If one touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any unclean, detestable thing, and then eats any of the meat of the peace offering that belongs to the LORD, that person must be cut off from his people.”
Parallel translations
- WEB When anyone touches any unclean thing, the uncleanness of man, or an unclean animal, or any unclean abomination, and eats some of the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which belong to Yahweh, that soul shall be cut off from his people.’”
- KJV Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
- ESV And if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable creature, and then eats some flesh from the sacrifice of the LORD’s peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people.”
- NKJV Moreover the person who touches any unclean thing, such as human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any abominable unclean thing, and who eats the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offering that belongs to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from his people.’ ”
- NASB When anyone touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or any unclean detestable thing, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from his people.’ ”
- NLT If you touch anything that is unclean (whether it is human defilement or an unclean animal or any other unclean, detestable thing) and then eat meat from a peace offering presented to the Lord, you will be cut off from the community.”
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
Touching human, animal, or any unclean defilement and then eating the peace offering brings the penalty of being cut off. God required holiness from those who shared His table.
Overview
This expands the warning, listing sources of uncleanness that disqualified a worshiper from the sacred meal. The repeated penalty guarded the holiness of fellowship with the LORD. It reveals humanity's pervasive uncleanness and the need for the cleansing that only God provides through atonement.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 23
- Ezek 4:14“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”
- Lev 11:20All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you.
- Lev 15:1–33And the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
- Lev 12:1Then the LORD said to Moses,
- Lev 11:10–13But the following among all the teeming life and creatures in the water are detestable to you: everything in the seas or streams that does not have fins and scales.
- Lev 5:2–3Or if a person touches anything unclean—whether the carcass of any unclean wild animal or livestock or crawling creature—even if he is unaware of it, he is unclean and guilty.
- Exod 12:15For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to remove the leaven from your houses. Whoever eats anything leavened from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
- Num 19:11–16Whoever touches any dead body will be unclean for seven days.
- Lev 7:25If anyone eats the fat of an animal from which an offering made by fire may be presented to the LORD, the one who eats it must be cut off from his people.
- Lev 18:29Therefore anyone who commits any of these abominations must be cut off from among his people.
- Gen 17:14But if any male is not circumcised, he will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
- Lev 22:4If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen,
- Lev 7:27If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people.’”
- Exod 12:19For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.
- Lev 17:10If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people.
- Lev 11:24–42These creatures will make you unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening,
- Deut 14:3You must not eat any detestable thing.
- Deut 14:10but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you.
- Deut 14:12–20but these you may not eat: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,
- Exod 30:33–38Anyone who mixes perfume like it or puts it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.’”
- Deut 14:7–8But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you,
- Lev 17:14For the life of all flesh is its blood. Therefore I have told the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any living thing, because the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.’
- Lev 7:20But if anyone who is unclean eats meat from the peace offering that belongs to the LORD, that person must be cut off from his people.
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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 7:21 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
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