The first part of this verse may be taken as going with the previous verse. New English Bible, for example, has “the lamp outside the veil….” But most English versions begin a new sentence at the beginning of verse 3.

The veil of the testimony: compare 4.6. This refers to the curtain which separated the two parts of the Tent of the LORD’s presence, that is, the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place (see Exo 26.31-35). On the word testimony referring to “the Covenant Box,” see 16.13. Some languages may have to translate the whole expression by something like “the (hanging) cloth that conceals the Covenant Box” or “the cloth that divides the Tent of the LORD’s presence.”

The tent of meeting: see 1.1.

Keep it in order: the pronoun here refers to the “light (or, lamp)” in the previous verse. If a plural has been used in verse 2, then a plural pronoun will be required here. The verb has been understood in slightly different ways: Good News Translation “keep them burning,” New International Version “tend the lamps,” New Jerusalem Bible “set them up,” New English Bible “keep in trim.” But the basic idea is doing all that is necessary to assure that the lamps are burning at the proper time.

Before the LORD: or “before me” if direct discourse is being used.

Continually: see verse 2 above.

A statute for ever throughout your generations: this same expression is found in 7.36; 10.9; 23.41.

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 .