Old Testament
Leviticus 24
Light, Bread, and Holy Justice
Overview
Leviticus 24 moves from sacred ritual — the perpetual flame of the menorah and the weekly renewal of the Bread of the Presence — to solemn covenant law, as a concrete case of blasphemy against the divine Name occasions rulings on the inviolability of that Name and the principle of proportional justice binding equally on Israelite and foreigner alike.
Passages
Study Resources
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Leviticus 24
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 3Outside of the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure gold lamp stand before Yahweh continually.
5“You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenths of an ephah shall be in one cake. 6You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure gold table before Yahweh. 7You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 8Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually. It is an everlasting covenant on the behalf of the children of Israel. 9It shall be for Aaron and his sons. They shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire by a perpetual statute.”
10The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp. 11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12They put him in custody until Yahweh’s will should be declared to them. 13Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 14“Bring him who cursed out of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name.
17“‘He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death. 18He who strikes an animal mortally shall make it good, life for life. 19If anyone injures his neighbor, it shall be done to him as he has done: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. It shall be done to him as he has injured someone. 21He who kills an animal shall make it good; and he who kills a man shall be put to death. 22You shall have one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born; for I am Yahweh your God.’”
23Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.