Leviticus 5:11

5:11 “‘If he cannot afford ¹  two turtledoves or two young pigeons, ²  he must bring as his offering for his sin which he has committed ³  a tenth of an ephah ⁴  of choice wheat flour ⁵  for a sin offering. He must not place olive oil on it and he must not put frankincense on it, because it is a sin offering.

Leviticus 7:18

7:18 If some of the meat of his peace offering sacrifice is ever eaten on the third day it will not be accepted; it will not be accounted to the one who presented it, since it is spoiled, ⁶  and the person who eats from it will bear his punishment for iniquity. ⁷ 

Leviticus 12:4

12:4 Then she will remain ⁸  thirty-three days in blood purity. ⁹  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ¹⁰ 

Leviticus 13:55

13:55 The priest must then examine it after the infection has been washed out, and if ¹¹  the infection has not changed its appearance ¹²  even though the infection has not spread, it is unclean. You must burn it up in the fire. It is a fungus, whether on the back side or front side of the article. ¹³ 

Leviticus 18:17

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. ¹⁴  They are closely related to her ¹⁵  – it is lewdness. ¹⁶ 

Leviticus 21:10

Rules for the High Priest

21:10 “‘The high ¹⁷  priest – who is greater than his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured, who has been ordained ¹⁸  to wear the priestly garments – must neither dishevel the hair of his head nor tear his garments. ¹⁹ 

Leviticus 21:21

21:21 No man from the descendants of Aaron the priest who has a physical flaw may step forward ²⁰  to present the Lord’s gifts; he has a physical flaw, so he must not step forward to present the food of his God.

Leviticus 21:23

21:23 but he must not go into the veil-canopy ²¹  or step forward to the altar because he has a physical flaw. Thus ²²  he must not profane my holy places, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

Leviticus 22:22

22:22 “‘You must not present to the Lord something blind, or with a broken bone, or mutilated, or with a running sore, ²³  or with a festering eruption, or with a feverish rash. ²⁴  You must not give any of these as a gift ²⁵  on the altar to the Lord.

Leviticus 23:22

23:22 When you gather in the harvest ²⁶  of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, ²⁷  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.’” ²⁸ 

[5:11]  ¹ tn Heb “and if his hand does not reach [or is not sufficient] to”; cf. NASB “if his means are insufficient for.” The expression is the same as that in Lev 5:7 above except for the verb: נָשַׂג (nasag, “to collect, to reach, to be sufficient”) is used here, but נָגַע (nagah, “to touch, to reach”) is used in v. 7. Smr has the former in both v. 7 and 11.

[5:11]  ² tn See the note on Lev 1:14 above (cf. also 5:7).

[5:11]  ³ tn Heb “and he shall bring his offering which he sinned.” Like the similar expression in v. 7 above (see the note there), this is an abbreviated form of Lev 5:6, “and he shall bring his [penalty for] guilt to the Lord for his sin which he committed.” Here the words “to the Lord for his sin” have been left out, and “his [penalty for] guilt” has been changed to “his offering.”

[5:11]  ⁴ sn A tenth of an ephah would be about 2.3 liters, one day’s ration for a single person (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:306). English versions handle the amount somewhat differently, cf. NCV “about two quarts”; TEV “one kilogramme”; CEV “two pounds.”

[5:11]  ⁵ tn See the note on Lev 2:1 above.

[7:18]  ⁶ tn Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422. Cf. NIV “it is impure”; NCV “it will become unclean”; NLT “will be contaminated.”

[7:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “his iniquity he shall bear” (cf. Lev 5:1); NIV “will be held responsible”; NRSV “shall incur guilt”; TEV “will suffer the consequences.”

[12:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “sit, dwell” (יָשָׁב, yashav) normally means “to sit, to dwell”), but here it means “to remain, to stay” in the same condition for a period of time (cf., e.g., Gen 24:55).

[12:4]  ¹² tn Heb “in bloods of purification” or “purifying” or “purity”; NASB “in the blood of her purification”; NRSV “her time of blood purification.” See the following note.

[12:4]  ¹³ tn The initial seven days after the birth of a son were days of blood impurity for the woman as if she were having her menstrual period. Her impurity was contagious during this period, so no one should touch her or even furniture on which she has sat or reclined (Lev 15:19-23), lest they too become impure. Even her husband would become impure for seven days if he had sexual intercourse with her during this time (Lev 15:24; cf. 18:19). The next thirty-three days were either “days of purification, purifying” or “days of purity,” depending on how one understands the abstract noun טֹהֳרָה (toharah, “purification, purity”) in this context. During this time the woman could not touch anything holy or enter the sanctuary, but she was no longer contagious like she had been during the first seven days. She could engage in normal everyday life, including sexual intercourse, without fear of contaminating anyone else (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 73-74; cf. J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:749-50). Thus, in a sense, the thirty-three days were a time of blood “purity” (cf. the present translation) as compared to the previous seven days of blood “impurity,” but they were also a time of blood “purification” (or “purifying”) as compared to the time after the thirty-three days, when the blood atonement had been made and she was pronounced “clean” by the priest (see vv. 6-8 below). In other words, the thirty-three day period was a time of “blood” (flow), but this was “pure blood,” as opposed to the blood of the first seven days.

[13:55]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV).

[13:55]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the infection has not changed its eye.” Smr has “its/his eyes,” as in vv. 5 and 37, but here it refers to the appearance of the article of cloth or leather, unlike vv. 5 and 37 where there is a preposition attached and it refers to the eyes of the priest.

[13:55]  ¹⁸ tn The terms “back side” and “front side” are the same as those used in v. 42 for the “back or front bald area” of a man’s head. The exact meaning of these terms when applied to articles of cloth or leather is uncertain. It could refer, for example, to the inside versus the outside of a garment, or the back versus the front side of an article of cloth or leather. See J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:814, for various possibilities.

[18:17]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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.”

[21:10]  ²⁶ tn The adjective “high” has been supplied in the translation for clarity, as in many English versions.

[21:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “and he has filled his hand.” For this expression see the note on Lev 8:33.

[21:10]  ²⁸ 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.”

[21:21]  ³¹ tn Or “shall approach” (see HALOT 670 s.v. נגשׁ).

[21:23]  ³⁶ sn See the note on Lev 16:2 for the rendering “veil-canopy.”

[21:23]  ³⁷ tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[22:22]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² sn See the note on Lev 21:20 above.

[22:22]  ⁴³ sn This term for offering “gift” is explained in the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “And when you harvest the harvest.”

[23:22]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field in your harvest.”

[23:22]  ⁴⁸ sn Compare Lev 19:9-10.