Leviticus 7

Whereas Leviticus 1–5 describes the five offerings from the standpoint of the people who bring them, Leviticus 6:8 onward prescribes how the priests are to handle those same offerings. Chapter 7 closes this section, addressing the guilt offering and the peace offering and then summarizing the whole.

Outline

• Verses 1–7: Regulations for the guilt (trespass) offering. The guilt offering makes restitution for damage done to another person's property or to holy things. It is slaughtered where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and its fat is burned on the altar. The meat is eaten by the male priests in a holy place. The guilt offering and the sin offering follow the same regulations.
• Verses 8–10: The hide of the burnt offering and the grain offerings belong to the priests.
• Verses 11–21: Regulations for the peace offering. Meat offered in thanksgiving must be eaten on the same day (vv. 12–15); meat offered in fulfillment of a vow or as a freewill offering may be eaten through the next day, but whatever remains on the third day is burned (vv. 16–18). Anyone who eats it while unclean is cut off from the people (vv. 19–21).
• Verses 22–27: The command not to eat the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats, or any blood.
• Verses 28–36: The breast that is waved (the wave offering) and the right thigh that is lifted up (the heave offering) from the peace offering are given to Aaron and his sons as a perpetual portion.
• Verses 37–38: A closing statement that the regulations for the burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, ordination offering, and peace offering were commanded to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Key Verses

• Leviticus 7:12 "If he offer it for a thanksgiving" – sets apart the thanksgiving offering as a distinct category within the peace offerings.
• Leviticus 7:26 "Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast" – the representative verse for the prohibition against eating blood.
• Leviticus 7:37 "This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings" – summarizes chapters 6–7.

People and Places

• The LORD – the one who gives the regulations.
• Moses – the one who receives the regulations and delivers them to Israel.
• Aaron and his sons – the priests who carry out the offerings and receive their portions.
• Mount Sinai – the place where the regulations were given, located in the Wilderness of Sinai.

Points for Reflection

• The Hebrew word shelamim, translated "peace offering," is understood to share a root with shalom. It differs from the other offerings in that the worshiper who brings it also eats of the meat.
• The ordination offering mentioned in verse 37 is the offering made when priests are installed; the ceremony itself is described in Leviticus 8.
• Jewish dietary law still draws on this chapter as the basis for abstaining from certain fats and from blood.
• The Jerusalem Council in Acts 15:28–29 urged Gentile believers to abstain from blood. Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions on the basis of this chapter and similar passages. Most Protestant denominations regard these passages as dietary regulations and do not connect them with blood transfusion.
• Protestant interpretation, following the Epistle to the Hebrews, holds that the Old Testament sacrifices are fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. The thanksgiving offering is also sometimes read in connection with "the sacrifice of praise" in Hebrews 13:15–16.