Discovery BoxLeviticus 12:6-7 
Context12:6 “‘When 1 the days of her purification are completed for a son or for a daughter, she must bring a one year old lamb 2 for a burnt offering 3 and a young pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering 4 to the entrance of the Meeting Tent, to the priest. 12:7 The priest 5 is to present it before the Lord and make atonement 6 on her behalf, and she will be clean 7 from her flow of blood. 8 This is the law of the one who bears a child, for the male or the female child.
Leviticus 15:25
Context15:25 “‘When a woman’s discharge of blood flows 9 many days not at the time of her menstruation, or if it flows beyond the time of her menstruation, 10 all the days of her discharge of impurity will be like the days of her menstruation – she is unclean.
Leviticus 20:17-18
Context20:17 “‘If a man has sexual intercourse with 11 his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. 12 He has exposed his sister’s nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity. 13 20:18 If a man has sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain of blood and she has exposed the fountain of her blood, so both of them 14 must be cut off from the midst of their people.
1 tn Heb “And when” (so KJV, NASB). Many recent English versions leave the conjunction untranslated.
2 tn Heb “a lamb the son of his year”; KJV “a lamb of the first year” (NRSV “in its first year”); NAB “a yearling lamb.”
3 sn See the note on Lev 1:3 regarding the “burnt offering.”
4 sn See the note on Lev 4:3 regarding the term “sin offering.”
5 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.
6 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
7 tn Or “she will be[come] pure.”
8 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.”
9 tn Heb “And a woman when the flow of her blood flows.”
10 tn Heb “in not the time of her menstruation or when it flows on her menstruation.”
11 tn Heb “takes.” The verb “to take” in this context means “to engage in sexual intercourse,” though some English versions translate it as “marry” (e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV).
12 tn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20.
13 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
14 tn Heb “and the two of them.”
