Imamat 18:24-25

Warning against the Abominations of the Nations

18:24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you ¹  have been defiled with all these things. 18:25 Therefore ²  the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, ³  so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants.

Imamat 18:28-29

18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ⁴  just as it has vomited out the nations ⁵  that were before you. 18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. ⁶ 

[18:24]  ¹ tn Heb “which I am sending away (Piel participle of שָׁלַח [shalakh, “to send”]) from your faces.” The rendering here takes the participle as anticipatory of the coming conquest events.

[18:25]  ² tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.

[18:25]  ³ tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[18:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

[18:28]  ⁵ tc The MT reads the singular “nation” and is followed by ASV, NASB, NRSV; the LXX, Syriac, and Targum have the plural “nations” (cf. v. 24).

[18:29]  ⁶ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.