Leviticus 19-20

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Leviticus 19:3 tn Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”
2. Leviticus 19:4 sn Regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִים, ʾelilim), see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 126; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 304; N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NBC), 89; and Judith M. Hadley, NIDOTTE 1:411. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (ʾel, “god; God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless; weak; powerless; nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”
3. Leviticus 19:5 tn Heb “for your acceptance”; cf. NIV, NLT “it will be accepted on your behalf.”
4. Leviticus 19:6 tn Heb “from the following day” (HALOT 572 s.v. מָחֳרָת 2.b).
5. Leviticus 19:6 tn Heb “shall be burned with fire”; KJV “shall be burnt in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”
6. Leviticus 19:7 tn Heb “And if being eaten [infinitive absolute] it is eaten [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.
7. Leviticus 19:7 tn Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422, on Lev 7:18.
8. Leviticus 19:8 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
9. Leviticus 19:8 sn Regarding “profaned,” see the note on Lev 10:10 above.
10. Leviticus 19:8 tn Heb “the holiness of the Lord.”
11. Leviticus 19:8 sn On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
12. Leviticus 19:9 tn Heb “And in your harvesting the harvest.”
13. Leviticus 19:9 tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field to harvest.”
14. Leviticus 19:10 tn Heb “And you shall not deal severely with your vineyard.”
15. Leviticus 19:10 sn On the Hebrew ger (גֵּר) “resident foreigner” see notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11. On the privilege of gleaning see also Lev 23:22; Deut 14:29; 24:19-21.
16. Leviticus 19:11 tn Heb “you shall not deal falsely a man with his fellow citizen.”
17. Leviticus 19:12 tn Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”
18. Leviticus 19:12 tn Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”
19. Leviticus 19:13 tn Heb “You shall not oppress your neighbor and you shall not rob.”
20. Leviticus 19:13 tn Heb “hold back with you”; perhaps “hold back for yourself” (cf. NRSV “keep for yourself”).
21. Leviticus 19:14 tn Heb “You shall not curse a deaf [person] and before a blind [person] you shall not put a stumbling block.”
22. Leviticus 19:14 tn Heb “And you shall fear.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV) regard the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) as adversative in force here (“but”).
23. Leviticus 19:15 tc Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.
24. Leviticus 19:15 tn Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”
25. Leviticus 19:15 tn Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”
26. Leviticus 19:15 tn Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”
27. Leviticus 19:16 tn The term רָכִיל (rakhil) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (rakhal, “to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל, the meaning of which is dubious (HALOT 1237 s.v. II *רכל). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”
28. Leviticus 19:16 tn Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).
29. Leviticus 19:17 tn Heb “and you will not lift up on him sin.” The meaning of the line is somewhat obscure. It means either (1) that one should rebuke one’s neighbor when he sins lest one also becomes guilty, which is the way it is rendered here (see NIV, NRSV, NEB, JB; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129-30, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 303, and the discussion on pp. 316-17), or (2) one may rebuke one’s neighbor without incurring sin just as long as he does not hate him in his heart (see the first part of the verse; cf. NASB, NAB).
30. Leviticus 19:18 tn Heb “and you shall not retain [anger?].” This line seems to refer to the retaining or maintaining of some vengeful feelings toward someone. Compare the combination of the same terms for taking vengeance and maintaining wrath against enemies in Nahum 1:2 (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305).
31. Leviticus 19:18 tn Heb “the sons of your people.”
32. Leviticus 19:18 sn Some scholars make a distinction between the verb אָהֵב (ʾahev, “to love”) with the direct object and the more unusual construction with the preposition ל (lamed) as it is here and in Lev 19:34 and 2 Chr 19:2 only. If there is a distinction, the construction here probably calls for direct and helpful action toward one’s neighbor (see the discussion in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305, and esp. 317-18). Such love stands in contrast to taking vengeance or bearing a grudge against someone and, in NT terms, amounts to fulfilling the so-called “golden rule” (Matt 7:12).
33. Leviticus 19:19 tn Heb “Your animals, you shall not cross-breed two different kinds.”
34. Leviticus 19:19 tn Heb “you shall not cause to go up on you.”
35. Leviticus 19:19 sn Cf. Deut 22:11 where the Hebrew term translated “two different kinds” (כִּלְאַיִם, kilʾayim) refers to a mixture of linen and wool woven together in a garment.
36. Leviticus 19:20 tn Heb “And a man when he lies with a woman, the lying of seed.” The verb שָׁכַב (shakav) “to lie down” acts as a euphemism, implying going to bed for sexual relations. In this case, the phrase “lying for (a man’s) seed” specifies that it refers to sexual intercourse.
37. Leviticus 19:20 sn That is, the woman had previously been assigned for marriage to another man but the marriage deal had not yet been consummated. In the meantime, the woman has lost her virginity and has, therefore, lost part of her value to the master in the sale to the man for whom she had been designated. Compensation was, therefore, required (see the explanation in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 130-31).
38. Leviticus 19:21 sn On the guilt offering see the note on Lev 5:15 above.
39. Leviticus 19:22 tn Heb “on his sin which he has sinned.”
40. Leviticus 19:22 tn Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him.”
41. Leviticus 19:22 tn Heb “from his sin.”
42. Leviticus 19:23 tn Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”
43. Leviticus 19:23 tn Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).
44. Leviticus 19:23 tn Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”
45. Leviticus 19:24 tn See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the Lord.
46. Leviticus 19:25 tn Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (ʾasaf, “to gather”) rather than יָסַף (yasaf, “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
47. Leviticus 19:26 tn Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.
48. Leviticus 19:26 tn Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.
49. Leviticus 19:27 tc Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.
50. Leviticus 19:28 tn Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.
51. Leviticus 19:28 tn Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”
52. Leviticus 19:29 tn Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).
53. Leviticus 19:29 tn Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
54. Leviticus 19:31 sn The prohibition here concerns those who would seek special knowledge through the spirits of the dead, whether the dead in general or dead relatives in particular (i.e., familiar spirits; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 321, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 134). Cf. Lev 20:6 below.
55. Leviticus 19:33 tn The noun “foreigner” (גֵּר; ger) is based on the same verbal root as “lives” (גּוּר; gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.” On the Hebrew ger (גֵּר) “resident foreigner” see notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11. On not oppressing the ger, see also Exod 22:21; Deut 24:14, 17; 27:19.
56. Leviticus 19:34 tn The noun “foreigner” (גֵּר; ger) is based on the same verbal root as “lives” (גּוּר; gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.”
57. Leviticus 19:34 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
58. Leviticus 19:34 sn The same term ger (גֵּר) is used for the resident foreigner living in Israel and of the Israelite who lived in Israel, despite the very different social conditions of each. A foreign resident has differing status in different countries. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, but the resident foreigner in Israel was under the same laws (civil and religious) as the Israelite and could worship the Lord as part of the covenant community. Several passages emphasize equal standing under Mosaic Law (Exod 12:49; Lev 24:22; Num 9:14; 15:15, 16, 26, 29; 19:10; 35:15; Deut 1:16) or similar obligations (Exod 20:10; 23:12; Lev 16:29; 17:10, 12, 13; 18:26; 24:16; Num 15:14). For more on the ger (גֵּר), see the notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11.
59. Leviticus 19:35 tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”
60. Leviticus 19:36 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
61. Leviticus 19:36 sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 gallon).
62. Leviticus 19:37 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).
63. Leviticus 20:2 tn The noun “foreigner” (גֵּר; ger) is based on the same verbal root as “lives” (גּוּר; gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.” On the Hebrew ger (גֵּר) “resident foreigner” see notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11.
64. Leviticus 20:2 tn Heb “his seed” (so KJV, ASV); likewise in vv. 3-4.
65. Leviticus 20:2 tn Regarding Molech and Molech worship see the note on Lev 18:21.
66. Leviticus 20:2 tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning (see instead סָקַל, saqal), but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (רָגָם, ragam; see HALOT 1187 s.v. רגם qal.a, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 136).
67. Leviticus 20:3 tn Heb “And I, I shall give my faces.”
68. Leviticus 20:3 sn On the “cut off” penalty see the notes on Lev 7:20 and 17:4.
69. Leviticus 20:3 tn Heb “for the sake of defiling my sanctuary and to profane my holy name.”
70. Leviticus 20:4 tn Heb “And if shutting [infinitive absolute] they shut [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113.p.
71. Leviticus 20:4 tn Heb “from that man” (so ASV); NASB “disregard that man.”
72. Leviticus 20:5 tn The adjective “spiritual” has been supplied in the translation to clarify that this is not a reference to literal prostitution, but figuratively compares idolatry to prostitution.
73. Leviticus 20:5 tn Heb “to commit harlotry after Molech.” The translation employs “worshiping” here for clarity (cf. NAB, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT). On the “cut off” penalty see the note on Lev 7:20.
74. Leviticus 20:6 sn For structure and coherence in Lev 20:6-27 see the note on v. 27 below.
75. Leviticus 20:6 tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirits” in Lev 19:31 above.
76. Leviticus 20:6 tn Heb “I will give my faces.”
77. Leviticus 20:8 tn Heb “And you shall keep my statutes and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).
78. Leviticus 20:9 sn Compare the regulations in Lev 18:6-23.
79. Leviticus 20:9 tn Heb “If a man a man who.”
80. Leviticus 20:9 tn Heb “makes light of his father and his mother.” Almost all English versions render this as some variation of “curses his father or mother.”
81. Leviticus 20:9 tn Heb “his blood [plural] is in him.” Cf. NAB “he has forfeited his life”; TEV “is responsible for his own death.”sn The rendering “blood guilt” refers to the fact that the shedding of blood brings guilt on those who shed it illegitimately (even the blood of animals shed illegitimately, Lev 17:4; cf. the background of Gen 4:10-11). If the community performs a legitimate execution, however, the blood guilt rests on the person who has been legitimately executed (see the remarks and literature cited in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328).
82. Leviticus 20:10 tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.
83. Leviticus 20:10 tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.
84. Leviticus 20:11 tn Heb “lies down with.” The verb שָׁכַב (shakav) “to lie down” acts as a euphemism, implying going to bed for sexual relations.
85. Leviticus 20:11 sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.
86. Leviticus 20:11 tn See the note on v. 9 above.
87. Leviticus 20:12 tn Heb “lies down with.” See note at v. 11.
88. Leviticus 20:12 tn The Hebrew term תֶּבֶל (tevel, “perversion”) derives from the verb “to mix; to confuse” (cf. KJV, ASV “they have wrought confusion”).
89. Leviticus 20:13 tn Heb “lies down with.” See note at v. 11.
90. Leviticus 20:13 tn Heb “[as the] lyings of a woman.” The specific reference here is to homosexual intercourse between males.
91. Leviticus 20:14 tn Heb “takes a woman and her mother.” The verb לָקַח (laqakh) is sometimes used idiomatically with אִשָּׁה (ʾishah) to mean “take a wife,” or “marry,” and may mean that here (cf. NIV, NASB). But the same expression in v. 21 probably does not imply marriage itself, but only the sexual act of marriage. This chapter uses different expressions for sexual relations, though the subtleties for exegesis are not clear. Since this Hebrew expression can imply marriage, the translation uses “marital relations” as the metaphor in vv. 14, 17, and 21.
92. Leviticus 20:14 tn Regarding “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.
93. Leviticus 20:14 tn Heb “in fire they shall burn him and them.” The active plural verb sometimes requires a passive translation (GKC 460 §144.f, g), esp. when no active plural subject has been expressed in the context. The present translation specifies “burned to death” because the traditional rendering “burnt with fire” (KJV, ASV; NASB “burned with fire”) could be understood to mean “branded” or otherwise burned, but not fatally.
94. Leviticus 20:15 tn See the note on Lev 18:20 above.
95. Leviticus 20:17 tn The Hebrew verb לָקַח (laqakh) “to take” sometimes means to take a woman in marriage (cf. Gen 34:16; Lev 20:14; and see HALOT 534 s.v. לקח) as understood by, e.g., NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV. It is possible that expression here simply means to have sexual relations, or that it does so in combination with the following two clauses. See note at v. 14.
96. Leviticus 20:17 tn Regarding the “cut off” penalty, see the note on Lev 7:20.
97. Leviticus 20:17 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
98. Leviticus 20:18 tn Heb “lies down with.” See note at v. 11.
99. Leviticus 20:18 tn Heb “and the two of them.”
100. Leviticus 20:19 tn Heb “his flesh.”
101. Leviticus 20:19 tn See the note on Lev 17:16 above.
102. Leviticus 20:20 tn Heb “lies down with.” See note at v. 11.
103. Leviticus 20:21 tn Heb “takes.” See notes at vv. 14 and 17. sn It must be assumed that the brother is still alive in this situation, since Deut 25:5 requires a man to marry his brother’s widow and have a child in his brother’s name. It is less clear whether the brother in this case has divorced his wife.
104. Leviticus 20:21 sn See the note on Lev 18:7 above.
105. Leviticus 20:22 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31, etc.).
106. Leviticus 20:22 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
107. Leviticus 20:23 tc One medieval Hebrew ms, Smr, and all the major ancient versions have the plural “nations.” Some English versions retain the singular (e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV); others have the plural “nations” (e.g., NAB, NIV) and still others translate as “people” (e.g., TEV, NLT).
108. Leviticus 20:24 tc Here and with the same phrase in v. 26, the LXX adds “all,” resulting in the reading “all the peoples.”
109. Leviticus 20:25 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 around them called for them to “distinguish between” the clean and the unclean, etc.
110. Leviticus 20:25 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.
111. Leviticus 20:25 tc The MT has “to defile,” but Smr, LXX, and Syriac have “to uncleanness.”
112. Leviticus 20:27 tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, and some Targum mss have the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher, “who, which”), rather than the MT’s כִּי (ki, “for, because, that”).
113. Leviticus 20:27 tn See the note on the phrase “familiar spirit” in Lev 19:31 above.
114. Leviticus 20:27 tc Smr and LXX have “you [plural] shall pelt them with stones.”tn This is not the most frequently-used Hebrew verb for stoning, but a word that refers to the action of throwing, slinging, or pelting someone with stones (see the note on v. 2 above).sn At first glance Lev 20:27 appears to be out of place but, on closer examination, one could argue that it constitutes the back side of an envelope around the case laws in 20:9-21, with Lev 20:6 forming the front of the envelope (note also that execution of mediums and spiritists by stoning in v. 27 is not explicitly stated in v. 6). This creates a chiastic structure: prohibition against mediums and spiritists (vv. 6 and 27), variations of the holiness formula (vv. 7 and 25-26), and exhortations to obey the Lord’s statutes (and judgments; vv. 8 and 22-24). Again, in the middle are the case laws (vv. 9-21).