Imamat 14:12
14:12 “The priest is to take one male lamb 1 and present it for a guilt offering 2 along with the log of olive oil and present them as a wave offering before the Lord. 3
Imamat 19:8
19:8 and the one who eats it will bear his punishment for iniquity
4 because he has profaned
5 what is holy to the
Lord.
6 That person will be cut off from his people.
7
1 tn Heb “And the priest shall take the one lamb.”
2 tn See the note on Lev 5:15 above. The primary purpose of the “guilt offering” (אָשָׁם, ’asham) was to “atone” (כִּפֶּר, kipper, “to make atonement,” see v. 18 below and the note on Lev 1:4) for “trespassing” on the Lord’s “holy things,” whether sacred objects or sacred people. It is, therefore, closely associated with the reconsecration of the Lord’s holy people as, for example, here and in the case of the corpse contaminated Nazirite (Num 6:11b-12). Since the nation of Israel was “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” to the Lord (Exod 19:6; cf. the blood splashed on all the people in Exod 24:8), the skin diseased person was essentially a member of the “holy nation” who had been expelled from the community. Therefore, he or she had been desecrated and the guilt offering was essential to restoring him or her to the community. In fact, the manipulation of blood and oil in the guilt offering ritual procedure for the healed person (see vv. 14-18 below) is reminiscent of that employed for the ordination offering in the consecration of the holy Aaronic priests of the nation (Exod 29:19-21; Lev 8:22-30).
3 tn Heb “wave them [as] a wave offering before the Lord” (NAB similar). See the note on Lev 7:30 and the literature cited there. Other possible translations include “elevate them [as] an elevation offering before the Lord” (cf. NRSV) or “present them [as] a presentation offering before the Lord.” To be sure, the actual physical “waving” of a male lamb seems unlikely, but some waving gesture may have been performed in the presentation of the offering (cf. also the “waving” of the Levites as a “wave offering” in Num 8:11, etc.).
4 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
5 sn Regarding “profaned,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.
6 tn Heb “the holiness of the Lord.”
7 sn On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.