translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LEV

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “A man his mother and his father you [plural] shall fear.” The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain Targum mss reverse the order, “his father and his mother.” The term “fear” is subject to misunderstanding by the modern reader, so “respect” has been used in the translation. Cf. NAB, NRSV “revere”; NASB “reverence.”


text: Heb “for your acceptance”; cf. NIV, NLT “it will be accepted on your behalf.”


text: Heb “from the following day” ( HALOT 572 s.v. מָחֳרָת 2.b).


text: Heb “shall be burned with fire”; KJV “shall be burnt in the fire.” Because “to burn with fire” is redundant in contemporary English the present translation simply has “must be burned up.”


text: Heb “And if being eaten [infinitive absolute] it is eaten [finite verb].” For the infinitive absolute used to highlight contrast rather than emphasis see GKC 343 §113. p .


text: Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422, on Lev 7:18 .


text: See the note on Lev 17:16 above.


text: Heb “the holiness of the Lord .”


text: Heb “And in your harvesting the harvest.”


text: Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field to harvest.”


text: Heb “And you shall not deal severely with your vineyard.”


text: Heb “you shall not deal falsely a man with his fellow citizen.”


text: Heb “And you shall not swear to the falsehood.”


text: Heb “and you shall not profane”; NAB “thus profaning.”


text: Heb “You shall not oppress your neighbor and you shall not rob.”


text: Heb “hold back with you”; perhaps “hold back for yourself” (cf. NRSV “keep for yourself”).


text: Heb “You shall not curse a deaf [person] and before a blind [person] you shall not put a stumbling block.”


text: Heb “And you shall fear.” Many English versions (e.g., KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV) regard the Hebrew conjunction ו ( vav , “and”) as adversative in force here (“but”).


label: NET textual note

text: Smr has the singular rather than the plural “you” of the MT, which brings this verb form into line with the ones surrounding it.


text: Heb “You shall not do injustice in judgment” (NASB similar); cf. NIV “do not pervert justice.”


text: Heb “You shall not lift up faces of poor [people] and you shall not honor faces of great.”


text: Heb “In righteousness you shall judge your fellow citizen.”


text: The term רָכִיל ( rakhil ) is traditionally rendered “slanderer” here (so NASB, NIV, NRSV; see also J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 304, 316), but the exact meaning is uncertain (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129). It is sometimes related to I רָכַל (“to go about as a trader [or “merchant”]”; BDB 940 s.v. רָכַל ), and taken to refer to cutthroat business dealings, but there may be a II רָכַל , the meaning of which is dubious ( HALOT 1237 s.v. II * רכל ). Some would render it “to go about as a spy.”


text: Heb “You shall not stand on the blood of your neighbor.” This part of the verse is also difficult to interpret. The rendering here suggests that one will not allow a neighbor to be victimized, whether in court (cf. v. 15 ) or in any other situation (see the discussion in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129).


text: Heb “and you will not lift up on him sin.” The meaning of the line is somewhat obscure. It means either (1) that one should rebuke one’s neighbor when he sins lest one also becomes guilty, which is the way it is rendered here (see NIV, NRSV, NEB, JB; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 129-30, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 303, and the discussion on pp. 316-17), or (2) one may rebuke one’s neighbor without incurring sin just as long as he does not hate him in his heart (see the first part of the verse; cf. NASB, NAB).


text: Heb “and you shall not retain [anger?].” This line seems to refer to the retaining or maintaining of some vengeful feelings toward someone. Compare the combination of the same terms for taking vengeance and maintaining wrath against enemies in Nahum 1:2 (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 305).


text: Heb “Your animals, you shall not cross-breed two different kinds.”


text: Heb “you shall not cause to go up on you.”


text: Heb “And a man when he lies with a woman the lying of seed.”


text: Heb “on his sin which he has sinned.”


text: Heb “there shall be forgiveness to him” or “it shall be forgiven to him.”


text: Heb “from his sin.”


text: Heb “tree of food”; KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV “trees for food.”


text: Heb “you shall circumcise its fruit [as] its foreskin,” taking the fruit to be that which is to be removed and, therefore, forbidden. Since the fruit is uncircumcised it is forbidden (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306, and esp. B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 131-32).


text: Heb “it shall be to you uncircumcised.”


text: See B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132, where the translation reads “set aside for jubilation”; a special celebration before the Lord .


text: Heb “to add to you its produce.” The rendering here assumes that the point of this clause is simply that finally being allowed to eat the fruit in the fifth year adds the fruit of the tree to their harvest. Some take the verb to be from אָסַף (’ asaf , “to gather”) rather than יָסַף ( yasaf , “to add; to increase”), rendering the verse, “to gather to you the produce” (E. S. Gerstenberger, Leviticus [OTL], 260, and see the versions referenced in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 306). Others take it to mean that by following the regulations given previously they will honor the Lord so that the Lord will cause the trees to increase the amount of fruit they would normally produce (Hartley, 303, 306; cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).


text: Heb “You shall not eat on the blood.” See the extensive remarks in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 319-20, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 132-33. The LXX has “on the mountains,” suggesting that this is a prohibition against illegitimate places and occasions of worship, not the eating of blood.


text: Heb “You shall not practice divination and you shall not practice soothsaying”; cf. NRSV “practice augury or witchcraft.” For suggestions regarding the practices involved see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 133, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 320.


text: Heb “and you [singular] shall not ruin the corner of your [singular] beard.” Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural pronouns (i.e., “you” and “your” plural) rather than the singular of the MT.


text: Heb “And slash for the soul you shall not give.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ ( nefesh , “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 21:1, 5; 22:5 ). See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 306, 320-21.


text: Heb “and a writing of incision you shall not give in you.”


text: Heb “to make her practice harlotry.” Some recent English versions regard this as religious or temple prostitution (cf. TEV, CEV).


text: Heb “and the land become full of lewdness.” Regarding the term “lewdness,” see the note on Lev 18:17 above.


text: Heb “And when a sojourner sojourns.”


text: Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו ( vav , “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.


text: That is, liquid capacity ( HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה ). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”


text: Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.


text: Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120. d , although שָׁמַר [ shamar , “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31 ).