10:12 Then Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his remaining sons, “Take the grain offering which remains from the gifts of the Lord and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. 10:13 You must eat it in a holy place because it is your allotted portion 5 and the allotted portion of your sons from the gifts 6 of the Lord, for this is what I have been commanded. 7
18:1 9 The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe 10 with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, 11 and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
1 tn Heb “It must not be baked leavened” (cf. Lev 2:11). The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.
2 tn Heb “holiness of holinesses [or holy of holies] it is”; cf. NAB “most sacred.”
3 tn Heb “and” rather than “or” (cf. also the next “or”).
4 tn Heb “and all made in the pan”; cf. KJV “fryingpan”; NAB “deep-fried in a pot.”
5 tn Heb “statute” (cf. 10:9, 11); cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “due”; NIV “share”; NLT “regular share.”
6 tn For the rendering of the Hebrew אִשֶׁה (’isheh) as “gift” rather than “offering [made] by fire,” see the note on Lev 1:9.
7 sn Cf. Lev 2:3 and 6:14-18 [6:7-11 HT] for these regulations.
8 tn Heb “from the fire.” It probably refers to those parts that were not burned.
9 sn This chapter and the next may have been inserted here to explain how the priests are to function because in the preceding chapter Aaron’s position was affirmed. The chapter seems to fall into four units: responsibilities of priests (vv. 1-7), their portions (vv. 8-19), responsibilities of Levites (vv. 20-24), and instructions for Levites (vv. 25-32).
10 tn Heb “your father’s house.”
11 sn The responsibility for the sanctuary included obligations relating to any violation of the sanctuary. This was stated to forestall any further violations of the sanctuary. The priests were to pay for any ritual errors, primarily if any came too near. Since the priests and Levites come near all the time, they risk violating ritual laws more than any. So, with the great privileges come great responsibilities. The bottom line is that they were responsible for the sanctuary.