5:1 “‘When a person sins 6 in that he hears a public curse against one who fails to testify 7 and he is a witness (he either saw or knew what had happened 8 ) and he does not make it known, 9 then he will bear his punishment for iniquity. 10
14:21 “If the person is poor and does not have sufficient means, 36 he must take one male lamb as a guilt offering for a wave offering to make atonement for himself, one-tenth of an ephah of choice wheat flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, a log of olive oil, 37
16:18 “Then 41 he is to go out to the altar which is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He is to take 42 some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it all around on the horns of the altar.
26:1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols, 48 so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before 49 it, for I am the Lord your God.
1 sn Cf. Lev 4:11-12 above for the disposition of “the [rest of] the bull.”
2 sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).
3 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to them” or “it shall be forgiven to them.”
4 sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).
5 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).
6 tn Heb “And a person when he sins.” Most English versions translate this as the protasis of a conditional clause: “if a person sins” (NASB, NIV).
sn The same expression occurs in Lev 4:2 where it introduces sins done “by straying unintentionally from any of the commandments of the
7 tn The words “against one who fails to testify” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied to make sense of the remark about the “curse” (“imprecation” or “oath”; cf. ASV “adjuration”; NIV “public charge”) for the modern reader. For the interpretation of this verse reflected in the present translation see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:292-97.
8 tn The words “what had happened” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
9 tn Heb “and hears a voice of curse, and he is a witness or he saw or he knew, if he does not declare.”
10 tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment (for the iniquity)” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity (cf. NRSV, NLT “subject to punishment”). It is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).
11 tn In this context the word for “guilt” (אָשָׁם, ’asham) refers to the “penalty” for incurring guilt, the so-called consequential אָשָׁם (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:303; cf. the note on Lev 5:1).
12 sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).
13 tn See the note on 4:26 regarding the use of מִן (min).
14 sn The focus of sin offering “atonement” was purging impurities from the tabernacle (see the note on Lev 1:4).
15 tn Heb “from one from these,” referring to the four kinds of violations of the law delineated in Lev 5:1-4 (see the note on Lev 5:5 above and cf. Lev 4:27).
16 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).
17 tn Heb “and it”; the referent (the remaining portion of the offering) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “and it shall be to the priest like the grain offering,” referring to the rest of the grain that was not offered on the altar (cf. the regulations in Lev 2:3, 10).
19 tn Heb “and which he sinned from the holy thing.”
20 sn Regarding “make atonement” see the note on Lev 1:4.
21 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV similar).
22 tn The statement here is condensed. See the full expression in 5:15 and the note there.
23 sn Regarding “make atonement” see the note on Lev 1:4.
24 tn Heb “on his straying which he strayed.” See the note on Lev 4:2.
25 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him” (KJV and NASB both similar).
26 sn Contrary to some English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT), Aaron (not Moses) most likely slaughtered the bull, possibly with the help of his sons, although the verb is singular, not plural. Moses then performed the ritual procedures that involved direct contact with the altar. Compare the pattern in Lev 1:5-9, where the offerer does the slaughtering and the priests perform the procedures that involve direct contact with the altar. In Lev 8 Moses is functioning as the priest in order to consecrate the priesthood. The explicit reintroduction of the name of Moses as the subject of the next verb seems to reinforce this understanding of the passage (cf. also vv. 19 and 23 below).
27 tn The verb is the Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) and means “to de-sin” the altar. This verse is important for confirming the main purpose of the sin offering, which was to decontaminate the tabernacle and its furniture from any impurities. See the note on Lev 4:3.
28 tn Similar to v. 10 above, “and consecrated it” refers to the effect of the blood manipulation earlier in the verse. The goal here was to consecrate the altar in order that it might become a place on which it would be appropriate “to make atonement” before the
29 tn Heb “and he” (i.e., the priest mentioned at the end of v. 6). The referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.
30 sn See the note on Lev 1:4 “make atonement.” The purpose of sin offering “atonement,” in particular, was to purge impurities from the tabernacle (see Lev 15:31 and 16:5-19, 29-34), whether they were caused by physical uncleannesses or by sins and iniquities. In this case, the woman has not “sinned” morally by having a child. Even Mary brought such offerings for giving birth to Jesus (Luke 2:22-24), though she certainly did not “sin” in giving birth to him. Note that the result of bringing this “sin offering” was “she will be clean,” not “she will be forgiven” (cf. Lev 4:20, 26, 31, 35; 5:10, 13). The impurity of the blood flow has caused the need for this “sin offering,” not some moral or relational infringement of the law (contrast Lev 4:2, “When a person sins by straying unintentionally from any of the commandments of the
31 tn Or “she will be[come] pure.”
32 tn Heb “from her source [i.e., spring] of blood,” possibly referring to the female genital area, not just the “flow of blood” itself (as suggested by J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:761). Cf. ASV “from the fountain of her blood.”
33 tn Heb “If her hand cannot find the sufficiency of a sheep.” Many English versions render this as “lamb.”
34 tn Heb “from the sons of the pigeon,” referring either to “young pigeons” or “various species of pigeon” (contrast J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:168, with J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 14; cf. Lev 1:14 and esp. 5:7-10).
35 tn Or “she will be[come] pure.”
36 tn Heb “and his hand does not reach”; NAB, NRSV “and cannot afford so much (afford these NIV).”
37 tn See the notes on v. 10 above.
38 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative or even inferential force here.
39 tn Heb “to all their sins.”
40 tn Heb “And all man shall not be in the tent of meeting.” The term for “a man, human being” (אָדָם, ’adam; see the note on Lev 1:2) refers to any person among “mankind,” male or female.
41 tn Heb “And.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) indicates the sequence of events here.
42 tn Heb “And he shall take.”
43 tn Heb “he shall bring into from outside to the camp.”
44 tn Heb “they shall burn with fire”; KJV “burn in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”
45 tn Heb “And you shall distinguish.” The verb is the same as “set apart” at the end of the previous verse. The fact that God had “set them apart” from the other peoples roundabout them called for them to “distinguish between” the clean and the unclean, etc.
46 tn The word “creatures” has been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the following relative clause modifies the animal, bird, or creeping thing mentioned earlier, and not the ground itself.
47 tc The MT has “to defile,” but Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “to uncleanness.”
48 sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. 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.”
49 tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).