Leviticus

Leviticus

Sacrifice	Animals	Hand-laying	Use of blood	Priestly portions	Lay portions
Burnt	Cattle, sheep, goats, birds	Yes	Poured on altar sides	No	No
Peace	Cattle, sheep, goats	Yes	Poured on altar sides	Yes	Yes
Sin	Cattle, sheep, goats, birds	Yes	Smeared on altars, sprinkled inside tent before the veil	Yes (except where it was for the sin of priests)	No
Guilt	Rams	Probably	Poured on altar sides	Yes	No

1

Instructions spoken by the Lord from the tabernacle. Offering to be without blemish and offered willingly. Lord tells Moses the instructions for burnt offerings of bulls, sheep, goats and birds. Blood sprinkled on altar. The offerer must lay his hand on the offering prior to sacrifice. The person who brings the offering makes the kill.


2

God tells Moses the description and instructions for grain offerings and firstfruits: unleavened with oil, salt and frankincense. Some of grain is burnt (the memorial portion;), the rest given to the priests. For firstfruits, the heads of grain are to be roasted.


3

God tells Moses the description and instructions for peace offerings of cattle, sheep and goats. The bit that is burnt is the fat that covers the entrails, the kidneys and the fat on them, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver. Fat or blood is not to be eaten.


4

God tells Moses the description and instructions for sin offerings for the priest (bull), congregation (bull), rulers (goat) and common people (goat). For the bull offerings, everything apart from the fat and kidneys (burnt on the altar as before) is burnt outside the camp. The blood is smeared on the main altar, and on the incense altar in the holy place, and before the veil of the sanctuary. For the goat offerings, the remaining portion of the animal is not burnt outside the camp.


5

A sin offering is appropriate when he witnesses something and does not testify, when one offers false witness, if one is unclean or touches anything unclean, or speaks a false oath. A sin offering can be a lamb, turtledoves or flour, depending on what the person offering can afford. A memorial portion is burnt, the rest given to the priests. If something in the tabernacle is sinned against in some way, a guilt offering must be made: reparation is to be paid, and another 20% given to the priest. A ram was sacrificed in addition. The offence can be accidental.


6

God tells Moses that a person who has sinned against a neighbor by lying or theft must make full restitution, plus another 20%, in addition to the trespass offering of a ram. The fire of the altar will be kept burning at all times. The ashes of burnt offering will remain on the altar until the next morning, then placed outside the camp in a clean place. A portion of a grain offering belonged to the sons of Aaron, but the grain offering in a consecration ceremony must be completely burnt. A portion of the sin offering was left over, and was to be given to the priests. Anything touched by the sin offering or its blood had to be cleansed in a special manner because the sacrificial victim was thought to be infected with the sin of the one who brought the offering. Any portion from the sin offering made for national atonement could not be eaten: the whole animal had to be burnt. Only portions from a sin offering made on behalf of an individual could be eaten.


7

God tells Moses laws regarding guilt offering – fat and kidneys is the memorial portion, everything else belongs to be priests, as above. A peace offering could accompany a thanksgiving offering. The meat from a peace offering had to be eaten in a fellowship meal within three days. Ceremonial purity was required of anyone who wanted to participate in the fellowship meal associated with the peace offering. A breast or a thigh from the priest offering, though eaten by a priest, may be dedicated to God by being waved or lifted (heaved) above the altar respectively. These kinds of offering are called the wave offering and the heave offering.


8

Aaron and sons washed, dressed, anointed and consecrated as priests for seven days. Sin, burnt, consecration and wave offerings are made. Blood sprinkled on the priestly garments.


9

After the seven days of consecration, all Israel meets at the tabernacle. Atonement offerings are made for Aaron’s sin, and for the sin of the people. God’s glory appears to Israel: fire from God consumes the offering.


10

Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offer strange fire to God. God’s fire devours Nadab and Abiju; mourning for them is forbidden. Drunkenness not permitted at the tabernacle. The preists’ portions to be eaten in a clean place. Moses angrily wants to know why Eleazar and Ithamar don’t eat the priestly portions of a sin offering; Aaron replies on their behalf, that they are all mourning for the deaths of Nadab and Abihu. Moses is content with this explanation.


11

God speaks to Moses and Aaron the law of beasts: it is permitted to eat animals with have cloven hooves and chew the cud (so not a camel, a hare a pig). Sea creatures permitted if they have both fins and scales (so no shellfish). Various birds and most insects are proscribed. Anyone touching the carcass of an unclean anima, or touching anything that creeps,l must wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening. If an unclean animal crawls inside an earthen vessel, the vessel must be broken. Touching a clean animal which has died naturally also makes you unclean.


12

A woman is unclean seven days after giving birth to a male child. On the eighth day, the baby is circumcised. The woman is not allowed into the sanctuary for another thirty three days. A woman is clean for two weeks for a female child, and is not allowed into the sanctuary for sixty six days. Sacrifice required after childbirth – a lamb, pigeon or turtledove.


13

The priests will inspect people who shows signs of leprosy, and declares them unclean if it spreads, dwelling outside the camp if necessary. Clothes are to be destroyed if leprosy takes hold in them.


14

Rituals for cleansed lepers. One bird was killed in an earthen vessel over running water, and its blood was applied to a living bird, to some cedar wood, to some scarlet fabric, and to some hyssop. Then, using these things, the blood was sprinkled on the one who was cleansed from leprosy. The living bird was then let go. Ex-lepers must wash all their clothes and shave all their hair off. For seven days they are permitted in the camp, but outside their tents. On the eighth day, a lamb (or two pigeons or doves if they are too poor to afford a lamb) is given as a sin offering. Priests inspect houses where leprosy is suspected – it seems ‘leprosy’ can include fungus and mould infections. Cleansing a house with leprosy requires a similar ritual as for an individual, with two birds.


15

The law of issues and discharges – offering of two pigeons or turtledoves required. Sensible hygiene precautions. When a man discharged semen (either accidentally or in sex), he had to cleanse himself and respect a brief time of ceremonial impurity. A woman who menstruates shall be set apart seven days. Anyone touching anything she sits or lies on shall be unclean too.


16

God tells Moses the instructions for priestly clothing. On the Day of Atonement, two goats are required – one is sacrificed, the other (the scapegoat, which the priest lays hands on and confesses the sins of the Israelites) is cast into the wilderness. The priest atones for himself with a bull before he atones for the people with a goat. The blood of the bull and goat are sprinkled o and in front of the mercy seat, then the animals are burnt outside the camp.


17

Sacrifice must be at the tabernacle and by the appointed priests. No eating blood. If an animal was killed in a hunt and could not be properly bled as in a regular butchering, then the blood was to be poured out on the ground and covered with dust.


18

Incest (‘uncovering the nakedness’) among immediate family prohibited. No lying with a woman ‘at her time of customary impurity’. Molech worship forbidden. Male homosexuality forbidden (in context, this probably is a prohibition against using male prostitutes in pagan temples). Bestiality forbidden.


19

Revere parents, keep Sabbath, refrain from idolatry, eat peace offerings on the day you offer it, do not completely harvest a field so the poor can glean from it, be honest, show compassion, be just and truthful, love your neighbour as yourself, do not let your livestock breed with another kind, do not sow your field with mixed seed, do not wear garment with both wool and linen, do not lie with slavegirls (the penalty is a scourging), be compassionate to the blind and deaf, do not eat the fruit of Canaan for the first three years of entering it, do not divine or soothsay, do not trim beard or the sides of the head, respect the elderly, do not mistreat strangers.


20

Molech-worship punishable by stoning. The occult is prohibited. Cursing a parent, and committing adultery, incest, homosexuality or bestiality punishable by death.


21

Priests are forbidden from touching dead bodies, or from imitating pagan mourning practices. A priest shall not marry a harlot or a divorced woman. The daughter of a priest playing the harlot will be burnt to death. A high preist is not allowed to mourn by uncovering his head or tearing his clothes; he must marry a virgin. Ministering priests must be free from physical defects.


22

Things that can defile a priest: leprosy, a discharge of semen, touching a corpse or something that creeps. Only the priest and his household could eat of the offerings. Sacrificed animals must be without blemish.
Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles occur in the seventh month: the seventh month is thus holy, as the seventh day is.

24

Tabernacle lamp to burn constantly. The showbread to be set in order every Sabbath. An Egyptian blasphemer is stoned to death. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Lord tells Moses instructions for candlestick and showbread. A man with an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father blasphemes God during a fight, and is stoned. Blasphemy is punishable by death – this applies to aliens as well as to Israelites. Killed or maimed animals are to be compensated for financially, but murder must be repaid with death.


25

Every seventh year (a sabbatical year) fields are to be left fallow. God will ensure the sixth year is bountiful so there is enough to eat on sabbatical years. Every seventh sabbatical year is the year of Jubilee – land restored to its original owners. No land to be sold permanently. A kinsman-redeemer may buy back land that has been sold. If a house in a city has been bought over a year ago, however, it becomes the permanent possession of its owner. No usury is permitted when lending to the poor. As in the redemption of land, the kinsman-redeemer would buy the Hebrew slave out of servitude if he could, and the price was reckoned in relation to the year of Jubilee.


26

Obedience will be rewarded with prosperity, disobedience with curses – sounds Deuteronomical, like a suzerain treaty. Genuine repentance will be accepted.


27

Vow of consecration – an amount is paid according to the age and sex of the person to be consecrated. Animals and houses can be consecrated too, and redeemed. A tithe belongs to the Lord.

23

Sacred days:

·         The Sabbath – every seventh day

·         Unleavened Bread – the week after Passover. On the second day, there is Firstfruits – a sheaf of barley is waved by priest, then offered to God

·         Weeks (known as Pentecost to Christians, Shavuot to Jews) – after fifty days have been counted from the offering of Firstfruits. Firstfruits of wheat are offered in Weeks

·         Trumpets – Jewish New Year in September. No work; offering of fire.

·         Atonement (Yom Kippur) – for the ‘afflicting of souls’

·         Tabernacles (Succoth) – dwelling in booths to recall the temporary accommodation during the years in the wilderness