Imamat 19:15

Justice, Love, and Propriety

19:15 “‘You ¹  must not deal unjustly in judgment: ²  you must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. ³  You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. ⁴ 

Imamat 23:27

23:27 “The ⁵  tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. ⁶  It is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must humble yourselves ⁷  and present a gift to the Lord.

Imamat 23:36

23:36 For seven days you must present a gift to the Lord. On the eighth day there is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must present a gift to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly day; ⁸  you must not do any regular work.

Imamat 25:45

25:45 Also you may buy slaves ⁹  from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are ¹⁰  with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.

Imamat 7:21

7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ¹¹  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ¹² 

Imamat 23:4

The Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread

23:4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you must proclaim at their appointed time.

Imamat 23:2

23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies – my appointed times: ¹³ 

Imamat 23:21

23:21 “‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you. ¹⁴  You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations. ¹⁵ 

Imamat 23:24

23:24 “Tell the Israelites, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must have a complete rest, a memorial announced by loud horn blasts, ¹⁶  a holy assembly.

Imamat 1:2-3

1:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When ¹⁷  someone ¹⁸  among you presents an offering ¹⁹  to the Lord, ²⁰  you ²¹  must present your offering from the domesticated animals, either from the herd or from the flock. ²² 

Burnt Offering Regulations: Animal from the Herd

1:3 “‘If his offering is a burnt offering ²³  from the herd he must present it as a flawless male; he must present it at the entrance ²⁴  of the Meeting Tent for its ²⁵  acceptance before the Lord.

Imamat 23:37

23:37 “‘These are the appointed times of the Lord that you must proclaim as holy assemblies to present a gift to the Lord – burnt offering, grain offering, sacrifice, and drink offerings, ²⁶  each day according to its regulation, ²⁷ 

Imamat 25:47

25:47 “‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers ²⁸  and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that ²⁹  he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member ³⁰  of a foreigner’s family,

Imamat 25:16

25:16 The more years there are, ³¹  the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, ³²  the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of ³³  produce.

Imamat 21:10

Rules for the High Priest

21:10 “‘The high ³⁴  priest – who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, who has been ordained ³⁵  to wear the priestly garments – must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. ³⁶ 

Imamat 25:51

25:51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them ³⁷  he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption,

Imamat 18:9

18:9 You must not have sexual intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, ³⁸  whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; ³⁹  you must not have sexual intercourse with either of them. ⁴⁰ 

Imamat 11:29

Creatures that Swarm on the Land

11:29 “‘Now this is what is unclean to you among the swarming things that swarm on the land: ⁴¹  the rat, the mouse, the large lizard of any kind,

Imamat 16:32

16:32 “The priest who is anointed and ordained to act as high priest in place of his father ⁴²  is to make atonement. He is to put on the linen garments, the holy garments,

Imamat 22:14

22:14 “‘If a man eats a holy offering by mistake, ⁴³  he must add one fifth to it and give the holy offering to the priest. ⁴⁴ 

Imamat 18:17

18:17 You must not have sexual intercourse with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have intercourse with them. ⁴⁵  They are closely related to her ⁴⁶  – it is lewdness. ⁴⁷ 

Imamat 24:5

24:5 “You must take choice wheat flour ⁴⁸  and bake twelve loaves; ⁴⁹  there must be two tenths of an ephah of flour in ⁵⁰  each loaf,

Imamat 6:4

6:4 when it happens that he sins and he is found guilty, ⁵¹  then he must return whatever he had stolen, or whatever he had extorted, or the thing that he had held in trust, ⁵²  or the lost thing that he had found,

Imamat 27:8

27:8 If he is too poor to pay the conversion value, he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value; ⁵³  according to what the man who made the vow can afford, ⁵⁴  the priest will establish his conversion value.

Imamat 26:26

26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ⁵⁵  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ⁵⁶  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

Imamat 5:16

5:16 And whatever holy thing he violated ⁵⁷  he must restore and must add one fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest will make atonement ⁵⁸  on his behalf with the guilt offering ram and he will be forgiven.” ⁵⁹ 

Imamat 25:50

25:50 He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years ⁶⁰  from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. ⁶¹ 

Imamat 11:13

Clean and Unclean Birds

11:13 “‘These you are to detest from among the birds – they must not be eaten, because they are detestable: ⁶²  the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

Imamat 10:6

10:6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his other two sons, “Do not ⁶³  dishevel the hair of your heads ⁶⁴  and do not tear your garments, so that you do not die and so that wrath does not come on the whole congregation. Your brothers, all the house of Israel, are to mourn the burning which the Lord has caused, ⁶⁵ 

Imamat 23:7

23:7 On the first day there will be a holy assembly for you; you must not do any regular work. ⁶⁶ 

Imamat 23:35

23:35 On the first day is a holy assembly; you must do no regular work. ⁶⁷ 

Imamat 23:8

23:8 You must present a gift to the Lord for seven days, and the seventh day is a holy assembly; you must not do any regular work.’”

Imamat 23:3

The Weekly Sabbath

23:3 “‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, ⁶⁸  a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.

Imamat 11:17

11:17 the little owl, the cormorant, the screech owl,

[19:15]  ¹ tc Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.

[19:15]  ² tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”

[19:15]  ³ tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”

[19:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”

[23:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “Surely the tenth day” or perhaps “Precisely the tenth day.” The Hebrew adverbial particle אַךְ (’akh) is left untranslated by most recent English versions; cf. however NASB “On exactly the tenth day.”

[23:27]  ⁶ sn See the description of this day and its regulations in Lev 16 and the notes there.

[23:27]  ⁷ tn Heb “you shall humble your souls.” See the note on Lev 16:29 above.

[23:36]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term עֲצֶרֶת (’atseret) “solemn assembly [day]” derives from a root associated with restraint or closure. It could refer either to the last day as “closing assembly” day of the festival (e.g., NIV) or a special day of restraint expressed in a “solemn assembly” (e.g., NRSV); cf. NLT “a solemn closing assembly.”

[25:45]  ⁹ tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.

[25:45]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).

[7:21]  ¹¹ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

[7:21]  ¹² sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.

[23:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “these are them, my appointed times.”

[23:2]  sn The term מוֹעֵד (mo’ed, rendered “appointed time” here) can refer to either a time or place of meeting. See the note on “tent of meeting” (אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ohel mo’ed) in Lev 1:1.

[23:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And you shall proclaim [an assembly] in the bone of this day; a holy assembly it shall be to you” (see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 160, and the remarks on the LXX rendering in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 367).

[23:21]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[23:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a memorial of loud blasts.” Although the term for “horn” does not occur here, allowing for the possibility that vocal “shouts” of acclamation are envisioned (see P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 325), the “blast” of the shofar (a trumpet made from a ram’s “horn”) is most likely what is intended. On this occasion, the loud blasts on the horn announced the coming of the new year on the first day of the seventh month (see the explanations in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 387, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 160).

[1:2]  ¹⁷ tn “When” here translates the MT’s כִּי (ki, “if, when”), which regularly introduces main clauses in legislative contexts (see, e.g., Lev 2:1, 4; 4:2, etc.) in contrast to אִם (’im, “if”), which usually introduces subordinate sections (see, e.g., Lev 1:3, 10, 14; 2:5, 7, 14; 4:3, 13, etc.; cf. כִּי in Exod 21:2 and 7 as opposed to אִם in vv. 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11).

[1:2]  sn Lev 1:1-2 serves as a heading for Lev 1-3 (i.e., the basic regulations regarding the presentation of the burnt, grain, and peace offerings) and, at the same time, leads directly into the section on “burnt offerings” in Lev 1:3. In turn, Lev 1:3-17 divides into three subsections, all introduced by אִם “if” (Lev 1:3-9, 10-13, and 14-17, respectively). Similar patterns are discernible throughout Lev 1:2-6:7 [5:26 HT].

[1:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a man, human being” (אָדָם, ’adam), which in this case refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female, since women could also bring such offerings (see, e.g., Lev 12:6-8; 15:29-30; cf. HALOT 14 s.v. I אָדָם); cf. NIV “any of you.”

[1:2]  ¹⁹ tn The verb “presents” is cognate to the noun “offering” in v. 2 and throughout the book of Leviticus (both from the root קרב [qrb]). One could translate the verb “offers,” but this becomes awkward and, in fact, inaccurate in some passages. For example, in Lev 9:9 this verb is used for the presenting or giving of the blood to Aaron so that he could offer it to the Lord. The blood is certainly not being “offered” as an offering to Aaron there.

[1:2]  ²⁰ tn The whole clause reads more literally, “A human being (אָדָם, ’adam), if he brings from among you an offering to the Lord.”

[1:2]  ²¹ tn The shift to the second person plural verb here corresponds to the previous second person plural pronoun “among you.” It is distinct from the regular pattern of third person singular verbs throughout the rest of Lev 1-3. This too labels Lev 1:1-2 as an introduction to all of Lev 1-3, not just the burnt offering regulations in Lev 1 (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:146; cf. note 3 above).

[1:2]  ²² tn Heb “from the domesticated animal, from the herd, and from the flock.” It is clear from the subsequent division between animals from the “herd” (בָּקָר, baqar, in Lev 1:3-9) and the “flock” (צֹאן, tso’n; see Lev 1:10-13) that the term for “domesticated animal” (בְּהֵמָה, bÿhemah) is a general term meant to introduce the category of pastoral quadrupeds. The stronger disjunctive accent over בְּהֵמָה in the MT as well as the lack of a vav (ו) between it and בָּקָר also suggest בְּהֵמָה is an overall category that includes both “herd” and “flock” quadrupeds.

[1:2]  sn The bird category (Lev 1:14-17) is not included in this introduction because bird offerings were, by and large, concessions to the poor (cf., e.g., Lev 5:7-10; 12:8; 14:21-32) and, therefore, not considered to be one of the primary categories of animal offerings.

[1:3]  ²³ sn The burnt offering (עֹלָה, ’olah) was basically a “a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord” (vv. 9, 13, 17). It could serve as a votive or freewill offering (e.g., Lev 22:18-20), an accompaniment of prayer and supplication (e.g., 1 Sam 7:9-10), part of the regular daily, weekly, monthly, and festival cultic pattern (e.g., Num 28-29), or to make atonement either alone (e.g., Lev 1:4; 16:24) or in combination with the grain offering (e.g., Lev 14:20) or sin offering (e.g., Lev 5:7; 9:7). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 4:996-1022.

[1:3]  ²⁴ tn Heb “door” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “doorway” (likewise throughout the book of Leviticus). The translation “door” or “doorway” may suggest a framed door in a casing to the modern reader, but here the term refers to the entrance to a tent.

[1:3]  ²⁵ tn The NIV correctly has “it” in the text, referring to the acceptance of the animal (cf., e.g., RSV, NEB, NLT), but “he” in the margin, referring to the acceptance of the offerer (cf. ASV, NASB, JB). The reference to a “flawless male” in the first half of this verse suggests that the issue here is the acceptability of the animal to make atonement on behalf of the offerer (Lev 1:4; cf. NRSV “for acceptance in your behalf”).

[23:37]  ²⁶ tn The LXX has “[their] burnt offerings, and their sacrifices, and their drink offerings.”

[23:37]  ²⁷ tn Heb “a matter of a day in its day”; NAB “as prescribed for each day”; NRSV, NLT “each on its proper day.”

[25:47]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And if the hand of a foreigner and resident with you reaches” (cf. v. 26 for this idiom).

[25:47]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[25:47]  ³⁰ tn Heb “offshoot, descendant.”

[25:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”

[25:16]  ³² tn Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”

[25:16]  ³³ tn Heb “a number of produce”; the words “years of” are implied. As an alternative this could be translated “a number of harvests” (cf. NRSV, NLT).

[21:10]  ³⁴ tn The adjective “high” has been supplied in the translation for clarity, as in many English versions.

[21:10]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and he has filled his hand.” For this expression see the note on Lev 8:33.

[21:10]  ³⁶ tn Regarding these signs of mourning see the note on Lev 10:6. His head had been anointed (v. 10a) so it must not be unkempt (v. 10b), and his garments were special priestly garments (v. 10a) so he must not tear them (v. 10b). In the translation “garments” has been employed rather than “clothes” to suggest that the special priestly garments are referred to here; cf. NRSV “nor tear his vestments.”

[25:51]  ³⁷ tn Heb “to the mouth of them.”

[18:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother.”

[18:9]  ³⁹ tn Heb “born of house or born of outside.” CEV interprets as “whether you grew up together or not” (cf. also TEV, NLT).

[18:9]  ⁴⁰ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “her nakedness” rather than “their nakedness,” thus agreeing with singular “sister” at the beginning of the verse.

[18:9]  tn For a smooth English translation “either of” was added.

[11:29]  ⁴¹ tn For zoological analyses of the list of creatures in vv. 29-30, see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:671-72; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 161-62.

[16:32]  ⁴² tn Heb “And the priest whom he shall anointed him and whom he shall fill his hand to act as priest under his father.” Imperfect active verbs are often used as passives (see, e.g., v. 27 above and the note on Lev 14:4).

[22:14]  ⁴³ tn Heb “And a man, if he eats a holy thing in error” (see the Lev 4:2 not on “straying,” which is the term rendered “by mistake” here).

[22:14]  ⁴⁴ sn When a person trespassed in regard to something sacred to the Lord, reparation was to be made for the trespass, involving restitution of that which was violated plus one fifth of its value as a fine. It is possible that the restoration of the offering and the additional one fifth of its value were made as a monetary payment (see, e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 150). See the regulations for the “guilt offering” in Lev 5:16; 6:5 [5:24 HT] and the notes there.

[18:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “You must not uncover the nakedness of both a woman and her daughter; the daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter you must not take to uncover her nakedness.” Translating “her” as “them” provides consistency in the English. In this kind of context, “take” means to “take in marriage” (cf. also v. 18). The LXX and Syriac have “their nakedness,” referring to the nakedness of the woman’s granddaughters, rather than the nakedness of the woman herself.

[18:17]  ⁴⁶ tc Heb “they are her flesh.” The LXX reads “your” here (followed by NRSV). If the LXX reading were followed by the present translation, the result would be “They are closely related to you.”

[18:17]  ⁴⁷ tn The term rendered “lewdness” almost always carries a connotation of cunning, evil device, and divisiveness (cf. HALOT 272 s.v. I זִמָּה 2, “infamy”), and is closely associated with sexual and religious infidelity (cf., e.g., Lev 19:29; 20:14; Job 31:11; Jer 13:27; Ezek 16:27; 22:9). Recent English versions differ on how they handle this: NAB “would be shameful”; CEV “would make you unclean”; NIV “wickedness”; NLT “horrible wickedness”; NRSV “depravity”; TEV “incest.”

[24:5]  ⁴⁸ sn See the note on Lev 2:1.

[24:5]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and bake it twelve loaves”; KJV, NAB, NASB “cakes.”

[24:5]  ⁵⁰ tn The words “of flour” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[24:5]  sn See the note on Lev 5:11.

[6:4]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and it shall happen, when he sins and becomes guilty,” which is both resumptive of the previous (vv. 2-3) and the conclusion to the protasis (cf. “then” introducing the next clause as the apodosis). In this case, “becomes guilty” (cf. NASB, NIV) probably refers to his legal status as one who has been convicted of a crime in court; thus the translation “he is found guilty.” See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:559-61.

[6:4]  ⁵² tn Heb “that had been held in trust with him.”

[27:8]  ⁵³ tn Heb “and the priest shall cause him to be valued.”

[27:8]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “on the mouth which the hand of the one who vowed reaches.”

[26:26]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[5:16]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “and which he sinned from the holy thing.”

[5:16]  ⁵⁸ sn Regarding “make atonement” see the note on Lev 1:4.

[5:16]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

[25:50]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “the years.”

[25:50]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “as days of a hired worker he shall be with him.” For this and the following verses see the explanation in P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 358-59.

[11:13]  ⁶² tn For zoological remarks on the following list of birds see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:662-64; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 159-60.

[10:6]  ⁶³ tc Smr has “you must not” (לֹא, lo’) rather than the MT’s “do not” (אַל, ’al; cf. the following negative לֹא, lo’, in the MT).

[10:6]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “do not let free your heads.” Some have taken this to mean, “do not take off your headgear” (cf. NAB, NASB), but it probably also involves leaving one’s hair unkempt as a sign of mourning (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:608-9; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[10:6]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “shall weep [for] the burning which the Lord has burned”; NIV “may mourn for those the Lord has destroyed by fire.”

[23:7]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “work of service”; KJV “servile work”; NASB “laborious work”; TEV “daily work.”

[23:35]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “work of service”; KJV “servile work”; NASB “laborious work”; TEV “daily work.”

[23:3]  ⁶⁸ tn This is a superlative expression, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the Sabbath and certain festival times throughout the chapter (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 155). Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest.”