Leviticuschapter 16
34 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the LORD.
It stands in Not at just any time may he enter, verses 1 to 5.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The Day of Atonement. The book's centre. Aaron must not come at all times into the holy place within the veil, lest he die; for the LORD appears in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Once a year he enters. First a bullock for his own sin, then two goats for the sin of the people. One goat slain as the sin offering; the blood sprinkled on and before the mercy seat. The second goat is the scapegoat. Azazel. Sent away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness, ‘bearing upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited’. Fine linen garments; the camp cleansed. Hebrews 9–10 reads the whole chapter as the shadow whose substance is Christ entering once into the holy place.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- A nation that had watched two priests die for coming near wrongly, and that would now wait outside once a year while one man went in
- Where
- The tabernacle at Sinai: the courtyard, the Tent of Meeting, the Most Holy Place behind the veil, and the wilderness the live goat was led into
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, with the rite dated from the deaths of Aaron's two sons. c. 1445 BC for the instruction, fixed thereafter to the tenth day of the seventh month every year
Historical context
The instruction is given to Moses for Aaron, and verse 1 dates it from the deaths of Aaron's two sons in chapter 10, so the chapter opens by naming a funeral and its first word is a limit.
The place behind the veil held the ark with the mercy seat over it, and the LORD says at verse 2 that he appears in the cloud above that lid. A first hearer understood the room as lethal, which is what the chapter says twice before the priest arrives.
The high priest went in wearing plain linen, and the golden garments of Exodus 28 with the breastplate and its stones stayed outside. He entered on the one day of the year dressed like the lowest of the priests, and changed back at verse 24 once the work inside was done.
Casting lots was an ordinary way of putting a decision beyond a man's hand, and a first hearer knew that neither goat was chosen by Aaron. Both stood alive at the entrance and the lot decided which one died.
Laying both hands on the head of an animal and speaking over it was a formal transfer that everyone watching could read, and the chapter names three words for what was transferred: iniquities, rebellious acts and sins.
The day was fixed to the tenth of the seventh month, and Leviticus 23:27 lists it among the appointed times. The one day the nation was cleansed was the one day it was given no work to do, and the rule bound the foreigner living among them on the same terms as the native born.
Significance
For the nation this was the day the sanctuary itself was cleaned of everything the year had put on it, which is what verse 16 says: atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the impurities of the Israelites, and the same for the Tent of Meeting that stands among them.
The two goats made the result visible. One died at the sanctuary and the other walked away into open country carrying what had been confessed over its head, so a watching camp saw the sins leave rather than only hearing that they were forgiven.
Verse 17 emptied the tent of everyone else while the high priest was inside, so a whole nation waited on one man in a room nobody could see into, once a year, for as long as the sanctuary stood.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 16 falls in Day of Atonement (chapters 16). The high priest enters the Most Holy Place; the scapegoat carries sin into the wilderness; the single day that cleanses.
Day of Atonement. Two goats, one sacrificed, one sent away; the high priest behind the veil.
Before it: Laws of clean and unclean, chapters 11–15. After it: The Holiness Code, chapters 17–26.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Not at just any time may he enter
The chapter is dated by a funeral. Two priests came near in a way they were not told to and died in chapter 10, and the instruction that follows opens by naming them. Aaron may not come inside the vail at all times, and the reason the verse gives for the limit is that he die not.
Leviticus 16:1
“The reference to the death of Nadab and Abihu is a notice of the occasion on which the instructions were given, well calculated to add point and emphasis to the solemn admonition to the high priest in the second verse. The death of his sons Lev 10:2, for drawing near to Yahweh in an unauthorized manner, was to serve as a warning to Aaron himself never to transgress in this respect.”
Leviticus 16:2
“But see what a blessed change is made by the gospel of Christ; all good Christians have now boldness to enter into the holiest, through the veil, every day ( Heb. x. 19, 20 ); and we come boldly (not as Aaron must, with fear and trembling) to the throne of grace, or mercy-seat, Heb. iv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 16:2
“That he come not at all times into the holy place - By the holy place we are to understand here what is ordinarily called the Holy of Holies, or most holy place; that place within the veil where the ark of the covenant, etc., were laid up; and where God manifested his presence between the cherubim.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He goes in wearing plain linen, and the golden garments of Exodus 28 with the breastplate and the stones stay outside. The high priest enters on the one day of the year dressed like the lowest of the priests, and he washes his flesh before he puts the linen on. He changes back into the golden garments at verse 24, once the work inside is finished.
Leviticus 16:3
“Holy place - This name here denotes the sanctuary, the whole sacred enclosure, the court of the tabernacle. The offerings were for Aaron and his sons, supplied by himself.”
Leviticus 16:4
“He shall put on the holy linen coat - He was not to dress in his pontifical garments, but in the simple sacerdotal vestments, or those of the Levites, because it was a day of humiliation; and as he was to offer sacrifices for his own sins, it was necessary that he should appear in habits suited to the occasion.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 16:4
“That meaner dress did best become him on this day of humiliation; and, being thinner and lighter, he would in it be more expedite for the work or service of the day, which was all to go through his hands. Christ, our high priest, made atonement for sin in our nature; not in the robes of his own peculiar glory, but the linen garments of our mortality, clean indeed, but mean.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 16:5-6
The people supply two goats and the priest supplies his own bullock, and the order of use is fixed. Aaron makes atonement for himself and for his house before he touches anything belonging to the congregation. Hebrews 7:27 turns on that exact order, saying the high priests offered first for their own sins and then for the people's, and that Christ did it once when he offered up himself.
Leviticus 16:5
“Take of the congregation - i. e. they were to be supplied at the public cost. Two kids of the goats - This should be, two shaggy he-goats (Lev 4:23 note), of the same color, size, and value.”
Two goats and the casting of lots
Leviticus 16:6
“Shall offer - Rather, shall present, as in Lev 16:7, Lev 16:10, etc. The word expresses the formal act of placing the victims in front of the entrance of the tabernacle. For himself, and for his house - i. e. for himself as the high priest and all the common priests. Compare Lev 9:7-14 note.”
he shall take the two goats: Both goats stand alive at the door and a lot decides which one dies. The word rendered scapegoat occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and the Hebrew behind it is azazel, which has been read as a goat that goes away, as a place, and as a name. The King James translators chose one of those readings, the alternatives are held by named scholars, and a reader should know the word is argued.
Leviticus 16:7
“And he shall take the two goats - It is allowed on all hands that this ceremony, taken in all its parts, pointed out the Lord Jesus dying for our sins and rising again for our justification; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Two goats are brought, one to be slain as a sacrifice for sin, the other to have the transgressions of the people confessed over his head, and then to be sent away into the wilderness.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 16:8
“Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats - The Jews inform us that there were two lots made either of wood, stone, or any kind of metal. On one was written לשם Lashshem, for the Name, i. e., יהוה Jehovah, which the Jews will neither write nor pronounce: on the other was written לעזאזל Laazazel, for the Scape-Goat: then they put the two lots into a vessel which was called קלפי kalpey, the goats standing with their faces towards the west.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 16:8
“May I offer, moreover, an interpretation of the two goats which were presented on "the great day of atonement"? Do they not also prefigure the two natures of Christ? They were of like size and very similar in appearance, owing to the Lord's identity of aspect. He is not to come in any other form. He had to be recognized by those by whom he was also wounded and pierced.”
Tertullian· written before 220· AGAINST MARCION 3.7.7patristic
One goat is killed and one is kept alive, and verse 10 says the live one is presented before the LORD to make an atonement with him. The text treats the pair as one offering rather than as two, so the death and the carrying away are halves of a single act. The cleansing of a leper at Leviticus 14:4-7 uses two birds the same way, one killed and one let loose alive over running water.
Leviticus 16:10
“To be the scape-goat - עזאזל azazel, from עז az, a goat, and אזל azal, to dismiss; the dismissed or sent away goat, to distinguish it from the goat that was to be offered in sacrifice. Most ancient nations had vicarious sacrifices, to which they transferred by certain rites and ceremonies the guilt of the community at large, in the same manner in which the scapegoat was used by the Jews.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 16:10
“Some think that goats were chosen for the sin-offering because, by the disagreeableness of their smell, the offensiveness of sin is represented: others think, because it was said that the demons which the heathens then worshipped often appeared to their worshippers in the form of goats, God therefore obliged his people to sacrifice goats, that they might never be tempted to sacrifice to goats.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Blood carried inside the veil
Coals from the altar and incense beaten small go in before any blood does. The cloud of the incense is to cover the mercy seat, and the stated purpose is again that he die not, which is the second time in thirteen verses. The place the high priest is walking into is described as lethal, and the chapter says so twice before he arrives.
Leviticus 16:11
“The bullock - Mentioned in general, ver. 6. The ceremonies whereof are here particularly described. This was a different bullock or heifer from that Num. xix, 2, 5, 9, 10, 17, as appears by comparing the places.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 16:12
“It is important, in reference to the meaning of the day of atonement, to observe the order of the rites as they are described in these verses. Lev 16:12 A censer - See Exo 25:38 note. The altar before the Lord - i. e. the altar of burnt-offering on which the fire was always burning. Lev 16:14 The high priest must have come out from the most holy place to fetch the blood, leaving the censer smoking within, and then have entered again within the veil.”
Leviticus 16:14-15
The blood goes on the mercy seat and before it, seven times, applied with a finger. What is sprinkled is the lid of the box that holds the law, so the covering over the commandments is the thing that receives the blood. He then does for the people's goat exactly what he did for his own bullock, and the text repeats the whole procedure rather than summarising it.
Leviticus 16:14
“Upon the mercy-seat - To teach us, that God is merciful to sinners only through and for the blood of Christ. With his face east-ward, or upon the eastern part, towards the people, who were in the court which lay east-ward from the holy of holies, which was the most western part of the tabernacle.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Cleansing the holy place and the altar
Leviticus 16:15
“Then shall he kill the goat - He went out of the holy of holies, and killed it, and then returned thither again with its blood. And whereas the high-priest is said to be allowed to enter into that place but once in a year, that is to be understood, but one day in a year, though there was occasion of going in and coming out more than once upon that day.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsHebrews 9:12
The atonement is made for the building as well as for the people, because the tabernacle stands in the midst of their uncleanness and takes it up. Verse 17 empties the tent of everyone else while the high priest is inside, so a whole nation waits on one man in a room nobody can see into. Hebrews 9:7 describes this verse, that into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood.
Leviticus 16:16
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 16:17
“In the tabernacle - ln the holy place, where the priests and Levites were at other times. This was commanded for the greater reverence to the Divine Majesty then in a more special manner appearing, and that none of them might cast an eye into the holy of holies, as the high-priest went in or came out.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The altar itself is cleansed and hallowed with the blood of both animals. The instrument of atonement needs atonement, and the chapter states that without explaining it. Seven sprinklings again, as on the mercy seat.
Leviticus 16:18
“The altar before the Lord - That is, the altar of incense, where the blood of sacrifices was to be put, particularly the blood of the sin-offerings offered upon this day of atonement, and which is most properly said to be before the Lord, that is, before the place where God in a special manner dwelt.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 16:19
“And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times,.... This was done with his right finger, or forefinger, as the Targum of Jonathan, and seven times, to denote the perfect cleansing of the altar with it.”
The goat that carries sins awayvv. 20-22
Aaron lays both hands on the living goat and confesses over it all the iniquities, all the transgressions and all their sins, and the verse names all three. The sins are put on the head of the animal by hands and by words together, and then a man leads it out. It bears them unto a land not inhabited, so what happens to them is a distance rather than a destruction, and Isaiah 53:6 reaches for the same picture when it says the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Leviticus 16:20
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 16:21
“All the iniquities - He mentions iniquities, transgressions, and sins, to note sins of all sorts, and that a free and full confession was to be made, and that the smallest sins needed, and the greatest sins were not excluded from, the benefit of Christ's death here represented.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
ConnectionsIsaiah 53:6
Wash, burn, and afflict your souls each year
The linen is taken off and left in the holy place, worn once and not carried out. He washes again, puts the golden garments back on, and comes out to offer the burnt offerings where the people can see. The day has two halves and the clothes mark the change between them.
Leviticus 16:24
“He shall put on his linen garments - Not his ordinary priestly linen garments, for he was to leave them in the tabernacle, ver. 23, but the high-priestly garments, called his garments properly, and by way of distinction. And this change of his garments was not without cause.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 16:25
“And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.”
Two men are made unclean by handling what carried the uncleanness away, the one who led the goat out and the one who burned the carcases. The bullock and the goat whose blood went inside are taken out of the camp and burned there rather than on the altar. Hebrews 13:11-13 describes this arrangement, says that Jesus suffered without the gate for the same reason, and then tells its readers to go out to him.
Leviticus 16:26
“He that let go the goat - shall wash, etc. - Not only the person who led him away, but the priest who consecrated him, was reputed unclean, because the goat himself was unclean, being considered as bearing the sins of the whole congregation. On this account both the priest and the person who led him to the wilderness were obliged to wash their clothes and bathe themselves, before they could come into the camp.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 16:27
“The flesh of both those sin-offerings whose blood was taken within the veil was to be all burnt, not upon the altar, but at a distance without the camp, to signify both our putting away sin by true repentance, and the spirit of burning, and God's putting it away by a full remission, so that it shall never rise up in judgment against us.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The date is fixed, the tenth day of the seventh month, and Leviticus 23:27 lists it among the appointed times. The people do nothing all day except afflict their souls, so the one day the nation is cleansed is the one day it is given no work to do. The rule binds the stranger that sojourneth among them on the same terms as one of their own country.
Leviticus 16:29
“Seventh month, on the tenth day - The month Ethanim or Tisri, as being the seventh in the Sacred year, has been called the sabbatical month. On the first day was celebrated the Feast of Trumpets Lev 23:24, the tenth day was the Day of Atonement, and on the fourteenth day the Feast of tabernacles commenced (Lev 23:24 note; Exo 23:16). Afflict your souls - The old term for fasting; but its meaning evidently embraces, not only abstinence from food, but that penitence and humiliation which give scope and purpose to the outward act of fasting.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 16:29
“This feast began in the evening of the ninth day, and continued till the evening of the tenth. Your souls - Yourselves, both your bodies, by abstinence from food and other delights, and your minds by grief for former sins, which though bitter, yet is voluntary in all true penitents, who are therefore here said to afflict themselves, or to be active in the work.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 16:29
“The seventh had been reckoned the first month, till God appointed that the month in which the children of Israel came out of Egypt should thenceforward be accounted and called the first month. Some have fancied that this tenth day of the seventh month was the day of the year on which our first parents fell, and that it was kept as a fast in remembrance of their fall.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 16:30
“For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you,.... By offering the sin offering for them; typical of the sacrifice of Christ, whose soul was made an offering for sin whereby atonement is made for it, and whose blood cleanses from all sin.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 16:30
“BEFORE Adam transgressed, he lived in communion with God, but after he had broken the Covenant and grieved God's Spirit, he could have no more familiar fellowship with God. Under the Mosaic dispensation, in which God was pleased, in His Grace, to dwell among His people and walk with them in the wilderness, it was still under a reserve— there was a Holy Place wherein the symbol of God's Presence was hidden away from mortal gaze.”
Leviticus 16:31
“The work of humiliation for sin requires such a close application of mind, and such a fixed engagement of the whole man, as will not allow us to turn aside to any other work. The day of atonement seems to be that sabbath spoken of by the prophet ( Isa. lviii. 13 ), for it is the same with the fast spoken of in the verses before.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The office outlives the man, since the son who succeeds does the same thing in his father's stead. The phrase everlasting statute occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and it is fastened to a rite that has to be done again every year. Hebrews 10:3 reads that repetition as a remembrance made of sins every year, and Hebrews 9:12 sets against it a high priest who entered in once.
Leviticus 16:33
“Christ's satisfaction is that which atones for the sins both of ministers and people, the iniquities of our holy (and our unholy) things; the title we have to the privileges of ordinances, our comfort in them, and benefit by them, are all owing to the atonement Christ made.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 16:33
“A summary of what was done on the day of atonement. The day was intended as an occasion for expressing more completely than could be done in the ordinary sacrifices the spiritual truth of atonement, with a fuller acknowledgment of the sinfulness and weakness of man and of the corruptible nature of all earthly things, even of those most solemnly consecrated and devoted to the service of God.”
Leviticus 16:34
The Jews had many striking ceremonies which marvellously set forth the death of Jesus Christ as the great expiation of our guilt and the salvation of our souls. One of the chief of these was the day of atonement, which I believe was pre-eminently intended to typify that great day of vengeance of our God, which was also the great day of acceptance of our souls, when Jesus Christ “died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.