Leviticus 2

I meat offering. Rather, meal, or wheaten offering. The word meat never refers to flesh, in the Levitical offerings; nor was the meal offering properly a sacrifice. The greater part of it was to be used for food, not to be burned. It consisted principally of flour, or flour made into cakes; to which was added a suitable quantity of wine for a drink offering. See Exod. xxix. 40, 41; Lev. xxiii. 13; Numb. xv. 5, 10, etc. When presented alone, it appears to have been an expression of gratitude for ordinary providential blessings; while its reception through the intervention of the priest, and the oblation of part of it by fire, keep in view the mediation of Christ as the only acceptable way of offering praise. See Heb. xiii. 15, 16. The various forms in which it was allowed to be made (vers. 2, 4, 5, 7) were suited to the diversified circumstances of the people.

2 memorial of it. That is, a part as representing the whole.

5 in a pan. Rather, “on a plate,” or “slice.” The Arabs of the desert use a plate of iron, or a gridiron, for cooking their cakes, which are often very thin.

6 shalt part. Rather, “shalt break.” Bread was not cut, but broken (Lev. viii. 7; Matt. xiv. 19; xxvi. 26; Acts xx. 11).

11 leaven. The leaven used by the Hebrews was not the cause, but rather the effect of fermentation. It consisted of the acid lees of wine, or dough, kept till sour. In this corruption had already begun. Hence it naturally became an emblem of moral corruption, insincerity, and hypocrisy; from which the symbolical offerings, representing the holy lives of the worshippers, must be kept separate (see Luke xii. 1; 1 Cor. v. 8). “Honey” includes all that is sweet, and may have been forbidden because it turns sour. Or, as leaven signifies corruption, so honey may suggest the cloying sweetness of worldly enjoyment. Salt, on the contrary (ver. 13), as a preservative of animal substances from decay, was an emblem of purity, perfection, and perpetuity (see Matt. v. 13; Mark ix. 49, 50; Col. iv. 6); and for this reason, as well as from being eaten with every meal, it was a symbol of friendship.

14 full ears. Or, “the fresh ear” (R.V.); i.e., not flour, as in ver. 12, but fresh grain of the new barley, or wheat; the first food which the new harvest afforded.