Leviticuschapter 24
23 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
You are also to take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf,
It stands in Twelve loaves set before the LORD, verses 5 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The lampstand, the shewbread, and the blasphemer. Pure oil olive beaten for the light. Aaron to order it before the LORD continually. Twelve cakes of fine flour on the pure table, set in two rows of six, with frankincense on each row; a memorial burned, the bread itself for Aaron and his sons. Then the son of an Israelite woman and an Egyptian blasphemes the Name; he is put in ward until the LORD's mind is made known; the LORD orders him stoned outside the camp, with every one who heard laying his hand on the head. The lex talionis is restated: life for life, eye for eye. Applied to stranger and native alike.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world behind this chapter
Leviticus 24The history
The first half of the chapter is instruction for the tent and the second half is a case that happened in the camp. The man at the centre of it had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father. The text names his mother, Shelomith the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan, and leaves him unnamed. The dating follows the book's own setting at Sinai.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Exodus 12:38 records a mixed multitude going up with Israel, so a household like his was ordinary in that camp rather than unusual.
A first hearer knew what it took to keep a lamp burning. Pure oil of beaten olives was produced by crushing the fruit without heat, which gave the cleanest burn and the least smoke, and the people supplied it. The light inside the tent ran on what the congregation brought in.
A first hearer knew what the twelve loaves meant on the table. The number answered to the twelve tribes, the bread was changed every sabbath, and what came off the table was eaten by the priests in the holy place.
A first hearer also knew that no penalty for blasphemy had yet been written. That is why the man is held in custody while Moses takes the question to God, which is the same procedure used three more times in the Torah.
What it meant to them
The ruling told the camp two things at once. The name of God was not a thing a man could curse and walk away from, and the law that said so bound the foreigner and the native on identical terms.
The witnesses laying their hands on the man's head before the stoning put the weight of the sentence on the people whose word convicted him. Everywhere else in Leviticus a hand is laid on the head of an animal.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services , 1874
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch , 1864 to 1870
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 24 falls in The Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). ‘Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.’ Blood, sexual ethics, neighbor-love, feasts, jubilee, blessings and curses.
Before it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16. After it: Vows and dedications, chapters 27.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Oil for lamps that burn continuallyvv. 1-4
The lamp and the loaves sit between the yearly feasts of chapter 23 and the sabbath years of chapter 25, and both of them run continually. Exodus 27:20-21 gave this instruction first, and Leviticus repeats it here as a standing charge laid on the whole nation rather than on the priesthood alone. The people beat the olives and bring the oil, Aaron sets the lamps in order from evening to morning, so the light inside the tent burns on what the congregation supplies.
Leviticus 24:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After he had delivered to him the laws concerning the purity of the priests, and the perfection of the sacrifices they were to offer, and concerning the feasts the people were to keep, he spoke to Moses of some other things which concerned both people and priests: saying; as follows.”
Leviticus 24:2
“Command the children of Israel--This is the repetition of a law previously given (Ex 27:20, 21). pure oil olive beaten--or cold-drawn, which is always of great purity. Aaron shall order it from the evening unto the morning--The daily presence of the priests was necessary to superintend the cleaning and trimming.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:2
“To cause the lamps to burn - Hebrew. the lamp: yet ver. 4, it is the lamps: The seven lamps made all one lamp. In allusion to which, the Blessed Spirit is represented, Rev. iv, 5, by seven lamps of fire before the throne. For there are diversities of gifts, but one spirit.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 24:3
“Without the vail of the testimony,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:3
“Thus it is the work of the ministers of the gospel to hold forth that word of life, not to set up new lights, but, by expounding and preaching the word, to make the light of it more clear and extensive.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 24:4
“He shall order the lamps on the pure candlestick,.... So called, as Jarchi suggests, for these two reasons, partly because it was made of pure gold, and partly because it was to be kept pure and clean, and free from ashes, by the priest; see Exo 25:31, before the Lord continually; which both respects the situation of the candlestick, and the work about it, which Aaron was to do continually before and in the presence of the Lord.”
B. Twelve loaves set before the LORD
1. (vv. 5-7)
Leviticus 24:5
“The oil for the lamps of the tabernacle and the meal for the showbread were to be offerings from the Congregation, like the meal for the Pentecostal loaves, Lev 23:17. It appears that the responsibility of keeping up the lights rested on the high priest, but the actual service might be performed, on ordinary occasions, by the common priests. Compare margin reference. Lev 24:5 Each cake or loaf of unleavened bread Lev 2:11 was to contain about six pounds and a quarter (see Exo 29:40 note) of fine flour.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:5
“The Old Covenant had its loaves of proposition, but they, as belonging to that covenant, have come to an end. The New Covenant has its heavenly bread and cup of salvation to sanctify both body and soul. For as the bread is for the body, the Word suits the soul.”
Cyril of Jerusalem· written before 386· Catechetical Lecture 4.5patristic
Leviticus 24:6
“And thou shalt set them in two rows,.... The twelve cakes: six on a row; not by the side of each other, but six upon one another: upon the pure table; the shewbread table, so called because overlaid with pure gold, and kept clean and bright, Exo 25:24, before the Lord; for this stood in the holy place, in the same place as the candlestick did, which has the same position, Lev 24:4; of the mystical and typical sense of these cakes; see Gill on Exo 25:30.”
Leviticus 24:7
“Thus a little was accepted as a humble acknowledgment, and all the loaves were consigned to the priests. All God's spiritual Israel, typified by the twelve loaves, are made through Christ a sweet savour to him, and their prayers are said to come up before God for a memorial, Acts x.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Twelve cakes go in two rows of six on the pure table before the LORD. The number answers to the twelve tribes, and the table stands in the holy place where no Israelite outside the priesthood comes, so the nation is represented in a room the nation never enters. The frankincense set on each row is the part offered by fire, and the loaves are called a memorial, so what burns and what is eaten are two different things.
2. (vv. 8-9)
Leviticus 24:8
“Hence some infer that this show-bread, which was set on the table on the sabbath, was intended as a memorial of the manna wherewith they were fed in the wilderness. Christ's ministers should provide new bread for his house every sabbath day, the production of their fresh studies in the scripture, that their proficiency may appear to all, 1 Tim. iv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:8
“And this may be here called an everlasting covenant, not only because it was to endure as long as the Jewish polity stood, but also because this was to stand everlastingly, or continually, and therefore the new cakes were first brought before the old were taken away.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 24:9
“It - The old bread now to be taken away. Made by fire - The incense was offered by fire, and that for or instead of the bread, and therefore the bread was reputed as if it had been so offered.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The bread is changed every seventh day and the arrangement is called an everlasting covenant, so a loaf that goes stale in a week carries a word that does not. What comes off the table belongs to Aaron and his sons, who eat it in the holy place as most holy. David ate that bread at Nob when he was hungry and running from Saul in 1 Samuel 21:6, and Jesus argued from the case at Matthew 12:3-4 that the priests themselves were blameless when the sabbath bent for a man in need.
C. The man who blasphemed the Name
1. (vv. 10-11)
Leviticus 24:10
“The "mixed multitude" [Ex 12:38] that accompanied the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt creates a presumption that marriage connections of the kind described were not infrequent. And it was most natural, in the relative circumstances of the two people, that the father should be an Egyptian and the mother an Israelite.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:10
“The son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, etc. - This is a very obscure account, and is encumbered with many difficulties. 1. It seems strange that a person proceeding from such an illegal mixture should have been incorporated with the Israelites. 2. What the cause of the strife between this mongrel person and the Israelitish man was is not even hinted at.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 24:11
“Neither he nor his father is named, but his mother only, who was an Israelite. This notice is taken of his parentage either, 1. To intimate what occasioned the quarrel he was engaged in.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The book breaks into narrative for the second and last time, and the man at the centre of it is half Egyptian. Exodus 12:38 records a mixed multitude going up with Israel, so a household like his was ordinary in that camp. He and a man of Israel fight, he blasphemes the Name and curses, and the text names his mother, Shelomith the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan, while leaving him unnamed. What started the quarrel is never said.
2. (vv. 12-14)
Leviticus 24:12
“The offender may already have been pronounced guilty by the rulers (see Exo 18:21-22), and the case was referred to Moses in order that the punishment might be awarded by the divine decree. No law had as yet been enacted against blasphemy except by implication. See Exo 21:17; Exo 22:28.”
Leviticus 24:13
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... From off the mercy seat in the holy of holies, where he had promised to meet him and commune with him about anything he should inquire of him, as he did at this time: saying; as follows.”
Leviticus 24:14
“Lay their hands upon his head - It was by this ceremony that the people who heard him curse bore their public testimony in order to his being fully convicted, for without this his punishment would not have been lawful. By this ceremony also they in effect said to the man, Thy blood be upon thy own head.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:14
“Lay their hands upon his head - Whereby they gave public testimony that they heard this person speak such words, and did in their own and all the peoples names, demand justice to be executed upon him, that by this sacrifice God might be appeased, and his judgments turned away from the people, upon whom they would certainly fall if he were unpunished.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
No penalty for this has been written yet, so they hold the man and wait. Three other cases in the Torah have the same shape, the men unable to keep the passover at Numbers 9:6-8, the man gathering sticks at Numbers 15:32-36, and the daughters of Zelophehad at Numbers 27:1-11, and in each one Moses takes the question to God instead of deciding it himself. The ruling puts the hands of everyone who heard him on his head before the stones are thrown. Everywhere else in Leviticus a hand is laid on the head of an animal, and Deuteronomy 17:7 makes the same demand of witnesses, that the men whose word convicts a man strike first.
3. (vv. 15-16)
Leviticus 24:15
“Whosoever curseth his God - יקלל אלהיו yekallel Elohaiv, he who makes light of him, who does not treat him and sacred things with due reverence, shall bear his sin - shall have the guilt of this transgression imputed to him, and may expect the punishment.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:15
“He that was put to death for blasphemy is said to bear his sin, in the punishment of it; no sacrifice being appointed, on the head of which the sin might be transferred, he himself was to bear it upon his own head, as a sacrifice to divine justice.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 24:16
“Blasphemeth the name of the Lord - ונקב שם יהוה venokeb shem Yehovah, he who pierces, transfixes, or, as some translate it, expounds, the name of Jehovah; see the note on Lev 24:10. This being the name by which especially the Divine Essence was pointed out, it should be held peculiarly sacred. We have already seen that the Jews never pronounce this name, and so long has it been disused among them that the true pronunciation is now totally lost; See on the word Jehovah, Exo 6:3 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The case produces a statute and the statute is given twice, once as a general rule and once with the penalty attached. Bearing his own sin is the language used of a man who has no sacrifice to carry it for him. The rule binds the stranger on the same terms as the homeborn, and the first man it falls on is the son of a foreigner. Matthew 26:65 has the high priest tearing his clothes and naming this charge at the trial of Jesus, and John 10:33 has the same charge in the mouths of men already holding stones.
D. Eye for eye, and the sentence carried out
1. (vv. 17-18)
Leviticus 24:17
“And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. With the sword, as the Targum of Jonathan adds; which restrains it to any man of the children of Israel, but wrongly; for the original law respects any man whatever, Gen 9:6; and so it does here; See Gill on Exo 21:12.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:17
“He that killeth - This law is repeated here, to prevent the mischievous effects of men's striving together, which as here it caused blasphemy, so it might in others lead to murder.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 24:18
“And he that killeth a beast shall make it good,.... Pay for it, give the value of it, or another as good as that instead of it, as follows: beast for beast; or "soul for soul"; life for life, that is, a living one for that the life of which is taken away, and one every way as good as that.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:18
“And, it should seem, this is it that brings in these laws here, to show how equitable it was that strangers as well as Israelites should be punished for blasphemy, because strangers as well as Israelites were punishable for other crimes.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Two sentences set a man's life beside an animal's and put a price on only one of them. A dead beast is made good, beast for beast, and no payment is named for a man, because Genesis 9:6 grounds the difference in the image of God. These rules read as a digression until a reader remembers that the chapter got here through a fight, and a fight is where both a curse and a killing begin.
2. (vv. 19-20)
Leviticus 24:19
“And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour,....”
Leviticus 24:20
“Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,.... Which is not to be taken strictly or literally, but for the price or value of those, which is to be given in a pecuniary way; See Gill on Exo 21:24, Exo 21:25, as he hath caused a blemish in a man, shall it be done to him; unless he gives satisfaction, and pays a valuable consideration for it.”
Eye for eye is a ceiling on what a court may exact. It stands three times in the Torah, at Exodus 21:23-25, here, and at Deuteronomy 19:21, and each time it ties the penalty to the exact size of the injury so that a family cannot answer a tooth with a life. The Mishnah, the rabbinic law code compiled about 200 AD, reads the rule as payment in money rather than matching wounds at Bava Kamma 8:1, and John Gill reports that reading on this verse. Matthew 5:38-39 quotes the same words and tells a disciple to let the claim go.
3. (vv. 21-22)
Leviticus 24:21
“And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it,....”
Leviticus 24:22
“Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country - Equal laws, where each individual receives the same protection and the same privileges, are the boast only of a sound political constitution. He who respects and obeys the laws has a right to protection and support, and his person and property are as sacred in the sight of justice as the person and property of the prince.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The two rules are stated again in short form and then the chapter gives its reason. One manner of law for the stranger and for one of your own country, and the sentence that closes it is I am the LORD your God, which is the reason and not a signature. Exodus 12:49 had already said that one law shall be to him that is homeborn and unto the stranger, and Leviticus 19:34 grounds the same equality in Israel's own years in Egypt. The court about to stone a half Egyptian is told in the same breath that it owes him the protection of the same law.
4. (v. 23)
Leviticus 24:23
“Stone him with stones - This blasphemer was the first that died by the law of Moses. Stephen the first that died for the gospel, died by the abuse of the law.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 24:23
“And stone him with stones - We are not to suppose that the culprit was exposed to the unbridled fury of the thousands of Israel; this would be brutality, not justice, for the very worst of tempers and passions might be produced and fostered by such a procedure.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The sentence is carried out and the last line records that the children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses. The man is taken outside the camp, which is where the sin offering was burned at Leviticus 16:27, and Hebrews 13:12 says Jesus suffered without the gate. Stephen died under this statute at Acts 6:11 and 7:58, charged with blasphemous words and stoned outside the city. A chapter that opened with a lamp burning continually and bread set fresh every sabbath ends with an execution.
This page carries no textual note on Leviticus 24. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.