Exodus 29:13

The parts of the sin-offering which were regularly consumed upon the altar: see Leviticus 4:8 f. On the parts in question, see more fully on Leviticus 3:4.

the fat that covereth the entrails] i.e., probably, what is called technically the -great omentum," a highly fatty membrane, which in ruminants covers the whole of the paunch, and extends partially over the intestines. See Leviticusin SBOT., Plate opp. to p. 4, and p. 65; EB.iv. 4206.

the caul(i.e. net) upon the liver the appendix (Heb. the redundance) upon the liver, i.e., as Moore in the Orient. Studien Th. Nöldeke gewidmet(1906), ii. 761 ff., has convincingly shewn, what is called technically the lobus caudatus, or tail-shaped lobe, a small finger-shaped appendix in the Mishna, Tamidiv. 3, it is actually called -the fingerof the liver" projecting from the liver close to the right kidney (cf. Leviticus 3:4, to be rendered as RVm.). This, as Moore shews, is how the term was understood by the oldest interpreters, LXX., Onk., Pesh., and in the Mishna: LXX. ὁ λοβὸς does not mean, as Bochart and many others supposed, -the greaterlobe" of the liver itself, but - thelobe" κατ ʼ ἐξοχήν, i.e. this appendix, which was specially important in ancient divination (cf. Aesch. P. V.495; Eurip. Electra, 828: see also Jastrow in O.T. and Semitic Studies in memory of W. R. Harper, 1908, ii. 289, 294, 326, in a paper on Bab. liver-divination) 1 [210]. It was no doubt this ancient significance of the lobus caudatuswhich led to its being specially selected for consumption upon the altar. The rend, caul(i.e. net, the -lesser omentum") is first found in Jerome (reticulum).

[210] Both Etruscan and Babylonian models of the liver, as mapped out for diviners, shew the lobus caudatusvery distinctly (Moore, 768): see an ill. of a Bab. model in Jeremias, ATLAO.358 (2 590) = Gressmann, Altor. Texte u. Bilder zum AT. (1909), ii. 51.

burn them consume them in sweet smoke: Heb. hiḳṭir, lit. make odorous(the cogn. Arab, means to exhale odourin roasting), or turn into sweet smoke(cf. the Greek κνίση, of the steam of a burning sacrifice, as Il.i. 317). The word is always used of burning either a sacrificial offering or incense; and must be distinguished from sâraph, the ordinary Heb. word for burn(i.e. to destroy by fire) vv.14, 32, &c. In Ex. hiḳṭirrecurs vv.18, 25, Exodus 30:7-8; Exodus 30:20; Exodus 40:27: it is frequent in Lev. (Exodus 1:9; Exodus 1:13, &c.), and also occurs elsewhere (as 2 Kings 16:15).