Study Desk

"A priest serves God in a special way, so he must not marry a woman who has had sexual relations with any other man. He must not marry a prostitute or a divorced woman.

A priest serves God in a special way. So you must treat him in a special way, because he carries holy things. He brings the holy bread to me, and I am holy. I am the Lord , and I make you holy.

"The high priest was chosen from among his brothers. The anointing oil was poured on his head. In this way he was chosen for the special job of being high priest. He was chosen to wear the special clothes, so he must not do things to show his sadness in public. He must not let his hair grow wild. He must not tear his clothes.

He is from the family of priests, so he can eat the holy bread. He can also eat the very holy bread.

So Moses told these things to Aaron, Aaron's sons, and all the Israelites.

"Tell Aaron and his sons: The gifts that the Israelites bring to me become holy. They belong to me, so you priests must show respect for these things. If you don't, you will show that you don't respect my holy name. I am the Lord .

"The Israelites will bring offerings to the Lord . These offerings become holy, so the priests must not let them be used in a wrong way.

"You must not take animals from foreigners as sacrifices to your God. The animals might have been hurt in some way. They might have something wrong with them, so they will not be accepted."

Why? So all your descendants will know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters during the time I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."

So Moses told the Israelites about all the special meetings to honor the Lord .

The Israelite woman's son began cursing, using the Lord's name in a bad way, so the people brought him to Moses. (The name of the man's mother was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, from the tribe of Dan.)

Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the man who cursed to a place outside the camp. Then they killed him with stones. So the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses.

If there are many years before the next Jubilee, the price will be high. If the years are few, the price will be lower. So your neighbor is really only selling a number of crops to you. At the next Jubilee, the land will again belong to that family.

"The land really belongs to me, so you cannot sell it permanently. You are only foreigners and travelers living on my land with me.

But if this first owner cannot find enough money to buy the land back, it will stay in the hands of the one who bought it until the year of Jubilee. Then during that special celebration, the land will go back to the first owner's family. So the property will again belong to the right family.

Towns without walls around them will be treated like open fields. So houses built in these small towns will go back to the first owners at the time of Jubilee.

"If anyone from your own country becomes so poor that they must sell themselves to you, don't make them work like slaves.

You may even pass these foreign slaves on to your children after you die so that they will belong to them. They will be your slaves forever. You may make slaves of these foreigners. But you must not be a cruel master over your own brothers, the Israelites.

"Maybe a foreigner or visitor among you becomes rich. Or maybe someone from your own country becomes so poor that they sell themselves as slaves to a foreigner living among you or to a member of a foreigner's family.

I will be against you, so your enemies will defeat you. These enemies will hate you and rule over you. You will run away even when no one is chasing you.