Numbers 15

Chapter 15

Laws concerning Offerings

1 Then the LORD told Moses,

2 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“When you finally settle in the land I am giving you,3 you will offer special gifts as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. These gifts may take the form of a burnt offering, a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, a voluntary offering, or an offering at any of your annual festivals, and they may be taken from your herds of cattle or your flocks of sheep and goats.4 When you present these offerings, you must also give the LORD a grain offering of two quartst of choice flour mixed with one quartt of olive oil.

5 For each lamb offered as a burnt offering or a special sacrifice, you must also present one quart of wine as a liquid offering.
6 “If the sacrifice is a ram, give a grain offering of four quartst of choice flour mixed with a third of a gallont of olive oil,

7 and give a third of a gallon of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
8 “When you present a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the LORD,9 you must also give a grain offering of six quartst of choice flour mixed with two quartst of olive oil,

10 and give two quarts of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
11 “Each sacrifice of a bull, ram, lamb, or young goat should be prepared in this way.12 Follow these instructions with each offering you present.13 All of you native-born Israelites must follow these instructions when you offer a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.14 And if any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, they must follow these same procedures.15 Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the LORD and are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation.

16 The same instructions and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigners living among you.”
17 Then the LORD said to Moses,

18 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“When you arrive in the land where I am taking you,19 and you eat the crops that grow there, you must set some aside as a sacred offering to the LORD.20 Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor.

21 Throughout the generations to come, you are to present a sacred offering to the LORD each year from the first of your ground flour.
22 “But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the LORD has given you through Moses.23 And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the LORD has commanded through Moses.24 If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. It must be offered along with its prescribed grain offering and liquid offering and with one male goat for a sin offering.25 With it the priest will purify the whole community of Israel, making them right with the LORD,t and they will be forgiven. For it was an unintentional sin, and they have corrected it with their offerings to the LORD—the special gift and the sin offering.

26 The whole community of Israel will be forgiven, including the foreigners living among you, for all the people were involved in the sin.
27 “If one individual commits an unintentional sin, the guilty person must bring a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering.28 The priest will sacrifice it to purifyt the guilty person before the LORD, and that person will be forgiven.

29 These same instructions apply both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you.
30 “But those who brazenly violate the LORD’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the LORD, and they must be cut off from the community.

31 Since they have treated the LORD’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”

Penalty for Breaking the Sabbath

32 One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.33 The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community.34 They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him.35 Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.”

36 So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Tassels on Clothing

37 Then the LORD said to Moses,38 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord.39 When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the LORD instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do.40 The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God.

41 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the LORD your God!”

NUMBERS 15

Laws about Sacrifices

1 The [Lord] told Moses

2 to give the Israelites the following laws about offering sacrifices:

3 Bulls or rams or goatst are the animals that you may burn on the altar as sacrifices to please me.t You may also offer sacrifices voluntarily or because you made a promise, or because they are part of your regular religious ceremonies. The smell of the smoke from these sacrifices is pleasing to me.

4-5 If you sacrifice a young ram or goat, you must also offer a kilogram of your finest flour mixed with a liter of olive oil as a grain sacrifice. A liter of wine must also be poured on the altar.

6-7 And if the animal is a full-grown ram, you must offer two kilograms of flour mixed with one and a half liters of olive oil. One and a half liters of wine must also be poured on the altar. The smell of this smoke is pleasing to me.
8 If a bull is offered as a sacrifice to please me or to ask my blessing, t 9 you must offer three kilograms of flour mixed with two liters of olive oil.

10 Two liters of wine must also be poured on the altar. The smell of this smoke is pleasing to me.
11-13 If you are a native Israelite, you must obey these rules each time you offer a bull, a ram, or a goat as a sacrifice. 14 And the foreigners who live among you must also follow these rules.

15-16 t This law will never change. I am the [Lord], and I consider all people the same, whether they are Israelites or foreigners living among you.
17-19 When you eat food in the land that I am giving you, remember to set aside some of it as an offering to me. 20 From the first batch of bread dough that you make after each new grain harvest, make a loaf of bread and offer it to me, just as you offer grain.

21 All your descendants must follow this law and offer part of the first batch of bread dough.

22-23 The [Lord] also told Moses to tell the people what must be done if they ever disobey his laws:
24 If all of you disobey one of my laws without knowing it, you must offer a bull as a sacrifice to please me, together with a grain sacrifice, a wine offering, and a goat as a sacrifice for sin. 25 Then the priest will pray and ask me to forgive you. And since you did not mean to do wrong, and you offered sacrifices,

26 the sin of everyone—both Israelites and foreigners among you—will be forgiven.
27  t But if one of you does wrong without knowing it, you must sacrifice a year-old female goat as a sacrifice for sin.

28 The priest will then ask me to forgive you, and your sin will be forgiven.

29 The law will be the same for anyone who does wrong without meaning to, whether an Israelite or a foreigner living among you.

30-31 But if one of you does wrong on purpose, whether Israelite or foreigner, you have sinned against me by disobeying my laws. You will no longer belong to my people.

A Man Put to Death //for Gathering Firewood //on the Sabbath

34 But no one knew what to do with him, so he was not allowed to leave.
35 Then the [Lord] said to Moses, “Tell the people to take that man outside the camp and stone him to death!”

36 So he was killed, just as the [Lord] had commanded Moses.

The Tassels //on the People's Clothes