More laws
1 ① Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, 2“Tell this to the people of Israel: This is a rule for you when you have entered the land I give to you. 3When you make a fragrant offering to Yahweh, either as a burnt offering or in payment of a vow, or as a voluntary gift, or on the occasion of one of your solemn feasts, whoever takes from his herds and flocks for a fragrant offering to Yahweh 4shall bring also, as a gift to Yahweh, a grain offering of two pounds of fine flour mixed with two pints of oil. 5He shall also make a wine offering, two pints for each lamb, in addition to the burnt offering or sacrifice. 6For a man, he shall make a grain offering of four pounds of fine flour mixed with three pints of oil, 7and a wine offering of three pints of wine, offering it as a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh. 8If he offers a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, in payment of a vow or as a peace offering to Yahweh, 9he shall offer also a grain offering of six pounds of fine flour mixed with four pints of oil, 10and a wine offering of four pints of wine, as a burnt offering, sweet-smelling offering to Yahweh. 11This must be done for every bull, every ram, every lamb or goat. 12Whatever the number of victims you have for sacrifice, you must do the same for each of them.
13This must be done by every man of your people who makes a burnt offering, as a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh. 14If any stranger living among you, or among your descendants, will also make a burnt offering, as a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh: just as you act, so must the stranger do. 15There shall be only one law for you and for the foreigner among you. This is a law that shall bind your descendants forever before Yahweh: you and the stranger are alike. 16There is to be the same law, and the same regulation for you and for the stranger who lives among you.”
17Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, 18“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you have entered the land to which I am bringing you, 19and you eat the bread of this country, you shall set aside a share for Yahweh. 20You must set aside one loaf as the first fruits of your grain, and set this offering aside like the one set aside from your threshing. 21You are to set aside for Yahweh a share of the best of your flour, and your descendants are to do the same, from generation to generation.
22If without meaning to do so, you fail in any of these commands that Yahweh has given to Moses 23and that Yahweh has commanded you through Moses, this is what you have to do, you and your descendants. 24If it is an unintentional fault of the community, the community as a whole must make a burnt offering of a young bull, a sweet-smelling offering for Yahweh, with the required offering of flour and wine, and a he-goat must be offered as a sacrifice for sin. 25The priest must perform the ceremony of atonement over the entire community of Israel, and pardon will be given, since it was an unintentional fault and they have brought their offering as a burnt offering to Yahweh, not counting their sacrifice for sin for their unintentional fault. 26The entire community of Israel will be forgiven, as also the stranger who lives among them, since the entire people have sinned without meaning to do so.
27If it is an individual who has sinned unintentionally, he must offer a one-year-old goat in sacrifice for sin. 28The priest shall perform the ceremony of atonement before Yahweh over the person who has gone astray by this sin of inadvertence; when the ceremony of atonement has been performed over him, he will be forgiven, 29whether he is an Israelite, or a stranger living among them. There shall be only one law among you for the one who sins by anunintentional fault.
30But the one who sins deliberately, whether native or stranger, angers Yahweh himself. Such a person must be cut off from the community; 31he has rejected the word of Yahweh and broken his command. This person must be entirely cut off because of sin.”
Breaking the sabbath
32While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, a man was caught gathering wood on the sabbath day. 33Those who caught him gathering wood brought him before Moses, Aaron and the whole community. 34He was kept under guard because the penalty he should undergo had not yet been decided. 35Yahweh said to Moses, “This man must be put to death: the whole community shall stone him outside the camp.” 36The whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him till he was dead, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.
37Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, 38“Speak to the people of Israel and tell them to put a fringe on the hems of their garments and a violet cord on this fringe. 39You must then have a fringe, and the sight of it will remind you of all the commands of Yahweh. You are then to put them into practice, and no longer follow the desires of your heart and your eyes, which would lead you to go astray. 40So you will remember all my commandments to put them into practice, and you will be consecrated to your God. 41It is I, Yahweh your God, who have brought you out of the land of Egypt so that I may be your God, I, Yahweh, your God.”
- Num 15,1 In chapters 15-19 we again have laws and customs of Israel. - 15:17. Instructions about offering the first batch of bread - the first loaves from flour of the harvest. The people of God will be a well-trained and courteous people: they will not eat without giving thanks nor serve themselves first, but will offer the first part to the Levite or the poor, which means offering it to God. - 15:37. The purple cord can be compared to the badges which many people wear today: an external sign which is good insofar as it corresponds to an interior disposition. Jesus accepted this prescription (Mt 9:20) but he criticized those who wore these tassels only for show (Mt 23:5).
