Leviticuschapter 3
17 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
The third offering is the one that ends in a meal shared by the altar, the priest and the family that brought it. It was given to households who kept cattle, sheep and goats and seldom ate meat outside a feast. Its instructions are brief and exact, and most of them concern which parts of the animal belong to God. Listen for the portion claimed from every kind of animal, for the altar spoken of as a table, and for the last rule, which follows every Israelite home to his tent. It shows worship and fellowship held together in one act.
Context
- Who
- Israelite households who would take meat home from an offering, and who kept flocks of the broad tailed sheep of that country
- What
- Instruction for the peace offering from the herd or the flock, whose fat is burned on the altar and whose meat is shared.
- Where
- The tabernacle courtyard at Sinai, and the family tents of the camp where the meat was eaten.
- When
- About 1445 BC on the traditional dating, at Sinai in the first month of the second year after the Exodus, while other scholars date the writing of the priestly laws later.
- Why
- To give Israel an offering that ended in a meal, with God, the priest and the household each receiving a part.
Historical context
The speech is still the LORD's to Moses for the Israelites. The chapter gives the peace offering, and it takes a bull at verse 1, a sheep at verse 6 and a goat at verse 12.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
What separates this sacrifice from the others is stated later at 7:15, where the meat goes back to the household that brought it. This is the one offering an ordinary family ate from.
A first hearer would have known the sheep of verse 9 by sight. The broad tailed sheep kept in that region carries a tail heavy with fat, and the law claims the whole of it, cut off close to the backbone.
Fat was reckoned the best part of an animal, so the portion a family would most want is the portion the altar takes. Verse 11 calls the burned part food, and Leviticus 21:6 calls the same thing the food of their God, which gives the altar the shape of a table.
Verse 17 carries the rule out of the sanctuary and into the house, since wherever you live puts it in every kitchen in Israel.
Significance
This was the sacrifice that ended in a meal. A household brought an animal, the altar took the fat, the priest took his portion, and the family ate the rest, so worship and dinner were the same occasion.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The closing statute reached further into daily life than anything else in these chapters. Fat and blood were barred from every table in Israel, and the ban was repeated at 7:23 to 7:27 and again at 17:10 to 17:14.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The peace offering was the one offering the giver ate. Rashi explains the name from the peace it brings into the world. He carries a second reading in which the altar, the priests and the owners each receive a portion (Rashi on Leviticus 3:1:1). He is quoted from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain. The priest threw the blood from a vessel, twice, so that it met the four sides of the altar (Rashi on Leviticus 3:8:1). Only the blood of the sin offering was applied with the finger (Rashi on Leviticus 3:8:1). The daily burnt offering was laid on the woodpile before any other sacrifice, so this offering went on above it (Rashi on Leviticus 3:5:1). The fat named in the chapter and the blood were held back from the giver as a lasting statute. Rashi sends the reader to Sifra for the whole of that verse (Rashi on Leviticus 3:17:1). No peace offering has been brought since the Temple fell in AD 70, a break this site records on its feasts layer (src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts).
How it is read
Most of the reading here is technical, and the tradition treats it as a surgeon treats an anatomy. Rashi identifies the fat above the kidneys by where it sits on a living animal, and gives its name in the French of his own day (Rashi on Leviticus 3:4:1). He identifies the lobe of the liver by its Aramaic name (Rashi on Leviticus 3:4:2). Two rabbis differ over how far the command reaches. Rabbi Ishmael read the repeated words as including the fat on the maw, and Rabbi Akiva as including only the fat on the gut (Rashi on Leviticus 3:3:1). Rashi explains why the lamb and the goat are given separate paragraphs here. The fat tail is offered from the lamb and has no counterpart in the goat (Rashi on Leviticus 3:7:1). He reads the word for the choicest part as the fat tail itself (Rashi on Leviticus 3:9:1). He reads the word for food in the eleventh verse as any food, proved from its use in Jeremiah, Daniel and Ecclesiastes (Rashi on Leviticus 3:11:2).
Ramban is quoted here from the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, 1971 to 1976, which the corpus marks CC-BY. He reads the three verbs of burning across the chapter as three separate rulings from Torath Kohanim. The first covers an offering that is fit rather than one disqualified. The second holds that the priest "should not mix the fats of one offering with those of another". The third holds "that he should burn them all at one time" (Ramban on Leviticus 3:5:1). On the goat he argues that the Hebrew names of animals are loose, and that the word used here covers male and female alike (Ramban on Leviticus 3:12:1). He reports that Onkelos rendered the phrase as the species of the goats, and he sets his own view beside Ibn Ezra's (Ramban on Leviticus 3:12:1).
Ibn Ezra stands on the first, twelfth and sixteenth verses, and the corpus keeps no text of him because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit it (Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 3:1:1, 3:12:1 and 3:16:1). Malbim stands seven times in this chapter, and Sefaria holds no English version of any of them (Malbim on Leviticus, Vayikra 161:1, 165:1, 176:1, 179:1, 186:1, 188:1 and 189:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty Midrash and Talmud locators on this chapter and the text of none of them. Each is cited here rather than quoted, and what each teaches is reported as the teaching of the rabbis.
Twenty nine of them are Talmudic, and they gather where the chapter is most exact. Chullin carries nine. Three stand on the fat of the inwards, at 49a:20, 49b:2 and 50a:4, and one on the fat of the flanks, at 93a:1. Three stand on the fat tail and the ban, at 117a:5, 117a:7 and 117a:9, and two on the last verse, at 37a:11 and 120a:17. Bekhorot carries four, at 15b:3, 42a:3 and 61a:5 on the animal offered and at 39a:18 on the kidneys. Menachot carries four, at 83b:2, 83b:3, 89b:5 and 93b:4. The Jerusalem Talmud carries six, at Pesachim 5:2:10 and 5:10:2, Shekalim 2:4:3 and 4:1:3, and Shevuot 4:2:2 and 4:6:2. Arakhin stands twice on the second verse, at 2a:14 and 2a:16, and Kiddushin twice, at 36a:20 and 57b:14. Megillah 20b:8 and Keritot 23b:5 close the Talmudic list.
Eleven midrashic locators run beside them. Midrash Lekach Tov carries five, at Leviticus 3:5:1, 3:7:1, 3:8:1, 3:10:1 and 3:14:1. Midrash Tanchuma Buber carries two, at Shemot 24:1 and Balak 29:1. The others are Bamidbar Rabbah 10:21, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai, Additions 3:1, Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura DeNedavah, Chapter 20 2, and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 696:2.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 3:1:1 to 3:17:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Leviticus 3:5:1 and 3:12:1, the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 3:1:1, 3:12:1 and 3:16:1, cited by ref because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit the text; Malbim, Malbim on Leviticus, Vayikra 161:1, 165:1, 176:1, 179:1, 186:1, 188:1 and 189:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; MannaFest, the feasts layer, src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts, on the Temple's fall in AD 70; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/leviticus/3.json, the 40 Midrash and Talmud locators of this chapter.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A peace offering from the herd
Leviticus 3:1-2
Male or female is accepted here, where the burnt offering of 1:3 required a male. The hand on the head, the slaughter at the entrance and the blood on all sides of the altar follow chapter 1. What sets this sacrifice apart comes at 7:15, where the meat must be eaten on the day he offers it, so this is the one offering the offerer eats from.
Leviticus 3:1
“And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering,.... The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render it, the "sacrifice of holinesses", or "sanctifications"; so called, not because they were more holy than other sacrifices; for they were what the Jews (c) call the lighter holy things, in distinction from the most holy things, such as the meat offerings were, Lev 2:10 but as Ainsworth suggests, either because none but holy persons might eat of them, Lev 7:19 though this also was enjoined in other sacrifices, or because hereby the name of God was sanctified.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Leviticus 3:1
“The peace-offering (like the burnt-offering, Lev 1:3, and the Minchah, Lev 2:1) is here spoken of as if it was familiarly known before the giving of the Law. “Peace-offering” seems preferable to “thank-offering,” which occurs in several places in the margin of our Bible. “thank-offering” appears to be the right name for a subordinate class of peace-offering.”
John Wesley gives two reasons for killing the peace offering at the entrance, that the offerer waved part of it himself at 7:30 and that this offering was less holy than those eaten only by priests. Adam Clarke quotes Ainsworth, who reads the three offerings in turn as reconciliation, sanctification, and Christ made our peace together with our offering of praise.
Leviticus 3:2
Lay his hand upon the head of his offering - See this rite explained in Exo 29:10 (note), and Lev 1:4 (note). “As the burnt-offering, (Leviticus 1).,” says Mr. Ainsworth, “figured our reconciliation to God by the death of Christ, and the meat-offering, (Leviticus 2)., our sanctification in him before God, so this peace-offering signified both Christ’s oblation of himself whereby he became our peace and salvation, (Eph 2:14-16; Act 13:47; Heb 5:9; Heb 9:28), and our oblation of praise, thanksgiving, and prayer unto God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 3:2
“And the reason of this difference is not obscure, both because part of this sacrifice was to be waved by the hands of the offerer, chap. vii, 30, who might not come into the court; and because this offering was not so holy as the others, which were to be eaten only by the priest, whereas part of these were eaten by the offerer.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 3:3-5
The parts claimed are inward parts nobody sees: the fat that covers the entrails, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the lobe of the liver. Verse 5 burns them atop the burnt offering that is on the burning wood, so the peace offering goes onto a fire the daily offering lit. It is called a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
Leviticus 3:3
“The fat that covereth the inwards” refers to the caul or transparent membrane which has upon it a network of fatty tissue: “the fat upon the inwards” refers to the small lumps of suet found upon the intestines of healthy animals.
The kidneys and the fat near the loins come away together, and the lobe of the liver is removed with them. Albert Barnes takes this part, called the caul above the liver in older versions, to be the membrane covering the upper part of the liver. Leviticus 4:9 claims the same portions from the bull of the sin offering.
Leviticus 3:4
“The caul above the liver - Probably the membrane covering the upper part of the liver.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 3:4
“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].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
John Wesley explains the order, that the daily burnt offering went on first because it was for atonement, and he holds that without atonement no peace offering was accepted. Adam Clarke notes that the fat was reckoned the most valuable part of the animal, which is why it was the part given to the altar.
Leviticus 3:5
“Aaron’s sons shall burn it - As the fat was deemed the most valuable part of the animal, it was offered in preference to all other parts; and the heathens probably borrowed this custom from the Jews, for they burnt the omentum or caul in honor of their gods.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 3:5
“After it; for the daily burnt-offering was first to be offered, both as more eminently respecting God's honour; and as the most solemn and stated sacrifice, which should take place of all occasional oblations, and as a sacrifice of an higher nature, being for atonement, without which no peace could be obtained, nor peace offering offered with acceptance.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
A lamb laid on the burning wood
Leviticus 3:6-8
The same rite runs again for a sheep, and the text writes it out in full rather than saying as before. Nothing changes in the hand on the head, the place of killing or the blood on the altar. A man who can bring a bullock and a man who can bring one lamb are given identical words, and the animal is the only thing that differs between them.
Leviticus 3:6
“And if his offering, for a sacrifice of peace offering unto Lord, be of the flock,.... As it might be: and be either male or female; which he pleased: he shall offer it without blemish; See Gill on Lev 3:1.”
Verse 6 named the flock, and verse 7 takes the lamb as its first case, with the goat following at verse 12. John Gill records the rule of Maimonides that this word for lamb means an animal in its first year. Presenting it before the LORD meant, in Gill's account, bringing it into the court and handing it to the priest.
Leviticus 3:7
“If he offer a lamb for his offering,.... Which was of the flock, and must be of the first year; this is a rule laid down by Maimonides (i), that where ever this word is used in the law, it signifies one of the first year: then shall he offer it before the Lord; bring it into the court, and present it to the priest. (i) Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 1. sect. 14.”
The offerer lays on his hand and kills the lamb in front of the Tent of Meeting, and the priests sprinkle its blood on the altar. John Gill cites the Targum of Jonathan, which adds that the offerer laid on his right hand with strength. He also cites Gersom, who held that any part of the court served for the killing.
Leviticus 3:8
“And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds here, as before,"his right hand with strength:" and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; in the court, in any part of it; for, as Gersom says, all places were right for this; the man that brought it killed it, or the butcher, as the Targum of Jonathan says here also as on Lev 3:2, and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar; upon the four horns of it; see Gill on Lev 3:2.”
Leviticus 3:9-11
The sheep yields one part the bull did not, the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone. Broad-tailed sheep of that country carry a tail weighted with fat, and the law claims it whole. Verse 11 calls the burnt portion food, and Leviticus 21:6 calls those offerings the food of their God, which gives the altar the shape of a table.
Leviticus 3:9
“The whole rump - The whole fat tail: i. e., the tail of the kind of sheep well known in the East, and often weighing 15 lbs. and even as much as 50 lbs., when the sheep has been increased by artificial fattening.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 3:9
“And by the precept of the law, the tail of the victim is commanded to be offered in sacrifice. In the tail, of course, is the end of the body; and he sacrifices well who brings the sacrifice of a good work to the end of the required action.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · 40 Homilies on the Gospels (Homily 25)patristic
After the fat tail, the list returns to the parts already named for the bull at verse 4, the two kidneys, the fat near the loins and the lobe of the liver. John Gill notes that the direction is the same as for the bull of the peace offering. The sheep adds one portion to the list and keeps every other.
Leviticus 3:10
“And the two kidneys,.... The same direction is given here as about the bullock of the peace offering; see Gill on Lev 3:4.”
Adam Clarke explains the word food by the picture of God feasting with His people on their sacrifices, and he compares Deuteronomy 32:38, where the gods of the nations ate the fat of their sacrifices. John Gill lists what the priest burns here, the fat of the tail and of the inward parts, both kidneys and the covering of the liver.
Leviticus 3:11
“And the priest shall burn it upon the altar,.... The fat of the tail, of the inwards, the two kidneys, and the caul of the liver: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord; or "bread"; this part of the offering that was burnt belonged to the Lord; it was his food, and what was accepted of by him, and therefore is elsewhere called the bread of God, Lev 21:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 3:11
“It is the food of the offering - We have already remarked that God is frequently represented as feasting with his people on the sacrifices they offered; and because these sacrifices were consumed by that fire which was kindled from heaven, therefore they were considered as the food of that fire, or rather of the Divine Being who was represented by it. “In the same idiom of speech,” says Dodd, “the gods of the heathens are said, Deu 32:38, to eat the fat and drink the wine which were consumed on their altars.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A goat, and all the fat is God's
Leviticus 3:12-13
A goat is the third animal named and the cheapest of the three. Birds are received for the burnt offering at 1:14 and from the poor for the sin offering at 5:7, and no bird appears anywhere in this chapter. Commentators tie the omission to the meal that follows, since a bird furnishes no feast for a household, and the chapter itself gives no reason.
Leviticus 3:12
“See Lev 1:10 note. Birds were not accepted as peace-offerings, most probably because they were, by themselves, insufficient to make up a sacrificial meal.”
The goat is handled as the bull and the lamb were, with the offerer's hand on its head, the killing in front of the Tent of Meeting and the blood sprinkled on all sides of the altar. John Gill notes the right hand named by the Targum of Jonathan and says the directions match those for the bull and the lamb.
Leviticus 3:13
“And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it,.... His right hand, according to the Targum of Jonathan, as before; the same directions are given for the killing of it, and for the sprinkling of its blood, as in the offerings of the bullock and lamb.”
Leviticus 3:14-16
The goat's list drops the tail, since a goat's tail carries no fat worth burning, and everything else stands as before. Verse 16 closes all three cases in one sentence, that all the fat is the LORD'S. Fat was reckoned the best of the animal, so the portion a man would most want is the portion he never receives.
Leviticus 3:14
“And he shall offer thereof his offering,.... The same rules are laid down about taking the fat off of several parts as in the sacrifice of the bullock; but nothing is said of the fat of the rump and tail, as is said of the lamb.”
The goat's list repeats verses 4 and 10 word for word, so all three animals give the same kidneys, loin fat and lobe of the liver. John Gill, at verse 14, notes that the rules for taking off the fat are the same for the goat as for the bull. Leviticus 4:9 later claims these same parts from the sin offering.
John Wesley limits the words all the fat to animals that could be offered in sacrifice, following 7:23 and 7:25, where the ban falls on the fat of an ox, a sheep or a goat. Albert Barnes reads food and pleasing aroma as figures drawn from taste and smell for the Lord's acceptance of the true worship of the heart.
Leviticus 3:16
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
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 - This is to be limited, 1. To those beasts, which were offered or offerable in sacrifice, as it is explained, chap. vii, 23, 25.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
A lasting rule: no fat, no bloodv. 17
The rule walks out of the sanctuary into the house, because wherever you live puts it in every kitchen in Israel. It is repeated at 7:23-27 and 17:10-14, and 17:11 gives the blood half its reason, the life of the flesh is in the blood, while the fat is given none. Acts 15:20 and 15:29 carry the blood rule into the first council of the church.
Leviticus 3:17
“Blood - See Lev 17:11 note. Throughout all your dwellings - The suet was neither to be eaten in sacrificial meals in the sanctuary, nor in ordinary meals in private houses.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 3:17
“Blood - Was forbidden partly to maintain reverence to God and his worship; partly out of opposition to idolaters, who used to drink the blood of their sacrifices; partly with respect to Christ's Blood, thereby manifestly signified.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Ritual instruction, the law of a shared sacrifice set out for three animals and closed by a standing statute, as law classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The three animals written out in full | The herd at verse 1, a sheep at verse 7 and a goat at verse 12. The text writes each rite out rather than saying it is done as before, so a man who brings a bull and a man who brings one lamb are given identical words.Counted for this lane over the store's Berean Standard Bible rows for Leviticus, 19 September 2026, Berean Standard Bible, Leviticus, read from the store. | Leviticus 3:1, Leviticus 3:7, Leviticus 3:12 |
| The same fat claimed three times | The fat covering the entrails, the two kidneys with the fat near the loins, and the lobe of the liver are named at verses 3 and 4. The same list returns at verses 9 and 10, and again at verses 14 and 15. The list holds across all three animals.Counted for this lane over the store's Berean Standard Bible rows for Leviticus, 19 September 2026, Berean Standard Bible, Leviticus, read from the store. | Leviticus 3:3, Leviticus 3:9, Leviticus 3:14 |
| The sentence that closes all three cases at once | Verse 16 gathers the three panels into one line, that all the fat is the LORD's. Verse 17 then carries the rule out of the sanctuary and into every dwelling.Counted for this lane over the store's Berean Standard Bible rows for Leviticus, 19 September 2026, Berean Standard Bible, Leviticus, read from the store. | Leviticus 3:16, Leviticus 3:17 |
The altar given the shape of a table
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 11 calls the burned portion food, an offering made by fire to the LORD. Leviticus 21:6 calls the same thing the food of their God. The vocabulary of eating runs through a rite in which the offerer also eats, so the shared meal of 7:15 has language prepared for it here.
The statute that walks into the house
Verse 17 is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live, and those last words put it in every kitchen in Israel. It is repeated at 7:23 to 7:27 and again at 17:10 to 17:14. The blood half of it is given a reason at 17:11, that the life of the flesh is in the blood. The fat is given no reason anywhere in the book, and this study carries that silence as a gap.
The New Testament's use
Acts 15:20 and 15:29 carry the blood rule into the decision of the first council of the church. That is worth knowing where a reader assumes every rule in Leviticus stopped at the cross. The fat rule is not carried over in those verses, and the council names blood and things strangled without naming fat.
Where the chapter reaches
This site's published dossier carries the peace offering under the heading The Peace Offering: a shared meal with God. It reads the sacrifice eaten in part by the altar, in part by the priest and in part by the offerer's household as a pattern of fellowship secured at a table. The dossier sets the Last Supper beside it.
The counted formula
The phrase rendered a pleasing aroma falls twice in this chapter, at verses 5 and 16. Counted over the store's Berean rows on 19 September 2026, it stands in seventeen verses of Leviticus in all.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
The store's published exposition note on Leviticus 3:1 to 2, MannaFest exposition of Leviticus 3, citing Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, and Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; The text's own law of the peace offering, Leviticus 7:15, Berean Standard Bible, read from the store and This site's published filing of Leviticus among the books of the law, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry Leviticus: law.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.