Imamat 22:21

22:21 If a man presents a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord for a special votive offering ¹  or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable; ²  it must have no flaw. ³ 

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 3:6

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. ⁵ 

Imamat 22:25

22:25 Even from a foreigner ⁶  you must not present the food of your God from such animals as these, for they are ruined and flawed; ⁷  they will not be acceptable for your benefit.’”

[22:21]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “for acceptance”; NAB “if it is to find acceptance.”

[22:21]  ³ tn Heb “all/any flaw shall not be in it.”

[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.

[3:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “a male or female without defect he shall present it”; cf. NLT “must have no physical defects.”

[22:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “And from the hand of a son of a foreigner.”

[22:25]  ⁷ 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).