Leviticus, 26

1. The LORD said to Moses,

1. ' "You will not make idols for yourselves; you will not erect statues or cultic stones, or erect carved stones in your country, for you to worship: for I, Yahweh, am your God.

2. "Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When anyone fulfills a vow of offering one or more persons to the LORD, who are to be ransomed at a fixed sum of money,

2. You will keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am Yahweh.

3. for persons between the ages of twenty and sixty, the fixed sum, in sanctuary shekels, shall be fifty silver shekels for a man,

3. "If you live according to my laws, if you keep my commandments and put them into practice,

4. and thirty shekels for a woman;

4. I shall give you the rain you need at the right time; the soil will yield its produce and the trees of the countryside their fruit;

5. for persons between the ages of five and twenty, the fixed sum shall be twenty shekels for a youth, and ten for a maiden;

5. you will thresh until vintage time and gather grapes until sowing time. You will eat your fill of bread and live secure in your land.

6. for persons between the ages of one month and five years, the fixed sum shall be five silver shekels for a boy, and three for a girl;

6. "I shall give peace in the land, and you will go to sleep with no one to frighten you. I shall rid the land of beasts of prey. The sword will not pass through your land.

7. for persons of sixty or more, the fixed sum shall be fifteen shekels for a man, and ten for a woman.

7. You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before your sword;

8. However, if the one who took the vow is too poor to meet the fixed sum, the person must be set before the priest, who shall determine the sum for his ransom in keeping with the means of the one who made the vow.

8. five of you pursuing a hundred of them, one hundred pursuing ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before your sword.

9. "If the offering vowed to the LORD is an animal that may be sacrificed, every such animal, when vowed to the LORD, becomes sacred.

9. "I shall turn towards you, I shall make you fertile and make your numbers grow, and I shall uphold my covenant with you.

10. The offerer shall not present a substitute for it by exchanging either a better for a worse one or a worse for a better one. If he attempts to offer one animal in place of another, both the original and its substitute shall be treated as sacred.

10. "Having eaten all you need of last year's harvest, you will throw out the old to make room for the new.

11. If the animal vowed to the LORD is unclean and therefore unfit for sacrifice, it must be set before the priest,

11. "I shall fix my home among you and never reject you.

12. who shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad qualities, and the value set by the priest shall stand.

12. I shall live among you; I shall be your God and you will be my people,

13. If the offerer wishes to redeem the animal, he shall pay one fifth more than this valuation.

13. I, Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you should be their slaves no longer, and who broke the bonds of your yoke and made you walk with head held high.

14. "When someone dedicates his house as sacred to the LORD, the priest shall determine its value in keeping with its good or bad points, and the value set by the priest shall stand.

14. "But if you will not listen to me and do not put all these commandments into practice,

15. If the one who dedicated his house wishes to redeem it, he shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and then it will again be his.

15. if you reject my laws and detest my customs, and you break my covenant by not putting all my commandments into practice,

16. "If the object which someone dedicates to the LORD is a piece of his hereditary land, its valuation shall be made according to the amount of seed required to sow it, the acreage sown with a homer of barley seed being valued at fifty silver shekels.

16. this is how I shall treat you: "I shall subject you to terror, consumption and fever, making you dim of sight and short of breath. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

17. If the dedication of a field is made at the beginning of a jubilee period, the full valuation shall hold;

17. I shall turn against you and you will be defeated by your enemies. Your foes will have the mastery over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

18. but if it is some time after this, the priest shall estimate its money value according to the number of years left until the next jubilee year, with a corresponding rebate on the valuation.

18. "And if, in spite of this, you will not listen to me, I shall punish you seven times over for your sins.

19. If the one who dedicated his field wishes to redeem it, he shall pay one fifth more than the price thus established, and so reclaim it.

19. I shall break your proud strength. I shall make the sky like iron for you, and your soil like bronze.

20. If, instead of redeeming such a field, he sells it to someone else, it may no longer be redeemed;

20. You will wear out your strength in vain, your land will not yield its produce, nor the trees of the country their fruit.

21. but at the jubilee it shall be released as sacred to the LORD; like a field that is doomed, it shall become priestly property.

21. "And if you go against me and will not listen to me, I shall heap seven times more plagues on you for your sins.

22. "If the field that some man dedicates to the LORD is one he had purchased and not a part of his hereditary property,

22. I shall send wild animals to attack you and rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted.

23. the priest shall compute its value in proportion to the number of years until the next jubilee, and on the same day the price thus established shall be given as sacred to the LORD;

23. "And if that does not reform you, and you still go against me,

24. at the jubilee, however, the field shall revert to the hereditary owner of this land from whom it had been purchased.

24. then I shall go against you and punish you another seven times over for your sins.

25. "Every valuation shall be made according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel. There are twenty gerahs to the shekel.

25. I shall bring the sword on you, which will avenge the covenant, and when you huddle inside your towns, I shall send pestilence among you, and you will fall into the enemy's clutches.

26. "Note that a first-born animal, which as such already belongs to the LORD, may not be dedicated by vow to him. If it is an ox or a sheep, it shall be ceded to the LORD;

26. When I take away the bread which supports you, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven and will then dole your bread out by weight; you will eat but not be satisfied.

27. but if it is an unclean animal, it may be redeemed by paying one fifth more than its fixed value. If it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its fixed value.

27. "And if, in spite of this, you will not listen to me but go against me,

28. "Note, also, that any one of his possessions which a man vows as doomed to the LORD, whether it is a human being or an animal or a hereditary field, shall be neither sold nor ransomed; everything that is thus doomed becomes most sacred to the LORD.

28. I shall go against you in fury and punish you seven times over for your sins.

29. All human beings that are doomed lose the right to be redeemed; they must be put to death.

29. You will eat the flesh of your own sons, you will eat the flesh of your own daughters.

30. "All tithes of the land, whether in grain from the fields or in fruit from the trees, belong to the LORD, as sacred to him.

30. I shall destroy your high places and smash your incense-altars; I shall pile your corpses on the corpses of your foul idols and shall reject you.

31. If someone wishes to buy back any of his tithes, he shall pay one fifth more than their value.

31. I shall reduce your cities to ruins; I shall lay waste your sanctuary and refuse to inhale from you smells intended to please.

32. The tithes of the herd and the flock shall be determined by ceding to the LORD as sacred every tenth animal as they are counted by the herdsman's rod.

32. I shall make such a desolation of the country that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it.

33. It shall not matter whether good ones or bad ones are thus chosen, and no exchange may be made. If any exchange is attempted, both the original animal and its substitute shall be treated as sacred, without the right of being bought back."

33. And I shall scatter you among the nations. I shall unsheathe the sword against you, reducing your country to desert and your towns to ruins.

34. These are the commandments which the LORD gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.

34. Then the country will indeed observe its Sabbaths, all the while it lies deserted, while you are in the country of your enemies. Then indeed the country will rest and observe its Sabbaths.

35.

35. And as it lies deserted it will rest, as it never did on your Sabbaths when you were living there.

36.

36. I shall strike such fear into the hearts of those of you who survive in the countries of their enemies that the sound of a falling leaf will set them fleeing; they will flee as though fleeing from the sword, and fall when no one is pursuing.

37.

37. They will stumble over one another as though fleeing before the sword, when no one is pursuing. You will be powerless to stand up to your enemies;

38.

38. you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will swallow you up.

39.

39. Those of you who survive will pine away in their guilt in the countries of their enemies and, bearing the guilt of their ancestors too, will pine away like them.

40.

40. "Then they shall admit their guilt and that of their ancestors and their infidelities against me, and further, their setting themselves against me.

41.

41. "I in my turn will go against them and bring them into the land of their enemies. Then their uncircumcised hearts will grow humble and then they will accept the punishment for their guilt.

42.

42. I shall remember my covenant with Jacob, I shall remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham; and I shall remember the country too.

43.

43. "Abandoned, the country will keep its Sabbaths, as it lies deserted in their absence, and they will have to accept the punishment for their guilt, since they detested my customs and rejected my laws.

44.

44. "Yet, in spite of all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I shall not so utterly reject or detest them as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God.

45.

45. For their sake I shall remember the covenant I made with those first generations that I brought out of Egypt while other nations watched, so that I should be their God, I, Yahweh." '

46.

46. Such were the decrees, customs and laws which Yahweh established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.