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Leviticus 22 · a question people ask

Why did a defect in an animal matter so much?

In the text

The chapter gives its own words: an animal with a defect "shall not be acceptable for you" (22:20), and of defective animals from a foreigner, "their corruption is in them. There is a defect in them. They shall not be accepted for you" (22:25). It calls the offering "the bread of your God" (22:25). Deuteronomy calls such a sacrifice "an abomination to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 17:1). Malachi, speaking for the LORD to priests who offered the blind and the lame (Malachi 1:6-8), asks, "If I am a father, then where is my honor?" (Malachi 1:6), and sets it beside a gift for a governor: "Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you?" (Malachi 1:8).

The verses

“But you shall not offer whatever has a defect, for it shall not be acceptable for you.”
Leviticus 22:20 · World English Bible
“You must not offer any of these as the bread of your God from the hand of a foreigner, because their corruption is in them. There is a defect in them. They shall not be accepted for you.’””
Leviticus 22:25 · World English Bible
“You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a defect or anything evil; for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.”
Deuteronomy 17:1 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Leviticus 22

Leviticus 22: To be accepted

Leviticus 22 guards the holy things at both ends: the priest who eats them must be clean, and the animal offered must be "without defect" to be accepted (22:19). In Hebrew, the "defect" that kept an animal from the altar is the word used for the priests in chapter 21. The chapter ends: "I am the LORD who makes you holy" (22:32).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions