Biblion Bible Commentary
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The Wave Breast and the Heave Thigh
Leviticus 7:28-38
28 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, · WEB
The priests are paid out of the peace offerings, and the man who did the work at the altar gets the better portion.
The section closes the sacrificial law by settling how the priests are fed, and the arrangement is precise about who receives what.
The worshiper brings the fat and the breast with his own hands Leviticus 7:30. The phrase matters. He does not send it, and he does not hand the whole animal to an official at the gate; the parts that are not his are carried up by him personally.
The fat is burned. The breast shall be Aaron's and his sons' Leviticus 7:31 — that is, it goes to the priesthood generally. And the right thigh, the better cut, goes to one man in particular: he among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right thigh Leviticus 7:33.
The priest who actually did the work that day gets the larger portion. The rest of the household eats the breast. It is a payment structure rather than a stipend, and it ties income to service performed.
The grant is then stated in a way that removes it from anyone's discretion: I have taken from the children of Israel... and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their portion forever Leviticus 7:34.
God takes and God gives. The priests are not receiving a gratuity from grateful worshipers, and no Israelite is in a position to withhold or to patronize. The transaction runs through the altar in both directions.
And the timing is dated: this became theirs in the day that he anointed them Leviticus 7:36. The livelihood begins with the ordination, which is the next thing the book describes.
The closing summary lists the six laws just given — burnt offering, meal offering, sin offering, trespass offering, consecration, peace offerings Leviticus 7:37 — and fixes them at Sinai, in the wilderness of Sinai Leviticus 7:38.
With that, the instructions are complete. Everything so far has been said. The next chapter is the first time in the book that anyone does anything.
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