Restoration, Daily Fire, and the Priests’ Work

In the Hebrew Bible this is 5:20, the middle of the previous chapter. The English chapter it opens is cut four times by the same formula (verses 1, 8, 19, 24), so it holds four separate speeches rather than one continuous law.

The wrongs are specific. “Delivered him to keep” is pikkadon, a deposit; “in fellowship” is tesumet yad, literally “a placing of the hand”, most likely a pledge or a loan on security. “Deceived” is ashaq, to extort or withhold, the verb used of keeping back a hired man’s wages (Deuteronomy 24:14).

Deuteronomy 22:1-3 made returning a neighbour’s lost ox or garment a duty. Here the finder keeps it and swears “falsely”, literally “on a lie”. The Mishnah (Bava Kamma 9:7) held that the ram was owed only when such a false oath had been sworn.

The list of what must go back repeats verse 2 in a new order, violence first, and then adds the lost thing of verse 3. The “fellowship” pledge of verse 2 is the one item not named again, though the next verse’s “all that about which he hath sworn falsely” would cover it.

“In the principal” is berosho, “by its head”, the capital sum; in 1611 English the principal was the capital of a debt as distinct from interest. “To whom it appertaineth” means to whom it belongs, and “in the day” means the repayment falls on the same day as the offering.

“With thy estimation” means the ram was assessed in silver, as in 5:15. Because 5:15 speaks of “shekels” in the plural, the rabbis concluded that the ram must be worth at least two shekels. A cheap ram would not satisfy the law.

This closes the Hebrew chapter 5. These are deliberate wrongs, not mistakes, yet atonement is offered. Jacob Milgrom argued that confession, required in Numbers 5:6-7 for this very case, is what brings a deliberate wrong within reach of the offering.

From here to 7:38 the offerings of chapters 1 to 5 are gone through a second time, now as a manual for the priests: what happens to the fire, the ash, the leftovers and the pots. The first pass taught the worshipper; this one teaches the officiant.

“Command” is tsav, stronger than the “speak” used elsewhere, and it gives this Torah section its Jewish name. Torah here means a ritual instruction, a set procedure. The burnt offering is named from its burning “all night unto the morning”, the evening offering left to smoulder until dawn.

“His linen garment” is middo bad, literally “his measure of linen”, which the rabbis took to mean a tunic fitted exactly to him. The ashes are deshen, a word also meaning fatness, the greasy residue of burnt fat. The daily lifting of the ashes began the priests’ day in the later temple.

Rashi compares the change of clothes to a servant who does not pour his master’s wine in the same clothes he wore to cook the pot. The ashes go out to the same clean place outside the camp where the sin offering bull of 4:12 was burned.

Keeping the altar fire fed took a steady supply of wood. In Nehemiah 10:34 the returned exiles cast lots for which families would bring the “wood offering” at set times each year, as it is written in the law, to keep this fire burning.

“Ever” is tamid, continual, the word used for the lamp that was to burn always in Exodus 27:20. There is a perpetual light inside the tent and a perpetual fire outside it, both tended by the priests.

“Before the LORD, before the altar” places the presentation at the altar’s front. Rashi located it at the south-west corner, the side facing the tent, where the priest brought the offering near before taking the handful.

Out of a tenth of an ephah, the whole offering of 5:11, one fistful goes to the altar. The burned share is a small part of the gift; the name “memorial” marks that small part as standing for the whole of it.

“With unleavened bread shall it be eaten” renders matsot te’akhel, better “as unleavened bread shall it be eaten”; the remainder itself is eaten as matzah, not alongside bread. “The holy place” is defined in the same breath as the court of the tent.

God speaks in the first person: “I have given it unto them… of my offerings”. The priests’ share is given from God’s own portion, not taken from the worshipper. The grain remainder ranks with the sin and trespass offerings as “most holy”.

“All the males” matters because the daughters of priests could eat the lesser holy portions (Numbers 18:11, 19), but not the most holy. The rule divides the priestly household by degree of holiness, not only by family.

This short speech has no “speak unto Aaron” and no “command”. It goes straight from “saying” into the offering itself, as though given to Moses for his own execution at the ordination.

“In the day when he is anointed” and “perpetual” pull in two directions, and the rabbis resolved it by dividing them: every priest brought this once when installed, while the high priest brought it every day, half in the morning and half at evening. The later daily offering was called the chavitin, the griddle cakes.

“When it is baken” renders murbekhet, a word found only here, 7:12 and 1 Chronicles 23:29, probably “well mixed” or “soaked” in oil. “Baken pieces” is tufinei, even more obscure, perhaps broken pieces or cakes baked a second time.

“Wholly burnt” is kalil, entire, a word that also names a whole burnt offering in Deuteronomy 33:10 and 1 Samuel 7:9. The anointed son who succeeds his father inherits the obligation along with the office.

The rule widens from the anointed priest of verse 22 to “the priest”, any priest. Whatever a priest brings as a grain offering is burned entire, and no one, including his household, may eat of it.

The laws of the priests’ portions do not follow chapters 1 to 5 in their original order: the peace offering, which came third, is held back to 7:11. Milgrom saw the reordering as grading them by holiness, with the least holy offering last.

The sin offering is slaughtered at the north of the altar like the burnt offering (1:11). Two offerings of different purpose share one site and one rank: both are “most holy”.

“That offereth it for sin” is one word, hamechatte, “the one who un-sins it”, the verb Psalm 51:7 uses: “Purge me with hyssop”. The priest who performs the cleansing eats the flesh himself, inside the court.

“Sprinkled” here is yizzeh, from nazah, to spatter, the accidental splash of blood on clothing. Even an unintended drop carries the offering’s holiness, and the garment must be washed where the holiness belongs, not taken home first.

“Sodden” is the old past participle of seethe, to boil. Clay absorbs; bronze can be scoured. The same rule of breaking earthenware returns for impurity in 11:33 and 15:12, so the two opposite states, holy and unclean, are handled alike in a clay pot.

Verse 26 gave the flesh to the priest who offered it; this verse lets “all the males among the priests” eat. The usual reconciliation is that the right belongs to the officiant, who may share it with the other male priests.

“To reconcile withal” renders kipper, which the King James usually gives as “make atonement”. The rule is the one Moses invokes in 10:18, when he finds a goat of the sin offering burned instead of eaten: “the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place”.