Leviticus 7:30

His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) His own hands shall bring.—This act the owner himself was to perform, and it was not to be deputed to any one else. The manner in which this rite was performed in the time of Christ was as follows:—The offerer killed the sacrifice, and the priest sprinkled the blood. The victim was then flayed, and the officiating priest took out the inwards, cut the flesh into pieces, and separated the breast and the right shoulder. Whereupon he laid the fat first upon the owner’s hands, then the breast, then the shoulder above it; the two kidneys and the caul of the liver above them again, and the bread above the whole, put his own hand under that of the offerer, and waved it all before the Lord. Hereupon the priest salted the inwards, and burned them upon the altar. The breast and right shoulder, as well as the bread waved before the Lord, were eaten by him and his brother priests, whilst the remainder of the flesh and the rest of the bread were eaten by the owner and his friends. If two persons brought a peace offering in partnership, one of them waved for both; and if a woman brought it, the waving was performed by the officiating priest, since women were not allowed to wave except in the offering of jealousy and of a Nazarite (Numbers 5:25; Numbers 6:20).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:28-34 The priest who offered, was to have the breast and the right shoulder. When the sacrifice was killed, the offerer himself must present God's part of it; that he might signify his cheerfully giving it up to God. He was with his own hands to lift it up, in token of his regard to God as the God of heaven; and then to wave it to and fro, in token of his regard to God as the Lord of the whole earth. Be persuaded and encouraged to feed and feast upon Christ, our Peace-offering. This blessed Peace-offering is not for the priests only, for saints of the highest rank and greatest eminence, but for the common people also. Take heed of delay. Many think to repent and return to God when they are dying and dropping into hell; but they should eat the peace-offering, and eat it now. Stay not till the day of the Lord's patience be run out, for eating the third day will not be accepted, nor will catching at Christ when thou art gone to hell!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wave-offering ... heave-offering - The latter appears to be used (like קרבן qorbân, Leviticus 1:2) for offerings in general. Waving (a moving to and fro, repeated several times) or heaving (a lifting up once) the offering was a solemn form of dedicating a thing to the use of the sanctuary.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29-34. He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord—In order to show that the sacrifice was voluntary, the offerer was required to bring it with his own hands to the priest. The breast having been waved to and fro in a solemn manner as devoted to God, was given to the priests; it was assigned to the use of their order generally, but the right shoulder was the perquisite of the officiating priest.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

After the beast was killed, and the parts of it divided, the priest was to put the parts mentioned into the hands of the offerer. See Exodus 29:22-24.

Made by fire; so called not strictly, as burnt-offerings are, because some parts of these were left for the priest, Leviticus 7:31; but more largely, because even these peace-offerings were in part, though not wholly, burnt.

The breast may be waved to and fro by his hands, which were supported and directed by the hands of the priest.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire,.... That is, such parts of the peace offerings as were to be burnt with fire, as the fat on several parts described in Leviticus 3:3 the owners of the offerings were to bring them in the manner as will be presently observed:

the fat with the breast, it shall he bring; the fat to be burnt, and the breast for the priest and his sons, as in the following verse Leviticus 7:31,

that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord; how this waving was performed; see Gill on Exodus 29:24 particularly with respect to these peace offerings it was thus; if a thank offering, the priest takes of the bread brought with it one (cake) out of ten, and lays it with the breast, the shoulder, and the inwards, and waves all upon the hands of the owners; on which he puts the fat, then the breast and the shoulder above (i.e. upon the fat), then the two kidneys, and the caul, and the liver above them; and if there was any bread, he put it over them, and waved all, putting his hand under the hands of the owner (s).

(s) Maimon. Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 9. sect. 6, 7. so Ben Gersom in loc.

Geneva Study Bible

His own {m} hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD.

(m) And should not send it by another.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. wave offering] The offering was waved towards the altar and back, apparently to express symbolically that it was first given to God and then restored by Him to the priest for his use. See Appendix IV, pp. 183 ff.

Leviticus 7:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

His hands were to bring the firings of Jehovah, i.e., the portions to be burned upon the altar (Leviticus 1:9), viz., "the fat (the fat portions, Leviticus 3:3-4) with the breast," - the former to be burned upon the altar, the latter "to wave as a wave-offering before Jehovah." חזה, τὸ στηθύνιον (lxx), i.e., according to Pollux, τῶν στηθῶν τὸ μέσον, pectusculum or pectus (Vulg. cf. Leviticus 9:20-21; Leviticus 10:15), signifies the breast, the breast-piece of the sacrificial animals,

(Note: The etymology of the word is obscure. According to Winer, Gesenius, and others, it signifies adspectui patens; whilst Meier and Knobel regard it as meaning literally the division, or middle-piece; and Dietrich attributes to it the fundamental signification, "to be moved," viz., the breast, as being the part moved by the heart.)

the brisket, which consists for the most part of cartilaginous fat in the case of oxen, sheep, and goats, and is one of the most savoury parts; so that at the family festivities of the ancients, according to Athen. Deipnos. ii. 70, ix. 10, στηθύνια παχέων ἀρνίων were dainty bits. The breast-piece was presented to the Lord as a wave-offering (tenuphah), and transferred by Him to Aaron and his sons (the priests). תּנוּפה, from נוּף, הניף, to swing, to move to and fro (see Exodus 35:22), is the name applied to a ceremony peculiar to the peace-offerings and the consecration-offerings: the priest laid the object to be waved upon the hands of the offerer, and then placed his own hands underneath, and moved the hands of the offerer backwards and forwards in a horizontal direction, to indicate by the movement forwards, i.e., in the direction towards the altar, the presentation of the sacrifice, or the symbolical transference of it to God, and by the movement backwards, the reception of it back again, as a present which God handed over to His servants the priests.

(Note: In the Talmud (cf. Gemar. Kiddush 36, 2, Gem. Succa 37, 2, and Tosaphta Menach. 7, 17), which Maimonides and Rashi follow, tenuphah is correctly interpreted ducebat et reducebat; but some of the later Rabbins (vid., Outram ut sup.) make it out to have been a movement in the direction of the four quarters of the heavens, and Witsius and others find an allusion in this to the omnipresence of God-an allusion which is quite out of character with the occasion.)

In the peace-offerings the waving was performed with the breast-piece, which was called the "wave-breast" in consequence (Leviticus 7:34; Leviticus 10:14-15; Numbers 6:20; Numbers 18:18; Exodus 29:27). At the consecration of the priests it was performed with the fat portions, the right leg, and with some cakes, as well as with the breast of the fill-offering (Leviticus 8:25-29; Exodus 29:22-26). The ceremony of waving was also carried out with the sheaf of first-fruits at the feast of Passover; with the loaves of the first-fruits, and thank-offering lambs, at the feast of Pentecost (Leviticus 23:11, Leviticus 23:20); with the shoulder and meat-offering of the Nazarite (Numbers 6:20); with the trespass-offering of the leper (Leviticus 14:12, Leviticus 14:24); with the jealousy-offering (Numbers 5:25); and lastly with the Levites, at their consecration (Numbers 8:11.). In the case of all these sacrifices, the object waved, after it had been offered symbolically to the Lord by means of the waving, became the property of the priests. But of the lambs, which were waved at the feast of Pentecost before they were slaughtered, and of the lamb which was brought as a trespass-offering by the leper, the blood and fat were given up to the altar-fire; of the jealousy-offering, only an azcarah; and of the fill-offering, for special reasons, the fat portions and leg, as well as the cakes. Even the Levites were given by Jehovah to the priests to be their own (Numbers 8:19). The waving, therefore, had nothing in common with the porricere of the Romans, as the portions of the sacrifices which were called porriciae were precisely those which were not only given up to the gods, but burned upon the altars. In addition to the wave-breast, which the Lord gave up to His servants as their share of the peace-offerings, the officiating priest was also to receive for his portion the right leg as a terumah, or heave-offering, or lifting off. שׁוק is the thigh in the case of a man (Isaiah 47:2; Sol 5:15), and therefore in the case of an animal it is not the fore-leg, or shoulder (βραχηίων, armus), which is called זרע, or the arm (Numbers 6:19; Deuteronomy 18:3), but the hind-leg, or rather the upper part of it or ham, which is mentioned in 1 Samuel 9:24 as a peculiarly choice portion (Knobel). As a portion lifted off from the sacrificial gifts, it is often called "the heave-leg" (v. 34; Leviticus 10:14-15; Numbers 6:20; Exodus 29:27), because it was lifted or heaved off from the sacrificial animal, as a gift of honour for the officiating priest, but without being waved like the breast-piece-though the more general phrase, "to wave a wave-offering before Jehovah" (Leviticus 10:15), includes the offering of the heave-leg (see my Archaeologie i. pp. 244-5).