Leviticus 22:16

16 by allowing the people to eat the sacred offerings and thus to bear the punishment for guilt. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”

Leviticus 22:16 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 22:16

Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass
The punishment of sin: either the strangers, when they eat their holy things;
the holy things belonging to the priests, which they permitting them to do, suffer them to be liable to the punishment incurred thereby, or else the priests themselves; so the Septuagint version renders the word "themselves"; and in like manner Jarchi interprets it; and then the sense may be, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos, that the priests shall bear the punishment of their sins,

``when they shall eat the holy things in uncleanness,''

which is what is forbidden them in the former part of the chapter; but this seems to be too remote; rather the former sense is best: for I the Lord do sanctify them;
both the priests, to whom the holy things belong, and the holy things for their use, and the use of their families, and them only.

Leviticus 22:16 In-Context

14 If anyone eats a sacred offering in error, he must add a fifth to its value and give the sacred offering to the priest.

15 The priests must not profane the sacred offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD

16 by allowing the people to eat the sacred offerings and thus to bear the punishment for guilt. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”

17 Then the LORD said to Moses,

18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering,