Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 7:14
And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation [for] a heave offering unto the LORD, [and] it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.
14. one out of each oblation ] According to the practice in the second temple, ten of each of the three kinds of unleavened cakes and ten leavened cakes were brought. The priest took one out of each ten, and the remainder belonged to the bringer of the sacrifice, to be eaten along with his share of the flesh of the Peace-Offering. These cakes were not treated as Meal-Offerings, for the priests claimed the whole of such offerings (Lev 2:3; Lev 2:10), but as an accompaniment of the Peace-Offering. Thus four of them were given as ‘ Trmah ’ to the Lord for the priest that threw the blood against the altar (see note on Lev 1:5). ‘ Trmah,’ ‘heave-offering,’ does not, however, indicate throwing, as the English word suggests, but something lifted or ‘taken off from a larger mass, and so separated from it for sacred purposes,’ and hence dedicated to God through His ministers. Driver on Exo 25:2, where see his full note. See also App. IV, Wave-Offering (end).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Out of the whole oblation – Rather, out of each offering. That is, one loaf or cake out of each kind of meat-offering was to be a heave-offering Lev 7:32 for the officiating priest. According to Jewish tradition, there were to be ten cakes of each kind of bread in every thank-offering. The other cakes were returned to the sacrificer.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Of it, i.e. either of the loaves of leavened bread mentioned Lev 7:13, or of the offering, one of each part of the whole oblation, as it follows; it being most probable, and agreeable to the rules and laws laid down before and afterward that the priest should have a share in the unleavened cakes and wafers, as well as in the leavened bread.
Concerning the heave-offerings, see Exo 29:24,28.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation [for] an heave offering unto the Lord,…. That is, one out of the unleavened cakes, and out of the unleavened wafers, and out of the cakes fried, and out of the cakes leavened; lo, says Aben Ezra, four at least, and the truth is, adds he, there were ten; and so Maimonides h says, the priest took out of all the four cakes, one out of every sort, as it is said, “and of it he shall offer one”, c.
and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings that is, that part of the cakes and bread, which is offered as an heave offering to the Lord, was the portion of the priests; and so Maimonides i says,
“the bread waved (rather heaved) with the thank offering was eaten by the priests, and the rest of the bread by the owners.”
h Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 9. sect. 17, 18, 21. i Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 9. sect. 12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) And of it he shall offer one out of the whole.Better, and he shall offer of it one out of each. That is, the officiating priest waves one of each of the four kinds of cakes before the Lord as a heave offering (see Exo. 29:24; Exo. 29:28), and is to have these four loaves as his portion, while the rest or the remaining thirty-six cakes belonged to the owner of the sacrifice.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Heave offering According to rabbinical tradition, the manner of heaving was to lay the oblation on the hands of the offerer, the priest putting his hands underneath and then moving them upwards and downwards. The import of heaving in sacrifices is supposed to be a presentation to God, who rules in heaven above and in the earth beneath. It was given to the priest as his representative.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 7:14 And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation [for] an heave offering unto the LORD, [and] it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.
Ver. 14. For a heave offering. ] So called, because it was heaved and lifted up before the Lord, in token that they received all from him, and did acknowledge all to be due to him.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
oblation. Hebrew. korban. App-43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
an heave: Exo 29:27, Exo 29:28, Num 15:19-21, Num 18:24-28, Num 31:29, Num 31:41
the priest’s: Lev 6:26, Num 18:8-11, Num 18:19, Num 18:26-32
Reciprocal: Num 18:11 – the heave Deu 18:8 – like portions
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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THE PRIESTS PORTIONS
Lev 6:16-18; Lev 7:6-10; Lev 7:14; Lev 7:31-36
AFTER the law of the guilt offering follows a section {Lev 6:8-30; Lev 7:1-38} with regard to the offerings previously treated, but addressed especially to the priests, as the foregoing were specially directed to the people. Much of the contents of this section has already passed before us, in anticipation of its order in the book, as this has seemed necessary in order to a complete exposition of the several offerings. An important part of the section, however, relating to the portion of the offerings which was appointed for the priests, has been passed by until now, and must claim our brief attention.
In the verses indicated above, it is ordered that of the meal offerings, the sin offerings, and the guilt offerings, all that was not burnt, as also the wave breast and the heave shoulder of the peace offerings, should be for Aaron and his sons. In particular, it is directed that the priests portion of the sin offering and the guilt offering shall be eaten by “the priest that maketh atonement therewith”; {Lev 7:7} and that of the meal offerings prepared in the oven, the frying pan, or the baking pan, all that is not burned upon the altar, according to the law of chapter 2, shall be eaten by “the priest that offereth it”; and that of every meal offering mingled with oil, or dry, the same part “shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as well as another”. {Lev 7:9-10} Of the burnt offering, all the flesh being burned, the hide alone fell to the officiating priest as his perquisite. {Lev 7:8}
These regulations are explained in the concluding verses of the section Lev 7:35-36 as follows, “This is the anointing portion of Aaron, and the anointing portion of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priests office; which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them. It is a due forever throughout their generations.”
Hence, it is plain that this use which was to be made of certain parts of certain offerings does not touch the question of the consecration of the whole to God. The whole of each offering is none the less wholly accepted and appropriated by God, that He designates a part of it to the maintenance of the priesthood. That even as thus used by the priest it is used by him as something belonging to God, is indicated by the phrase used, “it is most”; {Lev 6:17} expressive words, which in the law of the offerings always have a technical use, as denoting those things of which only the sons of Aaron might partake, and that only in the holy place. In the case of the meal offering, its peculiarly sacred character as belonging, the whole of it, exclusively to God, is further marked by the additional injunctions that it, should be eaten without leaven in a holy place; {Lev 6:16} and that whosoever touched these offerings should be; {Lev 6:18} that is, he should be as a man separated to God, under all the restrictions (doubtless, without the privileges), which belonged to the priesthood, as men set apart for Gods service. In the eating of their portion of the various offerings by the priests, we are to recognise no official act: we simply see the servants of God supported by the bread of His table.
This last thought, which is absent in the case of no one of the offerings, is brought out with special clearness and fulness in the ceremonial connected with the peace offerings. {Lev 7:28-34} In this case, certain parts, the right thigh (or shoulder?) and the breast, are set apart as the due of the priest. The selection of these is determined by the principle which marks all the Levitical legislation: God and those who represent Him are to be honoured by the consecration of the best of everything. In the animals used upon the altar, these were regarded as the choice parts, and are indeed referred to as such in other Scriptures. But, in order that neither the priest nor the people may imagine that the priest receives these as a man from his fellowmen, but may understand that they are given to God, and that it is from God that the priest now receives them, as His servant, fed from His table; to this end, certain ceremonies were ordained to be used with these parts; the breast was to be “heaved,” the thigh was to be “waved,” before the Lord. What was the meaning of these actions?
The breast was to be “heaved”; that is, elevated heavenward. The symbolic meaning of this act can scarcely be missed. By it, the priest acknowledged his dependence upon God for the supply of this sacrificial food, and, again, by this act consecrated it anew to Him as the One that sitteth in the heavens.
But God is not only the One that “sitteth in the heavens”; He is the God who has condescended also to dwell among men, and especially in the tent of meeting in the midst of Israel. And thus, as by the elevation of the breast heavenward, God, the Giver, was recognised as the One enthroned in heaven, so by the “waving” of the thigh, which, as the rabbis tell us, was a movement backward and forward, to and from the altar, He was recognised also as Jehovah, who had condescended from heaven to dwell in the midst of His people. Like the “heaving,” so the “waving,” then, was an act of acknowledgment and consecration to God; the former, to God, as in heaven, the God of creation; the other, to God, as the God of the altar, the God of redemption. And that this is the true significance of these acts is illustrated by the fact that in the Pentateuch, in the account of the gold and silver brought by the people for the preparation of the tabernacle, {Exo 35:22} the same word is used to describe the presentation of these offerings which is here used of the wave offering.
And so in the peace offering the principle is amply illustrated upon which the priests received their dues. The worshippers bring their offerings, and present them, not to the priest, but through him to God; who, then, having used such parts as He will in the service of the sanctuary, gives again such parts of them as He pleases to the priests.
The lesson of these arrangements lies immediately before us. They were intended to teach Israel, and, according to the New Testament, are also designed to teach us, that it is the will of God that those who give up secular occupations to devote themselves to the ministry of His house should be supported by the freewill offerings of Gods people. Very strange indeed it is to hear a few small sects in our day denying this. For the Apostle Paul argues at length to this effect, and calls the attention of the Corinthians {1Co 9:13-14} to the fact that the principle expressed in this ordinance of the law of Moses has not been set aside, but holds good in this dispensation. “Know ye not that they which wait upon the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so did the Lord ordain that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel.” The principle plainly covers the case of all such as give up secular callings to devote themselves to the ministry of the Word, whether to proclaim the Gospel in any of the great mission fields, or to exercise the pastorate of the local church. Such are ever to be supported out of the consecrated offerings of Gods people. To point in disparagement of modern “hireling” ministers and missionaries, as some have done, to the case of Paul, who laboured with his own hands, that he might not be chargeable to those to whom he ministered, is singularly inapt, seeing that in the chapter above referred to he expressly vindicates his right to receive of the Corinthians his support, and in this Second Epistle to them even seems to express a doubt {2Co 12:13} whether in refusing, as he did, to receive support from them, he had not done them a “wrong,” making them thus “inferior to the rest of the churches,” from whom, in fact, he did receive such material aid. {Php 4:10; Php 4:16} And if ever claims of this kind upon our benevolence and liberality seem to be heavy, and if to nature the burden is sometimes irksome, we shall do well to remember that the requirement is not of man, and not of the Church, but of God. It comes to us with the double authority of the Old and New Testament, of the Law and the Gospel. And it will certainly help us all to give to these ends the more gladly, if we keep that in mind which the Levitical law so carefully kept before Israel, that the giving was to be regarded by them as not to the priesthood, but to the Lord, and that in our giving outwardly to support the ministry of Gods Word, we give, really, to the Lord Himself. And it stands written: {Mat 10:42} “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only he shall in no wise lose his reward.”