Leviticus 6:1

VI.

(1) And the Lord spake. — Like Leviticus 5:14, which begins with the same introductory formula, this is a further communication made to the lawgiver wherein other instances are specified which require a trespass offering. It is repeatedly stated, in some of our best commentaries, that Leviticus 6:1 form part of Leviticus 5 in the Hebrew Bible, and that our translators unfortunately adopted the division of the Septuagint, instead of following the Hebrew. Nothing can be more erroneous than this statement. The Hebrew Scriptures in manuscript have no division into Chapter s at all. The text is divided into sections, of which there are no less than 669 in the Pentateuch. The book of Leviticus has ninety-eight of these sections, while in our Authorised Version it has only twenty-seven Chapter s. The divisions into Chapter s, now to be found in the Hebrew Bibles, were adopted in the fourteenth century by the Jews from the Christians for polemical purposes, and the figures attached to each verse are of a still later period.