Leviticus 24:15-23

24:15 Moreover, ¹  you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God ²  he will bear responsibility for his sin, 24:16 and one who misuses ³  the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.

24:17 “‘If a man beats any person to death, ⁴  he must be put to death. 24:18 One who beats an animal to death ⁵  must make restitution for it, life for life. ⁶  24:19 If a man inflicts an injury on ⁷  his fellow citizen, ⁸  just as he has done it must be done to him – 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth – just as he inflicts an injury on another person ⁹  that same injury ¹⁰  must be inflicted on him. 24:21 One who beats an animal to death ¹¹  must make restitution for it, but ¹²  one who beats a person to death must be put to death. 24:22 There will be one regulation ¹³  for you, whether a foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”

24:23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

¹ tn Heb “And.”

² sn See the note on v. 11 above and esp. Exod 22:28 [27 HT].

³ sn See the note on v. 11 above.

⁴ tn Heb “And if a man strikes any soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] of mankind.” The idiom seems to derive from the idea of striking a fatal blow to the very “life” (literally, “soul”) of a human being, not just landing a blow on their body (HALOT 698 s.v. נכה hif.2). On the difficult of the meaning and significance of the term נֶפֶשׁ see the notes on Lev 17:10-11.

⁵ tn Heb “And one who strikes a soul of an animal.”

⁶ tn Heb “soul under soul.” Cf. KJV “beast for beast”; NCV “must give…another animal to take its place.”

⁷ tn Heb “gives a flaw in”; KJV, ASV “cause a blemish in.”

⁸ tn Or “neighbor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); TEV, NLT “another person.”

⁹ tn Heb “in the man [אָדָם, ’adam].”

¹⁰ tn Heb “just as he inflicts an injury…it must be inflicted on him.” The referent (“that same injury”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹¹ sn See the note on v. 18 above.

¹² tn Heb “and,” but here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is adversative, contrasting the consequences of beating an animal to death with those of beating a person to death.

¹³ tn Heb “a regulation of one”; KJV, ASV “one manner of law”; NASB “one standard.”