Leviticus 22
BBCLeviticus 22:1
22:1-9 If a priest was ceremonially unclean through leprosy, a running discharge, contact with something defiled by a dead body, eating meat that had not been drained of its blood, or for any other reason, he was not to partake of the food of the priests. That is what is meant by “separate themselves from the holy things” (v. 2). If the priest was a leper or had a running sore, the disqualification probably lasted for a long time. In the other cases mentioned, the following ritual prevailed for the priest: First, he must bathe himself, then wait until the evening, at which time he would be clean again. 22:10-13 In general, strangers, visitors, and hired servants were not permitted to eat the holy food. But a slave who had been purchased by the priest, as well as the slave’s children, could eat it. If the priest’s daughter got married to an outsider, she was not permitted to eat it, but if she were widowed or divorced and childless, and living with her father, then she could share the food of the priests. 22:14-16 If a man ate some of the holy food unintentionally, he could make restitution by replacing it and adding one-fifth, as in the case of the trespass offering. 22:17-30 Offerings brought to the LORD had to be without blemish (v. 19), whether for burnt offerings (vv. 18-20) or peace offerings (v. 21). Diseased, disabled, or disfigured animals were forbidden (v. 22). A bull or a lamb with an overgrown limb or a stunted limb could be presented for a freewill offering but not for a votive offering (v. 23). Castrated animals or those with damaged reproductive organs were not acceptable (v. 24). Israelites were not to accept any of the above defective animals as an offering from a stranger (v. 25). A sacrificial animal could not be offered until it was at least eight days old (vv. 26, 27).
A mother animal and her young were not to be killed on the same day (v. 28). The meat of a thanksgiving offering was to be eaten . . . on the same day that it was offered (vv. 29, 30). 22:31-33 The final paragraph explains why the Israelites were to keep and perform all these commandments of the LORD. It was because the God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt is holy. Several expressions in this short section stress the message of Leviticus as a whole: “not profane,” “holy name,” “I will be hallowed,” and “I am the LORD who sanctifies.”