Leviticus 10:10

10:10 as well as ¹  to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, ² 

Leviticus 20:25

20:25 Therefore you must distinguish ³  between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground – creatures ⁴  I have distinguished for you as unclean. ⁵ 

Leviticus 5:8

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 

Leviticus 11:47

11:47 to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between the living creatures that may be eaten and the living creatures that must not be eaten.’”

Leviticus 20:26

20:26 You must be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the other peoples to be mine.

Leviticus 1:17

1:17 and tear it open by its wings without dividing it into two parts. ⁹  Finally, the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar on the wood which is in the fire – it is a burnt offering, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 20:24

20:24 So I have said to you: You yourselves will possess their land and I myself will give it to you for a possession, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the other peoples. ¹⁰ 

[10:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and,” but regarding the translation “as well as,” see the note at the end of v. 9.

[10:10]  ² sn The two pairs of categories in this verse refer to: (1) the status of a person, place, thing, or time – “holy” (קֹדֶשׁ, qodesh) versus “common” (חֹל, khol); as opposed to (2) the condition of a person, place, or thing – “unclean” (טָמֵא, tame’) versus “clean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Someone or something could gain “holy” status by being “consecrated” (i.e., made holy; e.g., the Hebrew Piel קִדֵּשׁ (qiddesh) in Lev 8:15, 30), and to treat someone or something that was holy as if it were “common” would be to “profane” that person or thing (the Hebrew Piel הִלֵּל [hillel], e.g., in Lev 19:29 and 22:15). Similarly, on another level, someone or something could be in a “clean” condition, but one could “defile” (the Hebrew Piel טִמֵּא [timme’], e.g., in Gen 34:5 and Num 6:9) that person or thing and thereby make it “unclean.” To “purify” (the Hebrew Piel טִהֵר [tiher], e.g., in Lev 16:19 and Num 8:6, 15) that unclean person or thing would be to make it “clean” once again. With regard to the animals (Lev 11), some were by nature “unclean,” so they could never be eaten, but others were by nature “clean” and, therefore, edible (Lev 11:2, 46-47). The meat of clean animals could become inedible by too long of a delay in eating it, in which case the Hebrew term פִּגּוּל (pigul) “foul, spoiled” is used to describe it (Lev 7:18; 19:7; cf. also Ezek 4:14 and Isa 65:4), not the term for “unclean” (טָהוֹר, tahor). Strictly speaking, therefore, unclean meat never becomes clean, and clean meat never becomes unclean.

[20:25]  ³ tn Heb “And you shall distinguish.” The verb is the same as “set apart” at the end of the previous verse. The fact that God had “set them apart” from the other peoples roundabout them called for them to “distinguish between” the clean and the unclean, etc.

[20:25]  ⁴ tn The word “creatures” has been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the following relative clause modifies the animal, bird, or creeping thing mentioned earlier, and not the ground itself.

[20:25]  ⁵ tc The MT has “to defile,” but Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “to uncleanness.”

[5:8]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “he shall not divide [it]” (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:305).

[1:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “he shall not divide it.” Several Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have a vav on the negative, yielding the translation, “but he shall not divide it into two parts.” Cf. NIV “not severing it completely” (NRSV similar).

[20:24]  ⁹ tc Here and with the same phrase in v. 26, the LXX adds “all,” resulting in the reading “all the peoples.”