Kedoshim

Chapter 19

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ² Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them:

You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.

³ You shall each revere his mother and his father, and keep My sabbaths: I the Lord am your God.

⁴ Do not turn to idols or make molten gods for yourselves: I the Lord am your God.

⁵ When you sacrifice an offering of well-being to the Lord, sacrifice it so that it may be accepted on your behalf. ⁶ It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the day following; but what is left by the third day must be consumed in fire. ⁷ If it should be eaten on the third day, it is an offensive thing, it will not be acceptable. ⁸ And he who eats of it shall bear his guilt, for he has profaned what is sacred to the Lord; that person shall be cut off from his kin.

⁹ When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God.

¹¹ You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. ¹² You shall not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.

¹³ You shall not defraud your fellow. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning.

¹⁴ You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

¹⁵ You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your kinsman fairly. ¹⁶ Do not deal basely with your countrymen. Do not profit by the blood of your fellow: I am the Lord.

¹⁷ You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kinsman but incur no guilt because of him. ¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the Lord.

¹⁹ You shall observe My laws.

You shall not let your cattle mate with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; you shall not put on cloth from a mixture of two kinds of material.

²⁰ If a man has carnal relations with a woman who is a slave and has been designated for another man, but has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there shall be an indemnity; they shall not, however, be put to death, since she has not been freed. ²¹ But he must bring to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, as his guilt offering to the Lord, a ram of guilt offering. ²² With the ram of guilt offering the priest shall make expiation for him before the Lord for the sin that he committed; and the sin that he committed will be forgiven him.

²³ When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. ²⁴ In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before the Lord; ²⁵ and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit — that its yield to you may be increased: I the Lord am your God.

²⁶ You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice divination or soothsaying. ²⁷ You shall not round off the side-growth on your head, or destroy the side-growth of your beard. ²⁸ You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.

²⁹ Do not degrade your daughter and make her a harlot, lest the land fall into harlotry and the land be filled with depravity. ³⁰ You shall keep My sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary: I am the Lord.

³¹ Do not turn to ghosts and do not inquire of familiar spirits, to be defiled by them: I the Lord am your God.

³² You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old; you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

³³ When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. ³⁴ The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I the Lord am your God.

³⁵ You shall not falsify measures of length, weight, or capacity. ³⁶ You shall have an honest balance, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin.

I the Lord am your God who freed you from the land of Egypt. ³⁷ You shall faithfully observe all My laws and all My rules: I am the Lord.

Chapter 20
¹ And the Lord spoke to Moses: ² Say further to the Israelite people:

Anyone among the Israelites, or among the strangers residing in Israel, who gives any of his offspring to Molech, shall be put to death; the people of the land shall pelt him with stones. ³ And I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he gave of his offspring to Molech and so defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. ⁴ And if the people of the land should shut their eyes to that man when he gives of his offspring to Molech, and should not put him to death, ⁵ I Myself will set My face against that man and his kin, and will cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in going astray after Molech. ⁶ And if any person turns to ghosts and familiar spirits and goes astray after them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

⁷ You shall sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I the Lord am your God. ⁸ You shall faithfully observe My laws: I the Lord make you holy.

⁹ If anyone insults his father or his mother, he shall be put to death; he has insulted his father and his mother — his bloodguilt is upon him.

¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with a married woman, committing adultery with another man’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death. ¹¹ If a man lies with his father’s wife, it is the nakedness of his father that he has uncovered; the two shall be put to death — their bloodguilt is upon them. ¹² If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed incest — their bloodguilt is upon them. ¹³ If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death — their bloodguilt is upon them. ¹⁴ If a man marries a woman and her mother, it is depravity; both he and they shall be put to the fire, that there be no depravity among you. ¹⁵ If a man has carnal relations with a beast, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the beast. ¹⁶ If a woman approaches any beast to mate with it, you shall kill the woman and the beast; they shall be put to death — their bloodguilt is upon them.

¹⁷ If a man marries his sister, the daughter of either his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace; they shall be excommunicated in the sight of their kinsfolk. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister, he shall bear his guilt. ¹⁸ If a man lies with a woman in her infirmity and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her flow and she has exposed her blood flow; both of them shall be cut off from among their people. ¹⁹ You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister, for that is laying bare one’s own flesh; they shall bear their guilt. ²⁰ If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, it is his uncle’s nakedness that he has uncovered. They shall bear their guilt: they shall die childless. ²¹ If a man marries the wife of his brother, it is indecency. It is the nakedness of his brother that he has uncovered; they shall remain childless.

²² You shall faithfully observe all My laws and all My regulations, lest the land to which I bring you to settle in spew you out. ²³ You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. For it is because they did all these things that I abhorred them ²⁴ and said to you: You shall possess their land, for I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I the Lord am your God who has set you apart from other peoples. ²⁵ So you shall set apart the clean beast from the unclean, the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not draw abomination upon yourselves through beast or bird or anything with which the ground is alive, which I have set apart for you to treat as unclean. ²⁶ You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and I have set you apart from other peoples to be Mine.

²⁷ A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones — their bloodguilt shall be upon them.