Leviticus 23:11

23:11 and he must wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for your benefit ¹  – on the day after the Sabbath the priest is to wave it. ² 

Leviticus 14:12

14:12 “The priest is to take one male lamb ³  and present it for a guilt offering ⁴  along with the log of olive oil and present them as a wave offering before the Lord. ⁵ 

Leviticus 14:24

14:24 and the priest is to take the male lamb of the guilt offering and the log of olive oil and wave them ⁶  as a wave offering before the Lord.

Leviticus 23:20

23:20 and the priest is to wave them – the two lambs ⁷  – 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.

[23:11]  ¹ tn Heb “for your acceptance.”

[23:11]  ² sn See Lev 7:30 for a note on the “waving” of a “wave offering.”

[14:12]  ³ tn Heb “And the priest shall take the one lamb.”

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

[14:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “wave them [as] a wave offering before the Lord” (NAB similar). See the note on Lev 7:30 and the literature cited there. Other possible translations include “elevate them [as] an elevation offering before the Lord” (cf. NRSV) or “present them [as] a presentation offering before the Lord.” To be sure, the actual physical “waving” of a male lamb seems unlikely, but some waving gesture may have been performed in the presentation of the offering (cf. also the “waving” of the Levites as a “wave offering” in Num 8:11, etc.).

[14:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “and the priest shall wave them.” In the present translation “priest” is not repeated a second time in the verse for stylistic reasons. With regard to the “waving” of the “wave offering,” see the note on v. 12 above.

[23:20]  ⁷ 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).