translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LEV

label: NET study note

text: The two pairs of categories in this verse refer to: (1) the status of a person, place, thing, or time – “holy” ( קֹדֶשׁ , qodesh ) versus “common” ( חֹל , khol ); as opposed to (2) the condition of a person, place, or thing – “unclean” ( טָמֵא , tame ’) versus “clean” ( טָהוֹר , tahor ). Someone or something could gain “holy” status by being “consecrated” (i.e., made holy; e.g., the Hebrew Piel קִדֵּשׁ ( qiddesh ) in Lev 8:15, 30 ), and to treat someone or something that was holy as if it were “common” would be to “profane” that person or thing (the Hebrew Piel הִלֵּל [ hillel ], e.g., in Lev 19:29 and 22:15 ). Similarly, on another level, someone or something could be in a “clean” condition , but one could “defile” (the Hebrew Piel טִמֵּא [ timme ’], e.g., in Gen 34:5 and Num 6:9 ) that person or thing and thereby make it “unclean.” To “purify” (the Hebrew Piel טִהֵר [ tiher ], e.g., in Lev 16:19 and Num 8:6, 15 ) that unclean person or thing would be to make it “clean” once again. With regard to the animals (), some were by nature “unclean,” so they could never be eaten, but others were by nature “clean” and, therefore, edible ( Lev 11:2, 46-47 ). The meat of clean animals could become inedible by too long of a delay in eating it, in which case the Hebrew term פִּגּוּל ( pigul ) “foul, spoiled” is used to describe it ( Lev 7:18; 19:7 ; cf. also Ezek 4:14 and Isa 65:4 ), not the term for “unclean” ( טָהוֹר , tahor ). Strictly speaking, therefore, unclean meat never becomes clean, and clean meat never becomes unclean.


text: Cf. Lev 2:3 and 6:14-18 [ 6:7-11 HT] for these regulations.


text: Cf. Lev 7:14, 28-34 for these regulations.


text: This is the very same male goat offered in Lev 9:15 (cf. the note on Lev 10:1 above).


text: This translation is quite literal. On the surface it appears to mean that the priests would “bear the iniquity” of the congregation by the act of eating the sin offering (so J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:622-25, 635-40). Such a notion is, however, found nowhere else in the Levitical regulations and seems unlikely (so J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 136). A more likely interpretation is reflected in this interpretive rendering: “he gave it to you [as payment] for [your work of] bearing the iniquity of the congregation.” The previous section of the chapter deals with the prebends that the priests received for performing the ministry of the tabernacle ( Lev 10:12-15 ). Lev 10:16-18 , therefore, seems to continue the very same topic in the light of the most immediate situation (see R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:702-4).


text: The term here rendered “within” refers to the bringing of the blood inside the holy place for application to the altar of incense rather than to the altar of burnt offering in the courtyard of the tabernacle (cf. Lev 4:7, 16-18; 6:30 [23 HT]).