Leviticus 22:1-16

Priests and Their Food

1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

2 "Tell Aaron and his sons that they must deal respectfully with the {Israelites}' votive offerings, and they must not profane my holy name, which they are consecrating to me; I [am] Yahweh.

3 "Say to them, 'Throughout your generations, any man from any of your offspring who comes near the votive offerings that the {Israelites} consecrate to Yahweh with his uncleanness on him, that person shall be cut off from {before me}; I [am] Yahweh.

4 " '{Anyone} from Aaron's offspring, if he [is] afflicted with a skin disease or a fluid discharge, shall not eat in the sanctuary {until} he is clean; and the one who touches any unclean person or a man from whom an emission of semen goes out,

5 or a man who touches any swarmer that is unclean for him or [who touches] a person who is unclean for him {due to} whatever his uncleanness,

6 a person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening, and he shall not eat from the votive offerings, except [when] he washes his body with water

7 and {the sun sets}, and he shall be clean; then afterward he may eat from the votive offerings, because it [is] his food.

8 He shall not eat a [naturally] dead body or a mangled carcass, {so that he becomes unclean} by it; I [am] Yahweh.

9 " 'And they shall keep my obligation, and they shall not incur guilt because of it, so that they die through it, because they have profaned it; I [am] Yahweh who consecrates them.

10 " '{No stranger shall eat} [the] votive offering; nor shall a temporary resident with a priest or a hired worker eat [the] votive offering.

11 But a priest, if [with] his money he buys a person [as] {his possession}, that one may eat it, and the descendants of his house themselves may eat his food.

12 And a priest's daughter, when {she marries a layman}, she herself may not eat {the votive offering}.

13 But a priest's daughter, when she becomes a widow or divorced or there is no offspring for her, and she returns to her father's house as [in] her childhood, she may eat from her father's food, but {no layman may eat it}.

14 And if a man eats [the] votive offering unintentionally, then he shall add to it a fifth of it, and he shall give the votive offering to the priest.

15 And they shall not profane the {Israelites}' votive offerings that they present to Yahweh,

16 and so cause them, by their eating their votive offerings, to bear guilt requiring a guilt offering, because I [am] Yahweh, who consecrates them.'"

Leviticus 22:1-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 22

In this chapter several laws are delivered out, forbidding the priests to eat of holy things, when in any uncleanness, or at any time what dies of itself, or is torn of beasts, Le 22:1-9; also showing who belonging to the priests might or might not eat of the holy things, Le 22:10-16; and others requiring that whatever offerings were brought by the children, of Israel, they should be perfect and without blemish, Le 22:17-25; and also declaring what age a creature should be of when sacrificed, and the time when thank offerings were to be eaten, Le 22:26-30; concluding with an exhortation to observe the commands of God, and sanctify him, and not profane his name, Le 22:31-33.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "And"
• [b]. Or "Speak to"
• [c]. Literally "to Aaron and to his sons"
• [d]. Or "and"
• [e]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [f]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
• [g]. Or "and"
• [h]. Or "and that person shall be cut off"
• [i]. Literally "to the faces of me"
• [j]. Literally "A man a man"
• [k]. Or "and"
• [l]. Literally "until which"
• [m]. Literally "for"
• [n]. Hebrew "him" or "it"
• [o]. Or "but if" or "but rather"
• [p]. Or "bathes"
• [q]. Literally "the sun goes" or "the sun enters"
• [r]. Or "and"
• [s]. Or "and"
• [t]. Literally "to become unclean"
• [u]. Or "and"
• [v]. Literally "And any stranger shall not eat"
• [w]. Hebrew "of"
• [x]. Or "and"
• [y]. Or "And"
• [z]. Literally "property of"
• [aa]. Literally "she becomes for a strange man"
• [ab]. Literally "the offering/lifting of the votive offering"
• [ac]. Or "And"
• [ad]. Or "and"
• [ae]. Or "and"
• [af]. Literally "any stranger shall not eat it"
• [ag]. Or "and"
• [ah]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"