Leviticus 1:12

1:12 Next, the one presenting the offering must cut it into parts, with its head and its suet, and the priest must arrange them on the wood which is in the fire, on the altar.

Leviticus 2:11

Additional Grain Offering Regulations

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

Leviticus 4:2

4:2 “Tell the Israelites, ‘When a person sins by straying unintentionally from any of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated, and violates any one of them

Leviticus 4:13

For the Whole Congregation

4:13 “‘If the whole congregation of Israel strays unintentionally and the matter is not noticed by the assembly, and they violate one of the Lord’s commandments, which must not be violated, so they become guilty,

Leviticus 5:3

5:3 or when he touches human uncleanness with regard to anything by which he can become unclean, 10  even if he did not realize it, but he himself has later come to know it and is guilty;

Leviticus 5:10

5:10 The second bird 11  he must make a burnt offering according to the standard regulation. 12  So the priest will make atonement 13  on behalf of this person for 14  his sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven. 15 

Leviticus 6:5

6:5 or anything about which he swears falsely. 16  He must restore it in full 17  and add one fifth to it; he must give it to its owner when he is found guilty. 18 

Leviticus 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. 19 

Leviticus 7:19

7:19 The meat which touches anything ceremonially 20  unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up in the fire. As for ceremonially clean meat, 21  everyone who is ceremonially clean may eat the meat.

Leviticus 9:15

The Offerings for the People

9:15 Then he presented the people’s offering. He took the sin offering male goat which was for the people, slaughtered it, and performed a decontamination rite with it 22  like the first one. 23 

Leviticus 9:18

9:18 Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram – the peace offering sacrifices which were for the people – and Aaron’s sons handed 24  the blood to him and he splashed it against the altar’s sides.

Leviticus 10:1

Nadab and Abihu

10:1 Then 25  Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan and put fire in it, set incense on it, and presented strange fire 26  before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do.

Leviticus 10:9

10:9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons with you, when you enter into the Meeting Tent, so that you do not die, which is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, 27 

Leviticus 10:12

Perpetual Statutes Moses spoke to Aaron

10:12 Then Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his remaining sons, “Take the grain offering which remains from the gifts of the Lord and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy.

Leviticus 13:52

13:52 He must burn the garment or the warp or the woof, whether wool or linen, or any article of leather which has the infection in it. Because it is a malignant disease it must be burned up in the fire.

Leviticus 13:58

13:58 But the garment or the warp or the woof or any article of leather which you wash and infection disappears from it 28  is to be washed a second time and it will be clean.”

Leviticus 14:34

14:34 “When you enter the land of Canaan which I am about to give 29  to you for a possession, and I put 30  a diseased infection in a house in the land you are to possess, 31 

Leviticus 14:41

14:41 Then he is to have the house scraped 32  all around on the inside, 33  and the plaster 34  which is scraped off 35  must be dumped outside the city 36  into an unclean place.

Leviticus 15:31

Summary of Purification Regulations for Bodily Discharges

15:31 “‘Thus you 37  are to set the Israelites apart from their impurity so that they 38  do not die in their impurity by defiling my tabernacle which is in their midst.

Leviticus 16:10

16:10 but the goat which has been designated by lot for Azazel is to be stood alive 39  before the Lord to make atonement on it by sending it away to Azazel into the wilderness. 40 

Leviticus 16:13

16:13 He must then put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the cloud of incense will cover the atonement plate which is above the ark of the testimony, 41  so that he will not die. 42 

Leviticus 20:22-23

Exhortation to Holiness and Obedience

20:22 “‘You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations, 43  so that 44  the land to which I am about to bring you to take up residence there does not vomit you out. 20:23 You must not walk in the statutes of the nation 45  which I am about to drive out before you, because they have done all these things and I am filled with disgust against them.

Leviticus 22:2

22:2 “Tell Aaron and his sons that they must deal respectfully with the holy offerings 46  of the Israelites, which they consecrate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name. 47  I am the Lord.

Leviticus 25:31

25:31 The houses of villages, however, 48  which have no wall surrounding them 49  must be considered as the field 50  of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee.

Leviticus 26:39

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of 51  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ 52  iniquities which are with them.

Leviticus 27:28

Things Permanently Dedicated to the Lord

27:28 “‘Surely anything which a man permanently dedicates to the Lord 53  from all that belongs to him, whether from people, animals, or his landed property, must be neither sold nor redeemed; anything permanently dedicated is most holy to the Lord.


tn Heb “Then he”; the referent (the offerer) has been specified in the translation for clarity (so also in v. 13).

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.

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.”

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

tn Heb “And a person, when he sins in straying.” The English translation of “by straying” (בִּשְׁגָגָה [bishgagah] literally, “in going astray; in making an error”) varies greatly, but almost all suggest that this term refers to sins that were committed by mistake or done not knowing that the particular act was sinful (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:228-29). See, e.g., LXX “involuntarily”; Tg. Onq. “by neglect”; KJV “through ignorance”; ASV, RSV, NJPS “unwittingly”; NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “unintentionally”; NAB, NEB “inadvertently”; NCV “by accident.” However, we know from Num 15:27-31 that committing a sin “by straying” is the opposite of committing a sin “defiantly” (i.e., בְּיַד רָמָה [bÿyad ramah] “with a raised hand,” v. 30). In the latter case the person, as it were, raises his fist in presumptuous defiance against the Lord. Thus, he “blasphemes” the Lord and has “despised” his word, for which he should be “cut off from among his people” (Num 15:30-31). One could not bring an offering for such a sin. The expression here in Lev 4:2 combines “by straying” with the preposition “from” which fits naturally with “straying” (i.e., “straying from” the Lord’s commandments). For sins committed “by straying” from the commandments (Lev 4 throughout) or other types of transgressions (Lev 5:1-6) there was indeed forgiveness available through the sin offering. See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:94-95.

tn This is an emphatic use of the preposition מִן (min; see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 56-57, §325).

tn The “when” clause (כִּי, ki) breaks off here before its resolution, thus creating an open-ended introduction to the following subsections, which are introduced by “if” (אִם [’im] vv. 3, 13, 27, 32). Also, the last part of the verse reads literally, “which must not be done and does from one from them.”

tn Heb “strays”; KJV “sin through ignorance.” The verb “strays” here is the verbal form of the noun in the expression “by straying” (see the note on Lev 4:2 above).

tn Heb “is concealed from the eyes of”; NASB, NRSV, NLT “escapes the notice of.”

tn Heb “and they do one from all the commandments of the Lord which must not be done” (cf. v. 2).

10 tn Heb “or if he touches uncleanness of mankind to any of his uncleanness which he becomes unclean in it.”

11 tn The word “bird” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

12 sn The term “[standard] regulation” (מִשְׁפָּט, mishppat) here refers to the set of regulations for burnt offering birds in Lev 1:14-17.

13 sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).

14 tn See the note on 4:26 with regard to מִן, min.

15 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).

16 tn Heb “or from all which he swears on it to falsehood.”

17 tn Heb “in its head.” This refers “the full amount” in terms of the “principal,” the original item or amount obtained illegally (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:338; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 84).

18 tn Heb “to whom it is to him he shall give it in the day of his being guilty.” The present translation is based on the view that he has been found guilty through the legal process (see the note on v. 4 above; cf., e.g., TEV and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 33-34). Others translate the latter part as “in the day he offers his guilt [reparation] offering” (e.g., NIV and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 73, 84), or “in the day he realizes his guilt” (e.g., NRSV and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:319, 338).

19 tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”

20 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.

21 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.

22 tn The expression “and performed a decontamination rite [with] it” reads literally in the MT, “and decontaminated [with] it.” The verb is the Piel of חטא (kht’, Qal = “to sin”), which means “to decontaminate, purify” (i.e., “to de-sin”; see the note on Lev 8:15).

23 sn The phrase “like the first one” at the end of the verse refers back to the sin offering for the priests described in vv. 8-11 above. The blood of the sin offering of the common people was applied to the burnt offering altar just like that of the priests.

24 tn See the note on Lev 9:12.

25 tn Although it has been used elsewhere in this translation as an English variation from the ubiquitous use of vav in Hebrew, in this instance “then” as a rendering for vav is intended to show that the Nadab and Abihu catastrophe took place on the inauguration day described in Lev 9. The tragic incident in Lev 10 happened in close temporal connection to the Lord’s fire that consumed the offerings at the end of Lev 9. Thus, for example, the “sin offering” male goat referred to in Lev 10:16-19 is the very one referred to in Lev 9:15.

26 tn The expression “strange fire” (אֵשׁ זָרָה, ’esh zarah) seems imprecise (cf. NAB “profane fire”; NIV “unauthorized fire”; NRSV “unholy fire”; NLT “a different kind of fire”) and has been interpreted numerous ways (see the helpful summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 132-33). The infraction may have involved any of the following or a combination thereof: (1) using coals from someplace other than the burnt offering altar (i.e., “unauthorized coals” according to J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:598; cf. Lev 16:12 and cf. “unauthorized person” אִישׁ זָר (’ish zar) in Num 16:40 [17:5 HT], NASB “layman”), (2) using the wrong kind of incense (cf. the Exod 30:9 regulation against “strange incense” קְטֹרֶת זָרָה (qÿtoreh zarah) on the incense altar and the possible connection to Exod 30:34-38), (3) performing an incense offering at an unprescribed time (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 59), or (4) entering the Holy of Holies at an inappropriate time (Lev 16:1-2).

27 tn Heb “a perpetual statute for your generations”; NAB “a perpetual ordinance”; NRSV “a statute forever”; NLT “a permanent law.” The Hebrew grammar here suggests that the last portion of v. 9 functions as both a conclusion to v. 9 and an introduction to vv. 10-11. It is a pivot clause, as it were. Thus, it was a “perpetual statute” to not drink alcoholic beverages when ministering in the tabernacle, but it was also a “perpetual statue” to distinguish between holy and profane and unclean and clean (v. 10) as well as to teach the children of Israel all such statutes (v. 11).

28 tn Heb “and the infection turns aside from them.”

29 tn Heb “which I am giving” (so NAB, NIV).

30 tn Heb “give.”

31 tn Heb “in the house of the land of your possession” (KJV and ASV both similar).

32 tn Or, according to the plurality of the verb in Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Targums, “Then the house shall be scraped” (cf. NAB, NLT, and the note on v. 40).

33 tn Heb “from house all around.”

34 tn Heb “dust” (so KJV) or “rubble”; NIV “the material”; NLT “the scrapings.”

35 tn Heb “which they have scraped off.” The MT term קִיר (qir, “wall” from קָצָה, qatsah, “to cut off”; BDB 892), the original Greek does not have this clause, Smr has הקיצו (with uncertain meaning), and the BHS editors and HALOT 1123-24 s.v. I קצע hif.a suggest emending the verb to הִקְצִעוּ (hiqtsiu, see the same verb at the beginning of this verse; cf. some Greek mss, Syriac, and the Targums). The emendation seems reasonable and is accepted by many commentators, but the root קָצָה (qatsah, “to cut off”) does occur in the Bible (2 Kgs 10:32; Hab 2:10) and in postbiblical Hebrew (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 179, notes 41c and 43d; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:873; cf. also קָצַץ, qatsats, “to cut off”).

36 tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

37 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).

38 tn Heb “and they.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) indicates a negative purpose (“lest,” so NAB, NASB).

39 tn The LXX has “he shall stand it” (cf. v. 7).

40 tn Heb “to make atonement on it to send it away to Azazel toward the wilderness.”

41 tn The text here has only “above the testimony,” but this is surely a shortened form of “above the ark of the testimony” (see Exod 25:22 etc.; cf. Lev 16:2). The term “testimony” in this expression refers to the ark as the container of the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them (see Exod 25:16 with Deut 10:1, 5, etc.).

42 tn Heb “and he will not die,” but it is clear that the purpose for the incense cloud was to protect the priest from death in the presence of the Lord (cf. vv. 1-2 above).

43 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.).

44 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

45 tc One medieval Hebrew ms, Smr, and all the major ancient versions have the plural “nations.” Some English versions retain the singular (e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); others have the plural “nations” (e.g., NAB, NIV) and still others translate as “people” (e.g., TEV, NLT).

46 tn Heb “holy things,” which means the “holy offerings” in this context, as the following verses show. The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

47 tn Heb “from the holy things of the sons of Israel, and they shall not profane my holy name, which they are consecrating to me.” The latter (relative) clause applies to the “the holy things of the sons of Israel” (the first clause), not the Lord’s name (i.e., the immediately preceding clause). The clause order in the translation has been rearranged to indicate this.

48 tn Heb “And the houses of the villages.”

49 tn Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”

50 tn Heb “on the field.”

51 tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

52 tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

53 tn Heb “Surely, any permanently dedicated [thing] which a man shall permanently dedicate to the Lord.” The Hebrew term חֵרֶם (kherem) refers to things that are devoted permanently to the Lord (see the note on v. 21 above).