Leviticus 16

Le 16:1-34.

HOW THE

HIGH

PRIEST

MUST

ENTER INTO THE

HOLY

PLACE.

1. after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered

before the Lord, and died--It is thought by some that this chapter

has been transposed out of its right place in the sacred record, which

was immediately after the narrative of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu

[Le 10:1-20].

That appalling catastrophe must have filled Aaron with painful

apprehensions lest the guilt of these two sons might be entailed on his

house, or that other members of his family might share the same fate by

some irregularities or defects in the discharge of their sacred

functions. And, therefore, this law was established, by the due

observance of whose requirements the Aaronic order would be securely

maintained and accepted in the priesthood.

2. Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into

the holy place within the veil, &c.--Common priests went every day

into the part of the sanctuary without the veil to burn incense

on the golden altar. But none except the high priest was allowed to

enter within the veil, and that only once a year with the

greatest care and solemnity. This arrangement was evidently designed to

inspire a reverence for the most holy place, and the precaution was

necessary at a time when the presence of God was indicated by sensible

symbols, the impression of which might have been diminished or lost by

daily and familiar observation.

I will appear in the cloud--that is, the smoke of the incense

which the high priest burnt on his yearly entrance into the most holy

place: and this was the cloud which at that time covered the mercy

seat.

3, 4. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place--As the duties

of the great day of atonement led to the nearest and most solemn

approach to God, the directions as to the proper course to be followed

were minute and special.

with a young bullock . . . and a ram--These victims he

brought alive, but they were not offered in sacrifice till he had gone

through the ceremonies described between

Le 16:3-11.

He was not to attire himself on that occasion in the splendid robes

that were proper to his sacred office, but in a plain dress of linen,

like the common Levites, for, as he was then to make atonement for his

own sins, as well as for those of the people, he was to appear in the

humble character of a suppliant. That plain dress was more in harmony

with a season of humiliation (as well as lighter and more convenient

for the duties which on that occasion he had singly to perform) than

the gorgeous robes of the pontificate. It showed that when all appeared

as sinners, the highest and lowest were then on a level, and that there

is no distinction of persons with God

[Ac 10:34].

5-10. shall take of the congregation . . . two kids of the

goats . . . and one ram--The sacrifices were to be

offered by the high priest, respectively for himself and the other

priests, as well as for the people. The bullock

(Le 16:3)

and the goats were for sin offerings and the rams for burnt offerings.

The goats, though used in different ways, constituted only one

offering. They were both presented before the Lord, and the disposal of

them determined by lot, which Jewish writers have thus described: The

priest, placing one of the goats on his right hand and the other on his

left, took his station by the altar, and cast into an urn two pieces of

gold exactly similar, inscribed, the one with the words "for the Lord,"

and the other for "Azazel" (the scapegoat). After having well shaken

them together, he put both his hands into the box and took up a lot in

each: that in his right hand he put on the head of the goat which stood

on his right, and that in his left he dropped on the other. In this

manner the fate of each was decided.

11-19. Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering which is

for himself, &c.--The first part of the service was designed to

solemnize his own mind, as well as the minds of the people, by offering

the sacrifices for their sins. The sin offerings being slain had the

sins of the offerer judicially transferred to them by the imputation of

his hands on their head

(Le 4:4, 15, 24, 29, 33);

and thus the young bullock, which was to make atonement for himself and

the other priests (called "his house,"

Ps 135:19),

was killed by the hands of the high priest. While the blood of the

victim was being received into a vessel, taking a censer of live coals

in his right hand and a platter of sweet incense in his left, he, amid

the solemn attention and the anxious prayers of the assembled

multitude, crossed the porch and the holy place, opened the outer veil

which led into the holy of holies and then the inner veil. Standing

before the ark, he deposited the censer of coals on the floor, emptied

the plate of incense into his hand, poured it on the burning coals; and

the apartment was filled with fragrant smoke, intended, according to

Jewish writers, to prevent any presumptuous gazer prying too curiously

into the form of the mercy seat, which was the Lord's throne. The high

priest having done this, perfumed the sanctuary, returned to the door,

took the blood of the slain bullock, and, carrying it into the holy of

holies, sprinkled it with his finger once upon the mercy seat

"eastward"--that is, on the side next to himself; and seven times

"before the mercy seat"--that is, on the front of the ark. Leaving the

coals and the incense burning, he went out a second time, to sacrifice

at the altar of burnt offering the goat which had been assigned as a

sin offering for the people; and carrying its blood into the holy of

holies, he made similar sprinklings as he had done before with the

blood of the bullock. While the high priest was thus engaged in the

most holy place, none of the ordinary priests were allowed to remain

within the precincts of the tabernacle. The sanctuary or holy place

and the altar of burnt offering were in like manner sprinkled seven

times with the blood of the bullock and the goat. The object of this

solemn ceremonial was to impress the minds of the Israelites with the

conviction that the whole tabernacle was stained by the sins of a

guilty people, that by their sins they had forfeited the privileges of

the divine presence and worship, and that an atonement had to be made

as the condition of God's remaining with them. The sins and

shortcomings of the past year having polluted the sacred edifice, the

expiation required to be annually renewed. The exclusion of the priests

indicated their unworthiness and the impurities of their service. The

mingled blood of the two victims being sprinkled on the horns of the

altar indicated that the priests and the people equally needed an

atonement for their sins. But the sanctuary being thus ceremonially

purified, and the people of Israel reconciled by the blood of the

consecrated victim, the Lord continued to dwell in the midst of them,

and to honor them with His gracious presence.

20-22. he shall bring the live goat--Having already been

presented before the Lord

(Le 16:10),

it was now brought forward to the high priest, who, placing his hands

upon its head, and "having confessed over it all the iniquities of the

people of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins,"

transferred them by this act to the goat as their substitute. It was

then delivered into the hands of a person, who was appointed to lead

him away into a distant, solitary, and desert place, where in early

times he was let go, to escape for his life; but in the time of Christ,

he was carried to a high rock twelve miles from Jerusalem, and there,

being thrust over the precipice, he was killed. Commentators have

differed widely in their opinions about the character and purpose of

this part of the ceremonial; some considering the word "Azazel," with

the Septuagint and our translators, to mean, "the scapegoat";

others, "a lofty, precipitous rock"

[BOCHART];

others, "a thing separated to God"

[EWALD,

THOLUCK];

while others think it designates Satan

[GESENIUS,

HENGSTENBERG].

This last view is grounded on the idea of both goats forming one and

the same sacrifice of atonement, and it is supported by

Zec 3:1-10,

which presents a striking commentary on this passage. Whether there was

in this peculiar ceremony any reference to an Egyptian superstition

about Typhon, the spirit of evil, inhabiting the wilderness, and the

design was to ridicule it by sending a cursed animal into his gloomy

dominions, it is impossible to say. The subject is involved in much

obscurity. But in any view there seems to be a typical reference to

Christ who bore away our sins

[Heb 10:4;

1Jo 3:5].

23-28. Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and

shall put off the linen garments--On the dismissal of the

scapegoat, the high priest prepared for the important parts of the

service which still remained; and for the performance of these he laid

aside his plain linen clothes, and, having bathed himself in water, he

assumed his pontifical dress. Thus gorgeously attired, he went to

present the burnt offerings which were prescribed for himself and the

people, consisting of the two rams which had been brought with the sin

offerings, but reserved till now. The fat was ordered to be burnt upon

the altar; the rest of the carcasses to be cut down and given to some

priestly attendants to burn without the camp, in conformity with the

general law for the sin offerings

(Le 4:8-12; 8:14-17).

The persons employed in burning them, as well as the conductor of the

scapegoat, were obliged to wash their clothes and bathe their flesh in

water before they were allowed to return into the camp.

29-34. this shall be a statute for ever unto you, that in the

seventh month ye shall afflict your souls--This day of annual

expiation for all the sins, irreverences, and impurities of all classes

in Israel during the previous year, was to be observed as a solemn

fast, in which "they were to afflict their souls"; it was reckoned a

sabbath, kept as a season of "holy convocation," or, assembling for

religious purposes. All persons who performed any labor were subject

to the penalty of death

[Ex 31:14, 15; 35:2].

It took place on the tenth day of the seventh month, corresponding to

our third of October; and this chapter, together with

Le 23:27-32,

as containing special allusion to the observances of the day, was

publicly read. The rehearsal of these passages appointing the solemn

ceremonial was very appropriate, and the details of the successive

parts of it (above all the spectacle of the public departure of the

scapegoat under the care of its leader) must have produced salutary

impressions both of sin and of duty that would not be soon effaced.