Lévitique (NAB) 17
17 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Speak to Aaron and his sons, as well as to all the Israelites, and tell them: This is what the LORD has commanded.3 Any Israelite who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat, whether in the camp or outside of it, 4 without first bringing it to the entrance of the meeting tent to present it as an offering to the LORD in front of his Dwelling, shall be judged guilty of bloodshed; and for this, such a man shall be cut off from among his people.5 Therefore, such sacrifices as they used to offer up in the open field the Israelites shall henceforth offer to the LORD, bringing them to the priest at the entrance of the meeting tent and sacrificing them there as peace offerings to the LORD.6 The priest shall splash the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance of the meeting tent and there burn the fat for an odor pleasing to the LORD.7 No longer shall they offer their sacrifices to the satyrs to whom they used to render their wanton worship. This shall be an everlasting ordinance for them and their descendants.8 "Tell them, therefore: Anyone, whether of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing among them, who offers a holocaust or sacrifice9 without bringing it to the entrance of the meeting tent to offer it to the LORD, shall be cut off from his kinsmen.
10 And if anyone, whether of the house of Israel or of the aliens residing among them, partakes of any blood, I will set myself against that one who partakes of blood and will cut him off from among his people.11 Since the life of a living body is in its blood, I have made you put it on the altar, so that atonement may thereby be made for your own lives, because it is the blood, as the seat of life, that makes atonement. 12 That is why I have told the Israelites: No one among you, not even a resident alien, may partake of blood.13 "Anyone hunting, whether of the Israelites or of the aliens residing among them, who catches an animal or a bird that may be eaten, shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth.14 Since the life of every living body is its blood, I have told the Israelites: You shall not partake of the blood of any meat. Since the life of every living body is its blood, anyone who partakes of it shall be cut off.15 "Everyone, whether a native or an alien, who eats of an animal that died of itself or was killed by a wild beast, shall wash his garments, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening, and then he will be clean.16 If he does not wash or does not bathe his body, he shall have the guilt to bear."
18 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I, the LORD, am your God.3 You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you once lived, nor shall you do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you; do not conform to their customs.4 My decrees you shall carry out, and my statutes you shall take care to follow. I, the LORD, am your God.5 Keep, then, my statutes and decrees, for the man who carries them out will find life through them. I am the LORD.6 "None of you shall approach a close relative to have sexual intercourse with her. I am the LORD. 7 You shall not disgrace your father by having intercourse with your mother. Besides, since she is your own mother, you shall not have intercourse with her.8 You shall not have intercourse with your father's wife, for that would be a disgrace to your father.9 You shall not have intercourse with your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was born in your own household or born elsewhere.10 You shall not have intercourse with your son's daughter or with your daughter's daughter, for that would be a disgrace to your own family.11 You shall not have intercourse with the daughter whom your father's wife bore to him, since she, too, is your sister.12 You shall not have intercourse with your father's sister, since she is your father's relative.13 You shall not have intercourse with your mother's sister, since she is your mother's relative.14 You shall not disgrace your father's brother by being intimate with his wife, since she, too, is your aunt.15 You shall not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son's wife, and therefore you shall not disgrace her.16 You shall not have intercourse with your brother's wife, for that would be a disgrace to your brother. 17 You shall not have intercourse with a woman and also with her daughter, nor shall you marry and have intercourse with her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter; this would be shameful, because they are related to her.18 While your wife is still living you shall not marry her sister as her rival; for thus you would disgrace your first wife.19 "You shall not approach a woman to have intercourse with her while she is unclean from menstruation.20 You shall not have carnal relations with your neighbor's wife, defiling yourself with her.21 You shall not offer any of your offspring to be immolated to Molech, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD. 22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination.23 You shall not have carnal relations with an animal, defiling yourself with it; nor shall a woman set herself in front of an animal to mate with it; such things are abhorrent.24 "Do not defile yourselves by any of these things by which the nations whom I am driving out of your way have defiled themselves.25 Because their land has become defiled, I am punishing it for its wickedness, by making it vomit out its inhabitants.26 You, however, whether natives or resident aliens, must keep my statutes and decrees forbidding all such abominations27 by which the previous inhabitants defiled the land;28 otherwise the land will vomit you out also for having defiled it, just as it vomited out the nations before you.29 Everyone who does any of these abominations shall be cut off from among his people.30 Heed my charge, then, not to defile yourselves by observing the abominable customs that have been observed before you. I, the LORD, am your God."
19 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy.3 Revere your mother and father, and keep my sabbaths. I, the LORD, am your God.4 "Do not turn aside to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I, the LORD, am your God.5 "When you sacrifice your peace offering to the LORD, if you wish it to be acceptable,6 it must be eaten on the very day of your sacrifice or on the following day. Whatever is left over until the third day shall be burned up in the fire.7 If any of it is eaten on the third day, the sacrifice will be unacceptable as refuse;8 whoever eats of it then shall pay the penalty for having profaned what is sacred to the LORD. Such a one shall be cut off from his people.9 "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of grain.10 Likewise, you shall not pick your vineyard bare, nor gather up the grapes that have fallen. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the LORD, am your God.11 "You shall not steal. You shall not lie or speak falsely to one another.12 You shall not swear falsely by my name, thus profaning the name of your God. I am the LORD.13 "You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor. You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer.14 You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD.15 "You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment. Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty, but judge your fellow men justly.16 You shall not go about spreading slander among your kinsmen; nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor's life is at stake. I am the LORD.17 "You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him.18 Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. 19 "Keep my statutes: do not breed any of your domestic animals with others of a different species; do not sow a field of yours with two different kinds of seed; and do not put on a garment woven with two different kinds of thread.20 "If a man has carnal relations with a female slave who has already been living with another man but has not yet been redeemed or given her freedom, they shall be punished but not put to death, because she is not free. 21 The man, moreover, shall bring to the entrance of the meeting tent a ram as his guilt offering to the LORD.22 With this ram the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the sin he has committed, and it will be forgiven him.23 "When you come into the land and plant any fruit tree there, first look upon its fruit as if it were uncircumcised. For three years, while its fruit remains uncircumcised, it may not be eaten. 24 In the fourth year, however, all of its fruit shall be sacred to the LORD as a thanksgiving feast to him.25 Not until the fifth year may you eat its fruit. Thus it will continue its yield for you. I, the LORD, am your God.26 "Do not eat meat with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or soothsaying.27 Do not clip your hair at the temples, nor trim the edges of your beard. 28 Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves. I am the LORD.29 "You shall not degrade your daughter by making a prostitute of her; else the land will become corrupt and full of lewdness.30 Keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. I am the LORD.31 "Do not go to mediums or consult fortune-tellers, for you will be defiled by them. I, the LORD, am your God.32 "Stand up in the presence of the aged, and show respect for the old; thus shall you fear your God. I am the LORD.33 "When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him.34 You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt. I, the LORD, am your God.35 "Do not act dishonestly in using measures of length or weight or capacity.36 You shall have a true scale and true weights, an honest ephah and an honest hin. I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.37 Be careful, then, to observe all my statutes and decrees. I am the LORD."
20 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Tell the Israelites: Anyone, whether an Israelite or an alien residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech shall be put to death. Let his fellow citizens stone him.3 I myself will turn against such a man and cut him off from the body of his people; for in giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.4 Even if his fellow citizens connive at such a man's crime of giving his offspring to Molech, and fail to put him to death,5 I myself will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who join him in his wanton worship of Molech.6 Should anyone turn to mediums and fortune-tellers and follow their wanton ways, I will turn against such a one and cut him off from his people.7 Sanctify yourselves, then, and be holy; for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.
8 Be careful, therefore, to observe what I, the LORD, who make you holy, have prescribed.9 "Anyone who curses his father or mother shall be put to death; since he has cursed his father or mother, he has forfeited his life.10 If a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.11 If a man disgraces his father by lying with his father's wife, both the man and his stepmother shall be put to death; they have forfeited their lives.12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; since they have committed an abhorrent deed, they have forfeited their lives.13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.14 If a man marries a woman and her mother also, the man and the two women as well shall be burned to death for their shameful conduct, so that such shamefulness may not be found among you.15 If a man has carnal relations with an animal, the man shall be put to death, and the animal shall be slain.16 If a woman goes up to any animal to mate with it, the woman and the animal shall be slain; let them both be put to death; their lives are forfeit.17 If a man consummates marriage with his sister or his half-sister, they shall be publicly cut off from their people for this shameful deed; the man shall pay the penalty of having had intercourse with his own sister.18 If a man lies in sexual intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period, both of them shall be cut off from their people, because they have laid bare the flowing fountain of her blood.19 You shall not have intercourse with your mother's sister or your father's sister; whoever does so shall pay the penalty of incest.20 If a man disgraces his uncle by having intercourse with his uncle's wife, the man and his aunt shall pay the penalty by dying childless.21 If a man marries his brother's wife and thus disgraces his brother, they shall be childless because of this incest.
22 "Be careful to observe all my statutes and all my decrees; otherwise the land where I am bringing you to dwell will vomit you out.23 Do not conform, therefore, to the customs of the nations whom I am driving out of your way, because all these things that they have done have filled me with disgust for them.24 But to you I have said: Their land shall be your possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am giving it to you as your own, I, the LORD, your God, who have set you apart from the other nations.25 You, too, must set apart, then, the clean animals from the unclean, and the clean birds from the unclean, so that you may not be contaminated with the uncleanness of any beast or bird or of any swarming creature in the land that I have set apart for you.26 To me, therefore, you shall be sacred; for I, the LORD, am sacred, I, who have set you apart from the other nations to be my own.27 "A man or a woman who acts as a medium or fortune-teller shall be put to death by stoning; they have no one but themselves to blame for their death."
21 1 The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to Aaron's sons, the priests, and tell them: None of you shall make himself unclean for any dead person among his people, 2 except for his nearest relatives, his mother or father, his son or daughter, his brother3 or his maiden sister, who is of his own family while she remains unmarried; for these he may make himself unclean.4 But for a sister who has married out of his family he shall not make himself unclean; this would be a profanation.5 "The priests shall not make bare the crown of the head, nor shave the edges of the beard, nor lacerate the body. 6 To their God they shall be sacred, and not profane his name; since they offer up the oblations of the LORD, the food of their God, they must be holy. 7 "A priest shall not marry a woman who has been a prostitute or has lost her honor, nor a woman who has been divorced by her husband; for the priest is sacred to his God.8 Honor him as sacred who offers up the food of your God; treat him as sacred, because I, the LORD, who have consecrated him, am sacred.9 "A priest's daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.
10 "The most exalted of the priests, upon whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the special vestments, shall not bare his head or rend his garments, 11 nor shall he go near any dead person. Not even for his father or mother may he thus become unclean12 or leave the sanctuary; otherwise he will profane the sanctuary of his God, for with the anointing oil upon him, he is dedicated to his God, to me, the LORD.13 "The priest shall marry a virgin.14 Not a widow or a woman who has been divorced or a woman who has lost her honor as a prostitute, but a virgin, taken from his own people, shall he marry;15 otherwise he will have base offspring among his people. I, the LORD, have made him sacred."
16 The LORD said to Moses,17 "Speak to Aaron and tell him: None of your descendants, of whatever generation, who has any defect shall come forward to offer up the food of his God.18 Therefore, he who has any of the following defects may not come forward: he who is blind, or lame, or who has any disfigurement or malformation,19 or a crippled foot or hand,20 or who is hump-backed or weakly or walleyed, or who is afflicted with eczema, ringworm or hernia.21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any such defect may draw near to offer up the oblations of the LORD; on account of his defect he may not draw near to offer up the food of his God.22 He may, however, partake of the food of his God: of what is most sacred as well as of what is sacred.23 Only, he may not approach the veil nor go up to the altar on account of his defect; he shall not profane these things that are sacred to me, for it is I, the LORD, who make them sacred."24 Moses, therefore, told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.
22 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Tell Aaron and his sons to respect the sacred offerings which the Israelites consecrate to me; else they will profane my holy name. I am the LORD.3 "Tell them: If any one of you, or of your descendants in any future generation, dares, while he is in a state of uncleanness, to draw near the sacred offerings which the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, such a one shall be cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.4 "No descendant of Aaron who is stricken with leprosy, or who suffers from a flow, may eat of these sacred offerings, unless he again becomes clean. Moreover, if anyone touches a person who has become unclean by contact with a corpse, or if anyone has had an emission of seed,5 or if anyone touches any swarming creature or any man whose uncleanness, of whatever kind it may be, is contagious,6 the one who touches such as these shall be unclean until evening and may not eat of the sacred portions until he has first bathed his body in water,7 then, when the sun sets, he again becomes clean. Only then may he eat of the sacred offerings, which are his food.8 He shall not make himself unclean by eating of any animal that has died of itself or has been killed by wild beasts. I am the LORD.9 "They shall keep my charge and not do wrong in this matter; else they will die for their profanation. I am the LORD who have consecrated them.
10 "Neither a lay person nor a priest's tenant or hired servant may eat of any sacred offering.11 But a slave whom a priest acquires by purchase or who is born in his house may eat of his food.12 A priest's daughter who is married to a layman may not eat of the sacred contributions.13 But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and, having no children, returns to her father's house, she may then eat of her father's food as in her youth. No layman, however, may eat of it.14 If such a one eats of a sacred offering through inadvertence, he shall make restitution to the priest for the sacred offering, with an increment of one fifth of the amount.15 The sacred offerings which the Israelites contribute to the LORD the priests shall not allow to be profaned16 nor in the eating of the sacred offering shall they bring down guilt that must be punished; it is I, the LORD, who make them sacred."
17 The LORD said to Moses,18 "Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites, and tell them: When anyone of the house of Israel, or any alien residing in Israel, who wishes to offer a sacrifice, brings a holocaust as a votive offering or as a free-will offering to the LORD,19 if it is to be acceptable, the ox or sheep or goat that he offers must be an unblemished male.20 You shall not offer one that has any defect, for such a one would not be acceptable for you.21 When anyone presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or the flock in fulfillment of a vow, or as a free-will offering, if it is to find acceptance, it must be unblemished; it shall not have any defect.22 One that is blind or crippled or maimed, or one that has a running sore or mange or ringworm, you shall not offer to the LORD; do not put such an animal on the altar as an oblation to the LORD.23 An ox or a sheep that is in any way ill-proportioned or stunted you may indeed present as a free-will offering, but it will not be acceptable as a votive offering.24 One that has its testicles bruised or crushed or torn out or cut off you shall not offer to the LORD. You shall neither do this in your own land25 nor receive from a foreigner any such animals to offer up as the food of your God; since they are deformed or defective, they will not be acceptable for you."26 The LORD said to Moses,27 "When an ox or a lamb or a goat is born, it shall remain with its mother for seven days; only from the eighth day onward will it be acceptable, to be offered as an oblation to the LORD.28 You shall not slaughter an ox or a sheep on one and the same day with its young.29 Whenever you offer a thanksgiving sacrifice to the LORD, so offer it that it may be acceptable for you;30 it must, therefore, be eaten on the same day; none of it shall be left over until the next day. I am the LORD.
31 "Be careful to observe the commandments which I, the LORD, give you,32 and do not profane my holy name; in the midst of the Israelites I, the LORD, must be held as sacred. It is I who made you sacred33 and led you out of the land of Egypt, that I, the LORD, might be your God."
23 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: The following are the festivals of the LORD, my feast days, which you shall celebrate with a sacred assembly.
3 "For six days work may be done; but the seventh day is the sabbath rest, a day for sacred assembly, on which you shall do no work. The sabbath shall belong to the LORD wherever you dwell.
4 "These, then, are the festivals of the LORD which you shall celebrate at their proper time with a sacred assembly.5 The Passover of the LORD falls on the fourteenth day of the first month, at the evening twilight.6 The fifteenth day of this month is the LORD'S feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.7 On the first of these days you shall hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work.8 On each of the seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD. Then on the seventh day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and do no sort of work."
9 The LORD said to Moses,10 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap your harvest, you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest,11 who shall wave the sheaf before the LORD that it may be acceptable for you. On the day after the sabbath the priest shall do this. 12 On this day, when your sheaf is waved, you shall offer to the LORD for a holocaust an unblemished yearling lamb.13 Its cereal offering shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD; and its libation shall be a fourth of a hin of wine.14 Until this day, when you bring your God this offering, you shall not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels. This shall be a perpetual statute for you and your descendants wherever you dwell.
15 "Beginning with the day after the sabbath, the day on which you bring the wave-offering sheaf, you shall count seven full weeks,16 and then on the day after the seventh week, the fiftieth day, you shall present the new cereal offering to the LORD. 17 For the wave offering of your first fruits to the LORD, you shall bring with you from wherever you live two loaves of bread made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour and baked with leaven.18 Besides the bread, you shall offer to the LORD a holocaust of seven unblemished yearling lambs, one young bull, and two rams, along with their cereal offering and libations, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the LORD.19 One male goat shall be sacrificed as a sin offering, and two yearling lambs as a peace offering.20 The priest shall wave the bread of the first fruits and the two lambs as a wave offering before the LORD; these shall be sacred to the LORD and belong to the priest.21 On this same day you shall by proclamation have a sacred assembly, and no sort of work may be done. This shall be a perpetual statute for you and your descendants wherever you dwell.22 "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not be so thorough that you reap the field to its very edge, nor shall you glean the stray ears of your grain. These things you shall leave for the poor and the alien. I, the LORD, am your God."
23 The LORD said to Moses,24 "Tell the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month you shall keep a sabbath rest, with a sacred assembly and with the trumpet blasts as a reminder;25 you shall then do no sort of work, and you shall offer an oblation to the LORD."
26 The LORD said to Moses,27 "The tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement, when you shall hold a sacred assembly and mortify yourselves and offer an oblation to the LORD.28 On this day you shall not do any work, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD, your God.29 Anyone who does not mortify himself on this day shall be cut off from his people,30 and if anyone does any work on this day, I will remove him from the midst of his people.31 This is a perpetual statute for you and your descendants wherever you dwell: you shall do no work,32 but shall keep a sabbath of complete rest and mortify yourselves. Beginning on the evening of the ninth of the month, you shall keep this sabbath of yours from evening to evening."
33 The LORD said to Moses,34 "Tell the Israelites: The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the LORD'S feast of Booths, which shall continue for seven days. 35 On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly, and you shall do no sort of work.36 For seven days you shall offer an oblation to the LORD, and on the eighth day you shall again hold a sacred assembly and offer an oblation to the LORD. On that solemn closing you shall do no sort of work.37 "These, therefore, are the festivals of the LORD on which you shall proclaim a sacred assembly, and offer as an oblation to the LORD holocausts and cereal offerings, sacrifices and libations, as prescribed for each day,38 in addition to those of the LORD'S sabbaths, your donations, your various votive offerings and the free-will offerings that you present to the LORD.39 "On the fifteenth day, then, of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate a pilgrim feast of the LORD for a whole week. The first and the eighth day shall be days of complete rest.40 On the first day you shall gather foliage from majestic trees, branches of palms and boughs of myrtles and of valley poplars, and then for a week you shall make merry before the LORD, your God. 41 By perpetual statute for you and your descendants you shall keep this pilgrim feast of the LORD for one whole week in the seventh month of the year.42 During this week every native Israelite among you shall dwell in booths,43 that your descendants may realize that, when I led the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, I made them dwell in booths. I, the LORD, am your God."44 Thus did Moses announce to the Israelites the festivals of the LORD.
24 1 The LORD said to Moses,2 "Order the Israelites to bring you clear oil of crushed olives for the light, so that you may keep lamps burning regularly.3 In the meeting tent, outside the veil that hangs in front of the commandments, Aaron shall set up the lamps to burn before the LORD regularly, from evening till morning. Thus, by a perpetual statute for you and your descendants,4 the lamps shall be set up on the pure gold lampstand, to burn regularly before the LORD.
5 "You shall take fine flour and bake it into twelve cakes, using two tenths of an ephah of flour for each cake.6 These you shall place in two piles, six in each pile, on the pure gold table before the LORD.7 On each pile put some pure frankincense, which shall serve as an oblation to the LORD, a token offering for the bread.8 Regularly on each sabbath day this bread shall be set out afresh before the LORD, offered on the part of the Israelites by an everlasting agreement.9 It shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who must eat it in a sacred place, since, as something most sacred among the various oblations to the LORD, it is his by perpetual right."
10 Among the Israelites there was a man born of an Israelite mother (Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan) and an Egyptian father.11 This man quarreled publicly with another Israelite and cursed and blasphemed the LORD'S name. So the people brought him to Moses,12 who kept him in custody till a decision from the LORD should settle the case for them.13 The LORD then said to Moses,14 "Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and when all who heard him have laid their hands on his head, let the whole community stone him.15 Tell the Israelites: Anyone who curses his God shall bear the penalty of his sin;16 whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall be put to death. The whole community shall stone him; alien and native alike must be put to death for blaspheming the LORD'S name.
17 "Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death;18 whoever takes the life of an animal shall make restitution of another animal. A life for a life!19 Anyone who inflicts an injury on his neighbor shall receive the same in return.20 Limb for limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth! The same injury that a man gives another shall be inflicted on him in return.21 Whoever slays an animal shall make restitution, but whoever slays a man shall be put to death.22 You shall have but one rule, for alien and native alike. I, the LORD, am your God."23 When Moses told this to the Israelites, they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him; they carried out the command that the LORD had given Moses.
25 1 The LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,2 "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, let the land, too, keep a sabbath for the LORD.3 For six years you may sow your field, and for six years prune your vineyard, gathering in their produce.4 But during the seventh year the land shall have a complete rest, a sabbath for the LORD, when you may neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.5 The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap, nor shall you pick the grapes of your untrimmed vines in this year of sabbath rest for the land. 6 While the land has its sabbath, all its produce will be food equally for you yourself and for your male and female slaves, for your hired help and the tenants who live with you,7 and likewise for your livestock and for the wild animals on your land.
8 "Seven weeks of years shall you count-- seven times seven years-- so that the seven cycles amount to forty-nine years.9 Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month let the trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout your land.10 This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one of you shall return to his own property, every one to his own family estate. 11 In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines.12 Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you may not eat of its produce, except as taken directly from the field.13 "In this year of jubilee, then, every one of you shall return to his own property.14 Therefore, when you sell any land to your neighbor or buy any from him, do not deal unfairly.15 On the basis of the number of years since the last jubilee shall you purchase the land from him; and so also, on the basis of the number of years for crops, shall he sell it to you.16 When the years are many, the price shall be so much the more; when the years are few, the price shall be so much the less. For it is really the number of crops that he sells you.17 Do not deal unfairly, then; but stand in fear of your God. I, the LORD, am your God.18 "Observe my precepts and be careful to keep my regulations, for then you will dwell securely in the land.19 The land will yield its fruit and you will have food in abundance, so that you may live there without worry.20 Therefore, do not say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not then sow or reap our crop?'21 I will bestow such blessings on you in the sixth year that there will then be crop enough for three years.22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will continue to eat from the old crop; and even into the ninth year, when the crop comes in, you will still have the old to eat from.
23 "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine, and you are but aliens who have become my tenants.24 Therefore, in every part of the country that you occupy, you must permit the land to be redeemed.25 When one of your countrymen is reduced to poverty and has to sell some of his property, his closest relative, who has the right to redeem it, may go and buy back what his kinsman has sold.26 If, however, the man has no relative to redeem his land, but later on acquires sufficient means to buy it back in his own name,27 he shall make a deduction from the price in proportion to the number of years since the sale, and then pay back the balance to the one to whom he sold it, so that he may thus regain his own property.28 But if he does not acquire sufficient means to buy back his land, what he has sold shall remain in the possession of the purchaser until the jubilee, when it must be released and returned to its original owner.29 "When someone sells a dwelling in a walled town, he has the right to buy it back during the time of one full year from its sale.30 But if such a house in a walled town has not been redeemed at the end of a full year, it shall belong in perpetuity to the purchaser and his descendants; nor shall it be released in the jubilee.31 However, houses in villages that are not encircled by walls shall be considered as belonging to the surrounding farm land; they may be redeemed at any time, and in the jubilee they must be released.32 "In levitical cities the Levites shall always have the right to redeem the town houses that are their property.33 Any town house of the Levites in their cities that had been sold and not redeemed, shall be released in the jubilee; for the town houses of the Levites are their hereditary property in the midst of the Israelites.34 Moreover, the pasture land belonging to their cities shall not be sold at all; it must always remain their hereditary property.
35 "When one of your fellow countrymen is reduced to poverty and is unable to hold out beside you, extend to him the privileges of an alien or a tenant, so that he may continue to live with you.36 Do not exact interest from your countryman either in money or in kind, but out of fear of God let him live with you.37 You are to lend him neither money at interest nor food at a profit.38 I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 "When, then, your countryman becomes so impoverished beside you that he sells you his services, do not make him work as a slave.40 Rather, let him be like a hired servant or like your tenant, working with you until the jubilee year,41 when he, together with his children, shall be released from your service and return to his kindred and to the property of his ancestors.42 Since those whom I brought out of the land of Egypt are servants of mine, they shall not be sold as slaves to any man.43 Do not lord it over them harshly, but stand in fear of your God.44 "Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you buy them from among the neighboring nations.45 You may also buy them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are born and reared in your land. Such slaves you may own as chattels,46 and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, making them perpetual slaves. But you shall not lord it harshly over any of the Israelites, your kinsmen.47 "When one of your countrymen is reduced to such poverty that he sells himself to a wealthy alien who has a permanent or a temporary residence among you, or to one of the descendants of an immigrant family,48 even after he has thus sold his services he still has the right of redemption; he may be redeemed by one of his own brothers,49 or by his uncle or cousin, or by some other relative or fellow clansman; or, if he acquires the means, he may redeem himself.50 With his purchaser he shall compute the years from the sale to the jubilee, distributing the sale price over these years as though he had been hired as a day laborer.51 The more such years there are, the more of the sale price he shall pay back as ransom;52 the fewer years there are left before the jubilee year, the more he has to his credit; in proportion to his years of service shall he pay his ransom.53 The alien shall treat him as a servant hired on an annual basis, and he shall not lord it over him harshly under your very eyes.54 If he is not thus redeemed, he shall nevertheless be released, together with his children, in the jubilee year.55 For to me the Israelites belong as servants; they are servants of mine, because I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I, the LORD, your God.
Lévitique (NAB) 17