Imamat 19:1-8

Religious and Social Regulations

19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 19:2 “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. 19:3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father, ¹  and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 19:4 Do not turn to idols, ²  and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.

Eating the Peace Offering

19:5 “‘When you sacrifice a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord, you must sacrifice it so that it is accepted for you. ³  19:6 It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice and on the following day, ⁴  but what is left over until the third day must be burned up. ⁵  19:7 If, however, it is eaten ⁶  on the third day, it is spoiled, ⁷  it will not be accepted, 19:8 and the one who eats it will bear his punishment for iniquity ⁸  because he has profaned ⁹  what is holy to the Lord. ¹⁰  That person will be cut off from his people. ¹¹ 

[19:3]  ¹ tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”

[19:4]  ² sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

[19:5]  ³ tn Heb “for your acceptance”; cf. NIV, NLT “it will be accepted on your behalf.”

[19:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “from the following day” (HALOT 572 s.v. מָחֳרָת 2.b).

[19:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “shall be burned with fire”; KJV “shall be burnt in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”

[19:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “And if being eaten [infinitive absolute] it is eaten [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.

[19:7]  ⁷ tn Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422, on Lev 7:18.

[19:8]  ⁸ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[19:8]  ⁹ sn Regarding “profaned,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[19:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the holiness of the Lord.”

[19:8]  ¹¹ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.