Leviticus 3:17

[It shall be] a perpetual statute for your generations,.... That is, unto the end of the Mosaic dispensation, until the Messiah comes, and his sacrifice is offered up, and his blood is shed, till

It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. Ye eat neither fat nor blood.

Throughout all your dwellings; not only at or near the tabernacle, nor only of those beasts which you actually sacrifice, but also in your several dwellings, and of all that kind of beasts. That ye eat neither fat: this was forbidden, 1. To preserve the reverence of the holy rites and sacrifices. 2. That they might be taught hereby to acknowledge God as their Lord, and the Lord of all the creatures, who might reserve what he pleased to himself. 3. To exercise them in obedience to God, and self-denial, and mortification of their appetites, even in those things which probably many of them would much desire. Nor blood: this was forbidden, partly, to maintain reverence to God and his worship; partly, out of opposition to idolaters, who used to drink the blood of their sacrifices; partly, with respect unto Christ’ s blood, thereby manifestly signified; and partly, for moral admonition about avoiding cruelty, &c.

Leviticus 3:17 [It shall be] a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.Ver. 17. That ye neither eat fat nor blood.] Neither be carnal nor cruel; but let your souls delight in the fatness and sweetness of God’ s ordinances.

(17) A perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings.—Better, a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings; so the Authorised Version in the only three other passages in which it occurs. (Comp. Leviticus 23:14; Leviticus 23:21, where it is inverted; and 31.) That is, the law not to eat fat of beeves, sheep, or goats, is to be binding upon the Israelites throughout all their future generations, and is applicable to any place wherever they may dwell. As the full legislative formula only occurs four times in the Pentateuch, and is restricted to this book, it is important to render it uniformly in all the four passages. For the import of this statute see Leviticus 7:23-25.

Verse 17. That ye eat neither fat nor blood.] It is not likely that the fat should be forbidden in the same manner and in the same latitude as the blood. The blood was the life of the beast, and that was offered to make an atonement for their souls; consequently, this was never eaten in all their generations: but it was impossible to separate the fat from the flesh, which in many parts is so intimately intermixed with the muscular fibres; but the blood, being contained in separate vessels, the arteries and veins, might with great ease be entirely removed by cutting the throat of the animal, which was the Jewish method. By the fat therefore mentioned here and in the preceding verse, we may understand any fat that exists in a separate or unmixed state, such as the omentum or caul, the fat of the mesentery, the fat on the kidneys, and whatever else of the internal fat was easily separable, together with the whole of the tail already described. And probably it was the fat of such animals only as were offered to God in sacrifice, that was unlawful to be eaten. As all temporal as well as spiritual blessings come from God, he has a right to require that such of them should be dedicated to his service as he may think proper to demand. He required the most perfect of all the animals, and the best parts of these perfect animals. This he did, not that he needed any thing, but to show the perfection of his nature and the purity of his service. Had he condescended to receive the meanest animals and the meanest parts of animals as his offerings, what opinion could his worshippers have entertained of the perfection of his nature? If such imperfect offerings were worthy of this God, then his nature must be only worthy of such offerings. It is necessary that every thing employed in the worship of God should be the most perfect of its kind that the time and circumstances can afford. As sensible things are generally the medium through which spiritual impressions are made, and the impression usually partakes of the nature of the medium through which these impressions are communicated; hence every thing should not only be decent, but as far as circumstances will admit dignified, in the worship of God: the object of religious worship, the place in which he is worshipped, and the worship itself, should have the strongest and most impressive correspondence possible.

17. Fat and blood forbidden The prohibition is repeated more fully in Leviticus 7:23-27; cp. Leviticus 17:10 f. Note the 2nd pers. plur., and for the expression ‘a perpetual statute, etc.’ cp. Leviticus 23:14; Leviticus 23:21; Leviticus 23:31; Exodus 12:14; Exodus 12:17; Exodus 12:24.

Blood - See Leviticus 17:11 note. Throughout all your dwellings - The suet was neither to be eaten in sacrificial meals in the sanctuary, nor in ordinary meals in private houses.

17. A perpetual statute — The Hebrew word olam, here translated perpetual, is sometimes used for future duration without end, as the eternal existence of God, (Genesis 21:33,) but it often signifies