Levit. iii. 17.FAT. God forbad the Hebrews to eat the Fat of Beasts. All the Fat is the Lord’s. It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye Judæi recentes, Lyr. Villet. Vide Joseph. Antiq. l. 3. c. 10.eat neither Fat nor Blood. Some interpreters take these words in all the rigour of the letter, and suppose the use of Fat as well as blood to be intirely forbidden the Jews. Josephus says, that Moses forbids only the Fat of oxen, goats, sheep, and of their species, which agrees with the Law in Leviticus, ch. vii. 23. Ye shall eat no manner of Fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. The modern Jews observe this custom; and with respect to the Fat of every other sort of clean creature, they think it is allowed them, even that of beasts which have died of themselves: this is conformable to that other Law; And Levit. vii. 24.the Fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the Fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use.
Cornel. Tirin. Menoch. Bonfrer.But other interpreters maintain, that the Law which seems to forbid generally the use of Fat, is to be restrained to Fat separated from the flesh, such as that which covers the kidneys and intestines; and this only in the case of its being actually offered in sacrifice: which is confirmed by this passage of Leviticus, wherein God enjoins the Israelites not to eat the Fat of bullocks, goats, and sheep. Whosoever eateth of the Fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul, that eateth it, shall be cut off from his people.
The word Fat in the Hebrew Style signifies not only that of beasts, whereof we have been speaking, but every thing likewise which relates to it in other things; for Psalm cxlvii. 14. Psalm lxxxi. 16. Psalm xvii. 10.example, Adipe frumenti satiat te. And in another place, He should have fed them with the Fat of wheat: Cibavit eos ex adipe frumenti. Fat is also used sometimes for the source or cause of compassion or mercy. As the bowels are stirred at the recital of any misfortune, or at the view of some melancholy and afflicted object, it has been thought that sensibility resided principally in the bowels, which are commonly loaded with Fat. The Psalmist reproaches the wicked with having closed their Fat, with having shut up their bowels against him, with being in no sort affected with compassion at the sight of his extreme grief. Mine enemies compass me about, they are enclosed in their own Fat. In another passage he says, prodiit quasi ex adipe iniquitas eorum, they sin’d with affectation, almost like the person spoken of by Moses, Deut. xxxii. 15. Jesurun waxed fat, he kicked, and forgot God that formed him.
Psal. cxlii. 7. Gen. xxvii. 28.The Fat of the Earth, crassitudo terræ, signifies the dung or marl wherewith the earth is fatned. Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as dung is spread upon the earth. The Fat of the Earth implies likewise the fruitfulness of it. Det tibi Deus de rore cœli, & de pinguedine terræ abundantiam frumenti & vini. God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.
Fat denotes abundance of every thing Jer. xxxi. 14. Job xxxvi. 16. Psal. lxiii. 5.that is good; I will satiate the souls of the Priests with Fatness. Inebriabo animam sacerdotum pinguedine. And in Job, Thy table shall be full of Fatness: Requies mensæ tuæ erit plena pinguedine. And the Psalmist, My soul shall be satisfied as with Marrow and Fatness.