You shall remain: some commentators have seen in this a prohibition to entering all the way into the Tent. They are not yet fully priests and therefore cannot go into the holiest places, but they are no longer laymen and so should not go outside. While this may be true, the main point seems rather that they are not to leave the area of the sanctuary (compare verse 33).

Day and night: in some languages it is much more natural to reverse the order of these two words and say “night and day.” What is important is that the expression indicate the totality of the twenty-four hour period.

Performing what the LORD has charged: literally “you will observe the observance of the LORD.” The verb and the noun have the same root. However, the meaning is clearly “executing (or, doing) what the LORD has required (or, demanded).” This is a very general statement, so the translator should avoid any expression that will communicate the idea of obedience to a particular commandment.

Lest you die: or “in order that you may not die.” New American Bible renders this expression “Otherwise you shall die.” New Jerusalem Bible has “Do this and you will not incur death.” The same meaning is conveyed more simply by Good News Translation, “If you don’t, you will die.”

For so I am commanded: this may be transformed into a simple active statement such as “for this is what the LORD commanded me,” or more dynamically, “for these are the orders I received from God.”

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 .