Leviticus 14:31

14:31 a sin offering and the other a burnt offering along with the grain offering. ¹  So the priest is to make atonement for the one being cleansed before the Lord.

Leviticus 15:30

15:30 and the priest is to make one a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. ²  So the priest ³  is to make atonement for her before the Lord from her discharge of impurity.

Leviticus 14:30

14:30 “He will then make one of the turtledoves ⁴  or young pigeons, which are within his means, ⁵ 

Leviticus 14:12

14:12 “The priest is to take one male lamb ⁶  and present it for a guilt offering ⁷  along with the log of olive oil and present them as a wave offering before the Lord. ⁸ 

[14:31]  ¹ tn Heb “and the one a burnt offering on the grain offering.”

[15:30]  ² tn Heb “And the priest shall make the one a sin offering and the one a burnt offering.”

[15:30]  ³ tn Heb “And the priest.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[14:30]  ³ tn Heb “the one from the turtledoves.”

[14:30]  ⁴ tc Heb “from which his hand reaches.” The repetition of virtually the same expression at the beginning of v. 31 in the MT is probably due to dittography (cf. the LXX and Syriac). However, the MT may be retained if it is understood as “one of the turtledoves or young pigeons that are within his means – whichever he can afford” (see J. Milgrom’s translation in Leviticus [AB], 1:828, contra his commentary, 862; cf. REB).

[14:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “And the priest shall take the one lamb.”

[14:12]  ⁵ tn See the note on Lev 5:15 above. The primary purpose of the “guilt offering” (אָשָׁם, ’asham) was to “atone” (כִּפֶּר, kipper, “to make atonement,” see v. 18 below and the note on Lev 1:4) for “trespassing” on the Lord’s “holy things,” whether sacred objects or sacred people. It is, therefore, closely associated with the reconsecration of the Lord’s holy people as, for example, here and in the case of the corpse contaminated Nazirite (Num 6:11b-12). Since the nation of Israel was “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” to the Lord (Exod 19:6; cf. the blood splashed on all the people in Exod 24:8), the skin diseased person was essentially a member of the “holy nation” who had been expelled from the community. Therefore, he or she had been desecrated and the guilt offering was essential to restoring him or her to the community. In fact, the manipulation of blood and oil in the guilt offering ritual procedure for the healed person (see vv. 14-18 below) is reminiscent of that employed for the ordination offering in the consecration of the holy Aaronic priests of the nation (Exod 29:19-21; Lev 8:22-30).

[14:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “wave them [as] a wave offering before the Lord” (NAB similar). See the note on Lev 7:30 and the literature cited there. Other possible translations include “elevate them [as] an elevation offering before the Lord” (cf. NRSV) or “present them [as] a presentation offering before the Lord.” To be sure, the actual physical “waving” of a male lamb seems unlikely, but some waving gesture may have been performed in the presentation of the offering (cf. also the “waving” of the Levites as a “wave offering” in Num 8:11, etc.).