Imamat 1:5

1:5 Then the one presenting the offering ¹  must slaughter the bull ²  before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, must present the blood and splash ³  the blood against the sides of the altar which is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Imamat 1:9

1:9 Finally, the one presenting the offering ⁴  must wash its entrails and its legs in water and the priest must offer all of it up in smoke on the altar ⁵  – it is ⁶  a burnt offering, a gift ⁷  of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Imamat 1:11-12

1:11 and must slaughter it on the north side of the altar before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, will splash its blood against the altar’s sides. 1:12 Next, the one presenting the offering ⁸  must cut it into parts, with its head and its suet, and the priest must arrange them on the wood which is in the fire, on the altar.

Imamat 2:8-9

2:8 “‘You must bring the grain offering that must be made from these to the Lord. Present it to the priest, ⁹  and he will bring it to the altar. 2:9 Then the priest must take up ¹⁰  from the grain offering its memorial portion and offer it up in smoke on the altar – it is ¹¹  a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Imamat 2:16

2:16 Then the priest must offer its memorial portion up in smoke – some of its crushed bits, some of its olive oil, in addition to all of its frankincense – it is ¹²  a gift to the Lord.

Imamat 4:26

4:26 Then the priest ¹³  must offer all of its fat up in smoke on the altar like the fat of the peace offering sacrifice. So the priest will make atonement ¹⁴  on his behalf for ¹⁵  his sin and he will be forgiven. ¹⁶ 

Imamat 4:30

4:30 Then the priest must take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.

Imamat 4:34

4:34 Then the priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.

Imamat 7:7

7:7 The law is the same for the sin offering and the guilt offering; ¹⁷  it belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it.

Imamat 7:14

7:14 He must present one of each kind of grain offering ¹⁸  as a contribution offering ¹⁹  to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the peace offering.

Imamat 13:12

13:12 If, however, the disease breaks out ²⁰  on the skin so that the disease covers all the skin of the person with the infection ²¹  from his head to his feet, as far as the priest can see, ²² 

Imamat 13:39

13:39 the priest is to examine them, ²³  and if ²⁴  the bright spots on the skin of their body are faded white, it is a harmless rash that has broken out on the skin. The person is clean. ²⁵ 

Imamat 13:56

13:56 But if the priest has examined it and ²⁶  the infection has faded after it has been washed, he is to tear it out of ²⁷  the garment or the leather or the warp or the woof.

Imamat 14:4

14:4 then the priest will command that two live clean birds, a piece of cedar wood, a scrap of crimson fabric, ²⁸  and some twigs of hyssop ²⁹  be taken up ³⁰  for the one being cleansed. ³¹ 

Imamat 14:44

14:44 the priest is to come and examine it, and if ³²  the infection has spread in the house, it is a malignant disease in the house. It is unclean.

Imamat 15:29

15:29 Then on the eighth day she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons ³³  and she must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent,

Imamat 17:6

17:6 The priest is to splash ³⁴  the blood on the altar ³⁵  of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Imamat 19:22

19:22 and the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, ³⁶  and he will be forgiven ³⁷  of his sin ³⁸  that he has committed.

Imamat 27:23

27:23 the priest will calculate for him the amount of its conversion value until the jubilee year, and he must pay ³⁹  the conversion value on that jubilee day as something that is holy to the Lord.

[1:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent (the offerer) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The LXX has “they” rather than “he,” suggesting that the priests, not the offerer, were to slaughter the bull (cf. the notes on vv. 6a and 9a).

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “the son of the herd”; cf. KJV “bullock”; NASB, NIV “young bull.”

[1:5]  ³ tn “Splash” (cf. NAB) or “dash” (cf. NRSV) is better than “sprinkle,” which is the common English translation of this verb (זָרַק, zaraq; see, e.g., KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). “Sprinkle” is not strong enough (contrast נָזָה [nazah], which does indeed mean “to sprinkle” or “to splatter”; cf. Lev 4:6).

[1:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “Finally, he”; the referent (the offerer) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Once again, the MT assigns the preparation of the offering (here the entrails and legs) to the offerer because it did not bring him into direct contact with the altar, but reserves the actual placing of the sacrifice on the altar for the officiating priest (cf. the notes on vv. 5a and 6a).

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “toward the altar,” but the so-called locative ה (hey) attached to the word for “altar” can indicate the place where something is or happens (GKC 250 §90.d and GKC 373-74 §118.g; cf. also J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:161). This is a standard way of expressing “on/at the altar” with the verb “to offer up in smoke” (Hiphil of קָטַר [qatar]; cf. also Exod 29:13, 18, 25; Lev 1:9, 13, 15, 17; 2:2, etc.).

[1:9]  ⁶ tc A few Hebrew mss and possibly the Leningrad B19a ms itself (the basis of the BHS Hebrew text of the MT), under an apparent erasure, plus Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. suggest that Hebrew הוּא (hu’, translated as “it is”) should be added here as in vv. 13 and 17. Whether or not the text should be changed, the meaning is the same as in vv. 13 and 17, so it has been included in the translation here.

[1:9]  ⁷ sn The standard English translation of “gift” (אִשֶּׁה, ’isheh) is “an offering [made] by fire” (cf. KJV, ASV). It is based on a supposed etymological relationship to the Hebrew word for “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) and is still maintained in many versions (e.g., NIV, RSV, NRSV, NLT; B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 7-8). For various reasons, including the fact that some offerings referred to by this term are not burned on the altar (see, e.g., Lev 24:9), it is probably better to understand the term to mean “gift” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 22) or “food gift” (“food offering” in NEB and TEV; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:161-62). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:540-49 for a complete discussion.

[1:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent (the offerer) has been specified in the translation for clarity (so also in v. 13).

[2:8]  ⁹ tc There are several person, gender, and voice verb problems in this verse. First, the MT has “And you shall bring the grain offering,” but the LXX and Qumran have “he” rather than “you” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:185). Second, the MT has “which shall be made” (i.e., the 3rd person masculine Niphal passive verb which, in fact, does not agree with its feminine subject, מִנְחָה, minkhah, “grain offering”), while the LXX has “which he shall make” (3rd person Qal), thus agreeing with the LXX 3rd person verb at the beginning of the verse (see above). Third, the MT has a 3rd person vav consecutive verb “and he shall present it to the priest,” which agrees with the LXX but is not internally consistent with the 2nd person verb at the beginning of the verse in the MT. The BHS editors conjecture that the latter might be repointed to an imperative verb yielding “present it to the priest.” This would require no change of consonants and corresponds to the person of the first verb in the MT. This solution has been tentatively accepted here (cf. also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 26-27), even though it neither resolves the gender problem of the second verb nor fits the general grammatical pattern of the chapter in the MT.

[2:9]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb הֵרִים (herim, “to take up”; cf. NAB “lift”) 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). A number of English versions employ the more normal English idiom “take out” here (e.g., NIV, NCV); cf. NRSV “remove.”

[2:9]  ¹¹ tn The words “it is” (הוּא, hu’) both here and in vv. 10 and 16 are not in the MT, but are assumed. (cf. vv. 2b and 3b and the notes there).

[2:16]  ¹² tn See the note on “it is” in 2:9b.

[4:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity. Based on the parallel statements in 4:10 and 4:31, it is the priest who performs this action rather than the person who brought the offering.

[4:26]  ¹⁴ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

[4:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “from.” In this phrase the preposition מִן (min) may be referring to the reason or cause (“on account of, because of”; GKC 383 §119.z). As J. E. Hartley (Leviticus [WBC], 47) points out, “from” may refer to the removal of the sin, but is an awkward expression. Hartley also suggests that the phrasing might be “an elliptical expression for יְכַפֵּר עַל־לְטַהֵר אֶת־מִן, ‘he will make expiation for…to cleanse…from…,’ as in 16:30.”

[4:26]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

[7:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “like the sin offering like the guilt offering, one law to them.”

[7:14]  ¹⁸ tn Here the Hebrew text reads “offering” (קָרְבָּן, qorbban), not “grain offering” (מִנְחָה, minkhah), but in this context the term refers once again to the list in 7:12.

[7:14]  ¹⁹ tn The term rendered “contribution offering” is תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), which generally refers to that which is set aside from the offerings to the Lord as prebends for the officiating priests (cf. esp. Lev 7:28-34 and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 4:335-37). Cf. TEV “as a special contribution.”

[13:12]  ²⁰ tn Heb “And if spreading [infinitive absolute] it spreads out [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.

[13:12]  ²¹ tn Heb “all the skin of the infection,” but see v. 4 above.

[13:12]  ²² tn Heb “to all the appearance of the eyes of the priest.”

[13:39]  ²³ tn Heb “and the priest shall see.”

[13:39]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

[13:39]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he,” but the regulation applies to a man or a woman (v. 38a). In the translation “the person” is used to specify the referent more clearly.

[13:56]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And if the priest saw and behold….”

[13:56]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and he shall tear it from.”

[14:4]  ²⁸ tn The term rendered here “crimson fabric” consists of two Hebrew words and means literally, “crimson of worm” (in this order only in Lev 14:4, 6, 49, 51, 52 and Num 19:6; for the more common reverse order, “worm of crimson,” see, e.g., the colored fabrics used in making the tabernacle, Exod 25:4, etc.). This particular “worm” is an insect that lives on the leaves of palm trees, the eggs of which are the source for a “crimson” dye used to color various kinds of cloth (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 86). That a kind of dyed “fabric” is intended, not just the dye substance itself, is made certain by the dipping of it along with the other ritual materials listed here into the blood and water mixture for sprinkling on the person being cleansed (Lev 14:6; cf. also the burning of it in the fire of the red heifer in Num 19:6). Both the reddish color of cedar wood and the crimson colored fabric seem to correspond to the color of blood and may, therefore, symbolize either “life,” which is in the blood, or the use of blood to “make atonement” (see, e.g., Gen 9:4 and Lev 17:11). See further the note on v. 7 below.

[14:4]  ²⁹ sn Twigs of hyssop (probably one or several species of marjoram thymus), a spice and herb plant that grows out of walls in Palestine (see 1 Kgs 4:33 [5:13 HT], HALOT 27 s.v. אֵזוֹב, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 195), were particularly leafy and therefore especially useful for sprinkling the purifying liquid (cf. vv. 5-7). Many of the details of the ritual procedure are obscure. It has been proposed, for example, that the “cedar wood” was a stick to which the hyssop was bound with the crimson material to make a sort of sprinkling instrument (Hartley, 195). In light of the burning of these three materials as part of the preparation of the ashes of the red heifer in Num 19:5-6, however, this seems unlikely.

[14:4]  ³⁰ tn The MT reads literally, “And the priest shall command and he shall take.” Clearly, the second verb (“and he shall take”) contains the thrust of the priest’s command, which suggests the translation “that he take” (cf. also v. 5a). Since the priest issues the command here, he cannot be the subject of the second verb because he cannot be commanding himself to “take” up these ritual materials. Moreover, since the ritual is being performed “for the one being cleansed,” the antecedent of the pronoun “he” cannot refer to him. The LXX, Smr, and Syriac versions have the third person plural here and in v. 5a, which corresponds to other combinations with the verb וְצִוָּה (vÿtsivvah) “and he (the priest) shall command” in this context (see Lev 13:54; 14:36, 40). This suggests an impersonal (i.e., “someone shall take” and “someone shall slaughter,” respectively) or perhaps even passive rendering of the verbs in 14:4, 5 (i.e., “there shall be taken” and “there shall be slaughtered,” respectively). The latter option has been chosen here.

[14:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר, taher, “to be clean”).

[14:44]  ³² tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “If he sees that the mark has indeed spread.”

[15:29]  ³³ tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168 with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).

[17:6]  ³⁴ tn For the translation “splash” see the note on Lev 1:5.

[17:6]  ³⁵ tn The LXX adds “all around” (i.e., Hebrew סָבִיב [saviv, “all around”]), which is normal for this overall construction (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:8, etc.).

[19:22]  ³⁶ tn Heb “on his sin which he has sinned.”

[19:22]  ³⁷ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him.”

[19:22]  ³⁸ tn Heb “from his sin.”

[27:23]  ³⁹ tn Heb “give” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT).