UST LEV Chapter 22

◄ LEV 22 ► ║ ©

22 Then Yahweh said to Moses, 2 “Make sure that Aaron and his sons know that, when they are impure, no priest should ever touch or eat any of the special food that the people of Israel offer to me by presenting it as a sacrifice. Doing so would dishonor my reputation as being separated from impurity and instead associate me with impurity. Instead, the priests ought to treat these offerings of food as belonging especially to me. Remember: I am Yahweh!

3 Tell them that, while he is impure, no priest should ever approach my sacred altar to present a sacrifice that the people of Israel have set aside to belong to me, Yahweh. This is a practice that should continue for as long as there are priests in Israel. It applies to every descendant of Aaron who serves as a priest. If this ever happens, I will make the priest who does this an outcast and remove him from my presence. Remember: I am Yahweh!

4 This means that, until the priests declare him to be pure once again, no descendant of Aaron who suffers from an infectious skin disease or a flowing discharge may eat the special food that I have set aside from the food gifts that the people of Israel offer to me for the priests to eat. To be clear, this rule also applies to any priest who touches a dead body, which is impure, or who experiences an abnormal genital discharge, 5 or who touches any creature that swarms and crawls along the ground and becomes unclean. This rule also applies to any priest who touches a person who is currently impure—no matter the reason for which that person is impure. 6 Remember: any priest who touches anything or anyone impure should consider himself to be impure until the evening of the day on which he touched the impure thing or person. The priest must not eat any of the special food that I have set aside from my food gifts for the priests to eat unless the priest first bathes himself. 7 After the sun sets, the priest should consider himself to be pure once again. He may eat the special food that I have set apart from my food gifts for the priests to eat, because I may made provision for the priests by giving them this food. 8 But no priest should eat the meat from an animal’s corpse or from an animal that wild animals killed and someone later found dead. If a priest does this, he makes himself impure and unfit to serve or worship me. Remember: I am Yahweh.

9 The priests must carefully avoid exactly what I, Yahweh, have told them to avoid. If they do not, they will have shown me disrespect and defiled the sacred food gifts that the people of Israel have offered to me. I will hold them responsible for their wrongdoing and kill them. Remember: I am Yahweh, and I have set the priests apart to serve and worship me.

10 No one outside of the priest's immediate family may eat the sacred food that I have set apart for the priests to eat. This includes any passing guest that a priest hosts in his home or any hired laborer. 11 However, a slave that a priest has bought with his own money may eat this special food. Likewise, any slave that is born into a priest's household is welcome to eat the sacred food that I, Yahweh, have set apart for the priests to eat. 12 However, when a priest’s daughter marries a man who is not a priest, she may no longer eat the sacred foods that the people of Israel have presented to Yahweh as a special contribution of food for the priests to eat. 13 It may happen that a priest's daughter becomes a widow or divorces from her husband and yet has no children. If this happens, and the woman returns to her father's household to live there as she did when she was young, she may eat the special food that I have set apart for the priests to eat. However, no one outside of the priest's immediate family may ever eat this sacred food.

14 It may happen that a person who is not a priest mistakenly eats the special food that I, Yahweh, have set aside for the priests to eat. If this happens, the person who ate the food must repay the full value of the food that he ate, plus an additional one-fifth of its value, and give the money to the priest to whom the food belonged. 15 By practicing these rules, the priests will not disrespect and profane the sacred food that the people of Israel have offered as their sacrifice to me, Yahweh. 16 However, if the priests fail to do this, and they eat the special food when they are impure or anyone outside of the priest's immediate family eats the special food, I will hold both the priests and the people of Israel responsible for the guilt of their wrongdoing. I will do this because I am Yahweh, and I have set the priests apart to serve and worship me.“

17 Then Yahweh said to Moses, 18 “Tell Aaron, his sons, and all the people of Israel that any Israelite or non-Israelite living among the people of Israel may present wholly burned sacrifices to me, Yahweh. They may present sacrifices because of a vow that they make to me or freely and unprompted. 19 However, for me to accept such sacrifices, whoever offers a sacrifice that the priest completely burns on the altar must present a totally healthy male animal, whether a bovine, sheep, or goat. 20 This means that if the priests are going to completely burn the animal on the altar, no one should ever offer to me an animal that suffers from disabilities or defects. I will not accept these animals for the people of Israel. 21 To be specific, any animal that someone presents to me, Yahweh, as a fellowship sacrifice must be totally healthy for me to accept the sacrifice. This rule applies to all sacrifices in which the priests burn the meat of the animal on the altar, whether a person presents it to fulfill an extraordinary vow that he made to me or whether the person offers the sacrifice freely and unprompted. The rule also applies to all animals, whether bovine or flock animals: no animal presented as a sacrifice to me, Yahweh, must suffer from a disability or deformity. 22 This includes animals that are blind, have broken bones, are maimed, or any animals that suffer from running sores or any visible infectious skin disease. The people of Israel must never present any animal in this condition to me, Yahweh, as a sacrifice. The priests must not burn even a piece of such an animal on my altar. 23 However, the people of Israel may present to me an ox or a sheep that has misshapen or stunted limbs, if they intend the sacrifice to be a voluntary offering. This is because, for such sacrifices, the priests will burn only the fat of the animal, such that they will not present any deformed or defective part of the animal as a sacrifice to me. Nevertheless, I will not accept such animals for a sacrifice that someone intends to fulfill a promise that he made to me. 24 Particularly, the people of Israel should never offer to me a bovine or flock animal whose owner has crushed, pulverized, torn off, or removed its testicles. As long as they live in the land of Canaan, the people of Israel must not present such animals as sacrifices to me. 25 The people of Israel must not offer such animals as food gifts to me, their God, even if they have purchased the animal from a non-Israelite because these animals suffer from disabilities and deformities. I consider such animals as unacceptable sacrifices from you.”

26 Then Yahweh said to Moses, 27 “A newborn calf or lamb or goat must remain with its mother for a week after its mother has given birth to it. After that week has passed, I, Yahweh, will accept the young animal as a sacrifice and food gift to me. 28 However, make sure that the people of Israel do not slaughter a fully grown bovine or flock animal and its young on the same day.

29 The people of Israel may sacrifice an animal to thank me for what I have done for them. When they do this, they should present it in such a way that I will accept the sacrifice for the one presenting it. 30 This means that the people who will eat the meat of such a sacrifice must do so on the same day that the individual offers the sacrifice. He should make sure that he does not leave any of the meat of the sacrifice over until the next morning. Remember: I am Yahweh!

31 The people of Israel must make a habit of doing everything that I have commanded them to do. Remember: I am Yahweh! 32 This means that the people of Israel should not profane and dishonor my reputation as their God by disobeying what I have told them to do. Instead, the people of Israel should behave in a way that demonstrates that I am set apart from impurity and wrongdoing and that I, Yahweh, live in their midst. Remember: I am Yahweh, and I have set my people apart to serve and worship me! 33 I am the one who rescued the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt so that I could be their God. Remember: I am Yahweh!”

◄ LEV 22 ► ║ ©

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