The Oil for the Lamps

(Exodus 27:20-21)

1Then the LORD said to Moses, 2“Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually. 3Outside the veil of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps continually before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come. 4He shall tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD continually.

The Showbread

(Exodus 25:23-30; Exodus 37:10-16)

5You are also to take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf, 6and set them in two rows— six per row— on the table of pure gold before the LORD. 7And you are to place pure frankincense near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion for the bread, an offering made by fire to the LORD. 8Every Sabbath day the bread is to be set out before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites as a permanent covenant. 9It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place; for it is to him a most holy part of the offerings made by fire to the LORD— his portion forever.”

Shelomith's Son Blasphemes

10Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite. 11The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12They placed him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.

13Then the LORD said to Moses, 14“Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him. 15 And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin. 16Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

An Eye for an Eye

(Matthew 5:38-48; Luke 6:27-36)

17And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death. 18Whoever kills an animal must make restitution— life for life. 19If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him. 21Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. 22You are to have the same standard of law for the foreign resident and the native; for I am the LORD your God.’ ” 23Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses.