The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Worthy Offerings
Leviticus 22:17–33 — Worthy Offerings. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
17Then the LORD said to Moses,
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Yah·weh way·ḏab·bêr ’el- mō·šeh lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-spoke Yahweh to Moses, saying:
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The laws about the physical features and ceremonial purity of the priests, who are to be devoted to the services of the altar, are now followed by kindred precepts about the animals which are to be offered upon the altar.
Le 22:17-33. The Sacrifices Must Be without Blemish.JFB's section heading; the whole unit, in their reading, hangs on those four words.
Just as the priests who offer to the Lord are to be ceremonially and morally holy, so the animals offered to him are to be physically perfect, in order (1) to be types of a future perfect Victim, (2) to symbolize the "perfect heart"which God requires to be given to him, and (3) to teach the duty of offering to him of our best.
18“Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering,
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dab·bêr ’el- ’a·hă·rōn wə·’el- bā·nāw wə·’el kāl- bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl wə·’ā·mar·tā ’ă·lê·hem ’îš ’îš ū·min- mib·bêṯ yiś·rā·’êl hag·gêr bə·yiś·rā·’êl ’ă·šer yaq·rîḇ qā·rə·bā·nōw lə·ḵāl ’ă·šer- yaq·rî·ḇū lə·‘ō·lāh Yah·weh niḏ·rê·hem ū·lə·ḵāl- niḏ·ḇō·w·ṯām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Speak to Aaron and-to his-sons and-to all the-sons of Israel, and-say to-them: Any man, any man of the-house of-Israel or-of the-sojourner in-Israel who brings-near his-offering for-any of-their-vows or-for-any of-their-freewill-offerings which they-bring-near to-Yahweh for-a-burnt-offering —
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Offer his oblation. —Better, offer his offering, as the Authorised version translates it in Leviticus 3:7 ; Leviticus 3:14 ; Leviticus 7:12 ; Leviticus 17:4 , &c. It is difficult to divine why the translators gave here a different rendering of a fixed sacrificial formula which it is important to reproduce uniformly in a translation.
the wise men, as Aben Ezra observes, distinguish between a vow and a freewill offering; every vow is a freewill offering, but every freewill offering is not a vowGill citing Ibn Ezra; trimmed to the distinction itself.
Every sacrifice offered to the Lord by an Israelite or foreigner, in consequence of a vow or as a freewill-offering (cf. Leviticus 7:16 ), was to be faultless and male, "for good pleasure to the offerer" (cf. Leviticus 1:3 ), i.e., to secure for him the good pleasure of God.
19must offer an unblemished male from the cattle, sheep, or goats in order for it to be accepted on your behalf.
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tā·mîm zā·ḵār bab·bā·qār bak·kə·śā·ḇîm ū·ḇā·‘iz·zîm lir·ṣō·nə·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
for-your-acceptance — unblemished, a male, among the-cattle, among the-sheep, or-among the-goats.
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Ye shall offer at your own will a male - Rather, That it may be accepted (so Leviticus 22:29 ) for you it shall be a male. See Leviticus 1:3 . It is the same phrase as in Leviticus 22:20-21 , Leviticus 22:27 .
Males were required in burnt-offerings: but females were accepted in peace-offerings and sin-offerings.
Sacrifices may be likened to gifts made to a king by his subjects, and hence the reasonableness of God's strong remonstrance with the worldly-minded Jews (Mal 1:8).JFB draws the throne-room analogy that anchors the Malachi 1:8 thread.
20You must not present anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.
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lō ṯaq·rî·ḇū kōl ’ă·šer- bōw mūm kî- lō yih·yeh lə·rā·ṣō·wn lā·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Anything which a-blemish is in-it you-shall- not -bring-near, because it-will-not be for-acceptance for-you.
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whatsoever hath, &c, without the “but,” which is not in the original, and is not wanted. The general rule is here repeated as an introduction to the cases which are immediately to be specified.
For whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer,.... Which is the general rule, the particulars of which are after given, and which has been imitated by the Heathens.
But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer: for it shall not be acceptable for you.The 1599 Geneva text, preserved as witness to the verse the divergence corrects.
21When a man presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without blemish or defect to be acceptable.
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kî- wə·’îš yaq·rîḇ ze·ḇaḥ- šə·lā·mîm Yah·weh bab·bā·qār ’ōw ḇaṣ·ṣōn lə·p̄al·lê- ne·ḏer ’ōw lin·ḏā·ḇāh yih·yeh tā·mîm kāl- lō mūm lə·rā·ṣō·wn yih·yeh- bōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-when a-man brings-near a-sacrifice of-peace-offerings to-Yahweh, to-fulfill a-vow or-as-a-freewill-offering, from-the-herd or-from-the-flock — it-must-be perfect, no blemish in-it, to-be-acceptable.
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That sacrifice was accounted perfect which wanted none of its parts, nor had any defect in any of them; so that perfect here is the same as without blemish, Leviticus 22:19 . The design of this law was still to remind them that they ought to offer to God the most excellent of every thing in its kind
To accomplish a vow. —In fulfilment of a vow made in time of impending danger ( Genesis 28:20-22 ; Jonah 1:16 , &c.). Freewill offering. —Generally brought in acknowledgment of mercies received.
Every peace-offering was also to be faultless, whether brought "to fulfil a special (important) vow" (cf. Numbers 15:3 , Numbers 15:8 : פּלּא, from פּלא to be great, distinguished, wonderful), or as a freewill gift
22You are not to present to the LORD any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed, or anything with a running sore, a festering rash, or a scab; you must not put any of these on the altar as a food offering to the LORD.
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lō- ṯaq·rî·ḇū Yah·weh ’êl·leh ‘aw·we·reṯ šā·ḇūr ’ōw- ḥā·rūṣ ’ōw- ’ōw yab·be·leṯ ’ōw ḡā·rāḇ ’ōw yal·le·p̄eṯ lō- ṯit·tə·nū mê·hem ‘al- ham·miz·bê·aḥ wə·’iš·šeh Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Blind, or-broken, or-maimed, or having-a-running-sore, or-a-festering-rash, or-a-scab — you-shall-not bring-near these to-Yahweh, and-a-food-offering you-shall-not give from-them on-the-altar to-Yahweh.
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The definitions of what constitutes a blemish may be compared with those of Leviticus 21:18 ff. ‘Broken ‘here is from the same root as that so rendered in Leviticus 21:19 ; ‘maimed’ is lit. cut, mutilated ; ‘a wen’ means a running sore, or ulcer.
Or scurvy or scabbed. —These are exactly the same two defects specified with regard to the priests (see Leviticus 21:20 ).Ellicott names the priest–victim parallel that the rare shared lexemes confirm.
it was to be free from such faults as blindness, or a broken limb (from lameness therefore: Deuteronomy 15:21 ), or cutting (i.e., mutilation, answering to חרוּם Leviticus 21:18 ), or an abscess (יבּלת, from יבל to flow, probably a flowing suppurating abscess).
23You may present as a freewill offering an ox or sheep that has a deformed or stunted limb, but it is not acceptable in fulfillment of a vow.
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ta·‘ă·śeh ’ō·ṯōw nə·ḏā·ḇāh wə·šō·wr wā·śeh śā·rū·a‘ wə·qā·lūṭ lō yê·rā·ṣeh ū·lə·nê·ḏer
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-an-ox or-a-sheep deformed or-stunted — you-may-make it a-freewill-offering, but-for-a-vow it-will-not be-accepted.
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This sacrifice being required to be "without blemish" [Le 22:19], symbolically implied that the people of God were to dedicate themselves wholly with sincere purposes of heart, and its being required to be "perfect to be accepted" [Le 22:21], led them typically to Him without whom no sacrifice could be offered acceptable to God.JFB's explicit typological reading: the flawless victim points to Christ.
The Hebrew here will bear a different translation, which, indeed, seems necessary to reconcile this with the twenty-first verse, namely, Shouldest thou offer it for a free-will-offering or for a vow, it would not be accepted.
gratitude for the answer was to be indicated by the greater stringency of the regulation as to the nature of the animal to be offered in acknowledgment of the mercy vouchsafed. For the general prohibition to offer a sacrifice that had a blemish, cp. the rebuke in Malachi 1:8 ; Malachi 1:13 .
24You are not to present to the LORD an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn, or cut; you are not to sacrifice them in your land.
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lō ṯaq·rî·ḇū Yah·weh ū·mā·‘ūḵ wə·ḵā·ṯūṯ wə·nā·ṯūq wə·ḵā·rūṯ lō ṯa·‘ă·śū ū·ḇə·’ar·ṣə·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-bruised or-crushed or-torn or-cut you-shall-not bring-near to-Yahweh; and-in-your-land you-shall-not do-this.
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The literal meaning of the passage in italics is, and this shall ye not do in your land. It appears to have been understood by the Jews as a prohibition of the mutilation of animals.
These four terms express the four ways which the ancients used to emasculate animals.
The castration of animals is a mutilation of God's creation, and the prohibition of it was based upon the same principle as that of mixing heterogeneous things in Leviticus 19:19 .
25Neither you nor a foreigner shall present food to your God from any such animal. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and flawed.’”
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ū·mî·yaḏ lō ben- nê·ḵār ṯaq·rî·ḇū ’eṯ- le·ḥem ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem mik·kāl ’êl·leh lō yê·rā·ṣū lā·ḵem kî mā·šə·ḥā·ṯām bā·hem mūm bām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-from-the-hand of-a-son-of-a-foreigner you-shall-not bring-near the-bread of-your-God from-any of-these; for their-disfigurement is-in-them, a-blemish in-them — they-will-not be-accepted for-you.
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A stranger's hand - The word here rendered "stranger", is not the same as that in Leviticus 22:10 , Leviticus 22:18 : it means literally, "the son of the unknown", and probably refers to one dwelling in another land who desired to show respect to the God of Israel. See 1 Kings 8:41 .
yet even from those such should not be accepted, much less from the Israelites. The bread, i.e. the sacrifices.
"For their corruption is in them," i.e., something corrupt, a fault, adheres to them; so that such offerings could not procure good pleasure towards them.
26Then the LORD said to Moses,
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Yah·weh way·ḏab·bêr ’el- mō·šeh lê·mōr
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-spoke Yahweh to Moses, saying:
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Though beginning with a separate formula, and thus indicating that it is a distinct communication, the regulations here laid down about the age of the sacrificial animals are necessarily connected with the preceding statutes, and exhibit a logical sequence.
Three further directions of a special character with regard to sacrificesCambridge's heading for the second oracle, vv.26–30.
Extreme youth is to be regarded as a blemish in an animal in the same way as other defects.
27“When an ox, a sheep, or a goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as a food offering presented to the LORD.
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kî šō·wr ḵe·śeḇ ’ōw- ’ōw- ‘êz yiw·wā·lêḏ wə·hā·yāh ta·ḥaṯ ’im·mōw šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm haš·šə·mî·nî ū·mî·yō·wm wā·hā·lə·’āh yê·rā·ṣeh ’iš·šeh lə·qā·rə·ban Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
When an-ox, a-sheep, or-a-goat is-born, it-shall-be under its-mother seven days; and-from-the-eighth day onward it-shall-be-accepted as-a-food-offering presented to-Yahweh.
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Under seven days the animal is extremely weak, and unfit for human food, and hence must not be offered as the food of God, as sacrifices are called. (See Leviticus 22:25 .) For the same reason children could not be circumcised before the eighth day from their birth. (See Exodus 22:29 .)
namely, that Christ, the type of all the sacrifices, was not to be offered, or suffer death in his infancy, which Herod contrived, but at man's estate; and to show that no man is fit to be a propitiatory sacrifice, through weakness and inability, being unable to stand before the justice of God, only ChristGill's mystical reading: the seven-day rule typifies the maturity of Christ's atonement.
the young animal had not attained to a mature and self-sustained life during the first week of its existence.
28But you must not slaughter an ox or a sheep on the same day as its young.
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lō ṯiš·ḥă·ṭū wə·šō·wr ’ōw- śeh ’ō·ṯōw wə·’eṯ- ’e·ḥāḏ bə·yō·wm bə·nōw
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-an-ox or-a-sheep — you-shall- not -slaughter it and-its-young in-one day.
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And, indeed, there is a degree of cruelty in the very idea of imbruing the hand in the blood of both parent and offspring at the same time. Therefore Jonathan, in his paraphrase, considers this as a symbolical precept, to teach the Israelites to be merciful, as their Father in heaven is merciful.
Hence the ancient Chaldee version begins this injunction with the words, “My people the children of Israel, as our Father is merciful in heaven, so be ye merciful on earth.”The Targum's gloss — anticipating Luke 6:36 by a millennium of reading.
Mercy is to be taught by forbidding anything which may blunt the sentiment of mercy in the human heart.
29When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, offer it so that it may be acceptable on your behalf.
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wə·ḵî- ṯiz·bə·ḥū tō·w·ḏāh ze·ḇaḥ- Yah·weh tiz·bā·ḥū lir·ṣō·nə·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-when you-sacrifice a-thank-offering to-Yahweh, you-shall-sacrifice it for-your-acceptance.
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Offer it at your own will. —Better, offer it for your acceptance. (See Leviticus 22:19 .) That is, offer it in such a manner that it should be accepted.
Two forms of peace offerings, the vowed and the voluntary offerings, having been mentioned in verse 21, the law as to the third form, thanksgiving offerings, is repeated from chapter Leviticus 7:15
or, for your acceptance , as Leviticus 1:3 , i.e. in such manner that God may accept it, i.e. regularly, cheerfully, &c.
30It must be eaten that same day. Do not leave any of it until morning. I am the LORD.
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yê·’ā·ḵêl ha·hū bay·yō·wm lō- ṯō·w·ṯî·rū mim·men·nū ‘aḏ- bō·qer ’ă·nî Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
On-that-same day it-shall-be-eaten; you-shall-not leave any of-it until morning. I am Yahweh.
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This shows that the sacrifice here spoken of belonged to the first class of peace offerings, the flesh of which had to be eaten up on the same day. (See Leviticus 7:15 .)
I am the Lord; who has made this law, and expect it will be observed.
See Leviticus 7:15 . Leviticus 22:30Cambridge's terse cross-reference to the parent law of the same-day peace offering.
31You are to keep My commandments and practice them. I am the LORD.
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ū·šə·mar·tem miṣ·wō·ṯay wa·‘ă·śî·ṯem ’ō·ṯām ’ă·nî Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-keep my-commandments and-do them. I am Yahweh.
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Better, and ye shall keep my commandments. The law about the priests and sacrifices now concludes with an appeal to both the priests and the people to faithfully observe these commandments.
these they were to observe and take notice of, and keep them in memory, and put them in practice
These verses form the conclusion of the Section and of the Part, enjoining obedience to God's commandments, reverence for his Name, and consequent holiness.
32You must not profane My holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy among the Israelites. I am the LORD who sanctifies you,
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wə·lō ṯə·ḥal·lə·lū ’eṯ- qāḏ·šî šêm wə·niq·daš·tî bə·ṯō·wḵ bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl ’ă·nî Yah·weh mə·qad·diš·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-not profane my-holy name; and-I-will-be-hallowed among the-sons-of-Israel. I am Yahweh who-sanctifies you,
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I will be hallowed — Or, sanctified, either by you, in keeping my holy commands, or upon you, in executing my holy and righteous judgments. I will manifest myself to be a holy God, that will not bear the transgression of my laws.
For whoever does otherwise than God commands pollutes his Name.The Geneva marginal gloss (k) on "profane."
Which hallow you, by separating you from all the world unto myself and service, by giving you holy laws, and my Holy Spirit to enable and incline you to keep them; and therefore you have the more reason to hallow me and keep my commands
33who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”
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ham·mō·w·ṣî ’eṯ·ḵem mê·’e·reṣ miṣ·ra·yim lih·yō·wṯ lā·ḵem lê·lō·hîm ’ă·nî Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
who-brought- you -out of-the-land of-Egypt to-be your-God. I am Yahweh.
Where the English smooths the original
By this signal act of redemption from bondage, and by choosing them as His peculiar people, God has a special claim upon His redeemed people that they should keep His commandments. (See Leviticus 11:45 .)
Whereby he showed himself to be their covenant God and Father, who had a kind and gracious regard unto them, and which laid them under obligation to fear, serve, and worship him as their God
Let us beware of hypocrisy, and examine ourselves concerning our sinful defilements, seeking to be purified from them in the blood of Christ, and by his sanctifying Spirit.Henry's chapter-summary, here closing the unit on its evangelical note.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with the legislative וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר (way·ḏab·bêr, H1696), the formal verb of divine command, and turns at once to the animals that may draw near — for the governing verb of the whole passage is the Hifil of קרב (qârab, H7126), "to bring near," the same root that yields qorbân, the oblation itself (v.18). Ellicott (1878) presses that this is "a fixed sacrificial formula which it is important to reproduce uniformly," and the structure proves him right: to sacrifice is to approach, and what approaches a holy God must be fit. The fitness has a single name. Four times (vv.19, 20, 21, 29) the law returns to רָצוֹן (râtsôwn, H7522), "good-pleasure, acceptance." The King James "at your own will" is, as Barnes (1834), Benson (1810s) and Ellicott all insist, a mistranslation; the sense is "that it may be accepted for you." Acceptance is God's verdict, not the worshiper's mood. Keil & Delitzsch (1860s) gather the principle: every offering "was to be faultless and male, 'for good pleasure to the offerer'... i.e., to secure for him the good pleasure of God." The victim must be תָּמִים (tâmîym, H8549), "entire — literally, figuratively, or morally"; Benson collapses the terms — "perfect here is the same as without blemish." The marginal cost of a flawless lamb was real; the law refuses the cheap gift on principle.
Then comes the grim inventory: עַוֶּרֶת blind, broken, maimed, the running sore, the גָרָב festering rash, the יַלֶּפֶת scab (v.22). These are not random afflictions. Ellicott marks them precisely: "these are exactly the same two defects specified with regard to the priests" in Leviticus 21:20, and Cambridge (1880s) agrees — "the definitions of what constitutes a blemish may be compared with those of Leviticus 21:18 ff." The Verifier confirms what the commentators saw by eye: ‘ivvârôwn (H5788, blindness), gârâb (H1618), and yallepheth (H3217) are rare words — two or three occurrences each — and each recurs in the priestly disqualification. The holy servant and the holy victim are held to one bar. Verse 23 then bends the rule: a beast שָׂרוּעַ deformed or קָלוּט stunted may serve as a freewill offering but never for a vow — the looser the obligation, the more the law relaxes; the sworn vow demands the flawless. And v.24 widens past the altar: the four verbs of emasculation (Ellicott: "the four ways which the ancients used to emasculate animals") end in a bare תַעֲשׂוּ, "you shall not do" — which Barnes and K&D read as a ban on castration itself, "a mutilation of God's creation" (K&D), of one piece with the law against mixing kinds.
A second oracle (v.26) adds three tempering laws. The newborn must stay seven days תַּחַת אִמּוֹ "under its mother" and is fit only from the eighth — for, as K&D note, it has not yet "attained to a mature and self-sustained life" in the week "sanctified by the creation"; Ellicott ties the eighth day to circumcision (Exod 22:29). Then mercy: parent and young not to be slaughtered בְּיוֹם אֶחָד "in one day" (v.28). The Pulpit Commentary draws the principle exactly — "Mercy is to be taught by forbidding anything which may blunt the sentiment of mercy in the human heart" — and Ellicott preserves the Targum's stunning gloss: "as our Father is merciful in heaven, so be ye merciful on earth," a sentence Luke 6:36 would echo a millennium later. The unit closes on the Name: תְחַלְּלוּ (châlal, H2490), "to profane," root "to pierce," set against קָדַשׁ (qâdash, H6942), "to hallow." And the ground of it all is grace already given — "who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God" (v.33). Gill: this "laid them under obligation to fear, serve, and worship him." The law of the perfect gift rests on the prior, perfect deliverance.
Under Sola Scriptura, here is one reading offered to be tested, not asserted. Leviticus 22 is not arbitrary fussiness about livestock; it is a sustained argument that the worth of a gift is measured at the altar, not in the giver's intention. The unit's keyword râtsôwn (acceptance) makes God, not the worshiper, the judge of the offering — and the KJV's "at your own will," which the older commentators unanimously correct, is precisely the error the chapter forbids: the idea that sincerity sanctifies a careless gift. The blemish-list (vv.22–25) deliberately mirrors the priest's disqualifications (Lev 21) — the same rare words, the Verifier confirms — so that what serves at the altar and what is offered on it answer to a single holiness. Yet the chapter is not cold: it shelters the newborn with its mother, forbids killing parent and young together, and roots every command in the Exodus. The thread the New Testament will pull is already taut. Malachi will indict a generation for offering exactly the blind and lame beasts this chapter bans (Mal 1:8). And the rarest word in the unit — mishchâth, "disfigurement" (v.25), used of the marred sacrifice — is the very word Isaiah uses of the marred face of the Servant (Isa 52:14): the one offering whose disfigurement would not disqualify but redeem. The fallible claim: Leviticus 22 teaches that God will not be honored with our leftovers — and quietly prepares us for the day the unblemished Lamb would bear, in his own marred body, the marring of the flawed offerers he came to make acceptable.
Acceptance is God's verdict on the gift, not the giver's verdict on himself — the flawless victim was always pointing past itself to the one offering whose marring would not disqualify but save.
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The defects that bar the animal in v.22 — blindness (‘ivvârôwn), the festering rash (gârâb), the scab (yallepheth) — are the same defects that bar the priest from the altar in Leviticus 21:18–20. Ellicott and Cambridge both note the deliberate correspondence; the Verifier records the rare shared lexemes that make it verbal rather than merely thematic. One holiness governs both who offers and what is offered.
Leviticus 21:18 · Leviticus 21:20
basis: rare shared Strong's lexemes between Lev 22:22 and Lev 21:20: H3217 yallepheth (in 2 vv), H1618 gârâb (in 3 vv); with Lev 21:18 sharing H5788 ʻivvârôwn (in 3 vv) and H3971 mʼûwm (in 19 vv) — low-frequency cultic vocabulary, not chance overlap.
The two voluntary classes of v.18 and v.21 — the vow (neder) and the freewill offering (nᵉdâbâh) — are governed by the parent law of Leviticus 7:16, which both Keil & Delitzsch and Matthew Poole cite by name, and the offering-quantity rule of Numbers 15:3. The connection is real but rests on the recurring vow/freewill pair (nᵉdâbâh, 25 vv; neder, 57 vv) — the standing formulaic vocabulary of the whole sacrificial code rather than a rare, pointed quotation — so the badge is honestly tiered structural, not verbal: this is the legislation cross-referencing its own settled diction.
Leviticus 7:16 · Numbers 15:3
basis: shared lexemes Lev 22:21 ↔ Lev 7:16: H5071 nᵉdâbâh (in 25 vv), H5088 neder (in 57 vv), H2077 zebach (153 vv); Num 15:3 shares H5930 ʻôlâh (261 vv), H5088 neder, H5071 nᵉdâbâh. The rarest of these (nᵉdâbâh, 25 vv) is recurring formulaic offering-vocabulary, not a low-frequency hapax — a deliberate intra-code cross-reference, but a shared-motif/shared-formula link, not a rare verbal quotation. Downgraded from the verifier's default 'verbal' tier on that ground.
The reason given for rejecting the foreigner's animal — מָשְׁחָתָם (mishchâth, H4893), "their disfigurement is in them" — uses one of the rarest nouns in Scripture, occurring in only two verses. Its sole other home is Isaiah 52:14, where the Servant's appearance was "so disfigured" beyond any man's. The same word that disqualifies a marred victim in Leviticus describes the marred Servant who would become the accepted offering. This is a genuine verbal link within the Hebrew canon; the typological weight, however, belongs to the Christ section below and is offered as a reading, not a quotation.
Isaiah 52:14
basis: rare shared lexeme H4893 mishchâth (in only 2 vv) — Lev 22:25 and Isa 52:14 are its sole occurrences; the verbal link is certain, the figural application is interpretive.
Centuries on, Malachi arraigns a careless priesthood for offering precisely what Leviticus 22 forbids: "When ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and when ye offer the lame and sick..." (Mal 1:8). Benson, JFB, Gill and Cambridge all cite Malachi as the prophetic application of this law. Because the link rests on shared cultic vocabulary and the recurring blemish-motif rather than a rare quotation, it is recorded as structural/thematic.
Malachi 1:8
basis: shared lexemes Lev 22:22 ↔ Mal 1:8: H176 ʼôw (in 218 vv), H7126 qârab (in 260 vv) — common cultic words; the connection is the shared blemished-offering motif, repeatedly cited by the PD commentators, not a rare verbal quotation.
Deuteronomy 17:1 restates this very statute in the second giving of the law: "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish... for that is an abomination to the LORD." It turns on the same keyword מוּם (mûm, H3971) that governs Leviticus 22:20–25, and pairs it with the same herd/flock animals. The shared vocabulary is the offering-code's standing diction rather than a rare lexeme, so the tie is honestly tiered structural/thematic — the Deuteronomic restatement of the unblemished-victim principle, not a quotation of it.
Deuteronomy 17:1
basis: shared lexeme Lev 22:20 ↔ Deut 17:1: H3971 mʼûwm (in 19 vv) — the unit's keyword for the disqualifying blemish; the rest of the overlap is high-frequency (H3588 kîy, H3808 lôʼ). Deuteronomy restates the same law with the same controlling word, a structural/legal parallel rather than a rare verbal quotation.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The demand for a tâmîym, an unblemished victim (vv.19, 21), is read across the church's history as a type of Christ, "a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet 1:19), who "through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God" (Heb 9:14). The reading is not a modern overlay: the Pulpit Commentary states it as the first purpose of the whole law — the perfect animals are "types of a future perfect Victim" — and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown make the same typology explicit on v.23, that the perfection required "led them typically to Him without whom no sacrifice could be offered acceptable to God." This is a cross-Testament reading: there is no shared Hebrew/Greek lexeme — the New Testament's amōmos is not a translation of tâmîym here — so the link is typological, not verbal.
1 Peter 1:19 · Hebrews 9:14 · Leviticus 22:19
Leviticus rejects the offering whose mishchâth (disfigurement) is in it (v.25); Isaiah says the Servant's appearance was disfigured — the same rare Hebrew word — beyond any man (Isa 52:14), yet "it pleased the LORD" to make his soul "an offering" (Isa 53:10). The novel, but textually-anchored, reading: the one whose marring would have disqualified an ordinary victim is precisely the one whose marring God accepts, because he bears the disfigurement of the flawed offerers. The verbal hook (mishchâth) is real and rare; the Christological turn is a reading offered to be tested.
Isaiah 52:14 · Isaiah 53:10 · Leviticus 22:25
Gill (1746–63) draws the type directly from the eighth-day rule of v.27: "Christ, the type of all the sacrifices, was not to be offered, or suffer death in his infancy, which Herod contrived, but at man's estate." The week of completed creation must pass before the creature is fit to be given — and the perfect Sacrifice came to his offering not as an infant but in the fullness of a matured life. A patristic-flavored reading, here carried by Gill; offered as figural, not as the verse's plain sense.
Leviticus 22:27 · Galatians 4:4
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
Honesty notes for this unit. (1) Composite text. The Cambridge Bible candidly flags that vv.17–25 "retain clear signs of a remarkably composite character" — v.21 nearly repeats vv.18–20 with shifted phraseology — and reads the changes of number and person as "successive editorial revisions." The synthesis above does not adjudicate the source-critical question; it reports the doublet (vv.18–20 / 21) as the commentators describe it.
(2) The râtsôwn correction. Nearly every PD voice corrects the KJV's "at your own will" (vv.19, 29) to "for your acceptance." The BSB already renders it rightly ("to be accepted on your behalf"); the divergence notes target the older English, not the base BSB, and say so.
(3) Verse 23's tension. Whether v.23 permits a deformed beast as a freewill offering (so the plain reading, K&D) or whether the Hebrew should be re-pointed so that it too is rejected (so Benson, JFB) is genuinely disputed; both readings are recorded without forcing a verdict.
(4) Cross-Testament links are typological, never verbal. The 1 Peter / Hebrews "unblemished lamb" threads and the Isaiah-Servant Christ reading cross from Hebrew to Greek and share no Strong's number; they are tiered typological or structural, never "verbal," exactly as the cross-Testament rule requires. The one rare verbal hook — mishchâth (H4893, 2 occurrences) joining Lev 22:25 to Isa 52:14 — is Hebrew↔Hebrew and so can carry a "verbal" badge for the lexical link, while its Christological application is marked novel and offered to be tested.
(5) Only rare lexemes earn the "verbal" badge. Two threads carry it honestly: the priest–victim parallel (Lev 21:20, sharing the near-hapax yallepheth, 2 vv, and gârâb, 3 vv) and the mishchâth link to Isaiah. The vow/freewill statute (Lev 7:16; Num 15:3) and the Deuteronomic restatement (Deut 17:1) are real intra-code cross-references, but their shared words (nᵉdâbâh 25 vv, neder 57 vv, mûm 19 vv) are the offering legislation's standing formulaic diction, not low-frequency hapaxes; both were therefore downgraded from the verifier's default "verbal" output to "structural / thematic." A shared formula is not a quotation.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)