more laws
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
2 “Tell this to the people of Israel: This is a rule for you when you have entered the land I give to you.
3 When you make a fragrant offer ing to Yahweh, either as a burnt offering or in pay ment of a vow, or as a voluntary gift, or on the occasion of one of your solemn feasts, whoever takes from his herds and flocks for a fragrant offering to Yahweh
4 shall bring also, as a gift to Yahweh, a grain offering of two pounds of fine flour mixed with two pints of oil.
5 He shall also make a wine offering, two pints for each lamb, in addition to the burnt offering or sacri fice.
6 For a man, he shall make a grain offering of four pounds of fine flour mixed with three pints of oil,
7 and a wine offering of three pints of wine, offering it as a sweet-smelling offer ing for Yahweh.
8 If he offers a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, in payment of a vow or as a peace offering to Yahweh,
9 he shall offer also a grain offering of six pounds of fine flour mixed with four pints of oil,
10 and a wine offering of four pints of wine, as a burnt offering, sweet-smelling offering to Yahweh.
11 This must be done for every bull, every ram, every lamb or goat.
12 Whatever the number of victims you have for sacrifice, you must do the same for each of them.
13 This must be done by every man of your people who makes a burnt offering, as a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh.
14 If any stranger living among you, or among your descendants, will also make a burnt offering, as a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh: just as you act, so must the stranger do.
15 There shall be only one law for you and for the foreigner among you. This is a law that shall bind your descendants forever before Yahweh: you and the stranger are alike.
16 There is to be the same law, and the same regulation for you and for the stranger who lives among you.”
17 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
18 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you have entered the land to which I am bringing you,
19 and you eat the bread of this country, you shall set aside a share for Yahweh.
20 You must set aside one loaf as the first fruits of your grain, and set this offering aside like the one set aside from your threshing.
21 You are to set aside for Yahweh a share of the best of your flour, and your descendants are to do the same, from generation to generation.
22 If without meaning to do so, you fail in any of these commands that Yahweh has given to Moses
23 and that Yahweh has commanded you through Moses, this is what you have to do, you and your descendants.
24 If it is an unintentional fault of the community, the community as a whole must make a burnt offering of a young bull, a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh, with the required offering of flour and wine, and a he-goat must be offered as a sacrifice for sin.
25 The priest must perform the ceremony of atone ment over the entire community of Israel, and pardon will be given, since it was an un inten tional fault and they have brought their offering as a burnt offering to Yahweh, not counting their sacrifice for sin for their un intentional fault.
26 The entire community of Israel will be forgiven, as also the stranger who lives among them, since the entire people have sinned without meaning to do so.
27 If it is an individual who has sinned unintentionally, he must offer a one-year-old goat in sacrifice for sin.
28 The priest shall perform the ceremony of atonement before Yahweh over the person who has gone astray by this sin of inadvertence; when the ceremony of atonement has been performed over him, he will be for given,
29 whether he is an Israelite, or a stranger living among them. There shall be only one law among you for the one who sins by an unin tentional fault.
30 But the one who sins deliberately, whether native or stranger, angers Yah weh himself. Such a person must be cut off from the com munity;
31 he has rejected the word of Yahweh and broken his command. This person must be entirely cut off because of sin.”
Breaking the sabbath
32 While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, a man was caught gathering wood on the sabbath day.
33 Those who caught him gathering wood brought him before Moses, Aaron and the whole community.
34 He was kept under guard be cause the penalty he should undergo had not yet been decided.
35 Yahweh said to Moses, “This man must be put to death: the whole community shall stone him outside the camp.”
36 The whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him till he was dead, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
37 Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,
38 “Speak to the people of Israel and tell them to put a fringe on the hems of their garments and a violet cord on this fringe.
39 You must then have a fringe, and the sight of it will remind you of all the commands of Yahweh. You are then to put them into practice, and no longer follow the desires of your heart and your eyes, which would lead you to go astray.
40 So you will re mem ber all my commandments to put them into practice, and you will be consecrated to your God.
41 It is I, Yahweh your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt so that I may be your God, I, Yahweh, your God.”
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments Numbers, Chapter 15
• 15.1 In chapters 15–19 we again have laws and customs of Israel.
– 15:17. Instructions about offering the first batch of bread—the first loaves from flour of the harvest. The people of God will be a well-trained and courteous people: they will not eat without giving thanks nor serve themselves first, but will offer the first part to the Levite or the poor, which means offering it to God.
– 15:37. The purple cord can be compared to the badges which many people wear today: an external sign which is good insofar as it corresponds to an interior disposition. Jesus accepted this prescription (Mt 9:20) but he criticized those who wore these tassels only for show (Mt 23:5).