Leviticus 17:11

17:11 for the life of every living thing ¹  is in the blood. ²  So I myself have assigned it to you ³  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ⁴ 

Leviticus 20:3

20:3 I myself will set my face ⁵  against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, ⁶  because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. ⁷ 

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. ⁸ 

[17:11]  ¹ tn Heb “the life of the flesh.” Here “flesh” stands for “every living thing,” that is, all creatures (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “every creature”; CEV “every living creature.”

[17:11]  ² tn Heb “for the soul/life (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern English versions begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (see, e.g., NJPS, NASB, NIV, NRSV), the כִּי (ki, “for, because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., NEB, NLT; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 239).

[17:11]  ³ tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

[17:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “for the blood, it by (בְּ, bet preposition, “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:694-95, 697 for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.

[20:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”

[20:3]  ⁶ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.

[20:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”

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