17.10 Aliens are forbidden to ingest blood, a prohibitive commandment. Eats, proof that the blood is ingested in the course of eating meat.
17.11 To you, to Israel, but not to aliens who may slaughter animals at home. For making atonement, or “to ransom” (see Ex 30.12, 15, 16). Animal slaughter is murder except at the authorized altar, where the offered blood ransoms the donor’s life. As life…atonement, or “it is the blood that ransoms by means of life.”
17.13–14 The blood of game may not be ingested. Assumed is the knowledge of 11.13–19, 24–28.
17.13 Cover it with earth, so that the blood will not be used in chthonic worship (e.g., for divination) but returned to God, who endowed animals as well as humans with nefesh (Hebrew), “life, soul.”
17.14 The third aside to Moses providing rationales for required actions (in addition to vv. 5–7, 11–12), virtually repeating vv. 10–11a.
17.15–16 Eating of a carcass requires purification.
17.15 Lest they pollute the land, aliens must also purify themselves after eating of a carcass.
17.16 Guilt, or “punishment.” If their impurity is prolonged, leading to the pollution of the sanctuary, they will be punished by the excision of their line (see 5.1–13).
LEVITICUS 18
Sexual Relations
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: I am the LORD your God. 3You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not follow their statutes. 4My ordinances you shall observe and my statutes you shall keep, following them: I am the LORD your God. 5You shall keep my statutes and my ordinances; by doing so one shall live: I am the LORD.
6None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness: I am the LORD. 7You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother; she is your mother, you shall not uncover her nakedness. 8You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife; it is the nakedness of your father. 9You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether born at home or born abroad. 10You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son’s daughter or of your daughter’s daughter, for their nakedness is your own nakedness. 11You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father, since she is your sister. 12You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s sister; she is your father’s flesh. 13You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s flesh. 14You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s brother, that is, you shall not approach his wife; she is your aunt. 15You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law: she is your son’s wife; you shall not uncover her nakedness. 16You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s nakedness. 17You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, and you shall not takea her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness; they are yourb flesh; it is depravity. 18And you shall not takec a woman as a rival to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive.
19You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. 20You shall not have sexual relations with your kinsman’s wife, and defile yourself with her. 21You shall not give any of your offspring to sacrifice themd to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD. 22You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. 23You shall not have sexual relations with any animal and defile yourself with it, nor shall any woman give herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it: it is perversion.
24Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices the nations I am casting out before you have defiled themselves. 25Thus the land became defiled; and I punished it for its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and commit none of these abominations, either the citizen or the alien who resides among you 27(for the inhabitants of the land, who were before you, committed all of these abominations, and the land became defiled); 28otherwise the land will vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. 29For whoever commits any of these abominations shall be cut off from their people. 30So keep my charge not to commit any of these abominations that were done before you, and not to defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God.
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a Or marry
b Gk: Heb lacks your
c Or marry
d Heb to pass them over
18.1–20.27 On being holy. Chs. 18–20 are thematically united: ch. 20 prescribes the penalties for the illicit relations and homicidal cult practices proscribed in ch. 18 (20.1–5) and for violating the ban on magic put into effect in 19.31 (20.6). Moreover, the entire unit is framed by a single goal: separation of the Israelites from the Canaanites, who are portrayed as engaging in idolatrous and immoral practices, which pollute the divinely chosen land (18.3; 18.24–30; 20.22–24). The arrangement of Ezek 22 contains a mixture of ethical and ritual sins based solely on these chapters, indicating that their written formulation is preexilic.
The key word in this section is holy. This word clusters in the food prohibitions (11.44–47; 20.23–26) and significantly in only one other context, the rules concerning the priesthood, 21.6–8. The priesthood, Israel, and humankind form three rings of decreasing holiness about the center, God. Ideally, all Israel shall be “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Ex 19.6). If Israel is to attain its higher level of holiness, it must abide by a more rigid code of behavior than that practiced by other nations, just as the priests live by more stringent standards than common Israelites. Holiness, then, implies separation and is so defined in 20.26. The positive aspect of holiness is discussed in ch. 19.
18.1–30 The list of prohibitions is framed by passages (vv. 1–5, 24–30) castigating the sexual mores of the Egyptians and the Canaanites. Israel is charged with an exacting code of family purity whose violation means death (20.10–16). Only the Holiness source (H) proclaims the sanctity of the land of Canaan; hence both Israelites and resident strangers are responsible for maintaining its sanctity (18.26–27; 20.2; 24.22). The moral justification for its conquest (18.27–28; 20.22) is also a warning: if guilty of the same infractions, Israel too will be vomited out.
18.2 I am the LORD your God, or “I the LORD am your God.” Hence, you must follow my laws.
18.3 Egypt and Canaan are accused by biblical authors of consanguineous, incestuous, promiscuous, and homosexual unions (Gen 9.22; 19.5; 34.2; 39.7; Ezek 16.26; 23.3, 20).
18.5 I am the LORD, or “I the LORD,” i.e., “I the LORD have spoken,” equivalent to the prophetic “says the LORD” (e.g., Am 2.16; 3.15).
18.6–23. Forbidden sexual relations. The major purpose of most of these rules is to protect the unmarried woman from falling prey to the avaricious males in her family. The basic sociological unit in Israel was the “father’s house.” It included three to five generations consisting of fifty to a hundred people living in close proximity.
18.6 Approach, a euphemism for “have sex with.” Near of kin, lit. “flesh of his flesh,” i.e., the nearest kin, one’s mother, sister, and daughter, the last two otherwise missing in this list. Uncover nakedness, another euphemism for having sex with, given here in this initial law for emphasis.
18.7 The nakedness of your father, i.e., your father’s exclusive possession (18.8; 20.11; Deut 22.30; cf. Lev 20.20, 21). The same expression is found in the enigmatic case of Noah’s nakedness (Gen 9.22–23), implying that Ham had sex with his mother, an incestuous union that produced their son Canaan.
18.9 Born at home…abroad, whether she belongs to your kin group or another kin group; i.e., even if your half sister is totally unrelated to you by blood, she is forbidden. But see Gen 20.12, in which Abr
aham married his half sister.
18.11 Begotten by your father, rather “of your father’s kin.” But if she belongs to a different kin group, marriage is permissible.
18.12 Amram married Jochebed, his paternal aunt (they were the parents of Aaron and Moses), despite this prohibition. Reflecting sensitivity to this discrepancy, the Septuagint in Ex 6.20 reads “the daughter of his father’s brother,” i.e., his cousin. Perhaps for this reason the birth of Moses is attributed to anonymous Levite parents (Ex 2.1).
18.15 Judah married his daughter-in-law, Tamar, despite this prohibition—an early form of levirate marriage (cf. Gen 38; Deut 25.5–10).
18.16 Ostensibly, the verse is opposed to the institution of levirate marriage (Deut 25.5–10; see Lev 20.21).
18.18 Despite this prohibition, Jacob married two sisters, Rachel and Leah, while both were alive (Gen 29.15–30). The obvious answer to all four above-mentioned marital discrepancies with vv. 9, 12, 18 is that they occurred before the Sinaitic law code became operative.
18.20 Kinsman’s, rather “neighbor’s” (cf. Ezek 18.6, 15).
18.21 Give…offspring to sacrifice. See 2 Kings 23.10; cf. Deut 12.31; 2 Kings 16.3; Jer 7.31; 19.5; 32.35. Molech may stand for melek, “king (of the underworld),” who was probably identified by his worshipers with Israel’s God (cf. Jer 7.31; 19.5). If it were another god, the sacrifice would have been condemned as murder. See also note on 20.2. Profane the name of your God, since the rite is dedicated to him.
18.23 Different species should be kept apart, following God’s example at creation (Gen 1); see also Lev 19.19.
18.25 Moral sins pollute the earth, e.g., those of Adam and Eve (Gen 3.17), Cain (4.10–12), and Noah’s generation (8.21). Here, however, the pollution is confined to the land of Canaan (Ezek 36.17; see Num 35.33; Deut 21.23; Jer 2.7). Therein lies the theological basis of the concept of the holy land, namely, that all who reside on this land, including all aliens, must observe God’s prohibitive commandments (see 17.8, 10; esp. 24.16).
LEVITICUS 19
Ritual and Moral Holiness
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. 3You shall each revere your mother and father, and you shall keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 4Do not turn to idols or make cast images for yourselves: I am the LORD your God.
5When you offer a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, offer it in such a way that it is acceptable in your behalf. 6It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, or on the next day; and anything left over until the third day shall be consumed in fire. 7If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is an abomination; it will not be acceptable. 8All who eat it shall be subject to punishment, because they have profaned what is holy to the LORD; and any such person shall be cut off from the people.
9When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the LORD your God.
11You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another. 12And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the LORD.
13You shall not defraud your neighbor; you shall not steal; and you shall not keep for yourself the wages of a laborer until morning. 14You shall not revile the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind; you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.
15You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor. 16You shall not go around as a slanderera among your people, and you shall not profit by the bloodb of your neighbor: I am the LORD.
17You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
19You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.
20If a man has sexual relations with a woman who is a slave, designated for another man but not ransomed or given her freedom, an inquiry shall be held. They shall not be put to death, since she has not been freed; 21but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the LORD, at the entrance of the tent of meeting, a ram as guilt offering. 22And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of guilt offering before the LORD for his sin that he committed; and the sin he committed shall be forgiven him.
23When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall regard their fruit as forbidden;c three years it shall be forbiddend to you, it must not be eaten. 24In the fourth year all their fruit shall be set apart for rejoicing in the LORD. 25But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit, that their yield may be increased for you: I am the LORD your God.
26You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice augury or witchcraft. 27You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard. 28You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
29Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, that the land not become prostituted and full of depravity. 30You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.
31Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
32You shall rise before the aged, and defer to the old; and you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.
33When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
35You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. 36You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37You shall keep all my statutes and all my ordinances, and observe them: I am the LORD.
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a Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Heb stand against the blood
c Heb as their uncircumcision
d Heb uncircumcision
19.1–37 For Israel, “holy” means more than that which is unapproachable. It becomes a positive concept, an inspiration and a goal associated with God’s nature and his desire for humans to be holy: You shall be holy; for I…am holy (v. 2). That which humans are not and can never fully be, but which they are commanded to emulate and approximate is what the Bible calls “holy.” Holiness means imitatio Dei—the life of godliness. How can human beings imitate God? The answer of Lev 19 is given in a series of ethical and ritual commands, above which soars the commandment to love all persons (v. 18), including aliens (v. 34). Such love must be concretely expressed in deeds: equality in civil justice (24:22; Num 35.15), free loans (Lev 25.35–38; Deut 10.18; 23.20), and free gleanings (Lev 19.9–10).
19.5–8 Here the well-being sacrifice is limited to the freewill and votive offerings, in contrast to 7.11–16, which includes the thanksgiving offering.
19.10 The widow and orphan fall under the category of the poor. The poor, however, do not appear as a separate category in the humanitarian legislation of Deuteronomy, which instead ordains for them loans (Deut 15.7–11); i.e., they can work off their debt, something that widows and orphans cannot. I am the LORD your God, “for the LORD pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them” (Prov 22.23).
19.11 Deal falsely, e.g., deny you possessed your neighbor’s property (6.2).
19.13 Steal, rather “rob” (cf. v. 11).
19.16 Profit, lit. “stand,�
� i.e., don’t stand idly by when your fellow is in danger.
19.17 Guilt, i.e., “punishment.” Yourself, more accurately “because of him,” i.e., you are likely to take action against him that may be sinful.
19.18 Love, reach out, befriend. Love here is not an emotion. Neighbor, i.e., an Israelite (cf. v. 34). As yourself, i.e., as you love yourself, or “who is like you,” since he or she is also created by God.
19.19 Two kinds of seed, two different materials. See Deut 22.9. God separated everything according to its species (Gen 1). The human world should mirror the natural world. Israel, therefore, may not mix with other nations, but be holy, set apart for God.
19.20–22 A marginal case. Though not guilty before humans (not adulterous), he is guilty before God; hence he brings a reparation offering.
19.24 Set apart…in the LORD, lit. “holy…before the LORD,” i.e., at the sanctuary.
19.26 With, lit. “over,” a chthonic rite for the purpose of consulting the dead spirits (see v. 31; 17.5–7, 13–14; 20.6; 1 Sam 14.32–35). Instead, the blood should be offered on the altar (17.3–4, 11).
19.27–28 Pagan mourning rites.
19.31 Mediums, or “ancestral spirits” (see v. 26; 20.27).
19.33 Oppress, or “cheat.”
19.34 The summit of biblical ethics.
LEVITICUS 20
Penalties for Violations of Holiness
1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 2Say further to the people of Israel:
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