Leviticus 7:12

If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(12) If he offer it for a thanksgiving.—That is, acknowledgment of special mercies received from God, such as deliverance in travels, by land or sea, redemption from captivity, restoration to health, &c., enumerated in Psalms 107. It is to this sacrifice that the apostle alludes when he says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.”

Then he shall offer with the sacrifice.—That is, with the bullock or cow if it be from the herd, or a lamb or goat if it be from the flock (Leviticus 3:1).

Unleavened cakes mingled with oil.—From the fact that no mention is here made of the number of cakes or the quantity of oil, it is evident that this was left to the decision of the administrators of the laws and the spiritual guides of the people. The rule which obtained during the second Temple with regard to this offering was as follows :—The offerer brought twenty tenths or pottles of fine flour; ten of them he made leavened and ten he left unleavened. He made the leavened into ten cakes, and of the ten that were unleavened he made thirty cakes. These thirty unleavened cakes, which were made with half a log of oil, were divided into three tens, and each ten was prepared in a different manner; that is, ten with an eighth of the oil were baked in the oven, ten with another eighth of the oil were made into wafers, and ten with a fourth of the oil were hastily fried. Of the forty cakes the priest received four, one of each sort, thus obtaining a tenth part.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 7:12. If he offer it for a thanksgiving — Hebrew, על תודה, gnal todah, for confession, it being accompanied with a public confession or acknowledgment of the mercies and deliverances which the offerer had received from God. And to this the apostle alludes, (Hebrews 13:15,) exhorting Christians to offer to God continually, through Christ, the sacrifice of praise; that is, says he, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks, ομολογουντων, confessing to his name.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:11-27 As to the peace-offerings, in the expression of their sense of mercy, God left them more at liberty, than in the expression of their sense of sin; that their sacrifices, being free-will offerings, might be the more acceptable, while, by obliging them to bring the sacrifices of atonement, God shows the necessity of the great Propitiation. The main reason why blood was forbidden of old, was because the Lord had appointed blood for an atonement. This use, being figurative, had its end in Christ, who by his death and blood-shedding caused the sacrifices to cease. Therefore this law is not now in force on believers.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For a thanksgiving - i. e., a thank-offering for mercies received.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11-14. this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings—Besides the usual accompaniments of other sacrifices, leavened bread was offered with the peace offerings, as a thanksgiving, such bread being common at feasts.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For a thanksgiving; for mercies received. See Leviticus 22:29 2 Chronicles 29:31 33:16.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

If he offer it for a thanksgiving,.... Which Jarchi restrains to the wonderful deliverances of seafaring persons, of travellers, and of such as have been confined in prison, or have laboured under violent diseases and disorders of body; and so Aben Ezra seems to understand it only of thanksgivings on account of being delivered out of distress; but it might be for the common mercies of life, or any particular mercy or instance of divine goodness a man was sensible of, and thought proper in this way to make an acknowledgment of it:

then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving; which, if of the herd, was either a bullock or a cow; and if of the flock, was either a lamb or a goat:

unleavened cakes mingled with oil; ten of them, according to the Jewish writers; the measure of flour, of which they were made, were, as Jarchi says, five Jerusalem seahs or pecks, which were six of those used in the wilderness, and made twenty tenths or omers, an omer being the tenth part of an ephah (d); the oil they were mingled with, as to the quantity of it, was half a log (e); a fourth part of it was for the cakes, hastily baked, (said in the latter part of this verse to be fried,) an eighth part for those baked, (intended in this clause,) and an eighth part for the wafers next mentioned:

and unleavened wafers anointed with oil; these were a thinner sort of cakes, made without leaven as the others, but the oil was not mixed with the flour in the making of them, but put upon them when made, and therefore said to be anointed with it; there were also ten of these:

and cakes mingled with oil of fine flour fried; these were such as were hastily and not thoroughly baked, Leviticus 6:21 or, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom, they were mixed and boiled with hot water, as much as was sufficient; or, according to Maimonides (f), were fried in oil; and there were ten of these, in all thirty,

(d) Vid. Misn. Menachot, c. 7. sect. 1. & Bartenora in ib. (e) Maimon. Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 9. sect. 20. (f) In Misn. Menachot, c. 9. sect. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

If he offer it for a {g} thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.

(g) Peace offerings contain a confession and thanksgiving for a benefit received, and also a vow, and free offering to receive a benefit.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. If the Peace-Offering be for thanksgiving, three kinds of cakes are to be brought with it; the difference between the first and third is not clearly indicated. On the consecration of Aaron and his sons (Exodus 29:2; Exodus 29:23; Leviticus 8:26) three kinds of cakes are ordered to be brought with the ram of consecration; the second and third of these are identical with the first and second of those here prescribed. This is shewn below in tabular form:

Leviticus 7:12  Exodus 29:2; Exodus 29:23 and Leviticus 8:26.

  unleavened bread  (1) [49] one unleavened cake,

(a) unleavened cakes  mingled with oil  (2) one cake of oiled bread,

(b) unleavened wafers  anointed with oil  (3) one wafer,

(c) fine flour mixed [Into cakes mingled] with oil.  of fine wheaten flour shalt thou make them.  

[49] Exodus 29:23 has ‘one loaf of bread’ but as it is further described as ‘taken out of the basket of unleavened bread’ it is clear that the loaf is unleavened.

Now if the three kinds of cakes are the same on both occasions (which seems probable and is the traditional interpretation) then (c) will be equivalent to (1) of Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8. Cp. the offering of the Nazirite (Numbers 6:15; Numbers 6:19).

The Heb. word murbeketh (here, Leviticus 6:21 and 1 Chronicles 23:29 only) is rendered ‘soaked’ (‘fried’ A.V.), but probably means that the flour is well stirred together, as is done in making bread or pastry. The words which are in brackets in (c) are not found in the LXX., and it may be that they have been accidentally repeated from (a). The description of (c) does not clearly distinguish it from (a) whether the words be retained in the text or not.

Leviticus 7:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Law of the Peace-Offerings, "which he shall offer to Jehovah" (the subject is to be supplied from the verb), contains instructions, (1) as to the bloodless accompaniment to these sacrifices (Leviticus 7:12-14), (2) as to the eating of the flesh of the sacrifices (Leviticus 7:15-21), with the prohibition against eating fat and blood (Leviticus 7:22-27), and (3) as to Jehovah's share of these sacrifices (Leviticus 7:28-36). - In Leviticus 7:12 and Leviticus 7:16 three classes of shelamim are mentioned, which differ according to their occasion and design, viz., whether they were brought על־תּודה, upon the ground of praise, i.e., to praise God for blessings received or desired, or as vow-offerings, or thirdly, as freewill-offerings (Leviticus 7:16). To (lit., upon, in addition to) the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:12, "sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace-offerings," Leviticus 7:13 and Leviticus 7:15) they were to present "unleavened cakes kneaded with oil, and flat cakes anointed with oil (see at Leviticus 2:4), and roasted fine flour (see Leviticus 6:14) mixed as cakes with oil," i.e., cakes made of fine flour roasted with oil, and thoroughly kneaded with oil (on the construction, see Ges. 139, 2; Ewald 284 a). This last kind of cakes kneaded with oil is also called oil-bread-cake ("a cake of oiled bread," Leviticus 8:26; Exodus 29:23), or "cake unleavened, kneaded with oil" (Exodus 29:2), and probably differed from the former simply in the fact that it was more thoroughly saturated with oil, inasmuch as it was not only made of flour that had been mixed with oil in the kneading, but the flour itself was first of all roasted in oil, and then the dough was moistened still further with oil in the process of kneading.