(12) If he offer it for a thanksgiving.--That is, acknowledgment of special mercies received from God, such as deliverance in travels, by land or sea, redemption from captivity, restoration to health, &c., enumerated in Psalms 107. It is to this sacrifice that the apostle alludes when he says, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually."

Then he shall offer with the sacrifice.--That is, with the bullock or cow if it be from the herd, or a lamb or goat if it be from the flock (Leviticus 3:1).

Unleavened cakes mingled with oil.--From the fact that no mention is here made of the number of cakes or the quantity of oil, it is evident that this was left to the decision of the administrators of the laws and the spiritual guides of the people. The rule which obtained during the second Temple with regard to this offering was as follows :--The offerer brought twenty tenths or pottles of fine flour; ten of them he made leavened and ten he left unleavened. He made the leavened into ten cakes, and of the ten that were unleavened he made thirty cakes. These thirty unleavened cakes, which were made with half a log of oil, were divided into three tens, and each ten was prepared in a different manner; that is, ten with an eighth of the oil were baked in the oven, ten with another eighth of the oil were made into wafers, and ten with a fourth of the oil were hastily fried. Of the forty cakes the priest received four, one of each sort, thus obtaining a tenth part.

7:11-27 As to the peace-offerings, in the expression of their sense of mercy, God left them more at liberty, than in the expression of their sense of sin; that their sacrifices, being free-will offerings, might be the more acceptable, while, by obliging them to bring the sacrifices of atonement, God shows the necessity of the great Propitiation. The main reason why blood was forbidden of old, was because the Lord had appointed blood for an atonement. This use, being figurative, had its end in Christ, who by his death and blood-shedding caused the sacrifices to cease. Therefore this law is not now in force on believers.If he offer it for a thanksgiving,.... Which Jarchi restrains to the wonderful deliverances of seafaring persons, of travellers, and of such as have been confined in prison, or have laboured under violent diseases and disorders of body; and so Aben Ezra seems to understand it only of thanksgivings on account of being delivered out of distress; but it might be for the common mercies of life, or any particular mercy or instance of divine goodness a man was sensible of, and thought proper in this way to make an acknowledgment of it:

then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving; which, if of the herd, was either a bullock or a cow; and if of the flock, was either a lamb or a goat:

unleavened cakes mingled with oil; ten of them, according to the Jewish writers; the measure of flour, of which they were made, were, as Jarchi says, five Jerusalem seahs or pecks, which were six of those used in the wilderness, and made twenty tenths or omers, an omer being the tenth part of an ephah (d); the oil they were mingled with, as to the quantity of it, was half a log (e); a fourth part of it was for the cakes, hastily baked, (said in the latter part of this verse to be fried,) an eighth part for those baked, (intended in this clause,) and an eighth part for the wafers next mentioned:

and unleavened wafers anointed with oil; these were a thinner sort of cakes, made without leaven as the others, but the oil was not mixed with the flour in the making of them, but put upon them when made, and therefore said to be anointed with it; there were also ten of these:

and cakes mingled with oil of fine flour fried; these were such as were hastily and not thoroughly baked, Leviticus 6:21 or, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom, they were mixed and boiled with hot water, as much as was sufficient; or, according to Maimonides (f), were fried in oil; and there were ten of these, in all thirty,

(d) Vid. Misn. Menachot, c. 7. sect. 1. & Bartenora in ib. (e) Maimon. Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 9. sect. 20. (f) In Misn. Menachot, c. 9. sect. 3.