Bible Strands
Leviticus 2:11
No grain offering that you present to the LORD may be made with leaven, for you are not to burn any leaven or honey as a food offering to the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God instructs Israel on the regulations for presenting grain offerings, specifying the required ritual procedure before the altar.
The words — The text uses חָמֵץ (cha.Metz), meaning leaven, and מִנְחָה (minChah), meaning grain offering, to establish the specific boundary of the command.
The thread — The restriction on leaven in offerings appears in Exodus 23:18, while leaven later functions as a metaphor in Galatians 5:9 and Luke 12:1.
Why it lands — The text commands that neither leaven nor honey be burned as a food offering to the LORD, requiring strict compliance with ritual boundaries in worship.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire.
Cross-references
- Luke 12:1 In the meantime, a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling one another. Jesus began to speak first to His disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
- Galatians 5:9 A little leaven works through the whole batch of dough.
- Exodus 23:18 You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning.
- Exodus 12:19 For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.
- Leviticus 6:16 Aaron and his sons are to eat the remainder. It must be eaten without leaven in a holy place; they are to eat it in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.
- Proverbs 24:13 Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
- Proverbs 25:16 If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up.
- Proverbs 25:27 It is not good to eat too much honey or to search out one’s own glory.
- Mark 8:15 “Watch out!” He cautioned them. “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
- Luke 21:34 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.