Olive oil and bread set before the Lord

1The Lord said to Moses, 2‘Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. 3Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 4The lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord must be tended continually.

5‘Take the finest flour and bake twelve loaves of bread, using one-fifth of an ephah24:5 That is, probably about 3.2 kilograms for each loaf. 6Arrange them in two piles, six in each pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. 7By each pile put some pure incense as a memorial24:7 Or representative portion to represent the bread and to be a food offering presented to the Lord. 8This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. 9It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in the sanctuary area, because it is a most holy part of their perpetual share of the food offerings presented to the Lord.’

A blasphemer put to death

10Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11The son of the Israelite woman used the Name blasphemously with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.) 12They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.

13Then the Lord said to Moses: 14‘Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15Say to the Israelites: “Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; 16anyone who uses the name of the Lord blasphemously is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they use the Name blasphemously they are to be put to death.

17‘ “Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. 18Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution – life for life. 19Anyone who injures their neighbour is to be injured in the same manner: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. 21Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. 22You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.” ’

23Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses.