The Wave Breast and the Heave Thigh
28 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 29 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to Yahweh shall bring his offering to Yahweh out of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. 30 With his own hands he shall bring the offerings of Yahweh made by fire. He shall bring the fat with the breast, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before Yahweh. 31 The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. 32 The right thigh you shall give to the priest for a heave offering out of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. 33 He among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right thigh for a portion. 34 For the waved breast and the heaved thigh I have taken from the children of Israel out of the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel.’” 35 This is the consecrated portion of Aaron, and the consecrated portion of his sons, out of the offerings of Yahweh made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister to Yahweh in the priest’s office; 36 which Yahweh commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them. It is their portion forever throughout their generations. 37 This is the law of the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, the consecration, and the sacrifice of peace offerings 38 which Yahweh commanded Moses in Mount Sinai in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their offerings to Yahweh, in the wilderness of Sinai.
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.
settled What this mark means