205 passages · Kingdom
God blesses Noah's family to be fruitful and fills the earth. He gives animals as food but forbids eating meat with its lifeblood and declares that human life is precious, made in God's image.
God says he is the LORD who brought Israel out of slavery. Israel is to have no other gods and make no idols, and God describes himself as jealous but showing love to those who love him.
Israel is not to misuse the LORD's name. They are to keep the seventh day as a Sabbath, with no work for family, servants, animals, or foreigners, because God made everything in six days and rested on the seventh.
God says to honor father and mother and forbids murder, adultery, theft, false witness, and coveting a neighbor's house, spouse, or belongings.
God begins the ordinances with rules for Hebrew servants, who go free in the seventh year. Special protections cover daughters sold as servants, including care and freedom if their rights are denied.
The text sets the death penalty for deliberate murder, but provides a refuge for accidental killing. It also covers striking or cursing parents and kidnapping.
The laws set compensation for injuries in a fight and limits on harming servants. Harm to a pregnant woman is addressed, and eye for eye, tooth for tooth sets a limit on the penalty.
The laws cover an ox that kills a person and owner responsibility if the animal was known to be dangerous. They also address a pit left uncovered and one ox killing another.
A thief must repay several times what he stole. If he cannot pay he can be sold, and rules limit force against a night-time intruder.
The laws require restitution for livestock that stray into another field and for fires that spread. They also set rules for goods and animals left in a neighbor's care or borrowed.
A man who seduces an unengaged virgin must pay the bridal price. The passage also names sorcery, bestiality, and sacrificing to other gods as capital offenses.
Israel must not oppress foreigners, widows, or orphans, since God hears their cry. Loans to the poor carry no interest and a cloak taken as pledge must be returned by sunset.
Israel must not curse God or its ruler and must give firstfruits and firstborn to the LORD. As a holy people, they must not eat meat torn by wild animals.
The land is to be worked six years and left fallow in the seventh so the poor can eat. The seventh day is a rest for people and animals, and Israel must not invoke other gods.
The LORD calls Moses higher to receive stone tablets, so Moses leaves Aaron and Hur in charge and goes up with Joshua. The glory of God covers the mountain like fire, and Moses stays forty days and nights.
When God finishes speaking with Moses on Sinai, he gives him two stone tablets of the Testimony, written by the finger of God.
God repeats laws about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the firstborn, weekly rest, the Feasts of Weeks and Ingathering, appearing before him three times a year, and offerings. It ends with the command not to cook a young goat in its mother's milk.
God tells Moses to write down these words. Moses stays forty days and nights without food or water, and writes the Ten Commandments on the tablets.
A goat is offered with the same fat portions burned, and all the fat is declared the LORD's. The chapter ends with a permanent rule that the Israelites must not eat fat or blood.
The Israelites must not eat the fat of oxen, sheep, or goats, nor any blood, wherever they live. The penalty for breaking these rules is being cut off from the people.
These verses sum up the laws for the burnt, grain, sin, guilt, ordination, and peace offerings, given on Mount Sinai when the Israelites were told to bring their offerings.
Israelites may eat animals that have a split hoof and chew the cud. The camel, rock badger, rabbit, and pig fail one test and are unclean, so their meat and carcasses are not to be touched.
Anything in the seas or streams with fins and scales may be eaten. Sea creatures without both are detestable, and their meat is not to be eaten.
This section lists birds that are detestable, such as eagles, vultures, ravens, and owls. It also bans most winged insects that walk on four legs, but allows locusts, crickets, and grasshoppers.
Touching or carrying the carcass of an unclean animal makes a person unclean until evening, and carrying one requires washing clothes. Small creatures such as the mole, mouse, and lizards are also unclean.
Items such as wood, cloth, and pots become unclean if a dead creature falls on them, with clay pots to be broken. Springs and dry seed stay clean, and even a clean animal that dies of itself makes people unclean.
This summary lists the laws for skin diseases, scaly outbreaks, mildew in clothing or houses, and swellings, rashes, and spots. Their purpose is to teach when something is clean and when unclean.
Any Israelite who slaughters an ox, lamb, or goat must bring it to the Tent of Meeting as an offering. This ends sacrifices in open fields and to goat demons, and it applies to foreigners living among them too.
The LORD forbids Israelites and foreigners to eat blood, since the life of the flesh is in the blood. He has given it on the altar to make atonement for their lives.
An animal or bird hunted for food must have its blood poured out and covered with earth. Eating an animal found dead requires washing, and anyone who does not wash bears the consequences.