22:17–25 These verses examine what offerings are blemished and what counts as a blemish. They affirm again that sacrificial offerings are to be without blemish. This part of the Holiness Code has been concerned with wholeness which is here applied to sacrificial animals. The instruction addresses both priests and people through the mediator Moses and includes an Israelite or an alien living in Israel. The passage begins with whole burnt offerings, whether votive (the fulfillment of a vow) or freewill (a spontaneous gift to God)—see the fellowship offerings in chapter 7. In either case, in order for the offering to be acceptable, it is to be a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats. The whole of the animal is sacrificed in the burnt offering, and so the animal must be fully unb…