Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 22:23

"Either a bullock or a lamb that hath anything superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill-offering; but for a vow it shall not be accepted." — Leviticus 22:23 (ASV)

Either a bullock or a lamb. —Better, And bullock and one of the flock.

That has anything superfluous. —This means one member of the animal is more elongated or contracted than the other, being out of proportion. The same blemish also unfitted the priest for performing sacerdotal functions .

Or lacking in its parts. —This, according to the authorities during the second Temple, denotes contracted hoofs, or undivided hoofs, making them resemble those of an ass or horse.

That you may offer for a freewill offering. —Better, that you may make a freewill offering. As Leviticus 22:18-20 most emphatically declares that an animal with any blemish whatsoever must not be offered for any manner of freewill offering, it is hardly conceivable that the lawgiver would contradict this enactment within the space of three verses.

To say that the animals with those serious organic defects enumerated in the verse before us, you may offer for a freewill offering would be such a contradiction. Hence, during the second Temple, the passage before us was interpreted to mean that the animals in question were only allowed to be consecrated for the maintenance and repair of the sanctuary, but not to be offered as a sacrifice on the altar.

They were sold, or the offerer paid the value himself, and the money was applied to these sacred purposes.

The opinion that a freewill offering was of less importance than a vow, and that therefore the lawgiver allows animals with the two kinds of defects described here to be offered for a freewill offering but not for a vow, is contrary to the regulations laid down in Leviticus 22:18-20 and is against the practice during the second Temple . It is far more probable that the text is disarranged and that it originally was, that you may not offer for a freewill offering, and for a vow it shall not be accepted.