Leviticus

Richard Hess, Tremper Longman III, David E. Garland

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780310531746
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

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Text and Exposition

I. THE OFFERINGS (1:1–7:38)

OVERVIEW

The text moves through a description of each of the offerings: the burnt offering, the grain offering, the fellowship offering, the purification offering, and the reparation offering (1:3–6:7 [1:3–5:26]). Then follows what seems to be a repetition of each of these offerings (6:8–7:38 [6:1–7:38]). The best way to understand these two sets of descriptions is to see the perspectives from which they were written. The first set describes the offerings in more detail and especially considers the responsibilities of the person making the offering—the offerer. The second set of descriptions presumes and builds on the first set with some additional instructions regarding the tasks of the priests making the offerings.

This conclusion is not only apparent from the contents of the sets of instructions; it is also explicitly stated and repeated in each of the sections. Thus the sections for the people of Israel begin in 1:2 with, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them.” Leviticus 4:2 repeats the divine command to address all Israel. Note also the general instructions that begin the different offerings: 1:2, “When any of you”; 2:1, “When someone”; 3:1, “If someone’s”; 4:1, “When anyone”; 5:1–4, 17, “If a person”; 5:14, “When a person”; 6:1 [5:21] “If anyone.” In the second set of offering instructions, most of the offerings, and sometimes subsections of each description, are introduced by, “Give Aaron and his sons this command,” or a variation of the same (6:9, 14, 20, 25 [6:2, 7, 13, 18]).

The reparation offering is not introduced in this manner in the second set (7:1–2); but neither is it introduced like those in the first set. Only the fellowship offering is described in the second set of instructions in a similar manner as the first set (7:11b): “a person may present to the LORD.” However, the fellowship offering is distinctive, as most of the activity involves the offerer and the Lord, without much intervention by or special provision for the priest. Further, the prohibitions of 7:22–27 are universal and apply to both priests and Israelites. Also, the discussion of the priests’ share in 7:28–38 concerns the priests, but the regulations must be addressed to all Israel so that they know what to give to the priests from their offerings.

A. The Offerings from the People’s Perspective (1:1–6:7 [1:1–5:26])

OVERVIEW

The style of this text and the sequence of the offerings have been compared to descriptive offering texts found in other contemporary cultures of the ancient Near East, especially Ugarit, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. For the order of these sacrifices, see the Introduction on “Scholarship and Interpretation.”

1. Introduction and the Burnt Offering (1:1–17)

a. Introduction (1:1–2)

1The LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting. He said, 2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any of you brings an offering to the LORD, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock.

COMMENTARY

1 The book begins with a standard narrative verbal form (waw consecutive plus imperfect). This suggests that the laws and regulations that follow are understood as part of the story of divine revelation of God’s will to Moses on Mount Sinai. They form part of the historic context of the founding of God’s people. They also give this revelation an authority that cannot be questioned by anyone in Israel.

The first three words in the Hebrew text, “called to Moses,” are found in this sequence only at one other point in the OT—Exodus 24:16. There as well it is God who calls to Moses and introduces him to a series of cultic regulations for the construction of the tabernacle (Ex 25–30). This form is repeated at the beginning of Leviticus to introduce a second series of cultic laws. Now that the tabernacle has been built and all is in order, it is time to define the ceremonies that are to take place in the holy tent. This tent (lit., the “tent for meeting”) is named 146 times in the OT. Most occurrences are in the Pentateuch and Chronicles. It first appears in Exodus 27, where its construction is described in detail. Once built, it becomes the regular place at which God speaks with Moses.

2 The revelation of God is to be presented to Israel in oral form rather than as something that is written. The expression, “Speak to the Israelites,” occurs thirty-one times in Exodus through Numbers and only once elsewhere (Jos 20:2). Previously in Exodus, it was used of instructions that were to be carried out immediately rather than permanent legal injunctions. For example, Exodus 14:2, 15 uses the phrase in reference to Israel’s positioning of itself at the crossing of the Reed Sea. Its use here in Leviticus is surprising, as the regulations that follow are normally understood as permanent. But the expression recurs another thirteen times in Leviticus, often to introduce legislation. Perhaps it reflects the urgency of these laws. They are intended to provide immediate relief from sin and to restore fellowship with God.

The phrase “any of you” translates ʾādām (GK 132), the word for “people,” as in Genesis 1:26–28. The implication is that any Israelite who can understand the instructions, whether man or woman, is welcome to bring the offerings described in these chapters. See Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 145; Knierim, 14–16, who allow for a gender neutral ʾādām but err with the argument that only men would slaughter cattle.

The term for “offering” (qorbān, GK 7933) is the most general term and describes what is brought near (to God). It appears twice, at the beginning and end of this verse. Both times it occurs as the object of its cognate verb qrb, meaning, “to bring near.” This forms an envelope around the heart of the message that describes the dedication and composition of the offering.

The dedication is to the Lord. Behind this lies the understanding that all the offerings in Leviticus are to be dedicated to Yahweh, the covenantal name of the God of Israel. The composition of the offering is from the livestock of Israel. This includes domesticated beasts that were used for their milk and wool and were occasionally eaten. The specification of “herd” (bāqār, GK 1330) and “flock” (ṣō ʾn, GK 7366) refers to larger and smaller livestock and is thereby inclusive of all the animals the Israelites herded.

Here then are the principal elements of that which is to be given to the Lord, whether in gratitude or as a means to restore fellowship. It is dedicated solely to the Lord and for no other purpose. It is brought by the one for whose benefit the sacrifice is made. It is taken from the property of the offerer. For the Christian, this anticipates the offering of Christ and the subsequent call to believers to offer themselves to God (Ro 12:1–2; cf. Rainey, 210; Hartley, 25; Rooker, 93, for association with the burnt offering). Thus Keil, 291, expresses it elegantly:

If the burning and sending up in the altar-fire shadowed forth the self-surrender of the offerer to the purifying fire of the Holy Ghost . . . the burnt-offering was an embodiment of the idea of the consecration and self-surrender of the whole man to the Lord, to be pervaded by the refining and sanctifying power of divine grace.

NOTES

1 C. R. Smith (“The Literary Structure of Leviticus,” JSOT 70 [1996]: 17–32) observes that only in Leviticus 1:1 and Numbers 1:1 does the Bible relate that God spoke to Moses at the Tent of Meeting. This expression “bookends” Leviticus, separating it from what precedes (Exodus) and from what follows (Numbers).

Tents for religious purposes are attested in Hittite texts from 1400–1200 BC, in seventeenth-century BC texts from Mari, and in Ugarit as the home of the Ugaritic chief deity, El, who meets there with the assembly of the gods (puḥru mô ʿidi, “assembly of meeting”; note the resemblance to mô ʿēd, “meeting” [GK 4595], in “Tent of Meeting”). See Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 139–42.

Rolf Rendtorff (“Is It Possible to Read Leviticus as a Separate Book?” in Reading Leviticus: A Conversation with Mary Douglas, ed. J. F. A. Sawyer [JSOTSup 227; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996]: 26–27) and Rolf Knierim (“The Composition of the Pentateuch,” in Society of Biblical Literature 1985 Seminar Papers [Atlanta: Scholars, 1985], 405) have adduced this verse as at the center of the structure of the Sinai revelation, between the revelation from Mount Sinai itself (Ex 19–40) and the revelation from the Tent of Meeting (Lev 1:1–Nu 10:10). This text lies at the heart of the Pentateuch. See also Warning, 37.

2 Milgrom (Leviticus 1–16, 143–44) notes how different this is from the rituals of Mesopotamia and Egypt, where the knowledge of the form of the ceremonies was kept secret from the commoners and known only to the priests. This contrasts with the Israelite sacrifices, the details of which were to be made known to all believers.

b. The burnt offering (1:3–17)

OVERVIEW

The presentation of the burnt offering naturally divides into three parts: the offering of the cattle in vv.3–9, the offering of the sheep and goats in vv.10–13, and the offering of birds in vv.14–17. The first two parts share nine distinct elements, while the third part includes six or seven of these.

There is no direct correspondence to the washing (number 8) for the birds. But the ritual is one of cleansing and that corresponds to the cropping of the bird. This occurs in v.16, before number 6, the tearing of the wings, which appears in v.17.

Burnt Offering

Elements	Cattle	Sheep/Goats	Birds
1a Condition of offerer making offering	3 If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd,	10 If the offering is a burnt offering from the flock,	14 If the offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds,
1b Specification		from either the sheep or the goats,	he is to offer a dove or a young pigeon.
2 Quality	he is to offer a male without defect.	h...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Leviticus
• Introduction
• I. THE OFFERINGS (1:1–7:38)
• II. THE ORDINATION AND SERVICE OF THE PRIESTS (8:1–10:20)
• III. LAWS OF CLEANNESS AND UNCLEANNESS (11:1–15:33)
• IV. THE DAY OF ATONEMENT (16:1–34)
• V. THE HOLINESS CODE (17:1–26:46)
• VI. ADDENDUM ON VOWS AND THINGS DEDICATED AND DEVOTED (27:1–34)