Leviticus 10:10

10:10 as well as ¹  to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, ² 

Isaiah 32:5-6

32:5 A fool will no longer be called honorable;

a deceiver will no longer be called principled.

32:6 For a fool speaks disgraceful things; ³ 

his mind plans out sinful deeds. ⁴ 

He commits godless deeds ⁵ 

and says misleading things about the Lord;

he gives the hungry nothing to satisfy their appetite ⁶ 

and gives the thirsty nothing to drink. ⁷ 

Ezekiel 22:26

22:26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, ⁸  or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore ⁹  my Sabbaths and I am profaned in their midst.

Ezekiel 44:23

44:23 Moreover, they will teach my people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to distinguish between the ceremonially unclean and the clean. ¹⁰ 

Hebrews 5:14

5:14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

¹ tn Heb “and,” but regarding the translation “as well as,” see the note at the end of v. 9.

² sn The two pairs of categories in this verse refer to: (1) the status of a person, place, thing, or time – “holy” (קֹדֶשׁ, qodesh) versus “common” (חֹל, khol); as opposed to (2) the condition of a person, place, or thing – “unclean” (טָמֵא, tame’) versus “clean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Someone or something could gain “holy” status by being “consecrated” (i.e., made holy; e.g., the Hebrew Piel קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) in Lev 8:15, 30), and to treat someone or something that was holy as if it were “common” would be to “profane” that person or thing (the Hebrew Piel הִלֵּל [hillel], e.g., in Lev 19:29 and 22:15). Similarly, on another level, someone or something could be in a “clean” condition, but one could “defile” (the Hebrew Piel טִמֵּא [timme’], e.g., in Gen 34:5 and Num 6:9) that person or thing and thereby make it “unclean.” To “purify” (the Hebrew Piel טִהֵר [tiher], e.g., in Lev 16:19 and Num 8:6, 15) that unclean person or thing would be to make it “clean” once again. With regard to the animals (Lev 11), some were by nature “unclean,” so they could never be eaten, but others were by nature “clean” and, therefore, edible (Lev 11:2, 46-47). The meat of clean animals could become inedible by too long of a delay in eating it, in which case the Hebrew term פִּגּוּל (pigul) “foul, spoiled” is used to describe it (Lev 7:18; 19:7; cf. also Ezek 4:14 and Isa 65:4), not the term for “unclean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Strictly speaking, therefore, unclean meat never becomes clean, and clean meat never becomes unclean.

³ tn Or “foolishness,” in a moral-ethical sense. See 9:17.

⁴ tn Heb “and his heart commits sin”; KJV, ASV “his heart will work iniquity”; NASB “inclines toward wickedness.”

⁵ tn Heb “in order to do [or “so that he does”] what is godless [or “defiled”].”

⁶ tn Heb “so that he leaves empty the appetite [or “desire”] of the hungry.”

⁷ tn Heb “and the drink of the thirsty he causes to fail.”

⁸ tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”

⁹ tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).

¹⁰ sn This task was a fundamental role of the priest (Lev 10:10).