Leviticus 7
ButlerNu. 18 1 AND the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy fathers’ house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary : and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the 2 iniquity of your priesthood. And thy brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee : but 3 thou and thy sons with thee shall be before the tent of the testimony. And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the Tent : only they shall not come nigh unto the vessels of 4 the sanctuary and unto the altar, that they die not, neither they, nor ye. And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the Tent : 5 and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you. And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar : that there be wrath no more upon the children of Israel. And 7 thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priesthood for every thing of the altar, and for that within the veil ; and ye shall serve : I give you the priesthood as a service of gift : and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
Lev. 21 1 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say 2 unto them, There shall none defile himself for the dead among his people ; except for his kin, that is near unto him, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, 3 and for his brother ; and for his sister a virgin, that is near unto him, which hath had no 4 husband, for her may he defile himself. He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among 5 his people, to profane himself. They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall 6 they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. They shall be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God : for the offerings of the LORD 7 made by fire, the bread of their God, they do offer : therefore they shall be holy. They shall not take a woman that is a harlot, or profane ; neither shall they take a woman put away from 8 her husband : for he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore ; for he offereth the bread of thy God : he shall be holy unto thee : for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am 9 holy. And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the harlot, she pro- faneth her father : she shall be burnt with fire.
10. And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head go 11 loose, nor rend his clothes ; neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his 12 father, or for his mother ; neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary 13 of his God ; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him : I am the LORD. And 14 he shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, or one divorced, or a profane woman, an 15 harlot, these shall he not take : but a virgin of his own people shall he take to wife. And he shall not profane his seed among his people : for I am the LORD which sanctify him. 16 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy 17 seed throughout their generations that hath a blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread 18 of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach : a blind 19 man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, or a man that is broken- 20 footed, or brokenhanded, or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or is 21 scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken ; no man of the seed of Aaron the priest, that hath a blemish, shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire : he hath a 22 blemish ; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his 23 God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish ; that he profane not my sanctuaries : for I am 24 the LORD which sanctify them. So Moses spake unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel.
Lev. 22 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that 2 they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, which they hallow 3 unto me, and that they profane not my holy name : I am the LORD. Say unto them, Whoso- ever he be of all your seed throughout your generations, that approacheth unto the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, 4 that soul shall be cut off from before me : I am the LORD. What man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath an issue ; he shall not eat of the holy things, until he be clean. And whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him ; 5 or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of 6 whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath ; the soul which toucheth any such shall be unclean until the even, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he bathe
7 his flesh in water. And when the sun is down, he shall be clean; and afterward he shall eat
8 of the holy things, because it is his bread. That which dieth of itself, or is torn of beasts, he
9 shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the LORD. They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it, and die therein, if they profane it: I am the LORD which
10 sanctify them. There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest’s, or
11 an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. But if a priest buy any soul, the purchase of his money, he shall eat of it; and such as are born in his house, they shall eat of his bread.
12. And if a priest’s daughter be married unto a stranger, she shall not eat of the heave offering
13 of the holy things. But if a priest’s daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father’s house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father’s bread:
14 but there shall no stranger eat thereof. And if a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly, then
15 he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give unto the priest the holy thing. And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the
16. LORD; and so cause them to bear the iniquity that bringeth guilt, when they eat their holy things: for I am the LORD which sanctify them.
No. 18 8 And the LORD spake unto Aaron, And I, behold, I have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings, even all the hallowed things of the children of Israel, unto thee have I
9 given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, as a due forever. This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, even every meal offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every guilt offering of theirs, which they
10 shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. As the most holy things
11 shalt thou eat thereof: every male shall eat thereof; it shall be holy unto thee. And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, as a due for ever:
12 every one that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. All the best of the oil, and all the best of the vintage, and of the corn, the firstfruits of them which they give unto the LORD, to thee
13 have I given them. The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring unto the
14. LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. Every thing
15 devoted in Israel shall be thine. Every thing that openeth the womb, of all flesh which they offer unto the LORD, both of man and beast, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man
16 shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. And those that are to be redeemed of them from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is twenty
17 gerahs). But the firstling of an ox, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt
18 burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the LORD. And the flesh
19 of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right thigh, it shall be thine. All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, as a due for ever: it is a covenant of
20 salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee. And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any portion among them: I am thy portion and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.
[Nu. 5:9, 10, De. 18:3-5, and Lev. 7:7-10, 31-38 omitted as repetitions.]
No. 18 25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the
27. LORD, a tithe of the tithe. And your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it
28 were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fulness of the winepress. Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of
29. Israel; and thereof ye shall give the LORD’s heave offering to Aaron the priest. Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hal-
30 lowed part thereof out of it. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye heave the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing-
31 floor, and as the increase of the winepress. And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your
32 households: for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best thereof: and ye shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that ye die not.
The Priesthood Charged with the Service of the Sanctuary and Altar.
The prohibition of fat was distinguished from that of blood by its being grounded simply on its consecration to a peculiar use on the altar and its being limited to the suet of the animals which were offered in sacrifice. It would seem that it was in virtue of this distinction that the apostles decided to retain only the restriction regarding blood, confirmed as it is by the primeval prohibition (Gen. 9 : 4). Clark.
Medically considered, fat is certainly unwholesome, and particularly so in warm climates. Besides this, the eating of the fat pieces in question, and the use of fat in the preparation of food, is highly injurious to persons particularly subject to cutaneous disorders, as the Israelites seem to have been. To this we may add that, as it was an object to discourage friendly intercourse between the Israelites and the idolatrous nations, nothing could be better calculated than these regulations to prevent them from joining in the festivities of their neighbors. Pict. Bib.
The prohibition of blood is more general, because the fat was offered to God only by way of acknowledgment; but the blood made atonement for the soul, and so typified the sacrifice of Christ much more clearly than the burning of fat; to this, therefore, a greater reverence must be paid, till those types had their accomplishment in the offering up of the body of Christ once for all. The Jews rightly expound this Law as forbidding only the blood of the life. Bush.—The eating of blood was so often and so strongly prohibited because its practice would have encouraged inhumanity, because it would have lowered men’s estimate of the preciousness of human life, and chiefly because of its vital relation to the great end of all sacrificial offering. B.
The Ultimate End and Sublime Object of the Ordinances Respecting Food.
Lev. 11 : 43-45 ; 20 : 24-26. De 14 : 21 (last clause).
“I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. Ye shall not make your souls abominable by any manner of living thing which I have separated from you as unclean. For I am the LORD your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves. For I am the LORD that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God.”
These concluding verses [grouped from passages noted above] give a religious sanction to the previous regulations, and make them matters of sacred, not merely sanitary or political, obligation. They were to sanctify themselves—that is, to avoid uncleanness, because God is holy, and they were God’s. They were thus taught that ceremonial cleanness of the body was a symbol of holiness of heart, and a means of its attainment. F. M.—As the body exists only for the sake of the soul, and God feeds and nourishes it through the day of probation that the soul may here be prepared for the kingdom of heaven; therefore he shows in the conclusion of these ordinances, that the grand scope and design of all was that they might be a holy people; and that they might resemble him who is a holy God. God is holy, and this is the eternal reason why all his people should be holy; should be purified from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. A. C.
This is indeed the great design of all the ordinances, that by them we may sanctify ourselves and learn to be holy. Even this law concerning their food, which seemed to stoop so very low, aimed thus high, for it was the statute-law of heaven under the Old Testament as well as the New, that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. H.—A redeemed life must be holy. “He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” Christ has cleansed us with his blood, therefore we must be clean. Likeness to God is our rule; fellowship with God is our strength and joy. R. A. R.