Imamat 22:2

22:2 “Tell Aaron and his sons that they must deal respectfully with the holy offerings ¹  of the Israelites, which they consecrate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name. ²  I am the Lord.

Imamat 22:15-16

22:15 They ³  must not profane the holy offerings which the Israelites contribute ⁴  to the Lord, ⁵  22:16 and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt ⁶  when they eat their holy offerings, ⁷  for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Bilangan 18:32

18:32 And you will bear no sin concerning it when you offer up the best of it. And you must not profane the holy things of the Israelites, or else you will die.’” ⁸ 

[22:2]  ¹ tn Heb “holy things,” which means the “holy offerings” in this context, as the following verses show. The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:2]  ² tn Heb “from the holy things of the sons of Israel, and they shall not profane my holy name, which they are consecrating to me.” The latter (relative) clause applies to the “the holy things of the sons of Israel” (the first clause), not the Lord’s name (i.e., the immediately preceding clause). The clause order in the translation has been rearranged to indicate this.

[22:15]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.

[18:32]  ⁸ tn The final clause could also be rendered “in order that you do not die.” The larger section can also be interpreted differently; rather than take it as a warning, it could be taken as an assurance that when they do all of this they will not be profaning it and so will not die (R. K. Harrison, Numbers [WEC], 253).