Study Desk

'No layman, however, is to eat the holy gift; a foreign resident with the priest or a hired worker shall not eat the holy gift.

'But if a priest buys a slave as his property with his money, that person may eat of it, and those who are born in his house may eat of his food.

'Also anything with its testicles squashed, crushed, torn off, or cut off, you shall not offer to the LORD, nor sacrifice in your land,

"When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it will be considered acceptable as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the LORD.

'Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the LORD for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine.

'You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread as a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD.

'Along with the bread you shall present seven one-year-old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD.

'The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering with two lambs before the LORD; they are to be holy to the LORD for the priest.

'On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.

'Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and branches of trees with thick branches and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.

"Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.

Then they put him in custody, waiting for Moses to give them a clear decision in accordance with the command of the LORD.

Then Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, and they brought the one who had cursed outside the camp, and stoned him with stones. So the sons of Israel did just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

'The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine; for you are only strangers and residents with Me.

'Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means among you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a resident, so that he may live with you.

'Do not take any kind of interest from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may live with you.

'Now if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave's service.

'He shall be with you as a hired worker, as if he were a foreign resident; he shall serve with you up to the year of jubilee.

'He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, so that he may return to the property of his forefathers.

'You shall not rule over him with severity, but are to revere your God.