Leviticus 22:1-16

Restrictions against the Unclean

1 Then the LORD said to Moses,

2 “Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name. I am the LORD.

3 Tell them that for the generations to come, if any of their descendants in a state of uncleanness approaches the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from My presence. I am the LORD.

4 If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease ^[a] or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen,

5 or whoever touches a crawling creature or a person that makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be—

6 the man who touches any of these will remain unclean until evening. He must not eat from the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water.

7 When the sun has set, he will become clean, and then he may eat from the sacred offerings, for they are his food.

8 He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the LORD.

9 The priests must keep My charge, lest they bear the guilt and die because they profane it. I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

10 No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired hand eat it.

11 But if a priest buys a slave with his own money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food.

12 If the priest’s daughter is married to a man other than a priest, she is not to eat of the sacred contributions.

13 But if a priest’s daughter with no children becomes widowed or divorced and returns to her father’s house, she may share her father’s food as in her youth. But no outsider may share it.

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.”

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] Forms of the Hebrew tzaraath, traditionally translated as leprosy, were used for various skin diseases; see Leviticus 13.