Leviticus 10:15

Lev 10:15 The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave [it for] a wave offering before the LORD; and it shall be thine, and thy sons’ with thee, by a statute for ever; as the LORD hath commanded.

Ver. 15. The heave shoulder.] See on Exo 29:24.

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.

(15) The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring.—That is, the offerers who devoted these portions of the peace offering to the Lord, are to bring them to the officiating priests. (See Lev_7:29-30.)

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

And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering,.... The Targum of Jonathan says,"three goats were offered on that day, the goat of the new moon, of the sin offering for the people, and of the sin offering, which Nahshon the son of Amminadab offered at the dedication of the altar; Aaron and his sons, it adds, went and burnt these three, Moses came and sought, &c.''Jarchi also speaks of three goats offered, but says that only one was burnt, the goat of the new moon; and so Ben Gersom, who gives this reason for the diligent search after it, because it was always to be offered up, and was not a temporary affair, as the others were: but it rather seems to be the goat of the sin offering for the people, for it is not certain that the other goats were offered on this day, but this was, see Lev 9:15 now according to the law, the flesh of this goat was not to be burnt, but to be eaten by the priests in the holy place, see Lev 6:25. Moses now suspecting that Aaron and his sons, through their grief for the death of Nadab and Abihu, had neglected the eating of it, sought diligently after it, and so it proved:

and, behold, it was burnt: as they had no appetite to it themselves, they burnt it, that it might not be eaten by any others, for none but they might eat it, and that it might not corrupt:

and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, which were left alive; when their two elder brothers were killed with lightning for doing what was not commanded, which should have made them more observant of the laws of God, to do that which was commanded them: and though they were spared, and survived their brethren, yet they transgressed, in burning the sin offering of the people, when they should have eaten it. Jarchi observes, that he expressed his anger not to Aaron, but to his sons, which he did for the honour of Aaron, laying the blame not on him, who was overwhelmed with grief, but on his sons:

saying; as follows.

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

Sons. Samaritan and Septuagint add, "and thy daughters." The male children were allowed to partake of the sin-offerings: those of peace, were given also to females.

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).

15. The heave shoulder… wave breast — See Lev_7:14; Lev_7:30, notes. “All the members of the priestly family, daughters, as well as sons — all, whatever the measure of energy or capacity — are to feed upon the breast and the shoulder, the affections and the strength of the true Peace Offering as raised from the dead and presented before God.” — McIntosh.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

על אשי החלבים WITH THE FIRE OFFERINGS OF THE FAT — From this we may learn that the fat-portions were beneath the others at the time of waving (Sifra, Shemini, Chapter 1 11). And as for the exposition of the texts in such a manner that they shall not contradict each other I have already explained the three of them in the section צו את אהרן (Leviticus 7:30; see Rashi thereon).

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.

THE THIGH OF HEAVING AND THE BREAST OF WAVING. “This expression is similar to the verse, [the breast of the wave-offering, and the thigh of the heave-offering], which is waved, and which is heaved up. ‘Waving’ is an expression for moving to and fro [in a horizontal direction]. ‘Heaving’ is an expression for moving up and down. But why Scripture divided them, mentioning ‘heaving’ in connection with the thigh and ‘waving’ in connection with the breast, I do not know, for both of them [required] waving and heaving.” Thus far is the language of Rashi. It appears to me that the reason for it is that during the [seven days of] consecration, the thigh was a heave-offering to G-d, being burned together with the bread and the fats, and that which is set aside from a peace-offering [to be burnt on the altar] is called “a heave-offering,” just as it is said, And of it he shall offer one out of each offering for a heave-offering unto the Eternal, and [it follows] all the more so that these parts [of the ram of consecration] offered on the altar, were all “a heave-offering unto the Eternal.” [Hence the expression “the thigh of heaving.”] It was not called by the term “waving,” for that movement [to and fro in a horizontal direction] was done to the thigh together with the fats and the bread so as to burn them unto the Eternal. The breast, however, was waved by itself, and was only different from the rest of the meat [which was to be eaten by the priests] in that it was waved, and it was through this waving alone that it became sanctified and that Moses acquired it as his portion. [Moses] shalt take the breast of Aaron’s ram of consecration, and wave it for a wave-offering before the Eternal; and it shall be thy portion. Now since the right of Aaron and his sons to the breast and thigh [of peace-offerings] in future generations was [derived] from the day of their consecration as priests, when they acquired the thigh through its being a heave-offering to G-d and the breast through its being waved, whilst the rest of the meat belonged to the owners, therefore the thigh was forever called [the thigh of] “heaving,” and the breast that of “waving,” as was done to them on the day of [the priests] acquiring their rights to them.

AL ISHEI HACHALAVIM’ (UPON THE FIRE-OFFERINGS OF THE FAT). “This is like: ‘upon the fat of the fire-offerings.’ From here we learn that at the time of waving the fat-portions were beneath.” This is the language of Rashi. But there is no need for it [i.e., to invert the verse, and to derive this law from the verse here]. For the word ishei (“fire-offerings of”) is an adjectival-noun qualifying the word chalavim (fats), just as He said, ‘ishei Hashem’ (the fire-offerings of the Eternal) and His inheritance they [the priests] shall eat. does not have its precise meaning of “the fires of,” since the priests do not eat that which has actually been on the fire upon the altar. The word ishei must therefore be taken as an adjectival-noun for all offerings, since most of them are put upon the fire. Consequently the fats are not called ishei because of the fire, and the expression in the verse need not be inverted. — Ramban now proceeds to comment on the second point that Rashi made, namely that from the verse here we learn that the fat-portions were at the bottom at the time of waving. The explanation of this verse is that it constitutes a reason for that which He said [in the preceding verse], for they [the offerings] are given as thy due, and thy sons’ due, out of the offerings of the peace-offerings of the children of Israel. [With reference to this] He now said, The thigh of heaving and the breast of waving shall they — that is, the children of Israel, mentioned [in the previous verse] — bring upon the fire-offerings of the fat, to wave it for a wave-offering before the Eternal, that they [i.e., the thigh and the breast] be hallowed before Him, and they shall be thine and thy sons’ with thee, as a due forever. For this is not the place of the command concerning the waving, but incidentally we learn that at the time of waving the fats were beneath the others.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.