Imamat 14:8-9

The Seven Days of Purification

14:8 “The one being cleansed ¹  must then wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water, and so be clean. ²  Then afterward he may enter the camp, but he must live outside his tent seven days. 14:9 When the seventh day comes ³  he must shave all his hair – his head, his beard, his eyebrows, all his hair – and he must wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and so be clean. ⁴ 

Imamat 16:4

16:4 He must put on a holy linen tunic, ⁵  linen leggings are to cover his body, ⁶  and he is to wrap himself with a linen sash ⁷  and wrap his head with a linen turban. ⁸  They are holy garments, so he must bathe ⁹  his body in water and put them on.

Imamat 16:24

16:24 Then he must bathe his body in water in a holy place, put on his clothes, and go out and make his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering. So he is to make atonement ¹⁰  on behalf of himself and the people. ¹¹ 

Imamat 17:15-16

Regulations for Eating Carcasses

17:15 “‘Any person ¹²  who eats an animal that has died of natural causes ¹³  or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, ¹⁴  must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean. 17:16 But if he does not wash his clothes ¹⁵  and does not bathe his body, he will bear his punishment for iniquity.’” ¹⁶ 

Imamat 22:6

22:6 the person who touches any of these ¹⁷  will be unclean until evening and must not eat from the holy offerings unless he has bathed his body in water.

[14:8]  ¹ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר [taher, “to be clean”]).

[14:8]  ² tn Heb “and he shall be clean” (so ASV). The end result of the ritual procedures in vv. 4-7 and the washing and shaving in v. 8a is that the formerly diseased person has now officially become clean in the sense that he can reenter the community (see v. 8b; contrast living outside the community as an unclean diseased person, Lev 13:46). There are, however, further cleansing rituals and pronouncements for him to undergo in the tabernacle as outlined in vv. 10-20 (see Qal “be[come] clean” in vv. 9 and 20, Piel “pronounce clean” in v. 11, and Hitpael “the one being cleansed” in vv. 11, 14, 17, 18, and 19). Obviously, in order to enter the tabernacle he must already “be clean” in the sense of having access to the community.

[14:9]  ³ tn Heb “And it shall be on the seventh day.”

[14:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he shall be clean” (see the note on v. 8).

[16:4]  ⁵ sn The term “tunic” refers to a shirt-like garment worn next to the skin and, therefore, put on first (cf. Exod 28:4, 39-40; 29:5, 8; 39:27). It covered the upper body only. For detailed remarks on the terminology for the priestly clothing in this verse (except the “linen leggings”) see the notes on Lev 8:7-9 and the literature cited there.

[16:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “shall be on his flesh.” As in many instances in Lev 15, the term “flesh” or “body” here is euphemistic for the male genitals (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1017, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 222; cf. the note on Lev 15:2), which the priest must be careful not to expose during such ritual procedures (see Exod 20:26 with 28:42-43).

[16:4]  ⁷ sn The sash fastened the tunic around the waist (Exod 28:4, 39; 29:9; 39:29).

[16:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “and in a turban of linen he shall wrap.”

[16:4]  sn The turban consisted of wound up linen (cf. Exod 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:31; Lev 16:4). It is usually thought to be a “turban,” but it might be only a “turban-like headband” wound around the forehead area (HALOT 624 s.v. מִצְנֶפֶת).

[16:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he shall bathe….”

[16:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “And he shall make atonement.”

[16:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “on behalf of himself and on behalf of the people.” After “on behalf of himself” the LXX adds the expected “and on behalf of his household” (cf. vv. 6, 11, and 17).

[17:15]  ¹² tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).

[17:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”

[17:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”

[17:16]  ¹⁵ tn The words “his clothes” are not in the Hebrew text, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment for the iniquity” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity. This is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).

[17:16]  sn For the interpretation of this verse reflected in the present translation, see the remarks on Lev 5:1 in J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:292-97.

[22:6]  ¹⁷ sn The phrase “any of these” refers back to the unclean things touched in vv. 4b-5.