Be Holy, For I Am Holy
1Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 2“Speak to the whole community of the Israelites and tell them: You are to be holy, because I, Yahweh your God, am holy. 3Each of you must respect his mother and his father, and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am Yahweh your God. 4Do not turn to idols or make yourselves gods of cast metal. I am Yahweh your God. 5When you sacrifice a peace offering to Yahweh, sacrifice it so that it will be accepted on your behalf. 6It is to be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the next day; anything left until the third day must be burned up. 7If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is tainted meat; it will not be accepted. 8Whoever eats it will bear the guilt, because he has profaned what is holy to Yahweh; that person is to be cut off from his people. 9When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field, and do not gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10Do not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes; leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God. 11Do not steal. Do not deceive. Do not lie to one another. 12Do not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God in this way. I am Yahweh. 13Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not keep the wages of a hired worker with you until morning. 14Do not curse a deaf person or put a stumbling block in front of a blind person; rather, fear your God. I am Yahweh. 15Do not act unjustly in judgment; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. 16Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not stand by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am Yahweh. 17Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor directly, so that you do not share in his guilt. 18Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.
Further Statutes of Holiness
19Keep my statutes. Do not breed your livestock with another kind. Do not sow your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear a garment woven of two kinds of material. 20If a man sleeps with a woman who is a slave promised in marriage to another man, but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there is to be a penalty; they are not to be put to death, because she was not free. 21The man is to bring his guilt offering to Yahweh, to the entrance to the tent of meeting — a ram as a guilt offering. 22With the ram of the guilt offering the priest is to make atonement for him before Yahweh for the sin he has committed, and the sin he has committed will be forgiven him. 23When you enter the land and plant any kind of fruit tree, you are to regard its fruit as forbidden; for three years it will be forbidden to you and must not be eaten. 24In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, an offering of praise to Yahweh. 25In the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it yields more for you. I am Yahweh your God. 26Do not eat anything with the blood still in it. Do not practice divination or seek omens. 27Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. 28Do not make cuts on your body for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am Yahweh. 29Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will fall into prostitution and be filled with depravity. 30Keep my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am Yahweh. 31Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, or you will be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God. 32Stand up in the presence of the elderly and show respect to the aged; fear your God. I am Yahweh. 33When a foreigner resides with you in your land, do not mistreat him. 34Treat the foreigner who resides among you as one of your native-born; love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God. 35Do not act unjustly in measurements of length, weight, or volume. 36Use honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37Keep all my statutes and all my regulations, and carry them out. I am Yahweh.”
