Leviticus 24

EasyEnglish Bible

Rules about oil and the bread that the people give to the Lord

24 The Lord said to Moses, ² ‘Tell Israel's people that they must bring to you the best oil. This will cause the light to burn all the time. ³ Aaron must put more oil in the lamp from evening to morning in front of the Lord. The lamp is outside the curtain. That curtain is in the Holy Place. The light must never go out. This rule is for now and for all time to come. ⁴ The lamps on the gold lampstand must burn always in front of the Lord.^[a]

⁵ The people must bake 12 loaves of bread. They must use the best flour. They must weigh the flour for each loaf. They must use two tenths (2/10) of an ephah (4 litres). ⁶ They must put the loaves on a table in two rows in front of the Lord. There must be six loaves in each row. ⁷ They must put incense near each row. They must burn the incense as a gift to the Lord instead of the bread. ⁸ They must put the bread on the table every Sabbath. It is a covenant between Israel's people and the Lord. ⁹ The bread is for Aaron and for his sons. They must eat it in a holy place. It is their holy part of the burnt offering to the Lord.’

The story of a man who said bad things about the Lord

¹⁰ There was a man. His mother was an Israelite and his father was a man from Egypt. The man had a quarrel with an Israelite man. ¹¹ The Israelite woman's son said bad things about God. The people took him to Moses. (The name of the mother was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri from the family of Dan.) ¹² They locked the man up. The Lord told them what to do with him.

¹³ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁴ ‘Take the man outside the camp. All the people who heard him speak must put a hand on him. All the people must throw stones at him until he is dead. ¹⁵ Tell Israel's people, “It is a sin if any man says bad things about God's name. ¹⁶ He must die. All the people must throw stones at him until he is dead.” You must kill anyone who says bad things about the Lord's name. They may be a foreigner or an Israelite. You must kill them.

¹⁷ If any man kills another man you must kill him. ¹⁸ A man might kill an animal that belongs to another man. Then he must give an animal that is alive to the man. You must give a living animal if you take a living animal's life. ¹⁹ If a man hurts another person, you must punish him as he deserves. Hurt him in the same way that he has hurt the other person. ²⁰ If he has broken one of the person's bones, break one of his bones. If he hurt the person's eye, hurt his eye. If he has broken a person's tooth, break his tooth. ²¹ A man might hit an animal so that it dies. That man must give back an animal that is alive. But if he kills a man, you must punish him with death. ²² This rule is for all the people. It is the same rule for Israelites and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.’

²³ Moses spoke to Israel's people. A man had said bad things about God. They took him outside the camp. They threw stones at him until he died. Israel's people did as the Lord had told Moses.