Study Desk

'Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves cast metal gods; I am the LORD your God.

'And everyone who eats it will bear the consequences for his guilt, because he has profaned the holy thing of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from his people.

'And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.

'Now if a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave acquired for another man, but who has in no way been redeemed nor given her freedom, there shall be punishment; they shall not, however, be put to death, because she was not free.

'The priest shall also make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the LORD for his sin which he has committed, and the sin which he has committed will be forgiven him.

'Now when you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. For three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten.

'But in the fifth year you shall eat its fruit, so that its yield may increase for you; I am the LORD your God.

'You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.

'The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the LORD your God.

'As for the person who turns to mediums and to spiritists, to play the prostitute with them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

'You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.

'You shall also not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for such a one has uncovered his blood relative; they will bear their guilt.

'Furthermore, you shall not follow the customs of the nation which I am going to drive out before you, because they did all these things; therefore I have felt disgust for them.

'You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have distinguished for you as unclean.

'So you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have singled you out from the peoples to be Mine.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: 'No one shall defile himself for a dead person among his people,

except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother,

also for his virgin sister who is near to him because she has not had a husband; for her, he may defile himself.

'They shall not take a woman who is a prostitute and profaned, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for he is holy to his God.

'You shall consecrate him, therefore, because he offers the food of your God. He shall be holy to you; for I the LORD, who sanctifies you, am holy.