Leviticus 17

It’s unclear if the law requires people to kill all animals in the courtyard of the tent worship center, or just those designated as sacrificial offerings, such as a peace offering, much of which the worshiper eats with family and friends. One theory says this “permanent” law refers only to the Israelites while they’re living together, during their trip out of Egypt and back to the Promised Land. But that’s not “permanent.” Also, once the people get to what is now Israel and Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territory, they spread out. They couldn’t all go to the Jerusalem Temple every time they needed to butcher meat to sell or to eat. That’s why many scholars reject the theory that Israel had to sacrifice every animal they butchered. And they reject the theory that sacrificing all the animals was limited to just the 40 years of exodus travels. Instead, many say they prefer the speculation that the law was intended to warn Israelites not to sacrifice animals to God improperly. They had to follow the steps God gave them in whatever sacrifice they made.

More literally, the person “should be removed from the community” or “cut off.” This is a consequence repeated throughout these early books of the Bible. It’s unclear how and by whom the offenders were removed. Perhaps they could no longer worship at the tent worship center, or they lost their rights as citizens of this emerging nation that Moses seemed to be organizing. Maybe they were executed. Or perhaps the community let God deal with the person. Scholars seem uncertain about what happened.

This meant they had to share the meat with the LORD and the officiating priest. This sacrificial offering goes by various names: peace offering, fellowship offering, elevation offering, symbolic offering, special offering, and wave offering. The Hebrew word can mean to wave, lift, or blow. A peace offering, also described in Leviticus 3, is one of several prescribed offerings in Jewish tradition. When Jewish people wanted to thank God for something, such as good health or safety, they would sacrifice a sheep, goat, cow, or bull. They would burn part of the animal, including the kidneys and the fat covering the intestines. The officiating priest got to keep the breast and the right thigh, apparently as payment for his work (Leviticus 7:30-32). Those who brought the sacrifice got to eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a bull. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.

And the priest can get his choice cut of the meat: breast and right thigh (Leviticus 7:30-32).

The original word, in Hebrew, is sair. It means “he-goats” or “goat idols.” Some scholars say these were demons represented in the form of goats. In later Greek mythology, Pan was a god that was part man and part goat.

See note for 17:4.

This seems to suggest that all sin is a capital offense, requiring execution. “No blood, no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). But God allowed people to sacrifice animals for sins the people committed. Animals were sacrificed for the people, just as New Testament writers said Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of the entire human race (Mark 14:24; Hebrews 9:28). The first sin on record, Adam and Eve eating forbidden fruit, carried the death penalty (Genesis 2:17). Some say this is why humans die instead of living forever. Apostle Paul said, “The salary we get when we work for sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Eating a ritually unclean animal or one found dead would make the eater unclean, too, and unfit to worship in the tent worship center. Also, anyone the person touched would become unclean, as well. To cleanse themselves, they had to wash their clothes and wait until evening (Leviticus 11:28).