Leviticus 7:15-21

7:15 The meat of his ¹  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 fire ⁴  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 ceremonially ⁷  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. 7:20 The person who eats meat from the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord while his uncleanness persists ⁹  will be cut off from his people. ¹⁰  7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ¹¹  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ¹² 

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

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

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

[7:17]  ³ tn 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.”

[7:19]  ⁵ tn 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]  ⁶ tn 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.

[7:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “and his unclean condition is on him.”

[7:20]  ⁷ sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits (cf. TEV, CEV), or his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation), etc. See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 100; J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:457-60; and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 241-42 for further discussion.

[7:21]  ⁷ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

[7:21]  ⁸ sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.