Discovery BoxLeviticus 11:44 
Context11:44 for I am the Lord your God and you are to sanctify yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any of the swarming things that creep on the ground,
Leviticus 18:30
Context18:30 You must obey my charge to not practice any of the abominable statutes 1 that have been done before you, so that you do not 2 defile yourselves by them. I am the Lord your God.’”
Leviticus 21:1
Context21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person 3 no priest 4 is to defile himself among his people, 5
1 tn Heb “to not do from the statutes of the detestable acts.”
2 tn Heb “and you will not.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
3 tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).
4 tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).
5 tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.
