Imamat 10:16

The Problem with the Inaugural Sin Offering

10:16 Later Moses sought diligently for the sin offering male goat, ¹  but it had actually been burnt. ²  So he became angry at Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, saying,

Imamat 12:4-5

12:4 Then she will remain ³  thirty-three days in blood purity. ⁴  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ⁵  12:5 If she bears a female child, she will be impure fourteen days as during her menstrual flow, and she will remain sixty-six days in ⁶  blood purity. ⁷ 

Imamat 14:18

14:18 and the remainder of the olive oil ⁸  that is in his hand the priest is to put on the head of the one being cleansed. So the priest is to make atonement for him before the Lord.

Imamat 19:6

19:6 It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice and on the following day, ⁹  but what is left over until the third day must be burned up. ¹⁰ 

Imamat 19:9

Leaving the Gleanings

19:9 “‘When you gather in the harvest ¹¹  of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, ¹²  and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest.

Imamat 22:27

22:27 “When an ox, lamb, or goat is born, it must be under the care of ¹³  its mother seven days, but from the eighth day onward it will be acceptable as an offering gift ¹⁴  to the Lord.

Imamat 23:43

23:43 so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”

Imamat 25:35

Debt and Slave Regulations

25:35 “‘If your brother ¹⁵  becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, ¹⁶  you must support ¹⁷  him; he must live ¹⁸  with you like a foreign resident. ¹⁹ 

Imamat 26:39

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ²⁰  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ²¹  iniquities which are with them.

[10:16]  ¹ sn This is the very same male goat offered in Lev 9:15 (cf. the note on Lev 10:1 above).

[10:16]  ² tn Heb “but behold, it had been burnt” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[12:4]  ³ tn Heb “sit, dwell” (יָשָׁב, yashav) normally means “to sit, to dwell”), but here it means “to remain, to stay” in the same condition for a period of time (cf., e.g., Gen 24:55).

[12:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “in bloods of purification” or “purifying” or “purity”; NASB “in the blood of her purification”; NRSV “her time of blood purification.” See the following note.

[12:4]  ⁵ tn The initial seven days after the birth of a son were days of blood impurity for the woman as if she were having her menstrual period. Her impurity was contagious during this period, so no one should touch her or even furniture on which she has sat or reclined (Lev 15:19-23), lest they too become impure. Even her husband would become impure for seven days if he had sexual intercourse with her during this time (Lev 15:24; cf. 18:19). The next thirty-three days were either “days of purification, purifying” or “days of purity,” depending on how one understands the abstract noun טֹהֳרָה (toharah, “purification, purity”) in this context. During this time the woman could not touch anything holy or enter the sanctuary, but she was no longer contagious like she had been during the first seven days. She could engage in normal everyday life, including sexual intercourse, without fear of contaminating anyone else (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 73-74; cf. J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:749-50). Thus, in a sense, the thirty-three days were a time of blood “purity” (cf. the present translation) as compared to the previous seven days of blood “impurity,” but they were also a time of blood “purification” (or “purifying”) as compared to the time after the thirty-three days, when the blood atonement had been made and she was pronounced “clean” by the priest (see vv. 6-8 below). In other words, the thirty-three day period was a time of “blood” (flow), but this was “pure blood,” as opposed to the blood of the first seven days.

[12:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “on purity blood.” The preposition here is עַל (’al) rather than בְּ (bÿ, as it is in the middle of v. 4), but no doubt the same meaning is intended.

[12:5]  ⁷ tn For clarification of the translation here, see the notes on vv. 2-4 above.

[12:5]  sn The doubling of the time after the birth of a female child is puzzling (see the remarks in J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:750-51; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 188). Some have argued, for example, that it derives from the relative status of the sexes, or a supposed longer blood flow for the birth of a woman, or even to compensate for the future menstrual periods of the female just born. Perhaps there is a better explanation. First, a male child must be circumcised on the eighth day, so the impurity of the mother could not last beyond the first seven days lest it interfere with the circumcision rite. A female child, of course, was not circumcised, so the impurity of the mother would not interfere and the length of the impure time could be extended further. Second, it would be natural to expect that the increased severity of the blood flow after childbirth, as compared to that of a woman’s menstrual period, would call for a longer period of impurity than the normal seven days of the menstrual period impurity (compare Lev 15:19 with 15:25-30). Third, this suggests that the fourteen day impurity period for the female child would have been more appropriate, and the impurity period for the birth of a male child had to be shortened. Fourth, not only the principle of multiples of seven but also multiples of forty applies to this reckoning. Since the woman’s blood discharge after bearing a child continues for more than seven days, her discharge keeps her from contact with sacred things for a longer period of time in order to avoid contaminating the tabernacle (note Lev 15:31). This ended up totaling forty days for the birth of a male child (seven plus thirty-three) and a corresponding doubling of the second set of days for the woman (fourteen plus sixty-six). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:368-70. The fact that the offerings were the same for either a male or a female infant (vv. 6-8) suggests that the other differences in the regulations are not due to the notion that a male child had greater intrinsic value than a female child (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 169).

[14:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the remainder in the oil.”

[19:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “from the following day” (HALOT 572 s.v. מָחֳרָת 2.b).

[19:6]  ¹⁰ 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.”

[19:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And in your harvesting the harvest.”

[19:9]  ¹² tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field to harvest.”

[22:27]  ¹³ tn The words “the care of” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. Although many modern English versions render “with its mother” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), the literal phrase “under its mother” refers to the young animal nursing from its mother. Cf. KJV, ASV “it shall be seven days under the dam,” which would probably be misunderstood.

[22:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for an offering of a gift.”

[25:35]  ¹⁵ tn It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).

[25:35]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and his hand slips with you.”

[25:35]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”

[25:35]  ¹⁸ tn The form וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal, and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 18:5).

[25:35]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).

[26:39]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ²¹ tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).