Leviticus 22:27
in Leviticus 22“When an ox, a sheep, or a goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made by fire to the LORD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for the oblation of an offering made by fire unto Jehovah.
KJV
When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
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This verse in Leviticus 22
Commentary
6 notes on this verseScripture says, "At least grant the offspring to its mother for its first seven days." For if nothing comes to be without reason and milk flows in the mothers for the nourishment of the offspring, then in taking the offspring away from the providential endowment of the milk, a person is doing violence to nature. So Greeks and anyone else who runs the law down ought to blush for shame if the law is generous over irrational beasts. Yet some people actually expose human offspring to abortive death.
This site's exposition
LORD spake unto Moses, saying
on Leviticus 22:26-30
The third speech turns from an animal's fitness to its life. A newborn stays seven days under the dam and is accepted from the eighth, the day Exodus 22:30 names and the day a son is circumcised at Genesis 17:12, and a cow or ewe may not be killed with her young in one day. Leviticus gives no reason for that second rule, and the writers who reach for one reach across to Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 22:6, where the same care for a mother and her young stands without explanation there either. The thanksgiving offering of verses 29 and 30 is eaten on the day it is brought, as 7:15 already required, so none of it is carried into the morning.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The Jews say, "It was because the sabbath sanctifies all things, and nothing should be offered to God till at least one sabbath had passed over it." It was in conformity to the law of circumcision, which children were to receive on the eighth day. Christ was sacrificed for us, not in his infancy, though then Herod sought to slay him, but in the prime of his time.
When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
No victim was to be offered in sacrifice until it was a week old. The meaning of this law appears to be that the animal should realise a distinct existence in becoming less dependent on its mother, and able to provide for its own wants.
When a bullock - is brought forth - This is a most unfortunate as well as absurd translation. The creature called an ox is a bull castrated; surely then a bullock was never yet brought forth! The original word שור shor signifies a bull, a bullock, or indeed any thing of the neat kind: here, even common sense required that it should be translated calf; and did I not hold myself sacredly bound to print the text of the common version with scrupulous exactness, I should translate the former clause of this verse thus, and so enter it into the text: When a Calf, or a Lamb, or a Kid is brought forth, instead of, When a bullock, a sheep, or a goat is brought forth, the absurdity of which is glaring. Seven days under the dam - In vindication of the propriety of this precept it may be justly asserted, that the flesh of very young animals is comparatively innutritive, and that animal food is not sufficiently nourishing and wholesome till the animal has arrived at a certain growth, or acquired the perfection of its nature. There is something brutish in eating the young of beast or fowl before the hair and hoofs are perfect in the one, and the feathers and claws in the other. Before this period their flesh is not good for food. See the note on Lev 9:1.
The words behind it
19 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שׁ֣וֹר | shor | an ox | H7794 → | 79 times |
| אוֹ־ | ʾov- | or | H176 → | 321 times |
| כֶ֤שֶׂב | khesev | a young ram | H3775 → | 13 times |
| אוֹ־ | ʾov- | or | H176 → | 321 times |
| עֵז֙ | ʾez | a goat | H5795 → | 74 times |
| כִּ֣י | ki | if | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יִוָּלֵ֔ד | yivaled | it will be born | H3205 → | 496 times |
| וְהָיָ֛ה | vehayah | and it will be | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| שִׁבְעַ֥ת | shivat | seven | H7651 → | 394 times |
| יָמִ֖ים | yamim | days | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| תַּ֣חַת | tachat | under | H8478 → | 505 times |
| אִמּ֑וֹ | ʾimo | mother its | H517 → | 220 times |
| וּמִיּ֤וֹם | umiyom | and from [the] day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| הַשְּׁמִינִי֙ | hashemini | <the> eighth | H8066 → | 28 times |
| וָהָ֔לְאָה | vahalah | and onwards | H1973 → | |
| יֵרָצֶ֕ה | yeratzeh | it will be accepted | H7521 → | 56 times |
| לְקָרְבַּ֥ן | lekarban | to a present of | H7133 → | 82 times |
| אִשֶּׁ֖ה | ʾisheh | a fire offering | H801 → | 65 times |
| לַיהוָֽה׃ | layahweh | to Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
שׁ֣וֹרan ox
shorH7794 →79 times
אוֹ־or
ʾov-H176 →321 times
כֶ֤שֶׂבa young ram
khesevH3775 →13 times
אוֹ־or
ʾov-H176 →321 times
עֵז֙a goat
ʾezH5795 →74 times
כִּ֣יif
kiH3588 →4482 times
יִוָּלֵ֔דit will be born
yivaledH3205 →496 times
וְהָיָ֛הand it will be
vehayahH1961 →3559 times
שִׁבְעַ֥תseven
shivatH7651 →394 times
יָמִ֖יםdays
yamimH3117 →2304 times
תַּ֣חַתunder
tachatH8478 →505 times
אִמּ֑וֹmother its
ʾimoH517 →220 times
וּמִיּ֤וֹםand from [the] day
umiyomH3117 →2304 times
הַשְּׁמִינִי֙<the> eighth
hasheminiH8066 →28 times
וָהָ֔לְאָהand onwards
vahalahH1973 →
יֵרָצֶ֕הit will be accepted
yeratzehH7521 →56 times
לְקָרְבַּ֥ןto a present of
lekarbanH7133 →82 times
אִשֶּׁ֖הa fire offering
ʾishehH801 →65 times
לַיהוָֽה׃to Yahweh
layahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 22:30You shall do likewise with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but on the eighth day you are to give them to Me.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 15:19
You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to…
- Leviticus 12:3
And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised.
- Exodus 13:12
you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 15:19
Through
Leviticus 22:25Neither you nor a foreigner shall present food to your God from any such animal. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and flawed.’”
it leads to
- Malachi 1:12–14
“But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’
- Numbers 15:14–16
And for the generations to come, if a foreigner residing with you or someone else among you wants to prepare an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he is…
- Leviticus 21:6
They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the offerings made by fire, the food of their God, they must be…
- Leviticus 21:8
You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy—I who set you apart.
- Ephesians 2:12
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- Malachi 1:12–14
About Leviticus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata Book 2; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.