Bible Reading Plan
February 4
Leviticus 24-27
Chapter 24
The Lamp and the Bread of the Sanctuary
1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Command the sons of Israel that they bring to you clear oil from beaten
olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually.
3 “Outside the veil of testimony in the tent of meeting, Aaron shall keep
it in order from evening to morning before the Lord continually; it shall be
a perpetual statute throughout your generations.
4 “He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure gold lampstand before
the Lord continually.
5 “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths
of an ephah shall be in each cake.
6 “You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table
before the Lord.
7 “You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial
portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord.
8 “Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually;
it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel.
9 “It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy
place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his
portion forever.”
10 Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out
among the sons of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel
struggled with each other in the camp.
11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed. So they brought
him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri,
of the tribe of Dan.)
12 They put him in custody so that the command of the Lord might be made
clear to them.
13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
14 “Bring the one who has cursed outside the camp, and let all who heard
him lay their hands on his head; then let all the congregation stone him.
15 “You shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone curses
his God, then he will bear his sin.
16 ‘Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely
be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as
well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
“
An Eye for an Eye”
17 ‘If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be
put to death.
18 ‘The one who takes the life of an animal shall make it good, life
for life.
19 ‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be
done to him:
20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured
a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.
21 ‘Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one
who kills a man shall be put to death.
22 ‘There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger
as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.’ ”
23 Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed
outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the sons of Israel did, just
as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Chapter 25
The Sabbatic Year and Year of Jubilee
1 The Lord then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into
the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the Lord.
3 ‘Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune
your vineyard and gather in its crop,
4 but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath
to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.
5 ‘Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes
of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year.
6 ‘All of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself,
and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident,
those who live as aliens with you.
7 ‘Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all
its crops to eat.
8 ‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven
times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years,
namely, forty-nine years.
9 ‘You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of
the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through
your land.
10 ‘You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release
through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and
each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return
to his family.
11 ‘You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor
reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines.
12 ‘For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops
out of the field.
13 ‘On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property.
14 ‘If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend’s
hand, you shall not wrong one another.
15 ‘Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy
from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of
crops.
16 ‘In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its
price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price,
for it is a number of crops he is selling to you.
17 ‘So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God;
for I am the Lord your God.
18 ‘You shall thus observe My statutes and keep My judgments, so as to
carry them out, that you may live securely on the land.
19 ‘Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill
and live securely on it.
20 ‘But if you say, “What are we going to eat on the seventh year
if we do not sow or gather in our crops?”
21 then I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will
bring forth the crop for three years.
22 ‘When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things
from the crop, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in.
The Law of Redemption
23 ‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is
Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.
24 ‘Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the
redemption of the land.
25 ‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell
part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his
relative has sold.
26 ‘Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to
find sufficient for its redemption,
27 then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance
to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property.
28 ‘But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself,
then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year
of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his
property.
29 ‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his
redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of
redemption lasts a full year.
30 ‘But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year,
then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser
throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee.
31 ‘The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall
shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert
in the jubilee.
32 ‘As for cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right
of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession.
33 ‘What, therefore, belongs to the Levites may be redeemed and a house
sale in the city of this possession reverts in the jubilee, for the houses
of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.
34 ‘But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is
their perpetual possession.
Of Poor Countrymen
35 ‘Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means
with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a
sojourner, that he may live with you.
36 ‘Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that
your countryman may live with you.
37 ‘You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain.
38 ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt
to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 ‘If a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that
he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave’s service.
40 ‘He shall be with you as a hired man, as if he were a sojourner; he
shall serve with you until the year of jubilee.
41 ‘He shall then go out from you, he and his sons with him, and shall
go back to his family, that he may return to the property of his forefathers.
42 ‘For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt;
they are not to be sold in a slave sale.
43 ‘You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your
God.
44 ‘As for your male and female slaves whom you may have—you may
acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you.
45 ‘Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens
among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with
you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession.
46 ‘You may even bequeath them to your sons after you, to receive as a
possession; you can use them as permanent slaves. But in respect to your countrymen,
the sons of Israel, you shall not rule with severity over one another.
Of Redeeming a Poor Man
47 ‘Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes
sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as
to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants
of a stranger’s family,
48 then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers
may redeem him,
49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or one of his blood
relatives from his family may redeem him; or if he prospers, he may redeem
himself.
50 ‘He then with his purchaser shall calculate from the year when he sold
himself to him up to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale shall correspond
to the number of years. It is like the days of a hired man that he shall be with
him.
51 ‘If there are still many years, he shall refund part of his purchase
price in proportion to them for his own redemption;
52 and if few years remain until the year of jubilee, he shall so calculate
with him. In proportion to his years he is to refund the amount for his redemption.
53 ‘Like a man hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not
rule over him with severity in your sight.
54 ‘Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out
in the year of jubilee, he and his sons with him.
55 ‘For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I
brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Chapter 26
Blessings of Obedience
1 ‘You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for
yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone
in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.
2 ‘You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord.
3 ‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry
them out,
4 then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield
its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.
5 ‘Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and
grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to
the full and live securely in your land.
6 ‘I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with
no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land,
and no sword will pass through your land.
7 ‘But you will chase your enemies and they will fall before you by the
sword;
8 five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand,
and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.
9 ‘So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you,
and I will confirm My covenant with you.
10 ‘You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the
new.
11 ‘Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not
reject you.
12 ‘I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
13 ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt
so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and
made you walk erect.
Penalties of Disobedience
14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments,
15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances
so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,
16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror,
consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to
pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will
eat it
up.
17 ‘I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before
your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee
when no one is pursuing you.
18 ‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you
seven times more for your sins.
19 ‘I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your
sky like iron and your earth like bronze.
20 ‘Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield
its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.
21 ‘If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to
obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
22 ‘I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave
you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your
roads lie deserted.
23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility
against Me,
24 then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike
you seven times for your sins.
25 ‘I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for
the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence
among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
26 ‘When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread
in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that
you will eat and not be satisfied.
27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility
against Me,
28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will
punish you seven times for your sins.
29 ‘Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your
daughters you will eat.
30 ‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense
altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall
abhor you.
31 ‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries
desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.
32 ‘I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in
it will be appalled over it.
33 ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out
a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste.
34 ‘Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation,
while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy
its sabbaths.
35 ‘All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did
not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
36 ‘As for those of you who may be left, I will also bring weakness into
their hearts in the lands of their enemies. And the sound of a driven leaf will
chase them, and even when no one is pursuing they will flee as though from
the sword, and they will fall.
37 ‘They will therefore stumble over each other as if running from the
sword, although no one is pursuing; and you will have no strength to stand
up before your enemies.
38 ‘But you will perish among the nations, and your enemies’ land
will consume you.
39 ‘So those of you who may be left will rot away because of their iniquity
in the lands of your enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their forefathers
they will rot away with them.
40 ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers,
in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting
with hostility against Me—
41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land
of their enemies—or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that
they then make amends for their iniquity,
42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also
My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will
remember
the land.
43 ‘For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its
sabbaths while it is made desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making
amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul
abhorred My statutes.
44 ‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I
will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking
My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.
45 ‘But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom
I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might
be their God. I am the Lord.’ ”
46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws which the Lord established
between Himself and the sons of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Chapter
27
Rules concerning Valuations
1 Again, the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man makes
a difficult vow, he shall be valued according to your valuation of persons belonging
to the Lord.
3 ‘If your valuation is of the male from twenty years even to sixty years
old, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel
of the sanctuary.
4 ‘Or if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.
5 ‘If it be from five years even to twenty years old then your valuation
for the male shall be twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels.
6 ‘But if they are from a month even up to five years old, then your valuation
shall be five shekels of silver for the male, and for the female your valuation
shall be three shekels of silver.
7 ‘If they are from sixty years old and upward, if it is a male, then your
valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
8 ‘But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be placed before
the priest and the priest shall value him; according to the means of the
one who vowed, the priest shall value him.
9 ‘Now if it is an animal of the kind which men can present as an offering
to the Lord, any such that one gives to the Lord shall be holy.
10 ‘He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad
for a good; or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute
shall become holy.
11 ‘If, however, it is any unclean animal of the kind which men do not
present as an offering to the Lord, then he shall place the animal before the
priest.
12 ‘The priest shall value it as either good or bad; as you, the priest,
value it, so it shall be.
13 ‘But if he should ever wish to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth
of it to your valuation.
14 ‘Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest
shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall
stand.
15 ‘Yet if the one who consecrates it should wish to redeem his house,
then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may be
his.
16 ‘Again, if a man consecrates to the Lord part of the fields of his own
property, then your valuation shall be proportionate to the seed needed for
it: a homer of barley seed at fifty shekels of silver.
17 ‘If he consecrates his field as of the year of jubilee, according to
your valuation it shall stand.
18 ‘If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest
shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left
until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation.
19 ‘If the one who consecrates it should ever wish to redeem the field,
then he shall add one-fifth of your valuation price to it, so that it may pass
to him.
20 ‘Yet if he will not redeem the field, but has sold the field to another
man, it may no longer be redeemed;
21 and when it reverts in the jubilee, the field shall be holy to the Lord,
like a field set apart; it shall be for the priest as his property.
22 ‘Or if he consecrates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which
is not a part of the field of his own property,
23 then the priest shall calculate for him the amount of your valuation up
to the year of jubilee; and he shall on that day give your valuation as holy
to the Lord.
24 ‘In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom
he bought it, to whom the possession of the land belongs.
25 ‘Every valuation of yours, moreover, shall be after the shekel of
the sanctuary. The shekel shall be twenty gerahs.
26 ‘However, a firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn belongs
to the Lord, no man may consecrate it; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s.
27 ‘But if it is among the unclean animals, then he shall redeem it according
to your valuation and add to it one-fifth of it; and if it is not redeemed, then
it shall be sold according to your valuation.
28 ‘Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the Lord out of
all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall
not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the
Lord.
29 ‘No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed;
he shall surely be put to death.
30 ‘Thus all the tithe of the land, of the seed of the land or of the
fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.
31 ‘If, therefore, a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he shall add
to it one-fifth of it.
32 ‘For every tenth part of herd or flock, whatever passes under the
rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord.
33 ‘He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he
exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall
become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’ ”
34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the sons
of Israel at Mount Sinai.
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)