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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Leviticus 1:16 - 1:16
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He then took out בְּנֹצָתָהּ אֶת־מֻרְאָתֹו, i.e., according to the probable explanation of these obscure words, “its crop in (with) the foeces thereof,”
(Note: This is the rendering adopted by Onkelos. The lxx, on the contrary, render it ἀφελεῖ τὸν πρόλοβον σὺν τοῖς πτεροῖς, and this rendering is followed by Luther (and the English Version, Tr.), “its crop with its feathers.” But the Hebrew for this would have been וְנֹצָתֹו. In Mishnah, Sebach. vi. 5, the instructions are the following: “et removet ingluviem et pennas et viscera egredentia cum illa.” This interpretation may be substantially correct, although the reference of בנוצתה to the feathers of the pigeon cannot be sustained on the ground assigned. For if the bird's crop was taken out, the intestines with their contents would unquestionably come out along with it. The plucking off of the feathers, however, follows from the analogy of the flaying of the animal. Only, in the text neither intestines nor feathers are mentioned; they are passed over as subordinate matters, that could readily be understood from the analogy of the other instructions.)
and threw it “at the side of the altar eastwards,” i.e., on the eastern side of the altar, “on the ash-place,” where the ashes were thrown when taken from the altar (Lev 6:3). He then made an incision in the wings of the pigeon, but without severing them, and burned them on the altar-fire (Lev 1:17, cf. Lev 1:9).
The burnt-offerings all culminated in the presentation of the whole sacrifice upon the altar, that it might ascend to heaven, transformed into smoke and fragrance. Hence it is not only called עֹלָה, the ascending (see Gen 8:20), but כָּלִיל, a whole-offering (Deu 33:10; Ps. 51:21; 1Sa 7:9). If the burning and sending up in the altar-fire shadowed forth the self-surrender of the offerer to the purifying fire of the Holy Ghost; the burnt-offering was an embodiment of the idea of the consecration and self-surrender of the whole man to the Lord, to be pervaded by the refining and sanctifying power of divine grace. This self-surrender was to be vigorous and energetic in its character; and this was embodied in the instructions to choose male animals for the burnt-offering, the male sex being stronger and more vigorous than the female. To render the self-sacrifice perfect, it was necessary that the offerer should spiritually die, and that through the mediator of his salvation he should put his soul into a living fellowship with the Lord by sinking it as it were into the death of the sacrifice that had died for him, and should also bring his bodily members within the operations of the gracious Spirit of God, that thus he might be renewed and sanctified both body and soul, and enter into union with God.