The Lamp and the Bread of the Sanctuary

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “Command the children of Israel to bring to you clear oil from beaten olives for the light [of the golden lampstand], to make a lamp burn continually. ³ Outside the veil of the Testimony [between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place] in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron shall always keep the lamps ^[a]burning before the Lord from evening until morning; it shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations. ⁴ He shall keep the lamps burning on the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.

⁵ “Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes (bread of the Presence, showbread) with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake (loaf). ⁶ You shall set the bread of the Presence (showbread) in two rows, six in a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷ You shall put pure frankincense [in two censers, one] beside each row, so that it may be with the bread as a memorial portion, an offering by fire to the Lord. ⁸ Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange the showbread before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the Israelites. ⁹ The bread of the Presence shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a sacred place, for it is for Aaron a most holy portion of the offerings by fire to the Lord, his portion forever.”

¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the Israelites, and he and a man of Israel quarreled and struggled with each other in the camp. ¹¹ The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name [of the Lord] and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹² They put him in custody until the will and command of the Lord might be made clear to them.

¹³ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴ “Bring the one who has cursed [the Lord] outside the camp, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head [as witnesses to his guilt]; then let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ You shall speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God will bear his sin [through his own death]. ¹⁶ Further, the one who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall most certainly be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him. The stranger as well as the native-born shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name [of the Lord].

“An Eye for an Eye”

¹⁷ ‘If a man takes the life of any human being [unlawfully], he shall most certainly be put to death. ¹⁸ The one who kills an animal shall replace it, animal for animal. ¹⁹ If a man injures his neighbor (fellow citizen), whatever he has done shall be done to him: ²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so shall the same be done to him. ²¹ The one who kills an animal shall replace it; but he who kills a human being [unlawfully] shall be put to death. ²² You shall have one standard of law for the stranger among you as well as for the native, for I am the Lord your God.’” ²³ Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they brought the one who had cursed [the Lord] outside the camp and stoned him with stones. Thus the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.