PEACE-OFFERIXG
853
PEACOCK
but they were expressly prescribed at the Feast of Pen- tecost (the young lambs, Lev. xxiii, 19). Private peace- offerings were the result of free impulse (nn"!?), or in fulfilment of a vow (Lev. vii, IG; xxii, 21; Numb, xv, 8), so regularly at the expiration of a Nazaritish vow (Numb, vi, 14), and were often determined upon in con- sequence of a special favor received from Jehovah (thanJ:- offerinr/, fully C^^bd fTlin ri2t, or more briefly minri nst, or simply n^Tn,.3'y(T('a aiytfftwc, Lev. vii, 12; xxii, 29). The festivals were honored by peace- offerings (Numb, x, 10; 2 Chron. xxx, 22). Solomon arranged three times a year a sacrificial festival of burnt -offerings and drink-offerings (I Kings ix, 25). All peace-offerings were to be presented with imposi- tion of hands (Lev. iii, 2; viii, 13); only the fat parts (which in the case of cattle and goats consisted of the fat covering the inwards [omentum], all the fat of the inwards [between them], the kidneys with the fat con- nected with them [leaf-fat], the fat on the thigh-mus- cles, and finally the large lube of the liver; in the case of a lamb, of the fat tail ["rump"] and the inside fat; see Josephus, Anf. iii, 9, 2; comp. btihr. Symbol, iii, 353 sq.) were burned on the altar (Lev. iii, 3 sq., 9 sq., 14 sq. ; comp^iv, 9 sq., 26; vi, 12; Amos v, 22), and the blood was sprinkled around the altar (Lev. iii, 2 ; vii, 14; ix, 18; xvii, 6; 2 Kings xvi, 13). The remainder of the tiesh belonged, in the peace-offerings of the Pen- tecost and the other public occasions, to the priests (Lev. xxiii, 20) ; in the case of private offerings, the priests were entitled to the breast and shoulder (Numb. vi,20; comp. Exod. xxix, 27 ; Lev. vii, 31; x, 14), which were the heave-offering and the wave-offering (Lev. vii, 30, 34 ; ix, 21 ; Numb, vi, 20), and the rest was used by the offerer in joyfid meals at the sanctuarj' (Lev. xix, 6 sq. ; xxii, 30; Deut. xii, 17 sq. ; xxvii, 7; comp. Jer. xxxiii, 11). Yet the whole nuist be consumed in the case of thank-offerings on the same day (Lev. vii, 15; xxii, 29), or in other cases at farthest on the second day (Lev. vii, 16 sq. ; comp. xix, 6) ; if anything re- mained on the third day it was to be burned. The reason of this last prescription is not to be sought so much in the intention of the lawgiver to set a limit to the feasting, as in the design that the flesh of the offer- ing, instead of being dried and preserved (comp. Kosen- miiller, Morgenl. iii, 159), should really be employed for the meals at the time. Biihr {Sijmbol. ii, 374 sq.) has not fairly met the point, since putrefaction, which he assigns as the ground of the objection to the retention to the third day (b?lSQ, Lev. vii, 18; xix, 7), might be obviated in the mode suggested, as in the modern East. A special rule respecting thank-offerings proper was that, in addition to a slice of leavened dough, unleaven- ed sacrificial cakes (see on the contrary Amos iv, 5) must be presented, of which, however, only one be- longed to Jehovah, while the remainder went to the priest (Lev. vii, 12 sq.). But these cakes were depos- ited in a basket only in the peace-offerings attendant upon a Nazaritish vow (Numb, vi, 15 sq.). The Mishna adds but little to the Biblical ordinances. The Pente- costal peace-offerings were reckoned among the most sacred offerings, in comparison with which all the other pacijica are of trifling esteem. The pieces of the tiesh (cooked or roasted) might be eaten anywhere in the Holy Cit}', and in the enjoyment of the portions of the offering allotted to the priests, their wives, children, and slaves also might share (see Zehach. v, 5 sq.). The quantity of meal to be used in making the thank-offer- ing cakes is prescribed (^Menach. vii, 1). See Offeu-
ING.
The S'i'Cp'Cj were, according to etymology and defi- nition, compensation offerinr/s (from Qs'^, to requite'), i. e. such as, so to speak, repaid Jehovah by way of thanks, praise, or vow, and hence had (especially in the repasts which were peculiar to these sacrifices, Josephus, Ant. iii, 9, 1) the character of cheerfulness and joy (see 1
Sam. xi, 15 ; comp. Biihr, Symbol, ii, 368 sq.). This sig- nification, however, as a token of gratitude, sometimes becomes obscure (1 Sam. xiii, 9), and occasionally dis- appears altogether (ludg. XX, 26; xxi,4; 2 Sam. xxiv, 25). In the first instance, just cited, the offering in question was jjresented before a military undertaking; in the three others it followed a public calamity. The twofold import of the n''^5"d is reconciled by the state- ment of Philo {Opii. ii, 244) and the Rabbins (see Ou- tram, De Sucrif. p. 108), that thej' were offered for a deliverance to be obtained, as well as for one already secured ; and thus the Israelitish sj'Stem of offerings did not \sic\\ precatory sacrifices. But that the last-named character altogether belonged to the '^'^'i "'TIpTIJ and iTliri "^^s'CT, is not onl}^ improbable from the nature of the case, but also from the signification of the term ri^in, thank-offeriny, itself, although in some instances (as 2 Sara, xxiv, 25) the peace-offering had that signif- icance. On the other hand, the other passages cited above, in which D'i''C5T:; were offered after a public mis- fortune, are explainable upon no theory of this kind of sacrifice hitherto adduced, and we are left to conclude that they were irregularly introduced during the ritual confusion of the period of the Judges. See generally Reland, Antiq. Sacr. p. 317 sq. ; Outram, De Sacrif. I, ii ; Scholl, in the Stud. d. Wiirtemb. Geistl.Y, i, 108 sq.— Winer, i, 247. See Thank-offeking.