Leviticus 16:29-31

Review of the Day of Atonement

16:29 “This is to be a perpetual statute for you. ¹  In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you must humble yourselves ²  and do no work of any kind, ³  both the native citizen and the foreigner who resides ⁴  in your midst, 16:30 for on this day atonement is to be made for you to cleanse you from all your sins; you must be clean before the Lord. ⁵  16:31 It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves. ⁶  It is a perpetual statute. ⁷ 

Leviticus 23:27

23:27 “The ⁸  tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. ⁹  It is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must humble yourselves ¹⁰  and present a gift to the Lord.

[16:29]  ¹ tn Heb “And it [feminine] shall be for you a perpetual statute.” Verse 34 begins with the same clause except for the missing demonstrative pronoun “this” here in v. 29. The LXX has “this” in both places and it suits the sense of the passage, although both the verb and the pronoun are sometimes missing in this clause elsewhere in the book (see, e.g., Lev 3:17).

[16:29]  ² tn Heb “you shall humble your souls.” The verb “to humble” here refers to various forms of self-denial, including but not limited to fasting (cf. Ps 35:13 and Isa 58:3, 10). The Mishnah (m. Yoma 8:1) lists abstentions from food and drink, bathing, using oil as an unguent to moisten the skin, wearing leather sandals, and sexual intercourse (cf. 2 Sam 12:16-17, 20; see the remarks in J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1054; B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 109; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 242).

[16:29]  ³ tn Heb “and all work you shall not do.”

[16:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “the native and the sojourner who sojourns.”

[16:30]  ⁵ tn The phrase “from all your sins” could go with the previous clause as the verse is rendered here (see, e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 109, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1011), or it could go with the following clause (i.e., “you shall be clean from all your sins before the Lord”; see the MT accents as well as J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 221, and recent English versions, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[16:31]  ⁶ tn See the note on v. 29 above.

[16:31]  ⁷ tn Compare v. 29a above.

[23:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “Surely the tenth day” or perhaps “Precisely the tenth day.” The Hebrew adverbial particle אַךְ (’akh) is left untranslated by most recent English versions; cf. however NASB “On exactly the tenth day.”

[23:27]  ⁹ sn See the description of this day and its regulations in Lev 16 and the notes there.

[23:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you shall humble your souls.” See the note on Lev 16:29 above.