Concluding Regulations

Study notes

The LORD fixes the portions that belong to the priests from each peace offering by requiring the worshiper to carry forward the breast for waving and the right leg as a contribution. After the fat is burned, the breast passes to Aaron and his sons as a group while the leg goes to the priest who presents the blood and fat. These assignments are presented as the LORD's own taking and giving, established on the day Aaron and his sons were anointed and commanded at Mount Sinai for all generations. The summary gathers every offering under the same body of instruction, showing that the principle of priestly provision from the altar rests on divine command rather than later custom.

What is Concluding Regulations about?

The LORD addresses Moses with instructions that close the series of rules for Israel's offerings. The one presenting a peace offering must bring specific portions from his own sacrifice. His hands carry the food offerings, the fat upon the breast, and the breast itself to be waved before the LORD. The priest burns the fat on the altar, yet the breast belongs to Aaron and his sons. A right leg is also given as a contribution to the priest who handles the blood and fat.

These assignments are presented as the LORD's own decision, taken from the sons of Israel and granted to the priests as a permanent statute. The text links the portions directly to the day Aaron and his sons were anointed for service. The same commands cover the burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, ordination, and peace offering alike. They were given at Mount Sinai when the people first received directions for presenting their gifts in the wilderness.

The verses therefore settle how the peace offering reaches the altar and how its parts are divided before the account moves to the priests' ordination.

Where does this passage sit in Leviticus?

These verses close the long sequence of offering regulations that began in chapter 1. After the short prohibition against eating fat or blood in 7:22-27, the LORD returns to the peace offering and spells out exactly which parts the worshiper must carry forward in his own hands. The breast is waved and then allotted to the priests; the right leg is assigned as a contribution to the officiating priest. Both gifts are called a permanent statute, the same language used earlier for the portions that belong to Aaron and his sons.

The summary in verses 37-38 gathers every offering treated so far under one heading. Burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, ordination, and peace offering are now listed together as a single body of instruction given at Mount Sinai. The repeated reference to the day Aaron and his sons were anointed links the priestly shares directly to the events that will be narrated in chapter 8. By placing this summary immediately before the ordination account, the text marks the end of the prescriptive section and prepares for the first actual performance of these rites.

The final verse also recalls the wilderness setting where the commands were first delivered. This brief return to Sinai keeps the focus on the original divine word rather than on later practice, so that the regulations stand as the fixed standard for all future generations of priests and worshipers.

How is the passage structured?

The block opens with the LORD addressing Moses directly in 7:28 and immediately shifts to a command that Moses must relay to the sons of Israel. Verse 29 narrows the focus to the individual who brings a peace offering, requiring him to present his own portions from that sacrifice. The next two verses detail the physical actions: the offerer’s hands carry the food offerings and the breast for waving, after which the priest burns only the fat while the breast is assigned to Aaron and his sons.

A fresh directive appears in 7:32, now addressing the reader in the second person and introducing the right leg as a separate contribution. Verse 33 then identifies the precise recipient—the priest who handles the blood and fat—creating a tight link between ritual action and portion. Verse 34 supplies the divine rationale in first-person speech, stating that both the breast and the leg have been taken from the sons of Israel and given to the priests as a permanent statute.

The movement widens again in 7:35–36, connecting these allocations to the day of anointing and extending the statute across generations. Verse 37 gathers the entire series of offerings—burnt, grain, sin, guilt, ordination, and peace—under a single heading of instruction. The final verse anchors every preceding command at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, closing the sequence with a precise geographical and temporal marker rather than an additional ritual rule.

What is the historical background?

The portions assigned in these verses reflect a broader ancient practice in which temple personnel received designated shares from sacrifices rather than holding agricultural land. In Israel's case the priests and their families lived from what the altar returned after the LORD received the fat. The breast that is waved and the right leg set apart as a contribution therefore functioned as regular support for Aaron and his sons once the tabernacle service began.

The wave offering itself involved lifting the breast before the LORD, a physical action performed by the worshiper's own hands. After this presentation the breast remained with the priests while the fat alone went onto the altar. The right leg went specifically to the priest who handled the blood and fat, marking a distinction between the general priestly household and the individual who performed the central acts at the altar.

The text twice anchors these rules to the day of anointing. That ceremony, described later in the book, marked the formal installation of Aaron and his sons. By tying the portions to that single day the law treats the arrangement as established precedent rather than a later development. The same verses locate the giving of the commands at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, the place where the covenant people first received the full set of instructions for offerings.

The phrase "permanent statute for their generations" indicates that the allocation was meant to continue as long as the sacrificial system itself continued. No manuscript evidence suggests these verses circulated separately from the surrounding chapters; they appear consistently in the received Hebrew tradition as the closing summary of the offering legislation.

What does this passage teach about God?

The LORD's words fix the portions of the peace offering as his own decision rather than an arrangement left open to the offerer. The one who presents the sacrifice must bring the food offerings, the fat that lies upon the breast, and the breast itself so that it may be waved before the LORD. After the priest burns the fat on the altar, the breast passes to Aaron and his sons, while the right leg is assigned to the priest who has handled the blood and the fat. These movements are described as the LORD taking from the sons of Israel and giving to the priests, a transfer that rests on his command alone.

The same speech connects these gifts to the day Aaron and his sons were anointed. The food offerings become the concrete means by which the priests receive their share on the day they are presented to minister. The statute is declared permanent for their generations, and the list of offerings covered by the same rule shows that the principle applies across burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, guilt offering, ordination, and peace offering alike. The origin of the rule is placed at Mount Sinai, where the LORD first directed the sons of Israel to bring their offerings in the wilderness.

What emerges is a picture of worship in which the people act by bringing designated parts with their own hands, yet the allocation itself originates in the LORD's prior taking and giving. The priests do not claim the portions by right of office alone; they receive them because the LORD has assigned them from the sacrifices. Human obedience consists in carrying out the specified actions, while the outcome of those actions remains governed by the statute that links priestly service to these provisions. The repeated emphasis on the LORD's command at Sinai keeps the focus on his initiative in establishing both the offerings and the means of sustaining those who serve at the altar.

What are the interpretive difficulties?

The assignment of the right leg creates a narrower claim than the breast. Verse 33 states that the priest who presents the blood and the fat receives the leg as his portion, while verse 31 assigns the breast to Aaron and his sons as a group. The wording leaves open whether every priest who ever handled a peace offering kept a leg or whether only the officiating priest on a given day did so. Later practice would have required some agreed procedure, yet the text supplies none.

Verses 37 and 38 list six categories of offering and then locate all the preceding commands at Sinai. The detailed rules for breast and leg, however, appear only in the section on peace offerings. Readers therefore differ on whether the summary intends to extend those portions to burnt, grain, sin, guilt, and ordination offerings or whether it simply gathers the instructions already given. The passage itself does not decide the question.

The repeated phrase “permanent statute” appears in verses 34 and 36. It asserts that the portions belong to the priests across generations, yet the text never describes how the assignment would be enforced once Israel settled in the land or how families without direct descent from Aaron would be excluded. The silence leaves the practical outworking to later custom.

Finally, verse 35 ties the portions to “the day they were presented to minister.” This anchors the rule in the original anointing but does not clarify whether the same portions continued unchanged after the deaths of Aaron and his sons or whether new arrangements were understood to follow. The verses record the initial grant without addressing those subsequent adjustments.

Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.