2 Samuel 21:1

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21:1 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ¹  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ²  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

Leviticus 26:20

26:20 Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ³  will not produce their fruit.

Leviticus 26:1

Exhortation to Obedience

26:1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols, ⁴  so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before ⁵  it, for I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 17:1-7

The Slaughter of Animals

17:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 17:2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them: ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded: 17:3 “Blood guilt ⁶  will be accounted to any man ⁷  from the house of Israel ⁸  who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, ⁹  17:4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent ¹⁰  to present it as ¹¹  an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. ¹²  17:5 This is so that ¹³  the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field ¹⁴  to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the Lord. 17:6 The priest is to splash ¹⁵  the blood on the altar ¹⁶  of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord. 17:7 So they must no longer offer ¹⁷  their sacrifices to the goat demons, ¹⁸  acting like prostitutes by going after them. ¹⁹  This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. ²⁰ 

Leviticus 17:1

The Slaughter of Animals

17:1 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 21:12

21:12 He must not go out from the sanctuary and must not profane ²¹  the sanctuary of his God, because the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 14:13

14:13 “Son of man, suppose a country sins against me by being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it, cut off its bread supply, ²²  cause famine to come on it, and kill both people and animals.

Ezekiel 14:21

14:21 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments – sword, famine, wild animals, and plague – to Jerusalem ²³  to kill both people and animals!

Luke 4:25

4:25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, ²⁴  when the sky ²⁵  was shut up three and a half years, and ²⁶  there was a great famine over all the land.

[21:1]  ¹ tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”

[21:1]  ² tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”

[26:20]  ³ tn Heb “the tree of the land will not give its fruit.” The collective singular has been translated as a plural. Tg. Onq., some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “the field” as in v. 4, rather than “the land.”

[26:1]  ⁴ sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

[26:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).

[17:3]  ⁶ tn The complex wording of vv. 3-4 requires stating “blood guilt” at the beginning of v. 3 even though it is not mentioned until the middle of v. 4. The Hebrew text has simply “blood,” but in this case it refers to the illegitimate shedding of animal blood, similar to the shedding of the blood of an innocent human being (Deut 19:10, etc.). In order for it to be legitimate the animal must be slaughtered at the tabernacle and its blood handled by the priests in the prescribed way (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:2, 17; 4:5-7; 7:26-27, etc.; cf. vv. 10-16 below for more details).

[17:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 22:18, etc.). See the note on Lev 15:2.

[17:3]  ⁸ tn The original LXX adds “or the sojourners who sojourn in your midst” (cf. Lev 16:29, etc., and note esp. 17:8, 10, and 13 below).

[17:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “or who slaughters from outside to the camp.”

[17:4]  ¹⁰ tn Smr and LXX add after “tent of meeting” the following: “to make it a burnt offering or a peace offering to the Lord for your acceptance as a soothing aroma, and slaughters it outside, and at the doorway of the tent of meeting has not brought it.”

[17:4]  ¹¹ tc Smr includes the suffix “it,” which is needed in any case in the translation to conform to English style.

[17:4]  ¹² sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean (1) that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, (2) that he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits, or (3) that his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation). See also the note on Lev 7:20.

[17:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “So that which.”

[17:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “on the faces of the field.”

[17:6]  ¹⁵ tn For the translation “splash” see the note on Lev 1:5.

[17:6]  ¹⁶ tn The LXX adds “all around” (i.e., Hebrew סָבִיב [saviv, “all around”]), which is normal for this overall construction (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:8, etc.).

[17:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”

[17:7]  ¹⁸ tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.

[17:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”

[17:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[21:12]  ²¹ sn Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[14:13]  ²² tn Heb “break its staff of bread.”

[14:21]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[4:25]  ²⁴ sn Elijah’s days. Jesus, by discussing Elijah and Elisha, pictures one of the lowest periods in Israel’s history. These examples, along with v. 24, also show that Jesus is making prophetic claims as well as messianic ones. See 1 Kgs 17-18.

[4:25]  ²⁵ tn Or “the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. Since the context here refers to a drought (which produced the famine), “sky” is preferable.

[4:25]  ²⁶ tn Grk “as.” The particle ὡς can also function temporally (see BDAG 1105-6 s.v. 8).