Leviticus 18:29

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. 1 

Leviticus 22:5

22:5 or a man who touches a swarming thing by which he becomes unclean, 2  or touches a person 3  by which he becomes unclean, whatever that person’s impurity 4  –

Leviticus 27:2

27:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When a man makes a special votive offering 5  based on the conversion value of persons to the Lord, 6 

1 sn Regarding the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.

2 tn Heb “which there shall be uncleanness to him.”

3 tn The Hebrew term for “person” here is אָדָם (adam, “human being”), which could either a male or a female person.

4 tn Heb “to all his impurity.” The phrase refers to the impurity of the person whom the man touches to become unclean (see the previous clause). To clarify this, the translation uses “that person’s” rather than “his.”

5 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.

6 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).