¹tn The complex wording of vv. 3-4 requires stating “blood guilt” up front in v. 3 even though it is not mentioned until the middle of v. 4. The Hebrew text has simply “blood,” but in this case it refers to the illegitimate shedding of animal blood, similar to the shedding of the blood of an innocent human being (Deut 19:10, etc.). In order for it to be legitimate the animal must be slaughtered at the tabernacle and its blood handled by the priests in the prescribed way (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:2, 17; 4:5-7; 7:26-27, etc.; cf. vv. 10-16 below for more details).
²tn Heb “Man man.” The reduplication is way of saying “any man” (cf. Lev 15:2; 22:18, etc.). See the note on Lev 15:2.
³tn The original LXX adds “or the sojourners who sojourn in your midst” (cf. Lev 16:29, etc., and note esp. 17:8, 10, and 13 below).
⁴tn Heb “or who slaughters from outside to the camp.”
⁵tn The Samaritan Pentateuch and LXX add after “tent of meeting” the following: “to make it a burnt offering or a peace offering to the Lord for your acceptance as a soothing aroma, and slaughters it outside, and at the doorway of the tent of meeting has not brought it.”
⁶tc The Samaritan Pentateuch includes the suffix “it.”
⁷sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean (1) that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, (2) that he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits, or (3) that his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation). See the note on Lev 7:20.
⁸tn Heb “So that which.”
⁹tn Heb “on the faces of the field.”
¹⁰tn The LXX adds “all around” (i.e., Hebrew byb!s* [“all around”]), which is normal for this overall construction (see, e.g., Lev 1:5; 3:8, etc.).
¹¹tn Heb “sacrifice.” This has been translated as “offer” for stylistic reasons to avoid the redundancy of “sacrifice their sacrifices.”
¹²tn On “goat demons” of the desert regions see the note on Lev 16:8.
¹³tn Heb “which they are committing harlotry after them.”
¹⁴tn Heb “for your generations.”
¹⁵tn Heb “Man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any [or ‘every’] man” (GKC §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).
¹⁶tn Heb “and.”
¹⁷tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
¹⁸tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”
¹⁹tn Heb “cause to go up.”
²⁰tn Heb “to make it.”
²¹tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.
²²tn Heb “And man, man.” The repetition of the word “man” is distributive, meaning “any (or every) man” (GKC §123.c; cf. Lev 15:2).
²³tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
²⁴tc The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have “your” (plural) rather than “their.”
²⁵tn Heb “I will give my faces against [literally ‘in’] the soul/person/life [vp#n\, feminine] who eats the blood and I will cut it [i.e., that vp#n\] off from the midst of its people.” The uses of vp#n\ in this and the following verse are most significant for the use of animal blood in Israel’s sacrificial system. Unfortunately, it is a most difficult word to translate accurately and consistently, and this presents a major problem for the rendering of these verses (see, e.g., Wenham, Leviticus, NICOT, 244-245). No matter which translation of vp#n\ one uses here, it is important to see that both man and animal have vp#n\ and that this vp#n\ is identified with the blood. See the further remarks on v. 11 below. On the “cutting off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above. In this instance, God takes it on himself to “cut off” the person (i.e., extirpation).
²⁶tn Heb “for the soul/life (vp#n\) of the flesh, it is in the blood” (cf. the note of v. 10 above and v. 14 below). Although most modern translations begin a new sentence in v. 11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood,…” (see, e.g., NJPS, NASB, NIV, NRSV, etc.), the yK! (“for; because”) at the beginning of the verse suggests continuation from v. 10, as the rendering here indicates (see, e.g., the NEB, Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261, and Wenham, Leviticus, NICOT, 239).
sn This verse is a well-known crux interpretum for blood atonement in the Bible. The close association between the blood and “the soul/life [vp#n\] of the flesh [rc*B*]” (v. 11a) begins in Gen 9:2-5 (if not Gen 4:10-11), where the Lord grants man the eating of meat (i.e., the “flesh” of animals) but also issues a warning: “But flesh [rc*B*] with its soul/life [vp#n\], [which is] its blood, you shall not eat” (cf. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 [WBC], 151 and 193). Unfortunately, the difficulty in translating vp#n\ consistently (see the note on v. 10 above) obscures the close connection between the (human) “person” in v. 10 and “the life” (of animals, 2 times) and “your (human) lives” in v. 11, all of which are renderings of vp#n\ in Hebrew. The basic logic of the passage is that (a) no vp#n\ should eat the blood when he eats the rc*B* of an animal (v. 10) because (b) the vp#n\ of rc*B* is identified with the blood that flows through and permeates it (v. 11a), and (c) the Lord himself has assigned (i.e., limited the use of) animal blood, that is, animal vp#n\, to be the instrument or price of making atonement for the vp#n\ of people (v. 11b). See the detailed remarks and literature cited in NIDOTTE 2:693-95, 697-98.
²⁷tn Heb “And I myself have given it to you.”
²⁸tn Heb “for the blood, it by [b (bet) preposition “in”] the life makes atonement.” The interpretation of the preposition is pivotal here. Some scholars have argued that it is a bet of exchange; that is, “the blood makes atonement in exchange for the life [of the slaughtered animal]” (see NIDOTTE 2:694-95, 697 for analysis and criticism of this view). It is more likely that, as in the previous clause (“your lives”), “life/soul” (vp#n\) here refers to the person who makes the offering, not the animal offered. The blood of the animal makes atonement for the person who offers it either “by means of” (instrumental bet) the “life/soul” of the animal, which it symbolizes or embodies (the meaning of the translation given here); or perhaps the blood of the animal functions as “the price” (bet of price) for ransoming the “life/soul” of the person.
²⁹tn Heb “all/any person from you shall not eat blood.”
³⁰tn Heb “and the sojourner, the one sojourning in your midst, shall not eat blood.”
³¹tc A few medieval Hebrew mss, Samaritan Pentateuch, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “from the house of Israel” as in vv. 3, 8, and 10, but the LXX agrees with the MT.
³²tn Heb “from the sojourner who sojourns.”
³³tc The LXX, Syriac, Vulgate, and certain mss of the Samaritan Pentateuch have “your” (plural) rather than “their” (cf. v. 10 above).
³⁴tn Heb “[wild] game of animal.”
³⁵tn That is, it must be a clean animal, not an unclean animal (cf. Lev 11).
³⁶tn Heb “for the life/soul [vp#n\] of all flesh, its blood in its life/soul [vp#n\] it is.” The LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate leave out “in its life/soul,” which would naturally yield “for the life of all flesh, its blood it is” (see Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 261 and 263). The translation above is perhaps an oversimplification, but the meaning is basically the same in any case.
³⁷tn Heb “of all flesh” (also later in this verse).
³⁸tn For remarks on the “cut off” penalty see the note on v. 4 above.
³⁹tn Heb “And any soul” (vp#n\).
⁴⁰sn The term “carcass” refers to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice.
⁴¹tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”
⁴²tn The words “his clothes” are not in the Hebrew text, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.
⁴³tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment for the iniquity” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity. It is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).
sn For the interpretation of this verse reflected in the present translation see the remarks on Lev 5:1 in Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 [AB], 292-97.