Imamat 1:4

1:4 He must lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted for him to make atonement ¹  on his behalf.

Imamat 4:22

For the Leader

4:22 “‘Whenever ²  a leader, by straying unintentionally, ³  sins and violates one of the commandments of the Lord his God which must not be violated, ⁴  and he pleads guilty,

Imamat 14:11

14:11 and the priest who pronounces him clean will have the man who is being cleansed stand along with these offerings ⁵  before the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Imamat 14:34

14:34 “When you enter the land of Canaan which I am about to give ⁶  to you for a possession, and I put ⁷  a diseased infection in a house in the land you are to possess, ⁸ 

Imamat 16:31

16:31 It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves. ⁹  It is a perpetual statute. ¹⁰ 

Imamat 18:5

18:5 So you must keep ¹¹  my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. ¹²  I am the Lord.

Imamat 18:28

18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it ¹³  just as it has vomited out the nations ¹⁴  that were before you.

Imamat 19:25

19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. ¹⁵  I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 21:17

21:17 “Tell Aaron, ‘No man from your descendants throughout their generations ¹⁶  who has a physical flaw ¹⁷  is to approach to present the food of his God.

Imamat 26:46

Summary Colophon

26:46 These are the statutes, regulations, and instructions which the Lord established ¹⁸  between himself and the Israelites at Mount Sinai through ¹⁹  Moses.

Imamat 27:2

27:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering ²⁰  based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, ²¹ 

[1:4]  ¹ tn “To make atonement” is the standard translation of the Hebrew term כִּפֶּר, (kipper); cf. however TEV “as a sacrifice to take away his sins” (CEV similar). The English word derives from a combination of “at” plus Middle English “one[ment],” referring primarily to reconciliation or reparation that is made in order to accomplish reconciliation. The primary meaning of the Hebrew verb, however, is “to wipe [something off (or on)]” (see esp. the goal of the sin offering, Lev 4, “to purge” the tabernacle from impurities), but in some cases it refers metaphorically to “wiping away” anything that might stand in the way of good relations by bringing a gift (see, e.g., Gen 32:20 [21 HT], “to appease; to pacify” as an illustration of this). The translation “make atonement” has been retained here because, ultimately, the goal of either purging or appeasing was to maintain a proper relationship between the Lord (who dwelt in the tabernacle) and Israelites in whose midst the tabernacle was pitched (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:689-710 for a full discussion of the Hebrew word meaning “to make atonement” and its theological significance).

[4:22]  ² tn This section begins with the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher) which usually means “who” or “which,” but here means “whenever.”

[4:22]  ³ tn See the Lev 4:2 note on “straying.”

[4:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “and does one from all the commandments of the Lord his God which must not be done”; cf. NRSV “ought not to be done”; NIV “does what is forbidden in any of the commands.”

[14:11]  ⁵ tn The MT here is awkward to translate into English. It reads literally, “and the priest who pronounces clean (Piel participle of טָהֵר, taher) shall cause to stand (Hiphil of עָמַד, ’amad) the man who is cleansing himself (Hitpael participle of טָהֵר) and them” (i.e., the offerings listed in v. 10; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity). Alternatively, the Piel of טָהֵר could be rendered “who performs the cleansing/purification” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:827), perhaps even as a technical term for one who holds the office of “purification priest” (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 87). It is probably better, however, to retain the same meaning here as in v. 7 above (see the note there regarding the declarative Piel use of this verb).

[14:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “which I am giving” (so NAB, NIV).

[14:34]  ⁷ tn Heb “give.”

[14:34]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the house of the land of your possession” (KJV and ASV both similar).

[16:31]  ⁹ tn See the note on v. 29 above.

[16:31]  ¹⁰ tn Compare v. 29a above.

[18:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And you shall keep.”

[18:5]  ¹² tn Heb “which the man shall do them and shall live in them.” The term for “a man, human being; mankind” (אָדָם, ’adam; see the note on Lev 1:2) in this case refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female. The expression וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living” so it is written וְחָיָה (vÿkhayah) in Smr, 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 25:35).

[18:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”

[18:28]  ¹⁴ 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).

[19:25]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).

[21:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to their generations.”

[21:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “who in him is a flaw”; cf. KJV, ASV “any blemish”; NASB, NIV “a defect.” The rendering “physical flaw” is used to refer to any birth defect or physical injury of the kind described in the following verses (cf. the same Hebrew word also in Lev 24:19-20). The same term is used for “flawed” animals, which must not be offered to the Lord in Lev 22:20-25.

[26:46]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “gave” (so NLT); KJV, ASV, NCV “made.”

[26:46]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[27:2]  ²⁰ tn Cf. the note on Lev 22:21. Some take this as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be remarkable”), cf. Milgrom, Numbers [JPSTC], 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה, palah, “to set aside”). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice is a special gift to God that arose out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.

[27:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “in your valuation, persons to the Lord,” but “in your valuation” is a frozen form and, therefore, the person (“your”) does not figure into the translation (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 73). Instead of offering a person to the Lord one could redeem that person with the appropriate amount of money delineated in the following verses (see the note on Lev 5:15 above and the explanation in Hartley, 480-81).