Leviticus

Author: Moses

Leviticus is instruction given at Sinai for priests and people who live beside the holy tent.

Outline

  1. Offerings (1–7)

    Burnt, grain, peace, sin, and guilt offerings teach how Israel draws near and makes restitution.

  2. The priesthood (8–10)

    Aaron and his sons are ordained, and Nadab and Abihu die for offering strange fire.

  3. Cleanness (11–16)

    Food, childbirth, skin disease, and the Day of Atonement mark what may approach the camp.

  4. Holiness in ordinary life (17–27)

    The second half applies holiness to blood, sex, justice, festivals, land, and vows.

Key verses

  • Leviticus 11:45

    Israel is told to be holy because the Lord who brought them out of Egypt is holy.

  • Leviticus 16:30

    On the Day of Atonement the priest makes atonement to cleanse the people.

  • Leviticus 19:18

    The command to love your neighbor sits among the ordinary laws of the camp.

Leviticus is easy to skip because it is mostly instruction, not narrative. The book assumes the story of Exodus. The tent has been built. The glory has filled it. The question is how Israel can live next to that holiness without being destroyed by it. Almost every chapter is an answer to that question, spoken to Moses so he can speak it to the priests or to the congregation.

The first seven chapters sort the offerings. A burnt offering goes up entirely. A grain offering accompanies it. A peace offering is shared. A sin offering and a guilt offering deal with particular failures, including cases where someone has harmed a neighbor and must pay back what was taken and add a fifth. The book is not only about worship in the narrow sense. Restitution is part of drawing near. The priests receive portions, and the rules about what they may eat are as detailed as the rules about what is burned.

Aaron and his sons are then ordained. The ceremony takes seven days. On the eighth day fire comes out from the Lord and consumes the offering, and the people shout. Immediately afterward Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire and die. The book will not let the reader treat the priesthood as a costume. Aaron is told not even to mourn in the ordinary way, and the remaining sons are warned not to drink wine when they go into the tent. Access to the holy place is real, and it is dangerous.

The middle chapters turn from the altar to the body and the camp. Some animals may be eaten and some may not. Childbirth, skin disease, and bodily discharges make a person unclean for a time. Uncleanness is not the same thing as moral guilt in every case, but it does bar someone from the tent until the right offering or washing. The Day of Atonement, in chapter 16, is the center of this section. Once a year the high priest goes in behind the veil. One goat is killed and its blood is brought in. The other is sent away. The chapter says this is to cleanse the people from all their sins. It is the one day the book gives for the cleansing of the whole congregation.

From chapter 17 on, the instruction is often called the holiness code because the refrain is repeated: you shall be holy, for I am holy. Blood is not to be eaten. Sexual boundaries are listed. Justice in the courts, wages, and the treatment of the stranger sit beside the festivals and the sabbath. The command to love your neighbor as yourself is not a later summary pasted onto the book. It stands in chapter 19 among laws about gleaning and honest weights. Holiness, in Leviticus, is public.

The last chapters deal with the land and with vows. The sabbatical year and the jubilee say the land is the Lord’s and that sold inheritance can return. A person who vows something must stand by the valuation. The book closes with blessings for obedience and warnings for contempt of the covenant, including exile from the land. Leviticus has not yet entered Canaan. It has already said that the land can spit the people out. Numbers will move the camp. Leviticus has told them what kind of camp it has to be.

Chapters