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Leviticus 22:21 · World English Bible

Leviticus 22:21 Meaning Whoever Offers a Sacrifice of Peace Offerings

Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh to accomplish a vow, or for a free will offering of the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted. It shall have no defect.

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What does Leviticus 22:21 mean?

The quality of the thing offered decides whether the offering works at all. A blemished animal, the sick or lame beast a man was going to lose anyway, does not count, because sacrificing the leftovers is not sacrifice.

From the Clinical Psychology reading below.

Leviticus 22:21 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Clinical Psychology

The quality of the thing offered decides whether the offering works at all. A blemished animal, the sick or lame beast a man was going to lose anyway, does not count, because sacrificing the leftovers is not sacrifice. The old distinction between Cain and Abel is here written into law. Bring the best, unspoiled and whole, or the transaction with reality simply fails.

A vow is a bet placed against your own future conduct, and you cannot settle it with something defective. The demand for the unblemished beast is a demand that you take the act seriously enough to give up what you would most want to keep. Offer the flawed thing and you fool no one but yourself. The offering has to cost you. What you lay on the altar moves nothing above you unless it hurts to give.

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Clinical Psychology lens

Live Leviticus 22:21 today

  1. Find the place where you have been giving your leftovers, the last fifteen tired minutes to the thing you claim matters most. Move it to a time of day when you are actually awake.
  2. When you help someone, give them the part that costs you something. The real hour instead of the quick text, the errand instead of the link to an article. They can tell the difference, and so can you.
  3. When you are stretched thin and tempted to send the half-done work with an apology attached, pick one piece and make it whole instead of all of it passable. Then say honestly what you did not get to.

What are you offering that you were about to lose anyway?

The same truth in other traditions

Bhagavad Gita

Krishna says that whatever is offered, a leaf, a flower, water, must be offered with a whole heart. The size of the gift matters far less than whether it is actually given.

Stoicism · Seneca

Seneca wrote that a gift handed over grudgingly, or thrown away as something the giver no longer wanted, is not a gift at all. The spirit of the giving is the whole substance of it.

Zoroastrianism · Yasna

The offering is to be made with good thought, good word and good deed together, since a rite performed with a divided mind is held to be no offering.

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