Leviticus 17:1-9 – God’s Proprietary Right to His Peoples’ Worship

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 28 July 2016

INTRO

· With Chapter 17, we turn from corporate worship instructions – primarily directed toward the priests – to principles of individual holiness lived out before God. Gordon Wenham, author of the New International Commentary of the Old Testament on Leviticus wrote, “I... view chapter 17 as a hinge linking the two halves of the book: chapters 1-16 containing the ritual regulations for public life and worship, and chapters 18-25 regulating the personal and private affairs of individuals.”

· So what is the first principle of private holiness before God?
Well, it’s the same as the first of the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods before me.” That is the first principle of personal holiness tackled in this second half of Leviticus too.

o “Don’t make animal sacrifices to any other god but me.

o Don’t use blood for any other reason but to atone for your sins the way I prescribe.”

· This morning, I’m going to try to cover the first half of the chapter, verses 1-9 about animal sacrifices, and I’ll save the second half of the chapter on God’s Proprietary Rights Concerning Blood in a future sermon.

· Now, before I get into the exegesis of this chapter, I want to take a little excursus into textual criticism which I am finding very interesting: When Renaissance Christians switched away from using the ancient Greek Septuagint to using the medieval Jewish Masoretic text as the basis for the Old Testament, I think they lost part of verses 3 and 4 of this chapter.

o The discovery of the ancient Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls (which had not all been studied by the time the NAS and ESV and NIV were translated) is bringing to light the fact that the ancient Septuagint might actually be more accurate in places than modern man had previously supposed, and these verses are a case in point. Dead Sea Scroll 4Q26 agrees with the Septuagint in verses 3 and 4, including phrases that are not in the Masoretic text followed by modern English Bibles.

o Remember, both the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls are a thousand years older than the Masoretic text, so I think they should be taken seriously, and you’ll see the extra phrases in square brackets in my translation of Leviticus 17.

o The good news, however, is that the longer reading, which I think is the original, does not say anything really different from what you could glean from the context if you follow the shorter reading, so this is not a reason to throw away your modern English Bibles, but it is a reason to urge caution against making too much of new discoveries and a caution against the assumption that modern scholarship is always better than traditions established by ancient scholars.

o I just received an email last week claiming that someone had found lost words of Jesus that were not in the Bible. They gushed, “Biblical scholars are calling it ‘one of the most extraordinary archeological discoveries in the modern world.’ ... Click here to read Jesus' lost words and find out how they could improve your life.” Yeah, right.

o Reminds me of the James and Jesus ossuaries discovered several years ago that supposedly contained the bones of Christ and his parents and his wife and his brothers, supposedly proving that Jesus had not been resurrected, but which has been proved a fraud^{^[1]}.

o Listen, God has watched over the transmission of the Bible from the very beginning to keep His people from being led astray by such falsehoods and fantasies. God has seen to it that even the variants like the one in this verse do not shift the meaning off-track. The tradition of God’s word is reliable. Your Bible is reliable, so don’t get sidetracked by supposedly new discoveries that lead off in different directions.

· Now back to Leviticus 17 and the main point. I want to break the first section about animal sacrifice down into four sections:

What was the POINT of this law?
What was the PROBLEM being addressed by this law?
Who were the PEOPLE who had to obey this law?
What was the PENALTY for disobeying this law?

And I want to show that four things all have bearing on us today.

EXEGESIS

1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel and say to them, ‘This is the thing which Yahweh commanded saying, 3 “Any man from the house of Israel [or visitor visiting in Israel] who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who does his slaughtering outside of the camp, 4 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting [to make it a whole-burnt-offering or a peace offering to Yahweh for their sweet-smelling aroma, but slaughters it outside and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of Meeting] to offer an offering to Yahweh before the dwelling of Yahweh, bloodguilt will be reckoned to that man.” He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut away from proximity to his people, 5 in order that the children of Israel will bring their sacrifices which they themselves are sacrificing on the face of the field and bring them to Yahweh to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to the priest and then sacrifice them [as] sacrifices of peace-offerings to Yahweh. 6 Then the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of Yahweh [at] the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and cause the fat to go up in smoke for a pleasing aroma to Yahweh. 7 They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat-demons before which they are prostituting themselves. This shall be for them a lasting statute for their generations. 8 And you shall also say to them, “Any man from the house of Israel or from the visitors[s] visiting in their midst who offers up a whole-burnt-offering or a sacrifice 9 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to do it for Yahweh, that man shall therefore be cut off from his people.

1. The POINT of this law:

· What is it that makes killing an animal wrong? The Bible’s use of the word “Blood-guilt” appears to mean liability for capital punishment for breaking any of the 10 Commandments. But killing and eating an animal was not against the 10 Commandments. Only murdering humans.

· Furthermore, God specifically allowed the Jews to slaughter and eat animals outside of the temple both in Leviticus 17:13 (in respect to wild game) and in Deuteronomy 12:13-18
“Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which the LORD chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike. Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it on the earth like water. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands.” (NKJV)

· The problem appears to be – not the killing of an animal per se, but rather – the killing of an animal in relationship to another god besides Yahweh^{^[2]}.

· Notice the connection in Ezekiel 33:25 "Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "You eat meat with the blood in it, lift up your eyes to your idols as you shed blood. Should you then possess the land? (NASB) Idolatry and eating meat with blood in it was related.

· Moshe Ben Nachman, a Rabbi from the 13^th Century wrote that “The purpose of the chapter is to emphasize that the slaughtering of animals as sacrifices must only be done within the precincts of the Sanctuary.”

· The great Reformation theologian, John Calvin, agreed: “[T]he word “kill,” which is elsewhere taken in a wider sense, is here confined to the sacrifices, since permission is elsewhere given to the people to eat meat in all their cities and villages, provided they abstain from blood. .. the question is not here as to their ordinary food, but only as to the sacrifices...”

· And the eminent Puritan Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, observed that, “Though it was but a beast he had killed, yet, killing it otherwise than God had appointed, he was looked upon as a murderer. It is by the divine grant that we have the liberty to kill the inferior creatures, to the benefit of which we are not entitled, unless we submit to the limitations of it, which are that it be not done either with cruelty or with superstition... nor was there ever any greater abuse done to the inferior creatures than when they were made either false gods or sacrifices to false gods.... Idolatrous sacrifices were looked upon, not only as adultery, but as murder: he that offereth them is as if he slew a man, Isa. 66:3... [I]t is hard to construe this as a temporary law, when it is expressly said to be a statute for ever (Lev. 17:7); and therefore, it should seem rather to forbid only the killing of beasts for sacrifice any where but at God's altar.”

· In fact, as Matthew Henry pointed out, it wasn’t even so much the location of the sacrifice that was most important, considering that God approved of the sacrifices of Gideon (Jdg. 6:26), Manoah (Jdg, 13:19), Samuel (1Sam. 7:9; 9:13; 11:15), David (2Sam. 24:18), and Elijah (1Ki. 18:23), which were all offered outside of the tabernacle, but it was the God to whom the sacrifice was made that was most important.

2. The PROBLEM to be avoided:

· “The reason for [this law] is to be found in the strong addictedness of the Israelites to idolatry at the time of their departure from Egypt; and, as it would have been easy for any, by killing an animal, to sacrifice privately to a favorite object of worship, a strict prohibition was made against their slaughtering at home.” ~JFB

· What were the goat-demons in v.7? The Hebrew word she’irim literally means “hairy things,” and 95% of the time it appears in the Hebrew Bible, it means “goats.” Here and in 2 Chronicles 11:15, it appears to represent a pagan god, and often pagan gods are associated with particular demons: “Then he [King Jeroboam] appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the [goat-]demons, and the calf idols which he had made.” (2 Chronicles 11:15, NKJV, Isa. 13:21 and 34:14 are also thought by some to be referring to the same demons.)

· “The prohibition evidently alludes to the worship of the hirei-footed kind, such as Pan, Faunus, and Saturn, whose recognized symbol was a goat. This was a form of idolatry enthusiastically practiced by the Egyptians, particularly in the name or province of Mendes [The Lord of Mendes or Banebdjedet was the name of the Egyptian goat-shaped god. cf. Josephus Ap. 2,7, Heroditus 2, 42, 46, Strabo xvii. 802]. Pan was supposed especially to preside over mountainous and desert regions, and it was while they were in the wilderness that the Israelites seem to have been powerfully influenced by a feeling to propitiate this idol. Moreover, the ceremonies observed in this idolatrous worship were extremely licentious and obscene, and the gross impurity of the rites gives great point and significance to the expression of Moses, ‘they have gone a-whoring.’” ~JFB

· Cf. Deuteronomy 32:15-17 "...Then he [Israel] forsook God who made him, And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons [shadim], not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.” (NKJV) cf. Josh. 24:14; Ezek. 20:7, which specifically note that the Israelites needed to put away idols they had brought from Egypt.

· We can certainly see how this is a lasting statute. God will never approve of His people worshipping another god. (Soncino)

· What would the equivalent of this problem be in our time? Leviticus goes on to say that this demon-worship results in them prostituting themselves before the idols. Where are acts of sexual impurity being committed in our time? In front of computer and video screens, in front of rock concert stages, and on the other side of alcohol and other drugs. This is all over the place today.

· God says, “[Y]ou shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them invites you and you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods and make your sons play the harlot with their gods.” (Ex. 34:14-16, NKJV) This isn’t just about the fidelity of your relationship with God, God is concerned about the fidelity of His relationship with your children and their children too! Parents, is your permissiveness exposing your descendents to the risk of giving themselves over to the gods of this age?

· “And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives some of his descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech. And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. And you shall keep My statutes, and perform them: I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” (Leviticus 20:4-8, NKJV)

3. To which PEOPLE did this law apply?

· Note that this applied to all ethnicities and religions within the nation of Israel. If you were going to live in Israel during Moses’ time, it didn’t matter whether you were a Jew or a Gentile, you were not allowed to worship any God but Yahweh. That was part of the national covenant.

· Would it surprise you to find out that this was also the mindset of the founders of the United States?

o Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, who served on the court from 1811-1845 made this remark in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: “Probably at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the first amendment to it.... the general if not the universal sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the state so far as was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience and the freedom of religious worship.” [I might add that this was why the American government sent Bibles to pagan areas and the founding fathers mandated the study of the Bible in schools, and they hired Christian chaplains with tax dollars.] Justice Story went on to say, “An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation... The real object of the [first] amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance, Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government.”

o Historian J. Steven Wilkins commented that virtually all the states made reference to the fact that they were Christian republics in their state constitutions and required public officeholders to be Christians.

o The Delaware constitution, for instance, required that state officeholders swear, “I do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, and in the Holy Ghost, one God blessed forevermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures in the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration.^{^[3]}” Can’t say that? Can’t be governor of Delaware.

o Furthermore, virtually all the states had penalties against apostasy, blasphemy, and idolatry. Pennsylvania said if you weren’t a Christian, you didn’t have any civil rights.

o In 1831, a judge in New York refused to hear testimony from a witness because the witness declared himself to be an Atheist. The judge wrote, “I know of no cause in a Christian country where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief [in the existence of God].^{^[4]}”

o The Massachusetts Body of Liberties said, “If any man after legal conviction shall have or worship any other god but the Lord God he shall be put to death.^{^[5]}”

o The America we live in today is very different from what it was founded to be. It took the erosion of the moral majority to the point that it is now a minority to realize just how bad religious pluralism is.

§ Now, Non-Christians can make practically anything illegal that used to be legal in order to shut down the businesses of Christians.

§ Now courts are getting pressure to apply one standard of law to the Muslims in America and a different standard of law to the non-Muslims, For instance, residents of Dearborn, MI, explained to me that abusing women doesn’t get prosecuted like it would in other places because the Muslim majority there believes it is not wrong.

· Religious libertarianism inevitably leads to syncretism and subversion of the true religion just as has happened in our country. One historian I read pegged the percentage of Americans in the 18^th Century who would basically agree with our theology (that is Puritan theology) at 75%; but the survey results done this year by Grace Baptist Church in our town revealed that now less than 10% of people in our town even go to an evangelical church.

· When we tolerate other people’s worship of false gods and false religions, we are not being loving to them. That kind of religious tolerance is hatred of them; it is an attitude of, “I don’t care if you go to hell.” To speak out against false religions is the only hope of introducing pagans to the love and blessings of the only true God!

4. What was the PENALTY? What does it mean to be “cut off”?

· The language certainly indicates that this person had no right to the privilege of living in proximity to God’s people any more, and that he had to be removed. A rebel against God can no longer call the people of God “his people.”

· While some Bible scholars maintain that this meant that the person had to be executed and others maintain that this meant merely being kicked out of the country of Israel, most of the commentators I read interpreted this as being placed in God’s hands for God to punish as He saw fit.

· “[T]his phrase may [even]... hint at judgment in the life to come: [Instead of ‘lying down with their fathers’ and sharing the afterlife with God’s people, o]ffenders will be cut off from their people forever,” wrote Dr. Gordon Wenham in his commentary on Leviticus.

· Dr. Wenham’s reasons against “cut off” meaning “judicial execution” or “being expelled from the nation” are strong:

o “[M]any of the crimes to which this penalty is attached are secret sins which would be difficult to prosecute in the court...

o Moreover, God sometimes threatens to cut people off Himself, [and s]uch a threat would be unnecessary if capital punishment were [already] mandatory.”

o Furthermore he noted the effect which this could create upon a sensitive conscience: “The wrath of... God being directed particularly at yourself, of all people, and being certain to strike at you with unforeseeable force and intensity any day of the year and any minute of the hour.” ~H.H. Cohn, Israel Law Review 5, p.72.

· Rashi, an 11^th century rabbi commented it meant that “His offspring will die and his days be shortened.”

· “The punishment of death is... prescribed not only for the crime of murder, maltreatment of parents, man-stealing, adultery... and the practice of heathen divination and witchcraft, but for overstepping certain fundamental ordinances of the theocracy: the law of circumcision, the law of the Passover, the Sabbath... and sacrificing at other places than the sanctuary... Yet the peculiar expression, ‘to be cut off from the people,’ is chosen for the punishment of transgressions of the latter class in distinction from the former, an expression which, indeed, cannot refer to simple banishment... but... to a punishment to be executed – not by human judgment, but – by the divine power... When the punishment was really to be executed by human judgment, the term, ‘he shall be put to death,’ is used... [but] where the people did not execute judgment on the transgressor, Jehovah Himself reserves the exercise of justice to Himself...” ~G.E. Oehler, Theology of the O.T., p.222.

· Certainly this can be practiced in the church, which the Bible calls “the people of God” (1 Peter 2:9-10), and which can “remove the evil man from among yourselves... to deliver a person to Satan (1 Cor. 5:13,5) such that someone who attempts to associate himself or herself with the church but is not committed to worshipping Jesus Christ exclusively could not call Christians “his” people, but be placed outside the circle of church membership.

· Could it even be done in a political nation? I believe so; it has been done before, but we have a long way to go to recover that for America. May God purge us from our double-mindedness and raise us up as a church – and even as a nation – that is committed to Christ alone.

Conclusion

· In Joshua 22, the Israelites who had settled in Palestine got word that the Israelites who had settled on the East side of the Jordan River had built a separate altar for themselves. They took Leviticus 17 to heart and mustered an army and marched over to the other side of the Jordan, ready to kill the offenders. It turned out that their information was wrong and nobody was making animal sacrifices on that altar, so nobody got hurt,

o but nevertheless, here is an application of this principle: Believers don’t let believers go apostate. They hold each other accountable to worshipping God and God alone.

o Throughout the history of Israel we see the problem persist of Jews tolerating high places and altars of worship to pagan gods, and occasionally Godly leaders would go on campaigns to tear down those high places and sacred groves.

o God blessed those leaders, and if we want to see God’s blessing today, we need to hold each other accountable to worshipping Jesus Christ alone.

Comparative translations of Leviticus 17:1-9

When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original Hebrew, I use ~~strikeout~~. And when a version omits a word which is in the Hebrew text, I insert an X. (Sometimes I will place the X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a given word. Hebrew text that is colored purple matches the Dead Sea Scrolls, and variants between the DSS and the MT are noted in endnotes with the following exceptions: When a holem or qibbutz pointing in the MT is represented in the DSS by a vav or a hireq pointing in the MT is represented in the DSS by a yod (the corresponding consonantal representation of the same vowel) or when the tetragrammaton is spelled with paleo-Hebrew letters, I did not record it a variant. In Chapter 17, 4Q26 Leviticus^d contains verses 2- 11, and 11Q1 paleoLeviticus^a contains verses 1-5.

LXX	KJV	NAW	MT
1 Καὶ ἐλάλησεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων	1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,	1 Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,	1וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר:
2 Λάλησον πρὸς Ααρων καὶ πρὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτοῦ καὶ πρὸς πάντας υἱοὺς Ισραηλ καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς Τοῦτο τὸ ῥῆμα, ὃ ἐνετείλατο κύριος λέγων	2 Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them; This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, saying,	2 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the children of Israel and say to them, ‘This is the thing which Yahweh commanded saying,	2 דַּבֵּר אֶל-אַהֲרֹן^{^[A]} וְאֶל-בָּנָיו וְאֶל כָּל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵיהֶם זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר-צִוָּה יְהוָה לֵאמֹר:
3 Ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος τῶν ~~υἱῶν~~ Ισραηλ [ἢ τῶν προσηλύτων τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ὑμῖν,] ὃς ἂν σφάξῃ μόσχον ἢ πρόβατον ἢ αἶγα ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ καὶ ὃς ἂν σφάξῃ ἔξω τῆς παρεμβολῆς	3 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp,	3 “Any man from the house of Israel [or visitor visiting in Israel] who slaughters an ox or a sheep or a goat in the camp or who does his slaughtering outside of the camp,	3 אִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל^{^[B]} אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחַט שׁוֹר אוֹ-כֶשֶׂב אוֹ-עֵז בַּמַּחֲנֶה אוֹ אֲשֶׁר יִשְׁחַט מִחוּץ^{^[C]} לַמַּחֲנֶה:
4 καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου μὴ ἐνέγκῃ [ὥστε ποιῆσαι αὐτὸ εἰς ὁλοκαύτωμα ἢ σωτήριον κυρίῳ δεκτὸν εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας, καὶ ὃς ἂν σφάξῃ ἔξω καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου μὴ ἐνέγκῃ αὐτὸ] ὥστε μὴ προσενέγκαι δῶρον κυρίῳ ἀπέναντι τῆς σκηνῆς κυρίου, καὶ λογισθήσεται τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ αἷμα· αἷμα ἐξέχεεν, ἐξολεθρευθήσεται ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτῆς·	4 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people:	4 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting [to make it a whole-burnt-offering or a peace offering to Yahweh for their sweet-smelling aroma, but slaughters it outside and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of Meeting] to offer an offering to Yahweh before the dwelling of Yahweh, bloodguilt will be reckoned to that man.” He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut away from proximity to his people,	4 וְאֶל-פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֹא הֱבִיאוֹ^{^[D]} לְהַקְרִיב^{^[E]} קָרְבָּן לַיהוָה לִפְנֵי מִשְׁכַּן יְהוָה דָּם יֵחָשֵׁב לָאִישׁ ^{^[F]}הַהוּא דָּם שָׁפָךְ וְנִכְרַת הָאִישׁ הַהוּא מִקֶּרֶב עַמּוֹ:
5 ὅπως ἀναφέρωσιν οἱ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ τὰς θυσίας αὐτῶν, ὅσας ἂν αὐτοὶ σφάξουσιν ἐν τοῖς πεδίοις X, καὶ οἴσουσιν τῷ κυρίῳ ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου πρὸς τὸν ἱερέα καὶ θύσουσιν θυσίαν σωτηρίου τῷ κυρίῳ αὐτά·	5 To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for X peace offerings unto the LORD.	5 in order that the children of Israel will bring their sacrifices which they themselves are sacrificing on the face of the field and bring them to Yahweh to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to the priest and then sacrifice them [as] sacrifices of peace-offerings to Yahweh.	5 לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר יָבִיאוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת-זִבְחֵ^{^[G]}יהֶם אֲשֶׁר הֵם זֹבְחִים עַל-פְּנֵי הַשָּׂדֶה וֶהֱבִיאֻם לַיהוָה אֶל-פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד אֶל-הַכֹּהֵן וְזָבְחוּ זִבְחֵי שְׁלָמִים לַיהוָה אוֹתָם:
LXX	KJV	NAW	MT
6 καὶ προσχεεῖ ὁ ἱερεὺς τὸ αἷμα ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον [κύκλῳ ἀπέναντι] κυρίου [παρὰ] τὰς θύρας τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου καὶ ἀνοίσει τὸ στέαρ εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας κυρίῳ·	6 And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savour unto the LORD.	6 Then the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of Yahweh [at] the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and cause the fat to go up in smoke for a pleasing aroma to Yahweh.	6 וְזָרַק הַכֹּהֵן אֶת-הַדָּם עַל-מִזְבַּח יְהוָה^{^[H]} פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד וְהִקְטִיר הַחֵלֶב לְרֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ לַיהוָה:
7 καὶ οὐ θύσουσιν ἔτι τὰς θυσίας αὐτῶν τοῖς ματαίοις, οἷς αὐτοὶ ἐκπορνεύουσιν ὀπίσω αὐτῶν· νόμιμον αἰώνιον ἔσται ὑμῖν εἰς τὰς γενεὰς ὑμῶν.	7 And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.	7 They shall no longer sacrifice their sacrifices to the goat-demons before which they are prostituting themselves. This shall be for them a lasting statute for their generations.	7 וְלֹא-יִזְבְּחוּ עוֹד אֶת-זִבְחֵיהֶם לַשְּׂעִירִם אֲשֶׁר הֵם זֹנִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם חֻקַּת עוֹלָם תִּהְיֶה-זֹּאת לָהֶם לְדֹרֹתָם:
8 Καὶ ἐρεῖς πρὸς αὐτούς Ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος τῶν υἱῶν Ισραηλ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν τῶν προσηλύτων τῶν προσκειμένων ἐν ~~ὑμῖν~~, ὃς ἂν ποιήσῃ ὁλοκαύτωμα ἢ θυσίαν	8 And thou shalt say unto them, Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among ~~you~~, that offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,	8 And you shall also say to them, “Any man from the house of Israel or from the visitors[s] visiting in their midst who offers up a whole-burnt-offering or a sacrifice	8 וַאֲלֵהֶם תֹּאמַר אִישׁ אִישׁ מִבֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל וּמִן-הַגֵּר אֲשֶׁר-יָגוּר בְּתוֹכָם^{^[I]} אֲשֶׁר-יַעֲלֶה^{^[J]} עֹלָה אוֹ-זָבַח:
9 καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν θύραν τῆς σκηνῆς τοῦ μαρτυρίου μὴ ἐνέγκῃ ποιῆσαι αὐτὸ τῷ κυρίῳ, ἐξολεθρευθήσεται ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ.	9 And bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer it unto the LORD; even that man shall be cut off from among his people.	9 but does not bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting to do it for Yahweh, that man shall therefore be cut off from his people.	9 וְאֶל-פֶּתַח אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד לֹא יְבִיאֶנּוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת אֹתוֹ לַיהוָה וְנִכְרַת הָאִישׁ הַהוּא מֵעַמָּיו:

^{^[2]} Wenham disagreed, saying, “If an Israelite wished to eat meat, he must bring his chosen animal to the tabernacle as a peace offering.” He and Matthew Henry allowed that this was a temporary injunction to train the idolatrous Israelites away from their pagan practices, and that the Deut. 12 allowance was for later when the Israelites settled in Canaan.

^{^[3]} http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/de02.asp

^{^[4]} A. de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, 12

^{^[5]} http://www.constitution.org/bcp/mabodlib.htm