Bible Dictionary
Fat
Fat can mean the richest part of an animal or the best portion of a product. Under the Mosaic law, certain animal fat was offered to God and forbidden as food; figuratively, “fat” may describe abundance or spiritual dullness.
Definition
Fat may mean the richest part of an animal, the best portion of a product, or a vat used in wine production. Scripture also uses it figuratively for abundance and for dullness or spiritual insensitivity.
Biblical Usage
The fat of sacrificial animals was burned to God and, under the Mosaic law, certain forms of fat were forbidden as food. “Fat” may also describe the best of the flock or produce and a dull state of mind.
Historical Background
The Hebrew law distinguished the suet surrounding the internal organs from fat mixed with lean. The richest portions belonged to God. Vats or wine-fats were excavated from the native rock of hills where vineyards lay.
Scripture References
Genesis 4:4
Genesis 45:18
Numbers 18:12
Psalms 81:16
Psalms 147:47
Leviticus 3:9-11
Leviticus 4:8
Leviticus 7:3
Leviticus 8:25
Numbers 18:17
Exodus 29:13-22
Leviticus 3:3-5
Psalms 17:10
Joel 2:24
Haggai 2:16
Isaiah 63:2
Joel 3:13
Nehemiah 8:10
Leviticus 3:3
Leviticus 3:9
Leviticus 3:17
Leviticus 7:23
Leviticus 3:16
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
(Heb. heleb) denotes the richest part of the animal, or the fattest of the flock, in the account of Abel’s sacrifice (Gen. 4:4). It sometimes denotes the best of any production (Gen. 45:18; Num. 18:12; Ps. 81:16; 147:47). The fat of sacrifices was to be burned (Lev. 3:9-11; 4:8; 7:3; 8:25; Num. 18:17. Comp. Ex. 29:13-22; Lev. 3:3-5). It is used figuratively for a dull, stupid state of mind (Ps 17:10). In Joel 2:24 the word is equivalent to “vat,” a vessel. The hebrew word here thus rendered is elsewhere rendered “wine-fat” and “press-fat” (Hag. 2:16; Isa. 63:2).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
i.e. VAT, the word employed in the Authorized Version to translate the Hebrew term yekeb, in (Joel 2:24; 3:13) The word commonly used for yekeb is “winepress” or “winefat,” and once “pressfat.” (Haggai 2:16) The “vats” appear to have been excavated out of the native rock of the hills on which the vineyards lay. The Hebrews distinguished between the suet or pure fat of an animal and the fat which was intermixed with the lean. (Nehemiah 8:10) Certain restrictions were imposed upon them in reference to the former; some parts of the suet, viz., about the stomach, the entrails, the kidneys, and the tail of a sheep, which grows to an excessive size in many eastern countries, and produces a large quantity of rich fat, were forbidden to be eaten in the case of animals offered to Jehovah in sacrifice. (Leviticus 3:3,9,17; 7:3,23) The ground of the prohibition was that the fat was the richest part of the animal, and therefore belonged to him. (Leviticus 3:16) The burning of the fat of sacrifices was particularly specified in each kind of offering.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>(chelebh, chelebh): The layer of subcutaneous fat and the compact suet surrounding the viscera and imbedded in the entrails, which, like the blood, was forbidden as food in the Mosaic code (Le 3:17). It was to be sacrificed to God by being burnt upon the altar (Le 3:16; 30). This had to be done on the very day on which a beast had been slaughtered, to remove temptation from the Israelite to use it otherwise (Ex 23:18). The law was probably a sanitary restriction, for, at an early date, leprosy, scrofula and disfiguring cutaneous diseases were thought to be caused by the use of fat as food. It was, moreover, an important pedagogical provision teaching the idea of self-denial, and the maxim that the richest and best meat of the edible animal belonged to Yahweh.</p><p>See also FATLING; FOWL, FATTED.</p><p>The expression "fat" is often used in figurative senses, e.g. abundant, exuberant, lusty, fertile, robust, outwardly successful (De 32:15; Ps 92:14 the King James Version; Ps 119:70; Pr 11:25; 13:4, etc.).</p><p>H. L. E. Luering</p>