Leviticus 7

In older lingo, the guilt offering was called the trespass offering, as in, “Forgive us our trespasses” or sins. In fact, scholars can’t seem to figure out what the difference is between a “sin offering” and a “guilt offering.” The steps are identical (7:7). One guess is that guilt offerings are for more serious offenses and often involve making restitution. Leviticus 5:14-7:7 talks about when a person needs to make a guilt offering. Leviticus 7:1-10 talks about how to make the sacrifice.

Herders bred fat-tailed sheep in and around what is now Israel and Palestinian Territory. The tail of a mature ram could weigh 20 pounds (9 kg) or more. Fat on the tail was considered the tastiest meat a sheep had to offer.

Literally, “finger of the liver.” It’s usually identified as the caudate lobe. There are three other lobes: right, left, and quadrate.

Apparently the priest officiating at the sacrifice would receive the priests’ share of the meat and then invite other priests to help eat the meat.

Priests eat in the courtyard of the tent worship center, sometimes called the Meeting Tent (Leviticus 6:26).

This is a bit of new information to the burnt offering instructions in 1:3-13 and 6:1-6.

For more about grain offerings see Leviticus 2:1-3; 6:14-18.

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 fat covering the intestines. They would eat the rest in celebration, often with family and friends. It takes a fair number of hungry people to eat a cow. But people were eager to eat meat because it was rare in Bible times for common folks to eat meat, many Bible scholars say.

People could bring various products made of grain, such as bread, cakes, and wafers.

Only a token of the meat is sacrificed on the altar. Most is eaten as a celebration by the worshiper, with family and friends.

Israelites were ritually unclean, for example, if they touched a corpse and hadn’t gone through the cleaning rituals, which included washing themselves. A woman in her monthly period was considered unclean. For more, see Leviticus 15.

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 sacrificial offering goes by various names: fellowship offering, elevation offering, symbolic offering, special offering, and wave offering. The Hebrew word can mean to wave, lift, or blow. In Exodus 29, this sacrifice represented the culmination of an ordination service authorizing priests for ministry. It was the final act, which some scholars say was mainly an expression of gratitude to God for allowing these men to be assigned to lead the worship rituals for the people of Israel.

Exodus 29:24.