Leviticus 21:6-8

21:6 “‘They must be holy to their God, and they must not profane ¹  the name of their God, because they are the ones who present the Lord’s gifts, ²  the food of their God. Therefore they must be holy. ³  21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, ⁴  nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, ⁵  for the priest ⁶  is holy to his God. ⁷  21:8 You must sanctify him because he presents the food of your God. He must be holy to you because I, the Lord who sanctifies you all, ⁸  am holy.

Deuteronomy 33:8

Blessing on Levi

33:8 Of Levi he said:

Your Thummim and Urim ⁹  belong to your godly one, ¹⁰ 

whose authority you challenged at Massah, ¹¹ 

and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah. ¹² 

Isaiah 52:11

52:11 Leave! Leave! Get out of there!

Don’t touch anything unclean!

Get out of it!

Stay pure, you who carry the Lord’s holy items! ¹³ 

[21:6]  ¹ sn Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[21:6]  ² sn Regarding the Hebrew term for “gifts,” see the note on Lev 1:9 above (cf. also 3:11 and 16 in combination with the word for “food” that follows in the next phrase here).

[21:6]  ³ tc Smr and all early versions have the plural adjective “holy” rather than the MT singular noun “holiness.”

[21:7]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

[21:8]  ⁸ tn The three previous second person references in this verse are all singular, but this reference is plural. By adding “all” this grammatical distinction is preserved in the translation.

[33:8]  ⁹ sn Thummim and Urim. These terms, whose meaning is uncertain, refer to sacred stones carried in a pouch on the breastplate of the high priest and examined on occasion as a means of ascertaining God’s will or direction. See Exod 28:30; Lev 8:8; Num 27:21; 1 Sam 28:6. See also C. Van Dam, NIDOTTE 1:329-31.

[33:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “godly man.” The reference is probably to Moses as representative of the whole tribe of Levi.

[33:8]  ¹¹ sn Massah means “testing” in Hebrew; the name is a wordplay on what took place there. Cf. Exod 17:7; Deut 6:16; 9:22; Ps 95:8-9.

[33:8]  ¹² sn Meribah means “contention, argument” in Hebrew; this is another wordplay on the incident that took place there. Cf. Num 20:13, 24; Ps 106:32.

[52:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “the vessels of the Lord” (so KJV, NAB).