Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 204
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IMMERSE
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BEGINNINGS
24:17–25:12
“Anyone who takes another person’s life must be put to death.
“Anyone who kills another person’s animal must pay for it in full—a live
animal for the animal that was killed.
“Anyone who injures another person must be dealt with according to
the injury inflicted—a fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth. Whatever anyone does to injure another person must be paid
back in kind.
“Whoever kills an animal must pay for it in full, but whoever kills another person must be put to death.
“This same standard applies both to native-born Israelites and to the
foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”
After Moses gave all these instructions to the Israelites, they took the
blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him to death. The Israelites did
just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the Lord said to him, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you have entered the land I
am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the Lord
every seventh year. For six years you may plant your fields and prune your
vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land
must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do
not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year. And don’t
store away the crops that grow on their own or gather the grapes from your
unpruned vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. But you may
eat whatever the land produces on its own during its Sabbath. This applies
to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary residents who live with you. Your livestock and the wild animals in
your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces.
“In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven
years, adding up to f orty-nine years in all. Then on the Day of Atonement
in the fiftieth year, blow the ram’s horn loud and long throughout the land.
Set this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land
for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you may
return to the land that belonged to your ancestors and return to your own
clan. This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must
not plant your fields or store away any of the crops that grow on their own,
and don’t gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. It will be a jubilee
year for you, and you must keep it holy. But you may eat whatever the land
