The Law · Chapter 7 of 27
Leviticus 7
The priestly instructions continue with the trespass and peace offerings. Priests receive designated portions: the hide of the burnt offering, the baked grain offerings, and the breast and right shoulder of the peace offering. Thanksgiving offerings must be eaten the same day, vows within two. Israel is again forbidden to eat fat or blood, on pain of being cut off from the people.
What happens in Leviticus 7
God completes the handbook of offerings. The trespass offering is handled like the sin offering, its blood dashed on the altar and its fat burned, with the priest who offers it receiving the meat. Priestly portions are carefully assigned: the officiating priest keeps the hide of a burnt offering, and baked or fried grain offerings go to the priest who presents them. The peace offering gets the fullest treatment.
If brought for thanksgiving it must be eaten the same day, leaving nothing till morning; if for a vow or freewill gift, it may be eaten on the next day too, but never the third, or it is rejected as unclean. The breast is waved and the right shoulder given to the priests as their perpetual due. Twice more the chapter forbids eating fat or blood, warning that the offender will be cut off from his people.
Leviticus 7 in context
This closes the section of priestly regulations that began in chapter 6, and it ends by noting that these laws were given at Mount Sinai on the day God commanded Israel to present offerings. The chapter shows how the sacrificial system also sustained the priests, who had no farmland of their own, feeding them from the altar.
Worship and the support of God's ministers were woven together.
Main themes of Leviticus 7
Leviticus 7 (KJV)
1Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy. 2In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar. 3And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, 4And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away: 5And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a trespass offering. 6Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy. 7As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it. 8And the priest that offereth any man’s burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered. 9And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it. 10And every meat offering, mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another. 11And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD. 12If 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. 13Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. 14And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the LORD, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings. 15And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. 16But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten: 17But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. 18And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. 19And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. 20But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. 21Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. 22And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 23Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. 24And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it. 25For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. 26Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. 27Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. 28And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 29Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the LORD shall bring his oblation unto the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 30His 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. 31And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. 32And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. 33He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part. 34For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel. 35This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the LORD in the priest’s office; 36Which the LORD commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations. 37This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings; 38Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.
Verses to carry from Leviticus 7
“And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.”Leviticus 7:15
“Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.”Leviticus 7:26
“For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel.”Leviticus 7:34
Thematic connection
How Leviticus 7 points to Jesus
The peace offering's shared meal, and the thanksgiving that had to be eaten at once, anticipate the joyful communion believers find in Christ, the fulfillment of every fellowship offering. The New Testament grounds this fellowship not in the fat and blood of animals but in Christ's own blood, once shed. Where Israel could not consume the blood because the life belonged to God, the gospel astonishes by inviting the disciples to drink the cup of the new covenant in His blood, the very life poured out to give life.
The provision that fed the priests from the altar foreshadows Paul's word that those who preach the gospel should live from it. These are thematic connections drawn by later reading; the chapter offers instruction, not prophecy.
Questions about Leviticus 7
How did the priests get their food in Leviticus 7?
The priests had no farmland of their own, so God fed them from the offerings. This chapter assigns them specific portions: the hide of the burnt offering, the baked and fried grain offerings, and the breast and right shoulder of the peace offering. As they served at the altar, they were sustained by it. Worship and the support of God's ministers were bound together in the same system.
Why did the thanksgiving offering have to be eaten the same day?
The peace offering brought for thanksgiving had to be eaten on the day it was offered, with nothing left until morning. The rule pressed the worshipper to share the feast at once, gathering family and neighbors into the celebration rather than hoarding the meat. Gratitude was meant to be immediate and communal, a joy spent freely in fellowship rather than stored up for oneself.
Reflection
There is something bracing about a thankfulness that must be spent the same day. This chapter will not let gratitude be hoarded or fellowship postponed. It also quietly cares for those who serve, feeding the priests from the altar. Worship here is generous on every side, quick to share joy and faithful to provide for God's servants.
A prayer from Leviticus 7
Read the whole Bible with the family
Open it in the app, study it live with someone, and let it lead you to Christ.
Open the BibleRead it togetherSee what God is doing