Imamat 1:3

Burnt Offering Regulations: Animal from the Herd

1:3 “‘If his offering is a burnt offering ¹  from the herd he must present it as a flawless male; he must present it at the entrance ²  of the Meeting Tent for its ³  acceptance before the Lord.

Imamat 1:10

Animal from the Flock

1:10 “‘If his offering is from the flock for a burnt offering ⁴  – from the sheep or the goats – he must present a flawless male,

Imamat 3:1

Peace Offering Regulations: Animal from the Herd

3:1 “‘Now if his offering is a peace offering sacrifice, ⁵  if he presents an offering from the herd, he must present before the Lord a flawless male or a female. ⁶ 

Imamat 3:6

Animal from the Flock

3:6 “‘If his offering for a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord is from the flock, he must present a flawless male or female. ⁷ 

Imamat 3:9

3:9 Then he must present a gift to the Lord from the peace offering sacrifice: He must remove all the fatty tail up to the end of the spine, the fat covering the entrails, and all the fat on the entrails, ⁸ 

Imamat 4:3

For the Priest

4:3 “‘If the high priest ⁹  sins so that the people are guilty, ¹⁰  on account of the sin he has committed he must present a flawless young bull to the Lord ¹¹  for a sin offering. ¹² 

Imamat 4:23

4:23 or his sin that he committed ¹³  is made known to him, ¹⁴  he must bring a flawless male goat as his offering. ¹⁵ 

Imamat 4:28

4:28 or his sin that he committed ¹⁶  is made known to him, ¹⁷  he must bring a flawless female goat ¹⁸  as his offering for the sin ¹⁹  that he committed.

Imamat 4:32

4:32 “‘But if he brings a sheep as his offering, for a sin offering, he must bring a flawless female.

Imamat 5:15

5:15 “When a person commits a trespass ²⁰  and sins by straying unintentionally ²¹  from the regulations about the Lord’s holy things, ²²  then he must bring his penalty for guilt ²³  to the Lord, a flawless ram from the flock, convertible into silver shekels according to the standard of the sanctuary shekel, ²⁴  for a guilt offering. ²⁵ 

Imamat 5:18

5:18 and must bring a flawless ram from the flock, convertible into silver shekels, ²⁶  for a guilt offering to the priest. So the priest will make atonement ²⁷  on his behalf for his error which he committed ²⁸  (although he himself had not known it) and he will be forgiven. ²⁹ 

Imamat 6:6

6:6 Then he must bring his guilt offering to the Lord, a flawless ram from the flock, convertible into silver shekels, ³⁰  for a guilt offering to the priest.

[1:3]  ¹ sn The burnt offering (עֹלָה, ’olah) was basically a “a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord” (vv. 9, 13, 17). It could serve as a votive or freewill offering (e.g., Lev 22:18-20), an accompaniment of prayer and supplication (e.g., 1 Sam 7:9-10), part of the regular daily, weekly, monthly, and festival cultic pattern (e.g., Num 28-29), or to make atonement either alone (e.g., Lev 1:4; 16:24) or in combination with the grain offering (e.g., Lev 14:20) or sin offering (e.g., Lev 5:7; 9:7). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 4:996-1022.

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “door” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “doorway” (likewise throughout the book of Leviticus). The translation “door” or “doorway” may suggest a framed door in a casing to the modern reader, but here the term refers to the entrance to a tent.

[1:3]  ³ tn The NIV correctly has “it” in the text, referring to the acceptance of the animal (cf., e.g., RSV, NEB, NLT), but “he” in the margin, referring to the acceptance of the offerer (cf. ASV, NASB, JB). The reference to a “flawless male” in the first half of this verse suggests that the issue here is the acceptability of the animal to make atonement on behalf of the offerer (Lev 1:4; cf. NRSV “for acceptance in your behalf”).

[1:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “And if from the flock is his offering, from the sheep or from the goats, for a burnt offering.” Here “flock” specifies the broad category, with “sheep or goats” giving specific examples.

[3:1]  ⁵ sn The peace offering sacrifice primarily enacted and practiced communion between God and man (and between the people of God). This was illustrated by the fact that the fat parts of the animal were consumed on the altar of the Lord but the meat was consumed by the worshipers in a meal before God. This is the only kind of offering in which common worshipers partook of the meat of the animal. When there was a series of offerings that included a peace offering (see, e.g., Lev 9:8-21, sin offerings, burnt offerings, and afterward the peace offerings in vv. 18-21), the peace offering was always offered last because it expressed the fact that all was well between God and his worshiper(s). There were various kinds of peace offerings, depending on the worship intended on the specific occasion. The “thank offering” expressed thanksgiving (e.g., Lev 7:11-15; 22:29-30), the “votive offering” fulfilled a vow (e.g., Lev 7:16-18; 22:21-25), and the “freewill offering” was offered as an expression of devotion and praise to God (e.g., Lev 7:16-18; 22:21-25). The so-called “ordination offering” was also a kind of peace offering that was used to consecrate the priests at their ordination (e.g., Exod 29:19-34; Lev 7:37; 8:22-32). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:1066-73 and 4:135-43.

[3:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “if a male if a female, perfect he shall present it before the Lord.” The “or” in the present translation (and most other English versions) is not present in the Hebrew text here, but see v. 6 below.

[3:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “a male or female without defect he shall present it”; cf. NLT “must have no physical defects.”

[3:9]  ⁸ sn See the note on this phrase in 3:3.

[4:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “the anointed priest” (so ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This refers to the high priest (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT).

[4:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “to the guilt of the people”; NRSV “thus bringing guilt on the people.”

[4:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he shall offer on his sin which he sinned, a bull, a son of the herd, flawless.”

[4:3]  ¹² sn The word for “sin offering” (sometimes translated “purification offering”) is the same as the word for “sin” earlier in the verse. One can tell which rendering is intended only by the context. The primary purpose of the “sin offering” (חַטָּאת, khatta’t) was to “purge” (כִּפֶּר, kipper, “to make atonement,” see 4:20, 26, 31, 35, and the notes on Lev 1:4 and esp. Lev 16:20, 33) the sanctuary or its furniture in order to cleanse it from any impurities and/or (re)consecrate it for holy purposes (see, e.g., Lev 8:15; 16:19). By making this atonement the impurities of the person or community were cleansed and the people became clean. See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:93-103.

[4:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “or his sin which he sinned in it is made known to him”; NAB “if he learns of the sin he committed.”

[4:23]  ¹⁴ tn Lev 4:22b-23a is difficult. The present translation suggests that there are two possible legal situations envisioned, separated by the Hebrew אוֹ (’o, “or”) at the beginning of v. 23. Lev 4:22b refers to any case in which the leader readily admits his guilt (i.e., “pleads guilty”), whereas v. 23a refers to cases where the leader is convicted of his guilt by legal action (“his sin…is made known to him”). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:95-96; Lev 4:27-28; and esp. the notes on Lev 5:1 below.

[4:23]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a he-goat of goats, a male without defect”; cf. NLT “with no physical defects.”

[4:28]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “or his sin which he sinned is made known to him”; cf. NCV “when that person learns about his sin.”

[4:28]  ¹⁷ tn Lev 4:27b-28a is essentially the same as 4:22b-23a (see the notes there).

[4:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a she-goat of goats, a female without defect”; NAB “an unblemished she-goat.”

[4:28]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “on his sin.”

[5:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “trespasses a trespass” (verb and direct object from the same Hebrew root, מַעַל, ma’al); cf. NIV “commits a violation.” The word refers to some kind of overstepping of the boundary between that which is common (i.e., available for common use by common people) and that which is holy (i.e., to be used only for holy purposes because it has been consecrated to the Lord, see further below). See the note on Lev 10:10.

[5:15]  ²¹ tn See Lev 4:2 above for a note on “straying.”

[5:15]  ²² sn Heb “from the holy things of the Lord.” The Hebrew expression here has the same structure as Lev 4:2, “from any of the commandments of the Lord.” The latter introduces the sin offering regulations and the former the guilt offering regulations. The sin offering deals with violations of “any of the commandments,” whereas the guilt offering focuses specifically on violations of regulations regarding “holy things” (i.e., things that have been consecrated to the Lord; see the full discussion in J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:320-27).

[5:15]  ²³ tn Here the word for “guilt” (אָשָׁם, ’asham) refers to the “penalty” for incurring guilt, the so-called consequential use of אָשָׁם (’asham; see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:303).

[5:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in your valuation, silver of shekels, in the shekel of the sanctuary.” The translation offered here suggests that, instead of a ram, the guilt offering could be presented in the form of money (see, e.g., NRSV; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:326-27). Others still maintain the view that it refers to the value of the ram that was offered (see, e.g., NIV “of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel”; also NAB, NLT; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 72-73, 81).

[5:15]  sn The sanctuary shekel was about 10 grams (= ca. two fifths of an ounce; J. E. Shepherd, NIDOTTE 4:237-38).

[5:15]  ²⁵ tn The word for “guilt offering” (sometimes translated “reparation offering”) is the same as “guilt” earlier in the verse (rendered there “[penalty for] guilt”). One can tell which is intended only by the context.

[5:15]  sn The primary purpose of the guilt offering was to “atone” (see the note on Lev 1:4 above) for “trespassing” on the Lord’s “holy things” (see later in this verse) or the property of others in the community (Lev 6:1-7 [5:20-26 HT]; 19:20-22; Num 5:5-10). It was closely associated with reconsecration of the Lord’s sacred things or his sacred people (see, e.g., Lev 14:12-18; Num 6:11b-12). Moreover, there was usually an associated reparation made for the trespass, including restitution of that which was violated plus one fifth of its value as a fine (Lev 5:16; 6:5 [5:24 HT]). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:557-66.

[5:18]  ²⁶ tn The statement here is condensed. See the full expression in 5:15 and the note there.

[5:18]  ²⁷ sn Regarding “make atonement” see the note on Lev 1:4.

[5:18]  ²⁸ tn Heb “on his straying which he strayed.” See the note on Lev 4:2.

[5:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[6:6]  ³⁰ tn The words “into silver shekels” are supplied here. See the full expression in Lev 5:15, and compare 5:18. Cf. NRSV “or its equivalent”; NLT “or the animal’s equivalent value in silver.”