Imamat 1:5

1:5 Then the one presenting the offering ¹  must slaughter the bull ²  before the Lord, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, must present the blood and splash ³  the blood against the sides of the altar which is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Imamat 2:11

Additional Grain Offering Regulations

2:11 “‘No grain offering which you present to the Lord can be made with yeast, ⁴  for you must not offer up in smoke any yeast or honey as a gift to the Lord. ⁵ 

Imamat 3:13

3:13 lay his hand on its head, and slaughter it before the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron must splash its blood against the altar’s sides.

Imamat 4:34

4:34 Then the priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.

Imamat 6:20

6:20 “This is the offering of Aaron and his sons which they must present to the Lord on the day when he is anointed: a tenth of an ephah ⁶  of choice wheat flour ⁷  as a continual grain offering, half of it in the morning and half of it in the evening.

Imamat 6:30

6:30 But any sin offering from which some of its blood is brought into the Meeting Tent to make atonement in the sanctuary must not be eaten. It must be burned up in the fire. ⁸ 

Imamat 7:19

7:19 The meat which touches anything ceremonially ⁹  unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up in the fire. As for ceremonially clean meat, ¹⁰  everyone who is ceremonially clean may eat the meat.

Imamat 11:44

11:44 for I am the Lord your God and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any of the swarming things that creep on the ground,

Imamat 12:4

12:4 Then she will remain ¹¹  thirty-three days in blood purity. ¹²  She must not touch anything holy and she must not enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are fulfilled. ¹³ 

Imamat 13:12

13:12 If, however, the disease breaks out ¹⁴  on the skin so that the disease covers all the skin of the person with the infection ¹⁵  from his head to his feet, as far as the priest can see, ¹⁶ 

Imamat 14:6-7

14:6 Then ¹⁷  he is to take the live bird along with the piece of cedar wood, the scrap of crimson fabric, and the twigs of hyssop, and he is to dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird slaughtered over the fresh water, 14:7 and sprinkle it seven times on the one being cleansed ¹⁸  from the disease, pronounce him clean, ¹⁹  and send the live bird away over the open countryside. ²⁰ 

Imamat 14:16

14:16 Then the priest is to dip his right forefinger into the olive oil ²¹  that is in his left hand, and sprinkle some of the olive oil with his finger seven times before the Lord.

Imamat 15:26

15:26 Any bed she lies on all the days of her discharge will be to her like the bed of her menstruation, any furniture she sits on will be unclean like the impurity of her menstruation,

Imamat 15:31

Summary of Purification Regulations for Bodily Discharges

15:31 “‘Thus you ²²  are to set the Israelites apart from their impurity so that they ²³  do not die in their impurity by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst.

Imamat 16:26

16:26 and the one who sent the goat away to Azazel ²⁴  must wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and afterward he may reenter the camp.

Imamat 17:11

17:11 for the life of every living thing ²⁵  is in the blood. ²⁶  So I myself have assigned it to you ²⁷  on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. ²⁸ 

Imamat 18:9

18:9 You must not have sexual intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, ²⁹  whether she is born in the same household or born outside it; ³⁰  you must not have sexual intercourse with either of them. ³¹ 

Imamat 18:23

18:23 You must not have sexual intercourse ³²  with any animal to become defiled with it, and a woman must not stand before an animal to have sexual intercourse with it; ³³  it is a perversion. ³⁴ 

Imamat 18:29-30

18:29 For if anyone does any of these abominations, the persons who do them will be cut off from the midst of their people. ³⁵  18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes ³⁶  that have been done before you, so that you do not ³⁷  defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”

Imamat 19:15

Justice, Love, and Propriety

19:15 “‘You ³⁸  must not deal unjustly in judgment: ³⁹  you must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. ⁴⁰  You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. ⁴¹ 

Imamat 19:29

19:29 Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, ⁴²  so that the land does not practice prostitution and become full of lewdness. ⁴³ 

Imamat 19:31

19:31 Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits ⁴⁴  to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 19:34

19:34 The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so ⁴⁵  you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Imamat 20:22

Exhortation to Holiness and Obedience

20:22 “‘You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, ⁴⁶  so that ⁴⁷  the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out.

Imamat 21:14

21:14 He must not marry ⁴⁸  a widow, a divorced woman, or one profaned by prostitution; he may only take a virgin from his people ⁴⁹  as a wife.

Imamat 22:23

22:23 As for an ox ⁵⁰  or a sheep with a limb too long or stunted, ⁵¹  you may present it as a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable for a votive offering. ⁵² 

Imamat 23:12

23:12 On the day you wave the sheaf you must also offer ⁵³  a flawless yearling lamb ⁵⁴  for a burnt offering to the Lord,

Imamat 24:15

24:15 Moreover, ⁵⁵  you are to tell the Israelites, ‘If any man curses his God ⁵⁶  he will bear responsibility for his sin,

Imamat 25:9

25:9 You must sound loud horn blasts ⁵⁷  – in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement – you must sound the horn in your entire land.

Imamat 25:11

25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. ⁵⁸ 

Imamat 25:31

25:31 The houses of villages, however, ⁵⁹  which have no wall surrounding them ⁶⁰  must be considered as the field ⁶¹  of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee.

Imamat 25:45

25:45 Also you may buy slaves ⁶²  from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are ⁶³  with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.

Imamat 26:13

26:13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from being their slaves, ⁶⁴  and I broke the bars of your yoke and caused you to walk upright. ⁶⁵ 

[1:5]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “the son of the herd”; cf. KJV “bullock”; NASB, NIV “young bull.”

[1:5]  ³ 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).

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “Every grain offering which you offer to the Lord must not be made leavened.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[2:11]  ⁵ tc A few Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the verb “present” rather than “offer up in smoke,” but the MT is clearly correct. One could indeed present leavened and honey sweetened offerings as first fruit offerings, which were not burned on the altar (see v. 12 and the note there), but they could not be offered up in fire on the altar. Cf. the TEV’s ambiguous “you must never use yeast or honey in food offered to the Lord.”

[2:11]  tn Heb “for all leaven and all honey you must not offer up in smoke from it a gift to the Lord.”

[6:20]  ⁶ sn A tenth of an ephah is about 2.3 liters, one day’s ration for a single person (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:306).

[6:20]  ⁷ tn For the rendering “choice wheat flour” see the note on Lev 2:1.

[6:30]  ⁸ tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”

[7:19]  ⁹ tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation both here and in the following sentence to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[7:19]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew has simply “the flesh,” but this certainly refers to “clean” flesh in contrast to the unclean flesh in the first half of the verse.

[12:4]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.

[13:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And if spreading [infinitive absolute] it spreads out [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.

[13:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “all the skin of the infection,” but see v. 4 above.

[13:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to all the appearance of the eyes of the priest.”

[14:6]  ¹⁷ tc Heb “the live bird he [i.e., the priest] shall take it.” Although the MT has no ו (vav, “and”) at the beginning of this clause, a few medieval Hebrew mss and Smr have one and the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate translate as if it is there. The “but” in the present translation reflects this text critical background, the object-first word order in the clause with the resumptive pronoun at the end, and the obvious contrast between the slaughtered bird in v. 5 and the live bird in v. 6.

[14:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר [taher, “to be clean”]).

[14:7]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.

[14:16]  ²¹ tn Heb “his right finger from the oil.”

[15:31]  ²² tn Heb “And you shall.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NCV, NRSV).

[15:31]  ²³ tn Heb “and they.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) indicates a negative purpose (“lest,” so NAB, NASB).

[16:26]  ²⁴ tn For “Azazel” see the note on v. 8 above.

[17:11]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ 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]  sn This verse is a well-known crux interpretum for blood atonement in the Bible. The close association between the blood and “the soul/life [נֶפֶשׁ] of the flesh [בָּשָׂר, basar]” (v. 11a) begins in Gen 9:2-5 (if not Gen 4:10-11), where the Lord grants man the eating of meat (i.e., the “flesh” of animals) but also issues a warning: “But flesh [בָּשָׂר] with its soul/life [נֶפֶשׁ], [which is] its blood, you shall not eat” (cf. G. J. Wenham, Genesis [WBC], 1:151 and 193). Unfortunately, the difficulty in translating נֶפֶשׁ consistently (see the note on v. 10 above) obscures the close connection between the (human) “person” in v. 10 and “the life” (of animals, 2 times) and “your (human) lives” in v. 11, all of which are renderings of נֶפֶשׁ. The basic logic of the passage is that (a) no נֶפֶשׁ should eat the blood when he eats the בָּשָׂר of an animal (v. 10) because (b) the נֶפֶשׁ of בָּשָׂר is identified with the blood that flows through and permeates it (v. 11a), and (c) the Lord himself has assigned (i.e., limited the use of) animal blood, that is, animal נֶפֶשׁ, to be the instrument or price of making atonement for the נֶפֶשׁ of people (v. 11b). See the detailed remarks and literature cited in R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:693-95, 697-98.

[17:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”

[17:11]  ²⁸ 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.

[18:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother.”

[18:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “born of house or born of outside.” CEV interprets as “whether you grew up together or not” (cf. also TEV, NLT).

[18:9]  ³¹ tc Several medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “her nakedness” rather than “their nakedness,” thus agreeing with singular “sister” at the beginning of the verse.

[18:9]  tn For a smooth English translation “either of” was added.

[18:23]  ³² tn See the note on v. 20 above.

[18:23]  ³³ tn Heb “to copulate with it” (cf. Lev 20:16).

[18:23]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” and therefore refers to illegitimate mixtures of species or violation of the natural order of things.

[18:29]  ³⁵ sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

[18:30]  ³⁶ tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”

[18:30]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[19:15]  ³⁸ tc Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.

[19:15]  ³⁹ tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”

[19:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”

[19:15]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”

[19:29]  ⁴² tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).

[19:29]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.

[19:31]  ⁴⁴ sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.

[19:34]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[20:22]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).

[20:22]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

[21:14]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “take.” In context this means “take as wife,” i.e., “marry.”

[21:14]  ⁴⁹ tc The MT has literally, “from his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[22:23]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “And an ox.”

[22:23]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “and stunted” (see HALOT 1102 s.v. I קלט).

[22:23]  ⁵² sn The freewill offering was voluntary, so the regulations regarding it were more relaxed. Once a vow was made, the paying of it was not voluntary (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 151-52, for very helpful remarks on this verse).

[23:12]  ⁵³ tn Heb “And you shall make in the day of your waving the sheaf.”

[23:12]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “a flawless lamb, a son of its year”; KJV “of the first year”; NLT “a year-old male lamb.”

[24:15]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “And.”

[24:15]  ⁵⁶ sn See the note on v. 11 above and esp. Exod 22:28 [27 HT].

[25:9]  ⁵⁷ sn On the “loud horn blasts” see the note on Lev 23:24, but unlike the language there, the Hebrew term for “horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar) actually appears here in this verse (twice).

[25:11]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”

[25:11]  sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.

[25:31]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “And the houses of the villages.”

[25:31]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”

[25:31]  ⁶¹ tn Heb “on the field.”

[25:45]  ⁶² tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.

[25:45]  ⁶³ tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).

[26:13]  ⁶⁴ tn Heb “from being to them slaves.”

[26:13]  ⁶⁵ tn In other words, to walk as free people and not as slaves. Cf. NIV “with (+ your CEV, NLT) heads held high”; NCV “proudly.”