The flesh of a peace-offering that touches anything defiled must not be eaten. It must be burned in fire. Even if something defiled touches only part of the flesh, it defiles all the flesh, and none of it may be eaten.
In contrast, if part of the flesh of a sacrifice is taken out of the area in which it is required to remain (i.e., for sacrifices of superior holiness, the precincts of the Tabernacle; for sacrifices of lesser holiness, the Israelite camp), thereby being rendered unfit for consumption, the rest of the flesh, which remained within the prescribed area, remains fit for consumption: anyone normally qualified to eat this flesh and who is not ritually defiled may eat this flesh.
Whereas the flesh of ascent-offerings is not eaten at all, and the flesh of sin-offerings and guilt-offerings may be eaten only by priests, with regard to the flesh of peace-offerings, anyone who is not ritually defiled may eat the flesh.
But with regard to a person who eats the flesh of a peace-offering whose fat was offered up to God (or any other consecrated meat) while he is ritually defiled, this is forbidden, and that person will be cut off from his people—he will die prematurely and childless.
A person who touches anything ritually defiled—whether the source of defilement be a human corpse, the carcass of a spiritually-defiled animal, or the carcass of any spiritually-defiled loathsome creature—and then deliberately eats of the flesh of a peace-offering whose fat was offered up to God (or any other consecrated meat), or enters the Tabernacle precincts, that person will be cut off from his people, i.e., he will die prematurely and childless. If, however, he inadvertently ate consecrated meat or entered the Tabernacle precincts while he was ritually defiled, then he must atone for having done so with a sin-offering, as described previously: if he originally knew that he was defiled but then forgot, and committed the sin while unaware that he was defiled, he must bring a variable sin-offering; if he had not originally been aware that he was defiled when he committed the sin, he must bring a regular sin-offering.
In contrast, an undefiled person who eats defiled sacrificial meat is punished with lashes rather than with excision.
