Leviticus 17:3

3 "{Any man} from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who slaughters [it] {outside the camp}

Leviticus 17:3 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 17:3

What man soever [there be] of the house of Israel
Whether high or low, rich or poor:

that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat in the camp;
which are particularly mentioned, as Gersom observes, because of these the offerings were; for the law respects the killing of them not for common food, but for sacrifice, as appears from the following verses; for this law was to be a statute for ever, whereas in that sense it was not, and could not be observed, especially when they were come into the land of Canaan; nor would it have been decent or convenient to have brought such vast numbers of cattle every day to be killed at the door of the tabernacle, and must have made the service of the priests extremely laborious to kill them, or even to see that they were killed aright:

or that killeth [it] out of the camp;
which furnishes out another reason against the same notion, since it was not usual to kill for common food without the camp, but in their own tents within it; whereas to sacrifice without the camp was commonly done.

Leviticus 17:3 In-Context

1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 "Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the {Israelites}, and you shall say to them, 'This is the word that Yahweh has commanded, saying,
3 "{Any man} from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who slaughters [it] {outside the camp}
4 and he does not bring it to the tent of assembly's entrance to present an offering to Yahweh {before} Yahweh's tabernacle, then that man shall be accounted bloodguilty--he has poured out blood, and that man shall be cut off from the midst of his people.
5 [This is] so that the {Israelites} may bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing {in the open field} and bring them for Yahweh to [the] tent of assembly's entrance to the priest, and they shall sacrifice fellowship offerings for Yahweh with them.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Literally "A man a man"
  • [b]. Literally "from an outside place of the camp"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.