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The Hittite Instructions for Temple Officials warn that worship violations provoke severe divine punishment on the offender. Leviticus 10 follows this, describing a similar consequence when Nadab and Abihu’s unauthorized fire results in their death.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Instructions for Temple Officials
Ancient Near East
2 Furthermore, let those who prepare the daily loaves be clean. Let them be bathed and groomed, let their body hair and nails be removed. Let them be clothed in clean dresses. While unclean, let them not prepare the loaves; let those who are agreeable to the gods’ soul and person prepare them. The bakers’ house in which they prepare them—let that be swept and scrubbed. 3 If then, on the other hand, anyone arouses the anger of a god, does the god take revenge on him alone? Does he not take revenge on his wife, his children, his descendants, his kin, his slaves, and slave-girls, his cattle and sheep together with his crop and will utterly destroy him? Be very reverent indeed to the word of a god! 4 Further: The festival of the month, the festival of the year, the festival of the stag, the festival of autumn, the festival of spring, the festival of thunder, the festival of pudahas, the festival of isuwas, the festival of dulassas, the festival of the holy priest, the festivals of the rhyton, the festivals of the Old Men, the festivals of the mothers-of-god, the festivals of dahiyas, the festivals of the upati men, the festivals of pulas, the festivals of hahratar, or whatever festival else will be celebrated in Hattusa—if you do not celebrate them with all the cattle, sheep, loaves, beer and wine set before the gods, and if you, the god’s priests, make a deal with those who give all that, you can be sure that the gods will notice what is amiss.
Leviticus 10:1
Hebrew Bible
1 Then Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his fire pan and put fire in it, set incense on it, and presented strange fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do. 2 So fire went out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them so that they died before the Lord. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke: ‘Among the ones close to me I will show myself holy, and in the presence of all the people I will be honored.’” So Aaron kept silent.
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Notes and References
“... A Hittite text, “Instructions for Temple Officials,” offers a striking parallel: “If ... the kitchen servant ... gives the god to eat from an unclean [vessel], to such a man the gods will give dung (and) urine to eat (and) to drink” (ANET 209, lines 600-18). Furthermore, Malachi’s karet penalty, which the Lord will impose on the offender and his descendants, is precisely matched in this Hittite text: “does the god take revenge on him alone? Does he not take revenge on his wife, his children, his descendants, his kin, his slaves, his slave-girls, his cattle (and) sheep together with his crop and will utterly destroy him?” (ANET 208, lines 35-38). These resemblances (and others) between the two documents are so remarkable that the possibility must be entertained that this Hittite text lay before Malachi (Segal 1983-84). Be that as it may, the comparison between the two clarifies and defines the exact meaning of karet: extirpation of the offender’s entire line. ...”
Milgrom, Jacob
Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary
(p. 370, 473) Doubleday, 1991
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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