24
Taking care of the lamps
1 Yahweh also said to Moses/me,
2 “Command the Israeli people to continually bring to you clear oil made from pressed olives to burn in the lamps in the Sacred Tent, in order that those lamps will burn all the time.
3 Outside the curtain of the Very Holy Place, Aaron must take care of the lamps in my presence continually, in order that they will burn all during the night. That regulation must be obeyed forever.
4 Those lampstands that burn in my presence must be taken care of continually.
5 “Also, each week you must take some fine flour and bake twelve very big loaves of bread, using about four quarts/liters of flour for each loaf.
6 Put the loaves in two rows, with six loaves in each row, on the table covered with pure gold, in my presence.
7 Along each row, place in some gold cups some pure incense to be burned to be an offering to me instead of the bread.
8 New/Fresh loaves of bread must be put on the table each Sabbath day, to signify the agreement that will never end, that I have made with you Israeli people.
9 The bread that is taken off the table belongs to Aaron and his sons. They must eat it in a holy place, because it is a very holy part of the offerings that are given to me by being burned.”
An example of fair punishment
10-11 There was a man whose mother’s name was Shelomith; she was an Israeli whose father was Dibri from the tribe of Dan. And that man’s father was from Egypt. One day that man and another Israeli man started to fight inside the camp. And while they were fighting, that man cursed Yahweh [MTY].
12 So the Israeli people seized him and guarded him until they could find out what Yahweh would reveal to them that they should do to that man.
13 Then Yahweh said to Moses/me,
14 “Tie up and take outside the camp the man who has cursed me. There all those who heard what he said must put their hands on his head to indicate that he is guilty, and then all the people must kill him by throwing stones at him.
15 Tell the Israelis, ‘If anyone curses me, he must ◄endure the consequences/be punished►.
16 So anyone who curses me [MTY] must be executed. All the people must throw stones at him. It does not matter if he is a foreigner or an Israeli citizen; anyone who curses me must be executed.’
17 “Also, If anyone murders another person, he must be executed.
18 And anyone who kills another person’s animal must give that person a live animal to replace the one that he killed.
19 And if one person injures another person, the injured person is allowed to injure the person who injured him in the same way:
20 If someone breaks one of another person’s bones, that person is allowed to break one of the bones of the person who injured him. If someone gouges out an eye of another person, that person is allowed to gouge out the eye of the person who injured him. If someone knocks out the tooth of another person, that person is allowed to knock out one of his teeth. What is done to the offender must be the same as what he did to the other person.
21 Whoever kills another person’s animal must give that person a live animal to replace the one that he killed, but anyone who murders another person must be executed.
22 That law applies to you Israelis and and also to the foreigners who live among you; I, Yahweh your God am the one who has commanded it.”
23 Then Moses/I told the Israelis what they must do to the man who cursed Yahweh, so they took the man outside the camp and killed him by throwing stones at him. They did what Yahweh commanded Moses/me to tell them to do.