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[224]
I WILL now, however, make mention of a few of our laws which belong
to purifications, and the like sacred offices, since I am accidentally
come to this matter of sacrifices. These sacrifices were of two sorts;
of those sorts one was offered for private persons, and the other for the
people in general; and they are done in two different ways. In the one
case, what is slain is burnt, as a whole burnt-offering, whence that name
is given to it; but the other is a thank-offering, and is designed for
feasting those that sacrifice. I will speak of the former. Suppose a private
man offer a burnt-offering, he must slay either a bull, a lamb, or a kid
of the goats, and the two latter of the first year, though of bulls he
is permitted to sacrifice those of a greater age; but all burnt-offerings
are to be of males. When they are slain, the priests sprinkle the blood
round about the altar; they then cleanse the bodies, and divide them into
parts, and salt them with salt, and lay them upon the altar, while the
pieces of wood are piled one upon another, and the fire is burning; they
next cleanse the feet of the sacrifices, and the inwards, in an accurate
manner and so lay them to the rest to be purged by the fire, while the
priests receive the hides. This is the way of offering a burnt-offering.
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