Leviticus 7:24

For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord,.... As oxen, sheep, rams, goats; meaning not only the fat of those that are offered, but the fat of all those of the like kind:

even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people; See Gill on Lev 7:20 Maimonides (n) observes, that the punishment of cutting off is enjoined for the eating of fat, because men used to count it delicious, for which reason also God would honour his sacrifices with it: and he further observes (o), that the fat of the intestines too much saturates, hinders concoction, generates gross and frigid blood, hence it is much better it should be burnt than eaten; and that blood and what dies of itself are of difficult digestion, and of bad nourishment, wherefore the latter is forbidden in the Lev 7:24, and the former in Lev 7:26, of the punishment for eating fat, the same writer (p) observes, he that eats fat the quantity of an olive, presumptuously, is guilty of cutting off; if ignorantly, he must bring the fixed sin offering: and elsewhere (q) he says, he that eats fat is beaten for it; and he eats it a second time, and is beaten for it; but if he eats it a third time they do not beat him, but put him into a prison, which is a strait place according to his height, where he cannot stand upright, nor can he lie down in it; and they give him bread and water of affliction till his bowels are distressed, and he become sick, and then they feed him with barley till his belly bursts.

(n) Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 41. (o) Ibid. c. 48. (p) Hilchot Maacolot Asurot, c. 7. sect. 1. (q) Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 18. sect. 4.

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

Lev 7:24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.

Ver. 24. Used in any other use.] Though not in sacrifice. Mud walls may be made up of any refuse matter: not so the walls of a church or palace.

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.

7:24 Animals found dead had not been drained of their blood and were therefore unclean. Their fat was unfit to offer to the Lord and could not be eaten. However, it could be used for any other purpose, such as greasing cart axles, waterproofing animal hides, and other household uses.

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

(24) And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself.—That is, of the aforesaid animals which died of any disease or accident, or were killed by wild beasts, and which, therefore, are entirely unclean (see Lev_17:15; Lev_22:8), might be used for common purposes in ordinary life, such as making candles, &c., &c.

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

Compare Lev 11:39.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Uses. Hebrew, "for any other use: but you shall not eat it." Origen (hom. 5,) seems to reject this fat entirely.

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).

He speaketh still of the same kinds of beasts, and showeth that this prohibition reacheth not only to the fat of those beasts which were offered to God, but also of those that died, or were killed at home. And if this seems a superfluous prohibition concerning the fat, since the lean as well as the fat of such beasts was forbidden, Lev 22:8, it must be noted that that prohibition reached only to the priests, Lev 7:4.

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

He speaks still of the same kinds of beasts, and shews that this prohibition reaches not only to the fat of those beasts which were offered to God, but also of those that died, or were killed at home. And if this seems a superfluous prohibition, since the lean as well as the fat of such beasts were forbidden, chap. xxii, 8, it must be noted, that prohibition reached only to the priests, ver. 4.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The fat of cattle that had fallen (נבלה), or been torn to pieces (viz., by beasts of prey), was not to be eaten, because it was unclean and defiled the eater (Lev 17:15; Lev 22:8); but it might be applied "to all kinds of uses," i.e., to the common purposes of ordinary life. Knobel observes on this, that "in the case of oxen, sheep, and goats slain in the regular way, this was evidently not allowable. But the law does not say what was to be done with the fat of these animals." Certainly it does not disertis verbis; but indirectly it does so clearly enough. According to Lev 17:3., during the journey through the desert any one who wanted to slaughter an ox, sheep, or goat was to bring the animal to the tabernacle as a sacrificial gift, that the blood might be sprinkled against the altar, and the fat burned upon it. By this regulation every ordinary slaughtering was raised into a sacrifice, and the law determined what was to be done with the fat. Now if afterwards, when the people dwelt in Canaan, cattle were allowed to be slaughtered in any place, and the only prohibition repeated was that against eating blood (Deu 12:15-16, Deu 12:21.), whilst the law against eating fat was not renewed; it follows as a matter of course, that when the custom of slaughtering at the tabernacle was restricted to actual sacrifices, the prohibition against eating the fat portions came to an end, so far as those animals were concerned with were slain for consumption and not as sacrifices. The reason for prohibiting fat from being eaten was simply this, that so long as every slaughtering was a sacrifice, the fat portions, which were to be handed over to Jehovah and burned upon the altar, were not to be devoted to earthly purposes, because they were gifts sanctified to God. The eating of the fat, therefore, was neither prohibited on sanitary or social grounds, viz., because fat was injurious to health, as Maimonides and other Rabbins maintain, nor for the purpose of promoting the cultivation of olives, as Michaelis supposes, nor to prevent its being put into the unclean mouth of man, as Knobel imagines; but as being an illegal appropriation of what was sanctified to God, a wicked invasion of the rights of Jehovah, which was to be punished with extermination according to the analogy of Num 15:30-31. The prohibition of blood in Lev 7:26, Lev 7:27, extends to birds and cattle; fishes not being mentioned, because the little blood which they possess is not generally eaten. This prohibition Israel was to observe in all its dwelling-places (Exo 12:20, cf. Lev 17:10), not only so long as all the slaughterings had the character of sacrifices, but for all ages, because the blood was regarded as the soul of the animal, which God had sanctified as the medium of atonement for the soul of man (Lev 17:11), whereby the blood acquired a much higher degree of holiness than the fat.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

יעשה לכל מלאכה [AND THE FAT OF CARRION AND THE FAT OF THAT WHICH IS TORN] MAY BE USED IN ANY WORK — Scripture comes and teaches you with regard to חלב (the forbidden fat) of carrion that it does not acquire the “uncleanness of carrion” (‎‏טומאת נבלות), i.e. that whilst the flesh is unclean (cf. Leviticus 11:39) the fat (חלב) does not acquire this uncleanness (cf. Sifra, Tzav, Section 10 5; Pesachim 23a, b).

תאכלוה ‎לא ‎‏ ואכל[AND THE FAT OF CARRION … MAY BE USED IN ANY WORK] BUT YE SHALL IN NO WISE EAT OF IT — By these words it is not intended to forbid the eating of the חלב of a נבלה and טרפה because it is חלב for this has already been forbidden in Leviticus 3:17, but the Torah in effect says here: The prohibition of eating נבלה or טרפה shall come and fall upon (shall form an additional prohibition to) that of חלב — that if one eats it (the חלב of נבלה or of טרפה) he becomes liable to the punishment for transgressing the prohibition of נבלה also, (or of טרפה also), and you should not say: No prohibition can be super-imposed upon another prohibition already existing (Zevachim 70a).

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.