Imamat 4:31

4:31 Then he must remove all of its fat (just as fat was removed from the peace offering sacrifice) and the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar for a soothing aroma to the Lord. So the priest will make atonement ¹  on his behalf and he will be forgiven. ² 

Imamat 5:2

5:2 Or when there is ³  a person who touches anything ceremonially ⁴  unclean, whether the carcass of an unclean wild animal, or the carcass of an unclean domesticated animal, or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing, even if he did not realize it, ⁵  but he himself has become unclean and is guilty; ⁶ 

Imamat 6:4

6:4 when it happens that he sins and he is found guilty, ⁷  then he must return whatever he had stolen, or whatever he had extorted, or the thing that he had held in trust, ⁸  or the lost thing that he had found,

Imamat 6:18

6:18 Every male among the sons of Aaron may eat it. It is a perpetual allotted portion ⁹  throughout your generations ¹⁰  from the gifts of the Lord. Anyone who touches these gifts ¹¹  must be holy.’” ¹² 

Imamat 7:21

7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ¹³  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ¹⁴ 

Imamat 8:15

8:15 and he slaughtered it. ¹⁵  Moses then took the blood and put it all around on the horns of the altar with his finger and decontaminated the altar, ¹⁶  and he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and so consecrated it to make atonement on it. ¹⁷ 

Imamat 10:1

Nadab and Abihu

10:1 Then ¹⁸  Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan and put fire in it, set incense on it, and presented strange fire ¹⁹  before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do.

Imamat 16:18

16:18 “Then ²⁰  he is to go out to the altar which is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He is to take ²¹  some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it all around on the horns of the altar.

Imamat 17:15

Regulations for Eating Carcasses

17:15 “‘Any person ²²  who eats an animal that has died of natural causes ²³  or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, ²⁴  must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean.

Imamat 19:10

19:10 You must not pick your vineyard bare, ²⁵  and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 20:17

20:17 “‘If a man has sexual intercourse with ²⁶  his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. ²⁷  He has exposed his sister’s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. ²⁸ 

Imamat 20:24

20:24 So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. ²⁹ 

Imamat 21:10

Rules for the High Priest

21:10 “‘The high ³⁰  priest – who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, who has been ordained ³¹  to wear the priestly garments – must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. ³² 

Imamat 22:3

22:3 Say to them, ‘Throughout your generations, ³³  if any man from all your descendants approaches the holy offerings which the Israelites consecrate ³⁴  to the Lord while he is impure, ³⁵  that person must be cut off from before me. ³⁶  I am the Lord.

Imamat 22:22

22:22 “‘You must not present to the Lord something blind, or with a broken bone, or mutilated, or with a running sore, ³⁷  or with a festering eruption, or with a feverish rash. ³⁸  You must not give any of these as a gift ³⁹  on the altar to the Lord.

Imamat 23:3

The Weekly Sabbath

23:3 “‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, ⁴⁰  a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.

Imamat 23:22

23:22 When you gather in the harvest ⁴¹  of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, ⁴²  and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.’” ⁴³ 

Imamat 25:10

25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, ⁴⁴  and you must proclaim a release ⁴⁵  in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; ⁴⁶  each one of you must return ⁴⁷  to his property and each one of you must return to his clan.

[4:31]  ¹ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

[4:31]  ² tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

[5:2]  ³ tc The insertion of the words “when there is” is a reflection of the few Hebrew mss, Smr, and LXX that have כִּי (ki, “when, if”; cf. vv. 3 and esp. 4) rather than the MT’s אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who”). Many English versions render this as a conditional clause (“if”).

[5:2]  ⁴ tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[5:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and it is hidden from him,” meaning that the person who contracted the ceremonial uncleanness was not aware at the time what had happened, but later found out that he had become ceremonially unclean. This same phrase occurs again in both vv. 3 and 4.

[5:2]  ⁶ sn Lev 5:2-3 are parallel laws of uncleanness (contracted from animals and people, respectively), and both seem to assume that the contraction of uncleanness was originally unknown to the person (vv. 2 and 3) but became known to him or her at a later time (v. 3; i.e., “has come to know” in v. 3 is to be assumed for v. 2 as well). Uncleanness itself did not make a person “guilty” unless he or she failed to handle it according to the normal purification regulations (see, e.g., “wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening,” Lev 15:5 NIV; cf. Lev 11:39-40; 15:5-12, 16-24; Num 19, etc.). The problem here in Lev 5:2-3 is that, because the person had not been aware of his or her uncleanness, he or she had incurred guilt for not carrying out these regular procedures, and it would now be too late for that. Thus, the unclean person needs to bring a sin offering to atone for the contamination caused by his or her neglect of the purity regulations.

[6:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it shall happen, when he sins and becomes guilty,” which is both resumptive of the previous (vv. 2-3) and the conclusion to the protasis (cf. “then” introducing the next clause as the apodosis). In this case, “becomes guilty” (cf. NASB, NIV) probably refers to his legal status as one who has been convicted of a crime in court; thus the translation “he is found guilty.” See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:559-61.

[6:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “that had been held in trust with him.”

[6:18]  ⁹ tn Or “a perpetual regulation”; cf. NASB “a permanent ordinance”; NRSV “as their perpetual due.”

[6:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “for your generations”; cf. NIV “for the generations to come.”

[6:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “touches them”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. In this context “them” must refer to the “gifts” of the Lord.

[6:18]  ¹² tn Or “anyone/anything that touches them shall become holy” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:443-56). The question is whether this refers to the contagious nature of holy objects (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) or whether it simply sets forth a demand that anyone who touches the holy gifts of the Lord must be a holy person (cf. CEV). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:900-902.

[7:21]  ¹³ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

[7:21]  ¹⁴ sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.

[8:15]  ¹⁵ sn Contrary to some English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT), Aaron (not Moses) most likely slaughtered the bull, possibly with the help of his sons, although the verb is singular, not plural. Moses then performed the ritual procedures that involved direct contact with the altar. Compare the pattern in Lev 1:5-9, where the offerer does the slaughtering and the priests perform the procedures that involve direct contact with the altar. In Lev 8 Moses is functioning as the priest in order to consecrate the priesthood. The explicit reintroduction of the name of Moses as the subject of the next verb seems to reinforce this understanding of the passage (cf. also vv. 19 and 23 below).

[8:15]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is the Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) and means “to de-sin” the altar. This verse is important for confirming the main purpose of the sin offering, which was to decontaminate the tabernacle and its furniture from any impurities. See the note on Lev 4:3.

[8:15]  ¹⁷ tn Similar to v. 10 above, “and consecrated it” refers to the effect of the blood manipulation earlier in the verse. The goal here was to consecrate the altar in order that it might become a place on which it would be appropriate “to make atonement” before the Lord.

[10:1]  ¹⁸ tn Although it has been used elsewhere in this translation as an English variation from the ubiquitous use of vav in Hebrew, in this instance “then” as a rendering for vav is intended to show that the Nadab and Abihu catastrophe took place on the inauguration day described in Lev 9. The tragic incident in Lev 10 happened in close temporal connection to the Lord’s fire that consumed the offerings at the end of Lev 9. Thus, for example, the “sin offering” male goat referred to in Lev 10:16-19 is the very one referred to in Lev 9:15.

[10:1]  ¹⁹ tn The expression “strange fire” (אֵשׁ זָרָה, ’esh zarah) seems imprecise (cf. NAB “profane fire”; NIV “unauthorized fire”; NRSV “unholy fire”; NLT “a different kind of fire”) and has been interpreted numerous ways (see the helpful summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 132-33). The infraction may have involved any of the following or a combination thereof: (1) using coals from someplace other than the burnt offering altar (i.e., “unauthorized coals” according to J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:598; cf. Lev 16:12 and cf. “unauthorized person” אִישׁ זָר (’ish zar) in Num 16:40 [17:5 HT], NASB “layman”), (2) using the wrong kind of incense (cf. the Exod 30:9 regulation against “strange incense” קְטֹרֶת זָרָה (qÿtoreh zarah) on the incense altar and the possible connection to Exod 30:34-38), (3) performing an incense offering at an unprescribed time (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 59), or (4) entering the Holy of Holies at an inappropriate time (Lev 16:1-2).

[16:18]  ²⁰ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) indicates the sequence of events here.

[16:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “And he shall take.”

[17:15]  ²² tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).

[17:15]  ²³ tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”

[17:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”

[19:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “And you shall not deal severely with your vineyard.”

[20:17]  ²⁶ tn Heb “takes.” The verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse,” though some English versions translate it as “marry” (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV).

[20:17]  ²⁷ tn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20.

[20:17]  ²⁸ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[20:24]  ²⁹ tc Here and with the same phrase in v. 26, the LXX adds “all,” resulting in the reading “all the peoples.”

[21:10]  ³⁰ tn The adjective “high” has been supplied in the translation for clarity, as in many English versions.

[21:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “and he has filled his hand.” For this expression see the note on Lev 8:33.

[21:10]  ³² tn Regarding these signs of mourning see the note on Lev 10:6. His head had been anointed (v. 10a) so it must not be unkempt (v. 10b), and his garments were special priestly garments (v. 10a) so he must not tear them (v. 10b). In the translation “garments” has been employed rather than “clothes” to suggest that the special priestly garments are referred to here; cf. NRSV “nor tear his vestments.”

[22:3]  ³³ tn Heb “To your generations.”

[22:3]  ³⁴ tn The Piel (v. 2) and Hiphil (v. 3) forms of the verb קָדַשׁ (qadash) appear to be interchangeable in this context. Both mean “to consecrate” (Heb “make holy [or “sacred”]”).

[22:3]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and his impurity [is] on him”; NIV “is ceremonially unclean”; NAB, NRSV “while he is in a state of uncleanness.”

[22:3]  ³⁶ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20. Cf. the interpretive translation of TEV “he can never again serve at the altar.”

[22:22]  ³⁷ tn Or perhaps “a wart” (cf. NIV; HALOT 383 s.v. יַבֶּלֶת, but see the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).

[22:22]  ³⁸ sn See the note on Lev 21:20 above.

[22:22]  ³⁹ sn This term for offering “gift” is explained in the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:3]  ⁴⁰ tn This is a superlative expression, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the Sabbath and certain festival times throughout the chapter (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 155). Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest.”

[23:22]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “And when you harvest the harvest.”

[23:22]  ⁴² tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field in your harvest.”

[23:22]  ⁴³ sn Compare Lev 19:9-10.

[25:10]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

[25:10]  ⁴⁵ tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

[25:10]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

[25:10]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”