Leviticus 24King James Version
The pure olive oil for the lamp that burns continually. The twelve loaves of showbread set before the Lord every Sabbath. Then a story: a man whose mother is Israelite and father is Egyptian blasphemes the name of the Lord in a fight. The people stone him outside the camp. The first death sentence carried out in the wilderness.
God commands the tabernacle lamp to burn continually and the showbread to be set out every Sabbath. Then a narrative intrusion: a man of mixed parentage blasphemes God's name during a fight. God instructs Moses: stone him. The principle of proportional justice follows: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The man is executed.
The tabernacle requires constant tending. The community requires consistent justice. Continuity in both is non-negotiable.
24:16 "And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death." The law applies to the sojourner equally. There is one standard.
Sinai desert encampment. The fight and the blasphemy happen in the camp, not at the altar. This is an ordinary dispute that crosses a sacred line. The case is unprecedented, which is why Moses has to bring it to God directly.
The blasphemer is the son of an Israelite woman (Shelomith, daughter of Dibri of Dan) and an Egyptian father. He is the only named individual in this narrative aside from his mother. Moses brings the case to God. The whole congregation carries out the sentence.
Chapter 24 pairs tabernacle maintenance with the episode of blasphemy in a striking juxtaposition. The lamp and bread represent ongoing sacred order; the blasphemy represents its rupture. The equal application of the law to the mixed-heritage man is a specific legal ruling: the covenant's standards are not ethnically circumscribed.
For when you have heard something said about God that felt genuinely wrong and have not known how to hold that. The chapter treats the name of God as something with weight. That weight is a form of honor.
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually.
3Without the vail of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations.
4He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the LORD continually.
5And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
6And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD.
7And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
8Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant.
9And it shall be Aaron's and his sons'; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.
10And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp;
11And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the LORD, and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:)
12And they put him in ward, that the mind of the LORD might be shewed them.
13And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
14Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
15And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin.
16And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death.
17And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.
18And he that killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast.
19And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;
20Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.
21And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it: and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death.
22Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.
23And Moses spake to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.