Discovery BoxLeviticus 18:24 
Context18:24 “‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you 1 have been defiled with all these things.
Leviticus 21:7
Context21:7 They must not take a wife defiled by prostitution, 2 nor are they to take a wife divorced from her husband, 3 for the priest 4 is holy to his God. 5
1 tn Heb “which I am sending away (Piel participle of שָׁלַח [shalakh, “to send”]) from your faces.” The rendering here takes the participle as anticipatory of the coming conquest events.
2 tn Heb “A wife harlot and profaned they shall not take.” The structure of the verse (e.g., “wife” at the beginning of the two main clauses) suggests that “harlot and profaned” constitutes a hendiadys, meaning “a wife defiled by harlotry” (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 143, as opposed to that in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 343, 348; cf. v. 14 below). Cf. NASB “a woman who is profaned by harlotry.”
3 sn For a helpful discussion of divorce in general and as it relates to this passage see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 143-44.
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the priest) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn The pronoun “he” in this clause refers to the priest, not the former husband of the divorced woman.
