The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 70

pancake), "·ith oil, salt, and frankincense; derived from the nctim being enriched or (3) roasted grains, with oil, salt, and (magis auctus) with the libation of wine. rrankincense. 2. He must bring his offer- Thus we see tho.t the offering of the fruits ing to the court of the tabernacle, and give of the earth was regarded, elsewhere e.s well to the priests at least as much as one omer as in J udree., as the nature.I concomitant of (t.hat is, nearly a gallon), and not more than an animal eacl"ifice, and not only that, but sixty-one omers. The priest receiving it as so essential a po.rt of the latter e.e to have from him must: I. Take a haudful of the given a name to the whole ceremony, and flour, oil, and salt, or a proportionate part not only to the whole ceremony, hut t.o the of the cake (each omer generally made ten specific a.et of the elo.ughter of the victim. Mkes) in place of the flour, and burn it with The thought of the heathen in offering the :,II the frankincense as a memorial upon the fruits of the earth was probably not much. :1 Itar of burnt offering. 2. With his brother different from that of the Israelites. It was priests he must eat the remainder within his gift t.o the superhuman power, to which the precincts of the tabernacle. Here the he thus e.clmowledged that he owed sub- essentials of the sacrifice are the presenta- mission. We may further notice that so.It tion made by the offerer, and the burning of we.e enjoined in the heathen as in the Jewish. the memorial on· the altar, followed by the sacrifices as indispeneo.ble. Pliny says that consumption of the remainder by the priests. the importance of so.It is seen especially in The moral lesson taught to the Israelite sacrifices, none of which are completed completed that of the burnt offering. As the without the salt-cake (' Hist. Nat.,' 31, 7) burnt offering taught self-surrender, so the The now obsolete use of the word " meat " meat offering taught recognition of God's in the sense of" food," in contra.et to " flesh,'• supremacy and submission to it, the first by creates some confusion of thought. "Fruit the surrender of e. living creature substi- offering" would be e. better title, were it not tuted for the offerer, the second by the gift that the signification of "fruit" is going of o. part of the good things bestowed by God through a similar change to that which on man for the preservation of life which, " meat" he.a undergone. "Flour offering" being given back to God, serve as a might be used, but an a.Iteration in the recognition of hie supremacy. Spiritually rendering is not imperative. the lesson tanght the Jew was that of the Ver. 2.-:e:e shall take theraout his hand- necessity of a loyal service to God; and ful. Thie we.a the task of the priest. The mystically he may have learnt e. lesson (I) handful that he took and burnt upon 11.11 to the force of prayer rising up to heaven the altar has the technical and significative as the incense which had to be offered name of the memorial. It acted e.e a -with each form of the meat offering ; (2) memorial before God, in the ea.me way as as to the need of purity and incorruption, Cornelius's prayers and alms-" Thy prayers symbolized by the prohibition of leaven and thine alms are come up for e. memo- and honey, and the command to UBe so.It. rial before God" (Acts x. 4)-being some- The supplemental character of the meat thing which should ea.use God to think offering accounts for the order in which it graciously of the offerer. The fra.nkinoense is here stands, not arbitrarily interposed be- not mixed with the flour and the oil e.ud tween two animal sacrifices, but naturally the ea.It, as e. constituent element of the following on the burnt offering, as an ad- offering, but is placed upon them, and is all junct to it and the complement of its teach• of it burnt in "the memorial," symbolizing ing. So close was the union between the the need of adding prayer to sacrifice, the., two sacrifices, that the burnt offering was the latter may be acceptable to God. never offered without the e.ccompe.niment of Ver. 3.-The remnant of the meat oft'ering the meat offering (Numb. xv. 4). It has shall be Aaron's and his sons'. The meat been also maintained that the meat offering, offerings must have gone far to supply the like the drink offering, was never made priests with farinaceous fooil, as, for every independently of the animal sacrifice; but handful of flour burnt on the altar, nearly this cannot be proved. On the contrary, the e. gallon went to the priests. They ho.d to manner in which laws regulating it a.re here eat it within the precincts of the taberno.cle, la.id down, lead to the inference that it might as we.a the case with all meats tho.t were be offered, when any willed it, by itself. most lwly, viz. the minchahs, the sbew- The close connection between the eacrilice bread, and the flesh of the sin offering and of an animal and the offering of cakes of of the trespo.ss offering (eh. x. 12). Other flour, and of wine, is noticeable in heathen meats assigned to the prie11ts might be ea.ten sacrifices likewise. The very word, immo- in any cleo.n place (eh. x. 14). The priests• lare, translated "to sacrifice," is derived from own meo.t offerings were wholly burnt (oh. the mol,a, or salt-cake offered with the animal; vi. 23). and the other word ordinarily used in Vere. 4-11.-The second form of meo.t !,a.tin for "sacrifice," that is, mactaTe, is offering, when the 1lmu e.nd oil were ma.de up <IH. lL 1-16,] THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 25