Chapter 24

T¹hen the LORD said to Moses, ²“Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. ³Outside the veil of the Testimony 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. ⁴He shall tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD continually.

Y⁵ou are also to take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf, ⁶and set them in two rows — six per row — on the table of pure gold before the LORD. ⁷And 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. ⁸Every Sabbath day the bread is to be set out before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites as a permanent covenant. ⁹It 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.”

N¹⁰ow the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. ¹¹The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹²They placed him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.

¹³Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁴“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him. ¹⁵And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin. ¹⁶Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

A¹⁷nd if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death. ¹⁸Whoever kills an animal must make restitution — life for life. ¹⁹If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: ²⁰fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him. ²¹Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. ²²You are to have the same standard of law for the foreign resident and the native; for I am the LORD your God.’”

²³Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses.