Study

a Bible passage

Click a verse to see commentary
Select a resource above

The Lamp

24

The L ord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the lamp, that a light may be kept burning regularly. 3Aaron shall set it up in the tent of meeting, outside the curtain of the covenant, to burn from evening to morning before the L ord regularly; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. 4He shall set up the lamps on the lampstand of pure gold before the L ord regularly.

The Bread for the Tabernacle

5 You shall take choice flour, and bake twelve loaves of it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. 6You shall place them in two rows, six in a row, on the table of pure gold. 7You shall put pure frankincense with each row, to be a token offering for the bread, as an offering by fire to the L ord. 8Every sabbath day Aaron shall set them in order before the L ord regularly as a commitment of the people of Israel, as a covenant forever. 9They shall be for Aaron and his descendants, who shall eat them in a holy place, for they are most holy portions for him from the offerings by fire to the L ord, a perpetual due.

Blasphemy and Its Punishment

10 A man whose mother was an Israelite and whose father was an Egyptian came out among the people of Israel; and the Israelite woman’s son and a certain Israelite began fighting in the camp. 11The Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the Name in a curse. And they brought him to Moses—now his mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan— 12and they put him in custody, until the decision of the L ord should be made clear to them.

13 The L ord said to Moses, saying: 14Take the blasphemer outside the camp; and let all who were within hearing lay their hands on his head, and let the whole congregation stone him. 15And speak to the people of Israel, saying: Anyone who curses God shall bear the sin. 16One who blasphemes the name of the L ord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer. Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death. 17Anyone who kills a human being shall be put to death. 18Anyone who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. 19Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: 20fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. 21One who kills an animal shall make restitution for it; but one who kills a human being shall be put to death. 22You shall have one law for the alien and for the citizen: for I am the L ord your God. 23Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel; and they took the blasphemer outside the camp, and stoned him to death. The people of Israel did as the L ord had commanded Moses.


40. And ye shall take you on the first day. By this symbol the Jews were instructed that this day was to be celebrated with joy and gladness; for it was not only a memorial of the favor which He had graciously bestowed on their fathers in the desert, when they were exposed to all the vicissitudes of heaven, 356356     “De pluyes, de gresles, de froid, et de chaud.” — Fr. and He cherished them under His wings as an eagle does her brood; but it was also an act of thanksgiving, because He had provided them so commodious a reception in the Promised Land; thus, by carrying the boughs, they proclaimed their joy and triumph as it were. Nor would it have been reasonable that they should go into the booths in sorrow and sadness, since they represented visibly to them both the former and present goodness of God, and at the same time gave them a foretaste of the life of heaven, inasmuch as they were but sojourners on earth. Some suppose הדר, hadar, 357357     “The Jews limit this to the citron; but this is a mere tradition of men. The words mean any tree whatsoever that was attractive and goodly. Jahn says, ‘Any noble tree, such as the palm, or the malum Punicum.’ So Rosenmuller.” — Bonar in loco. to be a proper name, but since it everywhere means “comeliness,” I have been unwilling to depart from its ordinary sense; nor do I curiously insist on the words, except so far as it is necessary to ascertain the actual substance.


VIEWNAME is study