The Lord spoke to the people through Moses and Aaron about which animals were acceptable to eat or touch, and provided instructions on how to be purified if someone did touch an unacceptable animal (11). Then the Lord gave Moses instructions for purification after giving birth to a son or daughter, as well as noting that a newborn son was to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth (12). Then the Lord provided a procedure for identifying skin diseases: an individual was to come to one of the priests who would determine whether the condition was serious; if it was, the individual would be ceremonially unclean and would need to live in isolation outside the camp. The priests were also required to determine whether mildew on fabric was dangerous; if it was, the fabric was to be burned (13). The priests were given a purification ritual for those who had been healed of a skin disease. The priests were also required to determine whether mildew in a house was spreading dangerously; if it was, the house was to be destroyed, and if not, then a purification ritual was to be performed (14). The Lord provided purification rites and regulations for the ceremonial uncleanness that results from an emission of semen, sexual intercourse, and menstruation (15).
After Nadab and Abihu died, the Lord told Moses what was necessary for Aaron to enter the Lord’s presence in the most holy place of the Tabernacle. This included many offerings and rituals of purification for Aaron and for the people, including the selection of a scapegoat by sacred lot which was to be sent out to Azazel in the wilderness. Aaron and the high priests who succeeded him were to perform these ceremonies once a year on a special Sabbath (16).
The Lord gave Moses further regulations about where burnt offerings must be made, why blood must not be eaten (17), with whom sexual intercourse is inappropriate, and why child sacrifice is abhorrent. The people in the land of Canaan had defiled themselves in these ways so the Lord was punishing them by giving their land to the Israelites. But if the Israelites also defiled themselves, they too would be punished with expulsion from the land (18). Then the Lord gave several instructions on topics such as respect for parents, sabbath-keeping, idols, peace offerings, harvesting, theft, oaths, fairness, loving one’s neighbour as oneself, witchcraft, prostitution, food, grooming, and the importance of honesty (19). The Lord told the people that individuals would be punished by death for child sacrifice, consulting the dead, dishonouring parents, and various unacceptable sex acts. Other unacceptable sex acts would receive a less severe punishment. The people in the land of Canaan had defiled themselves in these ways so the Lord was punishing them by giving their land to the Israelites (20).
The Lord gave Moses restrictions for priestly behaviour regarding dead kin, grooming, and prostitution or divorce within their families. The restrictions were tighter for the high priest. Priests with physical disabilities would have their priestly functions greatly restricted (21). Priestly functions were also restricted for those who were unclean. They were not to eat the sacred offerings until they had been cleansed by ceremonial washing. No one outside the priest’s family was permitted to eat the sacred offerings at all. Only animals without defect could be used for the offerings (22). The Lord gave Moses instructions for the people to observe holy days. Each week, they were to observe the seventh day as a day of complete rest. They were also to observe the Passover, the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Harvest Festival, the Festival of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Shelters at the appointed times with the appointed offerings and practices (23). The people were to provide oil and bread to Aaron and his sons for use in the Temple, an ongoing expression of covenant faithfulness.
One day someone blasphemed the name of the Lord. The Lord then told Moses that blasphemy must be punished by death. The Lord also said that murder required the death penalty, whereas killing an animal would require paying for it in full, and causing an injury would result in the same injury being inflicted on the perpetrator: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. So the people stoned the man who had committed blasphemy (24).
On Mount Sinai the Lord told Moses that the people were to give the land a year of sabbath rest every seven years, and every fiftieth year to observe a year of jubilee where all ancestral land outside of walled cities is returned to its original owners and all Israelite slaves are set free, for the land and the people ultimately belong to God (25). The Lord promised that if the people were obedient they would be blessed–he would be their God and they would be his people–but that disobedience would be met with ferocious anger and eventual exile. But even if they were punished, the Lord would not destroy them completely (26).
The Lord gave Moses instructions about dedications and gifts of people and property to the Lord. One tenth of the produce of the land was to be set apart for the Lord as holy (27).
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