Go to Related Reading
About this book

Leviticus

About this book
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 24:3 and LXX Leviticus 24:3

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

Share:

Summary

In Leviticus 24, the duty of watching the lamps is assigned only to Aaron, the high priest. The Greek Septuagint translation expands this task to include Aaron and his sons, likely to harmonize this account with a similar passage in Exodus.

Passages

Leviticus 24:3

Hebrew Bible
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.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

LXX Leviticus 24:3

Septuagint
2 Charge the children of Israel, and let them take for me pure olive oil beaten for the light, to burn a lamp continually, 3 outside the veil in the tabernacle of witness; and Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening until morning before the Lord continually, a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 4 You shall burn the lamps on the pure lamp-stand before the Lord till morning.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Leviticus

References

"... Apart from the errors that occurred during the transmission history of the text of Leviticus, literary considerations may explain some textual discrepancies. Indeed, there are cases in Leviticus where different readings allow different interpretations, so that one cannot easily assert that they are mistaken readings. Such interpretations can be observed for instance in Leviticus 9 and 24. It seems that the tasks of the high priest and those of the ordinary priests have been adjusted in some witnesses ... A reversed case occurs in Leviticus 24:3-4. Here the Masoretic text asserts that Aaron (the high priest) alone is in charge of preparing and kindling the lamps of the Menorah. However, according to the Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint, this task is attributed to “Aaron and his sons,” which means all of the priests. It is possible that their reading resulted from harmonization with Exodus 27:20-21, where “Aaron and his sons” is read in all the witnesses ... Interestingly, 11QTa IX,13-14 asserts that the lamps are arranged by the priests, sons of Aaron, while Aaron himself is not mentioned for this task. Thus, there is like a literary evolution and discussion dealing with who is in charge of the lamps of the Menorah ..."
Innocent Himbaza, “Where Does the Text of Leviticus Stand?” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 1–12.

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

Tags

Your feedback

Leviticus 24:3 and LXX Leviticus 24:3

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library