Leviticus 7:15-19

Context
7:15 The meat of his¹ thanksgiving peace offering must be eaten on the day of his offering; he must not set any of it aside until morning.

7:16 “‘If his offering is a votive or freewill sacrifice,² it may be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, and also the leftovers from it may be eaten on the next day,³ 7:17 but the leftovers from the meat of the sacrifice must be burned up in the fire⁴ on the third day. 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,⁵ and the person who eats from it will bear his punishment for iniquity.⁶ 7:19 The meat which touches anything ceremonially⁷ unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up in the fire. As for ceremonially clean meat,⁸ everyone who is ceremonially clean may eat the meat.

[7:15] ¹tn In the verse “his” refers to the offerer.

[7:16] ²tn For the distinction between votive and freewill offerings see the note on Lev 22:23 and the literature cited there.

[7:16] ³tn Heb “and on the next day and the left over from it shall be eaten.”

[7:17] ³tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely” (likewise in v. 19).

[7:18] ⁴tn 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] ⁵tn Heb “his iniquity he shall bear” (cf. Lev 5:1); NIV “will be held responsible”; NRSV “shall incur guilt”; TEV “will suffer the consequences.”

[7:19] ⁵tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation both here and in the following sentence to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[7:19] ⁶tn The Hebrew has simply “the flesh,” but this certainly refers to “clean” flesh in contrast to the unclean flesh in the first half of the verse.