Meat

The flesh of animals, consumed as food. In biblical times it was a luxury, eaten on special occasions, usually in the context of sacrificial worship.

Meat a luxury food

Exodus 16:3 See also Numbers 11:4–5; 1 Samuel 25:11; Isaiah 22:12–13; Daniel 10:3

“If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”

Meat served to honoured guests

1 Samuel 28:21–25 See also Genesis 18:1–8; Judges 6:11–21, Judges 13:9–16; 1 Samuel 9:22–24; 2 Samuel 12:1–4; 1 Kings 19:19–21; Proverbs 9:1–6; Isaiah 25:6; Luke 15:20–24

When the woman came to Saul and saw how distraught he was, she said to him, “Look, your maidservant has obeyed your voice. I took my life in my hands and did as you told me. Now please listen to your servant and let me set a morsel of bread before you so you may eat and have the strength to go on your way.” Saul refused, saying, “I will not eat.” But his servants joined the woman in urging him, and he heeded their voice. He got up from the ground and sat on the bed. The woman had a fattened calf at her house, and she quickly slaughtered it. She also took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread. She served it to Saul and his servants, and they ate. And that night they got up and left.

Meat provided by God

1 Kings 17:2–6 See also Exodus 16:1–14; Numbers 11:4–34; Psalm 78:17–31

Then a revelation from the LORD came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” So Elijah did what the LORD had told him, and he went and lived by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he would drink from the brook.

Restrictions on eating certain types of meat

Unclean meat

Leviticus 11:1–47 parallel Deuteronomy 14:3–20 See also Isaiah 65:2–5

Other prohibited meat

Genesis 9:4 See also Exodus 21:28, Exodus 22:31; Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:23, Deuteronomy 14:21; 1 Samuel 14:33–34; Ezekiel 4:14, Ezekiel 33:25; Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29, Acts 21:25

But you must not eat meat with its lifeblood still in it.

Eating meat in worship

The Passover lamb

Exodus 12:1–11 See also Exodus 12:43–49; Deuteronomy 16:1–8

Other sacrifices

Exodus 29:31–34 See also Leviticus 7:11–18; Numbers 18:14–19; Deuteronomy 12:27; 1 Samuel 1:3–8, 1 Samuel 2:12–16; Jeremiah 7:21; Hosea 8:13

You are to take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. They must eat those things by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no outsider may eat them, because these things are sacred. And if any of the meat of ordination or any bread is left until the morning, you are to burn up the remainder. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.

Non-consecrated meat

Deuteronomy 12:4–25

Allegorical and metaphorical references to meat

Micah 3:1–3 See also Ezekiel 11:1–12, Ezekiel 24:1–13

Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice? You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones. You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

Varying convictions about eating meat

Romans 14:1–23