Leviticus 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This chapter gives the rules for the grain offering brought to the LORD. The offering is fine flour with oil and frankincense, or bread made without yeast in an oven, on a griddle, or in a pan; the priest burns a memorial portion on the altar, and the rest belongs to Aaron and his sons. No yeast or honey is to be burned in an offering made by fire, and salt is to be added to every offering. A grain offering of firstfruits is made from crushed heads of new grain roasted in the fire.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • A person may bring a grain offering to the LORD.
   • The offering brought must be of fine flour.
   • The offerer is to pour oil on the fine flour.
   • The offerer is to put frankincense on it.
2. 2:2
   • The offerer is to bring the offering to Aaron's sons, the priests.
   • A handful is to be taken from the offering, from its flour and from its oil.
   • The handful is taken along with all the frankincense of the offering.
   • The priest is to burn the memorial portion of it on the altar.
   • The burned portion is an offering made by fire.
   • The burned portion is a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
3. 2:3
   • What remains of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and to his sons.
   • The remainder is most holy.
   • The remainder comes from the offerings made by fire to the LORD.
4. 2:4
   • A grain offering may be brought as something baked in an oven.
   • Such an offering is to be of fine flour.
   • It may be unleavened cakes mixed with oil.
   • It may be unleavened wafers smeared with oil.
5. 2:5
   • A grain offering may be brought prepared on a flat griddle.
   • Such an offering is to be of fine flour mixed with oil.
   • Such an offering is to be unleavened.
6. 2:6
   • The offerer is to break the griddle offering into pieces.
   • The offerer is to pour oil on it.
   • It is a grain offering.
7. 2:7
   • A grain offering may be brought prepared in a pan.
   • Such an offering is to be made of fine flour with oil.
8. 2:8
   • The offerer is to bring to the LORD the grain offering made in any of these ways.
   • The offering is to be brought near to the priest.
   • It is to be brought near to the altar.
   • The Hebrew does not make explicit whether the offerer or the priest brings the offering to the altar.
9. 2:9
   • The priest is to lift the memorial portion out of the grain offering.
   • The priest is to burn that portion on the altar.
   • It is an offering made by fire.
   • It is a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
10. 2:10
    • What remains of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and to his sons.
    • The remainder is most holy.
    • The remainder comes from the offerings made by fire to the LORD.
11. 2:11
    • No grain offering brought to the LORD is to be made with leaven.
    • No leaven is to be burned as an offering made by fire to the LORD.
    • No honey is to be burned as an offering made by fire to the LORD.
12. 2:12
    • Leaven and honey may be brought to the LORD as an offering of firstfruits.
    • They are not to go up on the altar as a pleasing aroma.
13. 2:13
    • Every grain offering is to be salted with salt.
    • The salt of the covenant of the offerer's God is not to be withheld from the grain offering.
    • There is a covenant of God associated with salt.
    • Salt is to be offered with all of the offerer's offerings.
14. 2:14
    • A grain offering of firstfruits may be brought to the LORD.
    • The firstfruits offering is to be of fresh green ears of grain.
    • The grain is to be roasted with fire.
    • The offering is to be crushed groats of ripe grain.
15. 2:15
    • The offerer is to put oil on the firstfruits offering.
    • The offerer is to lay frankincense on it.
    • It is a grain offering.
16. 2:16
    • The priest is to burn the memorial portion of it.
    • The memorial portion is taken from its crushed grain and from its oil.
    • It is burned along with all its frankincense.
    • It is an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"Meat offering" in the King James does not mean flesh; in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind. The Hebrew word (minchah) means a gift or tribute, the kind of present a subject brought a ruler, and here it is always made of grain, never of an animal. The oil is olive oil, the ordinary cooking fat of the region. Frankincense is a fragrant white resin tapped from trees in southern Arabia and Somalia; it was imported, expensive, and burned for its scent. "Fine flour" is wheat flour sifted to remove the coarse bran, more costly than everyday meal.

2:2

The priests were Aaron's male descendants; the priesthood was a family office, not something entered by choice or training. The "memorial portion" (Hebrew azkarah) is a token handful burned to represent the whole gift, standing in for the rest, which is not burned. "Sweet savour" is a standing phrase for a smell that pleases: it describes the smoke rising, and does not imply the offering was food for God.

2:3

"Most holy" is a technical grade, not praise. Offerings in this class could be eaten only by the priests themselves, only by males of the priestly family, and only within the sanctuary precinct, unlike lesser holy portions, which a priest's whole household could eat at home.

2:4

The oven was a clay dome or pit heated by a fire inside; dough was slapped onto the hot inner wall. "Cakes" are thick round loaves; "wafers" are thin flat ones. Unleavened means made without yeast, so the dough does not rise or ferment.

2:5

A griddle was a flat plate of iron or pottery set over the fire, used for a thin bread cooked dry rather than in fat.

2:7

This vessel was deeper than the griddle, so the bread was cooked in oil rather than on a dry surface, closer to frying than baking.

2:9

The memorial part is the small handful burned for God. It stands for the whole gift. Memorial means something that helps you remember.

2:11

Leaven here is not packaged yeast but a piece of fermented dough kept back from a previous batch. "Honey" in Hebrew usually means thick syrup boiled down from dates or grapes, though wild bee honey is also possible. Both leaven and honey ferment, and neither was permitted on the altar fire, though the text gives no reason.

2:12

Firstfruits are the earliest part of a harvest, handed over before the rest of the crop was used. They could be brought to the sanctuary and given to the priests, but this verse rules out putting them on the altar to be burned.

2:13

Salt preserves and does not decay, and in the ancient Near East sharing salt sealed an agreement; treaties and grants were spoken of as covenants of salt. A covenant is a binding formal agreement between two parties, with obligations on each side.

2:14

"Corn" in the King James means grain of any kind, here barley or wheat, not maize, which was unknown outside the Americas in 1611. These are heads of grain picked while still soft and unripe, parched over a fire to dry them, then rubbed to knock the kernels loose; parched grain was ordinary food at harvest time.