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Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 17

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, 2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them, ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded, 3 “Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, 4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people.⁠ 5 This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent—to the priest—and sacrifice them there as peace-offering sacrifices to the Lord. 6 The priest is to splash the blood on the altar of the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and offer the fat up in smoke for a soothing aroma to the Lord. 7 So the people must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons, acting like prostitutes by going after them.⁠ This is to be a perpetual statute for them throughout their generations.”’ 8 “You are to say to them: ‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst, who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice 9 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to offer it to the Lord—that person will be cut off from his people. 10 “‘Any man from the house of Israel or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats the blood,⁠ and I will cut him off from the midst of his people,⁠ 11 for the life of every living thing is in the blood. So I myself have assigned it to you on the altar to make atonement for your lives, for the blood makes atonement by means of the life. 12 Therefore, I have said to the Israelites: No person among you is to eat blood, and no resident foreigner who lives among you is to eat blood. 13 “‘Any man from the Israelites or from the resident foreigners who live in their midst who hunts a wild animal or a bird that may be eaten must pour out its blood and cover it with soil,⁠ 14 for the life of all flesh is its blood. So I have said to the Israelites: You must not eat the blood of any living thing because the life of every living thing is its blood—all who eat it will be cut off. 15 “‘Any person who eats an animal that has died of natural causes or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a resident foreigner, must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he will be clean. 16 But if he does not wash his clothes and does not bathe his body, he will bear his punishment for his iniquity.’”

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 17:4 and Samaritan Leviticus 17:4

Hebrew Bible · Samaritan

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Summary

Leviticus 17 commands that sacrifices be brought to the tabernacle, but the Samaritan Pentateuch includes a longer version, also found in the Greek Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls. These versions add clarifying details about how offerings are made.

Passages

Leviticus 17:4

Hebrew Bible
2 “Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites, and tell them, ‘This is the word that the Lord has commanded, 3 “Blood guilt will be accounted to any man from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox or a lamb or a goat inside the camp or outside the camp, 4 but has not brought it to the entrance of the Meeting Tent to present it as an offering to the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord. He has shed blood, so that man will be cut off from the midst of his people. 5 This is so that the Israelites will bring their sacrifices that they are sacrificing in the open field to the Lord at the entrance of the Meeting Tent—to the priest—and sacrifice them there as peace-offering sacrifices to the Lord.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Samaritan Leviticus 17:4

Samaritan · Samaritan Penteteuch
2 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘This is what Shema has commanded, saying, 3 ‘If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, 4 and has not brought it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to make it a burned offering or a peace offering to Shema so that it may be accepted for a pleasing aroma, and he killed it outside and he did not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as an offering to Shema in front of the tabernacle of Shema, that man shall be held responsible for bloodshed. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people. 5 So that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, so that they may bring them to Shema, to the entrance of the tent of meeting, to the priest, and sacrifice them as peace offerings to Shema.
130–120 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Samaritan Leviticus

References

"... A further difficulty posed by Leviticus 17:3-7 is the textual variation in the key verses 3-4 preserved in the ancient witnesses; and it is this textual variation that makes these verses a particularly fascinating case study of how evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls can reframe classical issues in Pentateuchal research. In the LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch, and one manuscript from Qumran, 4QLev (4Q26), verse 4 contains a lengthy plus over against the shorter text preserved in Masoretic text and another manuscript from Qumran, namely 11QpaleoLev (11Q1). The plus offers an expanded description of the offering that is to be presented by the person who wishes to slaughter his or her livestock for food. The length of the plus is particularly striking given the high degree of uniformity that usually characterizes the text of Leviticus ..."
Julia Rhyder, “The Prohibition of Local Butchery in Leviticus 17:3–4: The Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in La Bible hébraïque et les manuscrits de la mer Morte. Études en l’honneur de George Brooke, eds. Christophe Nihan and Julia Rhyder (Semitica, 2020), 307–327.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 17:4 and Samaritan Leviticus 17:4

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