Leviticus 8:19

8:19 and he slaughtered it. ¹  Moses then splashed the blood against the altar’s sides.

Leviticus 19:26

Blood, Hair, and Body

19:26 “‘You must not eat anything with the blood still in it. ²  You must not practice either divination or soothsaying. ³ 

Leviticus 16:19

16:19 Then he is to sprinkle on it some of the blood with his finger seven times, and cleanse and consecrate it ⁴  from the impurities of the Israelites.

Leviticus 1:5

1:5 Then the one presenting the offering ⁵  must slaughter the bull ⁶  before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, must present the blood and splash ⁷  the blood against the sides of the altar which is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Leviticus 4:18

4:18 He must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar ⁸  which is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Leviticus 8:15

8:15 and he slaughtered it. ⁹  Moses then took the blood and put it all around on the horns of the altar with his finger and decontaminated the altar, ¹⁰  and he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and so consecrated it to make atonement on it. ¹¹ 

Leviticus 8:24

8:24 Next he brought Aaron’s sons forward, and Moses put some of the blood on their right earlobes, on their right thumbs, and on the big toes of their right feet, and Moses splashed the rest of the blood against the altar’s sides.

Leviticus 9:9

9:9 Then Aaron’s sons presented the blood to him and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.

Leviticus 3:2

3:2 He must lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, must splash the blood against the altar’s sides. ¹² 

Leviticus 4:6

4:6 The priest must dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle ¹³  some of it ¹⁴  seven times before the Lord toward ¹⁵  the front of the veil-canopy ¹⁶  of the sanctuary.

Leviticus 4:17

4:17 and that priest must dip his finger in the blood ¹⁷  and sprinkle ¹⁸  some of the blood seven times ¹⁹  before the Lord toward ²⁰  the front of the veil-canopy. ²¹ 

Leviticus 9:12

The Burnt Offering for the Priests

9:12 He then slaughtered the burnt offering, and his sons ²²  handed ²³  the blood to him and he splashed ²⁴  it against the altar’s sides.

Leviticus 16:14

16:14 Then he is to take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the eastern face of the atonement plate, ²⁵  and in front of the atonement plate he is to sprinkle some of the blood seven times with his finger. ²⁶ 

Leviticus 17:6

17:6 The priest is to splash ²⁷  the blood on the altar ²⁸  of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord.

Leviticus 17:11

17:11 for the life of every living thing ²⁹  is in the blood. ³⁰  So I myself have assigned it to you ³¹  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ³² 

Leviticus 4:7

4:7 The priest must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the bull’s blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Leviticus 9:18

9:18 Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram – the peace offering sacrifices which were for the people – and Aaron’s sons handed ³³  the blood to him and he splashed it against the altar’s sides.

Leviticus 17:10

Prohibition against Eating Blood

17:10 “‘Any man ³⁴  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who reside ³⁵  in their ³⁶  midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, ³⁷ 

Leviticus 8:30

Anointing Aaron, his Sons, and their Garments

8:30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. So he consecrated Aaron, his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.

[8:19]  ¹ tn Aaron probably did the slaughtering (cf. the notes on Lev 8:15-16 above).

[19:26]  ² tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.

[19:26]  ³ tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.

[16:19]  ³ tn Heb “and he shall purify it and he shall consecrate it.”

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent (the offerer) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The LXX has “they” rather than “he,” suggesting that the priests, not the offerer, were to slaughter the bull (cf. the notes on vv. 6a and 9a).

[1:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “the son of the herd”; cf. KJV “bullock”; NASB, NIV “young bull.”

[1:5]  ⁶ tn “Splash” (cf. NAB) or “dash” (cf. NRSV) is better than “sprinkle,” which is the common English translation of this verb (זָרַק, zaraq; see, e.g., KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). “Sprinkle” is not strong enough (contrast נָזָה [nazah], which does indeed mean “to sprinkle” or “to splatter”; cf. Lev 4:6).

[4:18]  ⁵ sn See v. 7, where this altar is identified as the altar of fragrant incense.

[8:15]  ⁶ sn Contrary to some English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT), Aaron (not Moses) most likely slaughtered the bull, possibly with the help of his sons, although the verb is singular, not plural. Moses then performed the ritual procedures that involved direct contact with the altar. Compare the pattern in Lev 1:5-9, where the offerer does the slaughtering and the priests perform the procedures that involve direct contact with the altar. In Lev 8 Moses is functioning as the priest in order to consecrate the priesthood. The explicit reintroduction of the name of Moses as the subject of the next verb seems to reinforce this understanding of the passage (cf. also vv. 19 and 23 below).

[8:15]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) and means “to de-sin” the altar. This verse is important for confirming the main purpose of the sin offering, which was to decontaminate the tabernacle and its furniture from any impurities. See the note on Lev 4:3.

[8:15]  ⁸ tn Similar to v. 10 above, “and consecrated it” refers to the effect of the blood manipulation earlier in the verse. The goal here was to consecrate the altar in order that it might become a place on which it would be appropriate “to make atonement” before the Lord.

[3:2]  ⁷ tn See the remarks on Lev 1:3-5 above for some of the details of translation here.

[4:6]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew verb וְהִזָּה (vÿhizzah, Hiphil of נָזָה, nazah) does indeed mean “sprinkle” or “splatter.” Contrast the different Hebrew verb meaning “splash” in Lev 1:5 (זָרָק, zaraq).

[4:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “of the blood.” The relative pronoun (“it”) has been used in the translation here for stylistic reasons.

[4:6]  ¹⁰ tn The particle here translated “toward” usually serves as a direct object indicator or a preposition meaning “with.” With the verb of motion it probably means “toward,” “in the direction of” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:234; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 60); cf. NAB, CEV.

[4:6]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew term פָּרֹכֶת (parokhet) is usually translated “veil” (e.g., ASV, NAB, NASB) or “curtain” (e.g., NIV, NRSV), but it seems to have stretched not only in front of but also over the top of the ark of the covenant which stood behind and under it inside the most holy place (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 3:687-89).

[4:17]  ⁹ tn The words “in the blood” are not repeated in the Hebrew text at this point, but must be supplied in the English translation for clarity.

[4:17]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb וְהִזָּה (vÿhizzah, Hiphil of נָזָה, nazah) does indeed mean “sprinkle” or “splatter.” Contrast the different Hebrew verb translated “splash” in Lev 1:5 (זָרָק, zaraq).

[4:17]  ¹¹ tc The MT reads literally, “and the priest shall dip his finger from the blood and sprinkle seven times.” This is awkward. Compare v. 6, which has literally, “and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle from the blood seven times.” The MT appears to be corrupt by haplography (i.e., assuming v. 6 to be the correct form, in v. 17 the scribe skipped from “his finger” to “from the blood,” thus missing “in the blood”) and metathesis (i.e., this also resulted in a text where “from the blood” stands before “sprinkle” rather than after it; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 47).

[4:17]  ¹² tn See the note on v. 6 above.

[4:17]  ¹³ tn See the note on v. 6 above.

[9:12]  ¹⁰ tn For smoothness in the English translation, “his” was used in place of “Aaron’s.”

[9:12]  ¹¹ tn The verb is a Hiphil form of מָצָא, matsa’, “to find” (i.e., causative, literally “to cause to find,” but here the meaning is “to hand to” or “pass to”; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 117-18, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:581-82). The distinction between this verb and “presented” in v. 9 above (see the note there) is that in v. 9 Aaron’s sons held the bowl while Aaron manipulated some of the blood at the altar, while here in v. 12 they simply handed the bowl to him so he could splash all the blood around on the altar (Milgrom, 581).

[9:12]  ¹² tn For “splashed” (also in v. 18) see the note on Lev 1:5.

[16:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “on the faces of the atonement plate toward the east.” Some have taken this to mean that the ark was stationed just behind the veil-canopy on the eastern side of the most holy place. Thus, the high priest would need to enter and walk toward the west end of the most holy place and then turn eastward in order to face the ark and sprinkle the blood in an eastward direction. The rendering here, however, requires that the ark was stationed on the western end, or perhaps in the middle of the area, so that as the priest entered he was already facing the ark and would sprinkle the blood on the eastern face of the atonement plate, in a westward direction (see, e.g., J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 239 versus J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1032).

[16:14]  ¹² sn Presumably in this case the blood was sprinkled seven times on the ground in front of the ark on which the atonement plate was mounted.

[17:6]  ¹² tn For the translation “splash” see the note on Lev 1:5.

[17:6]  ¹³ tn The LXX adds “all around” (i.e., Hebrew סָבִיב [saviv, “all around”]), which is normal for this overall construction (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:8, etc.).

[17:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “the life of the flesh.” Here “flesh” stands for “every living thing,” that is, all creatures (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “every creature”; CEV “every living creature.”

[17:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for the soul/life (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern English versions begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (see, e.g., NJPS, NASB, NIV, NRSV), the כִּי (ki, “for, because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., NEB, NLT; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 239).

[17:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

[17:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for the blood, it by (בְּ, bet preposition, “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:694-95, 697 for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.

[9:18]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on Lev 9:12.

[17:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC 395-96 §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).

[17:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”

[17:10]  ¹⁷ tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”

[17:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally “in”] the soul/person/life [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of נֶפֶשׁ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 244-45). No matter which translation of נֶפֶשׁ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have נֶפֶשׁ and that this נֶפֶשׁ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).