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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Leviticus 1:3 - 1:3
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Ceremonial connected with the offering of an ox as a burnt-offering. עֹלָה (vid., Gen 8:20) is generally rendered by the lxx ὁλοκαύτωμα or ὁλοκαύτωσις, sometimes ὁλοκάρπωμα or ὁλοκάρπωσις, in the Vulgate holocaustum, because the animal was all consumed upon the altar. The ox was to be a male without blemish (ἄμωμος, integer; i.e., free from bodily faults, see Lev 22:19-25), and to be presented “at the door of the tabernacle,” - i.e., near to the altar of burnt-offering (Exo 40:6), where all the offerings were to be presented (Lev 17:8-9), - “for good pleasure for him (the offerer) before Jehovah,” i.e., that the sacrifice might secure to him the good pleasure of God (Exo 28:38).
Lev 1:4
“he (the offerer) shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering.” The laying on of hands, by which, to judge from the verb סָמַךְ to lean upon, we are to understand a forcible pressure of the hand upon the head of the victim, took place in connection with all the slain-offerings (the offering of pigeons perhaps excepted), and is expressly enjoined in the laws for the burnt-offerings, the peace-offerings (Lev 3:2, Lev 3:7, Lev 3:13), and the sin-offerings (Lev 4:4, Lev 4:15, Lev 4:24, Lev 4:29, Lev 4:33), that is to say, in every case in which the details of the ceremonial are minutely described. But if the description is condensed, then no allusion is made to it: e.g., in the burnt-offering of sheep and goats (Lev 1:11), the sin-offering (Lev 5:6), and the trespass-offering (Lev 5:15, Lev 5:18, 25). This ceremony was not a sign of the removal of something from his own power and possession, or the surrender and dedication of it to God, as Rosenmüller and Knobel
(Note: Hence Knobel's assertion (at Lev 7:2), that the laying on of the hand upon the head of the animal, which is prescribed in the case of all the other sacrifices, was omitted in that of the trespass-offering alone, needs correction, and there is no foundation for the conclusion, that it did not take place in connection with the trespass-offering.)
affirm; nor an indication of ownership and of a readiness to give up his own to Jehovah, as Bähr maintains; nor a symbol of the imputation of sin, as Kurtz supposes:
(Note: This was the view held by some of the Rabbins and of the earlier theologians, e.g., Calovius, bibl. ill. ad Lev. i. 4, Lundius and others, but by no means by “most of the Rabbins, some of the fathers, and most of the earlier archaeologists and doctrinal writers,” as is affirmed by Bähr (ii. p. 336), who supports his assertion by passages from Outram, which refer to the sin-offering only, but which Bähr transfers without reserve to all the bleeding sacrifices, thus confounding substitution with the imputation of sin, in his antipathy to the orthodox doctrine of satisfaction. Outram's general view of this ceremony is expressed clearly enough in the following passages: “ritus erat ea notandi ac designandi, quae vel morti devota erant, vel Dei gratiae commendata, vel denique gravi alicui muneri usuique sacro destinata. Eique ritui semper adhiberi solebant verba aliqua explicata, quae rei susceptae rationi maxime congruere viderentur” (l.c. 8 and 9). With reference to the words which explained the imposition of hands he observes: “ita ut sacris piacularibus culparum potissimum confessiones cum poenae deprecatione junctas, voluntariis bonorum precationes, eucharisticus autem et votivis post res prosperas impetratas periculave depulsa factis laudes et gratiarum actiones, omnique denique victimarum generi ejusmodi preces adjunctas putem, quae cuique maxime conveniebant” (c. 9).)
but the symbol of a transfer of the feelings and intentions by which the offerer was actuated in presenting his sacrifice, whereby he set apart the animal as a sacrifice, representing his own person in one particular aspect. Now, so far as the burnt-offering expressed the intention of the offerer to consecrate his life and labour to the Lord, and his desire to obtain the expiation of the sin which still clung to all his works and desires, in order that they might become well-pleasing to God, he transferred the consciousness of his sinfulness to the victim by the laying on of hands, even in the case of the burnt-offering. But this was not all: he also transferred the desire to walk before God in holiness and righteousness, which he could not do without the grace of God. This, and no more than this, is contained in the words, “that it may become well-pleasing to him, to make atonement for him.” כִּפֶּר with Seghol (Ges. §52), to expiate (from the Kal כָּפַר, which is not met with in Hebrew, the word in Gen 6:14 being merely a denom. verb, but which signifies texit in Arabic), is generally construed with עַל like verbs of covering, and in the laws of sacrifice with the person as the object (“for him,” Lev 4:26, Lev 4:31, Lev 4:35; Lev 5:6, Lev 5:10., Lev 14:20, Lev 14:29, etc.; “for them,” Lev 4:20; Lev 10:17; “for her,” Lev 12:7; for a soul, Lev 17:11; Exo 30:15, cf. Num 8:12), and in the case of the sin-offerings with a second object governed either by עַל or מִן (חַטָּאתֹו עַל עָלָיו Lev 4:35; Lev 5:13, Lev 5:18, or מֵחַטָּאתֹו עָלָיו Lev 4:26; Lev 5:6, etc., to expiate him over or on account of his sin); also, though not so frequently, with בְּעַד pers., ἐξιλάζεσθαι περὶ αὐτοῦ (Lev 16:6, Lev 16:24; 2Ch 30:18), and חַטָּאת בְּעַד, ἐξιλάζεσθαι περὶ τῆς ἁμαρτίας (Exo 32:30), and with לְ pers., to permit expiation to be made (Deu 21:8; Eze 16:63); also with the accusative of the object, though in prose only in connection with the expiation of inanimate objects defiled by sin (Lev 16:33).
The expiation was always made or completed by the priest, as the sanctified mediator between Jehovah and the people, or, previous to the institution of the Aaronic priesthood, by Moses, the chosen mediator of the covenant, not by “Jehovah from whom the expiation proceeded,” as Bähr supposes. For although all expiation has its ultimate foundation in the grace of God, which desires not the death of the sinner, but his redemption and salvation, and to this end has opened a way of salvation, and sanctified sacrifice as the means of expiation and mercy; it is not Jehovah who makes the expiation, but this is invariably the office or work of a mediator, who intervenes between the holy God and sinful man, and by means of expiation averts the wrath of God from the sinner, and brings the grace of God to bear upon him. It is only in cases where the word is used in the secondary sense of pardoning sin, or showing mercy, that God is mentioned as the subject (e.g., Deu 21:8; Psa 65:4; Psa 78:38; Jer 17:23).
(Note: The meaning “to make atonement” lies at the foundation in every passage in which the word is used metaphorically, such as Gen 32:21, where Jacob seeks to expiate the face of his angry brother, i.e., to appease his wrath, with a present; or Pro 16:14, “the wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man expiates it, i.e., softens, pacifies it;” Isa 47:11, “Mischief (destruction) will fall upon thee, thou will not be able to expiate it,” that is to say, to avert the wrath of God, which has burst upon thee in the calamity, by means of an expiatory sacrifice. Even in Isa 28:18, “and your covenant with death is disannulled” (annihilated) (וְכֻפַּר), the use of the word כפר is to be explained from the fact that the guilt, which brought the judgment in its train, could be cancelled by a sacrificial expiation (cf. Isa 6:7 and Isa 22:14); so that there is no necessity to resort to a meaning which is altogether foreign to the word, viz., that of covering up by blotting over. When Hoffmann therefore maintains that there is no other way of explaining the use of the word in these passages, than by the supposition that, in addition to the verb כפר to cover, there was another denominative verb, founded upon the word כֹּפֶר a covering, or payment, the stumblingblock in the use of the word lies simply this, that Hoffmann has taken a one-sided view of the idea of expiation, through overlooking the fact, that the expiation had reference to the wrath of God which hung over the sinner and had to be averted from him by means of expiation, as is clearly proved by Exo 32:30 as compared with Exo 32:10 and Exo 32:22. The meaning of expiation which properly belongs to the verb כִּפֶּר is not only retained in the nouns cippurim and capporeth, but lies at the root of the word copher, which is formed from the Kal, as we may clearly see from Exo 30:12-16, where the Israelites are ordered to pay a copher at the census, to expiate their souls, i.e., to cover their souls from the death which threatens the unholy, when he draws near without expiation to a holy God. Vid., Oehler in Herzog's Cycl.)
The medium of expiation in the case of the sacrifice was chiefly the blood of the sacrificial animal that was sprinkled upon the altar (Lev 17:11); in addition to which, the eating of the flesh of the sin-offering by the priests is also called bearing the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them (Lev 10:17). In other cases it was the intercession of Moses (Exo 32:30); also the fumigation with holy incense, which was a symbol of priestly intercession (Num 17:11). On one occasion it was the zeal of Phinehas, when he stabbed the Israelite with a spear for committing fornication with a Midianite (Num 25:8, Num 25:13). In the case of a murder committed by an unknown hand, it was the slaying of an animal in the place of the murderer who remained undiscovered (Deu 21:1-9); whereas in other cases blood-guiltiness (murder) could not be expiated in any other way than by the blood of the person by whom it had been shed (Num 35:33). In Isa 27:9, a divine judgment, by which the nation was punished, is so described, as serving to avert the complete destruction which threatened it. And lastly, it was in some cases a כֹּפֶר, such, for example, as the atonement-money paid at the numbering of the people (Exo 30:12.), and the payment made in the case referred to in Exo 21:30.
If, therefore, the idea of satisfaction unquestionably lay at the foundation of the atonement that was made, in all those cases in which it was effected by a penal judgment, or judicial poena; the intercession of the priest, or the fumigation which embodied it, cannot possibly be regarded as a satisfaction rendered to the justice of God, so that we cannot attribute the idea of satisfaction to every kind of sacrificial expiation. Still less can it be discerned in the slaying of the animal, when simply regarded as the shedding of blood. To this we may add, that in the laws for the sin-offering there is no reference at all to expiation; and in the case of the burnt-offering, the laying on of hands is described as the act by which it was to become well-pleasing to God, and to expiate the offerer. Now, if the laying on of hands was accompanied with a prayer, as the Jewish tradition affirms, and as we may most certainly infer from Deu 26:13, apart altogether from Lev 16:21, although no prayer is expressly enjoined; then in the case of the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, it is in this prayer, or the imposition of hands which symbolized it, and by which the offerer substituted the sacrifice for himself and penetrated it with his spirit, that we must seek for the condition upon which the well-pleased acceptance of the sacrifice on the part of Fog depended, and in consequence of which it became an atonement for him; in other words, was fitted to cover him in the presence of the holiness of God.
Lev 1:5-9
The laying on of hands was followed by the slaughtering (שָׁחַט, never הֵמִית to put to death), which was performed by the offerer himself in the case of the private sacrifices, and by the priests and Levites in that of the national and festal offerings (2Ch 29:22, 2Ch 29:24, 2Ch 29:34). The slaughtering took place “before Jehovah” (see Lev 1:3), or, according to the more precise account in Lev 1:11, on the side of the altar northward, for which the expression “before the door of the tabernacle” is sometimes used (Lev 3:2, Lev 3:8, Lev 3:13, etc.). בָּקָר בֶּן (a young ox) is applied to a calf (עֵגֶל) in Lev 9:2, and a mature young bull (פַּר) in Lev 4:3, Lev 4:14. But the animal of one year old is called עֵגֶל in Lev 9:2, and the mature ox of seven years old is called פַּר in Jdg 6:25. At the slaughtering the blood was caught by the priests (2Ch 29:22), and sprinkled upon the altar. When the sacrifices were very numerous, as at the yearly feasts, the Levites helped to catch the blood (2Ch 30:16); but the sprinkling upon the altar was always performed by the priests alone. In the case of the burnt-offerings, the blood was swung “against the altar round about,” i.e., against all four sides (walls) of the altar (not “over the surface of the altar”); i.e., it was poured out of the vessel against the walls of the altar with a swinging motion. This was also done when peace-offerings (Lev 3:2, Lev 3:8, Lev 3:13; Lev 9:18) and trespass-offerings (Lev 7:2) were sacrificed; but it was not so with the sin-offering (see at Lev 4:5).
Lev 1:6
The offerer was then to flay the slaughtered animal, to cut it (נִתַּח generally rendered μελίζειν in the lxx) into its pieces, - i.e., to cut it up into the different pieces, into which an animal that has been killed is generally divided, namely, according to the separate joints, or “according to the bones” (Jdg 19:29), - that he might boil its flesh in pots (Eze 24:4, Eze 24:6). He was also to wash its intestines and the lower part of its legs (Lev 1:9). קֶרֶב, the inner part of the body, or the contents of the inner part of the body, signifies the viscera; not including those of the breast, however, such as the lungs, heart, and liver, to which the term is also applied in other cases (for in the case of the peace-offerings, when the fat which envelopes the intestines, the kidneys, and the liver-lobes was to be placed upon the altar, there is no washing spoken of), but the intestines of the abdomen or belly, such as the stomach and bowels, which would necessarily have to be thoroughly cleansed, even when they were about to be used as food. כְּרָעַיִם, which is only found in the dual, and always in connection either with oxen and sheep, or with the springing legs of locusts (Lev 11:21), denotes the shin, or calf below the knee, or the leg from the knee down to the foot.
Lev 1:7-9
It was the duty of the sons of Aaron, i.e., of the priests, to offer the sacrifice upon the altar. To this end they were to “put fire upon the altar” (of course this only applies to the first burnt-offering presented after the erection of the altar, as the fire was to be constantly burning upon the altar after that, without being allowed to go out, Lev 6:6), and to lay “wood in order upon the fire” (עָרַךְ to lay in regular order), and then to “lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood on the fire,” and thus to cause the whole to ascend in smoke. פֶּדֶר, which is only used in connection with the burnt-offering (Lev 1:8, Lev 1:12, and Lev 8:20), signifies, according to the ancient versions (lxx στέαρ) and the rabbinical writers, the fat, probably those portions of fat which were separated from the entrails and taken out to wash. Bochart's explanation is adeps a carne sejunctus. The head and fat are specially mentioned along with the pieces of flesh, partly because they are both separated from the flesh when animals are slaughtered, and partly also to point out distinctly that the whole of the animal (“all,” Lev 1:9) was to be burned upon the altar, with the exception of the skin, which was given to the officiating priest (Lev 7:8), and the contents of the intestines. הִקְטִיר, to cause to ascend in smoke and steam (Exo 30:7), which is frequently construed with הַמִּזְבֵּחָה towards the altar (ה local, so used as to include position in a place; vid., Lev 1:13, Lev 1:15, Lev 1:17; Lev 2:2, Lev 2:9, etc.), or with הַמִּזְבֵּחַ (Lev 6:8), or עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ (Lev 9:13, Lev 9:17), was the technical expression for burning the sacrifice upon the altar, and showed that the intention was not simply to burn those portions of the sacrifice which were placed in the fire, i.e., to destroy, or turn them into ashes, but by this process of burning to cause the odour which was eliminated to ascend to heaven as the ethereal essence of the sacrifice, for a “firing of a sweet savour unto Jehovah.” אשֶּׁה, firing (“an offering made by fire,” Eng. Ver.), is the general expression used to denote the sacrifices, which ascended in fire upon the altar, whether animal or vegetable (Lev 2:2, Lev 2:11, Lev 2:16), and is also applied to the incense laid upon the shew-bread (Lev 24:7); and hence the shew-bread itself (Lev 24:7), and even those portions of the sacrifices which Jehovah assigned to the priests for them to eat (Deu 18:1 cf. Jos 13:14), came also to be included in the firings for Jehovah. The word does not occur out of the Pentateuch, except in Jos 13:14 and 1Sa 2:28. In the laws of sacrifice it is generally associated with the expression, “a sweet savour unto Jehovah” (ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας: lxx): an anthropomorphic description of the divine satisfaction with the sacrifices offered, or the gracious acceptance of them on the part of God (see Gen 8:21), which is used in connection with all the sacrifices, even the expiatory or sin-offerings (Lev 4:31), and with the drink-offering also (Num 15:7, Num 15:10).