Leviticus 7

The Guilt Offering

1 “ ‘These are the regulations for the guilt offering, which is most holy:

2 The guilt offering is to be slaughtered in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its blood is to be splashed against the sides of the altar.

3 All its fat shall be offered: the fat tail and the fat that covers the internal organs,

4 both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, which is to be removed with the kidneys.

5 The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering presented to the LORD. It is a guilt offering.

6 Any male in a priest’s family may eat it, but it must be eaten in the sanctuary area; it is most holy.

7 “ ‘The same law applies to both the sin offering^[a] and the guilt offering: They belong to the priest who makes atonement with them.

8 The priest who offers a burnt offering for anyone may keep its hide for himself.

9 Every grain offering baked in an oven or cooked in a pan or on a griddle belongs to the priest who offers it,

10 and every grain offering, whether mixed with olive oil or dry, belongs equally to all the sons of Aaron.

The Fellowship Offering

11 “ ‘These are the regulations for the fellowship offering anyone may present to the LORD:

12 “ ‘If they offer it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering they are to offer thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in.

13 Along with their fellowship offering of thanksgiving they are to present an offering with thick loaves of bread made with yeast.

14 They are to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the LORD; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the fellowship offering against the altar.

15 The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning.

16 “ ‘If, however, their offering is the result of a vow or is a freewill offering, the sacrifice shall be eaten on the day they offer it, but anything left over may be eaten on the next day.

17 Any meat of the sacrifice left over till the third day must be burned up.

18 If any meat of the fellowship offering is eaten on the third day, the one who offered it will not be accepted. It will not be reckoned to their credit, for it has become impure; the person who eats any of it will be held responsible.

19 “ ‘Meat that touches anything ceremonially unclean must not be eaten; it must be burned up. As for other meat, anyone ceremonially clean may eat it.

20 But if anyone who is unclean eats any meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the LORD, they must be cut off from their people.

21 Anyone who touches something unclean—whether human uncleanness or an unclean animal or any unclean creature that moves along the ground^[b] —and then eats any of the meat of the fellowship offering belonging to the LORD must be cut off from their people.’ ”

Eating Fat and Blood Forbidden

22 The LORD said to Moses,

23 “Say to the Israelites: ‘Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats.

24 The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it.

25 Anyone who eats the fat of an animal from which a food offering may be^[c] presented to the LORD must be cut off from their people.

26 And wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal.

27 Anyone who eats blood must be cut off from their people.’ ”

The Priests’ Share

28 The LORD said to Moses,

29 “Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who brings a fellowship offering to the LORD is to bring part of it as their sacrifice to the LORD.

30 With their own hands they are to present the food offering to the LORD; they are to bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast before the LORD as a wave offering.

31 The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons.

32 You are to give the right thigh of your fellowship offerings to the priest as a contribution.

33 The son of Aaron who offers the blood and the fat of the fellowship offering shall have the right thigh as his share.

34 From the fellowship offerings of the Israelites, I have taken the breast that is waved and the thigh that is presented and have given them to Aaron the priest and his sons as their perpetual share from the Israelites.’ ”

35 This is the portion of the food offerings presented to the LORD that were allotted to Aaron and his sons on the day they were presented to serve the LORD as priests.

36 On the day they were anointed, the LORD commanded that the Israelites give this to them as their perpetual share for the generations to come.

37 These, then, are the regulations for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the guilt offering, the ordination offering and the fellowship offering,

38 which the LORD gave Moses at Mount Sinai in the Desert of Sinai on the day he commanded the Israelites to bring their offerings to the LORD.

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Leviticus 7 Commentary

Chapter 7

Concerning the trespass-offering. (1-10) Concerning the peace-offering. (11-27) The wave and heave offerings. (28-34) The conclusion of these institutions. (35-38)

Verses 1-10 In the sin-offering and the trespass-offering, the sacrifice was divided between the altar and the priest; the offerer had no share, as he had in the peace-offerings. The former expressed repentance and sorrow for sin, therefore it was more proper to fast than feast; the peace-offerings denoted communion with a reconciled God in Christ, the joy and gratitude of a pardoned sinner, and the privileges of a true believer.

Verses 11-27 As to the peace-offerings, in the expression of their sense of mercy, God left them more at liberty, than in the expression of their sense of sin; that their sacrifices, being free-will offerings, might be the more acceptable, while, by obliging them to bring the sacrifices of atonement, God shows the necessity of the great Propitiation. The main reason why blood was forbidden of old, was because the Lord had appointed blood for an atonement. This use, being figurative, had its end in Christ, who by his death and blood-shedding caused the sacrifices to cease. Therefore this law is not now in force on believers.

Verses 28-34 The priest who offered, was to have the breast and the right shoulder. When the sacrifice was killed, the offerer himself must present God's part of it; that he might signify his cheerfully giving it up to God. He was with his own hands to lift it up, in token of his regard to God as the God of heaven; and then to wave it to and fro, in token of his regard to God as the Lord of the whole earth. Be persuaded and encouraged to feed and feast upon Christ, our Peace-offering. This blessed Peace-offering is not for the priests only, for saints of the highest rank and greatest eminence, but for the common people also. Take heed of delay. Many think to repent and return to God when they are dying and dropping into hell; but they should eat the peace-offering, and eat it now. Stay not till the day of the Lord's patience be run out, for eating the third day will not be accepted, nor will catching at Christ when thou art gone to hell!

Verses 35-38 Solemn acts of religious worship are not things which we may do or not do at our pleasure; it is at our peril if we omit them. An observance of the laws of Christ cannot be less necessary than of the laws of Moses.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 50

1. S Leviticus 5:15; Ezekiel 40:39; Lev 5:14-6:7
2. S Exodus 29:13; Leviticus 3:4,9
3. Leviticus 3:15
4. S Exodus 29:13
5. S Leviticus 6:18; Numbers 18:9-10
6. Ezekiel 42:13; Leviticus 2:3
7. S Exodus 30:10
8. S Leviticus 5:15
9. ver 6; Leviticus 2:3; Leviticus 6:17,26; Leviticus 14:13; 2 Kings 12:16; 1 Corinthians 9:13; 1 Corinthians 10:18
10. Numbers 5:8
11. Leviticus 1:6
12. S Leviticus 2:4
13. Leviticus 2:7
14. S Leviticus 2:5
15. ver 13,15; Leviticus 22:29; Psalms 50:14; Psalms 54:6; Psalms 107:22; Psalms 116:17; Jeremiah 33:11
16. Jeremiah 44:19
17. Numbers 6:19
18. S Leviticus 2:4; Numbers 6:15
19. S Leviticus 2:1
20. S ver 12; S Exodus 34:22
21. Leviticus 23:17; Amos 4:5
22. S Exodus 12:10; Leviticus 22:30
23. S Genesis 28:20; S Leviticus 1:2; Deuteronomy 23:21-23
24. Exodus 35:29; Leviticus 22:18,21; Leviticus 23:38; Numbers 15:3; Numbers 29:39; Deuteronomy 12:6; Psalms 54:6; Ezekiel 46:12
25. Leviticus 19:5-8
26. Exodus 12:10; Leviticus 19:6
27. 2 Chronicles 33:16
28. Leviticus 19:7
29. Numbers 18:27
30. S Leviticus 5:1
31. S Leviticus 5:3
32. S Genesis 17:14; Leviticus 22:3-7
33. S Leviticus 5:2; Leviticus 11:24,28
34. Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 17:13-14; Deuteronomy 14:4
35. S Exodus 22:31
36. S Genesis 9:4
37. S Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 17:10-24; Acts 15:20,29
38. S Exodus 29:24; Numbers 6:20
39. S Exodus 29:13
40. S Exodus 29:27; ver 34
41. ver 34; Exodus 29:27; Leviticus 9:21; Leviticus 10:14,15; Numbers 5:9; Numbers 6:20; Numbers 18:18
42. Exodus 29:22; Leviticus 10:15; Numbers 6:20; 1 Samuel 9:24
43. S Exodus 29:27; Numbers 18:18-19
44. Exodus 40:13,15; Leviticus 8:12,30
45. Leviticus 6:9
46. Leviticus 6:14
47. S Exodus 29:31; ver 1,11
48. Leviticus 26:46; Numbers 36:13; Deuteronomy 4:5; Deuteronomy 29:1
49. S Exodus 19:11
50. S Leviticus 1:2

Footnotes 3

[a]. Or "purification offering" ; also in verse 37
[b]. A few Hebrew manuscripts, Samaritan Pentateuch, Syriac and Targum (see 5:2); most Hebrew manuscripts "any unclean, detestable thing"
[c]. Or "offering is"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 7

The several things contained in this chapter are the law of the trespass offering, Le 7:1-7 the portion the priests had in the burnt offerings and meat offerings, Le 7:8-10 the law of the peace offerings, whether by way of thanksgiving, or a vow, or voluntary oblation, Le 7:11-21 the prohibition of fat and blood, Le 7:22-27 the parts the priests should have in the peace offerings, the breast and right shoulder, Le 7:28-36 and the chapter is concluded with a recapitulation of the various things contained in this and the preceding chapters, Le 7:37,38.