Sacrifices To Make Things Right
(Leviticus 5.14-19)The Lord said:
1 The sacrifice to make things right is very sacred. 2 The animal must be killed in the same place where the sacrifice to please me is killed, and the animal's blood must be splattered against the four sides of the bronze altar. 3 Offer all of the animal's fat, including the fat on its tail and on its insides, 4 as well as the lower part of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat. 5 One of the priests will lay these pieces on the altar and send them up in smoke to me. 6 This sacrifice for making things right is very holy. Only the priests may eat it, and they must eat it in a holy place.
7 The ceremony for this sacrifice and the one for sin are the same, and the meat may be eaten only by the priest who performs this ceremony of forgiveness.
8 In fact, the priest who offers a sacrifice to please me may keep the skin of the animal, 9 just as he may eat the bread from a sacrifice to give thanks to me. 10 All other grain sacrifices—with or without olive oil in them—are to be divided equally among the priests of Aaron's family.
Sacrifices To Ask the Lord's Blessing
The Lord said:
11 Here are the instructions for offering a sacrifice to ask my blessing: 12 If you offer it to give thanks, you must offer some bread together with it. Use the finest flour to make three kinds of bread without yeast—two in the form of loaves mixed with olive oil and one in the form of thin wafers brushed with oil. 13 You must also make some bread with yeast. 14 Give me one loaf or wafer from each of these four kinds of bread, after which they will belong to the priest who splattered the blood against the bronze altar.
15 When you offer an animal to ask a blessing from me or to thank me, the meat belongs to you, but it must be eaten the same day. 16 It is different with the sacrifices you offer when you make me a promise or voluntarily give me something. The meat from those sacrifices may be kept and eaten the next day, 17-18 but any that is left over must be destroyed. If you eat any of it after the second day, your sacrifice will be useless and unacceptable, and you will be both disgusting and guilty.
19 Don't eat any of the meat that has touched something unclean. Instead, burn it. The rest of the meat may be eaten by anyone who is clean and acceptable to me. 20-21 But don't eat any of this meat if you have become unclean by touching something unclean from a human or an animal or from any other creature. If you do, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
22 The Lord told Moses 23 to say to the people:
Don't eat the fat of cattle, sheep, or goats. 24 If one of your animals dies or is killed by some wild animal, you may do anything with its fat except eat it. 25 If you eat the fat of an animal that can be used as a sacrifice to me, you will no longer belong to the community of Israel. 26 And no matter where you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal, 27 or you will no longer belong to the community of Israel.
28 The Lord also told Moses 29-30 to say to the people of Israel:
If you want to offer a sacrifice to ask my blessing, you must bring the part to be burned and lay it on the bronze altar. But you must first lift up the choice ribs with their fat to show that the offering is dedicated to me. 31 A priest from Aaron's family will then send the fat up in smoke, but the ribs belong to the priests. 32-33 The upper joint of the right hind leg is for the priest who offers the blood and the fat of the animal. 34 I have decided that the people of Israel must always give the choice ribs and the upper joint of the right hind leg to Aaron's descendants 35 who have been ordained as priests to serve me. 36 This law will never change. I am the Lord!
37 These are the ceremonies for sacrifices to please the Lord, to give him thanks, and to ask for his blessing or his forgiveness, as well as the ceremonies for those sacrifices that demand a payment and for the sacrifices that are offered when priests are ordained. 38 While Moses and the people of Israel were in the desert at Mount Sinai, the Lord commanded them to start offering these sacrifices.
Repayment Offerings
1 The following are the regulations for repayment offerings, which are very holy. 2 The animal for this offering is to be killed on the north side of the altar, where the animals for the burnt offerings are killed, and its blood is to be thrown against all four sides of the altar. 3 All of its fat shall be removed and offered on the altar: the fat tail, the fat covering the internal organs, 4 the kidneys and the fat on them, and the best part of the liver. 5 The priest shall burn all the fat on the altar as a food offering to the Lord. It is a repayment offering. 6 Any male of the priestly families may eat it, but it must be eaten in a holy place, because it is very holy.
7 There is one regulation that applies to both the sin offering and the repayment offering: the meat belongs to the priest who offers the sacrifice. 8 The skin of an animal offered as a burnt offering belongs to the priest who offers the sacrifice. 9 Every grain offering that has been baked in an oven or prepared in a pan or on a griddle belongs to the priest who has offered it to God. 10 But all uncooked grain offerings, whether mixed with oil or dry, belong to all the Aaronite priests and must be shared equally among them.
Fellowship Offerings
11 The following are the regulations for the fellowship offerings presented to the Lord. 12 If you make this offering as a thanksgiving offering to God, you shall present, together with the animal to be sacrificed, an offering of bread made without yeast: either thick loaves made of flour mixed with olive oil or thin cakes brushed with olive oil or cakes made of flour mixed with olive oil. 13 In addition, you shall offer loaves of bread baked with yeast. 14 You shall present one part of each kind of bread as a special contribution to the Lord; it belongs to the priest who takes the blood of the animal and throws it against the altar. 15 The flesh of the animal must be eaten on the day it is sacrificed; none of it may be left until the next morning.
16 If you bring a fellowship offering as fulfillment of a vow or as your own freewill offering, not all of it has to be eaten on the day it is offered, but any that is left over may be eaten on the following day. 17 Any meat that still remains on the third day must be burned. 18 If any of it is eaten on the third day, God will not accept your offering. The offering will not be counted to your credit but will be considered unclean, and whoever eats it will suffer the consequences. 19 If the meat comes into contact with anything ritually unclean, it must not be eaten, but must be burned.
Any of you that are ritually clean may eat the meat, 20 but if any of you who are not clean eat it, you shall no longer be considered one of God's people. 21 Also, if you eat the meat of this offering after you have touched anything ritually unclean, whether from a person or an animal, you shall no longer be considered one of God's people.
22 The Lord gave Moses the following regulations 23 for the people of Israel. No fat of cattle, sheep, or goats shall be eaten. 24 The fat of an animal that has died a natural death or has been killed by a wild animal must not be eaten, but it may be used for any other purpose. 25 Anyone who eats the fat of an animal that may be offered as a food offering to the Lord will no longer be considered one of God's people. 26 No matter where the Israelites live, they must never use the blood of birds or animals for food. 27 Anyone who breaks this law will no longer be considered one of God's people.
28 The Lord gave Moses the following regulations 29 for the people of Israel. When any of you offer a fellowship offering you must bring part of it as a special gift to the Lord, 30 bringing it with your own hands as a food offering. You shall bring the fat of the animal with its breast and present it as a special gift to the Lord. 31 The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall belong to the priests. 32 The right hind leg of the animal shall be given as a special contribution 33 to the priest who offers the blood and the fat of the fellowship offering. 34 The breast of the animal is a special gift, and the right hind leg is a special contribution that the Lord has taken from the people of Israel and given to the priests. This is what the people of Israel must give to the priests for all time to come. 35 This is the part of the food offered to the Lord that was given to Aaron and his sons on the day they were ordained as priests. 36 On that day the Lord commanded the people of Israel to give them this part of the offering. It is a regulation that the people of Israel must obey for all time to come.
37 These, then, are the regulations for the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, the sin offerings, the repayment offerings, the ordination offerings, and the fellowship offerings. 38 There on Mount Sinai in the desert, the Lord gave these commands to Moses on the day he told the people of Israel to make their offerings.
