Leviticus 3:16

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the LORD'S.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Shall burn them.—That is, the fat pieces which have thus been specified (see Leviticus 4:35), because they constitute the bread of Jehovah; they are to ascend in a sweet-smelling savour to heaven. (See Leviticus 1:9).

All the fat is the Lord’s.—This part of the verse is intimately connected with the following verse. As the fat belongs to the Lord, it is therefore enacted as a perpetual statute that it must never be eaten.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 3:16. Shall burn them — The parts mentioned, among which the tail is not one, as it was in the sheep, because that in goats is a refuse part. All the fat is the Lord’s — This is to be limited, 1st, To those beasts which were offered or offerable in sacrifice, as it is explained, Leviticus 7:23; Leviticus 7:25. 2d, To that kind of fat which is above mentioned, and required to be offered, which was separated, or easily separable from the flesh: for the fat which was here and there mixed with the flesh they might eat.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:6-17 Here is a law that they should eat neither fat nor blood. As for the fat, it means the fat of the inwards, the suet. The blood was forbidden for the same reason; because it was God's part of every sacrifice. God would not permit the blood that made atonement to be used as a common thing, Heb 10:29; nor will he allow us, though we have the comfort of the atonement made, to claim for ourselves any share in the honour of making it. This taught the Jews to observe distinction between common and sacred things; it kept them separate from idolaters. It would impress them more deeply with the belief of some important mystery in the shedding of the blood and the burning the fat of their solemn sacrifices. Christ, as the Prince of peace, made peace with the blood of his cross. Through him the believer is reconciled to God; and having the peace of God in his heart, he is disposed to follow peace with all men. May the Lord multiply grace, mercy, and peace, to all who desire to bear the Christian character.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather, as food of an offering made by fire for a sweet savour, shall all the fat be for Yahweh. Our bodily taste and smell furnish figures of the satisfaction with which the Lord accepts the appointed symbols of the true worship of the heart. All that was sent up in the fire of the altar, including the parts of the sin-offering Leviticus 4:31, as well as the burnt-offering (Leviticus 1:9, etc.), was accepted for "a sweet savour": but the word food may here have a special fitness in its application to the peace-offering, which served for food also to the priests and the offerer, and so symbolized communion between the Lord, His ministers, and His worshippers.

The fat is the Lord's - The significance of this appears to consist in the fact that its proper development in the animal is, in general, a mark of perfection.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. if his offering be a goat—Whether this or any of the other two animals were chosen, the same general directions were to be followed in the ceremony of offering.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The priest shall burn them, the parts mentioned, among which the tail is not one, as it was in the sheep, because that in goats is a refuse part.

All the fat: this is to be limited,

1. To those beasts which were offered or might be offered in sacrifice, as it is explained and restrained Leviticus 7:23,25.

2. To that kind of fat which is here above mentioned, and required to be offered, which was separated, or easily separable, from the flesh; for the fat which was here and there mixed with the flesh they might eat, Deu 32:14 Nehemiah 8:10.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar,.... Which shows that not the fat only, but the inwards and the kidneys, were burnt also; so Maimonides says (l), that the priest salted the parts, and burned them upon the altar; and the priests might not have the breast and shoulder (which were what belonged to them) until the parts were burnt:

it is the food of the offering made by fire; which the Lord ate of, or accepted of:

for a sweet savour; as a type of the sweet smelling sacrifice of Christ, with which he is well pleased:

all the fat is the Lord's; that is, all that was upon the parts mentioned in the several sacrifices of peace offerings, which was to be taken off and burnt: though the Jewish writers understand it of all fat in general, and so interpret the law that follows.

(l) Ut supra, (Maaseh Hakorbanot) c. 9. sect. 11.

Geneva Study Bible

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savor: all the fat is the LORD's.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Leviticus 3:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The same rules apply to the peace-offerings of sheep and goats, except that, in addition to the fat portions, which were to be burned upon the altar in the case of the oxen (Leviticus 3:3, Leviticus 3:4) and goats (Leviticus 3:14, Leviticus 3:15), the fat tail of the sheep was to be consumed as well. תמימה האליה: "the fat tail whole" (Leviticus 3:9), cauda ovilla vel arietina eaque crassa et adiposa; the same in Arabic (Ges. thes. p. 102). The fat tails which the sheep have in Northern Africa and Egypt, also in Arabia, especially Southern Arabia, and Syria, often weigh 15 lbs. or more, and small carriages on wheels are sometimes placed under them to bear their weight (Sonnini, R. ii. p. 358; Bochart, Hieroz. i. pp. 556ff.). It consists of something between marrow and fat. Ordinary sheep are also found in Arabia and Syria; but in modern Palestine all the sheep are "of the broad-tailed species." The broad part of the tail is an excresence of fat, from which the true tail hangs down (Robinson, Pal. ii. 166). "Near the rump-bone shall he (the offerer) take it (the fat tail) away," i.e., separate it from the body. עצם, ἁπ. λεγ., is, according to Saad., os caudae s. coccygis, i.e., the rump or tail-bone, which passes over into the vertebrae of the tail (cf. Bochart, i. pp. 560-1). In Leviticus 3:11 and Leviticus 3:16 the fat portions which were burned are called "food of the firing for Jehovah," or "food of the firing for a sweet savour," i.e., food which served as a firing for Jehovah, or reached Jehovah by being burned; cf. Numbers 28:24, "food of the firing of a sweet savour for Jehovah." Hence not only are the daily burnt-offerings and the burnt and sin-offerings of the different feasts called "food of Jehovah" ("My bread," Numbers 28:2); but the sacrifices generally are described as "the food of God" ("the bread of their God," Leviticus 21:6, Leviticus 21:8, Leviticus 21:17, Leviticus 21:21-22, and Leviticus 22:25), as food, that is, which Israel produced and caused to ascend to its God in fire as a sweet smelling savour. - Nothing is determined here with regard to the appropriation of the flesh of the peace-offerings, as their destination for a sacrificial meal was already known from traditional custom. The more minute directions for the meal itself are given in Leviticus 7:11-36, where the meaning of these sacrifices is more fully explained. - In Leviticus 3:17 (Leviticus 3:16) the general rule is added, "all fat belongs to Jehovah," and the law, "eat neither fat nor blood," is enforced as "an eternal statute" for the generations of Israel (see at Exodus 12:14, Exodus 12:24) in all their dwelling-places (see Exodus 10:23 and Exodus 12:20).