Leviticus 18:3-4

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Leviticus 18:3 tn Heb “As the work [or “deed”] of the land of Egypt, which you were dwelling in it, you must not do.”
2. Leviticus 18:3 tn Heb “and as the work [or “deed”] of the land of Canaan which I am bringing you to there, you must not do.” The participle “I am bringing” is inceptive; the Lord is “about to” bring them into the land of Canaan, as opposed to their having dwelt previously in the land of Egypt (see the first part of the verse).
3. Leviticus 18:3 tn Heb “and you shall not walk.”
4. Leviticus 18:4 tn Heb “My regulations you shall do”; KJV, NASB “my judgments”; NRSV “My ordinances”; NIV, TEV “my laws.”sn The Hebrew term translated “regulation” (מִשְׁפָּט, mishpat) refers to the set of regulations about to be set forth in the following chapters (cf. Lev 19:37; 20:22; 25:18; 26:46). Note especially the thematic and formulaic relationships between the introduction here in Lev 18:1-5 and the paraenesis in Lev 20:22-26, both of which refer explicitly to the corrupt nations and the need to separate from them by keeping the Lord’s regulations.
5. Leviticus 18:4 tn Heb “and my statutes you shall keep [or “watch; guard”] to walk in them.”