Leviticus 18:21

18:21 You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, ¹  so that you do not profane ²  the name of your God. I am the Lord!

Leviticus 19:8

19:8 and the one who eats it will bear his punishment for iniquity ³  because he has profaned ⁴  what is holy to the Lord. ⁵  That person will be cut off from his people. ⁶ 

Leviticus 19:12

19:12 You must not swear falsely ⁷  in my name, so that you do not profane ⁸  the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:29

19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ⁹  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ¹⁰ 

Leviticus 22:15

22:15 They ¹¹  must not profane the holy offerings which the Israelites contribute ¹²  to the Lord, ¹³ 

Leviticus 22:32

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,

[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.

[19:8]  ³ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[19:8]  ⁴ sn Regarding “profaned,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[19:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “the holiness of the Lord.”

[19:8]  ⁶ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[19:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”

[19:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”

[19:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

[19:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[22:15]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the holy offerings of the sons of Israel which they contribute to the Lord.” The subject “they” here refers to the Israelites (“the sons of Israel”) which is the most immediate antecedent. To make this clear, the present translation has “the holy offerings which the Israelites contribute to the Lord.”