Imamat 2:11

Additional Grain Offering Regulations

2:11 “‘No grain offering which you present to the Lord can be made with yeast, ¹  for you must not offer up in smoke any yeast or honey as a gift to the Lord. ² 

Imamat 6:21

6:21 It must be made with olive oil on a griddle and you must bring it well soaked, ³  so you must present a grain offering of broken pieces ⁴  as a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Imamat 23:30

23:30 As for any person ⁵  who does any work on this particular day, I will exterminate ⁶  that person from the midst of his people! ⁷ 

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “Every grain offering which you offer to the Lord must not be made leavened.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[2:11]  ² tc A few Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the verb “present” rather than “offer up in smoke,” but the MT is clearly correct. One could indeed present leavened and honey sweetened offerings as first fruit offerings, which were not burned on the altar (see v. 12 and the note there), but they could not be offered up in fire on the altar. Cf. the TEV’s ambiguous “you must never use yeast or honey in food offered to the Lord.”

[2:11]  tn Heb “for all leaven and all honey you must not offer up in smoke from it a gift to the Lord.”

[6:21]  ³ tn The term rendered here “well soaked” (see, e.g., NRSV; the Hebrew term is מֻרְבֶּכֶת, murbbekhet) occurs only three times (here; 7:12, and 1 Chr 23:29), and is sometimes translated “well-mixed” (e.g., NIV, NCV, NLT; NASB “well stirred”; NAB “well kneaded”). The meaning is uncertain (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:399-400), but in Lev 7:12 it stands parallel to already prepared grain offerings either “mixed” (the Hebrew term is בְּלוּלֹת (bÿlulot), not מֻרְבֶּכֶת as in Lev 6:21 [6:14 HT]) or anointed with oil.

[6:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “broken bits [?] of a grain offering of pieces,” but the meaning of the Hebrew term rendered here “broken bits” (תֻּפִינֵי, tufiney) is quite uncertain. Some take it from the Hebrew verb “to break up, to crumble” (פַּת [pat]; e.g., the Syriac, NAB, NIV, NLT “broken” pieces) and others from “to bake” (אָפַה, ’afah; e.g., NRSV “baked pieces”). For a good summary of other proposed options, see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 90. Compare Lev 2:5-6 for the general regulations regarding this manner of grain offering. Similar but less problematic terminology is used there.

[23:30]  ⁵ tn Heb “And any person.”

[23:30]  ⁶ tn See HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד hif. Cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “destroy”; CEV “wipe out.”

[23:30]  ⁷ tn Heb “its people” (“its” is feminine to agree with “person,” literally “soul,” which is feminine in Hebrew; cf. v. 29).