Chapter Twenty-Four

1–4. Concerning the oil and 6–10. concerning the loaves of the showbread in the sanctuary. 10–14 and 23. The stoning of one who curses Jehovah. 15–22. Ordinances regarding retribution for various criminal offenses.

Leviticus 24:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Leviticus 24:2. Command the sons of Israel to bring you pure olive oil, beaten, for the light, so that a lamp may burn perpetually; Leviticus 24:3. outside the veil of the ark of the covenant in the tent of meeting Aaron [and his sons] shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord always: this is an eternal statute throughout your generations; Leviticus 24:4. on the pure lampstand they shall set the lamps before the Lord always. The prescription already given earlier (Exod 27:20-21) concerning the kindling in the sanctuary on a specially constructed lamp (Exod 25:31-39) of a pure “beaten” (katit, that is, extracted with particular care from fresh olive berries) oil is repeated. Concerning the fulfillment of this prescription, it is said in Num 8:1-4.

Leviticus 24:5. And take fine flour and bake from it twelve loaves; in each loaf there shall be two-tenths of an ephah; Leviticus 24:6. and put them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure table before the Lord; Leviticus 24:7. and put on [each] row pure frankincense [and salt], and it shall be with the bread, a memorial, an offering to the Lord; Leviticus 24:8. every Sabbath day regularly he shall arrange them before the Lord on behalf of the sons of Israel: this is an eternal covenant; Leviticus 24:9. they shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat them in a holy place, for it is a most holy thing for them from the offerings of the Lord: this is an eternal ordinance. The “loaves of the showbread” or from the Hebrew “loaves of the face,” that is, of God’s presence (cf. Exod 25:30). There were 12 of them, arranged in two rows (according to tradition, one row upon the other, six in each). The weight of each loaf is set at 2/10 of an ephah, that is (since an ephah equaled approximately 30 pounds) about 6 pounds, Lev 24:5-6.

Leviticus 24:7. and put on [each] row pure frankincense [and salt], and it shall be with the bread, a memorial, an offering to the Lord; Leviticus 24:8. every Sabbath day regularly he shall arrange them before the Lord on behalf of the sons of Israel: this is an eternal covenant; The loaves were not burned, but only lay for a whole week from Sabbath to Sabbath on the table of the showbread, but their sacrificial significance was represented by the frankincense placed upon them. On the 7th day the loaves (which, like a bloodless sacrifice, cf. Lev 2:2, azkarah) were removed, replaced with new ones, and became food for the priests, while the frankincense was burned, Lev 24:9. The priests ate the showbread as a most holy thing; its use by laypeople was forbidden – a well-known instance of David and his companions eating this bread from the high priest Ahimelech was an exceptional case.

Leviticus 24:10. And the son of an Israelite woman, born to an Egyptian, came out among the sons of Israel, and quarreled in the camp between the son of the Israelite woman and an Israelite man; Leviticus 24:11. and the son of the Israelite woman uttered the name [of the Lord] and cursed. So they brought him to Moses [his mother’s name was Salomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan]; Leviticus 24:12. and they placed him in custody until the will of the Lord should be declared to them. Leviticus 24:13. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Leviticus 24:14. Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him; and Lev 24:23. A rare and mysterious case of cursing Jehovah is recounted, perpetrated, however, not by a full-blooded Hebrew but by the offspring of an Egyptian (according to tradition, one once killed by Moses in Egypt, Exod 2:12), married to a Hebrew woman. A personal quarrel with a Hebrew man somehow prompted him to curse the name of Jehovah. The Chaldean Targum renders the Hebrew naqab (Lev 24:11) in the sense of parasch – clearly spoke, LXX: ἐπονομάσας – in accordance with the later Jewish conception of the unpronounceable-ness of the name (shem, hasschem) of Jehovah. But in the passage under consideration, one speaks, without doubt, not of a simple pronunciation of “the name” (that is, of Jehovah), but of cursing (the synonymous verb: qalal – to curse), cf. Lev 24:14.

Leviticus 24:12. and they placed him in custody until the will of the Lord should be declared to them. “There was not yet a law concerning cursing. Therefore Moses commanded that the captured one be thrown into prison, and on the next day he asked the Lord God what the impious one should suffer” (Blessed Theodoret, question 33).

Leviticus 24:14. Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him; If one who cursed his father or mother was to be put to death (Exod 21:17), then all the more should one who cursed the name of Jehovah be stoned, and precisely before those who witnessed the crime; the one who cursed the name of Jehovah (cf. Lev 24:23) was to be killed. Stoning could only take place outside the camp, since capital punishment in general was not executed in a place of judgment or on a public street. The laying of the hands of witnesses on the head of the condemned person expressed their non-participation in his crime and as it were a sacrificial cleansing of the entire community from the wrath of Jehovah through the death of the transgressor. Jewish tradition required from witnesses to cursing God the tearing of garments (cf. Matt 26:65), and from judges the laying of hands on the head of the transgressor with the words: dimcha beroschcha (“your blood be on your head”).

Leviticus 24:15. and say to the sons of Israel: Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin; Leviticus 24:16. and whoever curses the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him: the sojourner as well as the native-born, when he curses the name, shall be put to death. Regarding the case with the son of an Egyptian and Israelite woman, a general law of cursing is given, like other laws (some of which are set forth here), binding equally on both Hebrews and sojourners. Jewish tradition and Blessed Theodoret (question 33), based on the difference in expressions Lev 24:15 regarding guilt and punishment – in Lev 24:15 concerning cursing God, Elohim, and in Lev 24:16 – concerning cursing the name of Jehovah, whereby in the 1st case of the transgressor it is only said that he shall bear his sin, while in the 2nd death by stoning by all the community is directly prescribed – believed that cursing the common name “God” (where a pagan god could also be understood) was punished only by beating, but not by death, while cursing the name of Jehovah was unconditionally punishable by death: a distinction, however, which is scarcely necessarily required by the biblical text.

Leviticus 24:17. Whoever takes the life of any person shall surely be put to death. Leviticus 24:18. Whoever kills an animal shall repay for it, animal for animal. Leviticus 24:19. Whoever causes harm to his neighbor – as he has done, so shall be done to him: Leviticus 24:20. a fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; as he has caused harm to the body of a person, so shall be done to him. Leviticus 24:21. Whoever kills an animal shall repay for it; but whoever kills a person shall be put to death. Leviticus 24:22. You shall have one law for the sojourner and for the native-born; for I am the Lord, your God. In connection with the law concerning cursing and blaspheming Jehovah, the ordinances (Exod 21:1-22:1) concerning strictly proportionate retribution (jus talionis) for murder (Lev 24:17, 21b, see Exod 21:12; Deut 19:21), for personal injury to a neighbor (Lev 24:19-20), for killing his animals (Lev 24:18, 21a), are restated, whereby again (cf. Lev 24:16) the binding character of these ordinances is confirmed for both Hebrews and sojourners.