Discovery BoxLeviticus 17:1--25:55
Context17:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 17:2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them: ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded: 17:3 “Blood guilt 1 will be accounted to any man 2 from the house of Israel 3 who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, 4 17:4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent 5 to present it as 6 an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. 7 17:5 This is so that 8 the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field 9 to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent to the priest and sacrifice them there as peace offering sacrifices to the Lord. 17:6 The priest is to splash 10 the blood on the altar 11 of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord. 17:7 So they must no longer offer 12 their sacrifices to the goat demons, 13 acting like prostitutes by going after them. 14 This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations. 15
17:8 “You are to say to them: ‘Any man 16 from the house of Israel or 17 from the foreigners who reside 18 in their 19 midst, who offers 20 a burnt offering or a sacrifice 17:9 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to offer it 21 to the Lord – that person will be cut off from his people. 22
17:10 “‘Any man 23 from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside 24 in their 25 midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, 26 17:11 for the life of every living thing 27 is in the blood. 28 So I myself have assigned it to you 29 on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. 30 17:12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, 31 and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. 32
17:13 “‘Any man from the Israelites 33 or from the foreigners who reside 34 in their 35 midst who hunts a wild animal 36 or a bird that may be eaten 37 must pour out its blood and cover it with soil, 17:14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. 38 So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing 39 because the life of every living thing is its blood – all who eat it will be cut off. 40
17:15 “‘Any person 41 who eats an animal that has died of natural causes 42 or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, 43 must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean. 17:16 But if he does not wash his clothes 44 and does not bathe his body, he will bear his punishment for iniquity.’” 45
18:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 18:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘I am the Lord your God! 18:3 You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you have been living, 46 and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan into which I am about to bring you; 47 you must not 48 walk in their statutes. 18:4 You must observe my regulations 49 and you must be sure to walk in my statutes. 50 I am the Lord your God. 18:5 So you must keep 51 my statutes and my regulations; anyone who does so will live by keeping them. 52 I am the Lord.
18:6 “‘No man is to approach any close relative 53 to have sexual intercourse with her. 54 I am the Lord. 55 18:7 You must not 56 expose your father’s nakedness by having sexual intercourse with your mother. 57 She is your mother; you must not have intercourse with her. 18:8 You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s wife; she is your father’s nakedness. 58 18:9 You must not have sexual intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, 59 whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; 60 you must not have sexual intercourse with either of them. 61 18:10 You must not expose the nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter by having sexual intercourse with them, because they are your own nakedness. 62 18:11 You must not have sexual intercourse with the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father; she is your sister. You must not have intercourse with her. 63 18:12 You must not have sexual intercourse with your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. 64 18:13 You must not have sexual intercourse with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s flesh. 18:14 You must not expose the nakedness of your father’s brother; you must not approach his wife to have sexual intercourse with her. 65 She is your aunt. 66 18:15 You must not have sexual intercourse with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife. You must not have intercourse with her. 18:16 You must not have sexual intercourse with your brother’s wife; she is your brother’s nakedness. 67 18:17 You must not have sexual intercourse with both a woman and her daughter; you must not take as wife either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to have intercourse with them. 68 They are closely related to her 69 – it is lewdness. 70 18:18 You must not take a woman in marriage and then marry her sister as a rival wife 71 while she is still alive, 72 to have sexual intercourse with her.
18:19 “‘You must not approach a woman in her menstrual impurity 73 to have sexual intercourse with her. 18:20 You must not have sexual intercourse 74 with the wife of your fellow citizen to become unclean with her. 18:21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, 75 so that you do not profane 76 the name of your God. I am the Lord! 18:22 You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; 77 it is a detestable act. 78 18:23 You must not have sexual intercourse 79 with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual intercourse with it; 80 it is a perversion. 81
18:24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you 82 have been defiled with all these things. 18:25 Therefore 83 the land has become unclean and I have brought the punishment for its iniquity upon it, 84 so that the land has vomited out its inhabitants. 18:26 You yourselves must obey 85 my statutes and my regulations and must not do any of these abominations, both the native citizen and the resident foreigner in your midst, 86 18:27 for the people who were in the land before you have done all these abominations, 87 and the land has become unclean. 18:28 So do not make the land vomit you out because you defile it 88 just as it has vomited out the nations 89 that were before you. 18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. 90 18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes 91 that have been done before you, so that you do not 92 defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”
19:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 19:2 “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. 19:3 Each of you must respect his mother and his father, 93 and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. 19:4 Do not turn to idols, 94 and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.
19:5 “‘When you sacrifice a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord, you must sacrifice it so that it is accepted for you. 95 19:6 It must be eaten on the day of your sacrifice and on the following day, 96 but what is left over until the third day must be burned up. 97 19:7 If, however, it is eaten 98 on the third day, it is spoiled, 99 it will not be accepted, 19:8 and the one who eats it will bear his punishment for iniquity 100 because he has profaned 101 what is holy to the Lord. 102 That person will be cut off from his people. 103
19:9 “‘When you gather in the harvest 104 of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, 105 and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. 19:10 You must not pick your vineyard bare, 106 and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.
19:11 “‘You must not steal, you must not tell lies, and you must not deal falsely with your fellow citizen. 107 19:12 You must not swear falsely 108 in my name, so that you do not profane 109 the name of your God. I am the Lord. 19:13 You must not oppress your neighbor or commit robbery against him. 110 You must not withhold 111 the wages of the hired laborer overnight until morning. 19:14 You must not curse a deaf person or put a stumbling block in front of a blind person. 112 You must fear 113 your God; I am the Lord.
19:15 “‘You 114 must not deal unjustly in judgment: 115 you must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. 116 You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. 117 19:16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. 118 You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. 119 I am the Lord. 19:17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 120 19:18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge 121 against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. 122 I am the Lord. 19:19 You must keep my statutes. You must not allow two different kinds of your animals to breed, 123 you must not sow your field with two different kinds of seed, and you must not wear 124 a garment made of two different kinds of fabric. 125
19:20 “‘When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, 126 although she is a slave woman designated for another man and she has not yet been ransomed, or freedom has not been granted to her, there will be an obligation to pay compensation. 127 They must not be put to death, because she was not free. 19:21 He must bring his guilt offering to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, a guilt offering ram, 128 19:22 and the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, 129 and he will be forgiven 130 of his sin 131 that he has committed.
19:23 “‘When you enter the land and plant any fruit tree, 132 you must consider its fruit to be forbidden. 133 Three years it will be forbidden to you; 134 it must not be eaten. 19:24 In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, praise offerings 135 to the Lord. 19:25 Then in the fifth year you may eat its fruit to add its produce to your harvest. 136 I am the Lord your God.
19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. 137 You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. 138 19:27 You must not round off the corners of the hair on your head or ruin the corners of your beard. 139 19:28 You must not slash your body for a dead person 140 or incise a tattoo on yourself. 141 I am the Lord. 19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, 142 so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. 143
19:30 “‘You must keep my Sabbaths and fear my sanctuary. I am the Lord. 19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits 144 to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. 19:32 You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord. 19:33 When a foreigner resides 145 with you in your land, you must not oppress him. 19:34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so 146 you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 19:35 You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume. 147 19:36 You must have honest balances, 148 honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. 149 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. 19:37 You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations. 150 I am the Lord.’”
20:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 20:2 “You are to say to the Israelites, ‘Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel 151 who gives any of his children 152 to Molech 153 must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones. 154 20:3 I myself will set my face 155 against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, 156 because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. 157 20:4 If, however, the people of the land shut their eyes 158 to that man 159 when he gives some of his children to Molech so that they do not put him to death, 20:5 I myself will set my face against that man and his clan. I will cut off from the midst of their people both him and all who follow after him in spiritual prostitution, 160 to commit prostitution by worshiping Molech. 161
20:6 “‘The person who turns to the spirits of the dead and familiar spirits 163 to commit prostitution by going after them, I will set my face 164 against that person and cut him off from the midst of his people.
20:7 “‘You must sanctify yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. 20:8 You must be sure to obey my statutes. 165 I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
20:9 “‘If anyone 167 curses his father and mother 168 he must be put to death. He has cursed his father and mother; his blood guilt is on himself. 169 20:10 If a man 170 commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, 171 both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death. 20:11 If a man has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness. 172 Both of them must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 173 20:12 If a man has sexual intercourse with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have committed perversion; 174 their blood guilt is on themselves. 20:13 If a man has sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman, 175 the two of them have committed an abomination. They must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves. 20:14 If a man has sexual intercourse with both a woman and her mother, 176 it is lewdness. 177 Both he and they must be burned to death, 178 so there is no lewdness in your midst. 20:15 If a man has sexual intercourse 179 with any animal, he must be put to death, and you must kill the animal. 20:16 If a woman approaches any animal to have sexual intercourse with it, 180 you must kill the woman, and the animal must be put to death; their blood guilt is on themselves.
20:17 “‘If a man has sexual intercourse with 181 his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. 182 He has exposed his sister’s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. 183 20:18 If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them 184 must be cut off from the midst of their people. 20:19 You must not expose the nakedness of your mother’s sister and your father’s sister, for such a person has laid bare his own close relative. 185 They must bear their punishment for iniquity. 186 20:20 If a man has sexual intercourse with his aunt, he has exposed his uncle’s nakedness; they must bear responsibility for their sin, they will die childless. 20:21 If a man has sexual intercourse with 187 his brother’s wife, it is indecency. He has exposed his brother’s nakedness; 188 they will be childless.
20:22 “‘You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, 189 so that 190 the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out. 20:23 You must not walk in the statutes of the nation 191 which I am about to drive out before you, because they have done all these things and I am filled with disgust against them. 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. 192 20:25 Therefore you must distinguish 193 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 194 I have distinguished for you as unclean. 195 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.
20:27 “‘A man or woman who 196 has in them a spirit of the dead or a familiar spirit 197 must be put to death. They must pelt them with stones; 198 their blood guilt is on themselves.’”
21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person 199 no priest 200 is to defile himself among his people, 201 21:2 except for his close relative who is near to him: 202 his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 21:3 and his virgin sister who is near to him, 203 who has no husband; he may defile himself for her. 21:4 He must not defile himself as a husband among his people so as to profane himself. 204 21:5 Priests 205 must not have a bald spot shaved on their head, they must not shave the corner of their beard, and they must not cut slashes in their body. 206
21:6 “‘They must be holy to their God, and they must not profane 207 the name of their God, because they are the ones who present the Lord’s gifts, 208 the food of their God. Therefore they must be holy. 209 21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, 210 nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, 211 for the priest 212 is holy to his God. 213 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, 214 am holy. 21:9 If a daughter of a priest profanes herself by engaging in prostitution, she is profaning her father. She must be burned to death. 215
21:10 “‘The high 216 priest – who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, who has been ordained 217 to wear the priestly garments – must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. 218 21:11 He must not go where there is any dead person; 219 he must not defile himself even for his father and his mother. 21:12 He must not go out from the sanctuary and must not profane 220 the sanctuary of his God, because the dedication of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the Lord. 21:13 He must take a wife who is a virgin. 221 21:14 He must not marry 222 a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people 223 as a wife. 21:15 He must not profane his children among his people, 224 for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.’”
21:16 The Lord spoke to Moses: 21:17 “Tell Aaron, ‘No man from your descendants throughout their generations 225 who has a physical flaw 226 is to approach to present the food of his God. 21:18 Certainly 227 no man who has a physical flaw is to approach: a blind man, or one who is lame, or one with a slit nose, 228 or a limb too long, 21:19 or a man who has had a broken leg or arm, 229 21:20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, 230 or one with a spot in his eye, 231 or a festering eruption, or a feverish rash, 232 or a crushed testicle. 21:21 No man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical flaw may step forward 233 to present the Lord’s gifts; he has a physical flaw, so he must not step forward to present the food of his God. 21:22 He may eat both the most holy and the holy food of his God, 21:23 but he must not go into the veil-canopy 234 or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus 235 he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”
21:24 So 236 Moses spoke these things 237 to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites.
22:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 22:2 “Tell Aaron and his sons that they must deal respectfully with the holy offerings 238 of the Israelites, which they consecrate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name. 239 I am the Lord. 22:3 Say to them, ‘Throughout your generations, 240 if any man from all your descendants approaches the holy offerings which the Israelites consecrate 241 to the Lord while he is impure, 242 that person must be cut off from before me. 243 I am the Lord. 22:4 No man 244 from the descendants of Aaron who is diseased or has a discharge 245 may eat the holy offerings until he becomes clean. The one 246 who touches anything made unclean by contact with a dead person, 247 or a man who has a seminal emission, 248 22:5 or a man who touches a swarming thing by which he becomes unclean, 249 or touches a person 250 by which he becomes unclean, whatever that person’s impurity 251 – 22:6 the person who touches any of these 252 will be unclean until evening and must not eat from the holy offerings unless he has bathed his body in water. 22:7 When the sun goes down he will be clean, and afterward he may eat from the holy offerings, because they are his food. 22:8 He must not eat an animal that has died of natural causes 253 or an animal torn by beasts and thus become unclean by it. I am the Lord. 22:9 They must keep my charge so that they do not incur sin on account of it 254 and therefore die 255 because they profane it. I am the Lord who sanctifies them.
22:10 “‘No lay person 256 may eat anything holy. Neither a priest’s lodger 257 nor a hired laborer may eat anything holy, 22:11 but if a priest buys a person with his own money, 258 that person 259 may eat the holy offerings, 260 and those born in the priest’s 261 own house may eat his food. 262 22:12 If a priest’s daughter marries a lay person, 263 she may not eat the holy contribution offerings, 264 22:13 but if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in 265 her father’s house as in her youth, 266 she may eat from her father’s food, but no lay person may eat it.
22:14 “‘If a man eats a holy offering by mistake, 267 he must add one fifth to it and give the holy offering to the priest. 268 22:15 They 269 must not profane the holy offerings which the Israelites contribute 270 to the Lord, 271 22:16 and so cause them to incur a penalty for guilt 272 when they eat their holy offerings, 273 for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”
22:17 The Lord spoke to Moses: 22:18 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘When any man 274 from the house of Israel or from the foreigners in Israel 275 presents his offering for any of the votive or freewill offerings which they present to the Lord as a burnt offering, 22:19 if it is to be acceptable for your benefit 276 it must be a flawless male from the cattle, sheep, or goats. 22:20 You must not present anything that has a flaw, 277 because it will not be acceptable for your benefit. 278 22:21 If a man presents a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord for a special votive offering 279 or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable; 280 it must have no flaw. 281
22:22 “‘You must not present to the Lord something blind, or with a broken bone, or mutilated, or with a running sore, 282 or with a festering eruption, or with a feverish rash. 283 You must not give any of these as a gift 284 on the altar to the Lord. 22:23 As for an ox 285 or a sheep with a limb too long or stunted, 286 you may present it as a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable for a votive offering. 287 22:24 You must not present to the Lord something with testicles that are bruised, crushed, torn, or cut off; 288 you must not do this in your land. 22:25 Even from a foreigner 289 you must not present the food of your God from such animals as these, for they are ruined and flawed; 290 they will not be acceptable for your benefit.’”
22:26 The Lord spoke to Moses: 22:27 “When an ox, lamb, or goat is born, it must be under the care of 291 its mother seven days, but from the eighth day onward it will be acceptable as an offering gift 292 to the Lord. 22:28 You must not slaughter an ox or a sheep and its young 293 on the same day. 294 22:29 When you sacrifice a thanksgiving offering to the Lord, you must sacrifice it so that it is acceptable for your benefit. 295 22:30 On that very day 296 it must be eaten; you must not leave any part of it 297 over until morning. I am the Lord.
22:31 “You must be sure to do my commandments. 298 I am the Lord. 22:32 You must not profane my holy name, and I will be sanctified in the midst of the Israelites. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, 22:33 the one who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God. 299 I am the Lord.”
23:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies – my appointed times: 300
23:3 “‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, 301 a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live.
23:4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you must proclaim at their appointed time. 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, 302 is a Passover offering to the Lord. 23:6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month 303 will be the festival of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 23:7 On the first day there will be a holy assembly for you; you must not do any regular work. 304 23:8 You must present a gift to the Lord for seven days, and the seventh day is a holy assembly; you must not do any regular work.’”
23:9 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:10 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am about to give to you and you gather in its harvest, 305 then you must bring the sheaf of the first portion of your harvest 306 to the priest, 23:11 and he must wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for your benefit 307 – on the day after the Sabbath the priest is to wave it. 308 23:12 On the day you wave the sheaf you must also offer 309 a flawless yearling lamb 310 for a burnt offering to the Lord, 23:13 along with its grain offering, two tenths of an ephah of 311 choice wheat flour 312 mixed with olive oil, as a gift to the Lord, a soothing aroma, 313 and its drink offering, one fourth of a hin of wine. 314 23:14 You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this very day, 315 until you bring the offering of your God. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations 316 in all the places where you live.
23:15 “‘You must count for yourselves seven weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring the wave offering sheaf; they must be complete weeks. 317 23:16 You must count fifty days – until the day after the seventh Sabbath – and then 318 you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. 23:17 From the places where you live you must bring two loaves of 319 bread for a wave offering; they must be made from two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast, 320 as first fruits to the Lord. 23:18 Along with the loaves of bread, 321 you must also present seven flawless yearling lambs, 322 one young bull, 323 and two rams. 324 They are to be a burnt offering to the Lord along with their grain offering 325 and drink offerings, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 326 23:19 You must also offer 327 one male goat 328 for a sin offering and two yearling lambs for a peace offering sacrifice, 23:20 and the priest is to wave them – the two lambs 329 – along with the bread of the first fruits, as a wave offering before the Lord; they will be holy to the Lord for the priest.
23:21 “‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you. 330 You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations. 331 23:22 When you gather in the harvest 332 of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, 333 and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.’” 334
23:23 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:24 “Tell the Israelites, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must have a complete rest, a memorial announced by loud horn blasts, 335 a holy assembly. 23:25 You must not do any regular work, but 336 you must present a gift to the Lord.’”
23:26 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:27 “The 337 tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. 338 It is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must humble yourselves 339 and present a gift to the Lord. 23:28 You must not do any work on this particular day, 340 because it is a day of atonement to make atonement for yourselves 341 before the Lord your God. 23:29 Indeed, 342 any person who does not behave with humility on this particular day will be cut off from his people. 343 23:30 As for any person 344 who does any work on this particular day, I will exterminate 345 that person from the midst of his people! 346 23:31 You must not do any work. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations 347 in all the places where you live. 23:32 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening until evening you must observe your Sabbath.” 348
23:33 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:34 “Tell the Israelites, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Temporary Shelters 349 for seven days to the Lord. 23:35 On the first day is a holy assembly; you must do no regular work. 350 23:36 For seven days you must present a gift to the Lord. On the eighth day there is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must present a gift to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly day; 351 you must not do any regular work.
23:37 “‘These are the appointed times of the Lord that you must proclaim as holy assemblies to present a gift to the Lord – burnt offering, grain offering, sacrifice, and drink offerings, 352 each day according to its regulation, 353 23:38 besides 354 the Sabbaths of the Lord and all your gifts, votive offerings, and freewill offerings which you must give to the Lord.
23:39 “‘On 355 the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the produce of the land, you must celebrate a pilgrim festival of the Lord for seven days. On the first day is a complete rest and on the eighth day is complete rest. 23:40 On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees 356 – palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 23:41 You must celebrate it as a pilgrim festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations; 357 you must celebrate it in the seventh month. 23:42 You must live in temporary shelters 358 for seven days; every native citizen in Israel must live in temporary shelters, 23:43 so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
23:44 So Moses spoke to the Israelites about the appointed times of the Lord. 359
24:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 24:2 “Command the Israelites to bring 360 to you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. 361 24:3 Outside the veil-canopy 362 of the congregation in the Meeting Tent Aaron 363 must arrange it from evening until morning before the Lord continually. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations. 364 24:4 On the ceremonially pure lampstand 365 he must arrange the lamps before the Lord continually.
24:5 “You must take choice wheat flour 366 and bake twelve loaves; 367 there must be two tenths of an ephah of flour in 368 each loaf, 24:6 and you must set them in two rows, six in a row, 369 on the ceremonially pure table before the Lord. 24:7 You must put pure frankincense 370 on each row, 371 and it will become a memorial portion 372 for the bread, a gift 373 to the Lord. 24:8 Each Sabbath day 374 Aaron 375 must arrange it before the Lord continually; this portion 376 is from the Israelites as a perpetual covenant. 24:9 It will belong to Aaron and his sons, and they must eat it in a holy place because it is most holy to him, a perpetual allotted portion 377 from the gifts of the Lord.”
24:10 Now 378 an Israelite woman’s son whose father was an Egyptian went out among the Israelites, and the Israelite woman’s son and an Israelite man 379 had a fight in the camp. 24:11 The Israelite woman’s son misused the Name and cursed, 380 so they brought him to Moses. (Now his mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) 24:12 So they placed him in custody until they were able 381 to make a clear legal decision for themselves based on words from the mouth of the Lord. 382
24:13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 24:14 “Bring the one who cursed outside the camp, and all who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the whole congregation is to stone him to death. 383 24:15 Moreover, 384 you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God 385 he will bear responsibility for his sin, 24:16 and one who misuses 386 the name of the Lord must surely be put to death. The whole congregation must surely stone him, whether he is a foreigner or a native citizen; when he misuses the Name he must be put to death.
24:17 “‘If a man beats any person to death, 387 he must be put to death. 24:18 One who beats an animal to death 388 must make restitution for it, life for life. 389 24:19 If a man inflicts an injury on 390 his fellow citizen, 391 just as he has done it must be done to him – 24:20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth – just as he inflicts an injury on another person 392 that same injury 393 must be inflicted on him. 24:21 One who beats an animal to death 394 must make restitution for it, but 395 one who beats a person to death must be put to death. 24:22 There will be one regulation 396 for you, whether a foreigner or a native citizen, for I am the Lord your God.’”
24:23 Then Moses spoke to the Israelites and they brought the one who cursed outside the camp and stoned him with stones. So the Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
25:1 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai: 25:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath 397 to the Lord. 25:3 Six years you may sow your field, and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather the produce, 398 25:4 but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest 399 – a Sabbath to the Lord. You must not sow your field or 400 prune your vineyard. 25:5 You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned 401 vines; the land must have a year of complete rest. 25:6 You may have the Sabbath produce 402 of the land to eat – you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you, 403 25:7 your cattle, and the wild animals that are in your land – all its produce will be for you 404 to eat.
25:8 “‘You must count off 405 seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, 406 and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years. 407 25:9 You must sound loud horn blasts 408 – in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement – you must sound the horn in your entire land. 25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, 409 and you must proclaim a release 410 in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; 411 each one of you must return 412 to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. 413 25:12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you – you may eat its produce 414 from the field.
25:13 “‘In this year of jubilee you must each return 415 to your property. 25:14 If you make a sale 416 to your fellow citizen 417 or buy 418 from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. 419 25:15 You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since 420 the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left. 421 25:16 The more years there are, 422 the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, 423 the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of 424 produce. 25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, 425 but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God. 25:18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them 426 so that you may live securely in the land. 427
25:19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, 428 and you may live securely in the land. 25:20 If you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?’ 25:21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield 429 the produce 430 for three years, 25:22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce 431 – old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, 432 you may eat old produce. 25:23 The land must not be sold without reclaim 433 because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me. 434 25:24 In all your landed property 435 you must provide for the right of redemption of the land. 436
25:25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. 437 25:26 If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers 438 and gains enough for its redemption, 439 25:27 he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, 440 refund the balance 441 to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property. 25:28 If he has not prospered enough to refund 442 a balance to him, then what he sold 443 will belong to 444 the one who bought it until the jubilee year, but it must revert 445 in the jubilee and the original owner 446 may return to his property.
25:29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, 447 its right of redemption must extend 448 until one full year from its sale; 449 its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year. 450 25:30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, 451 the house in the walled city 452 will belong without reclaim 453 to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the jubilee. 25:31 The houses of villages, however, 454 which have no wall surrounding them 455 must be considered as the field 456 of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee. 25:32 As for 457 the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, 458 the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption. 25:33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem – the sale of a house which is his property in a city – must revert in the jubilee, 459 because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 25:34 Moreover, 460 the open field areas of their cities 461 must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.
25:35 “‘If your brother 462 becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, 463 you must support 464 him; he must live 465 with you like a foreign resident. 466 25:36 Do not take interest or profit from him, 467 but you must fear your God and your brother must live 468 with you. 25:37 You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit. 469 25:38 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan – to be your God. 470
25:39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. 471 25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; 472 he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then 473 he may go free, 474 he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. 475 25:42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. 476 25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, 477 but you must fear your God.
25:44 “‘As for your male and female slaves 478 who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. 479 25:45 Also you may buy slaves 480 from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are 481 with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. 25:46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. 482
25:47 “‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers 483 and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that 484 he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member 485 of a foreigner’s family, 25:48 after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. 486 One of his brothers may redeem him, 25:49 or his uncle or his cousin 487 may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives – his family 488 – may redeem him, or if 489 he prospers he may redeem himself. 25:50 He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years 490 from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. 491 25:51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them 492 he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption, 25:52 but if only a few years remain 493 until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption. 25:53 He must be with the one who bought him 494 like a yearly hired worker. 495 The one who bought him 496 must not rule over him harshly in your sight. 25:54 If, however, 497 he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free 498 in the jubilee year, he and his children with him, 25:55 because the Israelites are my own servants; 499 they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
[17:3] 1 tn The complex wording of vv. 3-4 requires stating “blood guilt” at the beginning of v. 3 even though it is not mentioned until the middle of v. 4. The Hebrew text has simply “blood,” but in this case it refers to the illegitimate shedding of animal blood, similar to the shedding of the blood of an innocent human being (Deut 19:10, etc.). In order for it to be legitimate the animal must be slaughtered at the tabernacle and its blood handled by the priests in the prescribed way (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:2, 17; 4:5-7; 7:26-27, etc.; cf. vv. 10-16 below for more details).
[17:3] 2 tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 22:18, etc.). See the note on Lev 15:2.
[17:3] 3 tn The original LXX adds “or the sojourners who sojourn in your midst” (cf. Lev 16:29, etc., and note esp. 17:8, 10, and 13 below).
[17:3] 4 tn Heb “or who slaughters from outside to the camp.”
[17:4] 1 tn Smr and LXX add after “tent of meeting” the following: “to make it a burnt offering or a peace offering to the
[17:4] 2 tc Smr includes the suffix “it,” which is needed in any case in the translation to conform to English style.
[17:4] 3 sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean (1) that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, (2) that he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits, or (3) that his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation). See also the note on Lev 7:20.
[17:5] 1 tn Heb “So that which.”
[17:5] 2 tn Heb “on the faces of the field.”
[17:6] 1 tn For the translation “splash” see the note on Lev 1:5.
[17:6] 2 tn The LXX adds “all around” (i.e., Hebrew סָבִיב [saviv, “all around”]), which is normal for this overall construction (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:8, etc.).
[17:7] 1 tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”
[17:7] 2 tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.
[17:7] 3 tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”
[17:7] 4 tn Heb “for your generations.”
[17:8] 1 tn Heb “Man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any [or “every”] man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).
[17:8] 2 tn Heb “and.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has an alternative sense (“or”).
[17:8] 3 tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
[17:8] 4 tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”
[17:8] 5 tn Heb “causes to go up.”
[17:9] 1 tn Heb “to make it,” meaning “to make the sacrifice.”
[17:9] 2 tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.
[17:10] 1 tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).
[17:10] 2 tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
[17:10] 3 tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”
[17:10] 4 tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).
[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.
[17:12] 1 tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”
[17:12] 2 tn Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”
[17:13] 1 tc A few medieval Hebrew
[17:13] 2 tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
[17:13] 3 tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain
[17:13] 4 tn Heb “[wild] game of animal.”
[17:13] 5 tn That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).
[17:14] 1 tn Heb “for the life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of all flesh, its blood in its life/soul (נֶפֶשׁ) it is.” The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate leave out “in its life/soul,” which would naturally yield “for the life of all flesh, its blood it is” (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261, 263). The present translation is something of an oversimplification, but the meaning is basically the same in any case. Cf. NRSV “For the life of every creature – its blood is its life.”
[17:14] 2 tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse). See the note on “every living thing” in v. 11.
[17:14] 3 tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.
[17:15] 1 tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).
[17:15] 2 tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”
[17:15] 3 tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”
[17:16] 1 tn The words “his clothes” are not in the Hebrew text, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.
[17:16] 2 tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment for the iniquity” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity. This is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).
[18:3] 1 tn Heb “As the work [or “deed”] of the land of Egypt, which you were dwelling in it, you must not do.”
[18:3] 2 tn Heb “and as the work [or “deed”] of the land of Canaan which I am bringing you to there, you must not do.” The participle “I am bringing” is inceptive; the
[18:3] 3 tn Heb “and you shall not walk.”
[18:4] 1 tn Heb “My regulations you shall do”; KJV, NASB “my judgments”; NRSV “My ordinances”; NIV, TEV “my laws.”
[18:4] 2 tn Heb “and my statutes you shall keep [or “watch; guard”] to walk in them.”
[18:5] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep.”
[18:5] 2 tn Heb “which the man shall do them and shall live in them.” The term for “a man, human being; mankind” (אָדָם, ’adam; see the note on Lev 1:2) in this case refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female. The expression וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living” so it is written וְחָיָה (vÿkhayah) in Smr, but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 25:35).
[18:6] 1 tn Heb “Man, man shall not draw near to any flesh (שְׁאֵר, shÿ’er) of his body/flesh (בָּשָׂר, basar).” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or “every”) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2). The two words for “flesh” are combined to refer to emphasize the physical familial relatedness (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 282, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 119).
[18:6] 2 tn Heb “to uncover [her] nakedness” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), which is clearly euphemistic for sexual intercourse (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 282, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 119). This expression occurs a number of times in the following context and is generally translated “have sexual intercourse with [someone],” although in the case of the father mentioned in the following verse the expression may be connected to the shame or disgrace that would belong to the father whose wife’s sexuality is violated by his son. See the note on the word “mother” in v. 7.
[18:6] 3 sn The general statement prohibiting sexual intercourse between close relatives serves as an opening summary statement for the following section, which gives details concerning which degrees of relationship are specifically forbidden.
[18:7] 1 tn The verbal negative here is the same as that used in the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:4-5, 7, 13-17). It suggests permanent prohibition rather than a simple negative command and could, therefore, be rendered “must not” here and throughout the following section as it is in vv. 3-4 above.
[18:7] 2 tn Heb “The nakedness of your father and [i.e., even] the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover.”
[18:8] 1 tn Heb “the nakedness of your father she is.” See the note on v. 7 above. This law refers to another wife of the man’s father, who is not that man’s mother. The laws in the Pentateuch sometimes assume the possibility that a man may have more than one wife (cf., e.g., Deut 21:15-17).
[18:9] 1 tn Heb “the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother.”
[18:9] 2 tn Heb “born of house or born of outside.” CEV interprets as “whether you grew up together or not” (cf. also TEV, NLT).
[18:9] 3 tc Several medieval Hebrew
[18:10] 1 sn That is, to have sexual intercourse with one’s granddaughter would be like openly exposing one’s own shameful nakedness (see the note on v. 7 above).
[18:11] 1 tn Heb “The nakedness of the daughter of your father’s wife born of your father, she is your sister; you must not uncover her nakedness.” That is, a half sister, the daughter of the man’s father by another wife, who is not the man’s mother, is to be considered a true sister. Therefore, the man must not have sexual intercourse with her.
[18:12] 1 tc A few medieval Hebrew
[18:14] 1 tn Heb “you must not draw near to his wife.” In the context this refers to approaching one’s aunt to have sexual intercourse with her, so this has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[18:14] 2 tn As in v. 12 (see the note there), some
[18:16] 1 sn Regarding the last clause, see the notes on vv. 7 and 10 above.
[18:17] 1 tn Heb “You must not uncover the nakedness of both a woman and her daughter; the daughter of her son and the daughter of her daughter you must not take to uncover her nakedness.” Translating “her” as “them” provides consistency in the English. In this kind of context, “take” means to “take in marriage” (cf. also v. 18). The LXX and Syriac have “their nakedness,” referring to the nakedness of the woman’s granddaughters, rather than the nakedness of the woman herself.
[18:17] 2 tc Heb “they are her flesh.” The LXX reads “your” here (followed by NRSV). If the LXX reading were followed by the present translation, the result would be “They are closely related to you.”
[18:17] 3 tn The term rendered “lewdness” almost always carries a connotation of cunning, evil device, and divisiveness (cf. HALOT 272 s.v. I זִמָּה 2, “infamy”), and is closely associated with sexual and religious infidelity (cf., e.g., Lev 19:29; 20:14; Job 31:11; Jer 13:27; Ezek 16:27; 22:9). Recent English versions differ on how they handle this: NAB “would be shameful”; CEV “would make you unclean”; NIV “wickedness”; NLT “horrible wickedness”; NRSV “depravity”; TEV “incest.”
[18:18] 1 tn Or “as a concubine”; Heb “And a woman to her sister you shall not take to be a second wife [or “to be a concubine”].” According to HALOT 1059 s.v. III צרר, the infinitive “to be a second wife” (לִצְרֹר, litsror) is a denominative verb from II צָרָה A (“concubine; second wife”), which, in turn, derives from II צר “to treat with hostility” (cf. J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 283, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 122).
[18:18] 2 tn Heb “on her in her life.”
[18:19] 1 tn Heb “in the menstruation of her impurity”; NIV “during the uncleanness of her monthly period.”
[18:20] 1 tn Heb “And to the wife of your fellow citizen you shall not give your layer for seed.” The meaning of “your layer” (שְׁכָבְתְּךָ, shÿkhavtÿkha) is uncertain (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 122, “you shall not place your layer of semen”; but cf. also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 283, and the literature cited there for the rendering, “you shall not give your penis for seed”).
[18:21] 1 tn Heb “And from your seed you shall not give to cause to pass over to Molech.” Smr (cf. also the LXX) has “to cause to serve” rather than “to cause to pass over.” For detailed remarks on Molech and Molech worship see N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NCBC), 87-88; P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 259-60; and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 333-37, and the literature cited there. It could refer to either human sacrifice or a devotion of children to some sort of service of Molech, perhaps of a sexual sort (cf. Lev 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10, etc.). The inclusion of this prohibition against Molech worship here may be due to some sexual connection of this kind, or perhaps simply to the lexical link between זֶרַע (zera’) meaning “seed, semen” in v. 20 but “offspring” in v. 21.
[18:21] 2 tn Heb “and you shall not profane.” Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.
[18:22] 1 tn Heb “And with a male you shall not lay [as the] lyings of a woman” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 123). The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.
[18:22] 2 tn The Hebrew term תּוֹעֵבָה (to’evah, rendered “detestable act”) refers to the repugnant practices of foreigners, whether from the viewpoint of other peoples toward the Hebrews (e.g., Gen 43:32; 46:34; Exod 8:26) or of the
[18:23] 1 tn See the note on v. 20 above.
[18:23] 2 tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).
[18:23] 3 tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” and therefore refers to illegitimate mixtures of species or violation of the natural order of things.
[18:24] 1 tn Heb “which I am sending away (Piel participle of שָׁלַח [shalakh, “to send”]) from your faces.” The rendering here takes the participle as anticipatory of the coming conquest events.
[18:25] 1 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.
[18:25] 2 tn Heb “and I have visited its [punishment for] iniquity on it.” See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
[18:26] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep, you.” The latter emphatic personal pronoun “you” is left out of a few medieval Hebrew
[18:26] 2 tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”
[18:27] 1 tn Heb “for all these abominations the men of the land who were before you have done.”
[18:28] 1 tn Heb “And the land will not vomit you out in your defiling it.”
[18:28] 2 tc The MT reads the singular “nation” and is followed by ASV, NASB, NRSV; the LXX, Syriac, and Targum have the plural “nations” (cf. v. 24).
[18:29] 1 sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
[18:30] 1 tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”
[18:30] 2 tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[19:3] 1 tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum
[19:4] 1 sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”
[19:5] 1 tn Heb “for your acceptance”; cf. NIV, NLT “it will be accepted on your behalf.”
[19:6] 1 tn Heb “from the following day” (HALOT 572 s.v. מָחֳרָת 2.b).
[19:6] 2 tn Heb “shall be burned with fire”; KJV “shall be burnt in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”
[19:7] 1 tn Heb “And if being eaten [infinitive absolute] it is eaten [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.
[19:7] 2 tn Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422, on Lev 7:18.
[19:8] 1 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
[19:8] 2 sn Regarding “profaned,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.
[19:8] 3 tn Heb “the holiness of the
[19:8] 4 sn On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
[19:9] 1 tn Heb “And in your harvesting the harvest.”
[19:9] 2 tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field to harvest.”
[19:10] 1 tn Heb “And you shall not deal severely with your vineyard.”
[19:11] 1 tn Heb “you shall not deal falsely a man with his fellow citizen.”
[19:12] 1 tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”
[19:12] 2 tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”
[19:13] 1 tn Heb “You shall not oppress your neighbor and you shall not rob.”
[19:13] 2 tn Heb “hold back with you”; perhaps “hold back for yourself” (cf. NRSV “keep for yourself”).
[19:14] 1 tn Heb “You shall not curse a deaf [person] and before a blind [person] you shall not put a stumbling block.”
[19:14] 2 tn Heb “And you shall fear.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV) regard the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) as adversative in force here (“but”).
[19:15] 1 tc Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.
[19:15] 2 tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”
[19:15] 3 tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”
[19:15] 4 tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”
[19:16] 1 tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”
[19:16] 2 tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).
[19:17] 1 tn Heb “and you will not lift up on him sin.” The meaning of the line is somewhat obscure. It means either (1) that one should rebuke one’s neighbor when he sins lest one also becomes guilty, which is the way it is rendered here (see NIV, NRSV, NEB, JB; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129-30, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 303, and the discussion on pp. 316-17), or (2) one may rebuke one’s neighbor without incurring sin just as long as he does not hate him in his heart (see the first part of the verse; cf. NASB, NAB).
[19:18] 1 tn Heb “and you shall not retain [anger?].” This line seems to refer to the retaining or maintaining of some vengeful feelings toward someone. Compare the combination of the same terms for taking vengeance and maintaining wrath against enemies in Nahum 1:2 (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305).
[19:18] 2 sn Some scholars make a distinction between the verb אָהַב (’ahav, “to love”) with the direct object and the more unusual construction with the preposition לְ (lamed) as it is here and in Lev 19:34 and 2 Chr 19:2 only. If there is a distinction, the construction here probably calls for direct and helpful action toward one’s neighbor (see the discussion in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305, and esp. 317-18). Such love stands in contrast to taking vengeance or bearing a grudge against someone and, in NT terms, amounts to fulfilling the so-called “golden rule” (Matt 7:12).
[19:19] 1 tn Heb “Your animals, you shall not cross-breed two different kinds.”
[19:19] 2 tn Heb “you shall not cause to go up on you.”
[19:19] 3 sn Cf. Deut 22:11 where the Hebrew term translated “two different kinds” (כִּלְאַיִם, kil’ayim) refers to a mixture of linen and wool woven together in a garment.
[19:20] 1 tn Heb “And a man when he lies with a woman the lying of seed.”
[19:20] 2 sn That is, the woman had previously been assigned for marriage to another man but the marriage deal had not yet been consummated. In the meantime, the woman has lost her virginity and has, therefore, lost part of her value to the master in the sale to the man for whom she had been designated. Compensation was, therefore, required (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 130-31).
[19:21] 1 sn On the guilt offering see the note on Lev 5:15 above.
[19:22] 1 tn Heb “on his sin which he has sinned.”
[19:22] 2 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him.”
[19:22] 3 tn Heb “from his sin.”
[19:23] 1 tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”
[19:23] 2 tn Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).
[19:23] 3 tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”
[19:24] 1 tn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the
[19:25] 1 tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the
[19:26] 1 tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.
[19:26] 2 tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.
[19:27] 1 tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.
[19:28] 1 tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.
[19:28] 2 tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”
[19:29] 1 tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).
[19:29] 2 tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
[19:31] 1 sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.
[19:33] 1 tn Heb “And when a sojourner sojourns.”
[19:34] 1 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[19:35] 1 tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”
[19:36] 1 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
[19:36] 2 sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 quart).
[19:37] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).
[20:2] 1 tn Heb “or from the sojourner who sojourns”; NAB “an alien residing in Israel.”
[20:2] 2 tn Heb “his seed” (so KJV, ASV); likewise in vv. 3-4.
[20:2] 3 tn Regarding Molech and Molech worship see the note on Lev 18:21.
[20:2] 4 tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning (see instead סָקַל, saqal), but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (רָגָם, ragam; see HALOT 1187 s.v. רגם qal.a, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 136).
[20:3] 1 tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”
[20:3] 2 sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.
[20:3] 3 tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”
[20:4] 1 tn Heb “And if shutting [infinitive absolute] they shut [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.
[20:4] 2 tn Heb “from that man” (so ASV); NASB “disregard that man.”
[20:5] 1 tn The adjective “spiritual” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that this is not a reference to literal prostitution, but figuratively compares idolatry to prostitution.
[20:5] 2 tn Heb “to commit harlotry after Molech.” The translation employs “worshiping” here for clarity (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
[20:6] 1 sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.
[20:6] 2 tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.
[20:6] 3 tn Heb “I will give my faces.”
[20:8] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep my statutes and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).
[20:9] 1 sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.
[20:9] 2 tn Heb “If a man a man who.”
[20:9] 3 tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”
[20:9] 4 tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”
[20:10] 1 tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.
[20:10] 2 tc The reading of the LXX minuscule
[20:11] 1 sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.
[20:11] 2 tn See the note on v. 9 above.
[20:12] 1 tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” (cf. KJV, ASV “they have wrought confusion”).
[20:13] 1 tn Heb “[as the] lyings of a woman.” The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.
[20:14] 1 tn Heb “And a man who takes a woman and her mother.” The Hebrew verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse.”
[20:14] 2 tn Regarding “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
[20:14] 3 tn Heb “in fire they shall burn him and them.” The active plural verb sometimes requires a passive translation (GKC 460 §144.f, g), esp. when no active plural subject has been expressed in the context. The present translation specifies “burned to death” because the traditional rendering “burnt with fire” (KJV, ASV; NASB “burned with fire”) could be understood to mean “branded” or otherwise burned, but not fatally.
[20:15] 1 tn See the note on Lev 18:20 above.
[20:16] 1 tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).
[20:17] 1 tn Heb “takes.” The verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse,” though some English versions translate it as “marry” (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV).
[20:17] 2 tn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20.
[20:17] 3 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
[20:18] 1 tn Heb “and the two of them.”
[20:19] 2 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
[20:21] 1 tn Heb “takes.” The verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse.”
[20:21] 2 sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.
[20:22] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).
[20:22] 2 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[20:23] 1 tc One medieval Hebrew
[20:24] 1 tc Here and with the same phrase in v. 26, the LXX adds “all,” resulting in the reading “all the peoples.”
[20:25] 1 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] 2 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] 3 tc The MT has “to defile,” but Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “to uncleanness.”
[20:27] 1 tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, and some Targum
[20:27] 2 tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.
[20:27] 3 tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning, but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (see the note on v. 2 above). Smr and LXX have “you [plural] shall pelt them with stones.”
[21:1] 1 tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).
[21:1] 2 tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).
[21:1] 3 tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.
[21:2] 1 tn Heb “except for his flesh, the one near to him.”
[21:4] 1 tn Heb “He shall not defile himself a husband in his peoples, to profane himself.” The meaning of the line is disputed, but it appears to prohibit a priest from burying any relative by marriage (as opposed to the blood relatives of vv. 2-3), including his wife (compare B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 142-43 with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348).
[21:5] 1 tn Heb “they”; the referent (priests, see the beginning of v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[21:5] 2 tn Heb “and in their body they shall not [cut] slash[es]” (cf. Lev 19:28). The context connects these sorts of mutilations with mourning rites (cf. Lev 19:27-28 above).
[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] 1 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] 2 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] 3 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[21:7] 4 tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.
[21:8] 1 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.
[21:9] 1 tn See the note on “burned to death” in 20:14.
[21:10] 1 tn The adjective “high” has been supplied in the translation for clarity, as in many English versions.
[21:10] 2 tn Heb “and he has filled his hand.” For this expression see the note on Lev 8:33.
[21:10] 3 tn Regarding these signs of mourning see the note on Lev 10:6. His head had been anointed (v. 10a) so it must not be unkempt (v. 10b), and his garments were special priestly garments (v. 10a) so he must not tear them (v. 10b). In the translation “garments” has been employed rather than “clothes” to suggest that the special priestly garments are referred to here; cf. NRSV “nor tear his vestments.”
[21:11] 1 tc Although the MT has “persons” (plural), the LXX and Syriac have the singular “person” corresponding to the singular adjectival participle “dead” (cf. also Num 6:6).
[21:12] 1 sn Regarding “profane,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.
[21:13] 1 tn Heb “And he, a wife in her virginity he shall take.”
[21:14] 1 tn Heb “take.” In context this means “take as wife,” i.e., “marry.”
[21:14] 2 tc The MT has literally, “from his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.
[21:15] 1 tc The MT has literally, “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.
[21:17] 1 tn Heb “to their generations.”
[21:17] 2 tn Heb “who in him is a flaw”; cf. KJV, ASV “any blemish”; NASB, NIV “a defect.” The rendering “physical flaw” is used to refer to any birth defect or physical injury of the kind described in the following verses (cf. the same Hebrew word also in Lev 24:19-20). The same term is used for “flawed” animals, which must not be offered to the
[21:18] 1 tn The particle כִּי (ki) in this context is asseverative, indicating absolutely certainty (GKC 498 §159.ee).
[21:18] 2 tn Lexically, the Hebrew term חָרֻם (kharum) seems to refer to a split nose or perhaps any number of other facial defects (HALOT 354 s.v. II חרם qal; cf. G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 292, n. 7); cf. KJV, ASV “a flat nose”; NASB “a disfigured face.” The NJPS translation is “a limb too short” as a balance to the following term which means “extended, raised,” and apparently refers to “a limb too long” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 146).
[21:19] 1 tn Heb “who there is in him a broken leg or a broken arm,” or perhaps “broken foot or broken hand.” The Hebrew term רֶגֶל (regel) is commonly rendered “foot,” but it can also refer to the “leg,” and the Hebrew יָד (yad) is most often translated “hand,” but can also refer to the “[fore]arm” (as opposed to כַּף, kaf, “palm of the hand” or “hand”). See HALOT 386 s.v. יָד and 1184 s.v. רֶגֶל respectively (cf. the NJPS translation). In this context, these terms probably apply to any part of the limb that was broken, including hand and the foot. B. A. Levine (Leviticus [JPSTC], 146) points out that such injuries often did not heal properly in antiquity because they were not properly set and, therefore, remained a “physical flaw” permanently.
[21:20] 1 tn Heb “thin”; cf. NAB “weakly.” This could refer to either an exceptionally small (i.e., dwarfed) man (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 146) or perhaps one with a “withered limb” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 342, 344).
[21:20] 2 tn The term rendered “spot” derives from a root meaning “mixed” or “confused” (cf. NAB “walleyed”). It apparently refers to any kind of marked flaw in the eye that can be seen by others. Smr, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. have plural “his eyes.”
[21:20] 3 tn The exact meaning and medical reference of the terms rendered “festering eruption” and “feverish rash” is unknown, but see the translations and remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 146; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 342, 344, 349-50; and R. K. Harrison, NIDOTTE 1:890 and 2:461.
[21:21] 1 tn Or “shall approach” (see HALOT 670 s.v. נגשׁ).
[21:23] 1 sn See the note on Lev 16:2 for the rendering “veil-canopy.”
[21:23] 2 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[21:24] 1 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) introduces a concluding statement for all the preceding material.
[21:24] 2 tn The words “these things” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[22:2] 1 tn Heb “holy things,” which means the “holy offerings” in this context, as the following verses show. The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[22:2] 2 tn Heb “from the holy things of the sons of Israel, and they shall not profane my holy name, which they are consecrating to me.” The latter (relative) clause applies to the “the holy things of the sons of Israel” (the first clause), not the
[22:3] 1 tn Heb “To your generations.”
[22:3] 2 tn The Piel (v. 2) and Hiphil (v. 3) forms of the verb קָדַשׁ (qadash) appear to be interchangeable in this context. Both mean “to consecrate” (Heb “make holy [or “sacred”]”).
[22:3] 3 tn Heb “and his impurity [is] on him”; NIV “is ceremonially unclean”; NAB, NRSV “while he is in a state of uncleanness.”
[22:3] 4 sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20. Cf. the interpretive translation of TEV “he can never again serve at the altar.”
[22:4] 1 tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is a way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 17:3, etc.), but with a negative command it means “No man” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 147).
[22:4] 2 sn The diseases and discharges mentioned here are those described in Lev 13-15.
[22:4] 3 tn Heb “And the one.”
[22:4] 4 tn Heb “in all unclean of a person/soul”; for the Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) meaning “a [dead] person,” see the note on Lev 19:28.
[22:4] 5 tn Heb “or a man who goes out from him a lying of seed.”
[22:5] 1 tn Heb “which there shall be uncleanness to him.”
[22:5] 2 tn The Hebrew term for “person” here is אָדָם (adam, “human being”), which could either a male or a female person.
[22:5] 3 tn Heb “to all his impurity.” The phrase refers to the impurity of the person whom the man touches to become unclean (see the previous clause). To clarify this, the translation uses “that person’s” rather than “his.”
[22:6] 1 sn The phrase “any of these” refers back to the unclean things touched in vv. 4b-5.
[22:8] 1 tn Heb “a carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that has died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”
[22:9] 1 tn Heb “and they will not lift up on it sin.” The pronoun “it” (masculine) apparently refers to any item of food that belongs to the category of “holy offerings” (see above).
[22:9] 2 tn Heb “and die in it.”
[22:10] 1 tn Heb “No stranger” (so KJV, ASV), which refers here to anyone other than the Aaronic priests. Some English versions reverse the negation and state positively: NIV “No one outside a priest’s family”; NRSV “Only a member of a priestly family”; CEV “Only you priests and your families.”
[22:10] 2 tn Heb “A resident [תּוֹשָׁב (toshav) from יָשַׁב (yashav, “to dwell, to reside”)] of a priest.” The meaning of the term is uncertain. It could refer to a “guest” (NIV) or perhaps “bound servant” (NRSV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 149). In the translation “lodger” was used instead of “boarder” precisely because a boarder would be provided meals with his lodging, the very issue at stake here.
[22:11] 1 tn Heb “and a priest, if he buys a person, the property of his silver.”
[22:11] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the person whom the priest has purchased) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[22:11] 3 tn Heb “eat it”; the referent (the holy offerings) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[22:11] 4 tn Heb “his”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[22:11] 5 tn Heb “and the [slave] born of his house, they shall eat in his food.” The LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., Tg. Ps.-J., and some
[22:12] 1 tn Heb “And a daughter of a priest, if she is to a man, a stranger” (cf. the note on v. 10 above).
[22:12] 2 tn Heb “she in the contribution of the holy offerings shall not eat.” For “contribution [offering]” see the note on Lev 7:14 and the literature cited there. Cf. NCV “the holy offerings”; TEV, NLT “the sacred offerings.”
[22:13] 1 tn Heb “to”; the words “live in” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[22:13] 2 tn Heb “and seed there is not to her and she returns to the house of her father as her youth.” The mention of having “no children” appears to imply that her children, if she had any, should support her; this is made explicit by NLT’s “and has no children to support her.”
[22:14] 1 tn Heb “And a man, if he eats a holy thing in error” (see the Lev 4:2 not on “straying,” which is the term rendered “by mistake” here).
[22:14] 2 sn When a person trespassed in regard to something sacred to the
[22:15] 1 tn Contextually, “They” could refer either to the people (v. 14a; cf. NRSV “No one”) or the priests (v. 14b; cf. NIV “The priests”), but the latter seems more likely (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 356, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 150). The priests were responsible to see that the portions of the offerings that were to be consumed by the priests as prebends did not become accessible to the people. Mistakes in this matter (cf. v. 14) would bring “guilt” on the people, requiring punishment (v. 16).
[22:15] 2 tn The Hebrew verb הֵרִים (herim, rendered “contribute” here) is commonly used for setting aside portions of an offering (see, e.g., Lev 4:8-10 and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 4:335-36).
[22:15] 3 tn Heb “the holy offerings of the sons of Israel which they contribute to the
[22:16] 1 tn Heb “iniquity of guilt”; NASB “cause them to bear punishment for guilt.” The Hebrew word עָוֹן (’avon, “iniquity”) can designate either acts of iniquity or the penalty (i.e., punishment) for such acts.
[22:16] 2 sn That is, when the lay people eat portions of offerings that should have been eaten only by priests and those who belonged to priestly households.
[22:18] 1 tn Heb “Man, man.” The reduplication is a way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 17:3, etc.; see the distributive repetition of the noun in GKC 395-96 §123.c).
[22:18] 2 tn Heb “and from the foreigner [singular] in Israel.” Some medieval Hebrew
[22:19] 1 tn Heb “for your acceptance.” See Lev 1:3-4 above and the notes there.
[22:20] 1 tn Heb “all which in it [is] a flaw.” Note that the same term is used for physical flaws of people in Lev 21:17-24. Cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “blemish”; NASB, NIV, TEV “defect”; NLT “with physical defects.”
[22:20] 2 tn Heb “not for acceptance shall it be for you”; NIV “it will not be accepted on your behalf” (NRSV and NLT both similar).
[22:21] 1 tn The meaning of the expression לְפַלֵּא־נֶדֶר (lÿfalle’-neder) rendered here “for a special votive offering” is much debated. Some take it as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NAB, NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלַא (pala’, “to be wonderful, to be remarkable”); cf. J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPSTC), 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה [palah, “to set aside”]). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice arises as a special gift to God out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.
[22:21] 2 tn Heb “for acceptance”; NAB “if it is to find acceptance.”
[22:21] 3 tn Heb “all/any flaw shall not be in it.”
[22:22] 1 tn Or perhaps “a wart” (cf. NIV; HALOT 383 s.v. יַבֶּלֶת, but see the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).
[22:22] 2 sn See the note on Lev 21:20 above.
[22:22] 3 sn This term for offering “gift” is explained in the note on Lev 1:9.
[22:23] 2 tn Heb “and stunted” (see HALOT 1102 s.v. I קלט).
[22:23] 3 sn The freewill offering was voluntary, so the regulations regarding it were more relaxed. Once a vow was made, the paying of it was not voluntary (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 151-52, for very helpful remarks on this verse).
[22:24] 1 sn Compare Lev 21:20b.
[22:25] 1 tn Heb “And from the hand of a son of a foreigner.”
[22:25] 2 tn Heb “for their being ruined [is] in them, flaw is in them”; NRSV “are mutilated, with a blemish in them”; NIV “are deformed and have defects.” The MT term מָשְׁחָתָם (moshkhatam, “their being ruined”) is a Muqtal form (= Hophal participle) from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin”). Smr has plural בהם משׁחתים (“deformities in them”; cf. the LXX translation). The Qumran Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev) has תימ הם[…], in which case the restored participle would appear to be the same as Smr, but there is no בְּ (bet) preposition before the pronoun, yielding “they are deformed” (see D. N. Freedman and K. A. Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, 41 and the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).
[22:27] 1 tn The words “the care of” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. Although many modern English versions render “with its mother” (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT), the literal phrase “under its mother” refers to the young animal nursing from its mother. Cf. KJV, ASV “it shall be seven days under the dam,” which would probably be misunderstood.
[22:27] 2 tn Heb “for an offering of a gift.”
[22:28] 1 tn Heb “And an ox or a sheep, it and its son, you shall not slaughter.”
[22:28] 2 tn Heb “in one day.”
[22:29] 1 tn Heb “for your acceptance” (see the notes on Lev 1:3-4 and 22:19 above).
[22:30] 1 tn Heb “On that day”; NIV, NCV “that same day.”
[22:31] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep my commandments and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8, etc.).
[22:33] 1 tn Heb “to be to you for God.”
[23:2] 1 tn Heb “these are them, my appointed times.”
[23:3] 1 tn This is a superlative expression, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the Sabbath and certain festival times throughout the chapter (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 155). Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest.”
[23:5] 1 tn Heb “between the two evenings,” perhaps designating the time between the setting of the sun and the true darkness of night. Cf. KJV, ASV “at even”; NAB “at the evening twilight.”
[23:6] 1 tn Heb “to this month.”
[23:7] 1 tn Heb “work of service”; KJV “servile work”; NASB “laborious work”; TEV “daily work.”
[23:10] 1 tn Heb “and you harvest its harvest.”
[23:10] 2 tn Heb “the sheaf of the first of your harvest.”
[23:11] 1 tn Heb “for your acceptance.”
[23:11] 2 sn See Lev 7:30 for a note on the “waving” of a “wave offering.”
[23:12] 1 tn Heb “And you shall make in the day of your waving the sheaf.”
[23:12] 2 tn Heb “a flawless lamb, a son of its year”; KJV “of the first year”; NLT “a year-old male lamb.”
[23:13] 1 sn See the note on Lev 5:11.
[23:13] 2 sn See the note on Lev 2:1.
[23:13] 3 sn See the note on Lev 1:9.
[23:13] 4 tn Heb “wine, one fourth of the hin.” A pre-exilic hin is about 3.6 liters (= ca. 1 quart), so one fourth of a hin would be about one cup.
[23:14] 1 tn Heb “until the bone of this day.”
[23:14] 2 tn Heb “for your generations.”
[23:15] 1 tn Heb “seven Sabbaths, they shall be complete.” The disjunctive accent under “Sabbaths” precludes the translation “seven complete Sabbaths” (as NASB, NIV; cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). The text is somewhat awkward, which may explain why the LXX tradition is confused here, either adding “you shall count” again at the end of the verse, or leaving out “they shall be,” or keeping “they shall be” and adding “to you.”
[23:16] 1 tn Heb “and.” In the translation “then” is supplied to clarify the sequence.
[23:17] 1 tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. insert the word חַלּוֹת (khallot, “loaves”; cf. Lev 2:4 and the note there). Even though “loaves” is not explicit in the MT, the number “two” suggests that these are discrete units, not just a measure of flour, so “loaves” should be assumed even in the MT.
[23:17] 2 tn Heb “with leaven.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.
[23:18] 1 tn Heb “And you shall present on the bread.”
[23:18] 2 tn Heb “seven flawless lambs, sons of a year.”
[23:18] 3 tn Heb “and one bull, a son of a herd.”
[23:18] 4 tc Smr and LXX add “flawless.”
[23:18] 5 tn Heb “and their grain offering.”
[23:18] 6 sn See the note on Lev 1:9.
[23:19] 1 tn Heb “And you shall make.”
[23:19] 2 tn Heb “a he-goat of goats.”
[23:20] 1 tn Smr and LXX have the Hebrew article on “lambs.” The syntax of this verse is difficult. The object of the verb (two lambs) is far removed from the verb itself (shall wave) in the MT, and the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”), rendered “along with” in this verse, is also added to the far removed subject (literally, “upon [the] two lambs”; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 159). It is clear, however, that the two lambs and the loaves (along with their associated grain and drink offerings) constituted the “wave offering,” which served as the prebend “for the priest.” Burnt and sin offerings (vv. 18-19a) were not included in this (see Lev 7:11-14, 28-36).
[23:21] 1 tn Heb “And you shall proclaim [an assembly] in the bone of this day; a holy assembly it shall be to you” (see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 160, and the remarks on the LXX rendering in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 367).
[23:21] 2 tn Heb “for your generations.”
[23:22] 1 tn Heb “And when you harvest the harvest.”
[23:22] 2 tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field in your harvest.”
[23:22] 3 sn Compare Lev 19:9-10.
[23:24] 1 tn Heb “a memorial of loud blasts.” Although the term for “horn” does not occur here, allowing for the possibility that vocal “shouts” of acclamation are envisioned (see P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 325), the “blast” of the shofar (a trumpet made from a ram’s “horn”) is most likely what is intended. On this occasion, the loud blasts on the horn announced the coming of the new year on the first day of the seventh month (see the explanations in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 387, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 160).
[23:25] 1 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV).
[23:27] 1 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] 2 sn See the description of this day and its regulations in Lev 16 and the notes there.
[23:27] 3 tn Heb “you shall humble your souls.” See the note on Lev 16:29 above.
[23:28] 1 tn Heb “in the bone of this day.”
[23:28] 2 tn Heb “on you [plural]”; cf. NASB, NRSV “on your behalf.”
[23:29] 1 tn The particular כִּי (ki) is taken in an asseverative sense here (“Indeed,” see the NJPS translation).
[23:29] 2 tn Heb “it [i.e., that person; literally “soul,” feminine] shall be cut off from its peoples [plural]”; NLT “from the community.”
[23:30] 1 tn Heb “And any person.”
[23:30] 2 tn See HALOT 3 s.v. I אבד hif. Cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “destroy”; CEV “wipe out.”
[23:30] 3 tn Heb “its people” (“its” is feminine to agree with “person,” literally “soul,” which is feminine in Hebrew; cf. v. 29).
[23:31] 1 tn Heb “for your generations.”
[23:32] 1 tn Heb “you shall rest your Sabbath.”
[23:34] 1 tn The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is probably better than the traditional “tabernacles” in light of the meaning of the term סֻכָּה (sukkah, “hut, booth”), but “booths” are frequently associated with trade shows and craft fairs in contemporary American English. The nature of the celebration during this feast (see the following verses) as a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt suggests that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.
[23:35] 1 tn Heb “work of service”; KJV “servile work”; NASB “laborious work”; TEV “daily work.”
[23:36] 1 tn The Hebrew term עֲצֶרֶת (’atseret) “solemn assembly [day]” derives from a root associated with restraint or closure. It could refer either to the last day as “closing assembly” day of the festival (e.g., NIV) or a special day of restraint expressed in a “solemn assembly” (e.g., NRSV); cf. NLT “a solemn closing assembly.”
[23:37] 1 tn The LXX has “[their] burnt offerings, and their sacrifices, and their drink offerings.”
[23:37] 2 tn Heb “a matter of a day in its day”; NAB “as prescribed for each day”; NRSV, NLT “each on its proper day.”
[23:38] 1 tn Heb “from to separation.” See BDB 94 s.v. בַּד 1.e for an explanation of this phrase. This phrase is repeated in front of each of the four items in this verse in the Hebrew text, but these have not been translated into English for stylistic reasons. Cf. KJV, NASB “besides”; NRSV “apart from.”
[23:39] 1 tn Heb “Surely on the fifteenth day.” The Hebrew adverbial particle אַךְ (’akh) is left untranslated by most recent English versions; however, cf. NASB “On exactly the fifteenth day.”
[23:40] 1 tn Heb “fruit of majestic trees,” but the following terms and verses define what is meant by this expression. For extensive remarks on the celebration of this festival in history and tradition see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 163; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 389-90; and P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 328-29.
[23:41] 1 tn Heb “for your generations.”
[23:42] 1 tn Heb “in the huts” (again at the end of this verse and in v. 43), perhaps referring to temporary shelters (i.e., huts) made of the foliage referred to in v. 40 (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 389).
[23:44] 1 sn E. S. Gerstenberger (Leviticus [OTL], 352) takes v. 44 to be an introduction to another set of festival regulations, perhaps something like those found in Exod 23:14-17. For others this verse reemphasizes the Mosaic authority of the preceding festival regulations (e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 390).
[24:2] 1 tn Heb “and let them take.” The simple vav (ו) on the imperfect/jussive form of the verb לָקַח (laqakh, “to take”) following the imperative (“Command”) indicates a purpose clause (“to bring…”).
[24:2] 2 tn Heb “to cause to ascend a lamp continually.”
[24:3] 1 tn The Hebrew term פָּרֹכֶת (parokhet) is usually translated “veil” or “curtain,” but it seems to have stretched not only in front of but also over the top of the ark of the covenant which stood behind and under it inside the most holy place (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:687-89).
[24:3] 2 tc Several medieval Hebrew
[24:3] 3 tn Heb “for your generations.”
[24:4] 1 tn Alternatively, “pure [gold] lampstand,” based on Exod 25:31, etc., where the term for “gold” actually appears (see NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT, and the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 395, etc.). However, in Lev 24:4 the adjective “pure” is feminine, corresponding to “lampstand,” not an assumed noun “gold” (contrast Exod 25:31), and the “table” in v. 6 was overlaid with gold, but was not made of pure gold. Therefore, it is probably better to translate “[ceremonially] pure lampstand” (v. 4) and “[ceremonially] pure table” (v. 6); see NEB; cf. KJV, ASV; B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 164-65; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 307.
[24:5] 1 sn See the note on Lev 2:1.
[24:5] 2 tn Heb “and bake it twelve loaves”; KJV, NAB, NASB “cakes.”
[24:5] 3 tn The words “of flour” are supplied in the translation for clarity.
[24:6] 1 tn Heb “six of the row.”
[24:7] 1 tn This is not just any “incense” (קְטֹרֶת, qÿtoret; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:913-16), but specifically “frankincense” (לְבֹנָה, lÿvonah; R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:756-57).
[24:7] 2 tn Heb “on [עַל, ’al] the row,” probably used distributively, “on each row” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 395-96). Perhaps the frankincense was placed “with” or “along side of” each row, not actually on the bread itself, and was actually burned as incense to the
[24:7] 3 sn The “memorial portion” (אַזְכָרָה, ’azkharah) was normally the part of the grain offering that was burnt on the altar (see Lev 2:2 and the notes there), as opposed to the remainder, which was normally consumed by the priests (Lev 2:3; see the full regulations in Lev 6:14-23 [6:7-16 HT]).
[24:7] 4 sn See the note on Lev 1:9 regarding the term “gift.”
[24:8] 1 tn Heb “In the day of the Sabbath, in the day of the Sabbath.” The repetition is distributive. A few medieval Hebrew
[24:8] 2 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:8] 3 tn The word “portion” is supplied in the translation here for clarity, to specify what “this” refers to.
[24:9] 1 tn Or “a perpetual regulation”; NRSV “a perpetual due.”
[24:10] 2 tn Heb “the Israelite man,” but Smr has no article, and the point is that there was a conflict between the man of mixed background and a man of full Israelite descent.
[24:11] 1 tn The verb rendered “misused” means literally “to bore through, to pierce” (HALOT 719 s.v. נקב qal); it is from נָקַב (naqav), not קָבַב (qavav; see the participial form in v. 16a). Its exact meaning here is uncertain. The two verbs together may form a hendiadys, “he pronounced by cursing blasphemously” (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 166), the idea being one of the following: (1) he pronounced the name “Yahweh” in a way or with words that amounted to “some sort of verbal aggression against Yahweh himself” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 362), (2) he pronounced a curse against the man using the name “Yahweh” (N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers [NCBC], 110; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 311), or (3) he pronounced the name “Yahweh” and thereby blasphemed, since the “Name” was never to be pronounced (a standard Jewish explanation). In one way or another, the offense surely violated Exod 20:7, one of the ten commandments, and the same verb for cursing is used explicitly in Exod 22:28 (27 HT) prohibition against “cursing” God. For a full discussion of these and related options for interpreting this verse see P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 335-36; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 408-9; and Levine, 166.
[24:12] 1 tn The words “until they were able” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
[24:12] 2 tn The Hebrew here is awkward. A literal reading would be something like the following: “And they placed him in custody to give a clear decision [HALOT 976 s.v. פרשׁ qal] for themselves on the mouth of the
[24:14] 1 tn The words “to death” are supplied in the translation as a clarification; they are clearly implied from v. 16.
[24:15] 2 sn See the note on v. 11 above and esp. Exod 22:28 [27 HT].
[24:16] 1 sn See the note on v. 11 above.
[24:17] 1 tn Heb “And if a man strikes any soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] of mankind.” The idiom seems to derive from the idea of striking a fatal blow to the very “life” (literally, “soul”) of a human being, not just landing a blow on their body (HALOT 698 s.v. נכה hif.2). On the difficult of the meaning and significance of the term נֶפֶשׁ see the notes on Lev 17:10-11.
[24:18] 1 tn Heb “And one who strikes a soul of an animal.”
[24:18] 2 tn Heb “soul under soul.” Cf. KJV “beast for beast”; NCV “must give…another animal to take its place.”
[24:19] 1 tn Heb “gives a flaw in”; KJV, ASV “cause a blemish in.”
[24:19] 2 tn Or “neighbor” (so NAB, NASB, NIV); TEV, NLT “another person.”
[24:20] 1 tn Heb “in the man [אָדָם, ’adam].”
[24:20] 2 tn Heb “just as he inflicts an injury…it must be inflicted on him.” The referent (“that same injury”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:21] 1 sn See the note on v. 18 above.
[24:21] 2 tn Heb “and,” but here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) is adversative, contrasting the consequences of beating an animal to death with those of beating a person to death.
[24:22] 1 tn Heb “a regulation of one”; KJV, ASV “one manner of law”; NASB “one standard.”
[25:2] 1 tn Heb “the land shall rest a Sabbath.”
[25:3] 1 tn Heb “its produce,” but the feminine pronoun “its” probably refers to the “land” (a feminine noun in Hebrew; cf. v. 2), not the “field” or the “vineyard,” both of which are normally masculine nouns (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170).
[25:4] 1 tn Heb “and in the seventh year a Sabbath of complete rest shall be to the land.” The expression “a Sabbath of complete rest” is superlative, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the seventh year of the sabbatical cycle. Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest”; NAB “a complete rest.”
[25:4] 2 tn Heb “and.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has an alternative sense (“or”).
[25:5] 1 tn Heb “consecrated, devoted, forbidden” (נָזִיר, nazir). The same term is used for the “consecration” of the “Nazirite” (and his hair, Num 6:2, 18, etc.), a designation which, in turn, derives from the very same root.
[25:6] 1 tn The word “produce” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied; cf. NASB “the sabbath products.”
[25:6] 2 tn A “resident who stays” would be a foreign person who was probably residing as another kind of laborer in the household of a landowner (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71). See v. 35 below.
[25:7] 1 tn The words “for you” are implied.
[25:8] 1 tn Heb “And you shall count off for yourself.”
[25:8] 2 tn Heb “seven years seven times.”
[25:8] 3 tn Heb “and they shall be for you, the days of the seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years.”
[25:9] 1 sn On the “loud horn blasts” see the note on Lev 23:24, but unlike the language there, the Hebrew term for “horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar) actually appears here in this verse (twice).
[25:10] 1 tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).
[25:10] 2 tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.
[25:10] 3 tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).
[25:10] 4 tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”
[25:11] 1 tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”
[25:12] 1 tn That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).
[25:13] 1 tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”
[25:14] 1 tn Heb “sell a sale.”
[25:14] 2 tn Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”
[25:14] 3 tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute קָנֹה (qanoh, “buying”) substitutes for the finite verb here in sequence with the previous finite verb “sell” at the beginning of the verse (see GKC 345 §113.z).
[25:14] 4 tn Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.
[25:15] 1 tn Heb “in the number of years after.”
[25:15] 2 tn The words “that are left” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
[25:16] 1 tn Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”
[25:16] 2 tn Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”
[25:16] 3 tn Heb “a number of produce”; the words “years of” are implied. As an alternative this could be translated “a number of harvests” (cf. NRSV, NLT).
[25:17] 1 tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”
[25:18] 1 tn Heb “And you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8, etc.).
[25:18] 2 tn Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”
[25:19] 1 tn Heb “eat to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV “ye shall eat your fill.”
[25:21] 1 tn Heb “and it [i.e., the land] shall make the produce.” The Hebrew term וְעָשָׂת (vÿ’asat, “and it shall make”) is probably an older third feminine singular form of the verb (GKC 210 §75.m). Smr has the normal form.
[25:21] 2 tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”
[25:22] 1 tn Heb “the produce,” referring to “the produce” of the sixth year of v. 21. The words “sixth year” are supplied for clarity.
[25:22] 2 tn Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”
[25:23] 1 tn The term rendered “without reclaim” means that the land has been bought for the full price and is, therefore, not subject to reclaim under any circumstances. This was not to be done with land in ancient Israel (contrast the final full sale of houses in v. 30; see the evidence cited in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 174).
[25:23] 2 tn That is, the Israelites were strangers and residents who were attached to the
[25:24] 1 tn Heb “And in all the land of your property.”
[25:24] 2 tn Heb “right of redemption you shall give to the land”; NAB “you must permit the land to be redeemed.”
[25:25] 1 tn Heb “the sale of his brother.”
[25:26] 1 tn Heb “and his hand reaches.”
[25:26] 2 tn Heb “and he finds as sufficiency of its redemption.”
[25:27] 1 tn Heb “and he shall calculate its years of sale.”
[25:27] 2 tn Heb “and return the excess.”
[25:28] 1 tn Heb “And if his hand has not found sufficiency of returning.” Although some versions take this to mean that he has not made enough to regain the land (e.g., NASB, NRSV; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176), the combination of terms in Hebrew corresponds to the portion of v. 27 that refers specifically to refunding the money (cf. v. 27; see NIV and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 315).
[25:28] 3 tn Heb “will be in the hand of.” This refers to the temporary control of the one who purchased its produce until the next year of jubilee, at which time it would revert to the original owner.
[25:28] 4 tn Heb “it shall go out” (so KJV, ASV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).
[25:28] 5 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the original owner of the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:29] 1 tn Heb “a house of a residence of a walled city.”
[25:29] 3 tn Heb “of its sale.”
[25:29] 4 tn Heb “days its right of redemption shall be” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).
[25:30] 1 tn Heb “until fulfilling to it a complete year.’
[25:30] 2 tn Heb “the house which [is] in the city which to it [is] a wall.” The Kethib has לֹא (lo’, “no, not”) rather than לוֹ (lo, “to it”) which is the Qere.
[25:30] 3 tn See the note on v. 23 above.
[25:31] 1 tn Heb “And the houses of the villages.”
[25:31] 2 tn Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”
[25:31] 3 tn Heb “on the field.”
[25:32] 2 tn Heb “the houses of the cities of their property.”
[25:33] 1 tn Heb “And which he shall redeem from the Levites shall go out, sale of house and city, his property in the jubilee.” Although the end of this verse is clear, the first part is notoriously difficult. There are five main views. (1) The first clause of the verse actually attaches to the previous verse, and refers to the fact that their houses retain a perpetual right of redemption (v. 32b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33a; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 418, 421). (2) It refers to property that one Levite sells to another Levite, which is then redeemed by still another Levite (v. 33a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the jubilee year (v. 33b; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 321). (3) It refers to houses in a city that had come to be declared as a Levitical city but had original non-Levitical owners. Once the city was declared to belong to the Levites, however, an owner could only sell his house to a Levite, and he could only redeem it back from a Levite up until the time of the first jubilee after the city was declared to be a Levitical city. In this case the first part of the verse would be translated, “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites” (NRSV, NJPS). At the first jubilee, however, all such houses became the property of the Levites (v. 33b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33a) by those who have bought it or taken it as security for debts owed to them by Levites who had fallen on bad times. Again, such property reverts back to the original Levite owners at the jubilee (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177). (5) It simply refers to the fact that a Levite has the option of redeeming his house (i.e., the prefix form of the verb is taken to be subjunctive, “may or might redeem”), which he had to sell because he had fallen into debt or perhaps even become destitute. Even if he never gained the resources to do so, however, it would still revert to him in the jubilee year. The present translation is intended to reflect this latter view.
[25:34] 2 sn This refers to the region of fields just outside and surrounding the city where cattle were kept and garden crops were grown (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177).
[25:35] 1 tn It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).
[25:35] 2 tn Heb “and his hand slips with you.”
[25:35] 3 tn Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”
[25:35] 4 tn The form וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal, and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 18:5).
[25:35] 5 tn Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).
[25:36] 1 tn The meaning of the terms rendered “interest” and “profit” is much debated (see the summaries in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 354-55 and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 178). Verse 37, however, suggests that the first refers to a percentage of money and the second percentage of produce (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 421).
[25:36] 2 tn In form the Hebrew term וְחֵי (vÿkhey, “shall live”) is the construct plural noun (i.e., “the life of”), but here it is used as the finite verb (cf. v. 35 and GKC 218 §76.i).
[25:37] 1 tn Heb “your money” and “your food.” With regard to “interest” and “profit” see the note on v. 36 above.
[25:38] 1 tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”
[25:39] 1 tn Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.
[25:40] 1 tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.
[25:41] 1 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.
[25:41] 2 tn Heb “may go out from you.”
[25:42] 1 tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”
[25:43] 1 tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”
[25:44] 1 tn Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.
[25:44] 2 tn Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”
[25:45] 1 tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.
[25:45] 2 tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).
[25:46] 1 tn Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”
[25:47] 1 tn Heb “And if the hand of a foreigner and resident with you reaches” (cf. v. 26 for this idiom).
[25:47] 2 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
[25:47] 3 tn Heb “offshoot, descendant.”
[25:48] 1 tn Heb “right of redemption shall be to him.”
[25:49] 1 tn Heb “the son of his uncle.”
[25:49] 2 tn Heb “or from the remainder of his flesh from his family.”
[25:49] 3 tc The LXX, followed by the Syriac, actually has “if,” which is not in the MT.
[25:50] 2 tn Heb “as days of a hired worker he shall be with him.” For this and the following verses see the explanation in P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 358-59.
[25:51] 1 tn Heb “to the mouth of them.”
[25:52] 1 tn Heb “but if a little remains in the years.”
[25:53] 1 tn Heb “be with him”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:53] 2 tn Heb “As a hired worker year in year.”
[25:53] 3 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:55] 1 tn Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”
