Leviticus 1:14

From the Birds

1:14 “‘If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering from the birds, ¹  he must present his offering from the turtledoves or from the young pigeons. ² 

Leviticus 5:7-10

5:7 “‘If he cannot afford an animal from the flock, ³  he must bring his penalty for guilt for his sin that he has committed, ⁴  two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ⁵  to the Lord, one for a sin offering and one for a burnt offering. 5:8 He must bring them to the priest and present first the one that is for a sin offering. The priest ⁶  must pinch ⁷  its head at the nape of its neck, but must not sever the head from the body. ⁸  5:9 Then he must sprinkle ⁹  some of the blood of the sin offering on the wall of the altar, and the remainder of the blood ¹⁰  must be squeezed out at the base of the altar – it is a sin offering. 5:10 The second bird ¹¹  he must make a burnt offering according to the standard regulation. ¹²  So the priest will make atonement ¹³  on behalf of this person for ¹⁴  his sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven. ¹⁵ 

Leviticus 9:1-21

Inauguration of Tabernacle Worship

9:1 On the eighth day ¹⁶  Moses summoned ¹⁷  Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, 9:2 and said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both flawless, and present them before the Lord. 9:3 Then tell the Israelites: ‘Take a male goat ¹⁸  for a sin offering and a calf and lamb, both a year old and flawless, ¹⁹  for a burnt offering, 9:4 and an ox and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with olive oil, for today the Lord is going to appear ²⁰  to you.’” 9:5 So they took what Moses had commanded to the front of ²¹  the Meeting Tent and the whole congregation presented them and stood before the Lord. 9:6 Then Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded you to do ²²  so that the glory of the Lord may appear ²³  to you.” 9:7 Moses then said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and make your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement on behalf of yourself and on behalf of the people; ²⁴  and also make the people’s offering and make atonement on behalf of them just as the Lord has commanded.”

The Sin Offering for the Priests

9:8 So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the sin offering calf which was for himself. 9:9 Then Aaron’s sons presented the blood to him and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 9:10 The fat and the kidneys and the protruding lobe of ²⁵  the liver from the sin offering he offered up in smoke on the altar just as the Lord had commanded Moses, 9:11 but the flesh and the hide he completely burned up ²⁶  outside the camp. ²⁷ 

The Burnt Offering for the Priests

9:12 He then slaughtered the burnt offering, and his sons ²⁸  handed ²⁹  the blood to him and he splashed ³⁰  it against the altar’s sides. 9:13 The burnt offering itself they handed ³¹  to him by its parts, including the head, ³²  and he offered them up in smoke on the altar, 9:14 and he washed the entrails and the legs and offered them up in smoke on top of the burnt offering on the altar.

The Offerings for the People

9:15 Then he presented the people’s offering. He took the sin offering male goat which was for the people, slaughtered it, and performed a decontamination rite with it ³³  like the first one. ³⁴  9:16 He then presented the burnt offering, and did it according to the standard regulation. ³⁵  9:17 Next he presented the grain offering, filled his hand with some of it, and offered it up in smoke on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering. ³⁶  9:18 Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram – the peace offering sacrifices which were for the people – and Aaron’s sons handed ³⁷  the blood to him and he splashed it against the altar’s sides. 9:19 As for the fat parts from the ox and from the ram ³⁸  (the fatty tail, the fat covering the entrails, ³⁹  the kidneys, and the protruding lobe of the liver), 9:20 they ⁴⁰  set those on the breasts and he offered the fat parts up in smoke on the altar. 9:21 Finally Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh as a wave offering before the Lord just as Moses had commanded.

Leviticus 12:6

12:6 “‘When ⁴¹  the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she must bring a one year old lamb ⁴²  for a burnt offering ⁴³  and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering ⁴⁴  to the entrance of the Meeting Tent, to the priest.

Leviticus 14:22-23

14:22 and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ⁴⁵  which are within his means. ⁴⁶  One will be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. ⁴⁷ 

14:23 “On the eighth day he must bring them for his purification to the priest at the entrance ⁴⁸  of the Meeting Tent before the Lord,

Leviticus 14:31

14:31 a sin offering and the other a burnt offering along with the grain offering. ⁴⁹  So the priest is to make atonement for the one being cleansed before the Lord.

Leviticus 15:14

15:14 Then on the eighth day he is to take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ⁵⁰  and he is to present himself ⁵¹  before the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent and give them to the priest,

Leviticus 15:29

15:29 Then on the eighth day she must take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons ⁵²  and she must bring them to the priest at the entrance of the Meeting Tent,

Romans 4:25

4:25 He ⁵³  was given over ⁵⁴  because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of ⁵⁵  our justification. ⁵⁶ 

John 2:1-2

Turning Water into Wine

2:1 Now on the third day there was a wedding at Cana ⁵⁷  in Galilee. ⁵⁸  Jesus’ mother ⁵⁹  was there, 2:2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding. ⁶⁰ 

[1:14]  ¹ tn Heb “from the [category] ‘bird.’”

[1:14]  ² tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT) or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168, with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14).

[5:7]  ³ tn Heb “and if his hand does not reach enough of a flock animal” (see the note on v. 11 below). The term translated “animal from the flock” (שֶׂה, seh) is often translated “lamb” (e.g., KJV, NASB, NIV, NCV) or “sheep” (e.g., NRSV, TEV, NLT), but it clearly includes either a sheep or a goat here (cf. v. 6), referring to the smaller pasture animals as opposed to the larger ones (i.e., cattle; cf. 4:3). Some English versions use the more generic “animal” (e.g., NAB, CEV).

[5:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he shall bring his guilt which he sinned,” which is an abbreviated form of Lev 5:6, “and he shall bring his [penalty for] guilt to the Lord for his sin which he committed.” The words “for his sin” have been left out in v. 7, and “to the Lord” has been moved so that it follows the mention of the birds.

[5:7]  ⁵ tn See the note on Lev 1:14 above.

[5:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “he.” The subject (“he”) refers to the priest here, not the offerer who presented the birds to the priest (cf. v. 8a).

[5:8]  ⁷ sn The action seems to involve both a twisting action, breaking the neck of the bird and severing its vertebrae, as well as pinching or nipping the skin, but in this case not severing the head from the main body (note the rest of this verse).

[5:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “he shall not divide [it]” (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:305).

[5:9]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew verb וְהִזָּה (vÿhizzah, Hiphil of נָזָה, nazah) does indeed mean “sprinkle” or “splatter” (cf. Lev 4:6, 17). Contrast “splash” in Lev 1:5, etc. (זָרָק, zaraq).

[5:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the remainder in the blood.” The Heb. preposition “in” (בְּ, bÿ) is used here to mean “some among” a whole collection of something.

[5:10]  ¹¹ tn The word “bird” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:10]  ¹² sn The term “[standard] regulation” (מִשְׁפָּט, mishppat) here refers to the set of regulations for burnt offering birds in Lev 1:14-17.

[5:10]  ¹³ sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

[5:10]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on 4:26 with regard to מִן, min.

[5:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

[9:1]  ¹⁶ sn This eighth day is the one after the seven days of ordination referred to in Lev 8:33-35.

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “called to”; CEV, NLT “called together.”

[9:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a he-goat of goats.”

[9:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and a calf and a lamb, sons of a year, flawless”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “without blemish”; NASB, NIV “without defect”; NLT “with no physical defects.”

[9:4]  ²⁰ tn The verb is either a prophetic perfect (“will appear to you”) as in the MT (cf. IBHS §30.5.1.e; so many English versions), or a futurum instans participle (“is going to appear to you”) as in the LXX and several other versions (see the BHS footnote; cf. IBHS 627 §37.6f). In either case, the point is that Moses was anticipating that the Lord would indeed appear to them on this day (cf. vv. 6, 22-24).

[9:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “to the faces of.”

[9:6]  ²² tn Heb “which the Lord commanded you shall/should do.”

[9:6]  ²³ tn Heb “and the glory of the Lord will appear,” but the construction with the simple vav (ו) plus the imperfect/jussive (וְיֵרָא, vÿyera’; literally, “and he will appear”) suggests purpose in this context, not just succession of events (i.e., “so that he might appear”).

[9:7]  ²⁴ tn Instead of “on behalf of the people,” the LXX has “on behalf of your house” as in the Hebrew text of Lev 16:6, 11, 17. Many commentaries follow the LXX here (e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:578; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 118) as do a few English versions (e.g., NAB), but others argue that, as on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), the offerings of the priests also effected the people, even though there was still the need to have special offerings made on behalf of the people as reflected in the second half of the verse (e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 56).

[9:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from.”

[9:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “he burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”

[9:11]  ²⁷ sn See Lev 4:5-12 and the notes there regarding the sin offering for priest(s). The distinction here is that the blood of the sin offering for the priests was applied to the horns of the burnt offering altar in the court of the tabernacle, not the incense altar inside the tabernacle tent itself. See the notes on Lev 8:14-15.

[9:12]  ²⁸ tn For smoothness in the English translation, “his” was used in place of “Aaron’s.”

[9:12]  ²⁹ tn The verb is a Hiphil form of מָצָא, matsa’, “to find” (i.e., causative, literally “to cause to find,” but here the meaning is “to hand to” or “pass to”; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 117-18, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:581-82). The distinction between this verb and “presented” in v. 9 above (see the note there) is that in v. 9 Aaron’s sons held the bowl while Aaron manipulated some of the blood at the altar, while here in v. 12 they simply handed the bowl to him so he could splash all the blood around on the altar (Milgrom, 581).

[9:12]  ³⁰ tn For “splashed” (also in v. 18) see the note on Lev 1:5.

[9:13]  ³¹ tn See the note on v. 12.

[9:13]  ³² tn Heb “and the burnt offering they handed to him to its parts and the head.”

[9:15]  ³³ tn The expression “and performed a decontamination rite [with] it” reads literally in the MT, “and decontaminated [with] it.” The verb is the Piel of חטא (kht’, Qal = “to sin”), which means “to decontaminate, purify” (i.e., “to de-sin”; see the note on Lev 8:15).

[9:15]  ³⁴ sn The phrase “like the first one” at the end of the verse refers back to the sin offering for the priests described in vv. 8-11 above. The blood of the sin offering of the common people was applied to the burnt offering altar just like that of the priests.

[9:16]  ³⁵ tn The term “standard regulation” (מִשְׁפָּט, mishpat) here refers to the set of regulations for burnt offering goats in Lev 1:10-13. Cf. KJV “according to the manner”; ASV, NASB “according to the ordinance”; NIV, NLT “in the prescribed way”; CEV “in the proper way.”

[9:17]  ³⁶ sn The latter part of the verse (“in addition to the morning burnt offering”) refers to the complex of morning (and evening) burnt and grain offerings that was the daily regulation for the tabernacle from the time of its erection (Exod 40:29). The regulations for it were appended to the end of the section of priestly consecration regulations in Exod 29 (see Exod 29:38-40) precisely because they were to be maintained throughout the priestly consecration period and beyond (Lev 8:33-36). Thus, the morning burnt and grain offerings would already have been placed on the altar before the inaugural burnt and grain offerings referred to here.

[9:18]  ³⁷ tn See the note on Lev 9:12.

[9:19]  ³⁸ tn Heb “And the fat from the ox and from the ram.”

[9:19]  ³⁹ tn The text here has only the participle “the cover” or “that which covers,” which is elliptical for “the fat which covers the entrails” (see Lev 3:3, 9, 14; 7:3).

[9:20]  ⁴⁰ tn The plural “they” refers to the sons of Aaron (cf. v. 18). The LXX, Smr, and Syriac have singular “he,” referring to Aaron alone as in the latter half of the verse (the singular is followed here by NLT). Cf. NCV “Aaron’s sons put them.”

[12:6]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “And when” (so KJV, NASB). Many recent English versions leave the conjunction untranslated.

[12:6]  ⁴² tn Heb “a lamb the son of his year”; KJV “a lamb of the first year” (NRSV “in its first year”); NAB “a yearling lamb.”

[12:6]  ⁴³ sn See the note on Lev 1:3 regarding the “burnt offering.”

[12:6]  ⁴⁴ sn See the note on Lev 4:3 regarding the term “sin offering.”

[14:22]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168 with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).

[14:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “which his hand reaches”; NRSV “such as (which NIV) he can afford.”

[14:22]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and one shall be a sin offering and the one a burnt offering.” The versions struggle with whether or not “one” should or should not have the definite article in its two occurrences in this verse (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB all have the English definite article with both). The MT has the first without and the second with the article.

[14:23]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “to the doorway of”; KJV, ASV “unto the door of.”

[14:31]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and the one a burnt offering on the grain offering.”

[15:14]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168 with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).

[15:14]  ⁵¹ tc The MT has the Qal form of the verb בּוֹא (bo’) “to come” here, but the LXX (followed generally by the Syriac and Tg. Ps.-J.) reflects the Hiphil form of the same verb, “to bring” as in v. 29 below. In v. 29, however, there is no additional clause “and give them to the priest,” so the Hiphil is necessary in that context while it is not necessary here in v. 14.

[15:29]  ⁵² tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168 with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).

[4:25]  ⁵³ tn Grk “who,” referring to Jesus. The relative pronoun was converted to a personal pronoun and, because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:25]  ⁵⁴ tn Or “handed over.”

[4:25]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “because of.” However, in light of the unsatisfactory sense that a causal nuance would here suggest, it has been argued that the second διά (dia) is prospective rather than retrospective (D. Moo, Romans [NICNT], 288-89). The difficulty of this interpretation is the structural balance that both διά phrases provide (“given over because of our transgressions…raised because of our justification”). However the poetic structure of this verse strengthens the likelihood that the clauses each have a different force.

[4:25]  ⁵⁶ sn Many scholars regard Rom 4:25 to be poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage.

[2:1]  ⁵⁷ map For location see Map1 C3; Map2 D2; Map3 C5.

[2:1]  ⁵⁸ sn Cana in Galilee was not a very well-known place. It is mentioned only here, in 4:46, and 21:2, and nowhere else in the NT. Josephus (Life 16 [86]) says he once had his quarters there. The probable location is present day Khirbet Cana, 8 mi (14 km) north of Nazareth, or Khirbet Kenna, 4 mi (7 km) northeast of Nazareth.

[2:1]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “in Galilee, and Jesus’ mother.”

[2:2]  ⁶⁰ sn There is no clue to the identity of the bride and groom, but in all probability either relatives or friends of Jesus’ family were involved, since Jesus’ mother and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the celebration. The attitude of Mary in approaching Jesus and asking him to do something when the wine ran out also suggests that familial obligations were involved.