Leviticus 17:5

To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) To the end that the children of Israel may bring.—The reason why these three kinds of animals, when intended for private food, are to be brought to the precincts of the sanctuary, and are there to be offered first as a peace offering to the Lord, is to prevent the Israelites sacrificing them to the demons in the open fields.

Which they offer in the open field.—The first part of this verse is better rendered, In order that the children of Israel may bring in [i.e., within the precincts of the sanctuary] their sacrifices which they are sacrificing on the face of the field; that is, which they have heretofore been in the habit of offering in the open fields to heathen deities, and which, in future, they might be inclined to do again. The phrase “open field “denotes the space outside the encampment, in contradistinction to the enclosed place where the Israelites sojourned. (See Leviticus 14:7; Leviticus 14:53, &c.)

Even that they may bring them . . . unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.—Better, and bring them . . . to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 17:5. They offer — The Israelites, before the building of the tabernacle, did so, from which they are now restrained. Peace-offerings — He does not name these exclusively from others, as appears from the reason of the law, and from Leviticus 17:8-9, but because in these the temptation was more common in regard of their frequency, and more powerful, because part of these belonged to the offerers, and the pretence was more plausible, because their sanctity was of a lower degree than that of others, these being only called holy, and allowed in part to the people, whereas the others are called most holy, and were wholly appropriated either to God, or to the priests.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:1-9 All the cattle killed by the Israelites, while in the wilderness, were to be presented before the door of the tabernacle, and the flesh to be returned to the offerer, to be eaten as a peace-offering, according to the law. When they entered Canaan, this only continued in respect of sacrifices. The spiritual sacrifices we are now to offer, are not confined to any one place. We have now no temple or altar that sanctifies the gift; nor does the gospel unity rest only in one place, but in one heart, and the unity of the Spirit. Christ is our Altar, and the true Tabernacle; in him God dwells among men. It is in him that our sacrifices are acceptable to God, and in him only. To set up other mediators, or other altars, or other expiatory sacrifices, is, in effect, to set up other gods. And though God will graciously accept our family offerings, we must not therefore neglect attending at the tabernacle.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Rather, May bring their beasts for slaughter, which they (now) slaughter in the open field. even that they may bring them before Yahweh to the entrance of the tent of meeting unto the priests, and slaughter them as peace-offerings to Yahweh.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the open field—"They" is supposed by some commentators to refer to the Egyptians, so that the verse will stand thus: "the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they (the Egyptians) offer in the open field." The law is thought to have been directed against those whose Egyptian habits led them to imitate this idolatrous practice.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which they offer; either,

1. The Egyptians and other idolatrous nations, which commonly sacrificed to idols or devils in fields or any places; who are not here named, but may be designed by the particle they, in way of contempt, as if they were not worthy to be named, as that particle is used, Luke 14:24 19:27 John 7:11 8:10. Or rather,

2. The Israelites now mentioned, and plainly understood in the following they, who, before the building of the tabernacle, took the same liberty herein which the Gentiles did, from which they are now restrained.

He nameth not peace-offerings exclusively to others, as appears from the reason of the law, and from Leviticus 17:8,9, but especially, because in these the temptation was more common in regard of their frequency, and more powerful, because part of these belonged to the offerer, and the pretence was more plausible, because their sanctity was something of a lower degree than others, these being only called holy, and allowed in part to the people, when the other are called most holy, and were wholly appropriated either to God or to the priests.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field,.... Which, before the tabernacle was erected, they were used to offer there, as it was lawful for them to do, and on high places, but now unlawful; though sometimes this was dispensed with by the Lord, and was done by some of his prophets, as Samuel, David, and Elijah, though not by priests:

even that they may bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest; by whom they were to be offered, and by him only, and which is a principal reason why they were ordered to be brought thither:

and offer them for peace offerings unto the Lord; which though only mentioned, include all others. These are only taken notice of because most frequent, and because most profitable to the people, having a part of them; wherefore if these were to be brought to the tabernacle, which came the nearest of any to their meals and feasts in their own houses, then much more burnt offerings, and sin offerings, in which the Lord, had so great a concern.

Geneva Study Bible

To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they offer in the {d} open field, even that they may bring them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the LORD.

(d) In that they were moved with foolish devotion to offer it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. The whole v. appears to be an expansion on the part of Rp[62]. See p. 99.

[62] A Reviser, who, probably after that collection had been combined with the Priestly Code, introduced further elements from that Code.

the open field] In contrast to the city. For the expression cp. Leviticus 14:7; Leviticus 14:53.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - To the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices. This passage tells us the purpose of the previous command: it is to prevent sacrifices being sacrificed (the word is twice used in the original) in the open field, or anywhere else than in the court of the tabernacle. It follows that the command refers to sacrifice, not to mere slaughtering. Clark, taking the opposite view of the command, is obliged to change the translation, sacrifices which they offer in the open field, into "beasts for slaughter which they now slaughter in the open field" ('Speaker's Commentary'); but he has no authority for doing so. Zabach means always, in the Pentateuch, to slay in sacrifice. These field sacrifices, when offered to the Lord in the proper place and with the proper ceremonies, would become peace offerings unto the Lord. Leviticus 17:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Whoever of the house of Israel slaughtered an ox, sheep, or goat, either within or outside the camp, without bringing the animal to the tabernacle, to offer a sacrifice therefrom to the Lord, "blood was to be reckoned to him;" that is to say, as the following expression, "he hath shed blood," shows, such slaughtering was to be reckoned as the shedding of blood, or blood-guiltiness, and punished with extermination (see Genesis 17:14). The severity of this prohibition required some explanation, and this is given in the reason assigned in Leviticus 17:5-7, viz., "that the Israelites may bring their slain-offerings, which they slay in the open field, before the door of the tabernacle, as peace-offerings to Jehovah," and "no more offer their sacrifices to the שׂעירים, after whom they go a whoring" (Leviticus 17:7). This reason presupposes that the custom of dedicating the slain animals as sacrifices to some deity, to which a portion of them was offered, was then widely spread among the Israelites. It had probably been adopted from the Egyptians; though this is not expressly stated by ancient writers: Herodotus (i. 132) and Strabo (xv. 732) simply mentioning it as a Persian custom, whilst the law book of Manu ascribes it to the Indians. To root out this idolatrous custom from among the Israelites, they were commanded to slay every animal before the tabernacle, as a sacrificial gift to Jehovah, and to bring the slain-offerings, which they would have slain in the open field, to the priest at the tabernacle, as shelamim (praise-offerings and thank-offerings), that he might sprinkle the blood upon the altar, and burn the fat as a sweet-smelling savour for Jehovah (see Leviticus 3:2-5). "The face of the field" (Leviticus 17:5, as in Leviticus 14:7, Leviticus 14:53): the open field, in distinction from the enclosed space of the court of Jehovah's dwelling. "The altar of Jehovah" is spoken of in Leviticus 17:6 instead of "the altar" only (Leviticus 1:5; Leviticus 11:15, etc.), on account of the contrast drawn between it and the altars upon which they offered sacrifice to Seirim. שׂעירים, literally goats, is here used to signify daemones (Vulg.), "field-devils" (Luther), demons, like the שׂדים in Deuteronomy 32:17, who were supposed to inhabit the desert (Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14), and whose pernicious influence they sought to avert by sacrifices. The Israelites had brought this superstition, and the idolatry to which it gave rise, from Egypt. The Seirim were the gods whom the Israelites worshipped and went a whoring after in Egypt (Joshua 24:14; Ezekiel 20:7; Ezekiel 23:3, Ezekiel 23:8, Ezekiel 23:19, Ezekiel 23:21, Ezekiel 23:27). Both the thing and the name were derived from the Egyptians, who worshipped goats as gods (Josephus c. Revelation 2, 7), particularly Pan, who was represented in the form of a goat, a personification of the male and fertilizing principle in nature, whom they called Mendes and reckoned among the eight leading gods, and to whom they had built a splendid and celebrated temple in Thmuis, the capital of the Mendesian Nomos in Lower Egypt, and erected statues in the temples in all directions (cf. Herod. 2, 42, 46; Strabo, xvii. 802; Diod. Sic. i. 18). The expression "a statute for ever" refers to the principle of the law, that sacrifices were to be offered to Jehovah alone, and not to the law that every animal was to be slain before the tabernacle, which was afterwards repealed by Moses, when they were about to enter Canaan, where it could no longer be carried out (Deuteronomy 12:15).