Leviticus 10-11
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 10
Nadab and Abihu. 1 [a]Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers and, putting incense on the fire they had set in them,(A) they offered before the Lord unauthorized fire, such as he had not commanded. 2 Fire therefore came forth from the Lord’s presence and consumed them,(B) so that they died in the Lord’s presence. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is as the Lord said:
Through those near to me I will be sanctified;
in the sight of all the people I will obtain glory.”[b](C)
But Aaron said nothing. 4 [c]Then Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, with the order, “Come, carry your kinsmen from before the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.” 5 So they drew near and carried them by means of their tunics outside the camp, as Moses had commanded.
Conduct of the Priests. 6 Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not dishevel your hair(D) or tear your garments,(E) lest you die and bring God’s wrath also on the whole community. While your kindred, the rest of the house of Israel, may mourn for those whom the Lord’s fire has burned up, 7 you shall not go beyond the entrance of the tent of meeting,(F) else you shall die; for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” So they did as Moses told them.
8 The Lord said to Aaron: 9 When you are to go to the tent of meeting, you and your sons are forbidden, by a perpetual statute throughout your generations, to drink any wine or strong drink, lest you die.(G) 10 You must be able to distinguish between what is sacred and what is profane, and between what is clean and what is unclean;[d](H) 11 and you must be able to teach the Israelites all the statutes that the Lord has given them through Moses.
The Eating of the Priestly Portions. 12 Moses said to Aaron and his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering[e] left over from the oblations to the Lord, and eat it beside the altar in the form of unleavened cakes, since it is most holy. 13 You must eat it in a sacred place because it is your and your sons’ due from the oblations to the Lord; such is the command I have received. 14 (I)The brisket of the elevated offering and the leg[f] of the contribution, however, you and your sons and daughters may eat, in a clean place; for these have been assigned to you and your children as your due from the communion sacrifices of the Israelites. 15 The leg of the contribution and the brisket of the elevated offering shall be brought in with the oblations of fat to be raised as an elevated offering before the Lord. They shall belong to you and your children as your due forever, as the Lord has commanded.”
16 Moses inquired closely about the goat of the purification offering[g] and discovered that it had all been burned. So he was angry with the surviving sons of Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar, and said, 17 (J)“Why did you not eat the purification offering in the sacred place, since it is most holy? It has been given to you that you might remove the guilt of the community and make atonement for them before the Lord. 18 Since its blood was not brought inside the sanctuary, you should certainly have eaten the offering in the sanctuary, as I was commanded.” 19 Aaron answered Moses, “Even though they presented their purification offering and burnt offering before the Lord today, still this misfortune has befallen me. Had I then eaten of the purification offering today, would it have been pleasing to the Lord?” 20 On hearing this, Moses was satisfied.
III. Laws Regarding Ritual Purity[h]
Chapter 11
Clean and Unclean Meats.[i] 1 (K)The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: 2 Speak to the Israelites and tell them: Of all land animals these are the ones you may eat: 3 Any animal that has hoofs you may eat, provided it is cloven-footed and chews the cud. 4 But you shall not eat(L) any of the following from among those that only chew the cud or only have hoofs: the camel, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore unclean for you; 5 the rock hyrax,[j] which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore unclean for you; 6 the hare, which indeed chews the cud, but does not have hoofs and is therefore unclean for you; 7 and the pig,(M) which does indeed have hoofs and is cloven-footed, but does not chew the cud and is therefore unclean for you. 8 You shall not eat their meat, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.
9 Of the various creatures that live in the water, you may eat the following: whatever in the seas or in river waters that has both fins and scales you may eat.(N) 10 But of the creatures that swarm in the water or of animals that otherwise live in the water, whether in the sea or in the rivers, all those that lack either fins or scales are loathsome for you, 11 and shall always be loathsome to you. Their meat you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall loathe. 12 Every water creature that lacks fins or scales is loathsome for you.
13 Of the birds,[k] these you shall loathe; they shall not be eaten, they are loathsome: the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, 14 the kite, the various species of falcons, 15 the various species of crows, 16 the eagle owl, the kestrel, the long-eared owl, the various species of hawks, 17 the little owl, the cormorant, the screech owl, 18 the barn owl, the horned owl, the osprey, 19 the stork, the various species of herons, the hoopoe, and the bat.
20 The various winged insects that walk on all fours are loathsome for you. 21 But of the various winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those that have legs jointed above their feet for leaping on the ground; 22 hence of these you may eat the following: the various kinds of locusts, the various kinds of bald locusts, the various kinds of crickets, and the various kinds of grasshoppers.(O) 23 All other winged insects that have four legs are loathsome for you.
24 You become unclean by the following—anyone who touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening,(P) 25 and anyone who carries any part of their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening— 26 by all hoofed animals that are not cloven-footed or do not chew the cud; they are unclean for you; anyone who touches them becomes unclean. 27 Also by the various quadrupeds that walk on paws; they are unclean for you; anyone who touches their carcasses shall be unclean until evening, 28 and anyone who carries their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening. They are unclean for you.
29 Of the creatures that swarm on the ground, the following are unclean for you: the rat, the mouse, the various kinds of lizards, 30 the gecko, the spotted lizard, the agama, the skink, and the chameleon. 31 Among the various swarming creatures, these are unclean for you. Everyone who touches them when they are dead shall be unclean until evening. 32 Everything on which one of them falls when dead becomes unclean, including any article of wood, cloth, leather or goat hair—any article of which use can be made. It must be immersed in water and remain unclean until evening, when it again becomes clean. 33 Should any of these creatures fall into a clay vessel, everything in it becomes unclean, and the vessel itself you must break. 34 Any food that can be eaten which makes contact with water, and any liquid that may be drunk, in any such vessel become unclean. 35 Any object on which any part of their carcasses falls becomes unclean; if it is an oven or stove, this must be broken to pieces; they are unclean and shall always be unclean to you. 36 However, a spring or a cistern for collecting water remains clean; but whoever touches such an animal’s carcass becomes unclean. 37 If any part of their carcasses falls on any sort of grain that is to be sown, it remains clean; 38 but if the grain has become moistened, it becomes unclean to you when any part of their carcasses falls on it.
39 [l](Q)When one of the animals that you could otherwise eat dies of itself, anyone who touches its carcass shall be unclean until evening; 40 and anyone who eats any part of its carcass shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening;(R) so also, anyone who carries its carcass shall wash his garments and be unclean until evening.
41 All the creatures that swarm on the ground are loathsome and shall not be eaten. 42 Whether it crawls on its belly, goes on all fours, or has many legs—any creature that swarms on the earth—you shall not eat them; they are loathsome. 43 Do not make yourselves loathsome by any swarming creature nor defile yourselves with them and so become unclean by them.(S) 44 For I, the Lord, am your God. You shall make and keep yourselves holy,[m] because I am holy.(T) You shall not make yourselves unclean, then, by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground. 45 Since I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt that I might be your God, you shall be holy, because I am holy.
46 This is the instruction for land animals, birds, and all the creatures that move about in the water, as well as any animal that swarms on the ground, 47 that you may distinguish between the clean and the unclean, and between creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.(U)
Footnotes
- 10:1–2 Nadab and Abihu are the older sons of Aaron (Ex 6:23–24). Their sin apparently involves using embers from an unapproved source instead of the altar (cf. 16:12). The fire that destroys them is the same type found in 9:24.
- 10:3 The explanation for the divine reaction indicates that improper cultic actions desecrate God and compromise God’s glory. Desecration evokes divine punishment (cf. Ex 28:43; Nm 4:15, 19–20). Those near to me: i.e., cultic officials.
- 10:4–5 Moses has lay people remove the bodies so that the priests can continue their cultic activities free of contamination by a corpse (cf. Nm 19).
- 10:10 Sacred and…profane…clean and…unclean: something or someone may be either sacred or profane (i.e., ordinary, not set apart), and at the same time clean or unclean. Priests would be particularly concerned about keeping what is unclean away from the sacred.
- 10:12–13 Grain offering: this is the grain offering of the people of 9:4, 17. Only the token offering had been offered; the rest was for the priests’ consumption.
- 10:14 Brisket…leg: these are from the Israelites’ communion sacrifices in 9:4, 18–21.
- 10:16–20 Goat of the purification offering: this is the people’s purification offering of 9:3, 15. Since its blood is not brought into the sanctuary, then, according to 6:17–23, this is the type of purification offering which is to be eaten by the priests in a holy place. Eleazar and Ithamar: they burned the entire goat of the people’s purification offering (9:15) instead of eating it in a sacred place (6:19) to remove ritually the sin of the community by the ingestion of the meat of the offering. Aaron’s defense of this action of his sons is somewhat vague: he merely alludes to the loss suffered in the death of Nadab and Abihu, without giving an explicit reason for Eleazar and Ithamar’s not eating the people’s purification offering, as required.
- 11:1–15:33 Priestly legislation manifests two types of impurity or uncleanness: tolerated and prohibited. Prohibited impurity arises from various sins (e.g., 4:1–5; 5:2–3; 18:6–23; 20:2–5; Nm 5:13–14; 6:6–7). Tolerated impurity has three main sources: certain dead bodies (animal and human; cf. Lv 11 and Nm 19), various regular and abnormal genital discharges (Lv 12; 15), and diseases (specifically “scaly infection,” chaps. 13–14). An additional tolerated impurity is that generated by the cult in order to rectify the effect of these impurities or sins (cf. chap. 4; 16:26, 28).
- 11:1–47 Apart from the introduction and conclusion (vv. 1–2a, 46–47), this chapter has three sections: (1) prohibitions against eating certain land, water, and air animals (vv. 2b–23); (2) consequences of contact with various animals (vv. 24–41); (3) a prohibition against eating small land animals, which is motivated by the requirement that Israel be holy as God is holy (vv. 41–45). These animals are impure only when dead. Cf. Dt 14:3–21.
- 11:5–6 According to modern zoology, the rock hyrax (Hyrax syriacus) is classified as an ungulate, and the hare as a rodent; neither is a ruminant. They appear to chew their food as the true ruminants do, and it is upon this appearance that the classification in the text is based.
- 11:13–23, 30 Birds: the term is broader, including all animals that fly (including bats, v. 19, and flying insects, vv. 20–23). The identification of the various Hebrew names for these birds and reptiles is in many cases uncertain.
- 11:39–40 These animals create uncleanness, but are not prohibited as food (cf. 17:15–16). Priests who have a higher degree of holiness than other Israelites may not eat these animals (22:8; cf. Ez 44:31). Cf. Ex 22:30; Dt 14:21.
- 11:44–45 Keep yourselves holy…you shall be holy: a similar idea is expressed in 20:25–26. There, distinguishing between the animals is compared to God’s distinguishing between the peoples and choosing Israel.
Psalm 60
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Psalm 60[a]
Lament After Defeat in Battle
1 For the leader; according to “The Lily of.…” A miktam of David (for teaching), 2 when he fought against Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah; and Joab, coming back, killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.(A)
I
3 O God, you rejected us, broke our defenses;
you were angry but now revive us.
4 You rocked the earth, split it open;(B)
repair the cracks for it totters.
5 You made your people go through hardship,
made us stagger from the wine you gave us.(C)
6 Raise up a banner for those who revere you,
a refuge for them out of bow shot.
Selah
7 [b]Help with your right hand and answer us
that your loved ones may escape.
II
8 [c]In the sanctuary God promised:
“I will exult, will apportion Shechem;
the valley of Succoth I will measure out.
9 Gilead is mine, mine is Manasseh;
Ephraim is the helmet for my head,
Judah, my own scepter.[d]
10 [e]Moab is my washbowl;
upon Edom I cast my sandal.(D)
I will triumph over Philistia.”
III
11 Who will bring me to the fortified city?[f]
Who will lead me into Edom?
12 Was it not you who rejected us, God?
Do you no longer march with our armies?(E)
13 Give us aid against the foe;
worthless is human help.
14 We will triumph with the help of God,
who will trample down our foes.
Footnotes
- Psalm 60 The community complains that God has let the enemy win the battle (Ps 60:3–5) and asks for an assurance of victory (Ps 60:6–7). In the oracle God affirms ownership of the land; the invasion of other nations is not permanent and will be reversed ultimately (Ps 60:8–10). With renewed confidence, the community resolves to fight again (Ps 60:11). The opening lament is picked up again (Ps 60:12), but this time with new awareness of God’s power and human limitation.
- 60:7–12 These verses occur again as the second half of Ps 108.
- 60:8 I will…apportion…measure out: God lays claim to these places. The valley of Succoth: probably the lower stretch of the Jabbok valley.
- 60:9 Judah, my own scepter: an allusion to the Testament of Jacob, Gn 49:10.
- 60:10 Moab is my washbowl: Moab borders the Dead Sea, hence a metaphor for the country. Upon Edom I cast my sandal: an ancient legal gesture of taking possession of land.
- 60:11 The fortified city: perhaps Bozrah, the fortified capital of Edom, cf. Is 34:6; 63:1; Am 1:12.
Acts 2:22-47
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
22 You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.(A) 23 This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.(B) 24 But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.(C) 25 For David says of him:
‘I saw the Lord ever before me,(D)
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
26 Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
27 because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.(E)
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
29 My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day. 30 But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,(F) 31 he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption.(G) 32 God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. 33 Exalted at the right hand of God,[a] he received the promise of the holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you [both] see and hear.(H) 34 For David did not go up into heaven, but he himself said:
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand(I)
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
36 Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”(J)
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?”(K) 38 Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized,[b] every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.(L) 39 For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”(M) 40 He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”(N) 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.(O)
Communal Life.[c] 42 (P)They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.(Q) 43 Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.(R) 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common;(S) 45 they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2:33 At the right hand of God: or “by the right hand of God.”
- 2:38 Repent and be baptized: repentance is a positive concept, a change of mind and heart toward God reflected in the actual goodness of one’s life. It is in accord with the apostolic teaching derived from Jesus (Acts 2:42) and ultimately recorded in the four gospels. Luke presents baptism in Acts as the expected response to the apostolic preaching about Jesus and associates it with the conferring of the Spirit (Acts 1:5; 10:44–48; 11:16).
- 2:42–47 The first of three summary passages (along with Acts 4:32–37; 5:12–16) that outline, somewhat idyllically, the chief characteristics of the Jerusalem community: adherence to the teachings of the Twelve and the centering of its religious life in the eucharistic liturgy (Acts 2:42); a system of distribution of goods that led wealthier Christians to sell their possessions when the needs of the community’s poor required it (Acts 2:44 and the note on Acts 4:32–37); and continued attendance at the temple, since in this initial stage there was little or no thought of any dividing line between Christianity and Judaism (Acts 2:46).
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