Psalm 20:1-9 In What Do You Trust?
20:1 “May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high, 2 send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion, 3 remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah.4 May He grant you your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your counsel/plans. 5 We will triumph in your salvation. In the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May Yahweh grant all your requests. 6 Now I know that Yahweh saves His anointed. He will answer him from His holy heaven, with the saving strength of His right hand. 7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust the name of Yahweh our God. 8 They are bowed down and fallen, but we rise up, and stand upright. 9 Yahweh save the King. Answer us when we call!"
Observations: Psalm 20 has some good tips when praying for someone else (other than “God be with or bless so-and-so.”)
20:4-5 It's not just about their requests, but a reminder of all that God can do when His people trust Him. (20:1-3, 6,8)
20:6-7 God answers prayer so others can see what He does, and be encouraged to seek Him.
Application: Are your requests and desires such that others would want God to be glorified in answering them?
Prayer: God, my King, You are greater than chariots and horses; thank You that You don't just answer but You support, You help, You cause Your people to rise and stand upright, and rejoice in your deliverance. Amen.
Proverbs 5:22-23 Don't Go There!
5:22 “(21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh. He examines all his paths) 22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly. 23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.“
Observations: 5:22-24 This chapter was devoted almost exclusively to avoiding immorality, ending in 5:21, with a stern warning that God is intently considering and examining (judging) all our paths. The final verses address the consequences of ignoring wisdom with respect to sexual purity. Repeated sin wears a rut in our thinking and physiologically in our brains, making it easier and easier for desires to express themselves in evil, and more and more difficult to do the right thing. Like the Lilliputian threads eventually bound Gulliver, so the thinnest webs of sin accumulate to form an unbreakable snare. The fool, who chooses the wrong objective of short-term sensual gratification will die due to a lack of correction/instruction. Repeated folly causes the fool to go astray, as in over the cliff, and smashed on the rocks. There is no happy ending for the fool.
Application: Don't train yourself to like things that aren't profitable or good for you.
Prayer: Lord, help me see sin for the deadly evil it is, and not be deceived by its deception; please guide me to the paths of righteousness and peace. Thanks. Amen.
Leviticus 24-27 If you're short on time skip directly to chapter 26, in which God specifies how He blesses the wise and how He curses the wayward. Your view of God should never be the same (see Digging Deeper).
Leviticus 24 Pure Oil, Bread, and Stones
11 the son of the Israelite woman (and Egyptian father) blasphemed the Name with a curse; NIV and they brought him to Moses.14 Bring forth him who has cursed outside of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 22 You shall have one manner of law, as well for the sojourner, as for the home-born: for I am Yahweh your God. 23 Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought forth him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Observations: As In Exodus 22 the community had the responsibility of enforcing God's laws.
24:11 To blaspheme is usually translated “to curse” in Greek, it means to “speak against.” The Hebrew word translated “curse” in v11 is the intentional intensive form of the verb “to slight, or be of little account.” This looks like an intentional misuse of God's name to bring harm on his opponent, both of whose parents were Israelites. This explains the comment in v22.
Leviticus 25 Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee
25:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits of it; 4 but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. 5 That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you;
8 You shall number seven Sabbaths of years...even forty-nine years. 9 Then shall you send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family. 8 Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20 If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase; 21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. 22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.
39 If your brother has grown poor with you, and sell himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a bond-servant. 40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you to the year of jubilee: 41 then shall he go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondservants.
44 As for your bondservants, and your bondmaids, whom you shall have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall you buy bondservants and bondmaids.
55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.
Observations: 25:6 They could eat what was in the field, in the field, but not harvest it. God would command blessing (25:21) so the land would produce triple: enough for the sixth, seventh, and eighth year (because they couldn't sow in the seventh year to yield a crop in the eighth). Ex 23:11 introduced the Sabbath for the land, indicating the benefit for the poor.
The only way this command could have been proposed and accepted is if God were obviously and supernaturally providing for His people (manna in the morning).
25:23 The Year of Jubilee was a fresh start, all farm land (means of production) reverted back to the original owners (so it was to be purchased with that in mind). Israelites who had sold themselves to pay their debts went free, because they were the Lord's servants. Foreign slaves didn't. There is no record that Israel followed these commands. In fact they went into captivity for the amount of time necessary for the land to get its Sabbath rest.
Leviticus 26:15 "and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant; 16 I also will do this to you: 32 I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 You will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies` land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn`t have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it."
Application: Although He might apparently delay, God will do what He has promised, whether to bless or curse. Since Israel wouldn't obey and reap the blessing of the Sabbath year, God cursed them with exile so the land could rest. Whether by blessing or cursing God would have His way; so doesn't it make sense to do things His way?
Prayer: God whom I serve, may I do all that You have commanded, so You can command Your blessings upon me, and I can praise You for Your goodness to me. Amen.
Leviticus 26 Choose Blessing or Cursing, Your Choice
9 I will have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall bring forth the old because of the new. 11 I will set my tent among you: and my soul won`t abhor you. 12 I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondservants; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14 But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant; 16 I also will do this to you:
I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck before your enemies: those who hate you shall rule over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.
18 If you will not yet for these things listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your sky as iron, and your earth as brass; 20 and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21 If you walk contrary to me, and still won`t listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins. 22 I will send the animal of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate.
23 If by these things you still won`t be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me; 24 then will I also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins. 25 I will bring a sword on you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27 If you still won`t for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me; 28 then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat. 30 I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you. 31 I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I won`t smell the savor of your sweet odors. 32 I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 You will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies` land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn`t have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it.
40 They shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me, 41 I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: IF then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; 42 then will I remember my covenant...43...even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God; 45 but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Yahweh. 46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
Observations: 26:5 There will be so much grain, they'll be threshing it until it's time to make wine, and then so much wine, they'll be making it until it's grain time again. I was going to condense the blessing section, but it's too good to leave out.
26:14 The cursing section (which is longer than the blessings because we tend to be motivated more by fear than desire) begins with not listening to God's Word. The soul abhorring (unsanctified mind, will, and emotions/values) leads to not valuing but breaking the covenant and getting themselves broke as a consequence.
Mini-application: make sure Daily Truthbase gets to your Inbox and is opened every day :)
26:14-35 Five times God ups the volume to get Israel to pay attention. Each time they refuse to respond in humility, until they can't get worse without being totally annihilated.
26:40-46 Note the incredible grace God extends to the rebellious redeemed Israelites who refused His blessings, and then His correction, just because they wanted to rule their own lives. Well they did, and look where it got them, enemies ruling over them. When they finally repent, God relents, and takes them back. Anyone who says the God of the OT isn't gracious is parroting one of Satan's lies.
Application: Learn at the low volume, that way you'll enjoy blessings rather than cursings. Smart, huh?
Prayer: Gracious God, forgive me for not valuing Your words and obeying You; thank You that You accept the humble and repentant. May I walk in Your ways the rest of my days, and reap Your blessings rather than Your cursings. Amen.
27:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person in a vow, according to your valuation...8 But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall assign a value to him. The priest shall assign a value according to his ability to pay.
9 “‘If it is an animal, of which men offer an offering to Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh becomes holy. 10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. 14 “‘When a man dedicates his house to be holy to Yahweh, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as the priest shall evaluate it, so shall it stand. 15 If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.
16 “‘If a man dedicates to Yahweh part of the field of his possession...25 All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel. 30 “‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh’s. It is holy to Yahweh. 31 If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth part to it. 32 All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh. 33 He shall not search whether it is good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he changes it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.’” 34 These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
Observations: A person could dedicate something to God out of gratitude or in a bargain. This chapter deals with the valuation of the vow (so the person could give the money value of the item to the service of the sanctuary), and the method of redeeming it (buying it back plus 20%) so the individual could use it again. Vows couldn't be altered.
27:25 Sets a uniform standard of monetary measure.
27:32 The tithe (a 10% flat tax on all the land produced) belonged to Yahweh.
Ecc 5:4 When you vow a vow to God, don't defer to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you vow.5 It is better that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.6 Don't allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don't protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
Application: If you vow to give something to God, give it.
Prayer: God, You always keep Your word to me; help me keep mine to You. Amen.
Digging Deeper:
God in a nutshell: It should come as no surprise to those who've been reading from Genesis 1 that our God blesses and curses based upon our obedience. His blessings flow out of His infinite goodness and justice, as do His cursings. He is patient and gracious in sending difficulties our way, escalating them to the point where we repent and start doing what is in our own best interest. He will relent when we repent, but we may still suffer the natural consequences of our actions (which may include total loss of blessings -see Numbers 14).
Us in a nutshell: We are owned by God, as is the world. We would be wise to remember that and do as He instructs. Failure to follow Him results in failure, disobedience in discipline, rebellion in retribution. We are given the choice of following the route to blessings or cursings. If we choose incorrectly, God graciously gives incentives to go the right way, and gives us the opportunity to humble ourselves, acknowledge that we don't own our lives, and do things His way.
Where to Go for More:
Truthbase.net
Leviticus 25-27 (complete text)
Leviticus 24
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Command the children of Israel, that they bring to you pure olive oil beaten for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continually. 3 Outside of the veil of the testimony, in the tent of meeting, shall Aaron keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4 He shall keep in order the lamps on the pure lampstand before Yahweh continually. 5 You shall take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes of it: two tenth parts [of an ephah] shall be in one cake. 6 You shall set them in two rows, six on a row, on the pure table before Yahweh. 7 You shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be to the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 8 Every Sabbath day he shall set it in order before Yahweh continually; it is on the behalf of the children of Israel, an everlasting covenant. 9 It shall be for Aaron and his sons; and they shall eat it in a holy place: for it is most holy to him of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire by a perpetual statute. 10 The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and the son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp: 11 and the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother`s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. 12 They put him in custody, that it might be declared to them at the mouth of Yahweh. 13 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 14 Bring forth him who has cursed outside of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. 15 You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. 16 He who blasphemes the name of Yahweh, he shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the sojourner, as the home-born, when he blasphemes the name [of Yahweh], shall be put to death. 17 He who strikes any man mortally shall surely be put to death. 18 He who strikes a animal mortally shall make it good, life for life. 19 If a man cause a blemish in his neighbor; as he has done, so shall it be done to him: 20 breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be rendered to him. 21 He who kills a animal shall make it good: and he who kills a man shall be put to death. 22 You shall have one manner of law, as well for the sojourner, as for the home-born: for I am Yahweh your God. 23 Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they brought forth him who had cursed out of the camp, and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Leviticus 25
25:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits of it; 4 but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard. 5 That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for you, and for your servant and for your maid, and for your hired servant and for your stranger, who sojourn with you. 7 For your cattle, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food. 8 You shall number seven Sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. 9 Then shall you send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family. 11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat the increase of it out of the field. 13 In this year of jubilee you shall return every man to his possession. 14 If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy of your neighbor`s hand, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, [and] according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops does he sell to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God. 18 Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase; 21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. 22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store. 23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land. 25 If your brother who is next to him come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold. 26 If a man have no one to redeem it, and he be grew rich and find sufficient to redeem it; 27 then let him reckon the years of the sale of it, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his possession. 28 But if he isn`t able to get it back for himself, then that which he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession. 29 If a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption. 30 If it isn`t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. 32 Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33 If one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. 35 If your brother has grown poor, and his hand fail with you; then you shall uphold him: [as] a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with you. 36 Take no interest of him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live with you. 37 You shall not give him your money on interest, nor give him your victuals for increase. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God. 39 If your brother has grown poor with you, and sell himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a bond-servant. 40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you to the year of jubilee: 41 then shall he go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondservants. 43 You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God. 44 As for your bondservants, and your bondmaids, whom you shall have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall you buy bondservants and bondmaids. 45 Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land: and they shall be your possession. 46 You shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall you take your bondservants forever: but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with rigor. 47 If a stranger or sojourner with you has grown rich, and your brother has grown poor beside him, and sell himself to the stranger [or] sojourner with you, or to the stock of the stranger`s family; 48 after that he is sold he may be redeemed: one of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle, or his uncle`s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. 50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him. 51 If there be yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years shall he give back the price of his redemption. 53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight. 54 If he isn`t redeemed by these [means], then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him. 55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.
Leviticus 26
26:1 You shall make you no idols, neither shall you rear you up an engraved image, or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am Yahweh your God. 2 You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am Yahweh. 3 If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will cause evil animals to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 I will have respect to you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall bring forth the old because of the new. 11 I will set my tent among you: and my soul won`t abhor you. 12 I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondservants; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright. 14 But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhor my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant; 16 I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck before your enemies: those who hate you shall rule over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you. 18 If you will not yet for these things listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins. 19 I will break the pride of your power: and I will make your sky as iron, and your earth as brass; 20 and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. 21 If you walk contrary to me, and won`t listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins. 22 I will send the animal of the field among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your ways shall become desolate. 23 If by these things you won`t be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me; 24 then will I also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins. 25 I will bring a sword on you, that shall execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you shall be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied. 27 If you won`t for all this listen to me, but walk contrary to me; 28 then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat. 30 I will destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-images, and cast your dead bodies on the bodies of your idols; and my soul shall abhor you. 31 I will make your cities a waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I won`t smell the savor of your sweet odors. 32 I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 You will I scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy its Sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemies` land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it didn`t have in your Sabbaths, when you lived on it. 36 As for those who are left of you, I will send a faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble one on another, as it were before the sword, when none pursues: and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 Those who are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies` lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40 They shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me, 41 I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity; 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its Sabbaths, while it lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God; 45 but I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am Yahweh. 46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws, which Yahweh made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
Leviticus 27
27:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When a man consecrates a person in a vow, according to your valuation,3 your valuation of a male from twenty years old even to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary. 4 If she is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels. 5 If the person is from five years old even to twenty years old, then your valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 6 If the person is from a month old even to five years old, then your valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female your valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 If the person is from sixty years old and upward; if he is a male, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 8 But if he is poorer than your valuation, then he shall be set before the priest, and the priest shall assign a value to him. The priest shall assign a value according to his ability to pay.
9 “‘If it is an animal, of which men offer an offering to Yahweh, all that any man gives of such to Yahweh becomes holy. 10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change animal for animal, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. 11 If it is any unclean animal, of which they do not offer as an offering to Yahweh, then he shall set the animal before the priest; 12 and the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad. As you the priest values it, so shall it be. 13 But if he will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of it to its valuation.
14 “‘When a man dedicates his house to be holy to Yahweh, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it is good or bad: as the priest shall evaluate it, so shall it stand. 15 If he who dedicates it will redeem his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be his.
16 “‘If a man dedicates to Yahweh part of the field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it: the sowing of a homer * of barley shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he dedicates his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to your valuation it shall stand. 18 But if he dedicates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain to the Year of Jubilee; and an abatement shall be made from your valuation. 19 If he who dedicated the field will indeed redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall remain his. 20 If he will not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more; 21 but the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, shall be holy to Yahweh, as a field devoted; it shall be owned by the priests.
22 “‘If he dedicates to Yahweh a field which he has bought, which is not of the field of his possession, 23 then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation up to the Year of Jubilee; and he shall give your valuation on that day, as a holy thing to Yahweh. 24 In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land belongs. 25 All your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel.
26 “‘Only the firstborn among animals, which is made a firstborn to Yahweh, no man may dedicate it; whether an ox or sheep, it is Yahweh’s. 27 If it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back according to your valuation, and shall add to it the fifth part of it: or if it isn’t redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.
28 “‘Notwithstanding, no devoted thing, that a man shall devote to Yahweh of all that he has, whether of man or animal, or of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy to Yahweh.
29 “‘No one devoted, who shall be devoted from among men, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.
30 “‘All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is Yahweh’s. It is holy to Yahweh. 31 If a man redeems anything of his tithe, he shall add a fifth part to it. 32 All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh. 33 He shall not search whether it is good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he changes it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”
34 These are the commandments which Yahweh commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai.
