Leviticus 24:1-9

The Oil for the Lamps

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹

2 “Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

3 Outside the veil of the Testimony ^[a] in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps continually before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come.

4 He shall tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD continually.

The Showbread

5 You are also to take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf, ^{[b] 2}

6 and set them in two rows—six per row—on the table of pure gold before the LORD.

7 And you are to place pure frankincense near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion for the bread, a food offering to the LORD.

8 Every Sabbath day the bread is to be set out before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites as a permanent covenant.

9 It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place; for it is to him a most holy part of the food offerings to the LORD—his portion forever.”

Leviticus 24:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 24

This chapter treats of the oil for the lamps, and the ordering of them, Le 24:1-4; of the making of the shewbread cakes, and the setting of them on the table, Le 24:5-9; and an Israelite having blasphemed the name of the Lord, and inquiry being made what should be done to him, he, and so any other person guilty of the same, is ordered to be stoned to death, Le 24:10-16; on occasion of which several laws are repeated concerning killing a man or a beast, or doing injury to any man, Le 24:17-23.

Cross References

• 1. (Exodus 27:20–21)
• 2. (Exodus 25:23–30; Exodus 37:10–16)

Footnotes

• [a]. The Testimony refers to the stone tablets in the ark of the covenant inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
• [b]. Two-tenths of an ephah is approximately 4 dry quarts or 4.4 liters (probably about 5.1 pounds or 2.3 kilograms of flour).