Leviticus 22:16
in Leviticus 22by allowing the people to eat the sacred offerings and thus to bear the punishment for guilt. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and so cause them to bear the iniquity that bringeth guilt, when they eat their holy things: for I am Jehovah who sanctifieth them.
KJV
Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass, when they eat their holy things: for I the Lord do sanctify them.
⋯
This verse in Leviticus 22
Commentary
6 notes on this verseThey - 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.
This site's exposition
No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering
on Leviticus 22:10-16
Membership in the priest's household draws the line: a slave bought or born in his house eats, and a guest or hired hand does not. A daughter married outside the priestly families eats again only if she returns "widowed or divorced" with no children.
This site's exposition
to bear the punishment for guilt
John Wesley read the guilt as the punishment the people would bear if the priests let them eat, making the priest answerable for restitution. Matthew Henry noted a second reading from chapter 10, where the priests' eating of the sin offering bears the people's iniquity.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
Whatever was offered in sacrifice to God should be without blemish, otherwise it should not be accepted. This had often been mentioned in the particular institutions of the several sorts of offerings. Now here they are told what was to be accounted a blemish which rendered a beast unfit for sacrifice: if it was blind, or lame, had a wen, or the mange (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Or suffer them to bear the iniquity of trespass,....
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
AND THEY SHALL NOT PROFANE THE HOLY THINGS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL — “by giving them to non-priests to be eaten.”. AND SO CAUSE ‘OTHAM’ (THEM) TO BEAR THE INIQUITY THAT BRINGETH GUILT.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהִשִּׂ֤יאוּ | vehisiu | and they will cause to bear | H5375 → | 656 times |
| אוֹתָם֙ | ʾotam | <obj.> them | H853 → | 10935 times |
| עֲוֹ֣ן | ʾavon | iniquity of | H5771 → | 233 times |
| אַשְׁמָ֔ה | ʾashmah | guilt | H819 → | 19 times |
| בְּאָכְלָ֖ם | beakhelam | when eat they | H398 → | 810 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| קָדְשֵׁיהֶ֑ם | kadesheihem | holy things their | H6944 → | 469 times |
| כִּ֛י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אֲנִ֥י | ʾani | I | H589 → | 874 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | [am] Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| מְקַדְּשָֽׁם׃ פ | mekadesham | [who] sets apart as holy them | H6942 → | 171 times |
וְהִשִּׂ֤יאוּand they will cause to bear
vehisiuH5375 →656 times
אוֹתָם֙<obj.> them
ʾotamH853 →10935 times
עֲוֹ֣ןiniquity of
ʾavonH5771 →233 times
אַשְׁמָ֔הguilt
ʾashmahH819 →19 times
בְּאָכְלָ֖םwhen eat they
beakhelamH398 →810 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
קָדְשֵׁיהֶ֑םholy things their
kadesheihemH6944 →469 times
כִּ֛יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
אֲנִ֥יI
ʾaniH589 →874 times
יְהוָ֖ה[am] Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
מְקַדְּשָֽׁם׃ פ[who] sets apart as holy them
mekadeshamH6942 →171 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Peter 2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 53:4–6
Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.
- Matthew 8:17
This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took on our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
- Romans 6:11
So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Revelation 22:2
down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month.…
- 1 John 2:29
If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
- Isaiah 53:4–6
Through
Psalms 38:4For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
it leads to
- Psalms 40:12
For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- Ezra 9:6
and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens.
- Matthew 11:28
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Psalms 40:12
Where this verse is studied
About Leviticus
This page draws on John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.