But: contrasting the case of a daughter who is still living with her layman husband, and the situation in which death or divorce has separated her from her husband before she had any children. If such a woman returned to her father’s house and submitted herself to his authority once again, she would again be permitted to eat the food provided for the priestly family. She was in effect reintegrated into the priestly family. This may have applied also to women who had had children who had died. The point is that she is childless at the time of her divorce or of her becoming a widow, and thus she has no one to care for her.

As in her youth: or “as she was before she got married,” indicating her renewed dependence on her father.

Outsider: see verse 10. Here again Good News Translation has rendered the idea more positively.

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 .