Leviticus 5:2

5:2 Or when there is ¹  a person who touches anything ceremonially ²  unclean, whether the carcass of an unclean wild animal, or the carcass of an unclean domesticated animal, or the carcass of an unclean creeping thing, even if he did not realize it, ³  but he himself has become unclean and is guilty; ⁴ 

Leviticus 5:4

5:4 or when a person swears an oath, speaking thoughtlessly ⁵  with his lips, whether to do evil or to do good, with regard to anything which the individual might speak thoughtlessly in an oath, even if he did not realize it, but he himself has later come to know it and is guilty with regard to one of these oaths ⁶  –

Leviticus 7:21

7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ⁷  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ⁸ 

Leviticus 11:32

11:32 Also, anything they fall on ⁹  when they die will become unclean – any wood vessel or garment or article of leather or sackcloth. Any such vessel with which work is done must be immersed in water ¹⁰  and will be unclean until the evening. Then it will become clean.

Leviticus 20:25

20:25 Therefore you must distinguish ¹¹  between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean, and you must not make yourselves detestable by means of an animal or bird or anything that creeps on the ground – creatures ¹²  I have distinguished for you as unclean. ¹³ 

Leviticus 22:4

22:4 No man ¹⁴  from the descendants of Aaron who is diseased or has a discharge ¹⁵  may eat the holy offerings until he becomes clean. The one ¹⁶  who touches anything made unclean by contact with a dead person, ¹⁷  or a man who has a seminal emission, ¹⁸ 

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¹ tc The insertion of the words “when there is” is a reflection of the few Hebrew mss, Smr, and LXX that have כִּי (ki, “when, if”; cf. vv. 3 and esp. 4) rather than the MT’s אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who”). Many English versions render this as a conditional clause (“if”).

² tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

³ tn Heb “and it is hidden from him,” meaning that the person who contracted the ceremonial uncleanness was not aware at the time what had happened, but later found out that he had become ceremonially unclean. This same phrase occurs again in both vv. 3 and 4.

⁴ sn Lev 5:2-3 are parallel laws of uncleanness (contracted from animals and people, respectively), and both seem to assume that the contraction of uncleanness was originally unknown to the person (vv. 2 and 3) but became known to him or her at a later time (v. 3; i.e., “has come to know” in v. 3 is to be assumed for v. 2 as well). Uncleanness itself did not make a person “guilty” unless he or she failed to handle it according to the normal purification regulations (see, e.g., “wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening,” Lev 15:5 NIV; cf. Lev 11:39-40; 15:5-12, 16-24; Num 19, etc.). The problem here in Lev 5:2-3 is that, because the person had not been aware of his or her uncleanness, he or she had incurred guilt for not carrying out these regular procedures, and it would now be too late for that. Thus, the unclean person needs to bring a sin offering to atone for the contamination caused by his or her neglect of the purity regulations.

⁵ tn Heb “to speak thoughtlessly”; cf. NAB “rashly utters an oath.”

⁶ tn Heb “and is guilty to one from these,” probably referring here to any of “these” things about which one might swear a thoughtless oath (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 45), with the word “oath” supplied in the translation for clarity. Another possibility is that “to one from these” is a dittography from v. 5 (cf. the note on v. 5a), and that v. 4 ends with “and is guilty” like vv. 2 and 3 (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:300).

⁷ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

⁸ sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.

⁹ tn Heb “And all which it shall fall on it from them.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “in water it shall be brought.”

¹¹ 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.

¹² 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.

¹³ tc The MT has “to defile,” but Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “to uncleanness.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is a way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 17:3, etc.), but with a negative command it means “No man” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 147).

¹⁵ sn The diseases and discharges mentioned here are those described in Lev 13-15.

¹⁶ tn Heb “And the one.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “in all unclean of a person/soul”; for the Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) meaning “a [dead] person,” see the note on Lev 19:28.

¹⁸ tn Heb “or a man who goes out from him a lying of seed.”