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Leviticus 24

1Yahweh spoke to Moses: 2“Command the sons of Israel to bring you pure oil from beaten olives for the light, to keep a lamp burning regularly. 3Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, Aaron must tend it from evening to morning before Yahweh regularly. This is a lasting statute throughout your generations. 4He must tend the lamps on the clean lampstand before Yahweh regularly.

5“You must take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; each loaf must be two tenths of an ephah. 6You must place them in two rows, six in a row, on the clean table before Yahweh. 7You must put pure frankincense with each row. It will serve as a memorial portion for the bread, an offering by fire to Yahweh. 8Sabbath after Sabbath he must arrange it before Yahweh regularly, from the sons of Israel as a lasting covenant. 9It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who must eat it in a holy place, because it is most holy for him from Yahweh's offerings by fire, a lasting due.”

10The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian man, went out among the sons of Israel. The Israelite woman's son and an Israelite man fought in the camp. 11The Israelite woman's son blasphemed the Name and cursed. They brought him to Moses. His mother's name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan. 12They put him in custody so that a decision could be made clear to them by Yahweh's word.

13Yahweh spoke to Moses: 14“Take the one who cursed outside the camp. Everyone who heard him must lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation must stone him. 15Tell the sons of Israel: Anyone who curses his God will bear his sin. 16Anyone who blasphemes Yahweh's name must be put to death. The whole congregation must stone him. Resident foreigner and native-born alike must be put to death for blaspheming the Name.

17“Anyone who kills a human being must be put to death. 18Anyone who kills an animal must make restitution for it, life for life. 19If someone injures their neighbor, what they have done must be done to them: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury they inflict on another human being must be inflicted on them. 21Anyone who kills an animal must make restitution for it, but anyone who kills a human being must be put to death. 22You must have one standard of justice for resident foreigner and native-born alike, because I am Yahweh your God.”

23Moses spoke to the sons of Israel. They took the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. The sons of Israel did as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

Translation notes 6

24:2–4 — Regularly; clean furnishings. The lamps are tended from evening to morning. “Regularly” preserves that recurring service without requiring that every lamp burn through every daylight hour. The adjective for the lampstand and table can mean clean or pure. The draft does not supply “gold,” which these verses do not state.

24:5–9 — Bread and frankincense. Twelve loaves are arranged in two rows or stacks, six in each. Each loaf expressly has two tenths of the customary ephah measure. The frankincense serves as the memorial portion; the bread belongs to the priests to eat in a holy place. “With each row” is a contextual reading of a preposition that can also mean “on each row.”

24:10–12 — The Name. The narrative identifies the offender's Israelite mother and Egyptian father but does not state the cause of the fight or prescribe a penalty for his ancestry. “The Name” refers to Yahweh. The precise force of the verb translated “blasphemed” is disputed: it may involve pronouncing the name in a curse or attacking the name verbally. The draft does not make merely saying the name a settled explanation of the offense.

24:14–16 — Hands; judgment. Those who heard the curse lay their hands on the offender's head, and the congregation stones him. The text does not explain the gesture's mechanism here. “Bear his sin” includes liability and its consequences. Verse 16 makes the death penalty explicit and applies it to resident foreigner and native-born alike.

24:17–21 — Killing; life for life. Hebrew speaks of striking a human or animal “life”; the legal consequences concern a fatal blow. Restitution for an animal is distinguished from the human death penalty. The injury rule retains the bodily wording rather than replacing it with an unstated monetary schedule or a modern theory of punishment.

24:22 — One standard. The same legal judgment applies to resident foreigner and native-born within the stated case. This does not erase the different legal categories and rules found elsewhere in the book.