Leviticus 22:23-25

22:23 As for an ox ¹  or a sheep with a limb too long or stunted, ²  you may present it as a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable for a votive offering. ³  22:24 You must not present to the Lord something with testicles that are bruised, crushed, torn, or cut off; ⁴  you must not do this in your land. 22:25 Even from a foreigner ⁵  you must not present the food of your God from such animals as these, for they are ruined and flawed; ⁶  they will not be acceptable for your benefit.’”

---

¹ tn Heb “And an ox.”

² tn Heb “and stunted” (see HALOT 1102 s.v. I קלט).

³ sn The freewill offering was voluntary, so the regulations regarding it were more relaxed. Once a vow was made, the paying of it was not voluntary (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 151-52, for very helpful remarks on this verse).

⁴ sn Compare Lev 21:20b.

⁵ tn Heb “And from the hand of a son of a foreigner.”

⁶ tn Heb “for their being ruined [is] in them, flaw is in them”; NRSV “are mutilated, with a blemish in them”; NIV “are deformed and have defects.” The MT term מָשְׁחָתָם (moshkhatam, “their being ruined”) is a Muqtal form (= Hophal participle) from שָׁחַת (shakhat, “to ruin”). Smr has plural בהם משׁחתים (“deformities in them”; cf. the LXX translation). The Qumran Leviticus scroll (11QpaleoLev) has תימ הם[…], in which case the restored participle would appear to be the same as Smr, but there is no בְּ (bet) preposition before the pronoun, yielding “they are deformed” (see D. N. Freedman and K. A. Mathews, The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll, 41 and the remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 358).