Hebrew Bible: Leviticus

In Leviticus, God gives Moses lots of rules and instructions.

1) How to sacrifice animals as burnt offerings. E.g.
“If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and Aaron's sons the priests shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar."

2) How to make grain offerings. E.g.
"You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt."

3) How to sacrifice animals as peace offerings.

4) How to sacrifice animals as an apology for unintentionally breaking one of the ten commandments.

5) How to sacrifice animals because you touched something unclean. E.g.
"He shall wring its head from its neck but shall not sever it completely, and he shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar"

6) Anyone who robs their neighbour and realises their guilt must restore what they stole plus one fifth, and sacrifice a ram to God.
More instructions about burnt offerings, grain offerings and sin offerings.

7) More instructions on guilt offerings. E.g.
"The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the Lord; it is a guilt offering. Every male among the priests may eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy."
More instructions on peace offerings.
No eating fat: "You shall eat no fat, of ox or sheep or goat. The fat of an animal that dies of itself and the fat of one that is torn by beasts may be put to any other use, but on no account shall you eat it."
No eating blood: "Moreover, you shall eat no blood whatever, whether of fowl or of animal, in any of your dwelling places."

8) God tells Moses to consecrate the priests and the tabernacle. Moses does so, then sacrifices a bull as a sin offering. Then a ram as a burnt offering. Then a ram of ordination. Moses sprinkles some blood and anointing oil onto the priests to consecrate them.

9) Aaron sacrifices some animals.

10) Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu, 'offered unauthorized fire before the Lord'. God kills them with the fire.
More sacrifices, more grain offerings.

11) What to eat/Clean animals: Any animal that parts the hoof, is cloven-footed and cud chewing. "Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers." Locusts, crickets, grasshoppers.
What not to eat/Unclean animals: Camels, rock badgers, hares and pigs. Anything in the seas or rivers which does not have fins or scales. Eagles, vultures, kites, falcons, ravens, ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, hawks, owls, cormorants, storks, herons, hoopoes, bats. "All winged insects that go on all fours" except those mentioned above. Mole rats, mice, lizards. Anything that swarms on the ground.
Anyone who touches an unclean animal will be considered unclean until evening. If an item touches a dead unclean animal it shall become unclean. "It must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; then it shall be clean. And if any of them falls into any earthenware vessel, all that is in it shall be unclean, and you shall break it."

12) If a woman gives birth to a male child, she shall be unclean for seven days. Males should be circumcised on the eighth day. If a woman gives birth to a female child, she shall be unclean for two weeks. After she is purified, she must sacrifice a lamb as a burnt offering, and a pigeon or turtledove as a sin offering.
"And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering."

13) How to deal with lepers:

“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip [grow a moustache] and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp."

How to deal with mouldy clothes: lock the garment up for seven days; on the seventh day, check if the disease has spread; if it has, burn the garment.

14) How to cleanse lepers. It involves sacrificing lots of animals.
How to deal with mouldy houses: empty the house, lock it up for seven days. "And the priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the disease has spread in the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the disease and throw them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall have the inside of the house scraped all around, and the plaster that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city."

15) What to do about bodily discharges.
What to do if a man ejaculates:
“If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean until the evening. And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening. If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening."
What to do if a woman is menstruating:
"Everything on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Everything also on which she sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening. And whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening."

16) God tells Moses to tell Aaron to sacrifice some animals, and sets up the Day of Atonement:
“And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you."

17) No sacrificing animals away from the Tabernacle; no sacrificing animals to goat demons.
No eating blood; don't even let the foreigners living amongst you eat blood. Make sure you pour the blood away when you kill an animal.

18) No having sex with close relatives.
"And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive."
No having sex with menstruating women.
No having sex with your neighbour's wife.
No sacrificing children to Moloch.
No male on male sex.
No having sex with animals.
Do not do any of these things "lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you."

19) Leave some of your produce for the poor.
Do not steal; do not deal falsely; do not lie.
Do not falsely swear by God's name (YHWH).
Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.
Judge in righteousness; do not be partial to the poor or defer to the great.
Do not hate your brother; reason frankly with your neighbour, lest you incur sin.
"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself:"
Do not let cattle interbreed.
Do not sow your field with two kinds of seeds.
Do not wear garments of cloth made of two kinds of material.
If a man has sex with a female slave belonging to another, he should sacrifice an animal.
Do not interpret omens or tell fortunes.
Do not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edge of your beard.
No tattoos.
Do not force your daughter to become a prostitute "lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity."
Avoid mediums and necromancers.
Honour old people.
Treat visitors nicely.
Use accurate balances and weights. “You shall do no wrong in judgement, in measures of length or weight or quantity."

20) Anyone who sacrifices their children to Moloch should be killed.
Adulterers should be killed.
Men who have sex with their daughters-in-law should be killed. (The daughters-in-law should also be killed.)
Men who have sex with men should killed.
"If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you."
Anyone who has sex with an animal should be killed; also, kill the animal.
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death."

21) Priests may not marry prostitutes, non-virgins, widows or divorcees.
"And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by whoring, profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire."
The chief priest is not allowed to "go in to any dead bodies nor make himself unclean, even for his father or for his mother."
"No one who has a blemish shall draw near [the altar], a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles."

22) The aforementioned laws about being unclean are repeated to the priests.
Only priests and priest's slaves may eat the holy food sacrificed to God.
Further instructions on how to sacrifice animals correctly.

23) Holy feasts: the Sabbath; the Passover; the Feast of Firstfruits; the Feast of Weeks; the Feast of Trumpets; the Day of Atonement; the Feast of Booths;

24) A man blasphemes the name of God, and is brought to Moses. God tells Moses to kill him.
"Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death."
This is followed by the famous 'An Eye for an Eye':
“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbour, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, rand whoever kills a person shall be put to death."

25) Every seventh year you should let your land lie fallow, a Sabbath year.
If your brother becomes poor, look after him.
Do not lend money at interest.
“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: he shall be with you as a hired worker"
"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly."

26) No idols; no images; no pillars; no figured stones to bow down to.
God gives a dramatic speech about what will happen if his rules are followed, and what will happen if they aren't:

"I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

"But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted.

“And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste."

27) Chapter 27 contains laws about valuations (as in, how much slaves should cost). E.g.
"If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels."

END OF LEVITICUS