Along The Way (April 25 - May 1, 2025)
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Leviticus 25
The Sabbatical Year
The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath — you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you, for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
The Year of Jubilee
“You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years. Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month — on the Day of Atonement — you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land. And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you: you shall not sow or reap the aftergrowth or harvest the unpruned vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
“In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property. When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another. When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years until the Jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price, for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you. You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.
“You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely. The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely. Should you ask, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years. When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.
“If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold. If the person has no one to redeem it but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so, the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned. But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of Jubilee; in the Jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.
“If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year. If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the Jubilee. But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them. Whatever property of the Levites that may be redeemed, that is, houses sold in a city belonging to them, shall be released in the Jubilee, for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites. But the pasturelands around their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession for all time.
“If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens. Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you. You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance or provide them food at a profit. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
“If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves. They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the Jubilee. Then they and their children with them shall go out from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property. For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold. You shall not rule over them with harshness but shall fear your God. As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves. You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you and from their families who are with you who have been born in your land; they may be your property. You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
“If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien or to a branch of the alien’s family, even after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them, or their uncle or their uncle’s son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them, or if they prosper they may redeem themselves. They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the Jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer. If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price, and if few years remain until the Jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption. As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien’s authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight. And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go out in the Jubilee year. For to me the Israelites are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
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Leviticus 26:1-22
Rewards for Obedience
“You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
“If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall overlap the vintage, and the vintage shall overlap the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full and live securely in your land. And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land. You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will maintain my covenant with you. You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. I will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Penalties for Disobedience
“But if you will not obey me and do not observe all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments and you break my covenant, I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you, consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
“If you continue hostile to me and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.
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Leviticus 26:23-46
“If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me but continue hostile to me, then I, too, will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant, and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight, and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.
“But if, despite this, you disobey me and continue hostile to me, I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you. I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors. I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it. And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation and your cities a waste.
“Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbath years. As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were living on it. And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues. They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues, and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies. You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; they shall also languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.
“But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors — their treachery against me and also their continued hostility to me, so that I in turn was hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies — if, then, their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land shall be deserted by them and enjoy its Sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God, but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.”
These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the Lord established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.
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Leviticus 27
Votive Offerings
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When a person makes an explicit vow to the Lord concerning the equivalent for a human being, the equivalent for a male shall be: from twenty to sixty years of age the equivalent shall be fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary shekel. If the person is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. If the age is from five to twenty years of age, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and for a female the equivalent is three shekels of silver. And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the equivalent for a male is fifteen shekels and for a female ten shekels. If any cannot afford the equivalent, they shall be brought before the priest and the priest shall assess them; the priest shall assess them according to what each one making a vow can afford.
“If the vow concerns an animal that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any such animal that may be given to the Lord shall be holy. Another shall not be exchanged or substituted for it, either good for bad or bad for good, and if one animal is substituted for another, both that one and its substitute shall be holy. If the vow concerns any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal shall be presented before the priest. The priest shall assess it: whether good or bad, according to the assessment of the priest, so it shall be. But if it is to be redeemed, one-fifth must be added to the assessment.
“If a person consecrates a house to the Lord, the priest shall assess it: whether good or bad, as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand. And if the one who consecrates the house wishes to redeem it, one-fifth shall be added to its assessed value, and it shall revert to the original owner.
“If a person consecrates to the Lord any inherited landholding, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirements: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. If the person consecrates the field as of the year of Jubilee, that assessment shall stand, but if the field is consecrated after the Jubilee, the priest shall compute the price for it according to the years that remain until the year of Jubilee, and the assessment shall be reduced. And if the one who consecrates the field wishes to redeem it, then one-fifth shall be added to its assessed value, and it shall revert to the original owner, but if the field is not redeemed or if it has been sold to someone else, it shall no longer be redeemable. But when the field is released in the Jubilee, it shall be holy to the Lord as a devoted field; it becomes the priest’s holding. If someone consecrates to the Lord a field that has been purchased that is not a part of the inherited landholding, the priest shall compute for it the proportionate assessment up to the year of Jubilee, and the assessment shall be paid as of that day, a sacred donation to the Lord. In the year of Jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. All assessments shall be by the sanctuary shekel: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.
“A firstling of animals, however, which as a firstling belongs to the Lord, cannot be consecrated by anyone; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. If it is an unclean animal, it shall be ransomed at its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment.
“Nothing that a person owns that has been devoted to destruction for the Lord, be it human or animal or inherited landholding, may be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. No human beings who have been devoted to destruction can be ransomed; they shall be put to death.
“All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord. If persons wish to redeem any of their tithes, they must add one-fifth to them. All tithes of herd and flock, every tenth one that passes under the shepherd’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. Let no one inquire whether it is good or bad or make substitution for it; if one makes substitution for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy and cannot be redeemed.”
These are the commandments that the Lord gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.
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Numbers 1
The First Census of Israel
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israelites, in their clans, by ancestral houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and up, everyone in Israel able to go to war. You and Aaron shall enroll them, company by company. A man from each tribe shall be with you, each man the head of his ancestral house. These are the names of the men who shall assist you:
From Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur.
From Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.
From Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab.
From Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar.
From Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon.
From the sons of Joseph:
from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud;
from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.
From Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni.
From Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
From Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran.
From Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel.
From Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.”
These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the divisions of Israel.
Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name, and on the first day of the second month they assembled the whole congregation together. They registered themselves in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and up, individually, as the Lord had commanded Moses. So he enrolled them in the wilderness of Sinai.
The descendants of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, individually, every male from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred.
The descendants of Simeon, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, those of them who were numbered, according to the number of names, individually, every male from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Simeon were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
The descendants of Gad, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Gad were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.
The descendants of Judah, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Judah were seventy-four thousand six hundred.
The descendants of Issachar, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Issachar were fifty-four thousand four hundred.
The descendants of Zebulun, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Zebulun were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
The descendants of Joseph: the descendants of Ephraim, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Ephraim were forty thousand five hundred; the descendants of Manasseh, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Manasseh were thirty-two thousand two hundred.
The descendants of Benjamin, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Benjamin were thirty-five thousand four hundred.
The descendants of Dan, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Dan were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
The descendants of Asher, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Asher were forty-one thousand five hundred.
The descendants of Naphtali, their lineage, in their clans, by their ancestral houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war: those enrolled of the tribe of Naphtali were fifty-three thousand four hundred.
These are those who were enrolled, whom Moses and Aaron enrolled with the help of the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each representing his ancestral house. So all those enrolled of the Israelites, by their ancestral houses, from twenty years old and up, everyone able to go to war in Israel — all those enrolled were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. The Levites, however, were not numbered by their ancestral tribe along with them.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not enroll, and you shall not take a census of them with the other Israelites. Rather, you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the covenant and over all its equipment and over all that belongs to it; they are to carry the tabernacle and all its equipment, and they shall tend it and shall camp around the tabernacle. When the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And any outsider who comes near shall be put to death. The other Israelites shall camp in their respective regimental camps, by companies, but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the covenant, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the Israelites, and the Levites shall perform the duties of the tabernacle of the covenant.” The Israelites did so; they did just as the Lord commanded Moses.
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Numbers 2:1-17
The Order of Encampment and Marching
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “The Israelites shall camp each in their respective regiments, under ensigns by their ancestral houses; they shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side. Those to camp on the east side toward the sunrise shall be of the regimental encampment of Judah by companies. The leader of the people of Judah shall be Nahshon son of Amminadab, with a company as enrolled of seventy-four thousand six hundred. Those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar. The leader of the Issacharites shall be Nethanel son of Zuar, with a company as enrolled of fifty-four thousand four hundred. Then the tribe of Zebulun. The leader of the Zebulunites shall be Eliab son of Helon, with a company as enrolled of fifty-seven thousand four hundred. The total enrollment of the camp of Judah, by companies, is one hundred eighty-six thousand four hundred. They shall set out first.
“On the south side shall be the regimental encampment of Reuben by companies. The leader of the Reubenites shall be Elizur son of Shedeur, with a company as enrolled of forty-six thousand five hundred. And those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Simeon. The leader of the Simeonites shall be Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai, with a company as enrolled of fifty-nine thousand three hundred. Then the tribe of Gad. The leader of the Gadites shall be Eliasaph son of Deuel, with a company as enrolled of forty-five thousand six hundred fifty. The total enrollment of the camp of Reuben, by companies, is one hundred fifty-one thousand four hundred fifty. They shall set out second.
“The tent of meeting, with the camp of the Levites, shall set out in the center of the camps; they shall set out just as they camp, each in position, by their regiments
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Numbers 2:18-34
“On the west side shall be the regimental encampment of Ephraim by companies. The leader of the people of Ephraim shall be Elishama son of Ammihud, with a company as enrolled of forty thousand five hundred. Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh. The leader of the people of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, with a company as enrolled of thirty-two thousand two hundred. Then the tribe of Benjamin. The leader of the Benjaminites shall be Abidan son of Gideoni, with a company as enrolled of thirty-five thousand four hundred. The total enrollment of the camp of Ephraim, by companies, is one hundred eight thousand one hundred. They shall set out third.
“On the north side shall be the regimental encampment of Dan by companies. The leader of the Danites shall be Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai, with a company as enrolled of sixty-two thousand seven hundred. Those to camp next to him shall be the tribe of Asher. The leader of the Asherites shall be Pagiel son of Ochran, with a company as enrolled of forty-one thousand five hundred. Then the tribe of Naphtali. The leader of the Naphtalites shall be Ahira son of Enan, with a company as enrolled of fifty-three thousand four hundred. The total enrollment of the camp of Dan is one hundred fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They shall set out last, by their regiments.”
This was the enrollment of the Israelites by their ancestral houses; the total enrollment in the camps by their companies was six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. Just as the Lord had commanded Moses, the Levites were not enrolled among the other Israelites.
The Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses: they camped by regiments, and they set out the same way, everyone by clans, according to ancestral houses.