Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Leviticus 7:1-7
The Law of The Guilt Offering. (Leviticus 7:1).
The overwhelming sense of the holiness of the purification for sin offering now carries over into the consideration of the Guilt Offering. Its holiness is immediately emphasised. And we are also now informed that the priests can partake of the meat of the guilt offering as long as it is in a holy place, as they can presumably of the purification of sin offering, for there is one law for them both.
‘And this is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy. In the place where they kill the whole burnt offering shall they kill the guilt offering; and its blood shall he sprinkle on the altar round about.'
Like the purification for sin offering, the guilt offering too is killed in the place where the whole burnt offering is killed. This would seem to emphasise the priority of the whole burnt offering. That is at the head of all offerings. But the purification for sin and guilt offerings are so holy that they are carried out in the same place as the whole burnt offering.
And the blood of the guilt offering is sprinkled on the altar round about as with the whole burnt offering. This identical application of the blood confirms that the whole burnt offering is also to be seen as an atonement offering as well. But it is different from that for the purification for sin offering where purification for sin on a larger scale has primary importance.
‘And he shall offer of it all its fat; the fat tail, and the fat that covers the innards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the covering on the liver, with the kidneys, shall he take away, and the priest shall burn them on the altar for an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a guilt offering.'
No animal has been identified as yet but this would seem to point to a sheep because of the fat tail (Leviticus 3:9). But he is clearly only summarising and therefore it probably signifies that it could alternatively be a (Leviticus 5:6). The point again being emphasised is that the fat and all the innards are to be offered to Yahweh on the altar, as an offering by fire to Yahweh. Thus the blood and the fat are offered in the usual way. It is then emphasised that it is a guilt offering.
‘Every male among the priests shall eat of it. It shall be eaten in a holy place. It is most holy.'
But the remainder of the guilt offering may be eaten by the priests in a holy place, but only by them for it is most holy.
‘As is the purification for sin offering, so is the guilt offering; there is one law for them: the priest who makes atonement by it, he shall have it.'
Indeed it is like the purification for sin offering, as with the one, so with the other. There is one law for both of them. And they are both most holy. So the main new stress here is on the similarity between the purification for sin offering and the guilt offering, and the holiness of them both, and that the meat and skins from both go to the priests (with some exceptions).