Numbers 15:1-41, NLT

Numbers 15

Laws concerning Offerings

1Then the Lord told Moses,

2“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“When you finally settle in the land I am giving you,

3you will offer special gifts as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. These gifts may take the form of a burnt offering, a sacrifice to fulfill a vow, a voluntary offering, or an offering at any of your annual festivals, and they may be taken from your herds of cattle or your flocks of sheep and goats. 4When you present these offerings, you must also give the Lord a grain offering of two quarts*15:4a Hebrew ¹/10 of an ephah [2.2 liters]. of choice flour mixed with one quart*15:4b Hebrew ¹/4 of a hin [1 liter]; also in 15:5. of olive oil. 5For each lamb offered as a burnt offering or a special sacrifice, you must also present one quart of wine as a liquid offering.

6“If the sacrifice is a ram, give a grain offering of four quarts*15:6a Hebrew ²/10 of an ephah [4.4 liters]. of choice flour mixed with a third of a gallon*15:6b Hebrew ¹/3 of a hin [1.3 liters]; also in 15:7. of olive oil,

7and give a third of a gallon of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

8“When you present a young bull as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord,

9you must also give a grain offering of six quarts*15:9a Hebrew ³/10 of an ephah [6.6 liters]. of choice flour mixed with two quarts*15:9b Hebrew ¹/2 of a hin [2 liters]; also in 15:10. of olive oil, 10and give two quarts of wine as a liquid offering. This will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

11“Each sacrifice of a bull, ram, lamb, or young goat should be prepared in this way.

12Follow these instructions with each offering you present. 13All of you native-born Israelites must follow these instructions when you offer a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 14And if any foreigners visit you or live among you and want to present a special gift as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, they must follow these same procedures. 15Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the Lord and are subject to the same decrees. This is a permanent law for you, to be observed from generation to generation. 16The same instructions and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigners living among you.”

17Then the Lord said to Moses,

18“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.

“When you arrive in the land where I am taking you,

19and you eat the crops that grow there, you must set some aside as a sacred offering to the Lord. 20Present a cake from the first of the flour you grind, and set it aside as a sacred offering, as you do with the first grain from the threshing floor. 21Throughout the generations to come, you are to present a sacred offering to the Lord each year from the first of your ground flour.

22“But suppose you unintentionally fail to carry out all these commands that the Lord has given you through Moses.

23And suppose your descendants in the future fail to do everything the Lord has commanded through Moses. 24If the mistake was made unintentionally, and the community was unaware of it, the whole community must present a young bull for a burnt offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It must be offered along with its prescribed grain offering and liquid offering and with one male goat for a sin offering. 25With it the priest will purify the whole community of Israel, making them right with the Lord,*15:25 Or will make atonement for the whole community of Israel. and they will be forgiven. For it was an unintentional sin, and they have corrected it with their offerings to the Lord—the special gift and the sin offering. 26The whole community of Israel will be forgiven, including the foreigners living among you, for all the people were involved in the sin.

27“If one individual commits an unintentional sin, the guilty person must bring a one-year-old female goat for a sin offering.

28The priest will sacrifice it to purify*15:28 Or to make atonement for. the guilty person before the Lord, and that person will be forgiven. 29These same instructions apply both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living among you.

30“But those who brazenly violate the Lord’s will, whether native-born Israelites or foreigners, have blasphemed the Lord, and they must be cut off from the community.

31Since they have treated the Lord’s word with contempt and deliberately disobeyed his command, they must be completely cut off and suffer the punishment for their guilt.”

Penalty for Breaking the Sabbath

32One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

33The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community. 34They held him in custody because they did not know what to do with him. 35Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.” 36So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Tassels on Clothing

37Then the Lord said to Moses,

38“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: Throughout the generations to come you must make tassels for the hems of your clothing and attach them with a blue cord. 39When you see the tassels, you will remember and obey all the commands of the Lord instead of following your own desires and defiling yourselves, as you are prone to do. 40The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God. 41I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt that I might be your God. I am the Lord your God!”