Leviticuschapter 22
33 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
If anyone eats a sacred offering in error, he must add a fifth to its value and give the sacred offering to the priest.
It stands in Who belongs at the priest's table, verses 10 to 16.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Priestly handling of the holy things. Priests with any uncleanness must not eat of the holy things on pain of being cut off. No stranger may eat of them; a slave born in the house or bought with money may; a daughter married to a stranger may not (returning widowed without children, she may). Sacrificial animals must be without blemish. No blind, broken, maimed, wen-afflicted, scurvy, or scabbed; no animal under eight days old; no mother and young slain the same day. ‘Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you.’
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world behind this chapter
Leviticus 22The history
The chapter runs in three speeches, the first two addressed to Aaron and his sons and the second widened to all the children of Israel and the strangers in Israel. The dating follows the book's own setting at Sinai.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The priests owned no farmland. They ate from the offerings the people brought, which is why a rule about uncleanness is also a rule about a man's dinner. Verse 7 gives the reason a priest is restored as soon as the sun sets and he has bathed, because the holy food is his food.
A first hearer knew how an animal was chosen. A man picked the beast himself out of his own herd or flock, and everyone present could see whether it was sound. The standard the chapter sets is two words, without blemish, and the disqualifying words it lists are largely the words used of the priest in chapter 21.
A first hearer also knew the difference between a gift and a promise. Verse 23 lets an ox or lamb with a limb too long or too short be brought as a freewill offering and never on a vow, because a promise already made fixes what is owed.
Two rules here belonged to a world where every household raised its own animals and knew them. A newborn stays seven days under its mother, and a cow or ewe is never killed with her young on one day.
What it meant to them
The chapter told the worshipper that his own choice at the pen was part of the offering. An animal he would not have kept was an animal God would not accept.
It told the priest that his access to the holy food turned on his state rather than on his birth, and that the bar lifted with water and a sunset.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch , 1864 to 1870
- Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT), 1979
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 22 falls in The Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). ‘Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.’ Blood, sexual ethics, neighbor-love, feasts, jubilee, blessings and curses.
Before it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16. After it: Vows and dedications, chapters 27.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Holy food and unclean hands
1. (vv. 1-3)
Leviticus 22:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Immediately after he had spoken concerning blemishes in priests, and in a continued discourse signifying, that though priests that had blemishes might eat of the holy things, yet neither they, nor even such who had not any, if they were under legal impurity, might eat of them: saying; as follows.”
Leviticus 22:2
“Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves - The same subject is continued in this chapter as in the preceding, with this addition, that besides the perfection of the priests, it was indispensably necessary that the sacrifices also should be perfect. In the service of God, according to the law, neither an imperfect offering nor an imperfect offerer could be admitted. What need then of a mediator between a holy God and sinful men!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 22:2
“Speak unto Aaron and to his sons,....”
Leviticus 22:2
“Separate themselves - When any uncleanness is upon them, as appears from ver. 3, 4. From the holy things - From eating of those parts of the offerings, which belong to them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 22:3
“Cut off from my presence - i. e. excluded from the sanctuary. See Lev 20:17.”
3 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 22:3
“Say unto them, whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations,....”
Leviticus 22:3
“The ideas of sin and duty were awakened in their breasts by every case to which either an interdict or an injunction was applied. But why enact an express statute for priests disqualified by the leprosy or polluting touch of a carcass [Le 22:4], when a general law was already in force which excluded from society all persons in that condition?”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 22:3
“Goeth unto the holy things - To eat them, or to touch them; for if the touch of one of the people having his uncleanness upon him defiled the thing he touched, much more was it so in the priest.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Chapter 21 kept certain priests from the altar for what their bodies were. This chapter keeps them from the holy food for what has touched them, and that bar lifts as soon as they are clean. Verse 2 states the danger as profaning the holy name in the things Israel hallows, and verse 3 sets the heaviest penalty in the chapter, cut off from my presence, on a priest who eats a holy portion with his uncleanness upon him.
2. (vv. 4-9)
Leviticus 22:4
“What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 22:4
“Not a single case is recorded of a leper being restored to communion by the use of water; it served only as an outward and visible sign that such a restoration was to be made.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 22:4
“Is a leper, or hath a running issue - See the case of the leper treated at large in the notes on Leviticus 13 (note) and Leviticus 14 (note); and for other uncleannesses, see the notes on Leviticus 15 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 22:5
“Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:5
“Creeping things - i. e. dead vermin. Compare Lev 11:29.”
Leviticus 22:6
“The soul which hath touched any such shall be unclean until even,.... Which is the time fixed by the several laws for such uncleannesses, see Lev 11:31, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he wash his flesh with water; in forty seahs of water, as the Targum of Jonathan; yea, when the evening is come, he may not eat of the heave or wave offerings, until he has dipped himself all over in water; nor should any eat of the Lord's supper under the New Testament, but such as are first baptized in water.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:6
“The soul - Rather, the person. Compare the use of the word “body” in the Prayer Book version of Psa 53:1, and in the compounds “somebody, nobody”.”
Leviticus 22:7
“And when the sun is down he shall be clean,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:7
“His food - His portion, the means of his subsistence. This may be added, to signify why there was no greater nor longer a penalty put upon the priests than upon the people in the same case, because his necessity craved some mitigation: tho' otherwise the priests being more sacred persons, deserved a greater punishment.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 22:8
“The pollution in the priests would be an aggravated one, inasmuch as they would have to forego their sacred functions. Compare Eze 4:14; Eze 44:31. The general prohibition occurs in Lev 11:39; Lev 17:15; Exo 22:31.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:8
“But an express precept was necessary to show them that whatever died naturally or from disease, was prohibited to them by the operation of that law which forbade them the use of any meat with its blood.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 22:9
“Eating the holy things signified an interest in the atonement; but, if they ate of them in their uncleanness, they were so far from lessening their guilt that they increased it: They shall bear sin. (2.) Sin is a burden which, if infinite mercy prevent not, will certainly sink those that bear it: They shall die therefore.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:9
“They shall therefore keep mine ordinance,....”
A leprous priest is kept from the holy food until he be clean, so the disqualification runs with the condition and ends with it. The whole remedy here is water and the setting sun, and verse 7 gives the reason a priest is restored as quickly as the rule allows: because it is his food. Verse 8 lays on him the rule already laid on every Israelite at 17:15 about what dies of itself, and verse 9 closes with the sanction and its ground, I the LORD do sanctify them.
B. Who belongs at the priest's tablevv. 10-16
The line is drawn by belonging to the priest's house rather than by descent from him. A slave bought with his money eats and one born in his house eats, while a hired servant and a sojourner do not, and a daughter married outside the priestly families loses the portion until she comes back widowed or divorced and childless. Verse 14 sets the remedy for eating a holy thing unwittingly at restitution plus a fifth part, the same addition required at 5:16 and 6:5, so the accident is repaid rather than punished. The Mishnah, compiled about AD 200, gives a whole tractate called Terumoth to who may eat the priest's portion, and it opens its sixth chapter on this verse with the man who eats in error paying the principal and the fifth.
Leviticus 22:10
“There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing - For the meaning of the word stranger, see the note on Exo 12:43. The Jews suppose that stranger here means one who has had his ear pierced, (see the note on Exo 21:6), and that sojourner means a servant who is to go free on the Sabbatical year.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 22:11
“But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it,.... Whether any of his own nation, who sometimes, when become poor, were obliged to sell themselves; or a stranger, as the Targum of Jonathan; one of another nation, a Canaanitish servant, as Jarchi.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:11
“This shows how completely a purchased bondsman was incorporated into the household. See Exo 21:2, note; Exo 21:20-21, note.”
Leviticus 22:12
“If the priest's daughter also be married to a stranger,.... Not to an Heathen, but to any Israelite, that is, a common man, or a layman, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, one that is not a priest; but is married either to a Levite, or an Israelite, as Jarchi: she may not eat of an offering of the holy things; the heave shoulder or wave breast, &c. being removed into another family by marriage, she is not reckoned of her father's family, and so had no more a right to eat of the holy things.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:12
“A stranger - To one of another family, who is no priest. Yet the priest's wife, though of another family, might eat. The reason of which difference is, because the wife passeth into the name, state and privileges of her husband, from whom the family is denominated.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 22:13
“But if the priest’s daughter be a widow - and is returned unto her father’s house - A widow in Bengal not infrequently returns to her father’s house on the death of her husband: the union betwixt her and her own family is never so dissolved as among European nations. Thousands of widows in Bengal, whose husbands die before the consummation of marriage, never leave their parents - Ward.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:13
“But if the priest's daughter be a widow or divorced,....”
Leviticus 22:14
“Then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it - The holy thing of which he has unknowingly eaten shall be fairly valued, and to this value he shall add one fifth more, and give the whole to the priest.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 22:14
“Unto it - Over and above the principle, and besides the ram to be offered to God, chap. v, 15. And shall give unto the priest the holy thing - That is, the worth of it, which the priest was either to take to himself or to offer to God, as the nature of the thing was.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 22:14
“At the end, it is stated, "If a man eats of the sanctified things through ignorance, iniquity and wickedness are laid at his feet, and he shall be bound by a vow." Thus also the apostle teaches us that we are to eat the Eucharist of the Lord with caution, lest we eat to our condemnation and judgment. If ignorance is condemned under the law, how much more will full knowledge be condemned according to the gospel?”
Jerome· written before 420· Against the Pelagians 1.34patristic
Leviticus 22:15
These verses are rather difficult. Their meaning appears to be: “The holy things of the children of Israel which are heaved before Yahweh” (see Lev 7:30) “shall not be profaned; and they shall incur a sin of trespass who eat of their holy things (so as to profane them).”
Leviticus 22:16
“They - That is, the priests, shall not (the negative particle being understood out of the foregoing clause) suffer them - That is, the people, to bear the iniquity of trespass - That is, the punishment of their sin, which they might expect from God, and for the prevention whereof the priest was to see restitution made.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:16
“We must not only not suffer sin to lie upon our brother, but, if we can help it, we must not suffer it to come upon him. But perhaps there is another meaning of those words: the priests' eating the sin-offerings is said to signify their bearing the iniquity of the congregation, to make an atonement for them, ch. x.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. Nothing blemished is accepted
1. (vv. 17-20)
Leviticus 22:17
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time; for having said many things concerning the holiness of priests, whose business it was to offer sacrifices, he adds various things concerning the nature, condition, and circumstances of the sacrifices they were to offer: saying, as follows.”
Leviticus 22:18
“Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons,....”
Leviticus 22:19
“Ye shall offer at your own will a male - Rather, That it may be accepted (so Lev 22:29) for you it shall be a male. See Lev 1:3. It is the same phrase as in Lev 22:20-21, Lev 22:27.”
The second speech widens the address from Aaron and his sons to all the children of Israel and the strangers in Israel, because the animal is picked out by the man who brings it. The standard is two words, without blemish, and verse 20 states the result of missing it as plainly as it can be stated: it shall not be acceptable for you. Malachi 1:8 holds a later generation to this verse by asking whether a governor would take what they were bringing to God.
2. (vv. 21-25)
Leviticus 22:22
“Blind, or broken, or maimed,.... Which is "blind" of one eye, or both: and so the Egyptians, as they would not sacrifice any of their oxen that had any blemishes on them, and were of a different colour, or changed in their form, so likewise such that were deprived of either of their eyes (x).”
Leviticus 22:23
“That hath anything superfluous or lacking - The term שרוע sarua signifies any thing extended beyond the usual size, and the term קלוט kalut signifies any thing unusually contracted; and both mean any monstrosity, whether in redundance or defect.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 22:24
“Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut,.... The Targum of Jonathan is, whose testicles are pressed and bruised, and whose nerves are corrupted and bruised, and so most Jewish writers interpret it: neither shall you make any offering thereof in your land; any offering of any sort, either burnt offering or peace offering, or any other; or ye shall not do, that is, any such thing as here suggested, not bruise, or crush, or break, or cut the testicles of any creature; so the above writers.”
Leviticus 22:25
“A stranger’s hand - The word here rendered “stranger”, is not the same as that in Lev 22:10, Lev 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 1Ki 8:41.”
The disqualifying words in this list are largely the words used of the priest in 21:18-20, blind, superfluous, scurvy and scabbed, with the broken stones of 21:20 answered by the bruised and crushed and cut of verse 24. One vocabulary describes the man at the altar and the animal on it. Verse 23 holds the single relaxation in the chapter, and it turns on the difference between a gift and a promise, since a bullock or lamb with a part too many or too few may be brought freely and may never be paid on a vow. Verse 25 closes the last way round the rule, because an animal bought from a stranger's hand is judged by what it is rather than by where it came from.
D. Eight days old, and never with its mother
1. (vv. 26-30)
Leviticus 22:26
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time, as before, in a continued discourse, the subject being of the same kind, relating to sacrifices: saying, as follows.”
Leviticus 22:27
“Scripture says, "At least grant the offspring to its mother for its first seven days." For if nothing comes to be without reason and milk flows in the mothers for the nourishment of the offspring, then in taking the offspring away from the providential endowment of the milk, a person is doing violence to nature. So Greeks and anyone else who runs the law down ought to blush for shame if the law is generous over irrational beasts. Yet some people actually expose human offspring to abortive death.”
Clement of Alexandria· written before 215· The Stromata Book 2patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 22:27
“The Jews say, "It was because the sabbath sanctifies all things, and nothing should be offered to God till at least one sabbath had passed over it." It was in conformity to the law of circumcision, which children were to receive on the eighth day. Christ was sacrificed for us, not in his infancy, though then Herod sought to slay him, but in the prime of his time.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 22:27
“No victim was to be offered in sacrifice until it was a week old. The meaning of this law appears to be that the animal should realise a distinct existence in becoming less dependent on its mother, and able to provide for its own wants.”
Leviticus 22:28
“Ye shall not kill it and her young in one day - This precept was certainly intended to inculcate mercy and tenderness of heart; and so the Jews understood it. When it is necessary to take away the lives of innocent animals for the support of our own, we should do it in such a way as not to blunt our moral feelings; and deplore the necessity, while we feel an express gratitude to God for permission, to do it.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 22:29
“And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:29
“7 And when the sun is down, he shall be clean, and shall afterward eat of the holy things; because it is his food. 8 That which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the L ORD . 9 They shall therefore keep mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it, and die therefore, if they profane it: I the L ORD do sanctify them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 22:30
“On the same day it shall be eaten up,.... Which is the law concerning it; See Gill on Lev 7:15, ye shall leave none of it till the morning; of another day, as the Vulgate Latin version adds, and much less the fat of them, and the most holy things, as Ben Gersom observes, the one being to be burnt upon the altar, the other to be eaten by the priests I am the Lord; who has made this law, and expect it will be observed.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:30
“Leave none of it until the morrow - See the note on Lev 7:15.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The third speech turns from an animal's fitness to its life. A newborn stays seven days under the dam and is accepted from the eighth, the day Exodus 22:30 names and the day a son is circumcised at Genesis 17:12, and a cow or ewe may not be killed with her young in one day. Leviticus gives no reason for that second rule, and the writers who reach for one reach across to Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 22:6, where the same care for a mother and her young stands without explanation there either. The thanksgiving offering of verses 29 and 30 is eaten on the day it is brought, as 7:15 already required, so none of it is carried into the morning.
2. (vv. 31-33)
Leviticus 22:31
“Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them,.... Both priests and people, even all the commandments delivered at this time, as well as all others; these they were to observe and take notice of, and keep them in memory, and put them in practice: I am the Lord; See Gill on Lev 22:30.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:31
“God will be a loser in his glory by no man at last; but sooner or later will recover his right, either in the repentance of sinners or in their ruin.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 22:32
“Neither shall ye profane my holy name - God’s name is profaned or rendered common when we treat his commands as we often do those of our fellows, when they do not appear to have self-interest to recommend them. He therefore profanes God’s holy name who does not both implicitly believe and conscientiously obey all his words and all his precepts. I will be hallowed among the children of Israel - The words children of Israel, בני ישראל beney Yishrael, which so frequently occur, should be translated either the descendants or posterity of Israel, or the people of Israel.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:32
“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 an holy God that will not bear the transgression of my laws.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 22:33
“That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God,.... 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: I am the Lord; that hath sovereign right unto them, and claim upon them, and therefore they ought to be subject to his will, and observe his laws ordinances.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 22:33
“Brought you out of the land of Egypt - By such a series of miraculous interferences, to be your God - to save you from all idolatry, false and superstitious worship, teach you the right way, lead and support you in it, and preserve you to my eternal kingdom and glory. God, infinite in his own perfections, has no need of his creatures; but they need him; and, as a source of endless felicity, he opens himself to all his intelligent offspring.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The chapter closes on the sentence that stands in place of a reason. I am the LORD falls seven times in these thirty-three verses and twice more as I the LORD do sanctify them, and the last three verses each end on it. The verb behind I will be hallowed in verse 32 is the one Moses spoke to Aaron over the bodies of Nadab and Abihu at 10:3, I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me. Verse 33 puts the ground under all of it, that God brought them out of the land of Egypt to be their God.
This page carries no textual note on Leviticus 22. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.