Leviticus 3:1-17

Peace Offering Regulations: Animal from the Herd

3:1 “‘Now if his offering is a peace offering sacrifice, ¹  if he presents an offering from the herd, he must present before the Lord a flawless male or a female. ²  3:2 He must lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, must splash the blood against the altar’s sides. ³  3:3 Then the one presenting the offering ⁴  must present a gift to the Lord from the peace offering sacrifice: He must remove the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that surrounds the entrails, ⁵  3:4 the two kidneys with the fat on their sinews, and the protruding lobe on the liver (which he is to remove along with the kidneys). ⁶  3:5 Then the sons of Aaron must offer it up in smoke on the altar atop the burnt offering that is on the wood in the fire as a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. ⁷ 

Animal from the Flock

3:6 “‘If his offering for a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord is from the flock, he must present a flawless male or female. ⁸  3:7 If he presents a sheep as his offering, he must present it before the Lord. 3:8 He must lay his hand on the head of his offering and slaughter it before the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron must splash ⁹  its blood against the altar’s sides. 3:9 Then he must present a gift to the Lord from the peace offering sacrifice: He must remove all the fatty tail up to the end of the spine, the fat covering the entrails, and all the fat on the entrails, ¹⁰  3:10 the two kidneys with the fat on their sinews, and the protruding lobe on the liver (which he is to remove along with the kidneys). ¹¹  3:11 Then the priest must offer it up in smoke on the altar as a food gift to the Lord. ¹² 

3:12 “‘If his offering is a goat he must present it before the Lord, 3:13 lay his hand on its head, and slaughter it before the Meeting Tent, and the sons of Aaron must splash its blood against the altar’s sides. 3:14 Then he must present from it his offering as a gift to the Lord: the fat which covers the entrails and all the fat on the entrails, ¹³  3:15 the two kidneys with the fat on their sinews, and the protruding lobe on the liver (which he is to remove along with the kidneys). ¹⁴  3:16 Then the priest must offer them up in smoke on the altar as a food gift for a soothing aroma – all the fat belongs to the Lord. 3:17 This is ¹⁵  a perpetual statute throughout your generations ¹⁶  in all the places where you live: You must never eat any fat or any blood.’” ¹⁷ 

Leviticus 7:11-21

The Peace Offering

7:11 “‘This is the law of the peace offering sacrifice which he ¹⁸  is to present to the Lord. 7:12 If he presents it on account of thanksgiving, ¹⁹  along with the thank offering sacrifice he must present unleavened loaves mixed with olive oil, unleavened wafers smeared with olive oil, ²⁰  and well soaked ²¹  ring-shaped loaves made of choice wheat flour ²²  mixed with olive oil. 7:13 He must present this grain offering ²³  in addition to ring-shaped loaves of leavened bread which regularly accompany ²⁴  the sacrifice of his thanksgiving peace offering. 7:14 He must present one of each kind of grain offering ²⁵  as a contribution offering ²⁶  to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the peace offering. 7:15 The meat of his ²⁷  thanksgiving peace offering must be eaten on the day of his offering; he must not set any of it aside until morning.

7:16 “‘If his offering is a votive or freewill sacrifice, ²⁸  it may be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, and also the leftovers from it may be eaten on the next day, ²⁹  7:17 but the leftovers from the meat of the sacrifice must be burned up in the fire ³⁰  on the third day. 7:18 If some of the meat of his peace offering sacrifice is ever eaten on the third day it will not be accepted; it will not be accounted to the one who presented it, since it is spoiled, ³¹  and the person who eats from it will bear his punishment for iniquity. ³²  7:19 The meat which touches anything ceremonially ³³  unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up in the fire. As for ceremonially clean meat, ³⁴  everyone who is ceremonially clean may eat the meat. 7:20 The person who eats meat from the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord while his uncleanness persists ³⁵  will be cut off from his people. ³⁶  7:21 When a person touches anything unclean (whether human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or an unclean detestable creature) ³⁷  and eats some of the meat of the peace offering sacrifice which belongs to the Lord, that person will be cut off from his people.’” ³⁸ 

[3:1]  ¹ sn The peace offering sacrifice primarily enacted and practiced communion between God and man (and between the people of God). This was illustrated by the fact that the fat parts of the animal were consumed on the altar of the Lord but the meat was consumed by the worshipers in a meal before God. This is the only kind of offering in which common worshipers partook of the meat of the animal. When there was a series of offerings that included a peace offering (see, e.g., Lev 9:8-21, sin offerings, burnt offerings, and afterward the peace offerings in vv. 18-21), the peace offering was always offered last because it expressed the fact that all was well between God and his worshiper(s). There were various kinds of peace offerings, depending on the worship intended on the specific occasion. The “thank offering” expressed thanksgiving (e.g., Lev 7:11-15; 22:29-30), the “votive offering” fulfilled a vow (e.g., Lev 7:16-18; 22:21-25), and the “freewill offering” was offered as an expression of devotion and praise to God (e.g., Lev 7:16-18; 22:21-25). The so-called “ordination offering” was also a kind of peace offering that was used to consecrate the priests at their ordination (e.g., Exod 29:19-34; Lev 7:37; 8:22-32). See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 1:1066-73 and 4:135-43.

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “if a male if a female, perfect he shall present it before the Lord.” The “or” in the present translation (and most other English versions) is not present in the Hebrew text here, but see v. 6 below.

[3:2]  ³ tn See the remarks on Lev 1:3-5 above for some of the details of translation here.

[3:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “Then he”; the referent (the person presenting the offering) has been specified in the translation for clarity (cf. the note on Lev 1:5).

[3:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and all the fat on the entrails.” The fat layer that covers the entrails as a whole (i.e., “that covers the entrails”) is different from the fat that surrounds and adheres to the various organs (“on the entrails,” i.e., surrounding them; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:205-7).

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the protruding lobe on the liver on the kidneys he shall remove it.” Cf. NRSV “the appendage of the liver”; NIV “the covering of the liver” (KJV “the caul above the liver”).

[3:5]  ⁷ tn Or “on the fire – [it is] a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord” (see Lev 1:13b, 17b, and the note on 1:9b).

[3:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “a male or female without defect he shall present it”; cf. NLT “must have no physical defects.”

[3:8]  ⁹ tn See the note on this term at 1:5.

[3:9]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on this phrase in 3:3.

[3:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the protruding lobe on the liver on the kidneys he shall remove it.”

[3:11]  ¹² tn Heb “food, a gift to the Lord.”

[3:14]  ¹³ sn See the note on this phrase in 3:3.

[3:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the protruding lobe on the liver on the kidneys he shall remove it.”

[3:17]  ¹⁵ tn The words “This is” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied due to requirements of English style.

[3:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for your generations”; NAB “for your descendants”; NLT “for you and all your descendants.”

[3:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all fat and all blood you must not eat.”

[7:11]  ¹⁸ tn This “he” pronoun refers to the offerer. Smr and LXX have plural “they.”

[7:12]  ¹⁹ tn Or “for a thank offering.”

[7:12]  ²⁰ tn See the notes on Lev 2:4.

[7:12]  ²¹ tn See the note on Lev 6:21 [6:14 HT].

[7:12]  ²² tn Heb “choice wheat flour well soaked ring-shaped loaves.” See the note on Lev 2:1.

[7:13]  ²³ tn The rendering “this [grain] offering” is more literally “his offering,” but it refers to the series of grain offerings listed just previously in v. 12.

[7:13]  ²⁴ tn The words “which regularly accompany” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied for clarity.

[7:14]  ²⁵ tn Here the Hebrew text reads “offering” (קָרְבָּן, qorbban), not “grain offering” (מִנְחָה, minkhah), but in this context the term refers once again to the list in 7:12.

[7:14]  ²⁶ tn The term rendered “contribution offering” is תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), which generally refers to that which is set aside from the offerings to the Lord as prebends for the officiating priests (cf. esp. Lev 7:28-34 and R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 4:335-37). Cf. TEV “as a special contribution.”

[7:15]  ²⁷ tn In the verse “his” refers to the offerer.

[7:16]  ²⁸ tn For the distinction between votive and freewill offerings see the note on Lev 22:23 and the literature cited there.

[7:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and on the next day and the left over from it shall be eaten.”

[7:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely” (likewise in v. 19).

[7:18]  ³¹ tn Or “desecrated,” or “defiled,” or “forbidden.” For this difficult term see J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:422. Cf. NIV “it is impure”; NCV “it will become unclean”; NLT “will be contaminated.”

[7:18]  ³² tn Heb “his iniquity he shall bear” (cf. Lev 5:1); NIV “will be held responsible”; NRSV “shall incur guilt”; TEV “will suffer the consequences.”

[7:19]  ³³ tn The word “ceremonially” has been supplied in the translation both here and in the following sentence to clarify that the uncleanness involved is ritual or ceremonial in nature.

[7:19]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew has simply “the flesh,” but this certainly refers to “clean” flesh in contrast to the unclean flesh in the first half of the verse.

[7:20]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and his unclean condition is on him.”

[7:20]  ³⁶ sn The exact meaning of this penalty clause is not certain. It could mean that he will be executed, whether by God or by man, he will be excommunicated from sanctuary worship and/or community benefits (cf. TEV, CEV), or his line will be terminated by God (i.e., extirpation), etc. See J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 100; J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:457-60; and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 241-42 for further discussion.

[7:21]  ³⁷ sn For these categories of unclean animals see Lev 11.

[7:21]  ³⁸ sn For the interpretation of this last clause see the note on Lev 7:20.