---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Leviticus 3"
description: "CHAPTER 3   :-. THE PEACE
OFFERING OF THE HERD. 1. if his oblation be a sacrifice of
peace offering—\"Peace\" being used in Scripture to
denote prosperity a"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/leviticus/3"
---

CHAPTER 3

. THE PEACE
OFFERING OF THE HERD.

**1. if his oblation be a sacrifice of
peace offering**—"Peace" being used in Scripture to
denote prosperity and happiness generally, a peace offering was a
voluntary tribute of gratitude for health or other benefits. In this
view it was eucharistic, being a token of thanksgiving for benefits
already received, or it was sometimes votive, presented in prayer for
benefits wished for in the future.
**of the herd**—This kind
of offering being of a festive character, either male or female, if
without blemish, might be used, as both of them were equally good for
food, and, if the circumstances of the offerer allowed it, it might
be a calf.

**2. he shall lay his hand upon the
head of his offering**—Having performed this significant act, he
killed it before the door of the tabernacle, and the priests
sprinkled the blood round about upon the altar.

**3. he shall offer of the sacrifice
of the peace offering**—The peace offering differed from the
oblations formerly mentioned in this respect: while the burnt
offering was wholly consumed on the altar, and the freewill offering
was partly consumed and partly assigned to the priests; in this
offering the fat alone was burnt; only a small part was allotted to
the priests while the rest was granted to the offerer and his
friends, thus forming a sacred feast of which the Lord, His priests,
and people conjointly partook, and which was symbolical of the
spiritual feast, the sacred communion which, through Christ, the
great peace offering, believers enjoy. (See further on [Leviticus 19:5-8](../../../kjv/leviticus/19/5-8);
[Leviticus 22:21](../../../kjv/leviticus/22/21)).
**the fat that covereth the
inwards**—that is, the web work that presents itself first to the
eye on opening the belly of a cow.
**the fat . . . upon the
inwards**—adhering to the intestines, but easily removable from
them; or, according to some, that which was next the ventricle.

**4-11. the two kidneys . . . of the
flock . . . the whole rump**—There is, in Eastern countries, a
species of sheep the tails of which are not less than four feet and a
half in length. These tails are of a substance between fat and
marrow. A sheep of this kind weighs sixty or seventy English pounds
weight, of which the tail usually weighs fifteen pounds and upwards.
This species is by far the most numerous in Arabia, Syria, and
Palestine, and, forming probably a large portion in the flocks of the
Israelites, it seems to have been the kind that usually bled on the
Jewish altars. The extraordinary size and deliciousness of their
tails give additional importance to this law. To command by an
express law the tail of a certain sheep to be offered in sacrifice to
God, might well surprise us; but the wonder ceases, when we are told
of those broad-tailed Eastern sheep, and of the extreme delicacy of
that part which was so particularly specified in the statute
[PAXTON].

**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.

**17. ye eat neither fat nor blood**—The
details given above distinctly define the fat in animals which was
not to be eaten, so that all the rest, whatever adhered to other
parts, or was intermixed with them, might be used. The prohibition of
blood rested on a different foundation, being intended to preserve
their reverence for the Messiah, who was to shed His blood as an
stoning sacrifice for the sins of the world [BROWN].

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