Liver: (Heb. kabhed, "heavy;" hence the liver, as being the heaviest of the
viscera,)
(Exodus 29:13,22; Leviticus 3:4,1,10,15) was burnt upon the altar, and
not used as sacrificial food. In
(Ezekiel 21:21) there is allusion, in the
statement that the king of Babylon "looked upon the liver," to one of
the most ancient of all modes of divination. The first recorded
instance of divination (q.v.) is that of the teraphim of Laban. By
the teraphim the LXX. and Josephus understood "the liver of goats."
By the "caul above the liver," in
(Leviticus 4:9; 7:4) etc., some understand
the great lobe of the liver itself.
