Be Holy

Then the Lord named the people no one was to sleep with. “None of you is to go near any close relative to sleep with them,” he said. “I am the Lord.” A man was not to shame his father, or sleep with his mother: she was his mother. He was not to sleep with his father’s wife, because that would shame his father. He was not to sleep with his sister, whether she was his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and whether she was born at home or somewhere else. Nor was he to sleep with a daughter his father had with his father’s wife, because she was his sister too. He was not to sleep with his son’s daughter or his daughter’s daughter, because their shame would be his own.

Nor was he to sleep with his father’s sister or his mother’s sister, because they were his father’s and his mother’s close relatives. He was not to shame his father’s brother by sleeping with that uncle’s wife, because she was his aunt. He was not to sleep with his daughter-in-law, his son’s wife, or with his brother’s wife, because that would shame his brother.

He was not to sleep with both a woman and her daughter, or with the woman’s granddaughter, her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter. “They are close relatives,” the Lord said. “It is wicked.” And while his wife was still alive, he was not to marry her sister too and sleep with her, making the two sisters rivals.

He was not to go near a woman to sleep with her while she was unclean with her monthly period. He was not to sleep with his neighbor’s wife and make himself unclean with her. “Don’t give any of your children as a sacrifice to Molech,” the Lord said, “and don’t dishonor the name of your God. I am the Lord.”

No man was to sleep with another man as with a woman. “That is detestable,” the Lord said. No man was to have sex with an animal and make himself unclean with it, and no woman was to give herself to an animal in that way. “It is a perversion,” he said.

“Don’t make yourselves unclean in any of these ways,” the Lord said, “because the nations I am driving out ahead of you became unclean by doing all of them. The land became unclean. So I punished the land for its wrongdoing, and the land vomited out the people who lived in it.

“But you are to keep my laws and my rules, and not do any of these detestable things, neither you nor the foreigners who live among you. The people who were in the land before you did all these detestable things, and the land became unclean. Don’t do them, or the land will vomit you out too when you make it unclean, just as it did to the nation that was there before you.

“Anyone who does any of these detestable things is to be cut off from their people. So do what I require. Don’t follow any of the detestable customs that people followed before you, and don’t let them make you unclean. I am the Lord your God.”

Each of them was to respect his mother and his father, and keep the Lord’s Sabbaths. They were not to turn to idols, or make gods of melted metal for themselves. “I am the Lord your God,” he said.

When they offered the Lord a sacrifice of peace offerings, they were to offer it so that they would be accepted. It was to be eaten on the day it was offered, or the next day. Anything left on the third day was to be burned. If any of it was eaten on the third day, it was detestable, and it would not be accepted. Whoever ate it would carry his guilt, because he had dishonored what was holy to the Lord, and he was to be cut off from his people.

When they harvested their land, they were not to cut the grain all the way into the corners of their fields, or go back to pick up what was left behind. They were not to gather what was left in their vineyards, or gather up the grapes that had dropped. “Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner,” the Lord said. “I am the Lord your God.”

“Don’t take advantage of your neighbor, or rob him. When you hire a worker, don’t hold on to his pay overnight until morning. Don’t curse someone who is deaf, or leave something in a blind person’s path for him to trip over. Fear your God. I am the Lord.

“Don’t be unfair when you judge. Don’t take the side of the poor, and don’t favor the powerful. Judge your neighbor rightly. Don’t go around among your people spreading lies about others. Don’t put your neighbor’s life at risk. I am the Lord.

“Don’t hate your brother in your heart. Be sure to correct your neighbor, and don’t bring sin on yourself because of him. Don’t take revenge on your own people or hold a grudge against them. Love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

Suppose a man slept with a slave woman who was promised in marriage to another man, and no one had paid for her freedom or given it to her. They were to be punished. But they were not to be put to death, because she was not free. The man was to bring the Lord a ram as his trespass offering, to the door of the Tent of Meeting. With it the priest would make atonement for him in the Lord’s presence for the sin he had done, and his sin would be forgiven.

When they came into the land and planted all kinds of fruit trees, they were to treat the fruit as forbidden. For three years no one was to eat it. In the fourth year, all the fruit would be holy, given in praise to the Lord. In the fifth year they could eat it, so that the trees would give them a harvest. “I am the Lord your God,” he said.

They were not to eat any meat with the blood still in it, or use magic spells, or practice sorcery. They were not to cut the hair on the sides of their heads, or trim the edges of their beards. They were not to make cuts in their flesh for the dead, or put tattoo marks on themselves. “I am the Lord,” he said.

“Don’t dishonor your daughter by making her a prostitute,” the Lord said, “or the land will fall into prostitution and become full of wickedness.

“Keep my Sabbaths, and honor my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Don’t turn to mediums or to wizards. Don’t go looking for them, or they will make you unclean. I am the Lord your God.

“Rise to your feet for the gray-haired, and honor the elderly. Fear your God. I am the Lord.

“When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t do him wrong. Treat the foreigner who lives among you like someone born among you, and love him as yourself, because you once lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

“Don’t be dishonest when you judge, or when you measure length, weight or amount. Your scales and your weights are to be true. So are your measures: the ephah, which holds about six gallons, and the hin, which holds about 1.7 gallons. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Be careful to obey every one of my laws and rules. I am the Lord.”

“I too will set myself against that person,” the Lord said, “and cut him off from his people, because he has given his child to Molech, making my sanctuary unclean and dishonoring my holy name. If the people of the land look the other way when he gives his child to Molech, and don’t put him to death, then I will set myself against that man and against his family. I will cut him off from his people, along with everyone who follows him in going after Molech like a prostitute.

“If anyone turns to mediums and wizards and goes after them like a prostitute, I will set myself against that person, and I will cut him off from his people. So make yourselves holy. Be holy, because I am the Lord your God. Do what my laws say. I am the Lord who makes you holy.”

Anyone who cursed his father or his mother was to be put to death. He had cursed his father or his mother, and the blame for his death was his own. If a man committed adultery with another man’s wife, his neighbor’s wife, both the man and the woman were to be put to death.

If a man slept with his father’s wife, he had shamed his father. Both of them were to be put to death, and the blame for their death was their own. If a man slept with his daughter-in-law, both of them were to be put to death. They had committed a perversion, and the blame was their own.

If a man slept with a man as with a woman, both of them had done something detestable. They were to be put to death, and the blame for their death was their own. If a man married a woman and her mother too, it was wicked. He and both women were to be burned with fire, so that there would be no wickedness among the people.

If a man had sex with an animal, he was to be put to death, and the animal was to be killed. If a woman went to an animal and had sex with it, the woman and the animal were both to be killed. The blame for their death was their own.

If a man took his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and they slept together, it was a shameful thing. They were to be cut off in front of their people. He had slept with his own sister, and he would carry his guilt. If a man slept with a woman while she was having her monthly period, both of them were to be cut off from their people.

No one was to sleep with his mother’s sister or his father’s sister, because that would shame a close relative. They would carry their guilt. If a man slept with his uncle’s wife, he had shamed his uncle. They would carry their sin and die without children. If a man married his brother’s wife, it was impure. He had shamed his brother, and they would have no children.

“Keep all my laws and all my rules, and do them,” the Lord said, “so that the land I am bringing you to live in won’t vomit you out. Don’t live by the customs of the nation I am driving out ahead of you. They did all these things, and so I hated them. But I have told you, ‘You will inherit their land. I will give it to you to own, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.

“So you are to know the difference between clean animals and unclean ones, and between unclean birds and clean ones. Don’t let any animal or bird, or anything that swarms on the ground, make you detestable. I have set those apart as unclean for you. Be holy to me, for I, the Lord, am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples to be mine.”

A man or a woman who was a medium or a wizard was to be put to death. They were to be killed with stones, and the blame for their death was their own.

Priests were not to shave their heads, or shave off the corners of their beards, or make cuts in their flesh. They were to be holy to their God and not dishonor his name, because they offered the Lord’s offerings made by fire, the bread of their God. So they were to be holy.

A priest was not to marry a woman who was a prostitute or who had been dishonored, or a divorced woman, because he was holy to his God. “Treat him as holy,” the Lord said, “because he offers the bread of your God. He is to be holy to you, because I am holy. I am the Lord, and I make you holy.”

If a priest’s daughter dishonored herself by acting as a prostitute, she dishonored her father. She was to be burned with fire.

The high priest was the one among his brothers who had the anointing oil poured on his head and was set apart to wear the high priest’s garments. He was not to let his hair hang loose or tear his clothes, as people did when they mourned. He was not to go near any dead body, or make himself unclean for his father or his mother. He was not to leave the sanctuary, or dishonor the sanctuary of his God, because his God’s anointing oil was on him like a crown. “I am the Lord,” God said.

The high priest was to marry a virgin, a woman who had never slept with a man. He was not to marry a widow or a divorced woman, a woman who had been dishonored, or a prostitute. His wife was to be a virgin from his own people, and he was not to dishonor his children among them. “I am the Lord, who makes him holy,” the Lord said.

The Lord told Moses to give Aaron this message: in all the generations to come, none of Aaron’s descendants who had a defect was to come near to offer the bread of his God. No man with a defect was to come near: no one who was blind or lame, or had a flat nose or any deformity, or an injured foot or hand, or was hunchbacked or a dwarf, or had something wrong with his eye, or an itching disease or scabs, or had been injured in his private parts.

No descendant of Aaron the priest who had a defect was to come near to offer the Lord’s offerings made by fire. Because he had a defect, he was not to come near to offer the bread of his God. He could eat the bread of his God, both the most holy food and the holy food. But he was not to go near the veil, the curtain in front of the Most Holy Place, or near the altar, because he had a defect. That way he would not dishonor the Lord’s sanctuaries. “I am the Lord who makes them holy,” God said.

Moses passed these words on to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelites.

No descendant of Aaron who had leprosy or a discharge was to eat the holy food until he was clean. Anyone who touched something made unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed had come out of his body, would be unclean until evening. So would anyone who touched a crawling creature that could make him unclean, or a person who could make him unclean in any way. He was not to eat the holy food unless he had washed his body in water. When the sun went down he would be clean, and after that he could eat the holy food, because it was his food.

He was not to eat an animal that had died by itself or been killed by wild animals, and so make himself unclean. “I am the Lord,” God said. The priests were to keep his command, so that they would not become guilty of sin and die for dishonoring it. “I am the Lord who makes them holy.”

No outsider was to eat the holy food: not a foreigner staying with a priest, and not a hired worker. But a slave the priest had bought with his money could eat it, and so could those born in his house. If a priest’s daughter married an outsider, she was not to eat from the holy offerings. But if she was widowed or divorced, with no child, and had gone back to her father’s house, as when she was young, she could share her father’s bread. Still, no outsider was to eat any of it.

If someone ate something holy without knowing it, he was to add a fifth of its value to it and give it to the priest. The priests were not to dishonor the holy things the Israelites offered to the Lord. That would make them guilty of wrongdoing when they ate their holy things. “I am the Lord who makes them holy,” he said.

When someone offered the Lord a peace offering from the herd or the flock, to keep a vow or as a freewill offering, it had to be perfect to be accepted. It was to have no defect. No one was to offer the Lord an animal that was blind, injured or maimed, or had a wart, a festering sore or a running sore, or put one on the altar as an offering made by fire to the Lord.

A bull or a lamb that was misshapen or missing a part could be offered as a freewill offering, but it would not be accepted for a vow. They were not to offer the Lord any animal whose private parts had been bruised, crushed, broken or cut. “Don’t do this in your land,” he said. And they were not to take any of these animals from a foreigner and offer them as the bread of their God. They were damaged and had a defect, and would not be accepted for them.

The Lord also told Moses that when a bull, a sheep or a goat was born, it was to stay seven days with its mother. From the eighth day on, it could be accepted as an offering made by fire to the Lord. No one was to kill a cow or a ewe and its young on the same day.

When they offered the Lord a sacrifice of thanksgiving, they were to offer it so that they would be accepted. It was to be eaten on the same day, and none of it was to be left until morning. “I am the Lord,” he said.

“So keep my commands and do them,” the Lord said. “I am the Lord. Don’t dishonor my holy name. Among the Israelites I will be honored as holy. I am the Lord who makes you holy, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord.”