Imamat 5:12

5:12 He must bring it to the priest and the priest must scoop out from it a handful as its memorial portion ¹  and offer it up in smoke on the altar on top of the other gifts of the Lord – it is a sin offering.

Imamat 13:3

13:3 The priest must then examine the infection ²  on the skin of the body, and if the hair ³  in the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of the body, ⁴  then it is a diseased infection, ⁵  so when the priest examines it ⁶  he must pronounce the person unclean. ⁷ 

Imamat 13:25

13:25 the priest must examine it, ⁸  and if ⁹  the hair has turned white in the bright spot and it appears to be deeper than the skin, ¹⁰  it is a disease that has broken out in the burn. ¹¹  The priest is to pronounce the person unclean. ¹²  It is a diseased infection. ¹³ 

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 ¹⁴  – the infection is a malignant disease. It is unclean.

Imamat 14:13

14:13 He must then slaughter ¹⁵  the male lamb in the place where ¹⁶  the sin offering ¹⁷  and the burnt offering ¹⁸  are slaughtered, ¹⁹  in the sanctuary, because, like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; ²⁰  it is most holy.

Imamat 16:4

16:4 He must put on a holy linen tunic, ²¹  linen leggings are to cover his body, ²²  and he is to wrap himself with a linen sash ²³  and wrap his head with a linen turban. ²⁴  They are holy garments, so he must bathe ²⁵  his body in water and put them on.

Imamat 23:14

23:14 You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this very day, ²⁶  until you bring the offering of your God. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations ²⁷  in all the places where you live.

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, ²⁸  because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites.

[5:12]  ¹ sn The “memorial portion” (אַזְכָּרָה, ’azkkarah) was the part of the grain offering that was burnt on the altar (Lev 2:2), as opposed to the remainder, which was normally consumed by the priests (Lev 2:3; see the full regulations in Lev 6:14-23 [6:7-16 HT]). It was probably intended to call to mind (i.e., memorialize) before the Lord the reason for the presentation of the particular offering (see the remarks in R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:335-39).

[13:3]  ² tn Heb “and the priest shall see the infection.”

[13:3]  ³ tn There is no “if” expressed, but the contrast between the priestly finding in this verse and the next verse clearly implies it.

[13:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the appearance of the infection is deep ‘from’ (comparative מִן, min, “deeper than”) the skin of the his flesh.” See the note on v. 20 below.

[13:3]  ⁵ tn For the translation “diseased infection” see the note on v. 2 above. Cf. TEV “a dreaded skin disease”; NIV “an infectious skin disease”; NLT “a contagious skin disease.”

[13:3]  ⁶ tn The pronoun “it” here refers to the “infection,” not the person who has the infection (cf. the object of “examine” at the beginning of the verse).

[13:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “he shall make him unclean.” The verb is the Piel of טָמֵא (tame’) “to be unclean.” Here it is a so-called “declarative” Piel (i.e., “to declare unclean”), but it also implies that the person is put into the category of actually being “unclean” by the pronouncement itself (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 175; cf. the corresponding opposite in v. 6 below).

[13:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the priest shall see it.”

[13:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

[13:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and its appearance is deep ‘from’ [comparative מִן (min) meaning ‘deeper than’] the skin.”

[13:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “it is a disease. In the burn it has broken out.”

[13:25]  ¹² tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָמֵא (tame’; cf. the note on v. 3 above).

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

[13:51]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to all which the leather was made into a handiwork.”

[14:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And he shall slaughter.”

[14:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the place which.”

[14:13]  ¹⁷ sn See the note on Lev 4:3 regarding the term “sin offering.”

[14:13]  ¹⁸ sn See the note on Lev 1:3 regarding the “burnt offering.”

[14:13]  ¹⁹ tn Since the priest himself presents this offering as a wave offering (v. 12), it would seem that the offering is already in his hands and he would, therefore, be the one who slaughtered the male lamb in this instance rather than the offerer. Smr and LXX make the second verb “to slaughter” plural rather than singular, which suggests that it is to be taken as an impersonal passive (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:852).

[14:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the guilt offering, it [is] to the Lord.” Regarding the “guilt offering,” see the note on Lev 5:15.

[16:4]  ²¹ sn The term “tunic” refers to a shirt-like garment worn next to the skin and, therefore, put on first (cf. Exod 28:4, 39-40; 29:5, 8; 39:27). It covered the upper body only. For detailed remarks on the terminology for the priestly clothing in this verse (except the “linen leggings”) see the notes on Lev 8:7-9 and the literature cited there.

[16:4]  ²² tn Heb “shall be on his flesh.” As in many instances in Lev 15, the term “flesh” or “body” here is euphemistic for the male genitals (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1017, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 222; cf. the note on Lev 15:2), which the priest must be careful not to expose during such ritual procedures (see Exod 20:26 with 28:42-43).

[16:4]  ²³ sn The sash fastened the tunic around the waist (Exod 28:4, 39; 29:9; 39:29).

[16:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and in a turban of linen he shall wrap.”

[16:4]  sn The turban consisted of wound up linen (cf. Exod 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:31; Lev 16:4). It is usually thought to be a “turban,” but it might be only a “turban-like headband” wound around the forehead area (HALOT 624 s.v. מִצְנֶפֶת).

[16:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he shall bathe….”

[23:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “until the bone of this day.”

[23:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[25:33]  ²⁸ 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.