Compare 2.3, 10.

Aaron and his sons: that is, only the priests.

Unleavened … leaven: see 2.11.

In a holy place; in the court of the tent of meeting: the two expressions refer to the same place. The second clarifies the meaning of the first. In some languages this relationship may need to be explicitly marked by adding something like “that is to say….” On holy, see 2.3; compare also “a clean place” in verse 11.

The tent of meeting: see 1.1.

I have given it as their portion of my offerings by fire: the unexpected use of the first person singular pronouns, I and my, is problematic for translators. These pronouns clearly refer to the LORD and not to Moses, who communicated the commands of the LORD to Aaron and his sons (verse 9). In most languages the use of first person pronouns in this context will be totally out of place and very likely will be misunderstood by most readers. Good News Translation has wisely transformed I to “The LORD.” Another possible alternative is to change this sentence from indirect to direct discourse and introduce the quotation with the words “The LORD says….”

On the expression offerings by fire, see 1.9 and the discussion on page 5 in “Translating Leviticus.”

It is a thing most holy, like …: here the grain offerings as a whole (not just the part given to the priests) are likened to the sin offerings (4.1–5.13) and repayment offerings (5.14–6.7) in that they are all very holy, that is, fully and completely dedicated to God. This, of course, does not imply that the other offerings not mentioned here are not holy. It simply focuses on these three.

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .