private sacrifices, but also to those of the congregation, which were prescribed by special laws for every day, and for the annual festivals, as well as to the sacrifices of purification and consecration, for which no separate ritual is enjoined.
1. General Rules for the Sacrifices - Leviticus 1-5
The common term for sacrifices of every kind was Corban (presentation; see at Lev 1:2). It is not only applied to the burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, and slain or peace-offerings, in Lev 1:2-3, Lev 1:10, Lev 1:14; Lev 2:1, Lev 2:4., Lev 3:1-6, etc., but also to the sin-offerings and trespass-offerings in Lev 4:23, Lev 4:28, Lev 4:32; Lev 5:11; Num 5:15, etc., as being holy gifts (Exo 28:38 cf. Num 18:9) with which Israel was to appear before the face of the Lord (Exo 23:15; Deu 16:16-17). These sacrificial gifts consisted partly of clean tame animals and birds, and partly of vegetable productions; and hence the division into the two classes of bleeding and bloodless (bloody and unbloody) sacrifices. The animals prescribed in the law are those of the herd, and the flock, the latter including both sheep and goats (Lev 1:2-3, Lev 1:10; Lev 22:21; Num 15:3), two collective terms, for which ox and sheep, or goat (ox, sheep and goat) were the nomina usitatis (Lev 7:23; Lev 17:3; Lev 22:19, Lev 22:27; Num 15:11; Deu 14:4), that is to say, none but tame animals whose flesh was eaten (Lev 11:3; Deu 14:4); whereas unclean animals, though tame, such as asses, camels, and swine, were inadmissible; and game, though edible, e.g., the hare, the stag, the roebuck, and gazelle (Deu 14:5). Both male and female were offered in sacrifice, from the herd as well as the flock (Lev 3:1), and young as well as old, though not under eighty days old (Lev 22:27; Exo 22:29); so that the ox was offered either as calf (Lev 9:2; Gen 15:9; 1Sa 16:2) or as bullock, i.e., as young steer or heifer (Lev 4:3), or as full-grown cattle. Every sacrificial animal was to be without blemish, i.e., free from bodily faults (Lev 1:3, Lev 1:10; Lev 22:19.). The only birds that were offered were turtle-doves and young pigeons (Lev 1:14), which were presented either by poor people as burnt-offerings, and as a substitute for the larger animals ordinarily required as sin-offerings and trespass-offerings (Lev 5:7; Lev 12:8; Lev 14:22, Lev 14:31), or as sin and burnt-offerings, for defilements of a less serious kind (Lev 12:6-7; Lev 15:14, Lev 15:29-30; Num 6:10-11). The vegetable
