Leviticus 2:4-5

Processed Grain Offerings

2:4 “‘When you present an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must be made of ¹  choice wheat flour baked into unleavened loaves ²  mixed with olive oil or ³  unleavened wafers smeared ⁴  with olive oil. 2:5 If your offering is a grain offering made on the griddle, it must be choice wheat flour mixed with olive oil, unleavened.

Leviticus 2:10-11

2:10 The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and to his sons – it is ⁵  most holy from the gifts of the Lord.

Additional Grain Offering Regulations

2:11 “‘No grain offering which you present to the Lord can be made with yeast, ⁶  for you must not offer up in smoke any yeast or honey as a gift to the Lord. ⁷ 

[2:4]  ¹ tn The insertion of the words “it must be made of” is justified by the context and the expressed words “it shall be made of” in vv. 7 and 8 below.

[2:4]  ² sn These “loaves” were either “ring-shaped” (HALOT 317 s.v. חַלָּה) or “perforated” (BDB 319 s.v. חַלָּה; cf. J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:184).

[2:4]  ³ tn Heb “and.” Here the conjunction vav (ו) has an alternative sense (“or”).

[2:4]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word מְשֻׁחִים (mÿshukhim) translated here as “smeared” is often translated “anointed” in other contexts. Cf. TEV “brushed with olive oil” (CEV similar).

[2:10]  ⁵ tn See the note on “it is” in v. 9b.

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “Every grain offering which you offer to the Lord must not be made leavened.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tc A few Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the verb “present” rather than “offer up in smoke,” but the MT is clearly correct. One could indeed present leavened and honey sweetened offerings as first fruit offerings, which were not burned on the altar (see v. 12 and the note there), but they could not be offered up in fire on the altar. Cf. the TEV’s ambiguous “you must never use yeast or honey in food offered to the Lord.”