Said to Moses and Aaron: here both Moses and Aaron are addressed, but the construction is the same as in 4.1 and 10.8 (see comments on those verses).

Say to the people of Israel …: literally “to the sons of Israel.” On the question of direct versus indirect discourse, see comments on 1.2 and 4.1.

The living things: there are two different words for “animals” in this verse. The first one, used here, has the basic meaning of “anything having life,” since the root on which the word is built is “life.” It is thus a very general term referring to all kinds of creatures.

Beasts that are on the earth: the second word originally had the idea of “dumb animals,” but the idea of dumbness is not essential in this context. When used together with the phrase that follows, the reference is to “land animals” as opposed to the various groups mentioned in the subsequent verses (creatures of the sea, birds, and insects). Although the receptor language may not divide created beings into categories that correspond exactly to these, an attempt should be made to reflect the world view of the ancient Jews. This phrase may be translated in some languages as “animals that live on dry ground” or “animals that walk on the earth.”

In 5.2 the same two words for animals found in this verse are used to distinguish domestic animals and wild animals. But in this case the first is very general and the second refers to one of the four categories mentioned in this chapter. It is not necessary to translate the same here as in chapter 5. Note that Good News Translation translates living things and beasts by the one word “animal.”

You may eat: in some languages the permissive idea of the verb here is difficult to translate. It is not as strong as “you shall eat” (King James Version), yet “you are able to eat” may give the wrong impression in some cases. Perhaps one may say “you have permission to eat,” or a more radical restructuring may be necessary, yielding something like “It is not forbidden you to eat….” Moffatt translates “you are allowed to eat.”

Many English versions put a colon at the end of this verse to show that it introduces a list (New English Bible, New International Version, New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible). Good News Translation simply makes verse 3 a continuation of the sentence begun in the middle of this verse.

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 .