Exodus 29:18

Exo 29:18 And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it [is] a burnt offering unto the LORD: it [is] a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Ver. 18. The whole ram.] See Rom 12:1, {See Trapp on "Rom 12:1"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29:18 pleasing aroma: Such language is anthropomorphism, describing God with human terms and experiences. God’s delight in an appropriately offered sacrifice is like a human’s enjoyment of a pleasing smell.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, savor of rest, which causeth the wrath of God to cease.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 18. It is a burnt-offering] See Clarke on Le 7:1, &c.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar.—A burnt offering, as representing self- sacrifice, was entirely acceptable to God; the whole might be consumed upon the altar. It was otherwise with sin offerings, of which only certain parts could be thus offered. (Comp. above, Exo_29:14; and see Lev_4:12; Lev_4:21, &c.)

A sweet savour.—Comp. Gen_8:21 and Note ad loc. It was a general heathen notion that the gods were actually delighted with the odour of the sacrifices offered to them; but there are no just grounds for taxing the Hebrews with such coarse and materialistic ideas. The expression, as used in this place, in Gen_8:21, and in Leviticus and Numbers repeatedly, is metaphorical. (Comp. Exo_5:21.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. a burnt offering] see Leviticus 1.

a sweet savour] a soothing odour (McNeile), lit. an odour of rest giving, i.e. one composing and acceptable to the Deity. It is a technical expression for the fragrant odour emitted by a burning sacrifice, and is doubtless a survival from the time when the deity was supposed to be actually placated by the smell of the sacrificial smoke (see on v. 13). It is used, repeatedly by P (Lev_1:9; Lev_Exo_1:13 &c.), and once by J (Gen_8:21). Comp. the erêshê tâbu, or ‘goodly odour,’ offered to the Bab. gods (EB. iv. 4119; cf. Del. HWB. 121, 140a). ‘Sweet savour’ is a paraphrase based upon the rend. of LXX. ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας ‘an odour of a sweet smell’ (Php_4:18). Note that ‘savour’ in Old English meant not only taste (Mat_5:13), but smell, as Joe_2:20, and 2Co_2:14; 2Co_2:16 for ὀσμή: see DB., s.v.

an offering made by fire] in the Heb. one word,—as we might say, a firing. Another expression of the priestly terminology, used often by P (Lev_1:9; Lev_1:13; Lev_1:17, &c.), and occurring also twice besides (Deu_18:1, 1Sa_2:28).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar,.... For which reason his head, his pieces, his inwards, and his legs, were to be put together, and laid in order upon the altar:

it is a burnt offering unto the Lord; offered up to him, and accepted by him, as follows:

it is a sweet savour; or "a smell of rest" (y), in which God acquiesces, and rests, and takes delight and pleasure; it is, as the Septuagint version:

for a smell of sweet savour, or a sweet smelling savour; which phrase the apostle makes use of, and applies to the sacrifice of Christ, Eph 5:2,

an offering made by fire unto the Lord; which being consumed by fire ascended upwards to the Lord, and became acceptable to him, as the sacrifice of his own Son, in his fiery sufferings and death, was unto him.

(y) "odor quietis", Montanus, Fagius, Vatablus, Cartwright, Piscator.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Victim. Hebrew ishe, means a whole burnt-offering.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

A sweet savour, Heb. a savour of rest, wherewith God will be well pleased, and for which, as representing Christ who offered up himself, he will graciously accept of the offerings of the priests for themselves, and for the people.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar. This became the general law of the burnt-offering. (Lev_1:9, Lev_1:13, Lev_1:17) It indicated that self-sacrifice was wholly acceptable to God; whereas in sin-offerings there was a taint of evil which rendered all but certain parts of the victim unacceptable (ver. 14). A sweet savour. This is not to be understood in the coarse sense in which heathen writers used similar expressions, meaning by them (as it would seem) that the gods were really pleased with the odour of sacrifices. No candid mind can ascribe to the Hebrews such anthropomorphism. Evidently no more is meant than that the offering would be pleasing to God. See Gen_8:21; Lev_1:9, Lev_1:13, Lev_1:17, etc.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ריח נחוח AS A PLEASING ODOUR — as a gratification of spirit before Me — that I commanded and My will was carried out (Zevachim 46b).

אשה AN OFFERING MADE BY FIRE a term connected with the word אש, fire: it denotes the burning of the parts which had been placed on the fire (cf. Rashi on Leviticus 1:9).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.