Imamat 22:10-16

22:10 “‘No lay person ¹  may eat anything holy. Neither a priest’s lodger ²  nor a hired laborer may eat anything holy, 22:11 but if a priest buys a person with his own money, ³  that person ⁴  may eat the holy offerings, ⁵  and those born in the priest’s ⁶  own house may eat his food. ⁷  22:12 If a priest’s daughter marries a lay person, ⁸  she may not eat the holy contribution offerings, ⁹  22:13 but if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in ¹⁰  her father’s house as in her youth, ¹¹  she may eat from her father’s food, but no lay person may eat it.

22:14 “‘If a man eats a holy offering by mistake, ¹²  he must add one fifth to it and give the holy offering to the priest. ¹³  22:15 They ¹⁴  must not profane the holy offerings which the Israelites contribute ¹⁵  to the Lord, ¹⁶  22:16 and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt ¹⁷  when they eat their holy offerings, ¹⁸  for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

[22:10]  ¹ tn Heb “No stranger” (so KJV, ASV), which refers here to anyone other than the Aaronic priests. Some English versions reverse the negation and state positively: NIV “No one outside a priest’s family”; NRSV “Only a member of a priestly family”; CEV “Only you priests and your families.”

[22:10]  ² tn Heb “A resident [תּוֹשָׁב (toshav) from יָשַׁב (yashav, “to dwell, to reside”)] of a priest.” The meaning of the term is uncertain. It could refer to a “guest” (NIV) or perhaps “bound servant” (NRSV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 149). In the translation “lodger” was used instead of “boarder” precisely because a boarder would be provided meals with his lodging, the very issue at stake here.

[22:11]  ³ tn Heb “and a priest, if he buys a person, the property of his silver.”

[22:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person whom the priest has purchased) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “eat it”; the referent (the holy offerings) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “his”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the [slave] born of his house, they shall eat in his food.” The LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., Tg. Ps.-J., and some mss of Smr have plural “ones born,” which matches the following plural “they” pronoun and the plural form of the verb.

[22:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “And a daughter of a priest, if she is to a man, a stranger” (cf. the note on v. 10 above).

[22:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “she in the contribution of the holy offerings shall not eat.” For “contribution [offering]” see the note on Lev 7:14 and the literature cited there. Cf. NCV “the holy offerings”; TEV, NLT “the sacred offerings.”

[22:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to”; the words “live in” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and seed there is not to her and she returns to the house of her father as her youth.” The mention of having “no children” appears to imply that her children, if she had any, should support her; this is made explicit by NLT’s “and has no children to support her.”

[22:14]  ¹² tn Heb “And a man, if he eats a holy thing in error” (see the Lev 4:2 not on “straying,” which is the term rendered “by mistake” here).

[22:14]  ¹³ sn When a person trespassed in regard to something sacred to the Lord, reparation was to be made for the trespass, involving restitution of that which was violated plus one fifth of its value as a fine. It is possible that the restoration of the offering and the additional one fifth of its value were made as a monetary payment (see, e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 150). See the regulations for the “guilt offering” in Lev 5:16; 6:5 [5:24 HT] and the notes there.

[22:15]  ¹⁴ tn Contextually, “They” could refer either to the people (v. 14a; cf. NRSV “No one”) or the priests (v. 14b; cf. NIV “The priests”), but the latter seems more likely (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 356, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 150). The priests were responsible to see that the portions of the offerings that were to be consumed by the priests as prebends did not become accessible to the people. Mistakes in this matter (cf. v. 14) would bring “guilt” on the people, requiring punishment (v. 16).

[22:15]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew verb הֵרִים (herim, rendered “contribute” here) is commonly used for setting aside portions of an offering (see, e.g., Lev 4:8-10 and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 4:335-36).

[22:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the holy offerings of the sons of Israel which they contribute to the Lord.” The subject “they” here refers to the Israelites (“the sons of Israel”) which is the most immediate antecedent. To make this clear, the present translation has “the holy offerings which the Israelites contribute to the Lord.”

[22:16]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “iniquity of guilt”; NASB “cause them to bear punishment for guilt.” The Hebrew word עָוֹן (’avon, “iniquity”) can designate either acts of iniquity or the penalty (i.e., punishment) for such acts.

[22:16]  ¹⁸ sn That is, when the lay people eat portions of offerings that should have been eaten only by priests and those who belonged to priestly households.