Leviticus 7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 7
Reparation Offerings. 1 [a](A)This is the ritual for the reparation offering. It is most holy. 2 At the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered, the reparation offering shall also be slaughtered.(B) Its blood shall be splashed on all the sides of the altar. 3 (C)All of its fat shall be offered: the fatty tail, the fat that covers the inner organs, and all the fat that adheres to them, 4 as well as the two kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver, which is removed with the kidneys. 5 The priest shall burn these on the altar as an oblation to the Lord. It is a reparation offering. 6 Every male of the priestly line may eat of it; but it must be eaten in a sacred place.(D) It is most holy.(E)
7 Because the purification offering and the reparation offering are alike, both have the same ritual. The reparation offering belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it. 8 As for the priest who offers someone’s burnt offering, to him belongs the hide of the burnt offering that is offered. 9 [b](F)Also, every grain offering that is baked in an oven or made in a pan or on a griddle shall belong to the priest who offers it, 10 whereas all grain offerings(G) that are mixed with oil or are dry shall belong to all of Aaron’s sons without distinction.
Communion Sacrifices.[c] 11 (H)This is the ritual for the communion sacrifice that is offered to the Lord. 12 [d]If someone offers it for thanksgiving, that person shall offer it with unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes made of bran flour mixed with oil and well kneaded. 13 One shall present this offering together with loaves of leavened bread along with the thanksgiving communion sacrifice. 14 From this the individual shall offer one bread of each type of offering as a contribution[e] to the Lord; this shall belong to the priest who splashes the blood of the communion offering.
15 [f](I)The meat of the thanksgiving communion sacrifice shall be eaten on the day it is offered; none of it may be kept till the next morning.(J) 16 However, if the sacrifice offered is a votive or a voluntary offering,[g] it shall be eaten on the day the sacrifice is offered, and on the next day what is left over may be eaten.(K) 17 But what is left over of the meat of the sacrifice on the third day must be burned in the fire. 18 If indeed any of the flesh of the communion sacrifice is eaten on the third day, it shall not be accepted; it will not be reckoned to the credit of the one offering it. Rather it becomes a desecrated meat. Anyone who eats of it shall bear the penalty.[h]
19 [i]Should the meat touch anything unclean, it may not be eaten, but shall be burned in the fire.(L) As for other meat, all who are clean may eat of it. 20 If, however, someone in a state of uncleanness eats the meat of a communion sacrifice belonging to the Lord, that person shall be cut off[j](M) from the people. 21 Likewise, if someone touches anything unclean, whether it be human uncleanness or an unclean animal or an unclean loathsome creature, and then eats the meat of the communion sacrifice belonging to the Lord, that person, too, shall be cut off from the people.
Prohibition Against Blood and Fat. 22 The Lord said to Moses: 23 Tell the Israelites: You shall not eat the fat of any ox or sheep or goat.(N) 24 Although the fat of an animal that has died a natural death or has been killed by wild beasts may be put to any other use, you may not eat it.(O) 25 If anyone eats the fat of an animal from which an oblation is made to the Lord, that person shall be cut off from the people. 26 (P)Wherever you dwell, you shall not eat any blood, whether of bird or of animal. 27 Every person who eats any blood shall be cut off from the people.
Portions from the Communion Sacrifice for Priests. 28 The Lord said to Moses: 29 Tell the Israelites: The person who offers a communion sacrifice to the Lord shall be the one to bring from it the offering to the Lord. 30 The offerer’s own hands shall carry the oblations for the Lord: the person shall bring the fat together with the brisket, which is to be raised as an elevated(Q) offering[k] before the Lord. 31 The priest shall burn the fat on the altar,(R) but the brisket belongs to Aaron and his sons. 32 Moreover, from your communion sacrifices you shall give to the priest the right leg as a contribution. 33 The one among Aaron’s sons who offers the blood and the fat of the communion offering shall have the right leg as his portion, 34 for from the communion sacrifices of the Israelites I have taken the brisket that is elevated and the leg that is a contribution, and I have given them to Aaron, the priest, and to his sons as their due from the Israelites forever.(S)
35 This is the priestly share from the oblations for the Lord, allotted to Aaron and his sons on the day they were brought forth to be the priests of the Lord, 36 which the Lord ordered to be given them from the Israelites on the day they were anointed, as their due throughout their generations forever.
Summary. 37 This is the ritual for the burnt offering, the grain offering, the purification offering, the reparation offering, the ordination offering,(T) and the communion sacrifice, 38 which the Lord enjoined on Moses at Mount Sinai at the time when he commanded the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai to bring their offerings to the Lord.(U)
Footnotes
- 7:1–6 These prescriptions may appear here rather than in 5:14–26 where this offering is first treated because the monetary equivalent of the offering might have been brought instead of an actual animal. See note on 5:15.
- 7:9–10 For the distinction between uncooked and cooked grain offerings, see 2:1–10 and note on 2:1. The contradiction between v. 9 and 2:10 may reflect a development in custom, with the distribution in v. 9 coming from earlier times, when sanctuary personnel was more limited.
- 7:11–36 This section discusses three types of communion sacrifice: the thanksgiving offering (vv. 12–15), a votive offering, and a voluntary offering (vv. 16–18). The latter two are similar and are thus mentioned together. Verses 19–36 apply to all types of communion sacrifice.
- 7:12–13 Four types of breads accompany the thanksgiving offering. Three types are cooked grain offerings comparable to those in 2:4–10. Also required are loaves of leavened bread (see 2:11).
- 7:14 Contribution: Hebrew terumah. This does not indicate a particular ritual action. The word simply means “gift, something set apart.”
- 7:15–18 Sacrifices must be properly consumed for them to be effective (cf. also 19:5–8; 22:30). Similar rules obtain for the Passover offering (Ex 12:10; Nm 9:12; cf. Ex 23:18; 34:25; Dt 16:4) and the ordination offering (Ex 29:34; Lv 8:32).
- 7:16 Votive or a voluntary offering: these are not specific types of offerings but rather motivations for bringing the communion sacrifice (cf. 22:18). A votive offering is brought as the consequence of a promise (vow) made to God. A voluntary offering is a spontaneous gift to God independent of a prior promise. See note on 27:2–13.
- 7:18 Bear the penalty: this refers in many cases to punishment by God (cf. 17:16; 19:8; 20:17, 19; Nm 18:1, 23; 30:16).
- 7:19–21 For ritual impurity, see note on 11:1–15:33.
- 7:20 Cut off: a common term in the Priestly source that cannot always be reduced to a simple English equivalent, since its usage appears to involve a number of associated punishments, some or all of which may come into play in any one instance (see Ex 12:15 and note). All the same, as a punishment from God, to be “cut off” (from one’s people) frequently appears to refer to termination of the offender’s family line (and perhaps in some cases an early death); see Lv 20:2–3, 20–21; Ru 4:10; Ps 109:13; Mal 2:12.
- 7:30 Raised as an elevated offering: these portions of the sacrifices were specially dedicated by lifting them in presentation before God’s abode. The sanctifying effect of this action is clearly seen in 23:17–20; Nm 6:19–20.
Leviticus 7
King James Version
7 Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy.
2 In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar.
3 And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards,
4 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away:
5 And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a trespass offering.
6 Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy.
7 As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it.
8 And the priest that offereth any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered.
9 And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest's that offereth it.
10 And every meat offering, mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another.
11 And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord.
12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.
13 Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.
14 And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.
15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.
16 But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:
17 But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.
18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.
19 And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof.
20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
23 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.
24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.
25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people.
26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.
27 Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
28 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
29 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.
30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord.
31 And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'.
32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.
33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part.
34 For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel.
35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest's office;
36 Which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations.
37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;
38 Which the Lord commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.