Pgs. 203-210

Ch. 19-20

SECTION XXX

KEDOSHIM

XIX. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, and say to them: Ye, shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy. Let every man revere his mother and his father, and keep the days of My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. Go not astray after the worship of idols, nor make gods for yourselves that are molten: I am the Lord your God. And when you sacrifice the consecrated victims before the Lord, you shall make the sacrifice acceptable. On the day that it is sacrificed you may eat of it, and on the day following; but what remaineth on the third day shall be burned with fire. But if it be indeed eaten on the third day, it is profaned, and shall not be accepted. And he who eateth it shall receive (the penalty of) his sin; for he hath profaned the holy of the Lord, and that man shall be destroyed from among his people.

And in the time that you reap the harvest of your land you shall not finish one corner[1] that is in the circuit of thy field, and the (full) ingathering of thy harvest thou shalt not collect. Neither mayest thou shake out thy vines; (the whole of) their bunches, and the remnant of thy vines thou shalt not gather: thou shalt leave them for the poor and for the strangers at the time of their collection: I am the Lord your God. [JERUSALEM. And when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not altogether finish gathering what is in your fields, and the (full) collection of your harvest you shall not gather in; neither shake your vines of all their clusters, nor collect the fallen grapes of your vines.] Sons of Israel, My people, you shall not steal, nor prevaricate, nor do fraudulently one man with his neighbour.Sons of Israel, My people, let no one of you swear by My Name in vain, to profane the Name of thy God: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not be oppressive (hard) upon thy neighbour, nor take away by force, nor let the hire of the hireling be remaining all night at thy side until the morning. Thou shalt not curse one who heareth not, nor set a stumbling‑block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord. Thou shalt not act falsely in the order of judgment ment neither accept the face of the poor, nor honour the face of the great but in truthfulness shalt thou judge thy neighbour. Thou shalt not go after the slanderous tongue, which is cruel as a sword that killeth with its two edges in uttering false accusations to afflict thy people. Thou shalt not hinder the acquittal of thy neighbour in witnessing against him in the judgment: I am the Lord. [JERUSALEM. My people of the house of Israel, follow not the slanderous tongue[2] against your neighbour, nor be silent about thy neighbour's blood, what time in the judgment thou knowest the truth: so speaketh the Lord.]

Speak not bland words with your lips, having hatred to your brother in your hearts; but reproving you shall reprove your neighbour; and though it make you ashamed, you shall not contract sin in account of him. Be not revengeful, nor cherish animosity against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbour himself, as that though there be (cause of) hatred with thee thou mayest not do (evil) to him: I am the Lord.

You shall keep My statutes. Thy cattle shall not be made to gender with various kinds, neither sow thy field with mixed seeds, nor put upon thee a garment of divers materials, (as) wool and linen. And if a man lie carnally with a woman, and she be an (Israelitish) handmaid (about to be) made free, and betrothed to a free man, but her redemption not altogether completed by (the payment of) the money, or the written instrument of liberation not having been given to her, let inquisition be made for judgment: she is liable to be chastised, but he is not. But it shall not be considered a matter of putting to death, because she was not altogether free. (Deut. xxii. 22‑24.) And the man who lay with her must bring his trespass offering to the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, a ram for a trespass offering. [JERUSALEM. They have rebelled, they are guilty.] And the priest shall make atonement with the ram of his trespass offering before the Lord, for his sin that he hath sinned; and the sin that he hath sinned shall be forgiven.

And when you have come into the land, and have planted any tree that may be eaten of, you shall verily circumcise the fruit of it; three years shall it be to you for rejection, to be destroyed; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit of it shall be consecrated, (a token of) praise before the Lord delivered for the priest (or, to be redeemed from the priest). But in the fifth year thou mayst eat the fruit of it; for produce will be increased to you from the heavens: I am the Lord your God.

You shall not eat the flesh of any sacrifice while the blood remaineth in the veins. You shall not be observers of auguries, after the sanhedrin of the speculators. You shall not round off the (hair on) the sides of your heads, nor shave the corners of your beards. And a corrupting incision for the soul of the dead thou shalt not make in thy flesh, neither set upon yourselves an inscription by the incutting of any figurated sign: I am the Lord. You shall not profane your daughters to give them up to fornication: neither delay to give your daughters unto husbands in their proper ages, lest they go astray by fornication after the people of the land, and the land be filled with whoredom.

The days of My Sabbaths You shall keep, and go unto My sanctuary with reverence: I am the Lord. Go not astray after those who inquire of impostors, or bring up the dead, or interrogate the bone of Jeddua:[3] neither be ye inquirers with them, to pollute yourselves thereby I am the Lord your God. You shall rise up before the aged who instruct in the law and honour the presence of the wise, and fear thy God: I am the Lord.

And if a stranger becometh a sojourner, and settleth among you in your land, you shall not molest him with hard words: but the stranger who sojourneth among you shall be (treated) as the native born, and thou shalt love him as thyseIf: thou shalt not deal with him as if thou didst hate him; for ye were sojourners in the land of Mizraim: I am the Lord your God.

You shall not deal falsely in the ordering of judgment; in the admeasurement of summer and winter; in weight and measure, in heaping up, or in sweeping off:[4] but balances of truth, weights of truth, measures of truth, and tankards of truth, shall yours be. I am the Lord our God who brought you redeemed from the land of Mizraim: and you shall observe all My statutes, and all the ordinations of My judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.

XX. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: And with the sons of Israel speak thou, to say: A man of the family of the sons of Israel, whether young or old, who shall make (an offering) of his offspring unto Molek to be burned in the fire, shall be verily put to death: the people of the house of Israel shall punish his guilt by the infliction of stones; and I will cause a reverse, to make prosperity to cease with that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he gave his offspring in strange worship to pollute My sanctuary and to profane My holy Name. And if the people of the house of Israel hiding hide their eyes from that man, when he giveth his offspring unto strange worship, that they might not kill him, then will I appoint a reverse, to make a controversy against that man, and against his family who protect (cover) him, to chastise (them) with afflictions; and him will I destroy, and all who follow him to wander after strange worship, from among their people.

And the man who turns aside to inquire of the impostors, or to seek to bring up the dead, or to inquire by the bone of Jeddua, to go astray after them, I will appoint a reverse to punish that man, and will destroy him by a plague from among his people. But sanctify yourselves, and be holy in your bodies, that your prayers may be received with acceptance: I am the Lord who sanctify you. And observe My statutes and perform them: I am the Lord who sanctify you.

For the young man or the old man who curseth his father or his mother by the revealed Name, shall be verily put to death by the casting of stones; because he hath cursed his father or his mother, be is guilty of death. And the man who by adultery defileth the wife of (another) man, or who committeth adultery with the wife of his married neighbour, shall be verily put to death, by strangulation, with the hard towel in the tender part (?): and on account of a betrothed person, by the casting of stones: both the adulterer and the adulteress (shall die). And a man who lieth with his father's wife, whether his own mother or another wife, and who hath dishonoured the nakedness of his father shall be verily put to death: both of them are guilty of death by the casting of stones. And if a man lieth with his daughter‑in‑law, both of them shall be put to death; they have wrought confusion, they are guilty of death by the casting of stones. And if a man lie with a man as with a woman, they have wrought abomination; both of them shall die by the stoning of stones. And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is fornication let them be burned with fire with melted lead in their mouth, that fornication may not be among you. And a man who lieth with a beast shall be surely put to death with the stoning of stones, and the beast shall be slain with spikes. And if a woman approacheth the side of any beast that it may have to do with her, they shall be slain; the woman by the casting of stones, and the beast by the slaughter of spikes, they shall die; for they are deserving of death. And if a man lie with his sister, his father's daughter, or the daughter of his mother, and he dishonour her nakedness, it is depravity: for I showed mercy with the first ones, on behalf of the peopling of the world by them, while as yet I had not promulged the law in the world: but after the law bath been declared in the world, every one who committeth these things shall be destroyed by mortality, and the children of their people shall witness their punishment; for be who bath dishonoured the nakedness of his sister shall be guilty of death. And a man who lieth with a woman who is unclean, and dishonoureth her nakedness, they shall both of them be destroyed by a plague from among their people. Nor shalt thou dishonour the nakedness of thy mother's sister nor thy father's sister; for he hath dishonoured the flesh of his near kin: they shall receive the penalty of their guilt in dying. And if a man lie with the wife of his father's brother, he hath dishonoured the nakedness of his father's brother: they shall receive their punishment; they shall be consumed by mortality; without children shall they die. And if a man take the wife of his brother during his life, it is an abomination: he hath dishonoured the nakedness of his brother; without children shall they be.

But you, the congregation of Israel, shall observe all My statutes, and all the ordinations of My judgments, and do them; that the land into which I am to bring you to dwell in it may not cast you out: and walk not after the laws of the peoples whom I drive away from before you; for they have committed all these abhorrent things, and My Word hath abhorred them. But I have told you to beware of these horrors, that you may inherit their land; and I will give it you to possess it, a land producing milk and honey I am the Lord your God who have separated you from the nations. And you shall make distinction between the animal which is fit to be eaten, and that which it is improper to eat; and between the fowl which it is improper to eat, and that which is fit to be eaten. Defile not your souls by (eating of) the animal that is torn by a wild beast, or the bird torn by the falcon, or anything that creepeth upon the which I have from you for their uncleanness. And you shall be holy before me; for holy am I, the Lord, who have chosen you, and separated you from the nations to be wor­shippers before Me. And the man or the woman who hath in them (the spirit of) divination or necromancy shall die by the casting of stones; for they are guilty of death.


[1] Heb., peah, "corner." Targ., umana, "nook, or edge."

[2] "the triple tongue." See introduction, vol., I., p. 12.

[3] Sanhedrin, vii., 7.

[4] "In the heaper up, (shovel,) and the smoother off; michka, an instument of wood for smoothing off the surface of a measure of any dry material, so as to make it exactly full, and no more.