1490 B.C.
10: And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the sons of Israel: and this son of the Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; (Jewish tradition says he was a Danite. The Chaldee version says the semi-Egyptian strove to encamp in the tribe of Dan.)
11: And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord (Yehovah), and cursed (Cp. Gen.4:24. Hence the use of "the name" instead of "Yehovah"). And they brought him to Moses: {and his mother's name was Shelomith (=peaceful), the daughter of Dibri (=wordy), of the tribe of Dan (=a judge. Another sad blot on this tribe because of this episode):}
12: And they put him in ward, that the mind of Yehovah might be showed them.
13: And the Lord (Yehovah) spoke to Moses, saying,
14: "Bring forth him that has cursed outside the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head (done only in the case of a blasphemr), and let all the congregation stone him. (9 persons stoned. The number 9 is finality of judgement. 1 - The blasphemer, here; 2 - The sabbath-breaker, Num.15:36; 3 - Achan, Josh.7:25; 4 - Abimelech, Judg.9:53; 5 - Adoram, 1 Kings 12:18 [2 Chron.10:18]; 6 - Naboth, 1 Kings 21:13; 7 - Zeechariah, 2 Chron.24:21; 8 - Stephen, Acts 7:58; 9 - Paul, Acts 14:19 [2 Cor.11:25].)
15: And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'Whosoever curses his God (Elohim) shall bear his sin. ("sin" being put for its penalty.)
16: And he that blasphems the name of the Lord (Yehovah), 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 blasphems the name of Yehovah, shall be put to death.
17: And he that kills (the soul of, nephesh) a man (=human) shall surely be put to death.
18: And he that kills a beast (Heb. here, the soul) shall make it good; beast for beast. (soul for soul)
19: And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; 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 done to him again.
21: And he that kills a beast, he shall restore it: and he that kills a man, he shall be put to death.
22: You all shall have one manner of law (or judgement), as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord (Yehovah) your God (Elohim)."
23: And Moses spoke to the sons of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp, and stone him with stones. And the sons of Israel did as the Lord (Yehovah) commanded Moses.
P X 1,2. The sabbatic year. Y 3-7. The six years. X 8-13. The jubilee year. Y 14-55. The fort-nine years.
3: Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
1st Sabbath year, 1444-1443 B.C. (future, i.e. when they are in the promised land)
4: But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land (see Ex.16:23), a sabbath for the Lord (Yehovah): you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.
5: That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of your vine unpruned: for it is a year of rest to the land.
6: And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you (for the fruits of the seventh year); for you, and for your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger that sojourns with you,
7: And for your cattle, and for the beast that are in your land, shall all the increase (=gain or profit, so in vv.12,20; not in 16,26,37) thereof be meat.
8: And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years (7 x 7 = 49 = spiritual perfection intensified); and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty and nine years.
9: Then shall you cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound (a curved horn of jubilee, i.e. of loud joyful sound. Heb. yôbêl. First jubilee; the last at the Nativity [the 29th]) on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall yo all make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. (September 23-24th)
1st Jubilee, 1401-1400 B.C. (future from this verse.)
10: And you all shall set apart the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty (cause public notice to be given) throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile to you; and you all shall return every man to his possession, and you all shall return every man to his family.
11: A jubile shall that fiftieth year be to you: you all shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of your vine undressed.
12: For it is the jubile; it shall be holy (set apart) to you: you all shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13: In the year of this jubile you all shall return every man to his possession.
Y Z¹ 14-19. Goods. A¹ 20-22. Case of want. Z² 23,24. Land. A² 25-28. Case of poverty. Z³ 29-34. Houses. A³ 35. Case of poverty. Z4 36-38. Money. A4 39-41. Cases of poverty. Z5 42-46. Bondage. A5 47-55. Cases of poverty.
14: And if you sell anything to your neighbour, or buy anything of your neighbour's hand, you all shall not oppress one another:
15: According to the number of years after the jubile you shall buy of your neighbour (=in proportion, the estimation of value regulated by nearness of the jubiee. So our estimation of value of earthly things governed by our sense of nearness of Christ's comming), and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to you:
16: In proportion to the multitude of years you shall profit the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years you shall diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell to thee.
17: You all shall not therefore oppress one another; but you shall love your God (Elohim): for I am the Lord (Yehovah) your God (Elohim).
18: Wherefore you all shall do My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them; and you all shall dwell in the land in safety (=confidence).
19: And the land shall yield her fruit, and he shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20: And if you all shall say, 'What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:' (A lesson for us. God's "I will" the answer to our "What?")
21: Then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22: And you all shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in you all shall eat of the old store.
23: The land shall not be sold for ever (Fig., as we say "in perpetuity" - absolutely or beyond recovery): for the land is mine (cp. Ex.15:17. Isa.14:8,25. Jer.2:7. Ps.10:16; 78:54); for you all are strangers and sojourners with Me.
24: And in all the land of your possession you all shall grant a redemption for the land. (=repurchase, Heb. g’åal. See Ex.6:6.)
25: If your brother is waxen poor (=brought low), and has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it (=his goêl, or redeemer, next of kin, see Ex.6:6), then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
26: And if the man have no redeemer, and himself be able to repurchase it;
27: Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus to the man to whom he sold it; that he may return to his possession.
28: But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession. (The 12 loaves of Chapter 24 were a witness as to the People; the Jubilee as to the land.)
29: And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold (=within days, "days" being put for a whole year of days); within a full year may he redeem it.
30: And if it be not repurchased within the space of a full year, then the house that is in a city that has walls shall be established for ever (beyond recovery) to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.
31: But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be repurcased, and they shall go out in the jubile.
32: Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites (cp. the 48 cities, Num.35:1-8. Josh.21:1-8), and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites repurchase at any time.
33: And if one of the Levites should not repurchase, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.
34: But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35: And if your brother is brought low, and fallen in decay with you (="his hands have become shaky" or become feeble); then you shall relieve him: yes, though he is a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with you.
36: Take you no usury of him (Heb. nåshak, is a charge on money), or increase (Heb. tarbith or marbith, is a charge of goods. See v.7 and 26:4. These were the deinitions of the authorities of the second temple): but revere (or love) your God (Elohim); that your brother may live with you.
37: You shall not give him your money upon usury, nor lend him your victuals for profit.
38: I am the Lord (Yehovah) your God (Elohim), Which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God (Elohim). (Yehovah became their God, by giving them Canaan. Cp. 26:45.)
39: And if your brother that dwells by you be brought low, and is sold to you (as in 2 Kings 4:1); you shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
40: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you, and shall serve you to the year of jubile:
41: And then shall he depart from you, both he and his sons 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, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt (note the 4 occ. of this expression in these two Chapters: 26:13, brought out to be free men, in relation to the Egyptians; 25:42 in relation to fellow-Israeltes; 25:38, to be inheritors; and 25:55, to be Yehovah's servants): they shall not be sold as bondmen (are sold).
43: You shall not rule over him with rigour; but shall love your God (Elohim).
44: Both your bondmen, and your bondmaids, which you shall have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall you all buy bondmen and bondmaids.
45: Moreover of the sons of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you all buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46: And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your sons after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever (beyond recovery): but over your brethren the sons of Israel, you all shall not rule one over another with rigour.
47: And if a sojourner or stranger brought rich by you, and your brother that dwells by him is brought low, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner by you, or to the stock of the stranger's family:
48: After that he is sold he may be repurchased again; one of his brethren may repurchase him:
49: Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may repurchase him, or any that is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him (=repurchase, cp. Neh.5:8); or if he be able, he may repurchase himself.
50: And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him to the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
51: If there be yet many years behind, according to them he shall give again the price of his repurchase out of the money that he was bought for.
52: And if there remain but few years to the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according to his years shall he give him again the price of his repurchase.
53: And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in your sight.
54: And if he be not repurchased in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his sons with him.
55: For to Me the sons of Israel are servants; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord (Yehovah) your God (Elohim).
A³ B¹ 26:3-46. Yehovah's charge to the officers. B² 27:1-34. The officers' vows to Yehovah.
B¹ C E 3. The People. Obedience. F 4-13. Blessings. D G¹ 14,15. Disobedience. H¹ 16,17. Punishment. G² 18-. Disobedience. H² -18-20. Punishment. G³ 21-. Disobedience. H³ -21,22. Punishment. G4 23. Disobedience. H4 24-26. Punishment. G5 27. Disobedience. H5 28-39. Punishment. C E 40,41. The People. Repentance. F 42-46. Blessings.
3: If you all walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; (Note the 4 occ. of "if" and "then" in this chapter).
a 3,4. Obedience. Consequences. b 23,24. Disobedience. b 27,28. Disobedience. a 40,42. Obedience. Confession.4: Then I will give you rain in due season (Heb. rains, i.e, the early and latter rains. Deut.11:14; 28:12; 32:2. Jer.14:22. Ps.72:6), and the land shall yield her produce (or sustanance, Heb. yebûl, see 25:7,36), and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
14: But if you all will not listnen to Me, and will not do all these commandments;
15: And if you all shall despise My statutes, or if your soul (=you, emphatic) abhor My judgments, so that you all will not do all My commandments, but that you all violate My covenant: (Heb. pårar, break assunder as in v.46; not break in pieces as in vv.13,19,26.)
16: I also will do this to you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague (probably =fever), that shall cause the sight to fail, and cause sorrow of heart (=of the soul): and you all shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
17: And I will set My face against you, and you all shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you all shall flee when none pursues you.
18: And if you all will not yet for all this listen to Me,
then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. (Heb. ’aven pl. of ’åvôn, iniquity, specially connected with idolatry. Used because an idol is nothing and vanity. Cp. Hos.4:15; 5:8; 10:5,8. Amos 5:5. Hence 'aven comes to mean vanity, cp. Job 15:35. Ps.10:7. Prov.22:8 &c. The word has many renderings, which are pointed out in the passages when it occurs. 'Aven is rather a course of bad conduct flowing from evil desires of fallen nature, then breaches of the law as such.)
19: And I will break in pieces your great pride (genitive of cause, the power being cause of the pride. Cp. Ezek.30:6. So Ezek.24:21, where the sense is lost in the A.V. by rendering "the excellency of your strength"); and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
20: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her profit, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
21: And if you all walk contrary to Me (first.occ., and only in this chapter [7 times]), and will not listen to Me;
I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your iniquity.
22: I will also send wild beasts among you (these abounded in Palestine. Deut.32:24. 2 Kings 17:25. Isa.13:21,22. Ezek.14:15 &c.), which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
23: And if you all will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary to Me;
24: Then will I also walk contrary to you, and will punish you yet seven times for your iniquity.
25: And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant: and when you all are gathered together (=withdrawn or escaped to, cp. Jer.21:6-9. Ezek.5:12; 7:15) within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26: And when I have broken in pieces the staff of your bread (Fig. Double Metonymy, bread being put for the support it gives, and staff which it is; and the breaking of the staff put for the cutting off of the supply. Cp. Isa.3:1. Ezek.4:16; 5:15; 14:13. Ps.105:16), then ten women shall bake your bread in one oven (i.e. one oven shall be sufficient for ten families. Cp. 2 Kings 6:28,29), and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and you all shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27: And if you all will not for all this Listen to Me, but walk contrary to Me;
28: Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your iniquity (or vanity).
29: And you all shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you all eat.
30: And I will destroy your high places (used for idolatrous worship, Num.22:41; 33:52. Deut.12:2. Josh.13:17. Thus showing the helplessness of the gods worshipped), and cut down your images (Heb. hammanim, sun-idols. Cp. v.1. 2 Chron. 34:4. This was prophetic), and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols (this is another prophecy, see 2 Kings 23:20. 2 Chron.34:5. Idols were logs of wood. Heb. gallumim, trunks, blocks, used in derision for idols. Also derived from galal = dung, or detestable thing. First occ; frequently in Ezek ), and My soul shall abhor you. (This is the converse of v.11)
31: And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. (See Isa.11:3)
32: And I Myself (emphatic) will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
33: And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
34: Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths (cp. 18:25), as long as it lies desolate, and you all be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
35: As long as it lies desolate it shall rest (cp. Jer.34:17. 2 Chron.36:21); because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you all dwelt upon it.
36: And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursues.
37: And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursues: and you all shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38: And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39: And they that are left of you shall pine away in their perverseness in your enemies' lands; and also in the perversity of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40: If they shall confess their perverseness (this is the one abiding condition for national blessing and restoration), and the peversity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me (see Lev.5:15), and that also they have walked contrary to Me;
41: And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their perverseness:
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. (This is the only place where the order of the three Patriarchs is inverted.)
43: The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their perverseness: because, even because they despised My regulation, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
44: And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies (cp. Deut.4:31. 2 Kings 13:23. Rom.11:1,2,28,29), I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break My covenant with them: for I am Yehovah their Elohim.
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 natios, that I might be their God (Elohim): I am Yehovah. (Cp. Ps.144:15; 33:12.)
46: These are the statutes and regulations and laws, which Yehovah made between Him and the sons of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.' " (Thus concluding with the words which ths section began in 25:1)
B² J 1,2-. Yehovah's command to Moses. K¹ L¹ c¹ -2-7. Ability. d¹ 8. Inability. M¹ e¹ 9,10. Clean beasts. f¹ 11-13. Unclean beasts. L² c² 14,15. Houses. d² 16-25. Fields. M² e² 26. Clean beasts. f² 27. Unclean beasts. L³ c³ 28,29. Devoted. d³ 30-33. Tithes. J 34. Yehovah's command to Moses.
'When a man shall make a special vow (Heb. "seperate a vow" because a vow was seperated into negative or positive, restraining or promising; i.e. "binding" or "loosing"), the persons (souls) shall be for the Lord (Yehovah) by your estimation.
3: And your estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even to sixty years old, even your estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver (aprox. 25 oz.), after the shekel of the sanctuary.
4: And if it be a female, then your estimation shall be thirty shekels (aprox. 15 oz.).
5: And if it be from five years old even to twenty years old, then your estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels (10 oz.), and for the female ten shekels (5 oz.).
6: And if it be from a month old even to five years old, then your estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver (2 1/2 oz.), and for the female your estimation shall be three shekels of silver (1 1/2oz.).
7: And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then your estimation shall be fifteen shekels (7 1/2 oz.), and for the female ten shekels (5 oz.).
8: But if he be poorer than your estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.
9: And if it is a beast, whereof men bring an admittance offering to Yehovah, all that any man gives of such to Yehovah shall set apart (holy, see Ex.3:5).
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 beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be set apart.
11: And if it is any unclean beast, of which they do not bring near an admittance offering to the Lord (Yehovah), then he shall present the beast before the priest: (=make it stand, as in v.8)
12: And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as you, O priest, value it, so shall it be.
13: But if he will at all repurchase it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof to your estimation.
14: And when a man shall seperate his house to be set apart to Yehovah, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand.
15: And if he that seperated it will repurchase his house, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it shall be his.
16: And if a man shall seperate to the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then your estimation shall be according to the seed thereof: an homer (8 bushels) of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver (25 oz.).
17: If he sanctify his field from the year of jubile, according to yor estimation it shall stand.
18: But if he sanctify his field after the jubile, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain, even to the year of the jubile, and it shall be abated from your estimation.
19: And if he that seperated the field will in any wise repurchase it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of your estimation to it, and it shall be assured to him.
20: And if he will not repurchase the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be repurchased any more.
21: But the field, when it goes out in the jubile, shall be set apart to Yehovah, as a field devoted (Heb. haram, denotes a total and complete seperation, which does not admit of redemption. First occ. of haram. It is rendered "devoted" only in this chapter [6 times], and once in Num.18:14); the possession thereof shall be the priest's.
22: And if a man seperate to the Lord (Yehovah) a field which he has bought, which is not of the fields of his possession;
23: Then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your estimation, even to the year of the jubile: and he shall give your valuation in that day, as a set apart thing to Yehovah.
24: In the year of the jubile the field shall return to him of whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong.
25: And all your estimations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs (1/40 oz.) shall be the shekel (1/2 oz.).
26: Nevertheless the firstling of the beasts, which should be Yehovah's firstling, no man shall seperate it; whether it be ox, or sheep: it is the Lord's (Yehovah's).
27: And if it be of an unclean beast, then he shall repurchase it according to your estimation, and shall add a fifth part of it thereto: or if it be not repurchased, then it shall be sold according to your estimation.
34: These are the commandments, which the Lord (Yehovah) commanded Moses for the sons of Israel in mount Sinai. (Cp. 1:1.)