Leviticus 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD gives the rules for the peace offering, an animal given as a shared sacrifice. The animal may come from the herd, or it may be a lamb or a goat from the flock; in every case it must be male or female without any flaw. The one who brings it lays a hand on its head, kills it at the entrance of the tent, and the priests sprinkle the blood around the altar and burn the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver on the fire. The chapter ends with a lasting rule that the people are never to eat fat or blood.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • If someone's offering is a sacrifice of peace offerings, and he offers it from the herd, he may bring either a male or a female.
   • The animal offered from the herd must be without blemish.
   • He is to present it before the LORD.
2. 3:2
   • He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering.
   • He is to slaughter it at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
   • Aaron's sons the priests are to throw the blood against the altar on all sides.
3. 3:3
   • From the sacrifice of peace offerings he is to present an offering made by fire to the LORD.
   • The offering includes the fat that covers the entrails.
   • The offering includes all the fat that is on the entrails.
4. 3:4
   • He is to remove the two kidneys.
   • He is to remove the fat that is on the kidneys, which is by the loins.
   • He is to remove the lobe on the liver, taking it away with the kidneys.
5. 3:5
   • Aaron's sons are to burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering.
   • The burnt offering is on the wood that is on the fire.
   • It is an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
6. 3:6
   • If someone's offering for a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD is from the flock, it may be male or female.
   • The animal from the flock must be without blemish when he offers it.
7. 3:7
   • If he offers a lamb as his offering, he is to present it before the LORD.
8. 3:8
   • He is to lay his hand on the head of his offering.
   • He is to slaughter it in front of the tent of meeting.
   • Aaron's sons are to throw its blood against the altar on all sides.
9. 3:9
   • From the sacrifice of peace offerings he is to present an offering made by fire to the LORD.
   • The offering includes its fat.
   • He is to remove the entire fat tail, cut off close to the backbone.
   • The offering includes the fat that covers the entrails.
   • The offering includes all the fat that is on the entrails.
10. 3:10
    • He is to remove the two kidneys.
    • He is to remove the fat that is on the kidneys, which is by the loins.
    • He is to remove the lobe on the liver, taking it away with the kidneys.
11. 3:11
    • The priest is to burn it on the altar.
    • It is food, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
12. 3:12
    • If someone's offering is a goat, he is to present it before the LORD.
13. 3:13
    • He is to lay his hand on its head.
    • He is to slaughter it in front of the tent of meeting.
    • Aaron's sons are to throw its blood against the altar on all sides.
14. 3:14
    • From it he is to present his offering, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
    • The offering includes the fat that covers the entrails.
    • The offering includes all the fat that is on the entrails.
15. 3:15
    • He is to remove the two kidneys.
    • He is to remove the fat that is on the kidneys, which is by the loins.
    • He is to remove the lobe on the liver, taking it away with the kidneys.
16. 3:16
    • The priest is to burn them on the altar.
    • It is food, an offering made by fire, for a pleasing aroma.
    • All the fat belongs to the LORD.
17. 3:17
    • This is a perpetual statute for your generations.
    • It applies in all your dwelling places.
    • You are not to eat any fat.
    • You are not to eat any blood.

Words Worth Explaining

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

3:1

"Peace offering" translates Hebrew *shelamim*, from the same root as *shalom*, well-being. Unlike the whole burnt offering of chapter 1, only the fat parts were burned; the rest of the meat was eaten in a shared meal by the worshiper, his household and the priests. Older translations also render it "fellowship offering" or "offering of well-being." "Herd" means cattle, as against "flock" (sheep and goats) in verse 6. "Without blemish" means physically unflawed, not lame, injured, diseased or deformed.

3:2

Laying a hand on the animal's head was the formal gesture identifying it as this particular person's offering, presented on his behalf. The "tent of meeting" (KJV "tabernacle of the congregation") was the portable tent shrine carried through the wilderness; "congregation" here does not mean a gathering of worshipers but the appointed meeting between God and Israel. The altar stood in the open courtyard just inside its entrance, which is why the animal is killed at the doorway.

3:3

"The inwards" in the KJV means the entrails or inner organs. The fat in question is the hard suet that sheathes the stomach and intestines, prized as the richest part of the animal.

3:4

"The caul above the liver" is the KJV's phrase for a Hebrew term whose exact reference is uncertain; it is usually taken as the lobe or lappet of the liver (the caudate lobe), though some read it as the fatty membrane over it. "By the flanks" means near the loins, the lower back where the kidney fat lies.

3:5

"A sweet savour" is a fixed formula in these laws, literally "a soothing smell", describing the smoke of the burning offering rising and being accepted. It is standard sacrificial language, not a comment on cooking.

3:6

"The flock" means sheep and goats, as opposed to "the herd" in verse 1, which means cattle. The law lets people bring what they actually own, so a poorer household is not shut out.

3:9

The "whole rump" of the KJV is the fat tail of the broad-tailed sheep bred across the ancient Near East, whose tail stores a heavy pad of fat and can weigh several pounds. It was a delicacy, which is why it is specified for the altar. "Hard by the backbone" means close to the backbone, at the point where the tail joins it. This portion is required only of sheep, not of cattle or goats.

3:11

"Food" translates a Hebrew word that normally means bread or, more broadly, a meal. Sacrifices are regularly described in these chapters using the vocabulary of a meal set out for a household head; the term marks the offering's category, and does not imply that God required feeding, a point the Hebrew Bible elsewhere states directly.

3:16

"All the fat is the LORD's" states the principle behind the whole chapter: the richest part of the animal is not the offerer's to keep. In everyday speech Hebrew used "fat" the way we use "the cream" or "the best of" something.

3:17

"A perpetual statute" means a standing rule with no fixed end, binding on later generations. "Throughout all your dwellings" extends it beyond the sanctuary to ordinary homes: the fat named here and blood of any kind were not to be eaten anywhere. The fat in view is the specific internal suet listed above, not the fat marbled through meat. The reason given later (Leviticus 17:11) is that blood was reserved for the altar.