Commentaria in Leviticum
Chapter Twenty-two. Synopsis of the Chapter
It is prescribed that the unclean and aliens abstain from eating the victims. Secondly, verse 18, the blemishes are described which a victim must be free from.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2. Speak to Aaron and his sons, that they beware of those things that are consecrated of the children of Israel, and defile not the name of the things sanctified to me, which they offer: I am the Lord. 3. Say to them, and to their posterity: Every man of your seed that approacheth to those things that are consecrated, and which the children of Israel have offered to the Lord, in whom there is uncleanness, shall perish before the Lord: I am the Lord. 4. Whosoever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a issue of seed, shall not eat of those things that are sanctified to me, till he be healed. He that shall touch one unclean by a dead body, and he from whom the seed of copulation goeth out, 5. and he that toucheth a creeping thing, and any unclean thing, whose touch is defiling, 6. shall be unclean until the evening, and shall not eat those things that are sanctified; but when he hath washed his flesh with water, 7. and the sun is down, then being purified he shall eat of the sanctified things, because it is his food. 8. That which dieth of itself, or was caught by a beast, they shall not eat, nor be defiled with them: I am the Lord. 9. Let them keep my precepts, that they fall not into sin, and die in the sanctuary, having defiled it: I am the Lord who sanctify them. 10. No stranger shall eat of the sanctified things: the sojourner of the priest, and the hired servant, shall not eat of them.
11. But he whom the priest hath bought, and he that is born in his house, these shall eat of them. 12. If the daughter of a priest be married to any of the people, she shall not eat of those things that are sanctified, nor of the first-fruits. 13. But if she be a widow, or divorced, and having no children return to her father’s house, she shall be fed of her father’s meats, as she was wont to be when she was a maid. No stranger hath power to eat of them. 14. He that eateth of the sanctified things through ignorance, shall add the fifth part with that which he ate, and shall give it to the priest in the sanctuary. 15. And they shall not profane the sanctified things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord; 16. lest perhaps they bear the iniquity of their trespass, when they shall have eaten the sanctified things: I am the Lord who sanctify them. 17. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 18. Speak to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The man of the house of Israel, and of the strangers that dwell among you, who offereth his oblation, either paying his vows, or offering voluntarily, whatsoever he offer for a holocaust of the Lord, 19. that it may be offered by you, shall be a male without blemish of the oxen, and of the sheep, and of the goats; 20. if it have a blemish, you shall not offer it, neither shall it be acceptable. 21. The man that offereth a victim of peace offerings to the Lord, either paying his vows, or offering voluntarily, of oxen or of sheep, shall offer one without blemish, that it may be acceptable: there shall be no blemish in it. 22. If it be blind, if it be broken, if it have a scar, if it have pimples, or a scab, or a dry scurf, you shall not offer them to the Lord, nor burn any thing of them upon the altar of the Lord. 23. An ox or a sheep, that hath the ear or the tail cut off, thou mayest offer voluntarily: but a vow cannot be paid with them. 24. You shall not offer to the Lord any beast that hath the stones bruised, or crushed, or cut, or taken away: neither shall you do any such thing in your land. 25. Of the hand of a stranger you shall not offer bread to your God, and whatsoever else he would give: because they are all corrupted and defiled: you shall not receive them. 26. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27. When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat is brought forth, they shall be seven days under the udder of their dam: but the eighth day, and thenceforth, they may be offered to the Lord. 28. Whether it be a cow or a sheep, they shall not be sacrificed the same day with their young ones. 29. If you immolate a victim for thanksgiving to the Lord, that he may be favourable, 30. you shall eat it the same day, there shall not any thing of it remain until the morning of the next day: I am the Lord. 31. Keep my commandments, and do them: I am the Lord. 32. Profane not my holy name, that I may be sanctified in the midst of the children of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctify you, 33. and brought you out of the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. I am the Lord.
THAT THEY BEWARE (that they abstain; in Hebrew, that they be separated, when, namely, they themselves are unclean) FROM THOSE THINGS THAT
3. SAY TO THEM AND TO THEIR POSTERITY—command that this law be kept by their posterity, chiefly because they alone will in fact fulfil and carry it out:
ARE CONSECRATED—which are in any manner offered to God. It was otherwise with what was offered plainly, not to God in sacrifice, but to the Levites and priests for sustenance, such as tithes and first-fruits: for these were not offered to God with solemn rite, nor was any part of them sacrificed to God; hence even unclean Levites could eat them, nay they could sell them to the laity, and exchange them for other things.
AND DEFILE NOT THE NAME OF THE THINGS SANCTIFIED TO ME—as if to say: Let them not defile my sacred things, nor sprinkle a mark of impurity on what is sanctified and offered to me: our Interpreter read in the Hebrew kadashai, that is, of the things sanctified to me; others with other points read kodshi, that is, of my holiness, as if to say: my holy name.
But our version reads better kadashai, because there follows, “which they offer to me”; for these are the things sanctified to God.
for those present only hear and receive it, but will not fulfil it. The reason is, because these ceremonial laws were not observed in the desert, both because in it there was no stable tabernacle nor dwelling-place; and because in it they had no commerce with the Gentiles to buy incense, wine, honey, animals and other things which God commanded to be offered and sacrificed to him: hence also they lived there forty years on manna alone. See what was said in the preceding chapter, verse 12.
EVERY MAN THAT APPROACHETH (to eat) TO THOSE THINGS THAT ARE CONSECRATED, IN WHOM THERE IS UNCLEANNESS (which is explained in verse 4, namely if he be a leper, polluted by seed, if he touched a dead body or a creeping thing, if he ate a carcass), SHALL PERISH BEFORE THE LORD.—The Hebrew is, that soul shall be cut off from my face, that is, from me, as the Septuagint render.