Leviticus 2
16 Jul 2026 - Theology
The Meal Offering
This chapter describes the meal-offering, which the King James Version (KJV) translates as “meat offering” because, when the translation was completed in 1611, the English word “meat” referred to food in general, not specifically animal flesh.
This meal-offering was grain or flour mixed with oil and salt and sometimes sprinkled with frankincense (to make a more pleasant aroma).
Leviticus 2:11 - “No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire.”
The Torah says that the Lord wishes no leaven on the altar. Leaven is anything like yeast that causes flour to rise.
All throughout the year, the Jewish people eat bread made with leaven. But one week each year, during Passover, they remove all leaven from their homes and eat only matzah, unleavened bread. This stems from a command of the Lord during Passover:
Exodus 12:15 - “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.”
By removing anything with leaven during Passover, the Jewish people aim to make their homes holy the way the Lord’s altar is holy (as here in Leviticus).
The Lord also commands here in Leviticus that every meal-offering be offered with salt. Salt helps to preserve foods, and was used in almost everything that was eaten.
Leviticus 2:13 - “And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.”
References
- The Hebrew - Greek Key Study Bible (KJV Version)
- The Torah Portion-by-Portion by Rabbi Seymour Rossel (2007)