UTN uW Translation Notes:

Leviticus 6 General Notes

Structure and Formatting

Although this chapter starts with a reiteration of Yahweh speaking to Moses, reinforcing the narrative framing of the book, the laws of 6:1–7 continue the instructions for hypothetical scenarios in which someone would need to offer a guilt offering. In this way, the first seven verses are a continuation of 5:14–18, offering the third of three hypothetical scenarios in which a guilt offering is required (the first two being described in 5:14–18).However, the next reiteration of Yahweh speaking to Moses in 6:8 starts a new section that addresses the priests for how they should handle particular details of the burnt offering (6:9–13) and the grain offering (6:14–18.Another reiteration of Yahweh speaking to Moses is included in 6:19, which begins a new section describing the prescribed offering for the priests on the day of their being anointed as priests to Yahweh (6:19–23.A final reiteration of Yahweh speaking to Moses is introduced in 6:24, which addresses the priests for how they should handle particular details of the purification offering* (6:24–30. These instructions then continue into Chapter 7, which is likewise addressed to the priests. To put this outline in bullet points, the chapter can be detailed as follows: 1) The guilt offering (5:14–6:7) a. scenario #3: guilt due to a person “denying” a fellow Israelite (6:1–7) 2) The administrative instructions for priests (6:8–7:21) a. The priests’ instructions for the burnt offering (6:8–13) b. The priests’ instructions for the grain offering (6:14–18) c. The priests’ offering on the day of anointing (6:19–23) d. The priests’ Instruction for the purification offering (6:24–30)

Religious and Cultural Concepts in This Chapter

The scenarios for a guilt offering in this chapter (6:1–7)

The beginning of this chapter explains several hypothetical scenarios in which a person may act in such a way that they incur guilt (and thereby “impurity”). Each of the following describes a way an Israelite might “trespass a trespass against Yahweh” (6:2). The scenarios are: 1) a person “denies” his “fellow citizen” with either a “deposit” or with “a pledge of a hand” (6:2). This expression uses an idiom that refers to the actions whereby someone swears a socially binding oath with a member of their family or clan and commits himself or herself to certain actions regarding the other person but afterward fails to behave in accordance with the stipulations of the oath. The term “deposit” refers to either (1) a monetary down payment that served to guarantee the full payment of a larger amount. Alternate translation: “with a down payment on a larger owed sum” or (2) an item that was given from one individual to another for safekeeping. The expression “a pledge of a hand” refers to a physical item that is given from one member of a community to another. This item would commit the individual who received it to carry out the stipulations of the oath. 2) a person “extorts his fellow citizen” (6:2), likely by refusing to pay an employee his or her wages, or one member of a party willfully withholding a previously agreed-upon amount of money from the other. If this is not clear in your language, consider stating the meaning plainly. 3) a person finds some item that another Israelite has lost but then denies having found it in order to keep the item for himself (6:3). 4) a person takes an oath with another person deceitfully, that is, with the intention not to carry out the required actions of the oath (6:3)../06/03.md)).

“Fellow citizen”

The expression “fellow citizen” is used several times in this chapter to refer to a fellow Israelite, possibly one within the larger familial or clan network of relationships within the people of Israel. The expression translates a single Hebrew word and emphasizes the closeness of the relationship between two persons who are “fellow citizens.” While the ancient world did not know national “citizenship” in a modern sense (as in “I am a citizen of the United States of America”), the term does carry the sense of marking an individual by their relationship to a larger body of people (hence the word “citizen”).

Guilt

In this chapter, the word translated as “guilt” is used is two separate senses. In one sense, it refers to both the internal feeling of having committed wrongdoing and the legal state of being required to provide restitution for that wrongdoing. An example of this sense is found in [6:5, in which the expression “the day of his guilt” refers to the moment in which a person incurs legal guilt. This sense uses both the verb “to become guilty” and the abstract noun “guilt.” The second sense uses the abstract noun “guilt” to refer to the payment or restitution that a person offers to atone for their sins when they realize they have committed wrongdoing. An example of this are seen in 6:6, in which an individual is instructed to “bring his guilt” to Yahweh (that is, to the tent of meeting where Yahweh lived among the Israelites). This expression does not mean to bring their feelings of guilt to Yahweh but to bring the penalty for their guilt, that is, the animal that the sacrifice to atone for their sin requires.

The “clean place” (6:11)

In Leviticus 6, Yahweh instructs the people that the portions of the sacrificial animal that are not burned completely on the altar for a guilt offering must be brought outside the camp of the people to a clean place (6:11). The adjective translated as “clean” does not refer to a location that is physically free of dirt (as one might describe a freshly washed dish). Rather, in the context of sacrifices, the word “clean” refers to a person, animal, or object that has been kept separated from the defiling presence of sin and is fit to be used for sacred purposes or enter into sacred space. Portions of an animal that were used in sacrifices to purify a person, place, or object from the impurity of sins may have been considered to absorb the defiling sin, so to speak. As such, contact with these portions, once they had absorbed the impurity brought about by sin, may have been thought to make an individual impure or ceremonially unclean. Consequently, the location where the rest of the sacrificial animal was burned needed to be ceremonially clean in this way so that the potentially defiling presence of the sacrificial animal’s corpse could be properly disposed of and so that the camp itself did not become ceremonially unclean by virtue of its proximity to an ‘unclean’ location.

Important Figures of Speech in This Chapter

“This is the law of”

In several places in this chapter, the expression “this is the law of…” uses the possessive form to describe instructions that are characterized by their relationship to a particular sacrifice or offering. (See, for example, 6:9.6:14, 6:25.) If your language would not use the possessive form for this, consider stating the meaning plainly, as the notes below will suggest.

Other Possible Translation Difficulties in This Chapter

The use of a verb with a related noun (Cognate-accusatives)

For emphasis, the author of Leviticus often uses a verb with a related noun. In this chapter, several expressions follow this pattern, including “trespasses a trespass” (6:2), the “robbery that he robbed” (6:4), and “the deposit that was deposited with him” (6:4).