Bible Strands
Leviticus 3:16
Then the priest is to burn the food on the altar as a food offering, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the LORD’s.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The priest executes ritual instructions directed to the Israelites during the tabernacle sacrificial system. He acts immediately after removing the kidneys and liver fat as specified in the preceding verse.
The words — וְ/הִקְטִירָ֥/ם (ve./hik.ti.Ra/m) = and he will make smoke/ them. לְ/רֵ֣יחַ נִיחֹ֔חַ (le./Rei.ach ni.Cho.ach) = to an odor of soothing.
The thread — The requirement to burn specific fats and the parallel prohibition against eating them run through Leviticus 7:23, Exodus 29:13, and Exodus 29:22.
Why it lands — The text establishes that the designated fat belongs exclusively to the LORD and must be burned on the altar. The reader must accept this as a permanent statutory boundary that prohibits consuming fat or blood.
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
And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the Lord’s.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 7:23 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘You are not to eat any of the fat of an ox, a sheep, or a goat.
- Exodus 29:13 Take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar.
- Exodus 29:22 Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh (since this is a ram for ordination),
- Leviticus 3:3 From the peace offering he is to bring a food offering to the LORD: the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,
- Leviticus 3:9 And from the peace offering he shall bring a food offering to the LORD consisting of its fat: the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone, the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,
- Leviticus 3:14 And from his offering he shall present a food offering to the LORD: the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,
- Leviticus 4:8 Then he shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering—the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,
- Leviticus 4:26 He must burn all its fat on the altar, like the fat of the peace offerings; thus the priest will make atonement for that man’s sin, and he will be forgiven.
- Leviticus 4:31 Then he is to remove all the fat, just as it is removed from the peace offering, and the priest is to burn it on the altar as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.
- 1 Samuel 2:15 Even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast, because he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”