Leviticus 17:2

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-9 All the cattle killed by the Israelites, while in the wilderness, were to be presented before the door of the tabernacle, and the flesh to be returned to the offerer, to be eaten as a peace-offering, according to the law. When they entered Canaan, this only continued in respect of sacrifices. The spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer, are not confined to any one place. We have now no temple or altar that sanctifies the gift; nor does the gospel unity rest only in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the Spirit. Christ is our Altar, and the true Tabernacle; in him God dwells among men. It is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God, and in him only. To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is, in effect, to set up other gods. And though God will graciously accept our family offerings, we must not therefore neglect attending at the...

EXPOSITION This chapter finds its natural place here as the supplement of all that has gone before. The first part of the book contains the institution or regulation of the sacrificial system (chapters 1-7). This chapter, therefore, which gives injunctions as to the place where all sacrifices are to be offered, might well, as Knobel has remarked, have taken its place as Leviticus 8:1. The second part contains the institution of the hereditary priesthood (chapters 8-10). This chapter, therefore, which forbids for the future all offering of sacrifices in the open fields, and commands that they shall be brought "unto _the priest, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation," _would still more fitly find its place after Leviticus 10:1. But the first two sections of the third

SPEAK UNTO AARON, AND UNTO HIS SONS,.... Who were now constituted priests, the business of whose office it was to offer the sacrifices of the people, ordinary and extraordinary: AND TO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; who were all under obligation to sacrifices at certain times; under whom may be comprehended the Levites, who were not priests, and the strangers that sojourned in Israel, for these are concerned in the following law: AND SAY UNTO THEM; which is spoken to Moses, who was to say what follows to Aaron, and by him to his sons, and by his sons to the people of Israel, and by them to the strangers: THIS [IS] THE THING WHICH THE LORD HATH COMMANDED; ordered to be observed as his will and pleasure by everyone of them: SAYING; namely, what follows....

2. THE TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE BLOOD CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Concerning slain animals (Leviticus 17:1)_ 2. Concerning the eating of blood (Leviticus 17:10) This chapter needs little comment. Everything in this chapter speaks of the sanctity of the blood, what great value God, to whom life belongs, places upon the blood and with what jealous care He watches over it. The center of all is verse 11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Every slain animal had to bear witness to this fact. Even the hunter had to pour out the blood and cover it with dust. No blood was to be eaten. But in the New Testament we are commanded to eat spiritu

ALL SLAUGHTER MUST BE SACRIFICIAL, _i.e._ at the sanctuary (_cf._ Deuteronomy 12:2 ff., 2 Kings 23:8; Jeremiah 7:18). All slaughter had originally this sacrificial character, among the Hebrews, as among other pastoral and some agricultural peoples; animals were practically never killed except for sacrifice. Then, any other kind of slaughter easily came to be regarded as impious. To Hindus, there is no greater crime than slaughtering an ox (_cf._ Manu, v. 31), and to-day, except among outcastes, sacrifices of animals are a thing of the past. The abolition of sacrifices in the country (the open field, Leviticus 17:5),

AND UNTO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. First occurrence of this phrase: see note on Leviticus 5:14, marking the solemnity of the charge, and the subject. CHILDREN. Hebrew sons....

THE -LAW OF HOLINESS 1 [53] " [53] It should be noted that the -Law of Holiness" denoted by His sometimes used to mean the _whole_of chs. 17 26, sometimes the old laws embedded in these chs., and sometimes again these laws together with their hortatory settings. The leading features of this code, the probable date of its compilation, and an explanation of its origin and development, are discussed in _Introd_. The Law of Holiness, pp. 22 ff., and in App. I, pp. 167 ff. It is there shewn that laws drawn from various sources have been collected by an editor (R h [54]), and this collection has been revised by a later writer (R p [55]). The analysis of the separate Chapter s which follows will shew their composite character; in drawing the distinction between R h [56] and R p [57] the inferences that these represent two stages in the composition of the code will be further illustrated; with...

II. CONTINUANCE IN COMMUNION WITH GOD 17:1-26:46 A. HOLINESS ON THE PART OF THE PEOPLE 17:120:27 1. HOLINESS IN REGARD TO FOOD 17:1-16 a. EVERY MEAL A SACRIFICE 17:1-9 TEXT 17:1-9 1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 2 Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them: This is the thing which Jehovah hath commanded, saying, 3 What man soever there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it without the camp, 4 and hath not brought it unto the door of the tent of meeting, to offer it as an oblation unto Jehovah before the tabernacle of Jehovah: blood shall be imputed unto that man; he hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from among his people: 5 to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they sacrifice in the open field, even that they may brin...

RULE OF SACRIFICE. PROHIBITION AGAINST EATING BLOOD 1-9. The first part of this Law prescribes that all oxen, sheep, and goats, slaughtered for food, must first be presented to Jehovah at the sanctuary. This seems to presuppose a time when the Israelites used but little flesh food, and were not widely scattered, which must have been either during the wanderings in the desert, or immediately after the return from exile, when there was only a small community in the vicinity of Jerusalem. This raises the question of the date of the composition of the Law of Holiness, and scholars are still divided upon it. The law is repealed in Deuteronomy 12:15, where it is implied that different conditions of life prevail....