Tyndale Open Study NotesLeviticus 7

• The guilt offering required sacrificing a ram (Leviticus 5:18).

• the fat … fat tail … organs: They burned these parts of the guilt offering, just like in the peace offering (3:3–4, 9–10, 14–15) and the sin offering (4:8–9, 26, 31, 35).

Worshipers would present the peace offering for three reasons:

1. as thanks to God,

2. as payment of a vow (Leviticus 7:16), or

3. as a voluntary gift (see 3:1–7).

A worshiper showed thanks by giving a grain offering with the peace offering (2:1–16). A grain offering included unleavened cakes, wafers, or fine flour cakes. They mixed all of them or spread olive oil on them. They set aside a portion to burn (2:9). The grain offering came with loaves of "leavened bread" (7:13).

Worshipers presented the thanksgiving offering as an expression of gratitude (Jeremiah 17:26; 33:11). They had to eat the sacrifice on the same day they offered it. This rule helped the worshiper remember the reason for giving thanks.

Worshipers presented the "peace offering of thanksgiving" to show gratitude to the Lord (Leviticus 7:12–15). This was unlike the vow offering linked to a promise made by a worshiper. After, they celebrated with a meal. The meal was less formal and could continue into the next day. But since the vow offering involved a promise to God, it had stricter rules than the voluntary offering, which could even use a deformed animal (22:23).

The Hebrew word piggul means “contaminated.” It appears only three other times in the Bible (Leviticus 19:7; Isaiah 65:4; Ezekiel 4:14). This term always refers to meat that is not suitable for humans to sacrifice or eat.

Anything ceremonially unclean could not touch what was holy (Leviticus 7:20). Although uncleanness was not sinful by itself, it symbolized what was unholy (see Exodus 19:10).

cut off: This expression can mean three serious things:

1. God judged the person, and they died early from natural causes (Leviticus 17:10–14).

2. The community executed the person (see Exodus 31:14).

3. The person lost membership in Israel. This was either by expulsion (like excommunication) or being shunned and treated as ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 18:24–30; see 23:29–30, where "cut off" seems different from "destroy").

In the sacrificial system, the fat and blood of all altar offerings belonged to God. People offered them before eating any part of the sacrifice. God forbid the Israelites of consuming blood because it represented the animal's life (Leviticus 17:10–16). The rule against eating fat might have been because fat, considered the best part, belonged to God.

Animals found dead had not been drained of their blood and were therefore unclean. Their fat was unfit to offer to the Lord and the Israelites could not eat it. But people could use it for other purposes, such as greasing cart axles, waterproofing animal hides, and other household uses.

The command not to eat blood was very important. The Council at Jerusalem even included it in their instructions for non-Jewish (Gentile) believers (Acts 15:29).

the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution of their peace offerings: God, the priest, the worshiper, and guests shared this meal. Some translations call the breast a "wave offering" and the thigh the "contribution" or "heave offering." These were specifically for the priest (see Leviticus 10:13–15). After presenting these offerings in the tabernacle in front of the Lord, they ate them (see Exodus 29:24, 26).

anointed: See Leviticus 8:12, 30; also Exodus 40:13–15.