Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/843

 for the flesh, every clean person shall eat flesh,” i.e., take part in the sacrificial meal.

verses 22-23
On the other hand, “the soul which eats flesh of the peace-offering, and his uncleanness is upon him (for “whilst uncleanness is upon him;” the suffix is to be understood as referring to נפשׁ construed as a masculine, see Lev 2:1), “shall be cut off” (see Gen 17:14). This was to be done, whether the uncleanness arose from contact with an unclean object (any unclean thing), or from the uncleanness of man (cf. ch. 12-15), or from an unclean beast (see at Lev 11:4-8), or from any other unclean abomination. שׁקץ, abomination, includes the unclean fishes, birds, and smaller animals, to which this expression is applied in Lev 11:10-42 (cf. Eze 8:10 and Isa 66:17). Moreover contact with animals that were pronounced unclean so far as eating was concerned, did not produce uncleanness so long as they were alive, or if they had been put to death by man; but contact with animals that had died a natural death, whether they belonged to the edible animals or not, that is to say, with carrion (see at Lev 11:8). There is appended to these regulations, as being substantially connected with them, the prohibition of fat and blood as articles of food (Lev 7:22-27). By “the fat of ox, or of sheep, or of goat,” i.e., the three kinds of animals used in sacrifice, or “the fat of the beast of which men offer a firing to Jehovah” (Lev 7:25), we are to understand only those portions of fat which are mentioned in Lev 3:3-4, Lev 3:9; not fat which grows in with the flesh, nor the fat portions of other animals, which were clean but not allowed as sacrifices, such as the stag, the antelope, and other kinds of game.

verses 24-27
The fat of cattle that had fallen (נבלה), or been torn to pieces (viz., by beasts of prey), was not to be eaten, because it was unclean and defiled the eater (Lev 17:15; Lev 22:8); but it might be applied “to all kinds of uses,” i.e., to the common purposes of ordinary life. Knobel observes on this, that “in the case of oxen, sheep, and goats slain in the regular way, this was evidently not allowable. But the law does not say what was to be done with the fat of these animals.” Certainly it does not disertis verbis; but indirectly it does so clearly enough. According to Lev 17:3., during the journey through the desert any one who wanted to slaughter an ox, sheep, or goat was to bring the animal to the tabernacle as a sacrificial gift, that the blood might be sprinkled against