Chapter 23

23:42. And you shall dwell in bowers seven days. Every one that is of the race of Israel, shall dwell in tabernacles:

23:43. That your posterity may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

23:44. And Moses spoke concerning the feasts of the Lord to the children of Israel.

Leviticus Chapter 24

The oil for the lamps. The loaves of proposition. The punishment of blasphemy.

24:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

24:2. Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee the finest and clearest oil of olives, to furnish the lamps continually,

24:3. Without the veil of the testimony in the tabernacle of the covenant. And Aaron shall set them from evening until morning before the Lord, by a perpetual service and rite in your generations.

24:4. They shall be set upon the most pure candlestick before the Lord continually.

24:5. Thou shalt take also fine flour, and shalt bake twelve loaves thereof, two tenths shall be in every loaf.

24:6. And thou shalt set them six and six, one against another, upon the most clean table before the Lord.

24:7. And thou shalt put upon them the clearest frankincense, that the bread may be for a memorial of the oblation of the Lord.

24:8. Every sabbath they shall be changed before the Lord: being received of the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.

24:9. And they shall be Aaron's and his sons', that they may eat them in the holy place: because it is most holy of the sacrifices of the Lord by a perpetual right.

24:10. And behold there went out the son of a woman of Israel, whom she had of an Egyptian, among the children of Israel: and fell at words in the camp with a man of Israel.

24:11. And when he had blasphemed the name, and had cursed it, he was brought to Moses. (Now his mother was called Salumith, the daughter of Dabri, of the tribe of Dan.)

24:12. And they put him into prison, till they might know what the Lord would command.

24:13. And the Lord spoke to Moses,

24:14. Saying: Bring forth the blasphemer without the camp: and let them that heard him, put their hands upon his head: and let all the people stone him.

24:15. And thou shalt speak to the children of Israel: The man that curseth his God, shall bear his sin:

24:16. And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die. All the multitude shall stone him, whether he be a native or a stranger. He that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, dying let him die.

24:17. He that striketh and killeth a man: dying let him die.

24:18. He that killeth a beast, shall make it good that is to say, shall give beast for beast.

24:19. He that giveth a blemish to any of his neighbours: as he hath done, so shall it be done to him:

24:20. Breach for breach, eye for ere, tooth for tooth, shall he restore. What blemish he gave, the like shall he be compelled to suffer.

24:21. He that striketh a beast, shall render another. He that striketh a man shall be punished.

24:22. Let there be equal judgment among you, whether he be a stranger, or a native that offends: because I am the Lord your God.

24:23. And Moses spoke to the children of Israel. And they brought forth him that had blasphemed, without the camp: and they stoned him. And the children of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Leviticus Chapter 25

The law of the seventh and of the fiftieth year of jubilee.

25:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying:

25:2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have entered into the land which I will give you, observe the rest of the sabbath of the Lord.

25:3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and shalt gather the fruits thereof.

25:4. But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath to the land, of the resting of the Lord. Thou shalt not sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

25:5. What the ground shall bring forth of itself, thou shalt not reap: neither shalt thou gather the grapes or the firstfruits as a vintage. For it is a year of rest to the land.

25:6. But they shall be unto you for meat, to thee and to thy manservant, to thy maidservant and thy hireling, and to the strangers that sojourn with thee.

25:7. All things that grow shall be meat to thy beasts and to thy cattle.

25:8. Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years: that is to say, seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years.

25:9. And thou shalt sound the trumpet in the seventh month, the tenth day of the month, in the time of the expiation in all your land.

25:10. And thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee. Every man shall return to his possession, and every one shall go back to his former family:

Remission. . .That is, a general release and discharge from debts and bondage, and a reinstating of every man in his former possessions.

25:11. Because it is the jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not sow, nor reap the things that grow in the field of their own accord, neither shall you gather the firstfruits of the vines,

25:12. Because of the sanctification of the jubilee. But as they grow you shall presently eat them.

25:13. In the year of the jubilee all shall return to their possessions.

25:14. When thou shalt sell any thing to thy neighbour, or shalt buy of him: grieve not thy brother. But thou shalt buy of him according to the number of years from the jubilee.

25:15. And he shall sell to thee according to the computation of the fruits.

25:16. The more years remain after the jubilee, the more shall the price increase: and the less time is counted, so much the less shall the purchase cost. For he shall sell to thee the time of the fruits.

25:17. Do not afflict your countrymen: but let every one fear his God. Because I am the Lord your God.

25:18. Do my precepts, and keep my judgments, and fulfil them: that you may dwell in the land without any fear.

25:19. And the ground may yield you its fruits, of which you may eat your fill, fearing no man's invasion.

25:20. But if you say: What shall we eat the seventh year, if we sow not, nor gather our fruits?

25:21. I will give you my blessing the sixth year: and it shall yield the fruits of three years.

25:22. And the eighth year you shall sow, and shall eat of the old fruits, until the ninth year: till new grow up, you shall eat the old store.

25:23. The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me.

25:24. For which cause all the country of your possession shall be under the condition of redemption.

25:25. If thy brother being impoverished sell his little possession, and his kinsman will: he may redeem what he had sold.

25:26. But if he have no kinsman, and he himself can find the price to redeem it:

25:27. The value of the fruits shall be counted from that time when he sold it. And the overplus he shall restore to the buyer, and so shall receive his possession again.

25:28. But if his hands find not the means to repay the price, the buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the jubilee. For in that year all that is sold shall return to the owner, and to the ancient possessor.

25:29. He that selleth a house within the walls of a city, shall have the liberty to redeem it, until one year be expired.

25:30. If he redeem it not, and the whole year be fully out, the buyer shall possess it, and his posterity for ever, and it cannot be redeemed, not even in the jubilee.

25:31. But if the house be in a village, that hath no walls, it shall be sold according to the same law as the fields. If it be not redeemed before, in the jubilee it shall return to the owner.

25:32. The houses of Levites, which are in cities, may always be redeemed.

25:33. If they be not redeemed, in the jubilee they shall all return to the owners: because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for their possessions among the children of Israel.

25:34. But let not their suburbs be sold, because it is a perpetual possession.

25:35. If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee:

25:36. Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest. Fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee.

25:37. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury: nor exact of him any increase of fruits.

25:38. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might give you the land of Chanaan, and might be your God.

25:39. If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee: thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants.

25:40. But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work with thee until the year of the jubilee.

25:41. And afterwards he shall go out with his children: and shall return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers.

25:42. For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen.

25:43. Afflict him not by might: but fear thy God.

25:44. Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are round about you:

25:45. And of the strangers that sojourn among you, or that were born of them in your land. These you shall have for servants:

25:46. And by right of inheritance shall leave them to your posterity, and shall possess them for ever. But oppress not your brethren the children of Israel by might.

25:47. If the hand of a stranger or a sojourner grow strong among you, and thy brother being impoverished sell himself to him, or to any of his race:

25:48. After the sale he may be redeemed. He that will of his brethren shall redeem him:

25:49. Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, or his kinsman, by blood, or by affinity. But if he himself be able also, he shall redeem himself:

25:50. Counting only the years from the time of his selling unto the year of the jubilee: and counting the money that he was sold for, according to the number of the years and the reckoning of a hired servant.

25:51. If there be many years that remain until the jubilee, according to them shall he also repay the price.

25:52. If few, he shall make the reckoning with him according to the number of the years: and shall repay to the buyer of what remaineth of the years.

25:53. His wages being allowed for which he served before: he shall not afflict him violently in thy sight.

25:54. And if by these means he cannot be redeemed, in the year of the jubilee he shall go out with his children.

25:55. For the children of Israel are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt.

Leviticus Chapter 26

God's promises to them that keep his commandments. And the many punishments with which he threatens transgressors.

26:1. I am the Lord your God. You shall not make to yourselves any idol or graven thing: neither shall you erect pillars, nor set up a remarkable stone in your land, to adore it. For I am the Lord your God.

26:2. Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord.

26:3. If you walk in my precepts, and keep my commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons.

26:4. And the ground shall bring forth its increase: and the trees shall be filled with fruit.

26:5. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear.

26:6. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters.

26:7. You shall pursue your enemies: and they shall fall before you.

26:8. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others: and a hundred of you ten thousand. Your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

26:9. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish my covenant with you.

26:10. You shall eat the oldest of the old store: and, new coming on, you shall cast away the old.

26:11. I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you: and my soul shall not cast you off.

26:12. I will walk among you, and will be your God: and you shall be my people.

26:13. I am the Lord your God: who have brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them: and who have broken the chains of your necks, that you might go upright.

26:14. But if you will not hear me, nor do all my commandments:

26:15. If you despise my laws, and contemn my judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by me, and to make void my covenant:

26:16. I also will do these things to you. I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies.

26:17. I will set my face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies: and shall be made subject to them that hate you. You shall flee when no man pursueth you.

26:18. But if you will not yet for all this obey me: I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

26:19. And I will break the pride of your stubbornness: and I will make to you the heaven above as iron, and the earth as brass.

26:20. Your labour shall be spent in vain: the ground shall not bring forth her increase: nor the trees yield their fruit.

26:21. If you walk contrary to me, and will not hearken to me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins.

26:22. And I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number: and that your highways may be desolate.

26:23. And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to me:

26:24. I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins.

26:25. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge my covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you. And you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies,

26:26. After I shall have broken the staff of your bread: so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and give it out by weight: and you shall eat, and shall not be filled,

26:27. But if you will not for all this hearken to me, but will walk against me

26:28. I will also go against you with opposite fury: and I will chastise you with seven plagues for your sins,

26:29. So that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters.

26:30. I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.

26:31. Insomuch that I will bring your cities to be a wilderness: and I will make your sanctuaries desolate: and will receive no more your sweet odours.

26:32. And I will destroy your land: and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof.

26:33. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles: and I will draw out the sword after you. And your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed.

26:34. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths all the days of her desolation. When you shall be

26:35. In the enemy's land, she shall keep a sabbath, and rest in the sabbaths of her desolation: because she did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt therein.

26:36. And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies. The sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them: and they shall flee as it were from the sword. They shall fall, when no man pursueth them.

26:37. And they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars: none of you shall dare to resist your enemies.

26:38. You shall perish among the Gentiles: and an enemy's land shall consume you.

26:39. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies: and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own.

26:40. Until they confess their iniquities, and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed against me, and walked contrary unto me.

26:41. Therefore I also will walk against them, and bring them into their enemies' land until their uncircumcised mind be ashamed. Then shall they pray for their sins.

26:42. And I will remember my covenant, that I made with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. I will remember also the land:

26:43. Which when she shall be left by them, shall enjoy her sabbaths, being desolate for them. But they shall pray for their sins, because they rejected my judgments, and despised my laws.

26:44. And yet for all that when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not cast them off altogether. Neither did I so despise them that they should be quite consumed: and I should make void my covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God.

26:45. And I will remember my former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God. I am the Lord. These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord gave between him and the children of Israel, in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

Leviticus Chapter 27

Of vows and tithes.

27:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

27:2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The man that shall have made a vow, and promised his soul to God, shall give the price according to estimation.

27:3. If it be a man from twenty years old unto sixty years old, he shall give fifty sicles of silver, after the weight of the sanctuary:

27:4. If a woman, thirty.

27:5. But from the fifth year until the twentieth, a man shall give twenty sicles: a woman ten.

27:6. From one month until the fifth year, for a male shall be given five sicles: for a female three.

27:7. A man that is sixty years old or upward, shall give fifteen sicles: a woman ten.

27:8. If he be poor, and not able to pay the estimation, he shall stand before the priest: and as much as he shall value him at, and see him able to pay, so much shall he give.

27:9. But a beast that may be sacrificed to the Lord, if any one shall vow, shall be holy,

27:10. And cannot be changed: that is to say, neither a better for a worse, nor a worse for a better. And if he shall change it: both that which was changed, and that for which it was changed, shall be consecrated to the Lord.

27:11. An unclean beast, which cannot be sacrificed to the Lord, if any man shall vow, shall be brought before the priest:

27:12. Who judging whether it be good or bad, shall set the price.

27:13. Which, if he that offereth it will give, he shall add above the estimation the fifth part.

27:14. If a man shall vow his house, and sanctify it to the Lord, the priest shall consider it, whether it be good or bad: and it shall be sold according to the price, which he shall appoint.

27:15. But if he that vowed, will redeem it, he shall give the fifth part of the estimation over and above: and shall have the house.

27:16. And if he vow the field of his possession, and consecrate it to the Lord, the price shall be rated according to the measure of the seed. If the ground be sown with thirty bushels of barley, let it be sold for fifty sicles of silver.

27:17. If he vow his field immediately from the year of jubilee that is beginning: as much as it may be worth, at so much it shall be rated.

27:18. But if some time after, the priest shall reckon the money according to the number of years that remain until the jubilee, and the price shall be abated.

27:19. And if he that had vowed, will redeem his field, he shall add the fifth part of the money of the estimation, and shall possess it.

27:20. And if he will not redeem it, but it be sold to any other man, he that vowed it, may not redeem it any more.

27:21. For when the day of jubilee cometh, it shall be sanctified to the Lord, and as a possession consecrated, pertaineth to the right of the priest.

27:22. If a field that was bought, and not of a man's ancestors' possession, be sanctified to the Lord:

27:23. The priest shall reckon the price according to the number of years, unto the jubilee. And he that had vowed, shall give that to the Lord.

27:24. But in the jubilee, it shall return to the former owner, who had sold it, and had it in the lot of his possession.

27:25. All estimation shall be made according to the sicle of the sanctuary. A sicle hath twenty obols.

27:26. The firstborn, which belong to the Lord, no man may sanctify and vow: whether it be bullock, or sheep, they are the Lord's.

27:27. And if it be an unclean beast, he that offereth it shall redeem it, according to thy estimation, and shall add the fifth part of the price. If he will not redeem it, it shall be sold to another for how much soever it was estimated by thee.

27:28. Any thing that is devoted to the Lord, whether it be man, or beast, or field, shall not be sold: neither may it be redeemed. Whatsoever is once consecrated shall be holy of holies to the Lord.

27:29. And any consecration that is offered by man, shall not be redeemed, but dying shall die.

27:30. All tithes of the land, whether of corn, or of the fruits of trees, are the Lord's, and are sanctified to him.

27:31. And if any man will redeem his tithes, he shall add the fifth part of them.

27:32. Of all the tithes of oxen, and sheep, and goats, that pass under the shepherd's rod, every tenth that cometh shall be sanctified to the Lord.

27:33. It shall not be chosen neither good nor bad, neither shall it be changed for another. If any man change it: both that which was changed, and that for which it was changed, shall be sanctified to the Lord, and shall not be redeemed.

27:34. These are the precepts which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

THE BOOK OF NUMBERS

This fourth Book of Moses is called NUMBERS, because it begins with the numbering of the people. The Hebrews, from its first words, call it VAIEDABBER. It contains the transactions of the Israelites from the second month of the second year after their going out of Egypt, until the beginning of the eleventh month of the fortieth year; that is, a history almost of thirty-nine years.

Numbers Chapter 1

The children of Israel are numbered: the Levites are designed to serve the tabernacle.

1:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai in the tabernacle of the covenant, the first day of the second month, the second year of their going out of Egypt, saying:

1:2. Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel by their families, and houses, and the names of every one, as many as are of the male sex,

1:3. From twenty years old and upwards, of all the men of Israel fit for war, and you shall number them by their troops, thou and Aaron.

1:4. And there shall be with you the princes of the tribes, and of the houses in their kindreds,

1:5. Whose names are these: Of Ruben, Elisur the son of Sedeur.

1:6. Of Simeon, Salamiel the son of Surisaddai.

1:7. Of Juda, Nahasson the son of Aminadab.

1:8. Of Issachar, Nathanael the son of Suar.

1:9. Of Zabulon, Eliab the son of Helon.

1:10. And of the sons of Joseph: of Ephraim, Elisama the son of Ammiud: of Manasses, Gamaliel the son of Phadassur.

1:11. Of Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gedeon.

1:12. Of Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammisaddai.

1:13. Of Aser, Phegiel the son of Ochran.

1:14. Of Gad, Eliasaph the son of Duel.

1:15. Of Nephtali, Ahira the son of Enan.

1:16. These are the most noble princes of the multitude by their tribes and kindreds, and the chiefs of the army of Israel:

1:17. Whom Moses and Aaron took with all the multitude of the common people: