Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD instructs Moses to deliver a dietary prohibition to the Israelites, positioned between regulations on handling fat from ritually slaughtered and naturally deceased animals.
The words — חֵ֜לֶב (Che.lev) literally means "fat" or "grease," and דַּבֵּ֛ר (da.Ber) is a command to "speak" or "proclaim" directly to the people.
The thread — The prohibition against eating animal fat appears in Leviticus 3:16, which states all fat belongs to the LORD, and is reinforced in Leviticus 4:8 and 17:6, where priests remove and burn fat on the altar. Leviticus 7:22 and 7:24 frame this rule by clarifying that fat from animals found dead or mauled may be used for other purposes but remains forbidden for consumption.
Why it lands — The text requires immediate dietary compliance by banning the consumption of specific animal fat, demanding the reader distinguish between consecrated ritual portions and ordinary food.
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
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.
Cross-references
- 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.
- 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 17:6 The priest will then splatter the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 32:38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter!
- 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.”
- 1 Samuel 2:29 Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’
- Acts 28:27 For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’
- Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- Romans 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.