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LXX Leviticus

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 22

1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 Speak to Aaron and to his sons, and let them take heed concerning the holy things of the children of Israel, so they shall not profane my holy name in any of the things which they consecrate to me: I am the Lord. 3 Say to them, Every man throughout your generations, whoever of all your seed shall approach to the holy things, whatever the children of Israel shall consecrate to the Lord, while his uncleanness is upon him, that soul shall be cut off from me: I am the Lord your God. 4 And the man of the seed of Aaron the priest, if he should have leprosy or a genital discharge, shall not eat of the holy things, until he is cleansed; and he that touches any uncleanness of a dead body, or the man whose seed of copulation shall have gone out from him, 5 or whoever shall touch any unclean reptile, which will defile him, or who shall touch a man, by whom he shall be defiled according to all his uncleanness: 6 whatever soul shall touch them shall be unclean until evening; he shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathes his body in water, 7 and the sun goes down, and then he shall be clean; and then he will eat of all the holy things, for they are his bread. 8 He shall not eat that which dies of itself, or is taken of beasts, so that he should be polluted by them: I am the Lord. 9 And they shall keep my ordinances, that they do not bear iniquity because of them, and die because of them, if they shall profane them: I am the Lord God that sanctifies them. 10 And no stranger shall eat the holy things: one that sojourns with a priest, or a hireling, shall not eat the holy things. 11 But if a priest should have a soul purchased for money, he shall eat of his bread; and they that are born in his house, they also shall eat of his bread. 12 And if the daughter of a priest should marry a stranger, she shall not eat of the offerings of the sanctuary. 13 And if the daughter of a priest should be a widow, or put away, and has no seed, she shall return to her father's house, as in her youth: she shall eat of her father's bread, but no stranger shall eat of it. 14 And the man who shall ignorantly eat holy things, shall add the fifth part to it, and give the holy thing to the priest. 15 And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord. 16 So should they bring upon themselves the iniquity of trespass in their eating their holy things: for I am the Lord that sanctifies them. 17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 18 Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to all the congregation of Israel, and you shall say to them, Any man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that live among them in Israel, who shall offer his gifts according to all their confession and according to all their choice, whatever they may bring to God for whole burnt offerings, 19 they shall be acceptable for you, males without blemish of the herds, or of the sheep, or of the goats. 20 They shall not bring to the Lord anything that has a blemish in it, for it shall not be acceptable for you. 21 And whatever man shall offer a peace-offering to the Lord, discharging a vow, or in the way of free will offering, or an offering in your feasts, of the herds or of the sheep, it shall be without blemish for acceptance: there shall be no blemish in it. 22 One that is blind, or broken,⁠ or has its tongue cut out, or is troubled with warts, or has a malignant ulcer, or tetters, they shall not offer these to the Lord; neither shall you offer any of them for a burnt offering on the altar of the Lord. 23 And a calf or a sheep with the ears cut off, or that has lost its tail, you shall kill them for yourself; but they shall not be accepted for your vow. 24 That which has broken testicles, or is crushed or gelded or mutilated, you shall not offer them to the Lord, neither shall you sacrifice them upon your land. 25 Neither shall you offer the gifts of your God of all these things by the hand of a stranger, because there is corruption in them, a blemish in them: these shall not be accepted for you. 26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 As for a calf, or a sheep, or a goat, whenever it is born, then shall it be seven days under its mother; and on the eighth day and after they shall be accepted for sacrifices, a burnt offering to the Lord. 28 And a bullock and a ewe, it and its young, you shall not kill in one day. 29 And if you should offer a sacrifice, a vow of rejoicing to the Lord, you shall offer it so as to be accepted for you. 30 In that same day it shall be eaten; you shall not leave of the flesh till the next day: I am the Lord. 31 And you shall keep my commandments and do them. 32 And you shall not profane the name of the Holy One, and I will be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel. I am the Lord that sanctifies you, 33 who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 22:22 and LXX Leviticus 22:22

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Leviticus 22 lists physical flaws that disqualify animals from being offered, including a rare word whose meaning is uncertain. The Greek Septuagint translation interprets this word as a severed tongue, likely drawing on language from Exodus 11.

Passages

Leviticus 22:22

Hebrew Bible
21 If a man presents a peace-offering sacrifice to the Lord for a special votive offering or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable; it must have no flaw. 22 “‘You must not present to the Lord something blind, or with a broken bone, or mutilated, or with a running sore, or with a festering eruption, or with a feverish rash. You must not give any of these as a gift on the altar to the Lord. 23 As for an ox or a sheep with a limb too long or stunted, you may present it as a freewill offering, but it will not be acceptable for a votive offering.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

LXX Leviticus 22:22

Septuagint
21 And whatever man shall offer a peace-offering to the Lord, discharging a vow, or in the way of free will offering, or an offering in your feasts, of the herds or of the sheep, it shall be without blemish for acceptance: there shall be no blemish in it. 22 One that is blind, or broken, or has its tongue cut out, or is troubled with warts, or has a malignant ulcer, or tetters, they shall not offer these to the Lord; neither shall you offer any of them for a burnt offering on the altar of the Lord. 23 And a calf or a sheep with the ears cut off, or that has lost its tail, you shall kill them for yourself; but they shall not be accepted for your vow.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Leviticus

References

"... Frequently the translator has to cope with unique or rare words, such as the names of animals in Chapter 11. In some cases, their identification posed a difficulty for the Talmudic sages, too. We do not know which of the words used by GL accord with some exegetical tradition and which are simply guesses. It is possible that study groups in the community were not meticulous about specific identifications and were content with “a kind of bird,” “a kind of vermin,” and so on. The same applies to the blemishes that disqualify members of the priestly caste from serving at the altar (Leviticus 21:17-21) and those that render animals unfit as sacrifices (Leviticus 22:22-14), some of them hapax legomenoi. Some of these solutions accord with those in the rabbinic literature... others are inventive. For example, it turns חרוץ (Leviticus 22:22) into γλωσσότμητον (“severed tongue”), evidently under the influence of Exodus 11:7 ..."
Moshe A. Zipor, “The Nature of the Septuagint Version of the Book of Leviticus,” in The Text of Leviticus: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium of the Dominique Barthélemy Institute, ed. Innocent Himbaza (Leuven: Peeters, 2020), 121–132.

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 22:22 and LXX Leviticus 22:22

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