Leviticus 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, ¹  to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord.

Leviticus 11:4

11:4 However, you must not eat these ²  from among those that chew the cud and have divided hooves: The camel is unclean to you ³  because it chews the cud ⁴  even though its hoof is not divided. ⁵ 

Leviticus 11:10

11:10 But any creatures that do not have both fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the streams, from all the swarming things of the water and from all the living creatures that are in the water, are detestable to you.

Leviticus 11:26

Inedible Land Quadrupeds

11:26 “‘All ⁶  animals that divide the hoof but it is not completely split in two ⁷  and do not chew the cud ⁸  are unclean to you; anyone who touches them becomes unclean. ⁹ 

Leviticus 16:29

Review of the Day of Atonement

16:29 “This is to be a perpetual statute for you. ¹⁰  In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you must humble yourselves ¹¹  and do no work of any kind, ¹²  both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides ¹³  in your midst,

Leviticus 16:34

16:34 This is to be a perpetual statute for you ¹⁴  to make atonement for the Israelites for ¹⁵  all their sins once a year.” ¹⁶  So he did just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ¹⁷ 

Leviticus 19:23

The Produce of Fruit Trees

19:23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, ¹⁸  you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. ¹⁹  Three years it will be forbidden to you; ²⁰  it must not be eaten.

Leviticus 20:25

20:25 Therefore you must distinguish ²¹  between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground – creatures ²²  I have distinguished for you as unclean. ²³ 

Leviticus 23:10

23:10 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am about to give to you and you gather in its harvest, ²⁴  then you must bring the sheaf of the first portion of your harvest ²⁵  to the priest,

Leviticus 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; ²⁶  you must not do any regular work.

Leviticus 23:40

23:40 On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees ²⁷  – palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

Leviticus 25:10

25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, ²⁸  and you must proclaim a release ²⁹  in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; ³⁰  each one of you must return ³¹  to his property and each one of you must return to his clan.

Leviticus 26:16

26:16 I for my part ³²  will do this to you: I will inflict horror on you, consumption and fever, which diminish eyesight and drain away the vitality of life. ³³  You will sow your seed in vain because ³⁴  your enemies will eat it. ³⁵ 

¹ 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).

² tn Heb “this,” but as a collective plural (see the following context).

³ sn Regarding “clean” versus “unclean,” see the note on Lev 10:10.

⁴ tn Heb “because a chewer of the cud it is” (see also vv. 5 and 6).

⁵ tn Heb “and hoof there is not dividing” (see also vv. 5 and 6).

³ tn Heb “to all” (cf. the note on v. 24). This and the following verses develop more fully the categories of uncleanness set forth in principle in vv. 24-25.

⁴ tn Heb “divides hoof and cleft it does not cleave”; KJV “divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted”; NLT “divided but unsplit hooves.”

⁵ tn See the note on Lev 11:3.

⁶ sn Compare the regulations in Lev 11:2-8.

⁴ 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).

⁵ 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).

⁶ tn Heb “and all work you shall not do.”

⁷ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner who sojourns.”

⁵ tn Heb “And this shall be for you to a statute of eternity” (cf. v. 29a above). cf. NASB “a permanent statute”; NIV “a lasting ordinance.”

⁶ tn Heb “from”; see note on 4:26.

⁷ tn Heb “one [feminine] in the year.”

⁸ tn The MT of Lev 16:34b reads literally, “and he did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.” This has been retained here in spite of the fact that it suggests that Aaron immediately performed the rituals outlined in Lev 16 (see, e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 224 and 243; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1059; note that Aaron was the one to whom Moses was to speak the regulations in this chapter, v. 2). The problem is that the chapter presents these procedures as regulations for “the tenth day of the seventh month” and calls for their fulfillment at that time (Lev 16:29; cf. Lev 23:26-32 and the remarks in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 237), not during the current (first) month (Exod 40:2; note also that they left Sinai in the second month, long before the next seventh month, Num 10:11). The LXX translates, “once in the year it shall be done as the Lord commanded Moses,” attaching “once in the year” to this clause rather than the former one, and rendering the verb as passive, “it shall be done” (cf. NAB, NIV, etc.). We have already observed the passive use of active verbs in this context (see the note on v. 32 above). The RSV (cf. also the NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT) translates, “And Moses did as the Lord commanded him,” ignoring the fact that the name Moses in the Hebrew text has the direct object indicator. Passive verbs, however, regularly take subjects with direct object indicators (see, e.g., v. 27 above). The NIV renders it “And it was done, as the Lord commanded Moses,” following the LXX passive translation. The NASB translates, “And just as the Lord had commanded Moses, so he did,” transposing the introductory verb to the end of the sentence and supplying “so” in order to make it fit the context.

⁶ tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”

⁷ 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).

⁸ tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”

⁷ tn Heb “And you shall distinguish.” The verb is the same as “set apart” at the end of the previous verse. The fact that God had “set them apart” from the other peoples roundabout them called for them to “distinguish between” the clean and the unclean, etc.

⁸ tn The word “creatures” has been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the following relative clause modifies the animal, bird, or creeping thing mentioned earlier, and not the ground itself.

⁹ tc The MT has “to defile,” but Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “to uncleanness.”

⁸ tn Heb “and you harvest its harvest.”

⁹ tn Heb “the sheaf of the first of your harvest.”

⁹ 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.”

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

¹² tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

¹³ tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

¹⁴ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

¹² tn Or “I also” (see HALOT 76 s.v. אַף 6.b).

¹³ tn Heb “soul.” These expressions may refer either to the physical effects of consumption and fever as the rendering in the text suggests (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 452, 454, “diminishing eyesight and loss of appetite”), or perhaps the more psychological effects, “which exhausts the eyes” because of anxious hope “and causes depression” (Heb “causes soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] to pine away”), e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 185.

¹⁴ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have causal force here.

¹⁵ tn That is, “your enemies will eat” the produce that grows from the sown seed.