Leviticus 22:26

²⁵Neither you nor a foreigner shall present food to your God from any such animal. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and flawed.’”²⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁷“When an ox, a sheep, or a goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Summary

In Leviticus 22:26, God instructs the Israelites regarding the acceptable animals for sacrifice, emphasizing that the animals must be without any defects in order to be considered suitable offerings. This requirement reflects the holiness and perfection of God, as well as the importance of offering the best to Him. By presenting unblemished sacrifices, the Israelites demonstrate their reverence and obedience to God's commands, acknowledging His supreme authority and worthiness of worship.

Commentary

John Gill

John Gill Bible Commentary

When a bullock, or a sheep, or a goat, is brought forth,.... Those three are only mentioned, because they were only made use of in sacrifice, to which this law refers: then it shall be seven days under the dam; whether a calf, or a lamb, or a kid of the goats; it was not to be taken from its dam and killed, either for food or sacrifice, before it was seven days old: Fagius says, the Hebrews give two reasons why a creature might not be offered before the eighth day; one is, that a sabbath might pass over it, nothing being perfect and consistent without it, that giving, as they say (d) perfection and consistence to all the things of the world; and the other, as the heavens and the earth being perfected in seven days, a creature which lives so long seems to be, as it were, perfect; but he observes, if we inquire after the mystical sense of it, a better reason is to be given, namely, that Christ, the type of all the sacrifices, was not to be offered, or suffer death in his infancy, which Herod contrived, but at man's estate; and to show that no man is fit to be a propitiatory sacrifice, through weakness and inability, being unable to stand before the justice of God, only Christ, in whom is perfection of strength: and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord; become an acceptable burnt offering to God; so Pliny (e) says, that the young of sheep are fit for sacrifice on the eighth day, and of an ox on the thirtieth day; see Exo 22:30. (d) Tzerer Hammor, fol. 104. 2. (e) Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 51.