Leviticus 24:1-14

1 The LORD said to Moses,

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

3 This is the lampstand that stands in the Tabernacle, in front of the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron must keep the lamps burning in the LORD ’s presence all night. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation.

4 Aaron and the priests must tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand continually in the LORD ’s presence.

5 “You must bake twelve flat loaves of bread from choice flour, using four quarts of flour for each loaf.

6 Place the bread before the LORD on the pure gold table, and arrange the loaves in two stacks, with six loaves in each stack.

7 Put some pure frankincense near each stack to serve as a representative offering, a special gift presented to the LORD .

8 Every Sabbath day this bread must be laid out before the LORD as a gift from the Israelites; it is an ongoing expression of the eternal covenant.

9 The loaves of bread will belong to Aaron and his descendants, who must eat them in a sacred place, for they are most holy. It is the permanent right of the priests to claim this portion of the special gifts presented to the LORD .”

10 One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father came out of his tent and got into a fight with one of the Israelite men.

11 During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the Name of the LORD with a curse. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan.

12 They kept the man in custody until the LORD ’s will in the matter should become clear to them.

13 Then the LORD said to Moses,

14 “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard the curse to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death.

Leviticus 24:1-14 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew in the Tent of Meeting, outside the inner curtain of the Testimony; see note on 16:13 .
• [b]. Hebrew of an ephah [4.4 liters].
• [c]. Hebrew the Name; also in 24:16b .