Leviticuschapter 24
23 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
Moses received this chapter at Sinai, and it joins the daily work inside the tent to a trial held in the camp outside. The oil for the light came from the people, so every household had a share in what burned before the LORD. A household of mixed parentage from Egypt stands at the centre of the case, in a camp where such families were common. Listen for how Moses waits for the LORD's ruling. Notice who is bound by the law that results. The chapter holds worship and justice in one frame.
Context
- Who
- A mixed camp, including households of Egyptian and Israelite parentage who had come up out of Egypt together
- What
- Instructions for the lamp oil and the bread set before the LORD, followed by the case of a man who blasphemed the Name and the law it produced.
- Where
- The Holy Place inside the tabernacle, and the camp at Sinai where the fight broke out and the sentence was carried out beyond it.
- When
- The second year after the Exodus, about 1445 BC on the traditional reckoning, following the book's own setting at Sinai.
- Why
- To keep the light and the bread before the LORD continually, and to show that one law guarded the Name of God and a neighbour's life for native and foreigner alike.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
This chapter sets two standing sanctuary duties beside the one piece of narrative in the second half of the book, and the classical commentary treats both parts at length. On the lamp Rashi holds that this is the passage where the command is actually given, the earlier passage in Exodus having been placed there to explain what the lampstand was for (Rashi on Leviticus 24:2:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, 1929 to 1934, public domain). He reports the rabbis' reading of the veil of the testimony as a reference to the westernmost lamp, which burned on the same measure of oil as the others and outlasted them, and was a testimony "to mankind that the Shechinah dwelt in Israel through the miracle wrought in connection with it" (Rashi on Leviticus 24:3:1, citing Sifra, Emor, Section 13 9, Shabbat 22b and Menachot 86b). The measure itself he gives as a fixed one arrived at by trial: "Our Rabbis by experiment (cf. Menachot 89a) fixed the quantity at a half log oil for each lamp", enough for the longest nights of the year (Rashi on Leviticus 24:3:2). The bread of the presence he describes as twelve cakes in two rows of six with a bowl of frankincense on each row (Rashi on Leviticus 24:6:1 and 24:7:1).
The narrative of the blasphemer draws three readings in Rashi's comment on the tenth verse, and they show how the tradition works a single word. R. Levi took the going out of the opening as a loss rather than a movement, "He went out from (by his blasphemous utterance he lost) his eternal life". R. Berachya took it as a man setting out from the passage just read, and has him sneering at the bread of the presence: "Surely it is the way of a king to eat fresh (lit., warm) bread every day; is it perhaps his way to eat bread nine days old" (Rashi on Leviticus 24:10:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma 38 23). A third reading, from a Baraitha, makes the going out a going out from court: "although his father was an Egyptian he had gone to pitch his tent in the camp of the tribe of Dan to whom his mother belonged", the men of Dan objected that a man camps by his father's house, Moses' court ruled against him, and "He then stood up and blasphemed" (Rashi on Leviticus 24:10:1, citing Sifra, Emor, Section 14 1 and Leviticus Rabbah 32 3). Rashi adds that the man was held apart from the sabbath stick gatherer of Numbers 15 because in his case "they did not know whether he is at all liable to the death-penalty", while in the other case only the manner of death was in question (Rashi on Leviticus 24:12:1, citing Sifra, Emor, Section 14 5 and Sanhedrin 78b). The offence itself he defines narrowly: a man is liable at the hand of the court only if he blasphemes using the Divine Name itself, "unless he utters the Divine Tetragrammaton blasphemously" (Rashi on Leviticus 24:16:1, citing Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 5 and Sanhedrin 56a).
The laws that follow the story carry the classical reading a Christian reader will want to know about. Of the measure for measure of the twentieth verse Rashi reports that "this does not mean the actual infliction of a blemish but that it means monetary compensation", assessed as the difference in a man's value before and after the injury, and he grounds the reading on the verb the verse uses for giving, which is the verb used of money passing from hand to hand (Rashi on Leviticus 24:20:1, citing Ketubot 32b and Bava Kamma 84a). At the twenty second verse, where one law is set for the stranger and the native, Rashi reads the closing name of God as the reason: "Just as I attach My Name to you, so do I attach it to the strangers." (Rashi on Leviticus 24:22:1). At the close he describes the stoning as the rabbis described it, "the casting down of the culprit from a height, the heaping of stones upon him, and the hanging him after the execution has taken place" (Rashi on Leviticus 24:23:1, citing Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 10 and Sanhedrin 43a). Ibn Ezra comments at 24:5, 24:18 and 24:19 and Malbim at the eighth and thirteenth verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand here as citations.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, and every one of them is a locator without text, so this site cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. The law of injury draws the tractate Bava Kamma five times, at 26a:10, 35a:9, 83b:11, 83b:20 and 83b:21, and the lamp and the bread draw Menachot 86b:8 and 98b:13, Chagigah 26b:6 and Bava Batra 143a:10, with Chagigah 11b:11 on the blasphemer. The Jerusalem Talmud is taken up at Sanhedrin 1:3:7, 5:1:10 and 7:5:1, Pesachim 4:4:4 and 7:1:6, Shabbat 7:2:10, Ketubot 4:4:12 and Bava Kamma 1:1:8. The midrashic locators are Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 1 and Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 10 7, Bamidbar Rabbah 2:18, 4:14, 7:7, 10:11, 15:1 and 20:22, Bereshit Rabbah 43:6 and 100:2, Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Bereshit 26, Parashat Vayishlach 63 and Parashat Vayeshev 50, Midrash Lekach Tov at Leviticus 24:12 and 24:13 and at Deuteronomy 5:6, Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 454:1, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 3:9, and the Ein Yaakov collections at Yoma 1:29 and Sotah 7:24 and, in the Glick edition, Avodah Zarah 1:16 and Kiddushin 1:13. Rashi himself hands on locators as he goes, and the ones he names in the kept text of this chapter are Sifra, Emor at Sections 13 and 14 and Chapters 19 and 20, Leviticus Rabbah 32 3, Midrash Tanchuma 38 23, the Targum of Onkelos and the Jerusalem Targum at the eleventh verse, and the Babylonian Talmud at Menachot 86a, 86b and 89a, Shabbat 22b, Sanhedrin 43a, 56a and 78b, Ketubot 32b and Bava Kamma 84a.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 24:2:1, 24:2:2, 24:3:1, 24:3:2, 24:4:1, 24:6:1, 24:7:1, 24:9:1, 24:10:1, 24:11:1, 24:12:1, 24:14:1, 24:15:1, 24:16:1, 24:17:1, 24:20:1, 24:21:1, 24:22:1 and 24:23:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, public domain, 1929; R. Levi, on the going out of the tenth verse, as Rashi gives him at Rashi on Leviticus 24:10:1; R. Berachya, on the going out of the tenth verse and the bread of the presence, as Rashi gives him at Rashi on Leviticus 24:10:1 from Midrash Tanchuma 38 23; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 24:5:1, 24:18:1 and 24:19:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Malbim, Malbim on Leviticus, Emor 230:1 and 238:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Targum, the Targum of Onkelos and the Jerusalem Targum at Leviticus 24:11, as Rashi cites them at Rashi on Leviticus 24:11:1; Sifra, Sifra, Emor, Chapter 19 1 and Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 10 7 as the corpus links them; Sifra, Emor, Sections 13 and 14 and Chapters 19 and 20 as Rashi cites them; Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 26a:10, 35a:9, 83b:11, 83b:20 and 83b:21; Menachot 86b:8 and 98b:13; Chagigah 11b:11 and 26b:6; Bava Batra 143a:10; and, as Rashi cites them, Menachot 86a, 86b and 89a, Shabbat 22b, Sanhedrin 43a, 56a and 78b, Ketubot 32b and Bava Kamma 84a; Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 1:3:7, 5:1:10 and 7:5:1; Pesachim 4:4:4 and 7:1:6; Shabbat 7:2:10; Ketubot 4:4:12; Bava Kamma 1:1:8; Midrash, Leviticus Rabbah 32 3 and Midrash Tanchuma 38 23, as Rashi cites them; Bamidbar Rabbah 2:18, 4:14, 7:7, 10:11, 15:1 and 20:22; Bereshit Rabbah 43:6 and 100:2; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Bereshit 26, Parashat Vayishlach 63 and Parashat Vayeshev 50; Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 24:12:1 and 24:13:1 and Deuteronomy 5:6:1; Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 454:1; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 3:9; Ein Yaakov, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 1:29 and Sotah 7:24; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 1:16 and Kiddushin 1:13.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Oil for lamps that burn continually
Leviticus 24:1-4
The lamp and the loaves sit between the yearly feasts of chapter 23 and the Sabbath years of chapter 25, and both run continually. Exodus 27:20-21 gave this command first, and Leviticus repeats it as a standing charge on the whole nation. The people bring pure oil of pressed olives and Aaron tends the lamps from evening until morning, so the light 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.”
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take pressed oil as cold drawn, which is always of great purity. John Wesley notes that the Hebrew here says the lamp and verse 4 says the lamps, the seven burning as one light. He links it to the seven lamps of Revelation 4:5.
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
Aaron tends the lamps in the holy place, outside the veil, and the statute binds every generation after him. From evening until morning keeps the light burning through the night. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the priests had to be present daily to clean and trim the lamps.
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
John Gill reports two reasons given by Jarchi, a medieval Jewish commentator, for calling the lampstand pure. It was pure gold, and it was kept free of ashes. Continually before the LORD, Gill adds, describes both where it stood and the work Aaron did on it.
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.”
Twelve loaves set before the LORD
Leviticus 24:5-7
Twelve loaves stand in two rows of six on the table of pure gold before the LORD. The number answers to the twelve tribes, and the table stands in the holy place where only priests go, so the nation is represented in a room it never enters. The frankincense by each row is the part offered by fire, so what burns and what is eaten are two different things.
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
set them in two rows: John Gill read the two rows as two stacks, six loaves laid one upon another. He takes the pure gold of the table as its overlay, kept clean and bright. It stood in the holy place with the lampstand.
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.”
Matthew Henry read the frankincense as a small part God accepted in acknowledgment, while the loaves themselves went to the priests. He set beside the word memorial the prayers of Acts 10, which come up before God as a memorial. A little was burned for all twelve.
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
Leviticus 24:8-9
The bread is renewed every Sabbath as a permanent covenant, so a loaf that stales in a week carries a lasting word. Aaron and his sons eat it in a holy place as their most holy portion. David ate this bread at Nob in 1 Samuel 21:6, and Jesus argued from it at Matthew 12:3-4 that the priests were blameless when the Sabbath bent for need.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
The bread counts among the offerings made by fire, though no loaf went on the altar. John Wesley explains that the incense was burned for the bread, so the bread was reckoned as offered. Aaron's sons ate the old loaves as the new went on.
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 man who blasphemed the Name
Leviticus 24:10-11
The book breaks into narrative for the second and last time, around the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father. Exodus 12:38 records a mixed multitude going up with Israel, so a household like his was ordinary in the camp. The text names his mother, Shelomith daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan, but leaves him unnamed and never says what started the fight.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
The verse calls it simply the Name, and verse 16 spells it out as the name of the LORD. Adam Clarke notes that the Jews never pronounce it. Matthew Henry took the mention of the mother as a hint at what started the quarrel.
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
Leviticus 24:12-14
No penalty has been written yet, so they hold the man until the will of the LORD is made clear. Moses brings three other cases to God in the same way, at Numbers 9:6-8, 15:32-36 and 27:1-11. Everyone who heard him lays hands on his head before the stoning, as hands are laid on animals elsewhere in Leviticus, and Deuteronomy 17:7 likewise has the witnesses strike first.
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.”
This is the chapter's second speech from the LORD, and it comes in the middle of a case. Albert Barnes notes that no law against blasphemy had yet been enacted except by implication, at Exodus 21:17 and 22:28. The answer becomes that law.
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.”
Adam Clarke read the laying on of hands as the hearers' public testimony, and without it the sentence would have been unlawful. It told the man his blood was on his own head. John Wesley added that they acted in the name of all the people, to turn God's judgment away from them.
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
Leviticus 24:15-16
The case yields a statute given twice, as a rule and with its penalty, and bearing "the consequences of his sin" describes a man with no sacrifice to carry it. It binds the foreign resident and the native alike, and it first falls on a foreigner's son. The high priest names this charge against Jesus at Matthew 26:65, as do men holding stones at John 10:33.
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
Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew as venokeb shem YHWH, one who pierces or transfixes the name, and notes that some translate it expounds. Bonaventure counted cursing God as the first way the name of God is taken in vain. Death is named twice in the one verse.
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
Eye for eye, and the sentence carried out
Leviticus 24:17-18
Two sentences set a man's life beside an animal's and price only one. A dead animal is repaid, life for life, and no payment is named for a man, a difference Genesis 9:6 grounds in the image of God. The rules seem a digression until a reader recalls that the chapter reached them through a fight, where a curse and a killing both begin.
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
Life for life reads in Hebrew as soul for soul, and John Gill takes it as a living animal given for the one killed, every way as good. Matthew Henry held that these laws stand here to show it was fair to punish strangers for blasphemy, as they were punished for other crimes. A beast is paid for with a beast.
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
Leviticus 24:19-20
Eye for eye caps what a court may exact, and it stands three times in the Torah, at Exodus 21:23-25, here and Deuteronomy 19:21. Each time it ties the penalty to the size of the injury, and the Mishnah at Bava Kamma 8:1 reads it as payment in money, a reading John Gill reports. Matthew 5:38-39 quotes the words and tells a disciple to let the claim go.
Fracture for fracture opens the list here, a pair found in neither of the other two lists at Exodus 21:24-25 and Deuteronomy 19:21. The closing clause repeats verse 19. John Gill adds that the offender could escape the penalty by paying a valuable consideration.
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.”
Leviticus 24:21-22
The rules are restated briefly, then one standard of law is set for foreign resident and native, with "I am the LORD your God" as its reason. Exodus 12:49 already gave one law for native and foreigner, and Leviticus 19:34 grounds that equality in Israel's years in Egypt. A court about to stone a half Egyptian is told in the same breath that it owes him the same law.
Adam Clarke called equal laws, giving each person the same protection and privileges, the boast of a sound political constitution. He held that a man who obeys the laws has a right to their protection, his person as sacred in justice as a prince's. The penalty and the protection reach the stranger alike.
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 sentence is carried out "as the LORD had commanded Moses" in the last line. He is taken outside the camp, where the sin offering was burned at Leviticus 16:27, and Hebrews 13:12 says Jesus suffered outside the gate. Stephen died under this statute at Acts 6:11 and 7:58, stoned outside the city, and a chapter that opened with a lamp burning continually ends with an execution.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
How this psalm is built
The form: Ritual instruction framing a narrative case, with the statute the case produced, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, with Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Continually, of the lamp and the bread | The lamp is ordered to burn continually at verses 2, 3 and 4, and the bread is set out every sabbath as a perpetual covenant at verse 8. The published exposition of verses 1 to 4 reads both as standing charges laid on the whole nation rather than on the priesthood alone, since the people beat the olives and bring the oil.Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, with Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 24:1 to 24:4. | Leviticus 24:2, Leviticus 24:3, Leviticus 24:4, Leviticus 24:8 |
| A life for a life and a beast for a beast | Verses 17 and 18 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. The published exposition of verses 17 to 18 grounds the difference in Genesis 9:6 and the image of God.John Gill, with Matthew Henry, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 24:17 to 24:18. | Leviticus 24:17, Leviticus 24:18, Leviticus 24:21 |
| Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth | The rule stands three times in the Torah, at Exodus 21:23 to 25, here, and at Deuteronomy 19:21. 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 published exposition of verses 19 to 20 reads it as a ceiling on what a court may exact.John Gill, with Keil and Delitzsch, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 24:19 to 24:20. | Leviticus 24:19, Leviticus 24:20 |
| The hands laid on the head | The ruling puts the hands of everyone who heard the blasphemy on the man's head before the stones are thrown. Everywhere else in Leviticus a hand is laid on the head of an animal. Deuteronomy 17:7 makes the same demand of witnesses, that the men whose word convicts a man strike first.Adam Clarke, with Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 24:12 to 24:14. | Leviticus 24:14 |
| One manner of law for the stranger and the homeborn | Verse 22 binds the foreigner and the native on the same terms, and the court about to stone a half Egyptian is told so in the same breath. Exodus 12:49 had already said it and Leviticus 19:34 grounds the same equality in Israel's own years in Egypt.Adam Clarke, with Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 24:21 to 24:22. | Leviticus 24:16, Leviticus 24:22 |
The New Testament's use
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
David ate the shewbread at Nob when he was hungry and running from Saul, at 1 Samuel 21:6. Jesus argued from that case at Matthew 12:3 to 4, that the priests themselves were blameless when the sabbath bent for a man in need. The published exposition of verses 8 to 9 names both places.
The charge of blasphemy is brought against Jesus at Matthew 26:65, where the high priest tears his clothes and names it. The same charge is in the mouths of men already holding stones at John 10:33. Stephen died under this statute at Acts 6:11 and 7:58, charged with blasphemous words and stoned outside the city.
The man is taken outside the camp, which is where the sin offering was burned at Leviticus 16:27. Hebrews 13:12 says Jesus suffered without the gate. The published exposition of verse 23 sets those two places together.
Matthew 5:38 to 39 quotes the words of verse 20 and tells a disciple to let the claim go.
The rabbinic reading the exposition carries
The Mishnah, the rabbinic law code compiled about AD 200, reads eye for eye as payment in money rather than as matching wounds, at Bava Kamma 8:1. John Gill reports that reading on this verse, which the published exposition of verses 19 to 20 records.
The historical value of the case
Exodus 12:38 records a mixed multitude going up with Israel, so a household like the blasphemer's was ordinary in that camp. The published exposition of verses 10 to 11 names that verse. The statute the case produced binds the stranger on the same terms as the homeborn, and the first man it falls on is the son of a foreigner.
The debated reading
What eye for eye requires. The rule ties the penalty to the exact size of the injury, so that a family cannot answer a tooth with a life. The Mishnah reads it as monetary compensation at Bava Kamma 8:1, and John Gill reports that reading. Matthew 5:38 to 39 quotes the same words and sets a different demand on a disciple. The published exposition of verses 19 to 20 carries all three and settles none against the others.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
Gordon Wenham, as carried by this site's published chiasm, src/components/book/dossier-content/leviticus.ts, the chiasm "The book's own concentric shape, centered on the Day of Atonement", status proposed; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, with Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, and Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, cited in the published exposition of Leviticus 24:1 to 24:4 and This lane's reading of the book, confirmed against the text, docs/lanes/leviticus-study-19-27/DESIGN-BLOCK.md, the genre paragraph, which names the writer's reading and asks the lane to confirm it.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon 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.