24:5 “You must take choice wheat flour 2 and bake twelve loaves; 3 there must be two tenths of an ephah of flour in 4 each loaf, 24:6 and you must set them in two rows, six in a row, 5 on the ceremonially pure table before the Lord. 24:7 You must put pure frankincense 6 on each row, 7 and it will become a memorial portion 8 for the bread, a gift 9 to the Lord. 24:8 Each Sabbath day 10 Aaron 11 must arrange it before the Lord continually; this portion 12 is from the Israelites as a perpetual covenant. 24:9 It will belong to Aaron and his sons, and they must eat it in a holy place because it is most holy to him, a perpetual allotted portion 13 from the gifts of the Lord.”
1 sn The name basically means that the bread is to be set out in the presence of Yahweh. The custom of presenting bread on a table as a thank offering is common in other cultures as well. The bread here would be placed on the table as a symbol of the divine provision for the twelve tribes – continually, because they were to express their thanksgiving continually. Priests could eat the bread after certain times. Fresh bread would be put there regularly.
2 sn See the note on Lev 2:1.
3 tn Heb “and bake it twelve loaves”; KJV, NAB, NASB “cakes.”
4 tn The words “of flour” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Heb “six of the row.”
6 tn This is not just any “incense” (קְטֹרֶת, qÿtoret; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:913-16), but specifically “frankincense” (לְבֹנָה, lÿvonah; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:756-57).
7 tn Heb “on [עַל, ’al] the row,” probably used distributively, “on each row” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 395-96). Perhaps the frankincense was placed “with” or “along side of” each row, not actually on the bread itself, and was actually burned as incense to the
8 sn The “memorial portion” (אַזְכָרָה, ’azkharah) was normally the part of the grain offering that was burnt on the altar (see Lev 2:2 and the notes there), 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]).
9 sn See the note on Lev 1:9 regarding the term “gift.”
10 tn Heb “In the day of the Sabbath, in the day of the Sabbath.” The repetition is distributive. A few medieval Hebrew
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn The word “portion” is supplied in the translation here for clarity, to specify what “this” refers to.
13 tn Or “a perpetual regulation”; NRSV “a perpetual due.”