Leviticus 24 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1445 BC, at Sinai, with the tent of meeting newly in operation
Location
The tent of meeting for the first half, and the camp itself for the trial that follows
Audience
Israel at Sinai, hearing both worship instructions and a legal precedent set in their presence
Situation
God gives instructions for the lamps that burn continually in the holy place and for the twelve loaves set out weekly on the golden table. The chapter then recounts a real incident in which a man of mixed Egyptian and Israelite parentage blasphemes during a fight and is executed, after which God states the principle of matching penalty to injury.
Key Background
The twelve loaves stand for the twelve tribes kept perpetually in God's presence, and the priests ate them at the end of each week, an episode David later invoked when his men were hungry. The blasphemy case is one of a handful of moments where Moses holds a person in custody while waiting for a ruling, showing that Israelite law developed partly through actual cases rather than only through dictation. The eye for eye formula, familiar from earlier Near Eastern codes, functioned as a cap on revenge, limiting compensation to the value of the harm instead of licensing escalation.
spoke to Moses and said,
"Command the Israelites to bring you for the lamp, so that a flame can be kept burning
Outside the that the the in the Aaron will tend it from evening until morning in Yahweh's presence — constantly. This is a for all your generations to come.
He will arrange the lamps on the in Yahweh's presence — constantly.
"You are to take and bake from it — each loaf made with of a of
Then arrange them in two rows — six in each row — on the in Yahweh's presence.
Place alongside each row — it will serve as a for the bread, a to Yahweh.
Every without fail, Aaron will arrange the bread in Yahweh's presence — an ongoing commitment from the Israelites, a
It to Aaron and his sons, and they will eat it in a that to because it is a for out of Yahweh's fire offerings. This is a permanent right.
Now, the son of an — his father was an Egyptian man — went out among the Israelites. A fight broke out in the camp between this man and a
The son of the Israelite woman the with and So they brought him to Moses. (His mother's was daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan.)
They in waiting for Yahweh to make his clear.
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses:
"Bring the one who cursed the Everyone who heard must their on and then the entire community will
"Say to the Israelites: Anyone who their with will the of their
And anyone who the of with must be put to death — the entire community will stone them. Whether they are an or a native-born Israelite, when they speak the with they must be put to death.
"If anyone the of being, they must be put to death.
Anyone who kills someone's animal must — a for a
If anyone their — whatever they did will be done to them:
a for a an for an a for a Whatever injury they inflicted on the other person will be inflicted on them.
Anyone who kills an animal must it, but anyone who kills a human being must be put to death.
You will have of for and native-born alike. I am
Moses told this to the Israelites, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites out what had Moses.