14 "'This is the law of the meal offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before Yahweh, before the altar.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
And this is the Law of the meat-offering. We have already seen that there were various kinds of this offering; now, the cakes or wafers are omitted, and mention is only made of uncooked flour, whereof God commands that the priest should burn on the altar as much as his hand could hold. But this law was necessary in order that believers might be fully assured that God was propitiated by the due offering of this part, and that none might complain because the greater portion remained with the priests. Lest, however, the dignity of the sacrifice should be impaired, it was only permitted to the priests to make unleavened bread of it, which they were to eat in the sanctuary, as we have seen elsewhere. The meat-offering of the priests is excepted, which I conceive to be for two reasons, -- first, that the excellency and dignity of their gift, honored as it was by special privilege, might stimulate the priests to greater efforts of piety, so as not to exercise themselves in God's service in a common and perfunctory manner; secondly, that they might be thus restrained from the affectation of offering it too frequently. For if it only cost them a little flour, a door was opened to vain ostentation; they would have never ceased offering their minha, the profit of which returned to themselves; perhaps they might even have made a trade of it, as we see the Popish sacrificers entice the simple populace to profuse expenditure in offerings by the pomp of their fictitious devotion. Lest, therefore, they should cause their immoderate oblations to minister both to their vainglory and avarice, God willed that their meat-offering should be entirely consumed.
See Leviticus 2:1-10; Exodus 29:40-41.
The meat-offering - See Clarke on Leviticus 2:1 (note), etc.
And this is the law of the meat offering,.... Or the rules to be observed concerning that, for which, though directions are given, Leviticus 2:1, &c. yet is here repeated with some additions to it:
the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord; being brought unto them by the children of Israel:
before the altar; or at the face of it, for what was properly offered was burnt upon it, as in the following verse Leviticus 6:15, for it should be rather rendered "in", or "on the altar" (n); the face of it is the top of it, on which every sacrifice was offered, and not before it.
(n) "in altari", Noldius, p. 82. No. 391.
The law of the burnt-offerings put upon the priests a great deal of care and work; the flesh was wholly burnt, and the priests had nothing but the skin. But most of the meat-offering was their own. It is God's will that his ministers should be provided with what is needful.
THE LAW OF THE MEAT OFFERING. (Leviticus 6:14-18)
this is the law of the meat offering--Though this was a provision for the priests and their families, it was to be regarded as "most holy"; and the way in which it was prepared was: on any meat offerings being presented, the priest carried them to the altar, and taking a handful from each of them as an oblation, he salted and burnt it on the altar; the residue became the property of the priests, and was the food of those whose duty it was to attend on the service. They themselves as well as the vessels from which they ate were typically holy, and they were not at liberty to partake of the meat offering while they labored under any ceremonial defilement.
The Law of the Meat-Offering. - The regulations in Leviticus 6:14, Leviticus 6:15, are merely a repetition of Leviticus 2:2 and Leviticus 2:3; but in Leviticus 6:16-18 the new instructions are introduced with regard to what was left and had not been burned upon the altar. The priests were to eat this as unleavened, i.e., to bake it without leaven, and to eat it in a holy place, viz., in the court of the tabernacle. תּאכל מצות in Leviticus 6:16 is explained by "it shall not be baken with leaven" in Leviticus 6:17. It was the priests' share of the firings of Jehovah (see Leviticus 1:9), and as such it was most holy (see Leviticus 2:3), like the sin-offering and trespass-offering (Leviticus 6:25, Leviticus 6:26; Leviticus 7:6), and only to be eaten by the male members of the families of the priests. This was to be maintained as a statute for ever (see at Leviticus 3:17). Every one that touches them (the most holy offerings) becomes holy." יקדּשׁ does not mean he shall be holy, or shall sanctify himself (lxx, Vulg., Luth., a Lap., etc.), nor he is consecrated to the sanctuary and is to perform service there (Theodor., Knobel, and others). In this provision, which was equally applicable to the sin-offering (Leviticus 6:27), to the altar of the burnt-offering (Exodus 29:37), and to the most holy vessels of the tabernacle (Exodus 30:29), the word is not to be interpreted by Numbers 17:2-3, or Deuteronomy 22:9, or by the expression "shall be holy" in Leviticus 27:10, Leviticus 27:21, and Numbers 18:10, but by Isaiah 65:5, "touch me not, for I am holy." The idea is this, every layman who touched these most holy things became holy through the contact, so that henceforth he had to guard against defilement in the same manner as the sanctified priests (Leviticus 21:1-8), though without sharing the priestly rights and prerogatives. This necessarily placed him in a position which would involve many inconveniences in connection with ordinary life.
Of the meal - offering - Of that which was offered alone, and that by any of the people, not by the priest, for then it must have been all burnt. This law before delivered, is here repeated for the sake of some additions made to it.
*More commentary available at chapter level.