Lev 22:19-25 | KD | STEP | Acceptable Sacrifices. - -20. Every sacrifice offered to the Lord by an Israelite or foreigner, in consequence of a vow or as a freewill-offering (cf. ), was to be faultless and male, “for good pleasure to the offerer” (cf. ), i.e., to secure for him the good pleasure of God. An animal with a fault would not be acceptable.

‏ Leviticus 22:19-25

Acceptable Sacrifices. - Lev 22:18-20. Every sacrifice offered to the Lord by an Israelite or foreigner, in consequence of a vow or as a freewill-offering (cf. Lev 7:16), was to be faultless and male, “for good pleasure to the offerer” (cf. Lev 1:3), i.e., to secure for him the good pleasure of God. An animal with a fault would not be acceptable. Lev 22:21-22

Every peace-offering was also to be faultless, whether brought “to fulfil a special (important) vow” (cf. Num 15:3, Num 15:8 : פּלּא, from פּלא to be great, distinguished, wonderful), or as a freewill gift; that is to say, it was to be free from such faults as blindness, or a broken limb (from lameness therefore: Deu 15:21), or cutting (i.e., mutilation, answering to חרוּם Lev 21:18), or an abscess (יבּלת, from יבל to flow, probably a flowing suppurating abscess). Lev 22:23

As a voluntary peace-offering they might indeed offer an ox or sheep that was רקלוּט שׂרוּע, “stretched out and drawn together,” i.e., with the whole body or certain limbs either too large or too small; ^{▼▼In explanation of these words Knobel very properly remarks, that with the Greeks the sacrificial animal was required to be ἀφελής (Pollux i. 1, 26), upon which Hesychius observes, μήτε πλεονάζων μήτε δέων τι τοῦ σώματος.} but such an animal could not be acceptable as a votive offering. Lev 22:24

Castrated animals were not to be sacrificed, nor in fact to be kept in the land at all. מעוּך compressus, θλιβίας, an animal with the stones crushed; כּתוּת contusus, θλασίας, with them beaten to pieces; נתוּק avulsus, σπάδων, with them twisted off; כּרוּי excisus, τομίας or ἐκτομίας, with them cut off. In all these different ways was the operation performed among the ancients (cf. Aristot. hist. an. ix. 37, 3; Colum. vi. 26, vii. 11; Pallad. vi. 7). “And in your land ye shall not make,” sc., וגו מעוּך, i.e., castrated animals, that is to say, “not castrate animals.” This explanation, which is the one given by Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 40) and all the Rabbins, is required by the expression “in your land,” which does not at all suit the interpretation adopted by Clericus and Knobel, who understand by עשׂה the preparation of sacrifices, for sacrifices were never prepared outside the land. The castration of animals is a mutilation of God’s creation, and the prohibition of it was based upon the same principle as that of mixing heterogeneous things in Lev 19:19. Lev 22:25-26

Again, the Israelites were not to accept any one of all these, i.e., the faulty animals described, as sacrifice from a foreigner. “For their corruption is in them,” i.e., something corrupt, a fault, adheres to them; so that such offerings could not procure good pleasure towards them. - In Lev 22:26-30 three laws are given of a similar character.