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11 You are to kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting 12 and take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar[a] with your finger; all the rest of[b] the blood you are to pour out at the base of the altar. 13 You are to take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the lobe[c] that is above the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and burn them[d] on the altar.

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 29:12 sn This act seems to have signified the efficacious nature of the blood, since the horns represented power. This is part of the ritual of the sin offering for laity, because before the priests become priests they are treated as laity. The offering is better described as a purification offering rather than a sin offering, because it was offered, according to Leviticus, for both sins and impurities. Moreover, it was offered primarily to purify the sanctuary so that the once-defiled or sinful person could enter (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB]).
  2. Exodus 29:12 tn The phrase “rest of” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
  3. Exodus 29:13 tn S. R. Driver suggests that this is the appendix or an appendix, both here and in v. 22 (Exodus, 320). “The surplus, the appendage of liver, found with cow, sheep, or goat, but not with humans: Lobus caudatus” (HALOT 453 s.v. יֹתֶרֶת).
  4. Exodus 29:13 tn Heb “turn [them] into sweet smoke” since the word is used for burning incense.sn The giving of the visceral organs and the fat has received various explanations. The fat represented the best, and the best was to go to God. If the animal is a substitute, then the visceral organs represent the will of the worshiper in an act of surrender to God.