Imamat 11:24

Carcass Uncleanness

11:24 “‘By these ¹  you defile yourselves; anyone who touches their carcass will be unclean until the evening,

Imamat 12:4-5

12:4 Then she will remain ²  thirty-three days in blood purity. ³  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ⁴  12:5 If she bears a female child, she will be impure fourteen days as during her menstrual flow, and she will remain sixty-six days in ⁵  blood purity. ⁶ 

Imamat 13:28

13:28 But if the bright spot stays in its place, has not spread on the skin, ⁷  and it has faded, then it is the swelling of the burn, so the priest is to pronounce him clean, ⁸  because it is the scar of the burn.

Imamat 13:37

13:37 If, as far as the priest can see, the scall has stayed the same ⁹  and black hair has sprouted in it, the scall has been healed; the person is clean. So the priest is to pronounce him clean. ¹⁰ 

Imamat 14:7

14:7 and sprinkle it seven times on the one being cleansed ¹¹  from the disease, pronounce him clean, ¹²  and send the live bird away over the open countryside. ¹³ 

Imamat 14:18

14:18 and the remainder of the olive oil ¹⁴  that is in his hand the priest is to put on the head of the one being cleansed. So the priest is to make atonement for him before the Lord.

Imamat 19:8

19:8 and the one who eats it will bear his punishment for iniquity ¹⁵  because he has profaned ¹⁶  what is holy to the Lord. ¹⁷  That person will be cut off from his people. ¹⁸ 

Imamat 25:22

25:22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce ¹⁹  – old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, ²⁰  you may eat old produce.

Imamat 26:4

26:4 I will give you your rains in their time so that ²¹  the land will give its yield and the trees of the field will produce their fruit. ²² 

Imamat 26:26

26:26 When I break off your supply of bread, ²³  ten women will bake your bread in one oven; they will ration your bread by weight, ²⁴  and you will eat and not be satisfied.

Imamat 27:23

27:23 the priest will calculate for him the amount of its conversion value until the jubilee year, and he must pay ²⁵  the conversion value on that jubilee day as something that is holy to the Lord.

[11:24]  ¹ tn Heb “and to these.”

[12:4]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[12:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “on purity blood.” The preposition here is עַל (’al) rather than בְּ (bÿ, as it is in the middle of v. 4), but no doubt the same meaning is intended.

[12:5]  ⁶ tn For clarification of the translation here, see the notes on vv. 2-4 above.

[12:5]  sn The doubling of the time after the birth of a female child is puzzling (see the remarks in J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:750-51; and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 188). Some have argued, for example, that it derives from the relative status of the sexes, or a supposed longer blood flow for the birth of a woman, or even to compensate for the future menstrual periods of the female just born. Perhaps there is a better explanation. First, a male child must be circumcised on the eighth day, so the impurity of the mother could not last beyond the first seven days lest it interfere with the circumcision rite. A female child, of course, was not circumcised, so the impurity of the mother would not interfere and the length of the impure time could be extended further. Second, it would be natural to expect that the increased severity of the blood flow after childbirth, as compared to that of a woman’s menstrual period, would call for a longer period of impurity than the normal seven days of the menstrual period impurity (compare Lev 15:19 with 15:25-30). Third, this suggests that the fourteen day impurity period for the female child would have been more appropriate, and the impurity period for the birth of a male child had to be shortened. Fourth, not only the principle of multiples of seven but also multiples of forty applies to this reckoning. Since the woman’s blood discharge after bearing a child continues for more than seven days, her discharge keeps her from contact with sacred things for a longer period of time in order to avoid contaminating the tabernacle (note Lev 15:31). This ended up totaling forty days for the birth of a male child (seven plus thirty-three) and a corresponding doubling of the second set of days for the woman (fourteen plus sixty-six). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:368-70. The fact that the offerings were the same for either a male or a female infant (vv. 6-8) suggests that the other differences in the regulations are not due to the notion that a male child had greater intrinsic value than a female child (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 169).

[13:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “and if under it the bright spot stands, it has not spread in the skin.”

[13:28]  ⁸ tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָהֵר (taher; cf. the note on v. 6 above).

[13:37]  ⁹ tn Heb “and if in his eyes the infection has stood.”

[13:37]  ¹⁰ tn This is the declarative Piel of the verb טָהֵר (taher, cf. the note on v. 6 above).

[14:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר [taher, “to be clean”]).

[14:7]  ¹² tn Heb “and he shall make him clean.” The verb is the Piel of טָהֵר (taher, “to be clean”), here used as a so-called “declarative” Piel (i.e., “to declare clean”; cf. 13:6, etc.).

[14:7]  ¹³ sn The reddish color of cedar wood and the crimson colored fabric called for in v. 4 (see the note there, esp. the association with the color of blood) as well as the priestly commands to bring “two live” birds (v. 4a), to slaughter one of them “over fresh water” (literally “living water,” v. 5b), and the subsequent ritual with the (second) “live” bird (vv. 6-7) combine to communicate the concept of “life” and “being alive” in this passage. This contrasts with the fear of death associated with the serious skin diseases in view here (see, e.g., Aaron’s description of Miriam’s skin disease in Num 12:12, “Do not let her be like the dead one when it goes out from its mother’s womb and its flesh half eaten away”). Since the slaughtered bird here is not sacrificed at the altar and is not designated as an expiatory “sin offering,” this ritual procedure probably symbolizes the renewed life of the diseased person and displays it publicly for all to see. It is preparatory to the expiatory rituals that will follow (vv. 10-20, esp. vv. 18-20), but is not itself expiatory. Thus, although there are important similarities between the bird ritual here, the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16:20-22), and the red heifer for cleansing from corpse contamination (Num 19), this bird ritual is different in that the latter two constitute “sin offerings” (Lev 16:5, 8-10; Num 19:9, 17). Neither of the birds in Lev 14:4-7 is designated or treated as a “sin offering.” Nevertheless, the very nature of the live bird ritual itself and its obvious similarity to the scapegoat ritual suggests that the patient’s disease has been removed far away so that he or she is free from its effects both personally and communally.

[14:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the remainder in the oil.”

[19:8]  ¹⁵ tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.

[19:8]  ¹⁶ sn Regarding “profaned,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.

[19:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the holiness of the Lord.”

[19:8]  ¹⁸ sn On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[25:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the produce,” referring to “the produce” of the sixth year of v. 21. The words “sixth year” are supplied for clarity.

[25:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”

[26:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[26:4]  ²² tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.

[26:26]  ²³ tn Heb “When I break to you staff of bread” (KJV, ASV, and NASB all similar).

[26:26]  ²⁴ tn Heb “they will return your bread in weight.”

[27:23]  ²⁵ tn Heb “give” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NLT).