Imamat 2:4

Processed Grain Offerings

2:4 “‘When you present an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must be made of ¹  choice wheat flour baked into unleavened loaves ²  mixed with olive oil or ³  unleavened wafers smeared ⁴  with olive oil.

Imamat 4:7

4:7 The priest must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the bull’s blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Imamat 5:2

5:2 Or when there is ⁵  a person who touches anything ceremonially ⁶  unclean, whether the carcass of an unclean wild animal, or the carcass of an unclean domesticated animal, or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing, even if he did not realize it, ⁷  but he himself has become unclean and is guilty; ⁸ 

Imamat 6:9

6:9 “Command Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering is to remain on the hearth ⁹  on the altar all night until morning, and the fire of the altar must be kept burning on it. ¹⁰ 

Imamat 6:12

6:12 but the fire which is on the altar must be kept burning on it. ¹¹  It must not be extinguished. So the priest must kindle wood on it morning by morning, and he must arrange the burnt offering on it and offer the fat of the peace offering up in smoke on it.

Imamat 7:12

7:12 If he presents it on account of thanksgiving, ¹²  along with the thank offering sacrifice he must present unleavened loaves mixed with olive oil, unleavened wafers smeared with olive oil, ¹³  and well soaked ¹⁴  ring-shaped loaves made of choice wheat flour ¹⁵  mixed with olive oil.

Imamat 10:17

10:17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sanctuary? For it is most holy and he gave it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, ¹⁶  to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord.

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: ¹⁷  the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

Imamat 11:32

11:32 Also, anything they fall on ¹⁸  when they die will become unclean – any wood vessel or garment or article of leather or sackcloth. Any such vessel with which work is done must be immersed in water ¹⁹  and will be unclean until the evening. Then it will become clean.

Imamat 13:25

13:25 the priest must examine it, ²⁰  and if ²¹  the hair has turned white in the bright spot and it appears to be deeper than the skin, ²²  it is a disease that has broken out in the burn. ²³  The priest is to pronounce the person unclean. ²⁴  It is a diseased infection. ²⁵ 

Imamat 13:51

13:51 He must then examine the infection on the seventh day. If the infection has spread in the garment, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in the leather – whatever the article into which the leather was made ²⁶  – the infection is a malignant disease. It is unclean.

Imamat 13:55

13:55 The priest must then examine it after the infection has been washed out, and if ²⁷  the infection has not changed its appearance ²⁸  even though the infection has not spread, it is unclean. You must burn it up in the fire. It is a fungus, whether on the back side or front side of the article. ²⁹ 

Imamat 16:17

16:17 Nobody is to be in the Meeting Tent ³⁰  when he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he goes out, and he has made atonement on his behalf, on behalf of his household, and on behalf of the whole assembly of Israel.

Imamat 16:21

16:21 Aaron is to lay his two hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins, ³¹  and thus he is to put them ³²  on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man standing ready. ³³ 

Imamat 16:27

16:27 The bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought to make atonement in the holy place, must be brought outside the camp ³⁴  and their hide, their flesh, and their dung must be burned up, ³⁵ 

Imamat 16:29

Review of the Day of Atonement

16:29 “This is to be a perpetual statute for you. ³⁶  In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you must humble yourselves ³⁷  and do no work of any kind, ³⁸  both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides ³⁹  in your midst,

Imamat 17:15

Regulations for Eating Carcasses

17:15 “‘Any person ⁴⁰  who eats an animal that has died of natural causes ⁴¹  or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, ⁴²  must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean.

Imamat 22:13

22:13 but if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in ⁴³  her father’s house as in her youth, ⁴⁴  she may eat from her father’s food, but no lay person may eat it.

Imamat 22:22

22:22 “‘You must not present to the Lord something blind, or with a broken bone, or mutilated, or with a running sore, ⁴⁵  or with a festering eruption, or with a feverish rash. ⁴⁶  You must not give any of these as a gift ⁴⁷  on the altar to the Lord.

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, ⁴⁸  a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.

Imamat 23:22

23:22 When you gather in the harvest ⁴⁹  of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, ⁵⁰  and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.’” ⁵¹ 

Imamat 23:32

23:32 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening until evening you must observe your Sabbath.” ⁵² 

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; ⁵³  you must not do any regular work.

Imamat 23:40

23:40 On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees ⁵⁴  – palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

Imamat 24:3

24:3 Outside the veil-canopy ⁵⁵  of the congregation in the Meeting Tent Aaron ⁵⁶  must arrange it from evening until morning before the Lord continually. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations. ⁵⁷ 

Imamat 25:33

25:33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem – the sale of a house which is his property in a city – must revert in the jubilee, ⁵⁸  because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites.

[2:4]  ¹ tn The insertion of the words “it must be made of” is justified by the context and the expressed words “it shall be made of” in vv. 7 and 8 below.

[2:4]  ² sn These “loaves” were either “ring-shaped” (HALOT 317 s.v. חַלָּה) or “perforated” (BDB 319 s.v. חַלָּה; cf. J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:184).

[2:4]  ³ tn Heb “and.” Here the conjunction vav (ו) has an alternative sense (“or”).

[2:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word מְשֻׁחִים (mÿshukhim) translated here as “smeared” is often translated “anointed” in other contexts. Cf. TEV “brushed with olive oil” (CEV similar).

[5:2]  ⁵ tc The insertion of the words “when there is” is a reflection of the few Hebrew mss, Smr, and LXX that have כִּי (ki, “when, if”; cf. vv. 3 and esp. 4) rather than the MT’s אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who”). Many English versions render this as a conditional clause (“if”).

[5:2]  ⁶ tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[5:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and it is hidden from him,” meaning that the person who contracted the ceremonial uncleanness was not aware at the time what had happened, but later found out that he had become ceremonially unclean. This same phrase occurs again in both vv. 3 and 4.

[5:2]  ⁸ sn Lev 5:2-3 are parallel laws of uncleanness (contracted from animals and people, respectively), and both seem to assume that the contraction of uncleanness was originally unknown to the person (vv. 2 and 3) but became known to him or her at a later time (v. 3; i.e., “has come to know” in v. 3 is to be assumed for v. 2 as well). Uncleanness itself did not make a person “guilty” unless he or she failed to handle it according to the normal purification regulations (see, e.g., “wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening,” Lev 15:5 NIV; cf. Lev 11:39-40; 15:5-12, 16-24; Num 19, etc.). The problem here in Lev 5:2-3 is that, because the person had not been aware of his or her uncleanness, he or she had incurred guilt for not carrying out these regular procedures, and it would now be too late for that. Thus, the unclean person needs to bring a sin offering to atone for the contamination caused by his or her neglect of the purity regulations.

[6:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “It is the burnt offering on the hearth.”

[6:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in it.” In this context “in it” apparently refers to the “hearth” which was on top of the altar.

[6:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in it,” apparently referring to the “hearth” which was on top of the altar (cf. the note on v. 9).

[7:12]  ¹² tn Or “for a thank offering.”

[7:12]  ¹³ tn See the notes on Lev 2:4.

[7:12]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on Lev 6:21 [6:14 HT].

[7:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “choice wheat flour well soaked ring-shaped loaves.” See the note on Lev 2:1.

[10:17]  ¹⁶ sn This translation is quite literal. On the surface it appears to mean that the priests would “bear the iniquity” of the congregation by the act of eating the sin offering (so J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:622-25, 635-40). Such a notion is, however, found nowhere else in the Levitical regulations and seems unlikely (so J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 136). A more likely interpretation is reflected in this interpretive rendering: “he gave it to you [as payment] for [your work of] bearing the iniquity of the congregation.” The previous section of the chapter deals with the prebends that the priests received for performing the ministry of the tabernacle (Lev 10:12-15). Lev 10:16-18, therefore, seems to continue the very same topic in the light of the most immediate situation (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:702-4).

[11:13]  ¹⁷ 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.

[11:32]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And all which it shall fall on it from them.”

[11:32]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in water it shall be brought.”

[13:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the priest shall see it.”

[13:25]  ²¹ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

[13:25]  ²² tn Heb “and its appearance is deep ‘from’ [comparative מִן (min) meaning ‘deeper than’] the skin.”

[13:25]  ²³ tn Heb “it is a disease. In the burn it has broken out.”

[13:25]  ²⁴ tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָמֵא (tame’; cf. the note on v. 3 above).

[13:25]  ²⁵ tn For the rendering “diseased infection” see the note on v. 2 above.

[13:51]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to all which the leather was made into a handiwork.”

[13:55]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

[13:55]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the infection has not changed its eye.” Smr has “its/his eyes,” as in vv. 5 and 37, but here it refers to the appearance of the article of cloth or leather, unlike vv. 5 and 37 where there is a preposition attached and it refers to the eyes of the priest.

[13:55]  ²⁹ tn The terms “back side” and “front side” are the same as those used in v. 42 for the “back or front bald area” of a man’s head. The exact meaning of these terms when applied to articles of cloth or leather is uncertain. It could refer, for example, to the inside versus the outside of a garment, or the back versus the front side of an article of cloth or leather. See J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:814, for various possibilities.

[16:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “And all man shall not be in the tent of meeting.” The term for “a man, human being” (אָדָם, ’adam; see the note on Lev 1:2) refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female.

[16:21]  ³¹ tn Heb “transgressions to all their sins.”

[16:21]  ³² tn Heb “and he shall give them.”

[16:21]  ³³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term עִתִּי (’itti) is uncertain. It is apparently related to עֵת (’et, “time”), and could perhaps mean either that he has been properly “appointed” (i.e., designated) for the task (e.g., NIV and NRSV) or “ready” (e.g., NASB and NEB).

[16:27]  ³⁴ tn Heb “he shall bring into from outside to the camp.”

[16:27]  ³⁵ tn Heb “they shall burn with fire”; KJV “burn in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”

[16:29]  ³⁶ tn Heb “And it [feminine] shall be for you a perpetual statute.” Verse 34 begins with the same clause except for the missing demonstrative pronoun “this” here in v. 29. The LXX has “this” in both places and it suits the sense of the passage, although both the verb and the pronoun are sometimes missing in this clause elsewhere in the book (see, e.g., Lev 3:17).

[16:29]  ³⁷ tn Heb “you shall humble your souls.” The verb “to humble” here refers to various forms of self-denial, including but not limited to fasting (cf. Ps 35:13 and Isa 58:3, 10). The Mishnah (m. Yoma 8:1) lists abstentions from food and drink, bathing, using oil as an unguent to moisten the skin, wearing leather sandals, and sexual intercourse (cf. 2 Sam 12:16-17, 20; see the remarks in J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1054; B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 109; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 242).

[16:29]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and all work you shall not do.”

[16:29]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).

[17:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”

[17:15]  ⁴² tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”

[22:13]  ⁴³ tn Heb “to”; the words “live in” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:13]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “and seed there is not to her and she returns to the house of her father as her youth.” The mention of having “no children” appears to imply that her children, if she had any, should support her; this is made explicit by NLT’s “and has no children to support her.”

[22:22]  ⁴⁵ tn Or perhaps “a wart” (cf. NIV; HALOT 383 s.v. יַבֶּלֶת, but see the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).

[22:22]  ⁴⁶ sn See the note on Lev 21:20 above.

[22:22]  ⁴⁷ sn This term for offering “gift” is explained in the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:3]  ⁴⁸ 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.”

[23:22]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “And when you harvest the harvest.”

[23:22]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field in your harvest.”

[23:22]  ⁵¹ sn Compare Lev 19:9-10.

[23:32]  ⁵² tn Heb “you shall rest your Sabbath.”

[23:36]  ⁵³ 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.”

[23:40]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “fruit of majestic trees,” but the following terms and verses define what is meant by this expression. For extensive remarks on the celebration of this festival in history and tradition see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 163; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 389-90; and P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 328-29.

[24:3]  ⁵⁵ tn The Hebrew term פָּרֹכֶת (parokhet) is usually translated “veil” or “curtain,” but it seems to have stretched not only in front of but also over the top of the ark of the covenant which stood behind and under it inside the most holy place (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:687-89).

[24:3]  ⁵⁶ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, and the LXX add “and his sons.”

[24:3]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[25:33]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “And which he shall redeem from the Levites shall go out, sale of house and city, his property in the jubilee.” Although the end of this verse is clear, the first part is notoriously difficult. There are five main views. (1) The first clause of the verse actually attaches to the previous verse, and refers to the fact that their houses retain a perpetual right of redemption (v. 32b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33a; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 418, 421). (2) It refers to property that one Levite sells to another Levite, which is then redeemed by still another Levite (v. 33a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the jubilee year (v. 33b; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 321). (3) It refers to houses in a city that had come to be declared as a Levitical city but had original non-Levitical owners. Once the city was declared to belong to the Levites, however, an owner could only sell his house to a Levite, and he could only redeem it back from a Levite up until the time of the first jubilee after the city was declared to be a Levitical city. In this case the first part of the verse would be translated, “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites” (NRSV, NJPS). At the first jubilee, however, all such houses became the property of the Levites (v. 33b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33a) by those who have bought it or taken it as security for debts owed to them by Levites who had fallen on bad times. Again, such property reverts back to the original Levite owners at the jubilee (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177). (5) It simply refers to the fact that a Levite has the option of redeeming his house (i.e., the prefix form of the verb is taken to be subjunctive, “may or might redeem”), which he had to sell because he had fallen into debt or perhaps even become destitute. Even if he never gained the resources to do so, however, it would still revert to him in the jubilee year. The present translation is intended to reflect this latter view.