Leviticus 22

THE LORD SAID to Moses, 2“Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings the Israelites consecrate to me, so they will not profane my holy name. I am the LORD.

3“Say to them: ‘For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.

4“‘If a descendant of Aaron has an infectious skin disease or a bodily discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is cleansed. He will also be unclean if he touches something defiled by a corpse or by anyone who has an emission of semen, 5or if he touches any crawling thing that makes him unclean, or any person who makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be. 6The one who touches any such thing will be unclean till evening. He must not eat any of the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water. 7When the sun goes down, he will be clean, and after that he may eat the sacred offerings, for they are his food. 8He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, and so become unclean through it. I am the LORD.

9“‘The priests are to keep my requirements so that they do not become guilty and die for treating them with contempt. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.

10“‘No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it. 11But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food. 12If a priest’s daughter marries anyone other than a priest, she may not eat any of the sacred contributions. 13But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or is divorced, yet has no children, and she returns to live in her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s food. No unauthorized person, however, may eat any of it.

14“‘If anyone eats a sacred offering by mistake, he must make restitution to the priest for the offering and add a fifth of the value to it. 15The priests must not desecrate the sacred offerings the Israelites present to the LORD 16by allowing them to eat the sacred offerings and so bring upon them guilt requiring payment. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.’”

17The LORD said to Moses, 18“Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: ‘If any of you—either an Israelite or an alien living in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, 19you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. 20Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. 21When anyone brings from the herd or flock a fellowship offering to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without defect or blemish to be acceptable. 22Do not offer to the LORD the blind, the injured or the maimed, or anything with warts or festering or running sores. Do not place any of these on the altar as an offering made to the LORD by fire. 23You may, however, present as a freewill offering an ox or a sheep that is deformed or stunted, but it will not be accepted in fulfillment of a vow. 24You must not offer to the LORD an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn or cut. You must not do this in your own land, 25and you must not accept such animals from the hand of a foreigner and offer them as the food of your God. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and have defects.’”

26The LORD said to Moses, 27“When a calf, a lamb or a goat is born, it is to remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made to the LORD by fire. 28Do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day.

29“When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, sacrifice it in such a way that it will be accepted on your behalf. 30It must be eaten that same day; leave none of it till morning. I am the LORD.

31“Keep my commands and follow them. I am the LORD. 32Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the LORD, who makes you holy 33and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”

Original Meaning

LEVITICUS 22 CONTINUES the topic introduced in the last part of chapter 21: disqualifications with regard to sacred things. In 21:16–23 a physically defective descendant of Aaron is permitted to eat priestly portions, including most holy ones, but is permanently barred from priestly officiation. In 22:1–7, Moses deals with temporary disqualification of nondefective priests from officiation as a result of contracting physical ritual impurity.

Until the required purificatory procedures have been completed and the full term of impurity has expired (e.g., until evening), a priest must be careful not to illegitimately use (Qal of qrb; lit., “approach”)1 sacred things that the Israelites dedicate to the Lord (22:3). Disqualification of impure priests is based on the same principle as the rule that an impure lay offerer is prohibited from eating meat of a well-being offering (7:20–21): Impurity that represents human mortality may not be brought into contact with holiness that characterizes the pure, immortal sphere of God.

In the context of restrictions on what priests may eat, 22:8 prohibits priests from eating animals not slaughtered by humans because they die of themselves or are killed by animals. Priests are held to a higher standard than laypersons, who are permitted to incur minor impurity by eating such an animal (17:15).

While most holy sacrificial portions must be eaten in the sacred precincts by the officiating priest himself (6:26—purification offering) or a male member of a priestly family (7:6—reparation offering), holy portions may be shared with other family members as part of their livelihood. The boundaries of a priestly family authorized to partake of sacred offerings are specified in 22:10–13. In accordance with the procedure already established in 5:16, if an unauthorized person inadvertently eats a holy thing, he or she must make reparation (22:14).

Like 22:2, 9, verses 15–16 exhort the priests to prevent desecration of the people’s offerings. Verse 16 adds that if the priests do desecrate the sacred things that laypersons dedicate to the Lord by permitting them to eat the priestly portions of what they give, they will cause the Israelites to bear culpability (ʿawon) of liability (ʾašmah) that requires reparation (22:16).2

Leviticus 22:17–25 continues the overall topic of qualifications in regard to sacred gifts. At issue here is the physical qualification of animals brought as sacrifices. This is relevant to the Israelites as a whole because they must offer fit victims, and to the priests in particular since they would undoubtedly be responsible for inspecting animals before slaughter.

From earlier sacrificial regulations we know that in order to be acceptable, a sacrifice had to be unblemished (tamim; lit., “whole/complete”; 22:18–21; cf. 1:3; 3:1; 4:28), that is, free from serious defect. Paralleling the list of defects that disqualify priests (21:18–20), 22:22–24 specifies the kinds of defects that render animals unfit.3

The rules in chapter 22 only apply to cattle, sheep, or goats (22:19; not including birds), and the defects listed in verses 22–24 are limited to those that are outwardly visible. Verses 26–30 wrap up the topic of ritual qualifications. Apparently out of respect for life, a baby animal may not be taken from its mother as a sacrifice during the first seven days of its life (v. 27),4 and an animal and its young are not to be sacrificed the same day (v. 28).5

Leviticus 22:29–30, reiterating the rule that a thanksgiving offering must be eaten the same day (7:15), complements 19:5–7, which repeats the requirement that other kinds of well-being offerings must be eaten by the second day (7:16–18). Thus 19:5–7 and 22:29–30 form an inclusio that binds together chapters 19–22, which emphasize spatial and personal holiness. This structural “envelope” also relates to 7:15 and 7:16–18 in reverse order to create a chiasm:6

thanksgiving offering to be eaten same day (7:15)

other well-being offerings to be eaten by second day (7:16–18)

other well-being offerings to be eaten by second day (19:5–7)

thanksgiving offering to be eaten same day (22:29–30)

A concluding exhortation (22:31–33) contains elements that parallel ingredients of exhortations in chapters 18–21:

• summary command to keep the Lord’s regulations

• reminder that “I am the LORD” (in each verse)

• warning against profaning God’s holy name

• warning that the Lord must be treated as holy among the Israelites

• reminder that it is the Lord who makes Israel holy

• reminder that the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt to be their God

Bridging Contexts

UNBLEMISHED SACRIFICES. Both officiating priests and sacrificial victims must be unblemished in a limited sense (chs. 21–22). In the New Testament, the ultimately unblemished Christ fuses the two ritual roles in himself. As Priest, he is free from the underlying physical blemish that limited the effectiveness of the Aaronic priesthood: mortality (Heb. 7). Furthermore, while he is an empathetic Mediator, he is free from the moral blemish of sin (4:15) that required Aaronic priests to offer sacrifices for their own shortcomings (5:3; 7:27).

In 1 Peter 2:21–25, alluding to Isaiah 53, Christ’s freedom from sin qualified him as the perfect Victim. The fact that he was “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19) was crucial not only to the validity of his sacrifice for its intended global purpose, but also because his successful self-sacrifice qualified him for his uniquely effective priesthood (Heb. 9:12).

Christ’s life on earth in harmony with God’s law of love serves an additional function: as an example to us (1 Peter 2:21; see also Phil. 2:5–8). Paul’s appeal “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1) implies that we can aspire to be without blemish as Christ was. Paul refers to total dedication of physical and mental energies to God and transformation “by the renewing of your mind” (12:2). Our transformation is a gift from God through his Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4–7), who brings divine love into our hearts (Rom. 5:5).

Contemporary Significance

NO DUMPING ALLOWED. An Israelite who acquired a defective animal from a foreigner was not permitted to pass the problem on to the Lord by offering the animal to him (22:25). Treating God with respect called for giving him something of quality. While he offers needy people abundant help (e.g., Isa. 45:22; Heb. 4:14–16) and accepts a widow’s mite (Mark 12:42–44), this does not mean that his people should dump on him “gifts” that neither they nor anybody else wants.

A real estate teacher described an extreme example of an attempt to use God as a dumping ground. A man owned a large piece of property in California, but squatters settled there. When a state health official discovered substandard sanitary conditions in the burgeoning community of uninvited guests, he held the owner responsible and registered a lien against the property. Unwilling to pay and unable to sell the property because of the lien, the owner deeded the property to God! But his attempt to lean on the “everlasting arms” failed. A judge threw out his solution because the law does not allow real estate to be irretrievably alienated—that is, given or sold in such a way that its ownership can never again be transferred (between human beings). If the property belonged to God, its subsequent transfer would require God’s signature (cf. Ex. 31:18; Deut. 9:10). Besides, how would the government collect property taxes from God?

Do we devote our best to God in terms of time, energy, and other resources? Or do we condescendingly give him leftover bits of the day, such as spare time (what’s that?) and spare change, as if he is a beggar? Speaking of beggars, Jesus said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:40). Do we treat others the way we would treat Jesus? Obviously, our resources are finite and we have families to support. But do we ever “sacrifice” anything from our abundance for anyone else? Or do we only give to others what we would otherwise haul to the dump or use to clothe a scarecrow in the garden?

Another way to dump problems on God is to expect him to do for us things we can and ought to do for ourselves. When we ask him to bless us in spite of the fact that we violate the cause-and-effect principles through which his blessing comes, we are being unreasonable. Why should he give us success when we are sloppy, provide us with health when we abuse it, make our families happy when we are selfish, or take us to the mountaintop of spiritual fulfillment when we choose forms of entertainment that pull us down in the opposite direction?

The Israelites repeatedly tried to dump their problems on God, as we will see in our study of Numbers. A later episode comes from Judges 10. When the apostate Israelites cried to the Lord to deliver them from the Ammonites, he replied: “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you when you are in trouble!” (Judg. 10:14). Why should he save them from disaster resulting from their faithlessness when they persisted in hanging on to the cause of their difficulty, namely, their idolatry? When they finally recognized that they were in control of the root of the problem and took action to do their part by getting rid of their false gods (10:15–16a), the whole divine-human dynamic changed. Now they were no longer dumping on him. Now their problem was his problem, “and he could bear Israel’s misery no longer” (10:16b).

When God appears harsh, unfeeling, or unresponsive, sometimes it is because he is unwilling to support our addiction to sin by entering into a codependent relationship with us. Just as family members of those addicted to destructive drugs, alcohol, illicit sex, or gambling need to learn redemptive “tough love” by refusing to bear responsibility that is not theirs, God reinforces our willpower by teaching us the nature, consequences, and power of our own choices.