Imamat 22:18-25

22:18 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘When any man ¹  from the house of Israel or from the foreigners in Israel ²  presents his offering for any of the votive or freewill offerings which they present to the Lord as a burnt offering, 22:19 if it is to be acceptable for your benefit ³  it must be a flawless male from the cattle, sheep, or goats. 22:20 You must not present anything that has a flaw, ⁴  because it will not be acceptable for your benefit. ⁵  22:21 If a man presents a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord for a special votive offering ⁶  or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable; ⁷  it must have no flaw. ⁸ 

22:22 “‘You must not present to the Lord something blind, or with a broken bone, or mutilated, or with a running sore, ⁹  or with a festering eruption, or with a feverish rash. ¹⁰  You must not give any of these as a gift ¹¹  on the altar to the Lord. 22:23 As for an ox ¹²  or a sheep with a limb too long or stunted, ¹³  you may present it as a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable for a votive offering. ¹⁴  22:24 You must not present to the Lord something with testicles that are bruised, crushed, torn, or cut off; ¹⁵  you must not do this in your land. 22:25 Even from a foreigner ¹⁶  you must not present the food of your God from such animals as these, for they are ruined and flawed; ¹⁷  they will not be acceptable for your benefit.’”

Imamat 27:1-13

Redemption of Vowed People

27:1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 27:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering ¹⁸  based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, ¹⁹  27:3 the conversion value of the male ²⁰  from twenty years old up to sixty years old ²¹  is fifty shekels by the standard of the sanctuary shekel. ²²  27:4 If the person is a female, the conversion value is thirty shekels. 27:5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the conversion value of the male is twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 27:6 If the person is one month old up to five years old, the conversion value of the male is five shekels of silver, ²³  and for the female the conversion value is three shekels of silver. 27:7 If the person is from sixty years old and older, if he is a male the conversion value is fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels. 27:8 If he is too poor to pay the conversion value, he must stand the person before the priest and the priest will establish his conversion value; ²⁴  according to what the man who made the vow can afford, ²⁵  the priest will establish his conversion value.

Redemption of Vowed Animals

27:9 “‘If what is vowed is a kind of animal from which an offering may be presented ²⁶  to the Lord, anything which he gives to the Lord from this kind of animal ²⁷  will be holy. 27:10 He must not replace or exchange it, good for bad or bad for good, and if he does indeed exchange one animal for another animal, then both the original animal ²⁸  and its substitute will be holy. 27:11 If what is vowed is an unclean animal from which an offering must not be presented to the Lord, then he must stand the animal before the priest, 27:12 and the priest will establish its conversion value, ²⁹  whether good or bad. According to the assessed conversion value of the priest, thus it will be. 27:13 If, however, the person who made the vow redeems the animal, ³⁰  he must add one fifth to ³¹  its conversion value.

[22:18]  ¹ tn Heb “Man, man.” The reduplication is a way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 17:3, etc.; see the distributive repetition of the noun in GKC 395-96 §123.c).

[22:18]  ² tn Heb “and from the foreigner [singular] in Israel.” Some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate add “who resides” after “foreigner”: “the foreigner who resides in Israel” (cf., e.g., Lev 20:2 above).

[22:19]  ³ tn Heb “for your acceptance.” See Lev 1:3-4 above and the notes there.

[22:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “all which in it [is] a flaw.” Note that the same term is used for physical flaws of people in Lev 21:17-24. Cf. KJV, ASV, NRSV “blemish”; NASB, NIV, TEV “defect”; NLT “with physical defects.”

[22:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “not for acceptance shall it be for you”; NIV “it will not be accepted on your behalf” (NRSV and NLT both similar).

[22:21]  ⁶ tn The meaning of the expression לְפַלֵּא־נֶדֶר (lÿfalle’-neder) rendered here “for a special votive offering” is much debated. Some take it as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NAB, NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלַא (pala’, “to be wonderful, to be remarkable”); cf. J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPSTC), 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה [palah, “to set aside”]). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice arises as a special gift to God out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.

[22:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “for acceptance”; NAB “if it is to find acceptance.”

[22:21]  ⁸ tn Heb “all/any flaw shall not be in it.”

[22:22]  ⁹ tn Or perhaps “a wart” (cf. NIV; HALOT 383 s.v. יַבֶּלֶת, but see the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).

[22:22]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on Lev 21:20 above.

[22:22]  ¹¹ sn This term for offering “gift” is explained in the note on Lev 1:9.

[22:23]  ¹² tn Heb “And an ox.”

[22:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “and stunted” (see HALOT 1102 s.v. I קלט).

[22:23]  ¹⁴ 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).

[22:24]  ¹⁵ sn Compare Lev 21:20b.

[22:25]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And from the hand of a son of a foreigner.”

[22:25]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “for their being ruined [is] in them, flaw is in them”; NRSV “are mutilated, with a blemish in them”; NIV “are deformed and have defects.” The MT term מָשְׁחָתָם (moshkhatam, “their being ruined”) is a Muqtal form (= Hophal participle) from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin”). Smr has plural בהם משׁחתים (“deformities in them”; cf. the LXX translation). The Qumran Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev) has תימ הם[…], in which case the restored participle would appear to be the same as Smr, but there is no בְּ (bet) preposition before the pronoun, yielding “they are deformed” (see D. N. Freedman and K. A. Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, 41 and the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).

[27:2]  ¹⁸ tn Cf. the note on Lev 22:21. Some take this as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלָא (pala’, “to be wonderful; to be remarkable”), cf. Milgrom, Numbers [JPSTC], 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה, palah, “to set aside”). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice is a special gift to God that arose out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.

[27:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “in your valuation, persons to the Lord,” but “in your valuation” is a frozen form and, therefore, the person (“your”) does not figure into the translation (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 73). Instead of offering a person to the Lord one could redeem that person with the appropriate amount of money delineated in the following verses (see the note on Lev 5:15 above and the explanation in Hartley, 480-81).

[27:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “your conversion value shall be [for] the male.”

[27:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “from a son of twenty years and until a son of sixty years.”

[27:3]  ²² tn See the note on Lev 5:15.

[27:6]  ²³ tn Heb “five shekels silver.”

[27:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and the priest shall cause him to be valued.”

[27:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “on the mouth which the hand of the one who vowed reaches.”

[27:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “which they may present from it an offering.” The plural active verb is sometimes best rendered in the passive (GKC 460 §144.f, g). Some medieval Hebrew mss, Smr, a ms of the Targum, and the Vulgate all have the singular verb instead (cf. similarly v. 11).

[27:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “from it.” The masculine suffix “it” here is used for the feminine in the MT, but one medieval Hebrew ms, some mss of Smr, the LXX, and the Syriac have the feminine. The referent (this kind of animal) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “it and its substitute.” The referent (the original animal offered) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:12]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and the priest shall cause it to be valued.” See the note on v. 8 above.

[27:13]  ³⁰ tn Heb “And if redeeming [infinitive absolute] he redeems it [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p. The referent of “he” (the person who made the vow) and “it” (the animal) have both been specified in the translation for clarity.

[27:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “on,” meaning “on top of, in addition to” (likewise in v. 15).