Leviticus 26

1 “Don’t make idols for yourselves; don’t set up an image or a sacred pillar for yourselves, and don’t place a carved stone in your land that you can bow down to in worship. I am God, your God.

2 “Keep my Sabbaths; treat my Sanctuary with reverence. I am God.
“If You Live by My Decrees . . . ”3 “If you live by my decrees and obediently keep my commandments,4 I will send the rains in their seasons, the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit.5 You will thresh until the grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting time; you’ll have more than enough to eat and will live safe and secure in your land.6 “I’ll make the country a place of peace—you’ll be able to go to sleep at night without fear; I’ll get rid of the wild beasts; I’ll eliminate war.7 You’ll chase out your enemies and defeat them:8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and do away with them.9 I’ll give you my full attention: I’ll make sure you prosper, make sure you grow in numbers, and keep my covenant with you in good working order.10 You’ll still be eating from last year’s harvest when you have to clean out the barns to make room for the new crops.11 “I’ll set up my residence in your neighborhood; I won’t avoid or shun you;12 I’ll stroll through your streets. I’ll be your God; you’ll be my people.

13 I am God, your personal God who rescued you from Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I ripped off the harness of your slavery so that you can move about freely.
“But If You Refuse to Obey Me . . . ”14 “But if you refuse to obey me and won’t observe my commandments,15 despising my decrees and holding my laws in contempt by your disobedience, making a shambles of my covenant,16 I’ll step in and pour on the trouble: debilitating disease, high fevers, blindness, your life leaking out bit by bit. You’ll plant seed but your enemies will eat the crops.17 I’ll turn my back on you and stand by while your enemies defeat you. People who hate you will govern you. You’ll run scared even when there’s no one chasing you.18 “And if none of this works in getting your attention, I’ll discipline you seven times over for your sins.19 I’ll break your strong pride: I’ll make the skies above you like a sheet of tin and the ground under you like cast iron.20 No matter how hard you work, nothing will come of it: No crops out of the ground, no fruit off the trees.21 “If you defy me and refuse to listen, your punishment will be seven times more than your sins:22 I’ll set wild animals on you; they’ll rob you of your children, kill your cattle, and decimate your numbers until you’ll think you are living in a ghost town.23 “And if even this doesn’t work and you refuse my discipline and continue your defiance,24 then it will be my turn to defy you. I, yes I, will punish you for your sins seven times over:25 I’ll let war loose on you, avenging your breaking of the covenant; when you huddle in your cities for protection, I’ll send a deadly epidemic on you and you’ll be helpless before your enemies;26 when I cut off your bread supply, ten women will bake bread in one oven and ration it out. You’ll eat, but barely—no one will get enough.27 “And if this—even this!—doesn’t work and you still won’t listen, still defy me,28 I’ll have had enough and in hot anger will defy you, punishing you for your sins seven times over:29 famine will be so severe that you’ll end up cooking and eating your sons in stews and your daughters in barbecues;30 I’ll smash your sex-and-religion shrines and all the paraphernalia that goes with them, and then stack your corpses and the idol-corpses in the same piles—I’ll abhor you;31 I’ll turn your cities into rubble; I’ll clean out your sanctuaries; I’ll hold my nose at the “pleasing aroma” of your sacrifices.32 I’ll turn your land into a lifeless moonscape—your enemies who come in to take over will be shocked at what they see.33 I’ll scatter you all over the world and keep after you with the point of my sword in your backs. There’ll be nothing left in your land, nothing going on in your cities.34 With you gone and dispersed in the countries of your enemies, the land, empty of you, will finally get a break and enjoy its Sabbath years.35 All the time it’s left there empty, the land will get rest, the Sabbaths it never got when you lived there.36 “As for those among you still alive, I’ll give them over to fearful timidity—even the rustle of a leaf will throw them into a panic. They’ll run here and there, back and forth, as if running for their lives even though no one is after them,37 tripping and falling over one another in total confusion. You won’t stand a chance against an enemy.38 You’ll perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will eat you up.

39 Any who are left will slowly rot away in the enemy lands. Rot. And all because of their sins, their sins compounded by their ancestors’ sins.
“On the Other Hand, If They Confess . . . ”40 “On the other hand, if they confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors, their treacherous betrayal, the defiance41 that set off my defiance that sent them off into enemy lands; if by some chance they soften their hard hearts and make amends for their sin,42 I’ll remember my covenant with Jacob, I’ll remember my covenant with Isaac, and, yes, I’ll remember my covenant with Abraham. And I’ll remember the land.43 “The land will be empty of them and enjoy its Sabbaths while they’re gone. They’ll pay for their sins because they refused my laws and treated my decrees with contempt.44 But in spite of their behavior, while they are among their enemies I won’t reject or abhor or destroy them completely. I won’t break my covenant with them: I am God, their God.45 For their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I, with all the nations watching, brought out of Egypt in order to be their God. I am God.”

46 These are the decrees, laws, and instructions that God established between himself and the People of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Vows, Dedications, and Redemptions

Leviticus 27

1 God spoke to Moses. He said,2 “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them: If anyone wants to vow the value of a person to the service of God,3 set the value of a man between the ages of twenty and sixty at fifty shekels of silver, according to the Sanctuary shekel.4 For a woman the valuation is thirty shekels.5 If the person is between the ages of five and twenty, set the value at twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female.6 If the person is between one month and five years, set the value at five shekels of silver for a boy and three shekels of silver for a girl.7 If the person is over sixty, set the value at fifteen shekels for a man and ten shekels for a woman.8 If anyone is too poor to pay the stated amount, he is to present the person to the priest, who will then set the value for him according to what the person making the vow can afford.9 “If he vowed an animal that is acceptable as an offering to God, the animal is given to God and becomes the property of the Sanctuary.10 He must not exchange or substitute a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one; if he should dishonestly substitute one animal for another, both the original and the substitute become property of the Sanctuary.11 If what he vowed is a ritually unclean animal, one that is not acceptable as an offering to God, the animal must be shown to the priest,12 who will set its value, either high or low. Whatever the priest sets will be its value.13 If the owner changes his mind and wants to redeem it, he must add twenty percent to its value.14 “If a man dedicates his house to God, into the possession of the Sanctuary, the priest assesses its value, setting it either high or low. Whatever value the priest sets, that’s what it is.15 If the man wants to buy it back, he must add twenty percent to its price and then it’s his again.16 “If a man dedicates to God part of his family land, its value is to be set according to the amount of seed that is needed for it at the rate of fifty shekels of silver to six bushels of barley seed.17 If he dedicates his field during the year of Jubilee, the set value stays.18 But if he dedicates it after the Jubilee, the priest will compute the value according to the years left until the next Jubilee, reducing the value proportionately.19 If the one dedicating it wants to buy it back, he must add twenty percent to its valuation, and then it’s his again.20 But if he doesn’t redeem it or sells the field to someone else, it can never be bought back.21 When the field is released in the Jubilee, it becomes holy to God, the possession of the Sanctuary, God’s field. It goes into the hands of the priests.22 “If a man dedicates to God a field he has bought, a field which is not part of the family land,23 the priest will compute its proportionate value in relation to the next year of Jubilee. The man must pay its value on the spot as something that is now holy to God, belonging to the Sanctuary.24 In the year of Jubilee it goes back to its original owner, the man from whom he bought it.25 The valuations will be reckoned by the Sanctuary shekel, at twenty gerahs to the shekel.26 “No one is allowed to dedicate the firstborn of an animal; the firstborn, as firstborn, already belongs to God. No matter if it’s cattle or sheep, it already belongs to God.27 If it’s one of the ritually unclean animals, he can buy it back at its assessed value by adding twenty percent to it. If he doesn’t redeem it, it is to be sold at its assessed value.28 “But nothing that a man irrevocably devotes to God from what belongs to him, whether human or animal or family land, may be either sold or bought back. Everything devoted is holy to the highest degree; it’s God’s inalienable property.29 “No human who has been devoted to destruction can be redeemed. He must be put to death.30 “A tenth of the land’s produce, whether grain from the ground or fruit from the trees, is God’s. It is holy to God.31 If a man buys back any of the tenth he has given, he must add twenty percent to it.32 A tenth of the entire herd and flock, every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod, is holy to God.33 He is not permitted to pick out the good from the bad or make a substitution. If he dishonestly makes a substitution, both animals, the original and the substitute, become the possession of the Sanctuary and cannot be redeemed.”34 These are the commandments that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai for the People of Israel.

Numbers 1

1 God spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai at the Tent of Meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had left Egypt. He said,2 “Number the congregation of the People of Israel by clans and families, writing down the names of every male.3 You and Aaron are to register, company by company, every man who is twenty years and older who is able to fight in the army.4 Pick one man from each tribe who is head of his family to help you.

5 These are the names of the men who will help you:
from Reuben: Elizur son of Shedeur6 from Simeon: Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai7 from Judah: Nahshon son of Amminadab8 from Issachar: Nethanel son of Zuar9 from Zebulun: Eliab son of Helon

10 from the sons of Joseph,
from Ephraim: Elishama son of Ammihud
from Manasseh: Gamaliel son of Pedahzur11 from Benjamin: Abidan son of Gideoni12 from Dan: Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai13 from Asher: Pagiel son of Ocran14 from Gad: Eliasaph son of Deuel15 from Naphtali: Ahira son of Enan.”16 These were the men chosen from the congregation, leaders of their ancestral tribes, heads of Israel’s military divisions.17 Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named to help18 and gathered the whole congregation together on the first day of the second month. The people registered themselves in their tribes according to their ancestral families, putting down the names of those who were twenty years old and older,19 just as God commanded Moses. He numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai.20 The line of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by tribes according to their ancestral families.21 The tribe of Reuben numbered 46,500.22 The line of Simeon: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.23 The tribe of Simeon numbered 59,300.24 The line of Gad: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.25 The tribe of Gad numbered 45,650.26 The line of Judah: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.27 The tribe of Judah numbered 74,600.28 The line of Issachar: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.29 The tribe of Issachar numbered 54,400.30 The line of Zebulun: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.31 The tribe of Zebulun numbered 57,400.32 The line of Joseph: From son Ephraim the men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.33 The tribe of Ephraim numbered 40,500.34 And from son Manasseh the men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.35 The tribe of Manasseh numbered 32,200.36 The line of Benjamin: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.37 The tribe of Benjamin numbered 35,400.38 The line of Dan: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.39 The tribe of Dan numbered 62,700.40 The line of Asher: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.41 The tribe of Asher numbered 41,500.42 The line of Naphtali: The men were counted off head by head, every male twenty years and older who was able to fight in the army, registered by clans and families.43 The tribe of Naphtali numbered 53,400.44 These are the numbers of those registered by Moses and Aaron, registered with the help of the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each representing his ancestral family.45 The sum total of the People of Israel twenty years old and over who were able to fight in the army, counted by ancestral family, was 603,550.47 The Levites, however, were not counted by their ancestral family along with the others.48 God had told Moses,49 “The tribe of Levi is an exception: Don’t register them. Don’t count the tribe of Levi; don’t include them in the general census of the People of Israel.50 Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of The Dwelling of The Testimony—over all its furnishings and everything connected with it. Their job is to carry The Dwelling and all its furnishings, maintain it, and camp around it.51 When it’s time to move The Dwelling, the Levites will take it down, and when it’s time to set it up, the Levites will do it. Anyone else who even goes near it will be put to death.52 “The rest of the People of Israel will set up their tents in companies, every man in his own camp under its own flag.53 But the Levites will set up camp around The Dwelling of The Testimony so that wrath will not fall on the community of Israel. The Levites are responsible for the security of The Dwelling of The Testimony.”

54 The People of Israel did everything that God commanded Moses. They did it all.
Marching Orders