Leviticus 6:24-30

Context

The Sin Offering

6:24 Then the Lord spoke to Moses:¹ 6:25 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the law of the sin offering. In the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered the sin offering must be slaughtered before the Lord. It is most holy.² 6:26 The priest who offers it for sin is to eat it. It must be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the Meeting Tent. 6:27 Anyone who touches its meat must be holy, and whoever spatters some of its blood on a garment,³ you must wash⁴ whatever he spatters it on in a holy place. 6:28 Any clay vessel it is boiled in must be broken, and if it was boiled in a bronze vessel, then that vessel⁵ must be rubbed out and rinsed in water. 6:29 Any male among the priests may eat it. It is most holy.⁶ 6:30 But any sin offering from which some of its blood is brought into the Meeting Tent to make atonement in the sanctuary must not be eaten. It must be burned up in the fire.⁷

[6:24] ¹sn See the note on Lev 6:8 [6:1 HT].

[6:25] ²tn Heb “holiness of holinesses [or holy of holies] it is.” Cf. NAB “most sacred”; CEV “very sacred”; TEV “very holy.”

[6:27] ³tn Heb “on the garment”; NCV “on any clothes”; CEV “on the clothes of the priest.”

[6:27] ⁴tc The translation “you must wash” is based on the MT as it stands (cf. NASB, NIV). Smr, LXX, Syriac, Tg. Ps.-J., and the Vulgate have a third person masculine singular passive form (Pual), “[the garment] must be washed” (cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). This could also be supported from the verbs in the following verse, and it requires only a repointing of the Hebrew text with no change in consonants. See the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 90 and J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:404.

[6:28] ⁵tn Heb “it”; the words “that vessel” are supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[6:29] ⁶tn Heb “holiness of holinesses [or holy of holies] it is” (also in 7:1).

[6:30] ⁷tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”