Leviticus 2

1 “ When anyone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering must consist of fine flour. He is to pour olive oil on it, put frankincense on it, 2 and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. The priest shall take a handful of the flour and oil, together with all the frankincense, and burn this as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 3 The remainder of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made by fire to the LORD. 4 Now if you bring an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must consist of fine flour, either unleavened cakes mixed with oil or unleavened wafers coated with oil. 5 If your offering is a grain offering prepared on a griddle, it must be unleavened bread made of fine flour mixed with oil. 6 Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. 7 If your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it must consist of fine flour with oil. 8 When you bring to the LORD the grain offering made in any of these ways, it is to be presented to the priest, and he shall take it to the altar. 9 The priest is to remove the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 10 But the remainder of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the offerings made by fire to the LORD. 11 No grain offering that you present to the LORD may be made with leaven, for you are not to burn any leaven or honey as an offering made by fire to the LORD. 12 You may bring them to the LORD as an offering of firstfruits, but they are not to be offered on the altar as a pleasing aroma. 13 And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of your offerings. 14 If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer crushed heads of new grain roasted on the fire. 15 And you are to put oil and frankincense on it; it is a grain offering. 16 The priest shall then burn the memorial portion of the crushed grain and the oil, together with all its frankincense, as an offering made by fire to the LORD.

✦ What the text says

## Summary Leviticus 2 sets out the regulations for the *minchah* ("grain offering", H4503G): the plain flour offering, various baked and pan-cooked forms, the priest's portion burned on the altar, the priest's own share, and prohibitions against leaven and honey, together with a requirement to add salt. ## Key words - *minchah* ("grain offering", H4503G) — feminine singular noun used throughout as the technical name for this non-animal offering; it recurs in construct forms like *qorban minchah* ("a present of a grain offering", H7133A + H4503G). - *hiqtir* ("he will make smoke", H6999A) — hiphil sequential perfect; the causative form marks the priest as the one who causes the portion to go up in smoke on the altar, distinct from ordinary burning. - *azkarah* ("memorial offering", H0234) — feminine singular construct; designates specifically the token portion removed and burned, as opposed to the remainder given to the priests. - *chametz* ("leaven", H2557A) and *se'or*/*devash* ("leaven"/"honey", H7603/H1706) — appear in the negative clauses of verse 11, marking substances excluded from anything offered by fire (*'isheh*, H0801) to Yahweh. - *melach berit* ("salt of the covenant", H4417M + H1285) — construct chain in verse 13; *melach* ("salt") is qualified by "covenant of your God," tying the seasoning requirement to a relational term not used elsewhere in the chapter. ## What the text says The chapter is built on repeated casuistic formulas: *ve... ki* / *ve'im* ("and if," H3588A/H0518A) introduce each offering-type (fine flour, oven-baked, griddle, pan), followed by chains of sequential perfects (*ve-* + perfect, e.g., *yatzaq*, *natan*, *heviah*) that lay out the priest's actions step by step as a procedural sequence rather than a narrated past event. The imperfect forms (*tih'yeh*, *ye'aseh*) describe what the offering "will be" or "will be made," giving the text a rule-like, prescriptive force rather than a one-time historical report. A structural pattern recurs: the priest takes a handful (*qamatz*, H7061) as the *azkarah*, causes it to go up in smoke (*hiqtir*), and the remainder (*ha-noteret*, niphal participle "the one remaining," H3498) is assigned to Aaron and his sons as *qodesh qodashim* ("a holy thing of holy things," H6944G). The prohibition in verse 11 uses two separate negated imperfects (*lo te'aseh chametz*, *lo taqtiru*) to distinguish the offering's composition (must not be leavened) from what may be burned on the altar (nothing containing leaven or honey), a distinction the flat English "no leaven" glosses over. ## Differences between versions In verse 2 and 9, where the Hebrew reads *'isheh reiach nichoach* ("a fire offering of a soothing odor"), the LXX gives *θυσία, ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας* ("a sacrifice, an odor of good scent"), omitting an explicit equivalent for *'isheh*'

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.