The Living Bible (40 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
The Lord also told Moses to tell the people of Israel, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. You must respect your mothers and fathers, and obey my Sabbath law, for I am the Lord your God.
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Do not make or worship idols, for I am Jehovah your God.
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“When you sacrifice a peace offering to the Lord, offer it correctly so that it will be accepted:
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Eat it the same day you offer it, or the next day at the latest; any remaining until the third day must be burned.
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For any of it eaten on the third day is repulsive to me and will not be accepted.
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If you eat it on the third day, you are guilty, for you profane the holiness of Jehovah, and you shall be excommunicated from Jehovah’s people.
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“When you harvest your crops, don’t reap the corners of your fields, and don’t pick up stray grains of wheat from the ground.
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It is the same with your grape crop—don’t strip every last piece of fruit from the vines, and don’t pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and for those traveling through, for I am Jehovah your God.
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“You must not steal nor lie nor defraud.
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You must not swear to a falsehood, thus bringing reproach upon the name of your God, for I am Jehovah.
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“You shall not rob nor oppress anyone, and you shall pay your hired workers promptly. If something is due them, don’t even keep it overnight.
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“You must not curse the deaf nor trip up a blind man as he walks. Fear your God; I am Jehovah!
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“Judges must always be just in their sentences, not noticing whether a person is poor or rich; they must always be perfectly fair.
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“Don’t gossip. Don’t falsely accuse your neighbor of some crime,
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for I am Jehovah.
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“Don’t hate your brother. Rebuke anyone who sins; don’t let him get away with it, or you will be equally guilty.
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Don’t seek vengeance. Don’t bear a grudge; but love your neighbor as yourself, for I am Jehovah.
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“Obey my laws: Do not mate your cattle with a different kind; don’t sow your field with two kinds of seed; don’t wear clothes made of half wool and half linen.
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“If a man seduces a slave girl
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who is engaged to be married, they shall be tried in a court but not put to death, because she is not free.
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The man involved shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Tabernacle; the offering shall be a ram.
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The priest shall make atonement with the ram for the sin the man has committed, and it shall be forgiven him.
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“When you enter the land and have planted all kinds of fruit trees, do not eat the first three crops, for they are considered ceremonially defiled.
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And the fourth year the entire crop shall be devoted to the Lord, and shall be given to the Lord in praise to him.
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Finally, in the fifth year, the crop is yours.
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“I am Jehovah your God! You must not eat meat with undrained blood nor use fortune-telling or witchcraft.
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“You must not trim off your hair on your temples or clip the edges of your beard, as the heathen do.
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You shall not cut yourselves nor put tattoo marks upon yourselves in connection with funeral rites; I am the Lord.
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“Do not violate your daughter’s sanctity by making her a prostitute, lest the land become full of enormous wickedness.
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“Keep my Sabbath laws and reverence my Tabernacle, for I am the Lord.
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“Do not defile yourselves by consulting mediums and wizards, for I am Jehovah your God.
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“You shall give due honor and respect to the elderly, in the fear of God. I am Jehovah.
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“Do not take advantage of foreigners in your land; do not wrong them.
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They must be treated like any other citizen; love them as yourself, for remember that you too were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.
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“You must be impartial in judgment. Use accurate measurements—lengths, weights, and volumes—and give full measure, for I am Jehovah your God who brought you from the land of Egypt.
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You must heed all of my commandments and ordinances, carefully obeying them, for I am Jehovah.”
The Lord gave Moses these further instructions for the people of Israel:
“Anyone—whether an Israelite or a foreigner living among you—who sacrifices his child as a burnt offering to Molech shall without fail be stoned by his peers.
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And I myself will turn against that man and cut him off from all his people, because he has given his child to Molech, thus making my Tabernacle
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unfit for me to live in, and insulting my holy name.
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And if the people of the land pretend they do not know what the man has done and refuse to put him to death,
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then I myself will set my face against that man and his family and cut him off, along with all others who turn to other gods than me.
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“I will set my face against anyone who consults mediums and wizards instead of me and I will cut that person off from his people.
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So sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
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You must obey all of my commandments, for I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
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“Anyone who curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death—for he has cursed his own flesh and blood.
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“If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both the man and woman shall be put to death.
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If a man sleeps with his father’s wife, he has defiled what is his father’s; both the man and the woman must die, for it is their own fault.
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And if a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both shall be executed: they have brought it upon themselves by defiling each other.
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The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have brought it upon themselves.
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If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman and with her mother, it is a great evil. All three shall be burned alive to wipe out wickedness from among you.
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“If a man has sexual intercourse with an animal, he shall be executed and the animal killed.
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If a woman has sexual intercourse with an animal, kill the woman and the animal, for they deserve their punishment.
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“If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, it is a shameful thing, and they shall publicly be cut off from the people of Israel. He shall bear his guilt.
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If a man has sexual intercourse with a woman during her period of menstruation, both shall be excommunicated, for he has uncovered the source of her flow, and she has permitted it.
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“Sexual intercourse is outlawed between a man and his maiden aunt—whether the sister of his mother or of his father—for they are near of kin; they shall bear their guilt.
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If a man has intercourse with his uncle’s wife, he has taken what belongs to his uncle; their punishment is that they shall bear their sin and die childless.
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If a man marries his brother’s wife,
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this is impurity; for he has taken what belongs to his brother, and they shall be childless.
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“You must obey all of my laws and ordinances so that I will not throw you out of your new land.
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You must not follow the customs of the nations I cast out before you, for they do all these things I have warned you against; that is the reason I abhor them.
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I have promised you their land; I will give it to you to possess it. It is a land ‘flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God who has made a distinction between you and the people of other nations.
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“You shall therefore make a distinction between the birds and animals I have given you permission to eat and those you may not eat. You shall not contaminate yourselves and make yourselves hateful to me by eating any animal or bird which I have forbidden, though the land teem with them.
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You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from all other peoples to be mine.
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“A medium or a wizard—whether man or woman—shall surely be stoned to death. They have caused their own doom.”
The Lord said to Moses: “Tell the priests never to defile themselves by touching a dead person,
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unless it is a near relative—a mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or unmarried
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sister for whom he has special responsibility since she has no husband.
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For the priest is a leader among his people, and he may not ceremonially defile himself as an ordinary person can.
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“The priests shall not clip bald spots in their hair or beards, nor cut their flesh.
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They shall be holy unto their God and shall not dishonor and profane his name; otherwise they will be unfit to make food offerings by fire to the Lord their God.
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A priest shall not marry a prostitute, nor a woman of another tribe, and he shall not marry a divorced woman, for he is a holy man of God.
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The priest is set apart to offer the sacrifices of your God; he is holy, for I, the Lord who sanctifies you, am holy.
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The daughter of any priest who becomes a prostitute, thus violating her father’s holiness as well as her own, shall be burned alive.
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“The High Priest—anointed with the special anointing oil and wearing the special garments—must not let his hair hang loose in mourning, nor tear his clothing,
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nor be in the presence of any dead person—not even his father or mother.
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He shall not leave the sanctuary when on duty,
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nor treat my Tabernacle like an ordinary house, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is upon him; I am Jehovah.
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He must marry a virgin.
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He may not marry a widow, nor a woman who is divorced, nor a prostitute. She must be a virgin from his own tribe, for he must not be the father of children of mixed blood—half priestly and half ordinary.”
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And the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron that any of his descendants from generation to generation who have any bodily defect may not offer the sacrifices to God.
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For instance, if a man is blind or lame, or has a broken nose or any extra fingers or toes,
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or has a broken foot or hand,
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or has a humped back, or is a dwarf, or has a defect in his eye, or has pimples or scabby skin, or has imperfect testicles—
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although he is a descendant of Aaron—he is not permitted to offer the fire sacrifices to the Lord because of his physical defect.
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However, he shall be fed with the food of the priests from the offerings sacrificed to God, both from the holy and most holy offerings.
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But he shall not go in behind the veil, nor come near the altar, because of the physical defect; this would defile my sanctuary, for it is Jehovah who sanctifies it.”
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So Moses gave these instructions to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel.