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Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 2

1 “‘When a person presents a grain offering to the Lord, his offering must consist of choice wheat flour, and he must pour olive oil on it and put frankincense on it. 2 Then he must bring it to the sons of Aaron, the priests, and the priest must scoop out from there a handful of its choice wheat flour and some of its olive oil in addition to all of its frankincense, and the priest must offer its memorial portion up in smoke on the altar—it is a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 3 The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and to his sons—it is most holy from the gifts of the Lord. 4 “‘When you present an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must be made of choice wheat flour baked into unleavened loaves mixed with olive oil or unleavened wafers smeared with olive oil. 5 If your offering is a grain offering made on the griddle, it must be choice wheat flour mixed with olive oil, unleavened. 6 Crumble it in pieces and pour olive oil on it—it is a grain offering. 7 If your offering is a grain offering made in a pan, it must be made of choice wheat flour deep fried in olive oil. 8 “‘You must bring the grain offering that must be made from these to the Lord. Present it to the priest, and he will bring it to the altar. 9 Then the priest must take up from the grain offering its memorial portion and offer it up in smoke on the altar—it is a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 10 The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and to his sons—it is most holy from the gifts of the Lord. 11 “‘No grain offering which you present to the Lord can be made with yeast, for you must not offer up in smoke any yeast or honey as a gift to the Lord.⁠ 12 You can present them to the Lord as an offering of firstfruit, but they must not go up to the altar for a soothing aroma. 13 Moreover, you must season every one of your grain offerings with salt; you must not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering—on every one of your grain offerings you must present salt.⁠ 14 “‘If you present a grain offering of first ripe grain to the Lord, you must present your grain offering of first ripe grain as soft kernels roasted in fire—crushed bits of fresh grain. 15 And you must put olive oil on it and set frankincense on it—it is a grain offering. 16 Then the priest must offer its memorial portion up in smoke—some of its crushed bits, some of its olive oil, in addition to all of its frankincense—it is a gift to the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 2:13 and Ezra 4:14

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Leviticus requires that salt be added to grain offerings, calling it the salt of the covenant. Ezra refers to this when opponents of the new temple say they have eaten the salt of the Persian palace, meaning they were bound in service to that king.

Passages

Leviticus 2:13

Hebrew Bible
11 “‘No grain offering which you present to the Lord can be made with yeast, for you must not offer up in smoke any yeast or honey as a gift to the Lord. 12 You can present them to the Lord as an offering of firstfruit, but they must not go up to the altar for a soothing aroma. 13 Moreover, you must season every one of your grain offerings with salt; you must not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering—on every one of your grain offerings you must present salt. 14 “‘If you present a grain offering of first ripe grain to the Lord, you must present your grain offering of first ripe grain as soft kernels roasted in fire—crushed bits of fresh grain. 15 And you must put olive oil on it and set frankincense on it—it is a grain offering.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Ezra 4:14

Hebrew Bible
12 Now let the king be aware that the Jews who came up to us from you have gone to Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and odious city. They are completing its walls and repairing its foundations. 13 Let the king also be aware that if this city is built and its walls are completed, no more tax, custom, or toll will be paid, and the royal treasury will suffer loss. 14 In light of the fact that we eat the salt of the palace,36 and since it does not seem appropriate to us that the king should sustain damage, we are sending the king this information 15 so that he may initiate a search of the records of his predecessors and discover in those records that this city is rebellious and injurious to both kings and provinces, producing internal revolts from long ago. It is for this very reason that this city was destroyed. 16 We therefore are informing the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, you will not retain control of this portion of Trans-Euphrates.”
400–301 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezra

References

"... Leviticus 2:13 ... Whereas salt should never be omitted from your sacrifices, leaven should always be removed from your homes before the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 12:15). For other attestations of this idiom see Jeremiah 7:34; 16:9; 36:29; 48:33; Ezekiel 34:10. All of the verbs in this verse are in the singular, a sign that the subject is once again the offerer. This means that the obligation to salt the offering falls not on the priest but on its owner. By contrast, in the public sacrifices the responsibility for salting fell to the priests (Ezekiel 43:24), and the salt came from Temple supplies (Joseph and Aseneth 12.140). The salt of your covenant with your God. The idiom is used again to refer to the binding character of the priestly perquisites (Numbers 18:19) and of the Davidic dynasty (2 Chronicles 13:5). Salt was the preservative par excellence in antiquity. A figurative extension of its preservative properties is the reference to the apostles as “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:17), in other words, teachers who guard the world against moral decay. Moreover, its preservative qualities made it the ideal symbol of the perdurability [durability] of a covenant (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan). A neo-Babylonian letter speaks of “all who tasted the salt of the Jakin tribe” (ABL 747, r. 6), referring to the tribe's covenantal allies. Loyalty to the Persian monarch is described as having tasted “the salt of the palace” (Ezra 4:14) ..."
Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New York: Doubleday, 1991), 191.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 2:13 and Ezra 4:14

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