Ver. 1. Of the trespass offering.] Heb., Asham, Piaculum, quo peccatum expiabatur. How it differed from the sin offering is hard to determine.
Ver. 2. In the place.] [See Trapp on “Le 1:11”]
Ver. 3. That covereth the inwards.] “My son, give me thy heart.” See Psalms 51:6 Jer 4:14.
Ver. 4. And the two kidneys.] [See Trapp on “Le 3:4”]
Ver. 5. It is a trespass offering.] And, as in the sin offering, the priest was to have the remainder. They had many a good morsel besides their tithes and lands.
Ver. 7. As the sin offering is.] They were distinct then. See Leviticus 7:1.
Ver. 8. The priest shall have to himself.] It is a sign of gasping devotion when men are so straithanded to their ministers, who should have part of all. (Galatians 6:6)
Ver. 9. And all the meat offering.] Which seems to be so called, partly because it went as meat unto the priest—the labourer is surely worthy of his meat, -but (Matthew 10:10) principally as leading to Christ, whose “flesh is meat indeed.” (John 6:55)
Ver. 10. Have, one as much as another.] In their father’s house was bread enough. “Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest’s offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.” (1 Samuel 2:36) This the Tirshatha would not suffer those turn-coats to do. (Ezra 2:63) But how hard put to it was that poor priest that answered young Pareus, asking him an alms, according to the custom of those times, Nos pauperi fratres, nos nihil habemus, an piscis, an caro, an panis, an misericordia habemus? Vita Parei per Philipp. filium, primo oper. tomo praefixa.
Ver. 11. Sacrifice of peace offerings.] Or, pay offering. See Psalms 116:14. “I will pay,” or, I will perfect. Fitly; for a vow, till paid, is an imperfect thing.
Ver. 12. Unleavened cakes.] There must be sincerity in all our services; for else God will not once look at them.
Ver. 13. Leavened bread.] Lo, leavened bread will pass in a peace offering: God for Christ’s sake rejects not the services of his saints, though tainted with corruption. Peccata nobis non nocent, si non placent. Wine is not thrown away for the dregs, nor gold for the dirt that cleaves unto it. August.
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.
Ver. 15. Eaten the same day.] Thanks must be returned while mercies are fresh; lest, as fish, they putrify with keeping. Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Hezekiah wrote his song the third day after his recovery. Jehoshaphat gave thanks first upon the ground where he had the victory, calling it Berachah; and three days after again at Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 20:25,26) See David’s Now, now, now, -“I will pay my vows.” (Psalms 116:14,15)
Ver. 16. And on the morrow also.] This was not allowed in a thank offering. (Leviticus 7:15) Hereby God would teach them, that he must be worshipped as himself appointeth, and not as they in their reason should think fit.
Ver. 17. On the third day.] Foreshadowing the resurrection of Christ on the third day, whereby all legal ceremonies were abolished, and had no use in the Church, but by accident; as he who bnildeth a vault, letteth the centrals stand till he put in the keystone, and then pulleth them away.
Ver. 18. It shall be an abomination.] Kept beyond the time; and so uneatable, unsacrificeable, profane, stinking.
Ver. 19. Shall not be eaten.] Because not fit to represent Christ.
Ver. 20. Having his uncleanness upon him.] To the unclean all things are unclean, &c. (Titus 1:15) [See Trapp on “Tit 1:15”]
Ver. 21. Cut off from his people.] Compare 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.
Ver. 22. And the Lord spake unto Moses.] This is oft repeated to draw attention and get authority. See 1 Thessalonians 2:13.
Ver. 23. No manner of fat.] [See Trapp on “Le 3:12”]
Ver. 24. Used in any other use.] Though not in sacrifice. Mud walls may be made up of any refuse matter: not so the walls of a church or palace.
Ver. 25. Shall be cut off,] i.e., Shall be liable to God’s judgments.
Ver. 26. Ye shall eat no manner of blood.] This signified, (1.) That we should learn to honour holy things, and not to make a mock of them by employing them to common use; (2.) That we should be most careful not to shed man’s blood for the satisfying of our lust. See Leviticus 17:11,12 Ge 9:4,5 De 12:13.
Ver. 27. Whatsoever soul it be.] One would think this to be but a peccadillo: yet how fearfully is it threatened! No sin can be little, because there is no little God to sin against.
Ver. 29. Unto the Lord.] Not kill it in the camp, though there they might eat it.
Ver. 30. His own hands.] Teaching them that they must live by their own faith. (Habakkuk 2:5) May be waved.] Or, Shaken to and fro; which signified the shaking of our lips in giving thanks to God, (Hosea 14:2 Hebrews 13:15,16) which yet must be fetched lower than the lips, even from the bottom of the heart; the deeper the sweeter. The voice that is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet, as that which comes from the depth of the breast.
Ver. 31,32. The breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. And the right shoulder.] To note that men must give their breasts and shoulders, affections and actions, even their whole selves; first to the Lord, and then to us ministers by the will of God, as those famous Macedonians did in 2 Corinthians 8:5; that so they may be sani in doctrina et sancti in vita, sound in doctrine, and holy in life.
Ver. 32. See note in previous verse.
Ver. 33. He among the sons of Aaron.] The breast belonged to the high priest and his family; but the right shoulder was for the priest that did officiate, or do the office of a priest, for that turn.
Ver. 34. For the wave-breast, and the heaveshoulder.] This might further signify, saith one, that Christ Jesus heaved up for us both breast and shoulder—that is, wisdom and strength to all his elect priesthood, whose portion he is. (1 Corinthians 1:30) Or it might note, saith another, that ministers should both take care (figured by the breast) and pains (signified by the shoulder). And therefore the high priest did to that end wear the names of the tribes upon his shoulders and upon his breast.
Ver. 35. This is the portion of the anointing.] That is, Of the anointed priests; and that because they were anointed to the office. Here Origen, according to his manner, turns all into allegories and mysteries, and tells us of a threefold sense of Scripture, (1.) Literal; (2.) Moral; (3.) Mystical: comparing them to the gridiron, frying pan, and oven, used in dressing the meat offering. Leviticus 7:9 But this itch of allegorising dark and difficult texts hath no small danger in it. And I may doubt of Origen, as one doth of Jerome, Utrum plus boni peritia linguarum, qua excelluit, an mali suis allegoriis, in quibus dominatus fuit, ecclesiae Dei attulerit; whether he did more harm or good to the Church. Allegorias spumam scripturae vocat Luth., in Gen. iii., p. 67. Amama, Antibarb.