the kinds of birds you are not to eat: eagles, owls, hawks, falcons; buzzards, vultures, crows; ostriches; seagulls, storks, herons, pelicans, cormorants; hoopoes; and bats.

¹⁹“All winged insects are unclean; do not eat them.

²⁰You may eat any clean insect.

²¹“Do not eat any animal that dies a natural death. You may let the foreigners who live among you eat it, or you may sell it to other foreigners. But you belong to the Lord your God; you are his people. “Do not cook a young sheep or goat in its mother's milk.

The Law of the Tithe

²²“Set aside a tithe—a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.

²³Then go to the one place where the Lord your God has chosen to be worshiped; and there in his presence eat the tithes of your grain, wine, and olive oil, and the first-born of your cattle and sheep. Do this so that you may learn to honor the Lord your God always.

²⁴If the place of worship is too far from your home for you to carry there the tithe of the produce that the Lord has blessed you with, then do this:

²⁵Sell your produce and take the money with you to the one place of worship.

²⁶Spend it on whatever you want—beef, lamb, wine, beer—and there, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families are to eat and enjoy yourselves.

²⁷“Do not neglect the Levites who live in your towns; they have no property of their own.

²⁸At the end of every third year bring the tithe of all your crops and store it in your towns.

²⁹This food is for the Levites, since they own no property, and for the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your towns. They are to come and get all they need. Do this, and the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.

God the Supreme King

¹Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing to the Lord, all the world!

²Sing to the Lord, and praise him! Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.

³Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.

⁴The Lord is great and is to be highly praised; he is to be honored more than all the gods.

⁵The gods of all other nations are only idols, but the Lord created the heavens.

⁶Glory and majesty surround him; power and beauty fill his Temple.

⁷Praise the Lord, all people on earth; praise his glory and might.

⁸Praise the Lord's glorious name; bring an offering and come into his Temple.

⁹Bow down before the Holy One when he appears; tremble before him, all the earth!

¹⁰Say to all the nations, “The Lord is king! The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with justice.”

¹¹Be glad, earth and sky! Roar, sea, and every creature in you;

¹²be glad, fields, and everything in you! The trees in the woods will shout for joy

¹³when the Lord comes to rule the earth. He will rule the peoples of the world with justice and fairness.