Leviticus 24:11-23

The Voice

¹¹The first man uttered a curse and disparaged the name of the Eternal One. The people brought him to Moses to decide what must be done. (His mother was Shelomith, Dibri’s daughter. Dibri was from the Dan tribe.) ¹²They kept him in custody until the Eternal One’s decision became clear to them.

¹³The Eternal One told Moses what to do.

Eternal One: ¹⁴Take the man who cursed and disparaged Me outside the camp and have everyone who was a witness to what he said place their hands on his head. Then have the entire community stone him. ¹⁵Tell the Israelites, “Anyone who curses His God or disparages His name must bear his sin and suffer the punishment. ¹⁶Any person who blasphemes My name must be put to death. Then you must have the entire community join in stoning him. Any person—whether native-born or an outsider—who disparages My name must be put to death.”

¹⁷Anyone who kills another person must be put to death. ¹⁸Anyone who kills an animal is to compensate his owner for it, life for life. ¹⁹Anyone who injures his neighbor must have done to him what he did to the other. ²⁰If he breaks a man’s bone, his own bone must be broken. If he puts out a man’s eye, his own eye must be put out. If he knocks out a man’s tooth, his own tooth must be knocked out.^[a] Whatever a person does to harm another must be done to him in return. ²¹Any person who takes the life of an animal is to compensate his owner for it, but any person who takes the life of another human being must be put to death. ²²This law applies to everyone equally, both native-born Israelites and outsiders. I am the Eternal One, your God.

The “law of retaliation,” as it is called, is designed to curb cruelty. It limits the kind and extent of retaliation a person can suffer when he deliberately injures another.

²³Moses told the Israelites what God had decided, so they took the man who had uttered the curse outside the camp and stoned him. The Israelites did exactly as the Eternal One had instructed Moses.

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