Numbers 15

Complete Jewish Bible

15 Adonai said to Moshe, ²“Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘When you have come into the land where you are going to live, which I am giving to you, ³and want to make an offering by fire to Adonai — a burnt offering or sacrifice to fulfill a special vow, or to be a voluntary offering, or at your designated times, to make a fragrant aroma for Adonai — then, whether it is comes from the herd or from the flock, ⁴the person bringing the offering is to present Adonai with a grain offering consisting of two quarts of fine flour mixed with one quart of olive oil, ⁵and one quart of wine for the drink offering. This is what you are to prepare with the burnt offering or for each lamb sacrificed.

⁶“‘For a ram, prepare one gallon of fine flour mixed with one-and-one-third quarts of olive oil; ⁷while for the drink offering, you are to present one-and-one-third quarts of wine as a fragrant aroma for Adonai.

(v) ⁸“‘When you prepare a bull as a burnt offering, as a sacrifice to fulfill a special vow or as peace offerings for Adonai, ⁹there is to be presented with the bull a grain offering of one-and-a-half gallons of fine flour mixed with two quarts of olive oil. ¹⁰For the drink offering, present two quarts of wine for an offering made by fire, a fragant aroma for Adonai.

¹¹“‘Do it this way for each bull, ram, male lamb or kid. ¹²For as many animals as you prepare, do this for each one, regardless of how many animals there are.

¹³“‘Every citizen is to do these things in this way when presenting an offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma for Adonai. ¹⁴If a foreigner stays with you — or whoever may be with you, through all your generations — and he wants to bring an offering made by fire as a fragrant aroma for Adonai, he is to do the same as you. ¹⁵For this community there will be the same law for you as for the foreigner living with you; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations; the foreigner is to be treated the same way before Adonai as yourselves. ¹⁶The same Torah and standard of judgment will apply to both you and the foreigner living with you.’”

(vi) ¹⁷Adonai said to Moshe, ¹⁸“Speak to the people of Isra’el; tell them, ‘When you enter the land where I am bringing you ¹⁹and eat bread produced in the land, you are to set aside a portion as a gift for Adonai. ²⁰Set aside from your first dough a cake as a gift; set it aside as you would set aside a portion of the grain from the threshing-floor. ²¹From your first dough you will give Adonai a portion as a gift through all your generations.

²²“‘If by mistake you fail to observe all these mitzvot that Adonai has spoken to Moshe, ²³yes, everything that Adonai has ordered you to do through Moshe, from the day Adonai gave the order and onward through all your generations, ²⁴then, if it was done by mistake by the community and was not known to them, the whole community is to offer one young bull for a burnt offering as a fragrant aroma to Adonai, with its grain and drink offerings, in keeping with the rule, and one male goat as a sin offering. ²⁵The cohen is to make atonement for the whole community of the people of Isra’el; and they will be forgiven; because it was a mistake; and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire, to Adonai, and their sin offering before Adonai for their mistake. ²⁶The whole community of the people of Isra’el will be forgiven, likewise the foreigner staying with them; because for all the people it was a mistake.

(vii) ²⁷“‘If an individual sins by mistake, he is to offer a female goat in its first year as a sin offering. ²⁸The cohen will make atonement before Adonai for the person who makes a mistake by sinning inadvertently; he will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven — ²⁹no matter whether he is a citizen of Isra’el or a foreigner living with them. You are to have one law for whoever it is that does something wrong by mistake.

³⁰“‘But an individual who does something wrong intentionally, whether a citizen or a foreigner, is blaspheming Adonai. That person will be cut off from his people. ³¹Because he has had contempt for the word of Adonai and has disobeyed his command, that person will be cut off completely; his offense will remain with him.’”

³²While the people of Isra’el were in the desert, they found a man gathering wood on Shabbat. ³³Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moshe, Aharon and the whole congregation. ³⁴They kept him in custody, because it had not yet been decided what to do to him. ³⁵Then Adonai said to Moshe, “This man must be put to death; the entire community is to stone him to death outside the camp.” ³⁶So the whole community brought him outside the camp and threw stones at him until he died, as Adonai had ordered Moshe.

(Maftir) ³⁷Adonai said to Moshe, ³⁸“Speak to the people of Isra’el, instructing them to make, through all their generations, tzitziyot on the corners of their garments, and to put with the tzitzit on each corner a blue thread. ³⁹It is to be a tzitzit for you to look at and thereby remember all of Adonai’s mitzvot and obey them, so that you won’t go around wherever your own heart and eyes lead you to prostitute yourselves; ⁴⁰but it will help you remember and obey all my mitzvot and be holy for your God. ⁴¹I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt in order to be your God. I am Adonai your God.”