Leviticus21:1–15

Where the English smooths the original

• לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ BSB's “for a dead person” renders lə·ne·p̄eš (H5315, nephesh), which is “a breathing creature, a soul.” The Hebrew does not say corpse; it says for a soul — the departed person named by the very word for life. Keil & Delitzsch render it exactly so: “on account of a soul, i.e., a dead person.” The English supplies “dead” that the noun itself withholds, blunting the haunting choice of word.
• יִטַּמָּ֖א BSB's “defile himself” renders yiṭ·ṭam·mā (H2930, ṭâmêʼ) in the Hitpael — a reflexive: he shall not make himself foul. Defilement here is something the priest does to himself by contact, not a misfortune that befalls him. The plain English passive hides the reflexive force the stem carries.
• בְּנֵ֣י הַכֹּהֲנִ֖ים BSB's “Aaron's sons, the priests” renders the unusual order bə·nê … hak·kō·hă·nîm. Ellicott flags it: “The peculiar phrase 'the priests the sons of Aaron,' which only occurs here.” Elsewhere the Pentateuch reverses it (“sons of Aaron the priests”); the inverted order is designed to teach that they are priests by virtue of being Aaron's sons, not by merit — a nuance the smooth English ordering erases.

Where the English smooths the original

• לִשְׁאֵר֔וֹ BSB's “immediate family” renders liš·’ê·rōw (H7607, shᵉʼêr), literally “his flesh” — kin reckoned as one's own body (the same word Leviticus 18:6 uses for “near of kin”). The administrators of the Law, Ellicott notes, read this very word as denoting “wife” (“his flesh that is near unto him,” comparing Genesis 2:24). The clinical “immediate family” loses the bodily intimacy of the Hebrew flesh.
• לְאִמּ֣וֹ וּלְאָבִ֔יו BSB keeps the order “mother, father.” Ellicott marks it: “This is the second of the three instances in the Bible where the mother is mentioned before the father.” The unusual precedence is deliberate — by one rabbinic reading, because “the son's qualifications for the priesthood depend more upon his having a good mother.” The order is itself a teaching the bare list conceals.
• הַקָּרֹ֖ב BSB folds haq·qā·rōḇ (H7138, qârôwb, “near”) into the adjective “immediate.” But the same root governs v. 3 (“near to him”) and stands behind the whole exception: only the inner ring of those near by blood may a priest mourn. The English smooths a load-bearing keyword into a vague qualifier.

Where the English smooths the original

• הַבְּתוּלָה֙ BSB's “unmarried sister” renders hab·bə·ṯū·lāh (H1330, bᵉthûwlâh), “a virgin (from her privacy).” The point is not merely that she is unwed but that she still belongs to the father's house, never transferred to a husband. Benson catches the practical force: “No husband to take care of her funeral; which was therefore a needful office of charity in her brother, though a priest.”
• אֲשֶׁ֥ר הָיְתָ֖ה לֹֽא־לְאִ֑ישׁ BSB's “since she has no husband” renders, woodenly, ’ă·šer hā·yə·ṯāh lō- lə·’îš — “who has not become belonging to a man.” Marriage is described as becoming a man's — a change of household, not just status. Ellicott: “When she is married she goes to her husband, and ceases to be near her brother.” The smooth “has no husband” loses the verb of becoming, belonging.
• יִטַּמָּֽא The verse ends on the same reflexive yiṭ·ṭam·mā (H2930, Hitpael) as v. 1 — but now permissively: for her he may defile himself. Ellicott notes the rabbis read it stronger still: the priest “was not only allowed… but was obliged to do it.” The single word turns from prohibition to sacred duty.

Where the English smooths the original

• בַּ֣עַל BSB's “those related to him by marriage” is a paraphrase of one stubborn word, ba·‘al (H1167, baʻal), “a master, a husband, the head of a house.” Keil & Delitzsch call the verse “obscure” and render it “as lord (pater-familias) among his countrymen.” The BSB has chosen one of several disputed readings (an in-law connection) and printed it as if plain; the Hebrew gives only the single charged noun master.
• לְהֵ֖חַלּֽוֹ BSB's “and so profane himself” renders lə·hê·ḥal·lōw (H2490, châlal), “to bore through, to wound, to profane.” This is a different verb from defile (ṭâmêʼ): not ceremonial foulness but a desecration of holy rank. The same root names the harlot-daughter who “profanes” her father (v. 9) and the seed a priest must not “profane” (v. 15). The English uses one tame word for both Hebrew verbs, dissolving the distinction.
• בְּעַמָּ֑יו BSB renders bə·‘am·māw (H5971, ʻam) inside the marriage paraphrase, but the bare Hebrew is “among his people” — the same closing phrase as v. 1. The verse is sealed by the community he represents: his self-profaning would shame the whole people whose mediator he is.

Where the English smooths the original

• יִקְרְחָה קָרְחָה֙ BSB's “make bald spots” renders a cognate accusative, yiq·rə·ḥå̄h qā·rə·ḥāh (H7139 + H7144) — literally “they shall not bald a baldness.” Hebrew doubles the root verb-and-noun for intensity, naming a specific mourning-rite: shaving a bald patch “in front above the forehead, 'between the eyes'” (Keil). The English “bald spots” keeps the picture but loses the emphatic doubling.
• שָׂרָֽטֶת BSB's “make cuts” renders another cognate accusative, yiś·rə·ṭū śā·rā·ṭeṯ (H8295 + H8296), “they shall not gash a gash.” The noun sereṭ (H8296, “an incision”) is exceedingly rare — only two verses in the whole Bible — and it is the verbal seam tying this verse to the parallel ban in Leviticus 19:28. The flat “make cuts” hides a rare, deliberate word.
• וּפְאַ֥ת זְקָנָ֖ם BSB's “the edges of their beards” renders ū·p̄ə·’aṯ zə·qā·nām (H6285 + H2206). pêʼâh is properly an edge, corner, and zâqân is “the beard (as indicating age).” These pagan mourning-disfigurements were forbidden to all Israel (19:27) but, says Benson, “the priests in a more peculiar manner.” The English is accurate but flattens the ritual specificity the nouns carry.

Where the English smooths the original

• קְדֹשִׁ֤ים BSB's “They must be holy” renders qə·ḏō·šîm (H6918, qâdôwsh, “sacred”) — but the Hebrew fronts the word: holy they shall be. Holiness leads the clause as the governing reason for every restriction above. Benson: “Devoted to God's service, and always prepared for it, and therefore shall keep themselves from all defilements.” Word order is argument, and the English reorders it.
• לֶ֧חֶם אֱלֹהֵיהֶ֛ם BSB's “the food of their God” renders le·ḥem ’ĕ·lō·hê·hem (H3899 + H430) — literally “the bread of their God.” The sacrifice burnt on the altar is called God's bread, the table His. Barnes warns the modern reader that “bread, meat, and food, were nearly equivalent terms when our translation was made.” The bold image — God fed at His altar — is the very thing the antiseptic “food offerings” sands down.
• אִשֵּׁ֨י BSB's “the food offerings” renders ’iš·šê (H801, ʼishshâh), properly “offerings made by fire” — the word sounds like fire (ʼêsh). These are the gifts consumed by flame, ascending to God; Geneva's text keeps the older phrase, “the offerings of the LORD made by fire.” The BSB's generic “food offerings” drops the fire that defines them.

Where the English smooths the original

• זֹנָ֤ה BSB's “a woman defiled by prostitution” renders the single noun zō·nāh (H2181, zânâh) — “a harlot.” Gill takes it of “a common whore, that prostitutes herself.” The English unpacks one word into a clause; the Hebrew names the thing starkly.
• וַחֲלָלָה֙ BSB folds wa·ḥă·lā·lāh (H2491, châlâl) into the prostitution clause, but it is a distinct category: a profaned woman — from the root châlal (“to bore through, pierce, profane”) that runs through this chapter. Poole reads it as a defiled or deflowered woman, the wrong done to her “though it were done secretly, or by accident, or by force.” A second class of woman, not a gloss on the first — and the English merges them.
• גְּרוּשָׁ֥ה BSB's “divorced by her husband” renders gə·rū·šāh (H1644, gârash), a passive participle: “driven out, expelled.” Divorce is pictured as being driven from a possession. The blemish, Poole notes, clings even to the innocent: “yet it would leave some blemish upon her.” The neutral “divorced” loses the violence of the verb.

Where the English smooths the original

• וְקִדַּשְׁתּ֔וֹ BSB's “You are to regard him as holy” renders wə·qid·daš·tōw (H6942, qâdash) in the Piel — causative: you shall make/treat him holy. The address shifts to the people: they are charged to guard the priest's sanctity. Keil: take care that he “did not desecrate his office.” Gill records the rabbinic teeth in it — sanctify him “whether he will or not.” The softer “regard as holy” loses the active obligation laid on the congregation.
• מְקַדִּשְׁכֶֽם BSB's “I who set you apart” renders mə·qad·diš·ḵem (H6942), a participle: “the One sanctifying you.” It is the same root as the opening verb — the people sanctify the priest because God is even now sanctifying the people. The chain of holiness flows from God outward; the English variation (“regard as holy” … “set apart”) hides that it is one verb, one act, repeated.
• לָּ֔ךְ BSB's “to you” renders lāḵ — and the form is grammatically 2nd person feminine singular, an abrupt shift the smooth English cannot show. The address narrows to the individual Israelite; Poole reads it two ways: holy “In thy esteem” and “To thy use or service, in whose name he is to act with God.”

Where the English smooths the original

• תֵחֵ֖ל … מְחַלֶּ֔לֶת BSB's “defiles herself… profanes her father” renders two forms of one verb, châlal (H2490): ṯê·ḥêl (she profanes herself, Nifal) and mə·ḥal·le·leṯ (she is profaning, Piel). The Hebrew makes her sin and her father's shame the same word — her self-profaning is a profaning of him. The English splits defiles from profanes and severs a deliberate verbal knot.
• לִזְנ֑וֹת BSB's “by prostituting herself” renders liz·nō·wṯ (H2181, zânâh), the same root as the forbidden bride of v. 7. The daughter's sin mirrors the wife a priest must not marry — the contagion of unchastity runs through the priestly house. Gill notes some render it “when she begins to play the whore” — guilt incurred at the first act.
• תִּשָּׂרֵֽף BSB's “she must be burned in the fire” renders tiś·śā·rêp̄ (H8313, sâraph). Ellicott sets the severity in relief: the layman's guilty daughter died by strangling, but the priest's “was to be punished with the severer death by burning.” Nearness to the holy raises the stakes — Poole: “how far God is from allowing sin in those who are nearest to him.”

Where the English smooths the original

• הַגָּד֨וֹל מֵאֶחָ֜יו BSB's “who is highest among his brothers” renders hag·gā·ḏō·wl mê·’e·ḥāw (H1419 + H251) — literally “the great one from among his brothers.” Gill catches the comparative: “the priest who is greater than his brethren.” He is not a different species but the chief of the brotherhood, raised above his peers. The superlative “highest” is right, but the Hebrew keeps him a brother.
• וּמִלֵּ֣א אֶת־יָד֔וֹ BSB's “has been ordained” renders the idiom ū·mil·lê ’eṯ-yā·ḏōw (H4390 + H3027) — literally “whose hand was filled.” Ordination in Hebrew is a filling of the hand (with the consecration offering, Exod 29:24). The English “ordained” is correct but utterly opaque; the picture of the hand filled with the holy portion is gone.
• רֹאשׁוֹ֙ … לֹ֣א יִפְרָ֔ע BSB's “must not let his hair hang loose” renders rō·šōw … lō yip̄·rā‘ (H7218 + H6544, pâraʻ, “to loosen”). The KJV's “uncover his head” is wrong, and the commentators correct it: Barnes, “let his hair be disheveled,” a recognized mourning-sign. The verb pâram (“tear”) that follows is rare (3 vv) and binds this verse verbally to the leper of 13:45 and Aaron's sons in 10:6.

Where the English smooths the original

• מֵ֖ת נַפְשֹׁ֥ת BSB's “any dead body” renders mêṯ … nap̄·šōṯ (H4191 + H5315 plural) — literally “dead souls.” Keil keeps it: “souls of a departed one.” Ellicott pushes it further, the phrase “literally… 'any dead soul,'” which the rabbis read of “the blood which constitutes the soul or life” (Lev 17:11). The English “dead body” erases the paradox the Hebrew preserves — a dead soul.
• לֹ֣א יָבֹ֑א BSB's “go near” renders lō yā·ḇō (H935, bôwʼ), “he shall not go/come in.” The high priest may not so much as enter where the dead lie — Gill, “into a tent or house where any dead body lies.” Where the common priest was merely not to defile himself (v. 1), the high priest must not come at all. The bland “go near” understates the categorical entry-ban.
• לְאָבִ֥יו וּלְאִמּ֖וֹ BSB's “even for his father or mother” rightly supplies “even,” for the Hebrew lə·’ā·ḇîw ū·lə·’im·mōw stands without it. This is the sharp edge: the common priest could mourn parents (v. 2); the high priest may not. Cambridge: “not even in such cases, where filial affection would otherwise prescribe it.”

Where the English smooths the original

• נֵ֠זֶר BSB's “the consecration” renders nê·zer (H5145), “something set apart” — the very word for the Nazirite's vow and elsewhere the high priest's golden diadem. Keil insists that here it “does not mean the diadem… but consecration.” Poole hears both, the oil “which to him was instead of a crown.” The English picks one sense; the Hebrew word shimmers between crown and consecration.
• לֹ֣א יֵצֵ֔א BSB's “must not leave” renders lō yê·ṣê (H3318, yâtsâʼ). The commentators guard against over-reading: Barnes, “The words do not mean… that his abode was confined to the sanctuary.” Ellicott specifies the scenario — when news of a parent's death arrives during the service, he “must not desist from the service and quit the sanctuary.” The ban is on abandoning duty for grief, not on ever stepping outside.
• יְחַלֵּ֔ל BSB's “or desecrate” renders yə·ḥal·lêl (H2490, châlal) — once more the chapter's profaning-verb (vv. 4, 6, 9), now with the sanctuary as object. To carry a death-defilement back into the holy place, or to bolt from the altar in mourning, would profane God's house. The English varies to “desecrate,” loosening a chain the Hebrew keeps welded with one root.

Where the English smooths the original

• אִשָּׁ֥ה BSB's “The woman he marries” renders ’iš·šāh (H802) — but the rabbinic tradition stresses the singular noun. Gill: “One, and not two, or more.” The high priest, by this reading, was the husband of one wife — the very rule Ellicott traces forward to “Christian bishops (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:16).” The English “the woman” carries the number, but the weight the rabbis hung on the singular is invisible.
• יִקָּֽח BSB's “he marries” renders yiq·qāḥ (H3947, lâqach), “to take.” Hebrew marriage is taking a wife — the same verb forbidden of the wrong women in vv. 7 and 14. The neutral “marries” loses the verbal thread that makes the whole marriage-law one continuous statute about whom the priest may take.
• בִבְתוּלֶ֖יהָ BSB's “must be a virgin” renders ḇiḇ·ṯū·le·hā (H1331, bᵉthûwlîym) — abstract “in her virginity,” the state, not merely the title. The construction insists on demonstrable purity. Poole reads a typological depth: “as he was a type of Christ, so his wife was a type of the church, which is compared to a virgin.”

Where the English smooths the original

• אַלְמָנָ֤ה BSB's “a widow” renders ’al·mā·nāh (H490). This is the one class barred to the high priest beyond the common priest's restrictions of v. 7 — a permitted bride for the ordinary priest, forbidden to the head. Cambridge: “The rule for the high priest was thus stricter than that for an ordinary priest.” The list ascends in stringency exactly here.
• מֵעַמָּ֖יו BSB's “from his own people” renders mê·‘am·māw (H5971, ʻam). Geneva's gloss widens it: “Not only of his tribe, but of all Israel.” Gill agrees the phrase “did not limit him to his own tribe.” The Hebrew “his peoples” means the whole covenant nation, not his clan — a breadth the bare English keeps but does not unfold.
• יִקַּ֥ח BSB's “He is to marry” renders the marriage-verb yiq·qaḥ (H3947, lâqach) once more — the third taking in this verse alone (forbidden, forbidden, then commanded). The Hebrew turns on a single verb repeated to frame the whole law: these he shall not take… a virgin he shall take. The English varies “take” and “marry,” dimming the antithesis.

Where the English smooths the original

• יְחַלֵּ֥ל BSB's “defile” renders yə·ḥal·lêl (H2490, châlal) — the chapter's profaning-verb one final time, now reaching the priest's offspring. Children of a forbidden marriage were themselves profaned, Ellicott explains, “debarred the privileges of the priesthood.” The English “defile” (where it rendered the same root “profane” in vv. 4, 9) again splits one Hebrew word into two English ones, breaking the unit's keyword.
• זַרְע֖וֹ BSB's “his offspring” renders zar·‘ōw (H2233, zeraʻ), “seed.” The concern is hereditary: an unworthy mother corrupts the priestly line. Poole: “whereby the children would be disparaged, and rendered unfit for their priestly function.” The clinical “offspring” loses the agricultural image of a sown, holy seed.
• מְקַדְּשֽׁוֹ BSB's “who sanctifies him” renders mə·qad·də·šōw (H6942, qâdash) — the same divine self-title that closed v. 8 (“the One sanctifying you”), now singular: sanctifying him. The whole law of priestly marriage is sealed, as it opened, on God's own sanctifying act. Benson: “I have separated him from all other men… and therefore will not have that race corrupted.”