Bruised or crushed or torn or cut: any problem with organs that have to do with producing life would make an animal unfit to be used as a sacrifice. This included both accidental damage to the testicles and intentional castration. In some languages it may be necessary to say simply “damaged in any way” or “damaged in an accident or removed intentionally (by castration).”

You shall not offer … or sacrifice within your land: literally “you must not offer to Yahweh and in your land you must not do.” The last clause may be understood in two different ways: (a) it may be a way of insisting on what has just been said, by repeating the same idea in different words (Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation); or (b) the intention of the writer may have been to add another idea, namely, that castration as such must not be practiced in Israel. Thus Bible en français courant begins a new sentence: “Do not perform such mutilations when you are in your land.” Compare also New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible, and New Jerusalem Bible.

Once again the structure of this verse has been altered in Good News Translation in order to make the meaning clearer. However, the Good News Translation rendering at the end of this verse may be ambiguous. To avoid misunderstanding, it may be better to translate “This” of Good News Translation more explicitly as “To sacrifice such an animal….”

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 .