בחוקתי

On Mount Sinai, God spoke to Moses about Bechukotai, “In My laws.” God promised that if the Israelites followed His commandments, the land would be cared for. “I will grant your rains in their season,” God said, “so the earth will yield its produce and the trees their fruit.” Harvests would come one after another, threshing would reach into grape season, and grape season into planting time, so people would eat their fill and live securely. God also promised peace: no sword would cross the land, and the land would have respite from vicious beasts. Even when enemies came, the people would have strength to chase them away. God would look with favor on them, make them fertile and multiply them, and keep His covenant. “You will eat old grain long stored,” God added, “and clear out the old to make room for the new.” Most of all, God promised, “I will be present among you: I will be your God, and you shall be My people,” the One who freed them from Egypt and made them walk upright.

Then God warned Moses what would happen if the people rejected His laws and broke the covenant. Misery would come, sickness and fever, and they would plant seed for nothing because enemies would eat it. God said He would set His face against them: they would be routed, ruled by foes, and even flee when no one chased them. If they still refused to listen, God would discipline them “sevenfold,” breaking their proud strength. The skies would become like iron and the earth like copper; fields and trees would stop giving food. Wild beasts would be loosed, roads would grow deserted, and a sword and pestilence could strike when people hid in cities. Bread would be scarce, measured out by weight, and still not satisfy. Cities and sanctuaries could become ruins, and the people could be scattered among nations while the land finally rested for its missed sabbath years. Those who survived would feel heartsick over their avon, one Hebrew word meaning “iniquity,” a twisted kind of wrongdoing, and they would confess it. Yet God said He would remember His covenant with Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and not destroy His people completely.

At the end of Leviticus, God gave Moses laws about vows, promises to set something apart for God, and how priests would assess their value fairly. If someone vowed the equivalent of a person, there were set amounts in silver: for ages twenty to sixty, fifty shekels for a male and thirty for a female; other ages had different amounts. If the vower could not afford it, the priest would assess what they could pay. God also spoke about animals vowed as offerings: a clean animal could not be exchanged; if someone tried, both animals became holy. For an impure animal, the priest assessed its value, and if it was redeemed, one-fifth was added. The same rule of adding one-fifth applied to a house someone consecrated and later redeemed. Land was assessed by its seed requirement, fifty shekels for a ḥomer of barley seed, and adjusted depending on how many years remained until the jubilee, when land returned. God also said firstborn animals already belonged to Him, and tithes, every tenth, from crops and herds were holy and could not be swapped.