or an abscess (יבּלת, from יבל to flow, probably a flowing suppurating abscess).
Verse 23
As a voluntary peace-offering they might indeed offer an ox or sheep that was רקלוּט שׂרוּע, “stretched out and drawn together,” i.e., with the whole body or certain limbs either too large or too small;[1] but such an animal could not be acceptable as a votive offering.
Verse 24
Castrated animals were not to be sacrificed, nor in fact to be kept in the land at all. מעוּך compressus, θλιβίας, an animal with the stones crushed; כּתוּת contusus, θλασίας, with them beaten to pieces; נתוּק avulsus, σπάδων, with them twisted off; כּרוּי excisus, τομίας or ἐκτομίας, with them cut off. In all these different ways was the operation performed among the ancients (cf. Aristot. hist. an. ix. 37, 3; Colum. vi. 26, vii. 11; Pallad. vi. 7). “And in your land ye shall not make,” sc., וגו מעוּך, i.e., castrated animals, that is to say, “not castrate animals.” This explanation, which is the one given by Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 40) and all the Rabbins, is required by the expression “in your land,” which does not at all suit the interpretation adopted by Clericus and Knobel, who understand by עשׂה the preparation of sacrifices, for sacrifices were never prepared outside the land. The castration of animals is a mutilation of God's creation, and the prohibition of it was based upon the same principle as that of mixing heterogeneous things in Lev 19:19.
verses 25-26
Again, the Israelites were not to accept any one of all these, i.e., the faulty animals described, as sacrifice from a foreigner. “For their corruption is in them,” i.e., something corrupt, a fault, adheres to them; so that such offerings could not procure good pleasure towards them. - In Lev 22:26-30 three laws are given of a similar character.
Verse 27
A young ox, sheep, or goat was to be seven days under its mother, and could only be sacrificed from the eighth day onwards, according to the rule laid down in Exo 22:29 with regard to the first-born. The reason for this was, that the young animal had not attained to a mature and self-sustained life during the first week of its existence.[2]
- ↑ In explanation of these words Knobel very properly remarks, that with the Greeks the sacrificial animal was required to be ἀφελής (Pollux i. 1, 26), upon which Hesychius observes, μήτε πλεονάζων μήτε δέων τι τοῦ σώματος.
- ↑ For this reason the following rule was also laid down by the Romans: Suis faetus sacrificio die quinto purus est, pecoris die octavo, bovis tricesimo (Plin. h. n. 8, 51).
