Leviticus

Rules for voluntary burnt offerings: an unblemished male from herd or flock, or turtledove/pigeon, is slaughtered at the Tent entrance; the offerer lays hands on it for atonement, blood is splashed on the altar, and the whole animal is burned as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

Grain (tribute) offerings: fine flour mixed with oil and frankincense or baked as unleavened cakes/wafers. A memorial handful is burned; the remainder is most-holy food for priests. Leaven and honey are forbidden, but every offering must be seasoned with covenant salt. Firstfruits of parched kernels may also be presented.

Peace (fellowship) offerings of cattle, sheep, or goats—male or female without defect. Blood is dashed on the altar and specific fat portions (kidneys, liver lobe, fat tail on a lamb) are burned for the LORD. It is a perpetual statute that Israel must never eat fat or blood.

Sin offerings for unintentional transgressions: a bull for the anointed priest or the congregation (with blood taken inside the sanctuary); a male goat for a tribal leader; a female goat or lamb for an ordinary Israelite. Blood is smeared on the altar horns and the fat burned, securing divine forgiveness.

Extra cases of guilt—failure to testify, touching uncleanness, rash oaths—require confession and a variable sin offering: female sheep/goat, two turtledoves/pigeons, or fine flour for the very poor. Introduction of the guilt (reparation) offering: an unblemished ram plus 20 % restitution for desecrated holy things or deception.

Further guilt-offering law: theft, fraud, or lost property sworn falsely must be repaid with an added fifth, and a ram is sacrificed. Altar fire must never go out; ashes removed daily. Priests eat unleavened portions of grain, sin, and guilt offerings in a holy place; any blood-stained garment is washed there.

Guilt offering meat belongs to the officiating priest. Peace offerings: thanksgiving sacrifices eaten the same day with leavened and unleavened breads; vow or freewill sacrifices may be eaten on the second day, but leftovers burned on the third. Reiteration: no eating fat or blood. Priest receives the wave breast and contributed right thigh.

Moses publicly consecrates Aaron and his sons: washing, vesting in sacred garments, anointing the tabernacle, altar, and priests with oil. A bull for sin, a ram for burnt offering, and an ordination ram are sacrificed; blood is daubed on the priests’ right ear, thumb, and big toe. They remain at the tent entrance for seven days.

On the eighth day Aaron begins service—offers a calf and ram for himself, and goat, calf, lamb, ox, ram, grain, and fellowship offerings for the people. After blessing, the glory of the LORD appears and fire shoots out to consume the sacrifices, leading the nation to shout and prostrate themselves.

Priests Nadab and Abihu present unauthorized fire and are consumed by divine fire. Mourning rites are restricted for priests on duty. God forbids intoxicating drink during service to preserve discernment. Eating of the sin offering is clarified after a dispute between Moses and Aaron.

Clean-unclean dietary code: land animals must both chew cud and have split hooves; fish need fins and scales; forbidden birds listed; only hopping insects (locusts, crickets) are clean. Carcass contact defiles until evening; rules for contaminated vessels and seed.

Post-childbirth purification: mother is unclean 7 days for a son (circumcised on the 8th) and 14 for a daughter, followed by 33 or 66 days of blood purification. She brings a lamb for burnt offering and a pigeon/dove for sin offering—or two birds if poor—for atonement.

Priests diagnose skin diseases: white sores, raw flesh, boils, burns, scalp/beard infections. Suspected cases are isolated for seven-day intervals. Declared lepers live outside camp crying ‘Unclean’. Mold/mildew in cloth or leather is likewise examined, washed, isolated, and burned if it spreads.

Cleansing of healed lepers: two birds ceremony outside camp, seven-day wait with shaving and washing, then on day eight guilt, sin, burnt, and grain offerings with blood and oil applied to ear, thumb, toe. Similar inspection and remediation for infected houses, including removal of stones or total demolition.

Regulations on bodily discharges: chronic male discharge renders uncleanness for its duration plus 7 days; seminal emission requires bathing and sunset wait. Menstruating women unclean 7 days; longer hemorrhage follows discharge rules. After cleansing, two birds are offered for atonement.

Day of Atonement rites: high priest in linen garments sacrifices a bull for himself and a goat for the people, bringing blood into the Most Holy Place. A live scapegoat bearing Israel’s sins is sent into the wilderness. The day (10th of 7th month) is an annual Sabbath of fasting and national atonement.

All animal slaughter for sacrifice must occur at the Tabernacle; sacrificing to ‘goat demons’ is forbidden. Blood may never be eaten because ‘the life is in the blood’ and it makes atonement. Hunters must drain and cover blood; contact with carrion causes temporary uncleanness.

Israel must avoid Egyptian/Canaanite practices. Forbidden unions: close relatives, in-laws, same-sex relations, bestiality, intercourse during menstruation. Adultery and child sacrifice to Molech prohibited. Defiling acts cause the land to vomit out its inhabitants.

Holiness code: revere parents, keep Sabbaths, shun idols, offer sacrifices correctly, leave gleanings for poor, practice honesty, pay wages promptly, care for disabled, pursue justice, avoid hatred. Command to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ and to love the stranger. Bans on occult, body cutting, mixed breeding, unequal weights.

Penalties chapter: death for Molech worship, spiritism, cursing parents, adultery, incest, homosexual acts, bestiality. Lesser penalties (cutting off) for some sins. Israel must be holy and distinct because the LORD is holy.

Priestly purity: ordinary priests avoid corpse defilement except close kin, may not shave bald patches or marry a divorcee or harlot. High priest must not leave sanctuary or tear garments and must marry a virgin. Priests with physical defects may eat holy food but cannot approach the altar.

Priests must be ceremonially clean to handle sacred offerings; outsiders and defiled persons may not eat holy food. Sacrifices presented by Israelites must be unblemished, of proper age, and not from mutilated animals; thanksgiving offerings eaten the same day to be accepted.

Sacred calendar: weekly Sabbath; Passover and seven-day Unleavened Bread; First fruits wave sheaf; Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) fifty days later; Trumpets (1st Tishri); Day of Atonement (10th Tishri); Feast of Tabernacles with living in booths (15-22 Tishri). Each feast has holy assemblies and designated sacrifices.

Pure olive oil keeps the lampstand burning continually; twelve fresh showbread loaves set out weekly. A blasphemer is executed after due process. Civil law reiterated: eye for eye, tooth for tooth—equal justice for native and foreigner.

Sabbatical year every seventh year—land rests, spontaneous produce for all. Jubilee every 50th year: liberty proclaimed, property and Hebrew slaves restored. Land sales priced by years to Jubilee; Israelites not to charge interest to kin; they are the LORD’s servants, not permanent slaves.

Blessings for obedience: timely rain, abundant harvests, peace, victory, God dwelling among them. Progressive curses for disobedience: disease, famine, wild beasts, sword, siege, exile. Yet if they confess, God will remember His covenant and not utterly reject them.

Regulations for vows: people, animals, houses, and fields can be dedicated at set valuations, redeemable with an added fifth. Firstborn animals already belong to God; devoted (cherem) objects cannot be redeemed. Tithes of produce and herds are holy to the LORD, redeemable with a 20 % premium.