Leviticus 7:18-21

7:18 If some of the meat of his peace offering sacrifice is ever eaten on the third day it will not be accepted; it will not be accounted to the one who presented it, since it is spoiled, ¹  and the person who eats from it will bear his punishment for iniquity. ²  7:19 The meat which touches anything ceremonially ³  unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up in the fire. As for ceremonially clean meat, ⁴  everyone who is ceremonially clean may eat the meat. 7:20 The person who eats meat from the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord while his uncleanness persists ⁵  will be cut off from his people. ⁶  7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ⁷  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ⁸ 

Leviticus 22:23

22:23 As for an ox ⁹  or a sheep with a limb too long or stunted, ¹⁰  you may present it as a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable for a votive offering. ¹¹ 

Leviticus 22:25

22:25 Even from a foreigner ¹²  you must not present the food of your God from such animals as these, for they are ruined and flawed; ¹³  they will not be acceptable for your benefit.’”

¹ tn Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422. Cf. NIV “it is impure”; NCV “it will become unclean”; NLT “will be contaminated.”

² tn Heb “his iniquity he shall bear” (cf. Lev 5:1); NIV “will be held responsible”; NRSV “shall incur guilt”; TEV “will suffer the consequences.”

³ tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation both here and in the following sentence to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

⁴ tn The Hebrew has simply “the flesh,” but this certainly refers to “clean” flesh in contrast to the unclean flesh in the first half of the verse.

⁵ tn Heb “and his unclean condition is on him.”

⁶ sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits (cf. TEV, CEV), or his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation), etc. See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 100; J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:457-60; and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 241-42 for further discussion.

⁷ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

⁸ sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.

⁹ tn Heb “And an ox.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and stunted” (see HALOT 1102 s.v. I קלט).

¹¹ sn The freewill offering was voluntary, so the regulations regarding it were more relaxed. Once a vow was made, the paying of it was not voluntary (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 151-52, for very helpful remarks on this verse).

¹² tn Heb “And from the hand of a son of a foreigner.”

¹³ tn Heb “for their being ruined [is] in them, flaw is in them”; NRSV “are mutilated, with a blemish in them”; NIV “are deformed and have defects.” The MT term מָשְׁחָתָם (moshkhatam, “their being ruined”) is a Muqtal form (= Hophal participle) from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin”). Smr has plural בהם משׁחתים (“deformities in them”; cf. the LXX translation). The Qumran Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev) has תימ הם[…], in which case the restored participle would appear to be the same as Smr, but there is no בְּ (bet) preposition before the pronoun, yielding “they are deformed” (see D. N. Freedman and K. A. Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, 41 and the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).