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Numbers Chapter 15

Books of The Bible / Numbers

¹ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

² ‘Speak to the Israelites and say: “When you have arrived in the country where you are to live and which I am giving to you,

³ and you burn food as an offering to Yahweh either as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice, whether in payment of a vow, or as a voluntary gift, or on the occasion of one of your solemn feasts, from your herds and flocks as a smell pleasing to Yahweh:

⁴ the offerer will, as his personal gift to Yahweh, bring a cereal offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-quarter of a hin of oil.

⁵ You will also make a libation of wine, one-quarter of a hin to each lamb, in addition to the burnt offering or sacrifice.

⁶ For a ram, you will make a cereal offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil,

⁷ and a libation of one-third of a hin of wine as a smell pleasing to Yahweh.

⁸ If you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, in payment of a vow or as a communion sacrifice for Yahweh,

⁹ in addition to the animal you will offer a cereal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil,

¹⁰ and you will offer a libation of half a hin of wine, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yahweh.

¹¹ This will be done for every bull, every ram, every lamb or kid.

¹² Whatever the number of victims you intend to offer, you will do the same for each of them, however many there are.

¹³ “Every citizen of the country will act in this way whenever he offers food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yahweh;

¹⁴ and if an alien residing with you or with your descendants intends to offer food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yahweh, he will do as you do.

¹⁵ There will be one law for you, members of the community, and the resident alien alike, a law binding your descendants forever: before Yahweh you and the resident alien are no different.”

¹⁶ One law, one statute, will apply for you and the resident alien.” ‘

¹⁷ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

¹⁸ ‘Speak to the Israelites and say: “When you have entered the country to which I am bringing you,

¹⁹ you will set a portion aside for Yahweh when you eat that country’s bread.

²⁰ You will set one cake aside as the first-fruits of your dough; you will set this offering aside like the one set aside from your threshing.

²¹ For all future generations you will set a portion of your dough aside for Yahweh.

²² “If through inadvertence you fail in any of these orders which Yahweh has given to Moses

²³ (whatever orders Yahweh has given you or your descendants through Moses, from the day when Yahweh gave his orders),

²⁴ this is what must be done: “If it is an inadvertence on the part of the community, the community as a whole will offer a young bull as a burnt offering, as a smell pleasing to Yahweh, with the prescribed accompanying cereal offering and libation, and a he-goat as a sacrifice for sin.

²⁵ The priest will perform the rite of expiation for the entire community of Israelites, and they will be forgiven, since it was an inadvertence. Once they have brought their offering as food burnt for Yahweh, and have presented their sacrifice for sin before Yahweh to make amends for their inadvertence,

²⁶ the whole community of Israelites will be forgiven, as also the alien residing with them, since the entire people acted by inadvertence.

²⁷ “If it is an individual who has sinned by inadvertence, he will offer a yearling kid as a sacrifice for sin.

²⁸ The priest will perform the rite of expiation before Yahweh for the person who has gone astray owing to this sin of inadvertence and, expiation having been made for him, he will be forgiven;

²⁹ whether he is an Israelite citizen or a resident alien, you will have one law for anyone who sins by inadvertence.

³⁰ “But the individual who acts deliberately, be he citizen or alien, commits an outrage against Yahweh, and such a man will be outlawed from his people.

³¹ Since he has treated Yahweh’s word with contempt and has disobeyed his order, such a man will be outlawed absolutely and will bear the consequences of his guilt.” ‘

³² While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

³³ Those who caught him gathering wood brought him before Moses, Aaron and the whole community.

³⁴ He was kept in custody because the penalty he should undergo had not yet been fixed.

³⁵ Yahweh said to Moses, ‘This man must be put to death. The whole community will stone him outside the camp.’

³⁶ The whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him till he was dead, as Yahweh had ordered Moses.

³⁷ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

³⁸ ‘Speak to the Israelites and tell them, for all generations to come, to put tassels on the hems of their clothes and work a violet thread into the tassel at the hem.

³⁹ You will thus have a tassel, and the sight of it will remind you of all Yahweh’s orders and how you are to put them into practice, and not follow the dictates of your own heart and eyes, which have led you to be unfaithful.

⁴⁰ ‘This will remind you of all my orders; put them into practice, and you will be consecrated to your God.

⁴¹ I, Yahweh your God, have brought you out of Egypt, to be your God, I, Yahweh your God.’

Chapters From The Book of Numbers