Imamat 2:13

2:13 Moreover, you must season every one of your grain offerings with salt; you must not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering ¹  – on every one of your grain offerings you must present salt.

Imamat 4:27

For the Common Person

4:27 “‘If an ordinary individual ²  sins by straying unintentionally ³  when he violates one of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated, ⁴  and he pleads guilty

Imamat 5:8

5:8 He must bring them to the priest and present first the one that is for a sin offering. The priest ⁵  must pinch ⁶  its head at the nape of its neck, but must not sever the head from the body. ⁷ 

Imamat 6:30

6:30 But any sin offering from which some of its blood is brought into the Meeting Tent to make atonement in the sanctuary must not be eaten. It must be burned up in the fire. ⁸ 

Imamat 7:15

7:15 The meat of his ⁹  thanksgiving peace offering must be eaten on the day of his offering; he must not set any of it aside until morning.

Imamat 7:17

7:17 but the leftovers from the meat of the sacrifice must be burned up in the fire ¹⁰  on the third day.

Imamat 7:19

7:19 The meat which touches anything ceremonially ¹¹  unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up in the fire. As for ceremonially clean meat, ¹²  everyone who is ceremonially clean may eat the meat.

Imamat 8:33

8:33 And you must not go out from the entrance of the Meeting Tent for seven days, until the day when your days of ordination are completed, because you must be ordained over a seven-day period. ¹³ 

Imamat 11:35

11:35 Anything their carcass may fall on will become unclean. An oven or small stove must be smashed to pieces; they are unclean, and they will stay unclean ¹⁴  to you.

Imamat 11:44

11:44 for I am the Lord your God and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any of the swarming things that creep on the ground,

Imamat 13:52

13:52 He must burn the garment or the warp or the woof, whether wool or linen, or any article of leather which has the infection in it. Because it is a malignant disease it must be burned up in the fire.

Imamat 17:7

17:7 So they must no longer offer ¹⁵  their sacrifices to the goat demons, ¹⁶  acting like prostitutes by going after them. ¹⁷  This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. ¹⁸ 

Imamat 18:23

18:23 You must not have sexual intercourse ¹⁹  with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual intercourse with it; ²⁰  it is a perversion. ²¹ 

Imamat 18:25

18:25 Therefore ²²  the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, ²³  so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants.

Imamat 19:23

The Produce of Fruit Trees

19:23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, ²⁴  you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. ²⁵  Three years it will be forbidden to you; ²⁶  it must not be eaten.

Imamat 19:29

19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ²⁷  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ²⁸ 

Imamat 20:9-13

Family Life and Sexual Prohibitions ²⁹ 

20:9 “‘If anyone ³⁰  curses his father and mother ³¹  he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. ³²  20:10 If a man ³³  commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, ³⁴  both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 20:11 If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. ³⁵  Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. ³⁶  20:12 If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; ³⁷  their blood guilt is on themselves. 20:13 If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, ³⁸  the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

Imamat 20:16

20:16 If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, ³⁹  you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.

Imamat 20:27--21:1

Prohibition against Spiritists and Mediums

20:27 “‘A man or woman who ⁴⁰  has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit ⁴¹  must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; ⁴²  their blood guilt is on themselves.’”

Rules for the Priests

21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person ⁴³  no priest ⁴⁴  is to defile himself among his people, ⁴⁵ 

Imamat 21:6-7

21:6 “‘They must be holy to their God, and they must not profane ⁴⁶  the name of their God, because they are the ones who present the Lord’s gifts, ⁴⁷  the food of their God. Therefore they must be holy. ⁴⁸  21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, ⁴⁹  nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, ⁵⁰  for the priest ⁵¹  is holy to his God. ⁵² 

Imamat 21:21

21:21 No man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical flaw may step forward ⁵³  to present the Lord’s gifts; he has a physical flaw, so he must not step forward to present the food of his God.

Imamat 22:10

22:10 “‘No lay person ⁵⁴  may eat anything holy. Neither a priest’s lodger ⁵⁵  nor a hired laborer may eat anything holy,

Imamat 22:32

22:32 You must not profane my holy name, and I will be sanctified in the midst of the Israelites. I am the Lord who sanctifies you,

Imamat 23:21

23:21 “‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you. ⁵⁶  You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations. ⁵⁷ 

Imamat 25:2

25:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath ⁵⁸  to the Lord.

Imamat 25:4-5

25:4 but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest ⁵⁹  – a Sabbath to the Lord. You must not sow your field or ⁶⁰  prune your vineyard. 25:5 You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned ⁶¹  vines; the land must have a year of complete rest.

Imamat 25:11

25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. ⁶² 

Imamat 25:35

Debt and Slave Regulations

25:35 “‘If your brother ⁶³  becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, ⁶⁴  you must support ⁶⁵  him; he must live ⁶⁶  with you like a foreign resident. ⁶⁷ 

Imamat 25:46

25:46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. ⁶⁸ 

Imamat 25:55

25:55 because the Israelites are my own servants; ⁶⁹  they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 27:11

27:11 If what is vowed is an unclean animal from which an offering must not be presented to the Lord, then he must stand the animal before the priest,

Imamat 27:26

Redemption of the Firstborn

27:26 “‘Surely no man may consecrate a firstborn that already belongs to the Lord as a firstborn among the animals; whether it is an ox or a sheep, it belongs to the Lord. ⁷⁰ 

[2:13]  ¹ tn Heb “from upon your grain offering.”

[4:27]  ² tn Heb “an individual from the people of the land”; cf. NASB “anyone of the common people” (KJV, ASV both similar); NAB “a private person.”

[4:27]  ³ tn Heb “If one person sins by straying, from the people of the land.” See Lev 4:2 for a note on “straying.”

[4:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “by doing it, one from the commandments of the Lord which must not be done.”

[5:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “he.” The subject (“he”) refers to the priest here, not the offerer who presented the birds to the priest (cf. v. 8a).

[5:8]  ⁶ sn The action seems to involve both a twisting action, breaking the neck of the bird and severing its vertebrae, as well as pinching or nipping the skin, but in this case not severing the head from the main body (note the rest of this verse).

[5:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “he shall not divide [it]” (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:305).

[6:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”

[7:15]  ⁹ tn In the verse “his” refers to the offerer.

[7:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely” (likewise in v. 19).

[7:19]  ¹¹ tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation both here and in the following sentence to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[7:19]  ¹² tn The Hebrew has simply “the flesh,” but this certainly refers to “clean” flesh in contrast to the unclean flesh in the first half of the verse.

[8:33]  ¹³ tn Heb “because seven days he shall fill your hands”; KJV “for seven days shall he consecrate you”; CEV “ends seven days from now.”

[8:33]  sn It is apparent that the term for “ordination offering” (מִלֻּאִים, millu’im; cf. Lev 7:37 and the note there) is closely related to the expression “he shall fill (Piel מִלֵּא, mille’) your hands” in this verse. Some derive the terminology from the procedure in Lev 8:27-28, but the term for “hands” there is actually “palms.” It seems more likely that it derives from the notion of putting the priestly responsibilities (or possibly its associated prebends) under their control (i.e., “filling their hands” with authority; see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:538-39). The command “to keep the charge of the Lord” in v. 35 and the expression “by the hand of Moses” (i.e., under the authoritative hand of Moses, v. 36) may also support this interpretation.

[11:35]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “be unclean.”

[17:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”

[17:7]  ¹⁶ tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.

[17:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”

[17:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[18:23]  ¹⁹ tn See the note on v. 20 above.

[18:23]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).

[18:23]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” and therefore refers to illegitimate mixtures of species or violation of the natural order of things.

[18:25]  ²² tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.

[18:25]  ²³ tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[19:23]  ²⁴ tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”

[19:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).

[19:23]  ²⁶ tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”

[19:29]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

[19:29]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[20:9]  ²⁹ sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.

[20:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “If a man a man who.”

[20:9]  ³¹ tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”

[20:9]  ³² tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”

[20:9]  sn The rendering “blood guilt” refers to the fact that the shedding of blood brings guilt on those who shed it illegitimately (even the blood of animals shed illegitimately, Lev 17:4; cf. the background of Gen 4:10-11). If the community performs a legitimate execution, however, the blood guilt rests on the person who has been legitimately executed (see the remarks and literature cited in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328).

[20:10]  ³³ tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.

[20:10]  ³⁴ tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.

[20:11]  ³⁵ sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.

[20:11]  ³⁶ tn See the note on v. 9 above.

[20:12]  ³⁷ tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” (cf. KJV, ASV “they have wrought confusion”).

[20:13]  ³⁸ tn Heb “[as the] lyings of a woman.” The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.

[20:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).

[20:27]  ⁴⁰ tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, and some Targum mss have the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who, which”), rather than the MT’s כִּי (ki, “for, because, that”).

[20:27]  ⁴¹ tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.

[20:27]  ⁴² tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning, but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (see the note on v. 2 above). Smr and LXX have “you [plural] shall pelt them with stones.”

[20:27]  sn At first glance Lev 20:27 appears to be out of place but, on closer examination, one could argue that it constitutes the back side of an envelope around the case laws in 20:9-21, with Lev 20:6 forming the front of the envelope (note also that execution of mediums and spiritists by stoning in v. 27 is not explicitly stated in v. 6). This creates a chiastic structure: prohibition against mediums and spiritists (vv. 6 and 27), variations of the holiness formula (vv. 7 and 25-26), and exhortations to obey the Lord’s statutes (and judgments; vv. 8 and 22-24). Again, in the middle are the case laws (vv. 9-21).

[21:1]  ⁴³ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).

[21:1]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).

[21:1]  ⁴⁵ tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[21:6]  ⁴⁶ sn Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[21:6]  ⁴⁷ sn Regarding the Hebrew term for “gifts,” see the note on Lev 1:9 above (cf. also 3:11 and 16 in combination with the word for “food” that follows in the next phrase here).

[21:6]  ⁴⁸ tc Smr and all early versions have the plural adjective “holy” rather than the MT singular noun “holiness.”

[21:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “A wife harlot and profaned they shall not take.” The structure of the verse (e.g., “wife” at the beginning of the two main clauses) suggests that “harlot and profaned” constitutes a hendiadys, meaning “a wife defiled by harlotry” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 143, as opposed to that in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348; cf. v. 14 below). Cf. NASB “a woman who is profaned by harlotry.”

[21:7]  ⁵⁰ sn For a helpful discussion of divorce in general and as it relates to this passage see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 143-44.

[21:7]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:7]  ⁵² tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.

[21:21]  ⁵³ tn Or “shall approach” (see HALOT 670 s.v. נגשׁ).

[22:10]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “No stranger” (so KJV, ASV), which refers here to anyone other than the Aaronic priests. Some English versions reverse the negation and state positively: NIV “No one outside a priest’s family”; NRSV “Only a member of a priestly family”; CEV “Only you priests and your families.”

[22:10]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “A resident [תּוֹשָׁב (toshav) from יָשַׁב (yashav, “to dwell, to reside”)] of a priest.” The meaning of the term is uncertain. It could refer to a “guest” (NIV) or perhaps “bound servant” (NRSV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 149). In the translation “lodger” was used instead of “boarder” precisely because a boarder would be provided meals with his lodging, the very issue at stake here.

[23:21]  ⁵⁶ 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]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[25:2]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “the land shall rest a Sabbath.”

[25:4]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “and in the seventh year a Sabbath of complete rest shall be to the land.” The expression “a Sabbath of complete rest” is superlative, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the seventh year of the sabbatical cycle. Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest”; NAB “a complete rest.”

[25:4]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “and.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has an alternative sense (“or”).

[25:5]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “consecrated, devoted, forbidden” (נָזִיר, nazir). The same term is used for the “consecration” of the “Nazirite” (and his hair, Num 6:2, 18, etc.), a designation which, in turn, derives from the very same root.

[25:11]  ⁶² tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”

[25:11]  sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.

[25:35]  ⁶³ tn It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).

[25:35]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “and his hand slips with you.”

[25:35]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”

[25:35]  ⁶⁶ tn The form וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” 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 18:5).

[25:35]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).

[25:46]  ⁶⁸ tn Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”

[25:55]  ⁶⁹ tn Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”

[27:26]  ⁷⁰ tn Heb “to the Lord it is.”