Neither 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.’”
Parallel translations
- WEB You must not offer the bread of your God from the hand of a foreigner as any of these; because their corruption is in them. There is a defect in them. They shall not be accepted for you.’”
- KJV Neither from a stranger’s hand shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of these; because their corruption is in them, and blemishes be in them: they shall not be accepted for you.
- NKJV Nor from a foreigner’s hand shall you offer any of these as the bread of your God, because their corruption is in them, and defects are in them. They shall not be accepted on your behalf.’ ”
- NASB nor shall you offer any of these animals taken from the hand of a foreigner as the food of your God; for their deformity is in them, they have an impairment. They will not be accepted for you.’ ”
- NLT and you must not accept such an animal from foreigners and then offer it as a sacrifice to your God. Such animals will not be accepted on your behalf, for they are mutilated or defective.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Defective animals, even from a foreigner's hand, must not be offered as God's bread, for their corruption makes them unacceptable.
Overview
No source, not even a Gentile supplier, could excuse offering blemished animals to God. Calling the offerings 'the bread of your God' uses vivid covenant imagery for what is presented at the altar. The unwavering rejection of the corrupt offering reinforces that only the flawless, ultimately Christ, is acceptable to a holy God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Num 15:14–16And for the generations to come, if a foreigner residing with you or someone else among you wants to prepare an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he is to do exactly as you do.
- Lev 21:6They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the offerings made by fire, the food of their God, they must be holy.
- Mal 1:12–14“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’
- Mal 1:7–8By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.
- Ezra 6:8–10I hereby decree what you must do for these elders of the Jews who are rebuilding this house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces west of the Euphrates, so that the work will not be hindered.
- Eph 2:12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- Lev 21:8You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy—I who set you apart.
- 1 Jn 5:18We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.
- Num 16:40just as the LORD commanded him through Moses. This was to be a reminder to the Israelites that no outsider who is not a descendant of Aaron should approach to offer incense before the LORD, lest he become like Korah and his followers.
- Lev 21:21–22No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the offerings made by fire to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 22:25 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.