Ezra 9:1

A Prayer of Ezra

9:1 Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents ¹  who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

Leviticus 21:7

21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, ²  nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, ³  for the priest ⁴  is holy to his God. ⁵ 

Leviticus 21:13-15

21:13 He must take a wife who is a virgin. ⁶  21:14 He must not marry ⁷  a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people ⁸  as a wife. 21:15 He must not profane his children among his people, ⁹  for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.’”

Leviticus 21:1

Rules for the Priests

21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person ¹⁰  no priest ¹¹  is to defile himself among his people, ¹² 

Leviticus 2:1

Grain Offering Regulations: Offering of Raw Flour

2:1 “‘When a person presents a grain offering ¹³  to the Lord, his offering must consist of choice wheat flour, ¹⁴  and he must pour olive oil on it and put frankincense ¹⁵  on it.

Nehemiah 13:28

13:28 Now one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high priest was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. So I banished him from my sight.

Jeremiah 23:11

23:11 Moreover, ¹⁶  the Lord says, ¹⁷ 

“Both the prophets and priests are godless.

I have even found them doing evil in my temple!

Jeremiah 23:14

23:14 But I see the prophets of Jerusalem ¹⁸ 

doing something just as shocking.

They are unfaithful to me

and continually prophesy lies. ¹⁹ 

So they give encouragement to people who are doing evil,

with the result that they do not stop their evildoing. ²⁰ 

I consider all of them as bad as the people of Sodom,

and the citizens of Jerusalem as bad as the people of Gomorrah. ²¹ 

Ezekiel 44:22

44:22 They must not marry a widow or a divorcee, but they may marry a virgin from the house of Israel ²²  or a widow who is a priest’s widow.

Malachi 2:8-9

2:8 You, however, have turned from the way. You have caused many to violate the law; ²³  you have corrupted the covenant with Levi,” ²⁴  says the Lord who rules over all. 2:9 “Therefore, I have caused you to be ignored and belittled before all people to the extent to which you are not following after me and are showing partiality in your ²⁵  instruction.”

Malachi 2:1

The Sacrilege of the Priestly Message

2:1 “Now, you priests, this commandment is for you.

Malachi 3:11

3:11 Then I will stop the plague ²⁶  from ruining your crops, ²⁷  and the vine will not lose its fruit before harvest,” says the Lord who rules over all.

[9:1]  ¹ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.” So also in v. 2.

[21:7]  ² tn Heb “A wife harlot and profaned they shall not take.” The structure of the verse (e.g., “wife” at the beginning of the two main clauses) suggests that “harlot and profaned” constitutes a hendiadys, meaning “a wife defiled by harlotry” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 143, as opposed to that in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348; cf. v. 14 below). Cf. NASB “a woman who is profaned by harlotry.”

[21:7]  ³ sn For a helpful discussion of divorce in general and as it relates to this passage see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 143-44.

[21:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:7]  ⁵ tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.

[21:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “And he, a wife in her virginity he shall take.”

[21:14]  ⁷ tn Heb “take.” In context this means “take as wife,” i.e., “marry.”

[21:14]  ⁸ tc The MT has literally, “from his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[21:15]  ⁹ tc The MT has literally, “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[21:1]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).

[21:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).

[21:1]  ¹² tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[2:1]  ¹³ sn The “grain offering” ( מִנְחָה[minkhah]; here קָרְבַּן מִנְחָה, [qorbban minkhah], “an offering of a grain offering”) generally accompanied a burnt or peace offering to supplement the meat with bread (the libation provided the drink; cf. Num 15:1-10), thus completing the food “gift” to the Lord. It made atonement (see the note on Lev 1:4) along with the burnt offering (e.g., Lev 14:20) or alone as a sin offering for the poor (Lev 5:11-13).

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew term for “choice wheat flour” (סֹלֶת, selet) is often translated “fine flour” (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NCV), but it refers specifically to wheat as opposed to barley (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 10). Moreover, the translation “flour” might be problematic, since the Hebrew term may designate the “grits” rather than the more finely ground “flour” (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:179 as opposed to Levine, 10, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 30).

[2:1]  ¹⁵ sn This is not just any “incense” (קְטֹרֶת, qÿtoret; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:913-16), but specifically “frankincense” (לְבֹנָה, lÿvonah; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:756-57).

[23:11]  ¹⁶ tn The particle כִּי (ki) which begins this verse is parallel to the one at the beginning of the preceding verse. However, the connection is too distant to render it “for.” “Moreover” is intended to draw the parallel. The words “the Lord says” (Heb “Oracle of the Lord”) have been drawn up to the front to introduce the shift in speaker from Jeremiah, who describes his agitated state, to God, who describes the sins of the prophets and priests and his consequent judgment on them.

[23:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:14]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[23:14]  ¹⁹ tn Or “they commit adultery and deal falsely.” The word “shocking” only occurs here and in 5:30 where it is found in the context of prophesying lies. This almost assures that the reference to “walking in lies” (Heb “in the lie”) is referring to false prophesy. Moreover the references to the prophets in 5:13 and in 14:13-15 are all in the context of false prophesy as are the following references in this chapter in 23:24, 26, 32 and in 28:15. This appears to be the theme of this section. This also makes it likely that the reference to adultery is not literal adultery, though two of the false prophets in Babylon were guilty of this (29:23). The reference to “encouraging those who do evil” that follows also makes more sense if they were preaching messages of comfort rather than messages of doom. The verbs here are infinitive absolutes in place of the finite verb, probably used to place greater emphasis on the action (cf. Hos 4:2 in a comparable judgment speech.)

[23:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “So they strengthen the hands of those doing evil so that they do not turn back from their evil.” For the use of the figure “strengthen the hands” meaning “encourage” see Judg 9:24; Ezek 13:22 (and cf. BDB 304 s.v. חָזַק Piel.2). The vav consecutive on the front of the form gives the logical consequence equivalent to “so” in the translation.

[23:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “All of them are to me like Sodom and its [Jerusalem’s] inhabitants like Gomorrah.”

[44:22]  ²² tn Heb “from the offspring of the house of Israel.”

[2:8]  ²³ tn The definite article embedded within בַּתּוֹרָה (battorah) may suggest that the Torah is in mind and not just “ordinary” priestly instruction, though it might refer to the instruction previously mentioned (v. 7).

[2:8]  ²⁴ tn Or “the Levitical covenant.”

[2:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in the instruction” (so NASB). The Hebrew article is used here as a possessive pronoun (cf. NRSV, NLT).

[3:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the eater” (אֹכֵל, ’okhel), a general term for any kind of threat to crops and livelihood. This is understood as a reference to a locust plague by a number of English versions: NAB, NRSV “the locust”; NIV “pests”; NCV, TEV “insects.”

[3:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and I will rebuke for you the eater and it will not ruin for you the fruit of the ground.”