Leviticus 22:19

22:1-33 Laws concerning the priests and sacrifices. - In this chapter we have divers laws concerning the priests and sacrifices, all for preserving the honour of the sanctuary. Let us recollect with gratitude that our great High Priest cannot be hindered by any thing from the discharge of his office. Let us also remember, that the Lord requires us to reverence his name, his truths, his ordinances, and commandments. Let us beware of hypocrisy, and examine ourselves concerning our sinful defilements, seeking to be purified from them in the blood of Christ, and by his sanctifying Spirit. Whoever attempts to expiate his own sin, or draws near in the pride of self-righteousness, puts as great an affront on Christ, as he who comes to the Lord's table from the gratification of sinful lusts. Nor can the minister who loves the souls of the people, suffer them to continue in this dangerous delusion. He must call upon them, not only to repent of their sins, and forsake them; but to put their whole trust in the atonement of Christ, by faith in his name, for pardon and acceptance with God; thus only will the Lord make them holy, as his own people.

Ye shall offer at your own will,.... For vows and freewill offerings were at their own option, and depended on their own will and pleasure, and when offered should be with a willing mind, and from their whole heart: or "for good will to you"; as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; or for gracious, acceptation, that is, that they might be well pleasing to God, and acceptable in his sight, so Jarchi; in order to which the following direction was strictly to be observed: a male without blemish, of the beeves, of the sheep, and of the goats; bullocks, sheep, and goats, were the only sorts of beasts, out of which sacrifices were taken, and those that were for burnt offerings were always to be males, and unblemished, see Leviticus 1:3; but for other offerings, as peace offerings and sin offerings, females might be used, see Leviticus 3:1. Fowls are not mentioned, though burnt offerings were of them, because it was not required in them, only of beasts, that they should be males, and without blemish; for, as Jarchi observes, these were not rejected on account of a blemish, only for want of a member.

Leviticus 22:19 . Ye shall offer it at your own will — This is better rendered by the Seventy, the Arabic, and other versions, In order to its being accepted ye shall offer a male. And so we render the same word לרצון , leratson, in the next verse. Males were required in burnt-offerings: but females were accepted in peace-offerings and sin-offerings.

19. Ye shall offer at your own will—rather, to your being accepted. a male without blemish—This law (Le 1:3) is founded on a sense of natural propriety, which required the greatest care to be taken in the selection of animals for sacrifice. The reason for this extreme caution is found in the fact that sacrifices are either an expression of praise to God for His goodness, or else they are the designed means of conciliating or retaining His favor. No victim that was not perfect in its kind could be deemed a fitting instrument for such purposes if we assume that the significance of sacrifices is derived entirely from their relation to Jehovah. Sacrifices may be likened to gifts made to a king by his subjects, and hence the reasonableness of God's strong remonstrance with the worldly-minded Jews (Mal 1:8). If the tabernacle, and subsequently the temple, were considered the palace of the great King, then the sacrifices would answer to presents as offered to a monarch on various occasions by his subjects; and in this light they would be the appropriate expressions of their feelings towards their sovereign. When a subject wished to do honor to his sovereign, to acknowledge allegiance, to appease his anger, to supplicate forgiveness, or to intercede for another, he brought a present; and all the ideas involved in sacrifices correspond to these sentiments—those of gratitude, of worship, of prayer, of confession and atonement [Bib. Sac.].

(19) Ye shall offer at your own will a male. —Better, that it may be accepted for you it shall be a male; or, ye shall offer for your acceptance a male. repeating the word offer; or, for your acceptance it must be a male, as the Authorised version renders the same phrase in Leviticus 22:20-21 ; Leviticus 22:27 (see Leviticus 1:3 ).

Acceptable Sacrifices. - Leviticus 22:18-20 . Every sacrifice offered to the Lord by an Israelite or foreigner, in consequence of a vow or as a freewill-offering (cf. Leviticus 7:16 ), was to be faultless and male, "for good pleasure to the offerer" (cf. Leviticus 1:3 ), i.e., to secure for him the good pleasure of God. An animal with a fault would not be acceptable.

14 . holy ] cf. Exodus 16:23 (P), Exodus 20:8 (E), Isaiah 58:13 , Ezekiel 20:20 , &c. profaneth ] To ‘profane’ is characteristic—like its opposite, to ‘sanctify’—of H, Leviticus 18:21 ; Leviticus 19:8 ; Leviticus 19:12 ; Leviticus 19:29 ; Leviticus 20:3 ; Leviticus 21:4 ; Leviticus 21:6 ; Leviticus 21:9 (twice), Leviticus 21:12 ; Leviticus 21:15 ; Leviticus 21:23 , Leviticus 22:2 ; Leviticus 22:9 ; Leviticus 22:15 ; Leviticus 22:32 , and Ezek. (about 30 times,—6 times, as here, of the sabbath, viz. Ezekiel 20:13 ; Ezekiel 20:16 ; Ezekiel 20:21 ; Ezekiel 20:24 , Ezekiel 22:8 , Ezekiel 23:38 : so Isaiah 56:2 , Nehemiah 13:18 ). In P only once ( Numbers 18:32 ). shall surely be put to death ] cf., in the Book of the Covenant, Exodus 21:12 ; Exodus 21:14-17 , Exodus 22:19 ; and in H, for various moral and religious offences, Leviticus 20:2 ; Leviticus 20:9-13 ; Leviticus 20:15-16 ; Leviticus 20:27 ; Leviticus 24:16-17 (for murder). In Numbers 15:32-36 (P) this penalty for sabbath-breaking is said to have been inflicted. that soul , &c.] See on Exodus 12:15 , and Exodus 30:33 .

For the thing itself, compare Leviticus 18:7-8; Leviticus 19:15 and Leviticus 19:9. The threefold אישׁ in Ezekiel 22:11 does not mean every one, but one, another, and the third, as the correlative רעהוּ shows. - The third group, Ezekiel 22:12, is composed of sins of covetousness. For the first clause, compare the prohibition in Exodus 23:2; for the second, Ezekiel 18:8, Ezekiel 18:13. The reproof finishes with forgetfulness of God, which is closely allied to covetousness.