Fat

In the Mosaic legislation the fat of a sacrificial animal is treated as the choicest portion of the carcass and is reserved as Yahweh's own share. The priest separates it, lays it on the altar, and burns it for a sweet savor; the worshipper is forbidden to eat it. From this sacrificial center the word also opens out into figure: the fat of the land as the reward of plenty, fattening as a sign of complacency, and a heart "as fat as grease" as a figure for spiritual dullness.

Fat as Yahweh's Portion

The handling of the fat is fixed by the offering manuals of Exodus and Leviticus. At the consecration of the priests, Moses is commanded to take "all the fat that covers the insides, and the caul on the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar" (Ex 29:13). The same anatomy reappears in the peace-offering rubric — "the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the loins, and the caul on the liver, with the kidneys, he will take away" (Lev 3:4) — and in the sin-offering of the bull: "all the fat of the bull of the sin-offering he will take off from it; the fat that covers the insides, and all the fat that is on the insides" (Lev 4:8; cf. Lev 4:9-10). The trespass-offering follows the same pattern (Lev 7:3-5), as does the peace-offering of a sheep, where "its fat, the entire fat tail, he will take away close by the backbone" (Lev 3:9; cf. Lev 3:10). Whether the victim is bull, lamb, or goat, the same parts come off and go to the fire (Lev 3:14-15).

That fire is on the altar, and the burning is the act that makes the offering Yahweh's. "The priest will burn it on the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to Yahweh" (Lev 3:11; cf. Lev 3:5). The explicit claim follows: "all the fat is Yahweh's" (Lev 3:16). At the ordination of Aaron, Moses enacts the rule: "he took all the fat that was on the insides, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat; and Moses burned it on the altar" (Lev 8:16; cf. Lev 8:25-26). The ram of consecration is treated the same way — "the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the insides" (Ex 29:22) — and the fat tail is again specified for the peace-offering (Lev 7:3). At the daily service the priest "will sprinkle the blood on the altar of Yahweh at the door of the tent of meeting, and burn the fat for a sweet savor to Yahweh" (Lev 17:6).

The Passover precept covers the same ground from another angle: "you will not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither will the fat of my feast remain all night until the morning" (Ex 23:18). What belongs to Yahweh is not held back for human use.

The Prohibition Against Eating Fat

Because the fat is Yahweh's, Israel is barred from eating it. The rule is laid down as a perpetual statute: "It will be a perpetual statute throughout your⁺ generations in all your⁺ dwellings, that you⁺ will eat neither fat nor blood" (Lev 3:17). The prohibition is repeated more narrowly: "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, You⁺ will eat no fat, of ox, or sheep, or goat" (Lev 7:23). It extends even to carcasses that are not offered: "the fat of that which dies of itself, and the fat of that which is torn of beasts, may be used for any other service; but you⁺ will in no way eat of it" (Lev 7:24). The penalty is set out in the next verse: "whoever eats the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, even the soul who eats it will be cut off from his people" (Lev 7:25).

The portion the priests may eat is carefully distinguished from the fat itself. "The heave-thigh and the wave-breast they will bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave-offering before Yahweh: and it will be yours, and your sons' with you, as a portion forever; as Yahweh has commanded" (Lev 10:15). The priest's share comes with the fat-offering but is not the fat. Aaron's sons "will lay the pieces, the head, and the fat, in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar" (Lev 1:8) — the fat goes up; what remains is distributed.

The story of Eli's sons in 1 Samuel turns on this distinction. The right order is that the fat is burned first, then the worshipper eats; Hophni and Phinehas reverse it. Their attendant comes "before they burned the fat" and demands raw flesh for the priest (1 Sam 2:15), and when the worshipper protests — "they will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires" — the answer is, "you will give it to me now: and if not, I will take it by force" (1 Sam 2:16). The priest's contempt is measured by his treatment of the fat.

Idolatrous Counterfeit

The same vocabulary is turned against Israel when she sacrifices to strange gods. The Song of Moses taunts the worshippers of those gods — the gods "Which ate the fat of their sacrifices, [And] drank the wine of their drink-offering" — and challenges, "Let them rise up and help you⁺ Let them be your⁺ protection[by his Speech]" (Deut 32:38). Idols receive the gesture that belongs to Yahweh and cannot answer. Isaiah voices the inverse complaint on Yahweh's behalf: "You have bought me no sweet cane with silver, neither have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices; but you have burdened me with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities" (Isa 43:24). The fat that should be burning on the altar is absent; what is offered instead is sin.

The Fat of the Land

Outside the sacrificial register, fatness is a figure for plenty. Pharaoh's invitation to Joseph's family is, "I will give you⁺ the good of the land of Egypt, and you⁺ will eat the fat of the land" (Gen 45:18). Jacob's blessing on Asher runs along the same lines: "Out of Asher his bread will be fat, And he will yield royal dainties" (Gen 49:20). Isaiah's eschatological banquet pushes the figure further: "in this mountain Yahweh of hosts will make to all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined" (Isa 25:6). In this register, what is best is named in terms of what is fattest. The father in the parable of the prodigal son draws on the same instinct when he calls for "the fatted calf" to mark the son's return (Luke 15:23).

Fattening as Complacency

The same image turns dark when fatness becomes a sign of forgetting. In the Song of Moses, Israel's prosperity in the wilderness is described as a fattening that ends in revolt: "Jacob ate and had his fill, Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: You have waxed fat, you have grown thick, you have become sleek; Then he forsook [the Speech of] God who made him, And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation" (Deut 32:15). The "fat of the land" promised in Genesis becomes, when received without gratitude, the fat that kicks against its giver. The judgment image in Psalm 37 inverts the figure of the altar — "the wicked will perish, And the enemies of Yahweh will be as the fat of lambs: They will consume; in smoke they will consume away" (Ps 37:20). In the figure of the psalm, what is offered burns and what is condemned burns by the same image.

A Heart as Fat as Grease

A separate figurative line takes "fat" inside the body and applies it to the organ of understanding. The psalmist contrasts the dull heart of his persecutors with his own attentive one: "Their heart is as fat as grease; But I delight in your law" (Ps 119:70). Fat there is thickness, insensibility — a heart so layered that nothing reaches it. Isaiah's commission uses the same physiology as a verb: "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; or else they will see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed" (Isa 6:10). To be fattened in this sense is to be disqualified from hearing — the inverse of the fat that ascends as a sweet savor on the altar.