19:15 “‘You 22 must not deal unjustly in judgment: 23 you must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. 24 You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. 25
25:25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. 43
25:35 “‘If your brother 44 becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, 45 you must support 46 him; he must live 47 with you like a foreign resident. 48
25:39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. 49
25:44 “‘As for your male and female slaves 50 who may belong to you – you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. 51
26:18 “‘If, in spite of all these things, 58 you do not obey me, I will discipline you seven times more on account of your sins. 59
1 tn Heb “a grain offering of a pan”; cf. KJV “fryingpan”; NAB “pot”; CEV “pan with a lid on it.”
2 sn Lev 7:9 makes it clear that one cooked “on” a griddle but “in” a pan. This suggests that the oil in the pan served for deep fat frying, hence the translation “deep fried in olive oil” (see, e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:185); cf. also NAB.
3 tn The words “This is” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied due to requirements of English style.
4 tn Heb “for your generations”; NAB “for your descendants”; NLT “for you and all your descendants.”
5 tn Heb “all fat and all blood you must not eat.”
6 tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”
7 tn The phrase “from all your sins” could go with the previous clause as the verse is rendered here (see, e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 109, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1011), or it could go with the following clause (i.e., “you shall be clean from all your sins before the
8 tn Heb “My regulations you shall do”; KJV, NASB “my judgments”; NRSV “My ordinances”; NIV, TEV “my laws.”
sn The Hebrew term translated “regulation” (מִשְׁפָּט, mishpat) refers to the set of regulations about to be set forth in the following chapters (cf. Lev 19:37; 20:22; 25:18; 26:46). Note especially the thematic and formulaic relationships between the introduction here in Lev 18:1-5 and the paraenesis in Lev 20:22-26, both of which refer explicitly to the corrupt nations and the need to separate from them by keeping the
9 tn Heb “and my statutes you shall keep [or “watch; guard”] to walk in them.”
10 tn Heb “And you shall keep, you.” The latter emphatic personal pronoun “you” is left out of a few medieval Hebrew
11 tn Heb “the native and the sojourner”; NIV “The native-born and the aliens”; NAB “whether natives or resident aliens.”
12 tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum
13 sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ’elilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”
14 tn Heb “from the following day” (HALOT 572 s.v. מָחֳרָת 2.b).
15 tn Heb “shall be burned with fire”; KJV “shall be burnt in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”
16 tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”
17 tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”
18 tn Heb “You shall not oppress your neighbor and you shall not rob.”
19 tn Heb “hold back with you”; perhaps “hold back for yourself” (cf. NRSV “keep for yourself”).
20 tn Heb “You shall not curse a deaf [person] and before a blind [person] you shall not put a stumbling block.”
21 tn Heb “And you shall fear.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV) regard the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) as adversative in force here (“but”).
22 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.
23 tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”
24 tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”
25 tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”
26 tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).
27 tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
28 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.
29 tn The three previous second person references in this verse are all singular, but this reference is plural. By adding “all” this grammatical distinction is preserved in the translation.
30 tn Heb “to their generations.”
31 tn Heb “who in him is a flaw”; cf. KJV, ASV “any blemish”; NASB, NIV “a defect.” The rendering “physical flaw” is used to refer to any birth defect or physical injury of the kind described in the following verses (cf. the same Hebrew word also in Lev 24:19-20). The same term is used for “flawed” animals, which must not be offered to the
32 tn Heb “for your acceptance.” See Lev 1:3-4 above and the notes there.
33 sn Compare Lev 21:20b.
34 tn Heb “for your acceptance” (see the notes on Lev 1:3-4 and 22:19 above).
35 tn Heb “for your acceptance.”
36 sn See Lev 7:30 for a note on the “waving” of a “wave offering.”
37 tn Heb “in the bone of this day.”
38 tn Heb “on you [plural]”; cf. NASB, NRSV “on your behalf.”
39 tn Heb “for your generations.”
40 tn Heb “from to separation.” See BDB 94 s.v. בַּד 1.e for an explanation of this phrase. This phrase is repeated in front of each of the four items in this verse in the Hebrew text, but these have not been translated into English for stylistic reasons. Cf. KJV, NASB “besides”; NRSV “apart from.”
41 tn Heb “a regulation of one”; KJV, ASV “one manner of law”; NASB “one standard.”
42 tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”
sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.
43 tn Heb “the sale of his brother.”
44 tn It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).
45 tn Heb “and his hand slips with you.”
46 tn Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”
47 tn The form וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal, and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 18:5).
48 tn Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).
49 tn Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.
50 tn Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.
51 tn Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”
52 tn Heb “be with him”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
53 tn Heb “As a hired worker year in year.”
54 tn Heb “He”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
55 tn Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”
56 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
57 tn Heb “the tree of the field will give its fruit.” As a collective singular this has been translated as plural.
58 tn Heb “And if until these.”
59 tn Heb “I will add to discipline you seven [times] on your sins.”
60 tn Heb “in rage of hostility with you”; NASB “with wrathful hostility”; NRSV “I will continue hostile to you in fury”; CEV “I’ll get really furious.”
61 tn Heb “it shall rest which it did not rest.”