Lévitique 24

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses,

² “Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

³ Outside the veil of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps continually before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come.

⁴ He shall tend the lamps on the pure gold lampstand before the LORD continually.

⁵ You are also to take fine flour and bake twelve loaves, using two-tenths of an ephah for each loaf,

⁶ and set them in two rows—six per row—on the table of pure gold before the LORD.

⁷ And you are to place pure frankincense near each row, so that it may serve as a memorial portion for the bread, a food offering to the LORD.

⁸ Every Sabbath day the bread is to be set out before the LORD on behalf of the Israelites as a permanent covenant.

⁹ It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place; for it is to him a most holy part of the food offerings to the LORD—his portion forever.”

Note · Lévitique 24.1–9

La fidélité comporte des gestes répétés

Les lampes sont entretenues et les pains sont disposés régulièrement. La mémoire des douze tribus prend une forme matérielle. Le service ne vit pas seulement de grands événements ; il repose aussi sur des tâches dont la régularité soutient la relation commune.

¹⁰ Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.

¹¹ The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)

¹² They placed him in custody until the will of the LORD should be made clear to them.

¹³ Then the LORD said to Moses,

¹⁴ “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him.

¹⁵ And you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If anyone curses his God, he shall bear the consequences of his sin.

¹⁶ Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD must surely be put to death; the whole assembly must surely stone him, whether he is a foreign resident or native; if he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.

Note · Lévitique 24.10–16

Un conflit conduit à un examen avant la décision

L’homme est gardé dans l’attente d’une parole de jugement. Sa double ascendance est mentionnée sans que cela permette d’attribuer sa faute à une origine étrangère. Le récit rapporte ensuite une sentence capitale : la gravité de cette violence ne doit pas être rendue invisible par un langage adouci.

¹⁷ And if a man takes the life of anyone else, he must surely be put to death.

¹⁸ Whoever kills an animal must make restitution—life for life.

¹⁹ If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him:

²⁰ fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Just as he injured the other person, the same must be inflicted on him.

²¹ Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death.

²² You are to have the same standard of law for the foreign resident and the native; for I am the LORD your God.’”

²³ Then Moses spoke to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp and stoned him. So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Note · Lévitique 24.17–23

La proportion n’est pas une invitation à se venger

La série sur les blessures exige une correspondance entre dommage et réponse dans un cadre de jugement. Le rappel d’une même règle pour l’étranger et l’autochtone s’oppose à une justice selon l’appartenance. Jésus reprend la formule de réciprocité en Matthieu 5.38-42 ; cette lecture chrétienne doit être distinguée d’une application privée et violente du talion.