Most readers would agree with the common assessment of Leviticus as the least literary book in the Old Testament. On the other end of the spectrum are those who describe the book using glowing terms such as “dramatic” and “lyrical.” (Baroody and Gentrup, Damrosch) The truth probably lies somewhere between these extremes.
Repetitions
The first indication that there may be literary considerations behind the present form of Leviticus is the presence of certain theologically charged words found throughout the book but occurring in exact multiples of the symbolically significant numbers 7, 10, 12 or 40. Some examples are given below.
7x Aaron's sons are called priests, “veil,” “in the Lord sanctify,” “you/he/they shall be holy,” “evil,” “I am the LORD who sanctifies you/them”
10x “shall be forgiven him,” “covenant,” “commandments”
12x “white patch” (baheret), “congregation,” “Aaron the priest,” “a statute forever”
14x “wave offering,” “profane” (hillel), “a sweet fragrance unto the LORD,” “judgments” (mishpat), “this is a statute (without 'forever')”
14x “I am the LORD (your God) in Lev. 19.
21x “clean” (tahor), “holy” (qadosh)
24x “Sabbath,” “speak to the children of Israel”
35x “command” (verb), “sacrifice” (zebach),
“LORD spoke to Moses (and Aaron) saying” (or 36x, including the one address to Aaron alone)
49x “appointed time,” “atonement”
77x “holy” (qodesh) – counting double appearances as one
80x “Aaron”
84x “defile” (tame')
Within individual sections this same phenomenon occurs:
7 set feasts in ch. 23
7 appearances of “desolation” in ch. 26
24 occurrences of “unclean” in chs. 18-20
40 uses of “pronounce clean” (taher) in chs.11-16
49 manipulations in the ritual described in ch.16
Although some of these statistics may be attributed to chance, it is hard to dismiss the significance of number ten in relation to the covenant and the commandments, the appropriateness of twelve and its multiples as applied to the children of Israel and the congregation, or the many occurrences of multiples of seven in the context of the sacrificial system meant to cleanse and perfect the people of Israel.
And thought there may be doubts as to whether the book of Leviticus as a whole possesses any sort of symmetrical organization (see my post “Leviticus: Introduction to Literary Structure” for one proposal), there is no doubt that such symmetry exists within individual units in the book. Below are a few examples.
Leviticus 4
Milgrom, in discussing Lev. 4, shows that there is a symmetrical structure to the key verbs opening the individual legal situations in that chapter:
inadvertently does wrong (v. 2)
does wrong (v. 3)
errs inadvertently (v. 13)
does wrong (v. 22)
inadvertently does wrong (v. 27)
This analysis would lead one to believe that the case beginning with verse 13 represents the center of emphasis in this chapter. However, further in his commentary, Milgrom states that the case beginning with verse 22 is central because it falls in the middle of the chiastic pattern formed by the introductory words “if” or “when”:
if (v.3), if (v. 13) -- when (v. 22) -- if (v. 27), if (v. 32)
This latter pattern is more likely to hold the key to the emphasis in the chapter since (a) it uses the openings of the various cases only and not the introduction in verse 2, as does the first pattern and (b) there is an identical pattern used to organize ch. 15. (Milgrom)
Leviticus 11-15
The key opening statements within this discrete section contain the only occasions of divine speech directed to both Moses and Aaron. They mark the beginnings of individual units and form a symmetrical pattern:
The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, “Speak to the people of Israel saying...” (11:1-2)
The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron saying... (13:1)
The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron saying...(14:33)
The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, “Speak to the people of Israel saying...” (15:1-2)
Ross points out a symmetrical pattern to Lev. 12-15 in approximate agreement with these divisions:
A. Discharges from body (ch. 12)
B. “Leprosy” (chs. 13-14)
1. Human (13:1-46)
2. Garments (13:47-59)
1'. Human (14:1-32)
2'. Houses (14:33-55)
[Summary (14:54-57)]
A'. Discharges from body (ch. 15)
Leviticus 19
Another example of an obvious literary effect is found in Lev. 19. Wenham uses the variations in the ending refrain “I am the LORD (your God)” to divide the chapter into three unequal parts of 4, 4, and 8 paragraphs, respectively. A more likely intended division is into an introduction, two equal parts of seven paragraphs each, and a concluding statement, as shown in Fig. 4. This division better fits the subject matter with the first major half citing most of the Ten Commandments and ending with the Golden Rule, while the second half treats of more ceremonial and cultic matters. Also, this division yields an equal number of “LORD” and “LORD God” endings in each half and explains the inclusion “you shall keep (all) my statutes” at verses 19 and 37 used to set off the second half of the chapter.
Wenham's Divisions Two-fold Division
19:2 LORD God
--------------------------------
19:3 LORD God
19:4 LORD God
19:10 LORD God
-----------------------------
19:12 LORD
19:14 LORD
19:16 LORD
19:18 LORD
----------------------------- --------------------------------
19:25 LORD God
19:28 LORD
19:30 LORD
19:31 LORD God
19:32 LORD
19:34 LORD God
19:36 LORD God
-----------------------------
19:37 LORD
Radday also identifies Leviticus 19 as a climatic section in the book and proposes the following chiastic structure for it:
Opening (vv. 1-2)
Ordinances (v. 3)
Statutes (v. 4)
The “Left-over” and “The Abomination” (vv. 5-8)
Ordinances (vv. 9-18)
The “Two Kinds” and the “Betrothed Handmaiden” (vv. 19-22)
Statutes (vv. 23-32)
Ordinances (vv. 33-36)
Conclusion (v. 37)
Radday explains that “statutes” refer to those laws which cannot be rationally explained while “ordinances” can. Thus, the center of this chiasm indicates the relative importance of the latter kind. I would have been much more comfortable with his analysis (a) if he had provided some sort of rationale for coupling vv. 5-8 with vv. 19-22 other than their miscellaneous character and (b) if he had not paired the short passages in vv. 3 and 4 with the much longer units in the second half.
Thus you can see that even in what many consider one of the driest books in the Bible, at least in terms of the legal material, it is not at all devoid of literary value and organization.
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