The Father's Lamp Burns Continually
Oil for the lamp and twelve loaves are kept before our Father continually, arranged fresh every Sabbath. Then a man curses the Name during a fight and is stoned, and the ruling attached is that one law covers foreigner and native-born alike.
24 1Our Father spoke to Moses:
2"Command the Israelites to bring you pure, crushed olive oil for the light, to keep a lamp burning continually. 3Outside the testimony's curtain in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend it before me from evening to morning, continually—a lasting law for your generations. a a v3 The 'testimony' refers to the stone tablets of the covenant housed in the Ark of the Covenant. 4On the pure lampstand he must tend the lamps before me continually.
5"Take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, each about four and a half pounds of flour. 6Arrange them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure table before me. 7Put pure frankincense on each row as the bread's memorial portion, a food offering to me. 8Every Sabbath he must arrange it before me continually, from the Israelites, a lasting covenant. 9It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who must eat it in a holy place; it is a most holy portion for him from my food offerings, their permanent share."
The Father's Name Defended
10The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was Egyptian, went out among the Israelites; the Israelite woman's son fought with an Israelite man in the camp. 11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse, and they brought him to Moses. His mother was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12They put him in custody until our Father made his will clear to them. 13Then our Father spoke to Moses:
14"Bring the one who cursed outside the camp. Let all who heard lay their hands on his head, then let the whole congregation stone him. b b v14 Witnesses laid hands on the blasphemer's head to transfer back the guilt of having heard the curse. 15Tell the Israelites: Whoever curses our Father will bear their sin. 16Whoever blasphemes my name must die—the whole community must stone him. Foreigner and native-born alike: whoever blasphemes the Name must die.
17"Whoever kills any person must be put to death. 18Whoever kills an animal must make restitution for it, life for life. 19If anyone injures their neighbor, the same must be done to them: 20Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as one injures another, so it is done to him. 21Whoever kills an animal repays for it; whoever kills a person is put to death. 22The same law applies to the foreigner and to the native-born alike, for I am your Father."
23Moses told the Israelites; they took the one who had cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. The Israelites did as our Father commanded Moses.
