Exodus 23:18

Two regulations respecting sacrifice, designed to guard a sacrifice against contamination by anything corrupt or tainted.

18a. Jehovah's sacrifices not to be offered with leavened bread. Cf. the " Exodus 34:25; Leviticus 2:11; Leviticus 6:17; and the note on ch. Exodus 12:8. -In the earliest times bread was entirely unleavened. Flour or barley was mixed with water and kneaded in a "kneading-bowl" (Exo Exodus 8:3), and then baked into "unleavened cakes" (see on Exodus 12:8), such as are still the usual food of the Bedawin. In a more advanced stage of society the bread was made in this way only in cases of emergency (Genesis 19:3), or for purposes of ritual. The ordinary bread of the Hebrews was made lighter by fermentation" (Kennedy, in EB.i. 604). The reason why leavened bread was prohibited for ritual purposes was, probably, partly because unleavened bread had the sanction of antiquity (Kennedy, ib.iii. 2753), partly because leaven, being produced by fermentation, was regarded as tainted with a species of corruption (ib.p. 2754; OTJC.2 [194] p. 345; Rel. Sem.p. 203 f., Exodus 2, p. 220 f.). Leavened bread was permitted only when the offering was not to be placed upon the altar, but eaten by the priests, Leviticus 7:13; Leviticus 23:17; Leviticus 23:20 end.

[194] W. R. Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892.

offer lit. killor slay(Deuteronomy 12:15), but the word (zâbaḥ) is nearly always used of slaying for sacrifice (cf. on Exodus 20:24). It occurs only here with -blood" as its object. In the ", Exodus 34:25 a, slaughter(shâḥaṭ) is used: this is often said of the slaughter of an animal for sacrifice Exodus 29:11; Leviticus 1:5, &c.), but, like zâbaḥ, is not found elsewhere with blood" as its object. The use of both words in this law is peculiar.

18b. The fat of a festal sacrifice, which, like the fat of other sacrifices, as the most esteemed part of the animal, was regularly consumed in sweet smoke (see on Exodus 29:13) upon the altar (Leviticus 1:8; Leviticus 3:3 f. &c.), as an offering to the Deity, is not to remain unburnt till the next morning (when it would in any case be stale, and in a hot climate might even be tainted). The fat meant is not all fat found in an animal, but specifically that about the kidneys and other intestines (Leviticus 3:3 f.: Rel. Sem.2 [195] 379 f.; EB.ii. 1545; Driver and White, Leviticusin Haupt's Sacred Books of the OT., illustr. opp. to p. 4).

[195] W. R. Smith, The Religion of the Semites, ed. 2, 1894.

the fat of my feast Lit. of my pilgrimage(Heb. ḥag), i.e. of the animals sacrificed at my pilgrimages (cf. Malachi 2:3; Psalms 118:27 Heb.).

The ", Exodus 34:25 b, has -the sacrifice of the pilgrimage of the passover"; hence it is commonly thought that the reference (in both clauses) is to the passover (so already Onk., expressly in cl. a, and by implication cl. b). No doubt these two regulations might have been formulated at a time when the Passover was the principal Heb. sacrifice: on the other hand, this is nowhere else (except in Exodus 34:25) called a ḥag; and (Di.) the terms being perfectly general, the limitation seems hardly legitimate: the fat pieces of a sacrifice offered at anypilgrimage are to be burnt upon the altar the same day. Why the regulation is limited to these sacrifices does not appear: was it because greater strictness and formality were expected on these occasions than when the sacrifice was an ordinary private one? There are similar regulations in P for the flesh, not only of the Passover (ch. Exodus 12:10), but also of the ram of installation (Exodus 29:34), and of the thanksgiving-offering (Leviticus 7:15; Leviticus 22:30). The fatof the Passover is not elsewhere specified.