And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

And that you may have knowledge to discern between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean:

and that ye may put difference between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean;

so as to make a separation between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the pure;

And make a division between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean;

And so may you have the knowledge to discern between holy and profane, between polluted and clean.

Et ut discernatis inter sanctum et profanum, et inter immundum et mundum.

Unholy unclean - Common, as not consecrated; and what would occasion defilement by being touched or eaten. Compare Acts 10:14.

That we may put difference between holy and unholy - This is a strong reason why they should drink no inebriating liquor, that their understanding being clear, and their judgment correct, they might be always able to discern between the clean and the unclean, and ever pronounce righteous judgment. Injunctions similar to this were found among the Egyptians, Carthaginians, and Greeks. Indeed, common sense itself shows that neither a drunkard nor a sot should ever be suffered to minister in holy things.

And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy,.... That being sober they might be able to distinguish between the one and the other; which a drunken man, having his mind and senses disturbed, is not capable of; as between holy and unholy persons, and between holy and unholy things; particularly, as Aben Ezra interprets it, between a sacred place and one that is common, and between a holy day and a common week day; the knowledge and memory of which may be lost through intemperance; and so that may be done in a place and on a day which ought not to be done, or that omitted on a day and in a place which ought to be done:
and between unclean and clean; between unclean men and women, beasts and fowls, and clean ones; and between unclean things in a ceremonial sense, and those that are clean, which a man in liquor may be no judge of: hence, as the above writer observes, after this section follow laws concerning fowls clean and unclean, the purification of a woman after childbirth, the leprosy in men, garments and houses, and concerning profluvious and menstruous persons; all which the priests were to be judges of, and therefore ought to be sober.

Between holy and unholy - Persons and things, which Nadab and Abihu did not.