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 7:16

7:16 “‘If his offering is a votive or freewill sacrifice, ¹⁸  it may be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, and also the leftovers from it may be eaten on the next day, ¹⁹ 

Leviticus 22:21

22:21 If a man presents a peace offering sacrifice to the Lord for a special votive offering ²⁰  or for a freewill offering from the herd or the flock, it must be flawless to be acceptable; ²¹  it must have no flaw. ²² 

Exodus 24:5

24:5 He sent young Israelite men, ²³  and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings ²⁴  to the Lord.

Exodus 24:2

24:2 Moses alone may come ²⁵  near the Lord, but the others ²⁶  must not come near, ²⁷  nor may the people go up with him.”

Exodus 31:2

31:2 “See, I have chosen ²⁸  Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

Ezekiel 45:15-17

45:15 and one sheep from each flock of two hundred, from the watered places of Israel, for a grain offering, burnt offering, and peace offering, to make atonement for them, declares the sovereign Lord. 45:16 All the people of the land will contribute ²⁹  to this offering for the prince of Israel. 45:17 It will be the duty of the prince to provide the burnt offerings, the grain offering, and the drink offering at festivals, on the new moons and Sabbaths, at all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel; he will provide the sin offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel.

Ezekiel 46:2

46:2 The prince will enter by way of the porch of the gate from the outside, and will stand by the doorpost of the gate. The priests will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he will bow down at the threshold of the gate and then go out. But the gate will not be closed until evening.

Ezekiel 46:12

46:12 When the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings as a voluntary offering to the Lord, the gate facing east will be opened for him, and he will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings just as he did on the Sabbath. Then he will go out, and the gate will be closed after he goes out. ³⁰ 

Ephesians 2:13-14

2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ³¹  2:14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one ³²  and who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

[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.”

[7:16]  ¹⁸ tn For the distinction between votive and freewill offerings see the note on Lev 22:23 and the literature cited there.

[7:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and on the next day and the left over from it shall be eaten.”

[22:21]  ²⁰ tn The meaning of the expression לְפַלֵּא־נֶדֶר (lÿfalle’-neder) rendered here “for a special votive offering” is much debated. Some take it as an expression for fulfilling a vow, “to fulfill a vow” (e.g., HALOT 927-28 s.v. פלא piel and NASB; cf. NAB, NRSV “in fulfillment of a vow”) or, alternatively, “to make a vow” or “for making a vow” (HALOT 928 s.v. פלא piel [II פלא]). Perhaps it refers to the making a special vow, from the verb פָלַא (pala’, “to be wonderful, to be remarkable”); cf. J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPSTC), 44. B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 151 and 193, suggests that this is a special term for “setting aside a votive offering” (related to פָלָה [palah, “to set aside”]). In general, the point of the expression seems to be that this sacrifice arises as a special gift to God out of special circumstances in the life of the worshiper.

[22:21]  ²¹ tn Heb “for acceptance”; NAB “if it is to find acceptance.”

[22:21]  ²² tn Heb “all/any flaw shall not be in it.”

[24:5]  ²³ tn The construct has “young men of the Israelites,” and so “Israelite” is a genitive that describes them.

[24:5]  ²⁴ tn The verbs and their respective accusatives are cognates. First, they offered up burnt offerings (see Lev 1), which is וַיַּעֲלוּ עֹלֹת (vayya’alu ’olot); then they sacrificed young bulls as peace sacrifices (Lev 3), which is in Hebrew וַיִּזְבְּחוּ זְבָחִים (vayyizbÿkhu zÿvakhim). In the first case the cognate accusative is the direct object; in the second it is an adverbial accusative of product. See on this covenant ritual H. M. Kamsler, “The Blood Covenant in the Bible,” Dor le Dor 6 (1977): 94-98; E. W. Nicholson, “The Covenant Ritual in Exodus 24:3-8,” VT 32 (1982): 74-86.

[24:2]  ²⁵ tn The verb is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it and the preceding perfect tense follow the imperative, and so have either a force of instruction, or, as taken here, are the equivalent of an imperfect tense (of permission).

[24:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they.”

[24:2]  ²⁷ tn Now the imperfect tense negated is used; here the prohibition would fit (“they will not come near”), or the obligatory (“they must not”) in which the subjects are obliged to act – or not act in this case.

[31:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “called by name.” This expression means that the person was specifically chosen for some important task (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 342). See the expression with Cyrus in Isa 45:3-4.

[45:16]  ²⁹ tn Heb “will be.”

[46:12]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he shall shut the gate after he goes out.”

[2:13]  ³¹ tn Or “have come near in the blood of Christ.”

[2:14]  ³² tn Grk “who made the both one.”