neither the native born nor the sojourners who sojourn among you;-for all these abominations have been done by the men of the land who have been before you, and the land hath been polluted ;‑that the land vomit you not out when ye defile it; as it will have cast out the people who were before you. For whoso committeth any of these abominations, the souls that do them shall be destroyed from among their people. And you shall observe the keeping of My word, that you do not (according to) the abominable usages which have been done before You, nor be corrupted by them. I am the Lord your God.

 

SECTION XXX.

 

KEDOSHEIT.

 

XIX. AND the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy; for I, the Lord your God, am holy. A man shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep the day of My Sabbath: I am the Lord your God. Turn not after idols, nor make molten things (for worship): I am the Lord your God. And when you offer the sacrifice of consecrated things before the Lord, make the sacrifice thereof with your own free will. On the day that it is sacrificed it may be eaten, and on the following day; but that which remaineth on the third day shall be burned with fire. If indeed it be eaten on the third day, it (the oblation) is rejected, and shall not be accepted. And whoever eateth it shall bear his guilt; for he hath profaned that which was consecrated, and that man shall destroyed from his people.

 

And when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, and the gleanings of thy harvest thou shalt not gather. Neither in thy vineyard shalt thou (entirely) ingather, nor collect the remainder of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor, and for the stranger: I am the Lord thy God. You shall not steal, nor prevaricate, nor be false, a man with his neighbour. Neither swear by My Name unto falsehood, nor profane the Name of thy God: I am the Lord.

 

Thou shalt not overbear thy neighbour, nor be coercive: the hire of the hireling shall not abide with thee till the morning. Thou shalt not curse him who cannot hear, nor put a stumblingblock before him who cannot see, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord. You shall not deal falsely in judgment, nor accept the face of the poor, nor honour the face of the great; in truthfulness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Thou shalt not make false accusations against thy people, neither stand against thy neighbour's blood: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: reproving, reprove thou thy neighbour, and contract not sin his account. Thou shalt not be revengeful, nor keep enmity against the children of thy people, but love thy neighbour as thyseIf. I am the Lord.

 

You shall observe My statutes. Thy cattle thou shalt not make to gender with various kinds, nor sow thy field with various kinds, nor let a garment of a mixture of woollen and linen come upon thee. And if a man lie carnally with a woman, and she be a handmaid betrothed unto (another) man, and with redemption of money not redeemed, nor having freedom given to her by an instrument of writing, the stripe shall be upon her; they shall not be put to death, for she was not free.[1] But he shall bring his trespass offering before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, a ram for a trespass offering. And the priest shall make atonement with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for the sin that he hath sinned, that the sin he hath sinned may be forgiven him.

 

And when you have entered upon the land, and have planted any (kind) of tree for eating, the fruit of it shall be put away (from you); three years shall it be set aside to be destroyed; it shall not be eaten. But in the fourth year all the fruit shall be consecrated for thanksgiving before the Lord; and in the fifth year you shall eat the fruit of it, that the fruit may be added (increased) to you. I am the Lord your God.

 

You shall not eat anything with the blood. You shall not use enchantments,[2] nor augury by the clouds. You shall not shave the hair on your head in a circle,[3] nor destroy the hair of thy beard, nor make a cutting for the dead in thy flesh; nor imprint signatures upon you: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not profane thy daughter to make her to become a fornicatress, lest the land become whorish, and the land be filled with the ways of wickedness. The days of Sabbaths, which are Mine, observe ye, and hold in reverence the house of My sanctuary. I am the Lord. Turn not after deceivers, nor inquire by diviners to pollute yourselves with them: I am the Lord your God.

 

Thou shalt rise up before one who is a teacher in the law, and pay honour to the presence of the aged, and fear thy God. I am the Lord. And if a stranger sojourn with you in the land, you shall not oppress him.

 

As one born among you shall be the stranger who sojourneth among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself, because you were sojourners in the land of Mizraim: I am the Lord your God. You shall commit no falsity in judgment, in rule, (or line,) in weight, or in measure. Balances of truth, weights of truth, a measure in truth, and hins of truth you shall have. I am the Lord your God, who have brought you out from the land of Mizraim; and you shall keep all My statutes, and all My judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.

 

XX. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel: Whatever man of the sons of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, giveth his offspring unto Molek,[4]

 

with killing shall he be killed; the people of the house of Israel shall stone him with stones. And I will show My displeasure against that man, and will destroy from among his people, because he hath given his offspring unto Molek, to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy Name. And if the people of the house of Israel turn away (or hide) their eyes from that man when he giveth his offspring to Molek, that they may not have to put him to death, I will give forth My anger against that man, and against his abettors, and will destroy him, and all who go after him, to wander after Molek, from among their people. And the man who turneth away after impostors and diviners to wander after them, I will set My displeasure upon that man, and will cut him off from among his people. But you shall be sanctified, and be holy; for I am your God. And you shall observe My statutes, and do them: I am the Lord who sanctify you. For the man who curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death; he hath cursed his father, he is guilty of death. And the man who committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife shall be surely put to death; the adulterer and the adulteress. And the man who lieth with his father's wife, uncovering his father's nakedness, shall be surely put to death; both of them are guilty of death. And a man who lieth with his daughter‑in‑law, both of them shall be slain: they have wrought confusion, they are guilty of death. And a man who lieth with a man as with a woman, both of them have wrought abomination: they are to be surely put to death, of death they are guilty. And when a man taketh a wife along with her mother, it is wickedness; both he and they shall be burned with fire; such wickedness shall not be among you. And if a man lie with a beast, be shall be surely put to death, and you shall kill the beast. And if a woman approach to a beast to submit to it, the woman shall be put to death, and the beast; they shall verily be killed; of death they are guilty. And a man who shall take his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness, it is an ignominy and they shall be destroyed before the eyes of the children of their people: he hath uncovered the nakedness of his sister, he shall receive (the punishment of) his guilt. And a man who lieth with a woman who is unclean, and uncovereth her nakedness, he hath uncovered her shame, and she hath uncovered the uncleanness of her blood: both of them shall be cut off from among their people. Neither shalt thou uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister; for he will have uncovered that of his near kin; they shall receive for their sin. And if a man lie with the wife of his father's brother he hath uncovered the nakedness of his father's brother; they shall receive for their guilt without children shall they die. And if man take his brother's wife,2 a thing to be kept aloof from, (merachaka,) he bath uncovered the nakedness of his brother, they shall be childless. But keep you all My statutes and all Aly judgments, and do them, that the land into which I bring you to dwell may not cast you out. You shall not walk in the laws of the peoples whom I drive away from before you; for they have committed all these thin", and My Word hath abhorred them. But I have said to you, Ye shall inherit this land, and I will give it to you to possess it, a land producing milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who have separated you from the peoples. And you shall make distinction between animals clean and unclean, and between fowls unclean and clean, and not make your souls abominable by beast, or by fowl, or by any thing that creepeth on the ground which I have separated (as to be) unto you unclean. And you shall be holy before Me; for I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from the nations to be worshippers before Me. A man or a woman with whom are impostures or divinations shall be verily put to death; with stones they shall be stoned, they are guilty of death.

 

SECTION XXXI.

 

EMOR.

 

XXI. AND the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak unto the priests, the sons of Aharon, and say to them: Let no one be defiled among his people on account of the dead: yet for his kin, who is nigh to him, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, and for his sister, a virgin who is near to him, who hath no husband, for her he may be defiled. But a chief among his people (the high priest) shall not defile himself, to make him­

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



[1] Compare chap. XX. 10.

[2] Peschito, ÒYou shall not augur by a winged animal, Ò i.e., by the flight of birds.

[3] See HERODOTUS, iii., 8.

[4] Molek, the Ruler = Baal.

2 The deceased brother having left children. The law in Deut. XXV. 5 refers to the case of a childless widow.