In Lev 1:16 the operative word is נוֹצָה (notsah) meaning "plumage". It occurs four times in the OT as follows:
- Lev 1:16 - He is to remove the crop and the feathers and throw them down east of the altar where the ashes are.
- Job 39:13 - The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.
- Eze 17:3 - and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers of many colors, came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar.
- Eze 17:7 - But there was another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him. It stretched out its branches to him from its planting bed, so that he might water it.
BDB gives this definition:
נוֺצה noun feminine plumage (compare possibly Arabic hair over
forehead, fore-lock of horse, Lane3033; see also Assyrian na-aƒ
kappe); — of eagle ׳מָלֵא הַגּ Ezekiel 17:3 (figurative of Nebuch.; +
כָּנָף, אֵבֶר); also ׳רַב נ Ezekiel 17:7 (figurative of king of Egypt;
- כָּנָף); of ostrich נֹצָה Job 39:13 ("" כנף, + אֶבְרָה; compare Di Bu). Here belongs probably also בְּנֹצָתָהּ Leviticus 1:16, read
בְּנֹצָתֹה (Dr-WhHpt), בנצתו (⅏), or וְ(אֶתֿ) נֹצָתוֺ (compare Di),
its feathers, of bird for burnt-offering; ᵐ5 σὺν τοῖς πτεροῖς, ᵑ9 et
plumas; so AV RVm; > with its filth (i.e. of the crop) ᵑ7Onk ᵑ6 Ges Kn
Ke Kal Ew RV, meaning without evidence elsewhere.
The basic problem here is not with the word "feathers" but with the previous word, "crop" מֻרְאָה (murah) which probably means "crop or alimentary canal" or "craw of a bird" (BDB). Thus, the crop was an internal organ and thus did not have feathers and so many versions choose to translate it as "crop and its contents".
However, such an emendation is probably unnecessary as the "feathers" could simply mean the plumage on the skin outside the crop.