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Leviticus

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Chapter 24

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Command the Israelites to bring to you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. 3 Outside the special curtain of the congregation in the Meeting Tent, Aaron must arrange it from evening until morning before the Lord continually.⁠ This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 4 On the ceremonially pure lampstand he must arrange the lamps before the Lord continually. 5 “You must take choice wheat flour and bake twelve loaves; there must be two-tenths of an ephah of flour in each loaf, 6 and you must set them in two rows, six in a row, on the ceremonially pure table before the Lord. 7 You must put pure frankincense on each row, and it will become a memorial portion for the bread, a gift to the Lord. 8 Each Sabbath day Aaron must arrange it before the Lord continually; this portion is from the Israelites as a perpetual covenant. 9 It will belong to Aaron and his sons, and they must eat it in a holy place because it is most holy to him, a perpetually-allotted portion from the gifts of the Lord.” 10 Now an Israelite woman’s son whose father was an Egyptian went out among the Israelites, and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man had a fight in the camp. 11 The Israelite woman’s son misused the Name and cursed, so they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 12 So they placed him in custody until they were able to make a clear legal decision for themselves based on words from the mouth of the Lord.⁠ 13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 14 “Bring the one who cursed outside the camp, and all who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation is to stone him to death. 15 Moreover, you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God, he will bear responsibility for his sin, 16 and one who misuses the name of the Lord⁠ must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a resident foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death. 17 “‘If a man beats any person to death, he must be put to death. 18 One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, life for life. 19 If a man inflicts an injury on his fellow citizen, just as he has done it must be done to him—⁠ 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth—just⁠ as he inflicts an injury on another person that same injury must be inflicted on him. 21 One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, but one who beats a person to death must be put to death. 22 There will be one regulation for you, whether a resident foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”⁠ 23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 24:22 and Onkelos Leviticus 24:22

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Leviticus 24 emphasizes equal legal standards for both natives and foreigners, but some versions of the Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos vary in how they translate this verse, showing how copying was a difficult process and could introduce errors.

Passages

Leviticus 24:22

Hebrew Bible
21 One who beats an animal to death must make restitution for it, but one who beats a person to death must be put to death. 22 There will be one regulation for you, whether a resident foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’” 23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Onkelos Leviticus 24:22

Targum
21 And he who kills a beast shall make restitution; but he who kills a man shall be put to death. 22 You shall have one standard of judgment for the proselyte and the native-born alike; for I am the Lord your God. 23 And Moses spoke with the sons of Israel, and they brought out the blasphemer outside the camp, and stoned him with stones; and the sons of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Leviticus

References

"... The Onkelos translation was copied by hand before the invention of the printing press in 1447. Many of the scribes had scant knowledge of Aramaic, which was the language of commerce in the Mediterranean area for about a millennium, but was rarely used after the first half of the first millennium of the Common Era. Hence the various Onkelos texts have multiple errors. For example, Scripture’s hamaarekhet in Leviticus 24:6 and 7 is singular; the Sperber text retains the singular, but the Berliner text pluralizes it in 24:7. Later in 24:16, both of these texts lack the kaf before Keir, although it is retained in other Onkelos versions. In 24:22, where the word reappears, only Berliner omits the kaf. Because of this phenomenon, anyone attempting to read meaning into the targumic wording must compare Targum texts ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Leviticus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2008), 200.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 24:22 and Onkelos Leviticus 24:22

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