Leviticuschapter 16
34 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And the Lord spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord, and died;
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
Moses received this law after the deaths of Aaron's two sons, and it tells Aaron how he may come near without dying. It stands at the centre of Leviticus and gathers up every uncleanness the chapters before it named. The first hearers had just seen what happens to a priest who approaches wrongly, so they would listen closely. Listen for the order of the day, what the high priest wears, where he goes and for whom he makes atonement. Notice the two goats and the different end of each. The letter to the Hebrews reads this day as the pattern of the work of Christ.
Context
- 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
- What
- The rite of the yearly Day of Atonement, when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place to cleanse the sanctuary and the people.
- Where
- The tabernacle at Sinai, from the courtyard through the veil to the Most Holy Place, and the wilderness beyond the camp.
- When
- Given in the second year after the Exodus, about 1445 BC, and kept every year after on the tenth day of the seventh month.
- Why
- To remove the uncleanness and sin of all Israel for the year, so that the LORD could go on dwelling among them.
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 5 more paragraphs
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter founds the Day of Atonement, and the day is still the most solemn in the Jewish year. With no Temple standing since AD 70 the rite of this chapter cannot be performed, and the day is kept instead as a fast of roughly twenty five hours with no food and no drink, most of it spent in synagogue prayer, many of those present wearing white. The Mishnah sets out five abstentions for the day, eating and drinking, washing, anointing, leather shoes and marital relations, at Yoma 8:1, and it rules at Yoma 8:9 that the day atones for what a person has done against God while what he has done against his neighbour waits on his making it up with the neighbour first. Those facts and those two locators are the ones this site has already checked, in its chapter context for Leviticus 16 and on its page for the day at /featured/day-of-atonement.
How it is read
Rashi reads the whole chapter as the order of service of the day, and he begins with the warning the opening verse carries. Asked why the text dates the instruction from the death of Aaron's two sons, he gives the parable of Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah: "It may be compared to the case of a sick person whom the physician visited." The first physician told the man what to avoid, the second told him the same and added, "Do not eat cold things, nor sleep in a damp place so that thou mayest not die as Mr. So-and-so died!", and Rashi holds that the second warning binds harder than the first, which is why the deaths are named here (Rashi on Leviticus 16:1:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, 1929 to 1934, public domain, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 1 3).
On the high priest's linen he explains why the gold of the eight garments is laid aside for the four of plain linen worn by an ordinary priest, "because the prosecuting counsel cannot become the defending counsel" (Rashi on Leviticus 16:4:1, citing Rosh Hashanah 26a). The bull is bought with the high priest's own money rather than the community's (Rashi on Leviticus 16:6:1, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 2 2 and Yoma 3b), and the confession over it covers the priests and their own defilement of the sanctuary (Rashi on Leviticus 16:11:1, citing Shevuot 14a). At the lots Rashi describes the act as the Mishnah's tractate Yoma describes it: "He places one goat at his right and the other at his left", the high priest draws both lots from an urn at once and lays one on each goat (Rashi on Leviticus 16:8:1, citing Yoma 39a). He reads the goat presented alive as presented alive up to the moment it is sent away, and concludes from the wording that it is sent to its death (Rashi on Leviticus 16:10:1, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 2 6). At the twenty third verse he reports the rabbis' judgment that the verse stands out of its place: "The whole section is written in the order in which the rites actually took place with the exception of this" one entry into the tent, which belonged later in the day (Rashi on Leviticus 16:23:1, citing Sifra, Acharei Mot, Chapter 6 2 and Yoma 32a). One saying of the plainer kind sits at the third verse, where Rashi reads the numerical value of a single word as a date: "The numerical value of this word is 410, being an allusion to the 410 years during which the First Temple existed" (Rashi on Leviticus 16:3:1, citing Leviticus Rabbah 21 9). Sforno comments at 16:5, Ibn Ezra at 16:17, Malbim at the seventh, twentieth and twenty second verses, and the corpus holds no English version of any of them under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand here as citations. The second goat and the word Azazel are the subject of a question this site already carries with its holders, on the Leviticus book page, and this card leaves the argument there.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, and every one of them is a locator without text, so this site cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. The chapter is worked hardest in the Jerusalem Talmud's tractate Shevuot, at 1:4:2, 1:6:8, 1:7:1, 1:7:3 and 4:1:2, and in its tractate Yoma at 4:1:9 and 6:6:1, with Horayot at 1:8:2 and 3:2:34 and Sanhedrin at 3:9:2. In the Babylonian Talmud the locators are Chullin at 10b:11, 11b:2, 22a:8, 24a:2, 117a:15, 131b:16 and 138a:8, with Bava Batra 120b:9, Chagigah 23b:8, Bekhorot 39b:1, Gittin 54b:11 and Avodah Zarah 74a:3. The midrashic locators are Bamidbar Rabbah 2:23, 5:4, 7:8, 14:21, 18:21 and 19:5, Bereshit Rabbah 17:2 and 65:15, Aggadat Bereshit 43:1, Midrash Lekach Tov at Leviticus 16:25, Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:3, 29:5 and 34:5, and the Ein Yaakov collections at Yoma 1:1 and 8:1, Shevuot 1:7 and, in the Glick edition, Yoma 3:6. Rashi himself hands on locators as he goes, and the ones he names in the kept text of this chapter are Sifra, Acharei Mot at Sections 1 and 2 and Chapters 2, 4 and 6, Leviticus Rabbah 21 9, and the Babylonian Talmud at Yoma 3b, 32a, 39a, 45b, 58b and 61a, Rosh Hashanah 26a, Shevuot 2b, 7b and 14a.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 16:1:1, 16:3:1, 16:4:1, 16:6:1, 16:8:1, 16:10:1, 16:11:1 and 16:23:1, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary, public domain, 1929; Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah, the parable of the two physicians, as Rashi gives it at Rashi on Leviticus 16:1:1 from Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 1 3; Sforno, Sforno on Leviticus 16:5:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 16:17:1, cited only; Malbim, Malbim on Leviticus, Achrei Mot 22:1, 49:1 and 58:1, cited only, no English version in the corpus; Mishnah, Yoma 8:1 and 8:9, as src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts records them for this chapter; Sifra, Sifra, Acharei Mot, Sections 1 and 2 and Chapters 2, 4 and 6, as Rashi cites them; Midrash, Leviticus Rabbah 21 9, as Rashi cites it; Bamidbar Rabbah 2:23, 5:4, 7:8, 14:21, 18:21 and 19:5; Bereshit Rabbah 17:2 and 65:15; Aggadat Bereshit 43:1; Midrash Lekach Tov, Leviticus 16:25:1; Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 3b, 32a, 39a, 45b, 58b and 61a; Rosh Hashanah 26a; Shevuot 2b, 7b and 14a, as Rashi cites them; Chullin 10b:11, 11b:2, 22a:8, 24a:2, 117a:15, 131b:16 and 138a:8; Bava Batra 120b:9; Chagigah 23b:8; Bekhorot 39b:1; Gittin 54b:11; Avodah Zarah 74a:3; Jerusalem Talmud, Shevuot 1:4:2, 1:6:8, 1:7:1, 1:7:3 and 4:1:2; Yoma 4:1:9 and 6:6:1; Horayot 1:8:2 and 3:2:34; Sanhedrin 3:9:2; Shabbat 1:3:11; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:3, 29:5 and 34:5; Ein Yaakov, Ein Yaakov, Yoma 1:1 and 8:1 and Shevuot 1:7; Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 3:6; MannaFest, the chapter context for Leviticus 16 in src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts, the Day of Atonement at /featured/day-of-atonement, and the scapegoat and Azazel question on the Leviticus book page, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Not at just any time may he enter
Leviticus 16:1-2
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.”
The reason given is the presence itself, since God appears in the cloud above the mercy seat. Verse 34 names the one permitted time, once a year. Matthew Henry sets this limit beside Hebrews 10:19 to 20, where Christians are given boldness to enter the holiest every day.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Leviticus 16:3-4
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.”
Albert Barnes notes that the high priest had worn his golden garments that day and through the week before for the regular sacrifices, and he bathed at each change of dress. Matthew Henry gives two reasons for the plain linen. It suited a day of humiliation, and it was lighter for a man doing every task 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
Albert Barnes takes his household to mean the whole priesthood, himself as high priest and all the ordinary priests with him. He reads present as the formal act of setting the animal before the entrance, with the killing left for verse 11. The same verb returns at verses 7 and 10.
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.”
Leviticus 16:7-8
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
Adam Clarke reports the Jewish account of two lots, one marked for the Name and one marked for Azazel, drawn from a vessel. Tertullian and Theodoret of Cyrus read the pair as a picture of the two natures of Christ. Tertullian notes the two were alike in size and look.
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
Leviticus 16:9-10
One goat is killed and one is kept alive, and verse 10 says the live one is "presented alive before the LORD to make atonement" by being sent away. The text treats the pair as one offering, 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 released alive.
presented alive before the Lord: The Hebrew behind scapegoat is azazel. Adam Clarke derives it from the words for a goat and for sending away, so the animal is the goat dismissed. Albert Barnes renders the phrase to Azazel, into the wilderness, which keeps Azazel as a proper noun.
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
Leviticus 16:11-13
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
Albert Barnes identifies the altar before the LORD as the altar of burnt offering, where the fire was always burning. The measure of incense is two handfuls. Barnes adds that the high priest then came out to fetch the blood for verse 14, leaving the censer smoking within.
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.”
Verse 2 said God appears in the cloud above the mercy seat, and here the priest raises a second cloud over that same place. The Testimony lies beneath it, inside the ark.
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
This is the high priest's third entry behind the veil that day, after the incense and the bull's blood, as Matthew Henry counts it. John Wesley explains that once a year meant one day, with several entries in it. John Gill places the killing at the altar in the court.
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
Leviticus 16:16-17
The atonement is made for the building as well as for the people, because the Tent of Meeting "is surrounded by their impurities" and takes them up. Verse 17 empties the tent while the high priest is inside, so a nation waits on one man in a room nobody can see. Hebrews 9:7 describes this verse, the high priest going in alone once a year, only with 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
The outer room is emptied of its usual priests. John Wesley gives two reasons for clearing it, reverence for the presence and keeping any eye from the Most Holy Place as the high priest passed. Matthew Henry adds that the priests standing outside confessed their own need of the atonement.
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
Leviticus 16:18-19
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
Which altar is meant is argued. Matthew Henry notes that Exodus 30:10 orders this blood for the altar of incense, while some read the altar before the LORD here as the altar of burnt offering. John Wesley and John Gill both take the seven as a sign of complete cleansing.
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 away
Leviticus 16:20-22
Aaron lays both hands on the live goat and confesses over it "all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins", naming all three. Hands and words together put the sins on its head, and the goat carries them off to a solitary place, removed by distance. Isaiah 53:6 reaches for the same picture, the LORD laying 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
Matthew Henry notes that hands were laid on a sacrifice with a confession fitted to its kind, and this being a sin offering, the confession was of sin. Adam Clarke sends the reader back to Exodus 29:10 and Leviticus 1:4 for the meaning of the gesture. The goat leaves in the care of an appointed man.
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
The goat is released, and the chapter follows it no further. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read both goats as one and the same sacrifice of atonement, and they point to Zechariah 3:1 to 10 as a commentary on this passage.
Wash, burn, and afflict your souls each year
Leviticus 16:23-25
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.
John Wesley takes his own clothes to mean the high priest's proper garments, which belong to him alone. Then come the two burnt offerings. Matthew Henry reads that order as pardon first and thanks after.
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
The sin offering is divided. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that its fat went up on the altar while the rest of the carcass was burned outside the camp, as verse 27 goes on to say. Leviticus 4:8 to 12 gives the same rule for sin offerings.
Leviticus 16:25
“And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.”
Leviticus 16:26-28
Two men are made unclean by handling what carried the uncleanness away, the one who released the goat and the one who burned the remains. The bull and the goat whose blood went inside are burned outside the camp, away from the altar. Hebrews 13:11-13 describes this arrangement, says that Jesus suffered outside 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
The condition is stated in the verse itself. These are the animals whose blood went into the Most Holy Place, and the whole of each is burned, hides and dung with the flesh. Matthew Henry reads the burning as a picture of sin put away by repentance and by God's full pardon.
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
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the man who burns the carcasses to be one of the priestly attendants. His return waits only on washing and bathing. Verse 26 sets the same terms for the man who released the goat.
Leviticus 16:29-31
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
The verse uses the word clean, the language of chapters 11 to 15, for release from sin. John Gill reads the day as a type of the offering of Christ, whose blood cleanses from all sin. Matthew Henry notes that the yearly repetition showed its limits.
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.”
It is a Sabbath set by the calendar. Matthew Henry explains the rest by the work of humbling oneself, which leaves no room for any other task. He also takes it to be the Sabbath of Isaiah 58:13, since the fast in the verses before is the same day.
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
Leviticus 16:32-34
The office outlives the man, since the son who succeeds his father as high priest does the same work. The rite is called a permanent statute, and it has to be done again once a year. Hebrews 10:3 reads that repetition as a reminder of sins every year, and Hebrews 9:12 sets against it a high priest who entered once.
The verse lists five things atoned for, three places and two groups of people. Albert Barnes reads the list as an admission that all earthly things are corruptible, even those most solemnly consecrated. Matthew Henry applies it to ministers and people alike.
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.”
The chapter closes with a line of narrative after the law, reporting that the command was carried out. Charles Spurgeon preached the day as a picture of Christ's death. John Wesley saw two gospel gifts in the statute, forgiveness of sins and access to 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.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Ritual instruction for a single annual rite, standing at the centre of the book's own concentric shape, as Wenham classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Two goats, one offering | Both goats stand alive at the entrance and a lot decides which one dies. Verse 10 says the living one is presented before the LORD to make atonement by being sent into the wilderness, so the text treats the pair as one offering rather than as two, and the death and the carrying away are halves of a single act. The cleansing of a healed man at 14:4 to 7 uses two birds in the same way.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, on Leviticus 16:9 to 10. | Leviticus 16:7, Leviticus 16:8, Leviticus 16:9, Leviticus 16:10, Leviticus 14:6 |
| Or else he will die | The place the high priest is walking into is described as lethal twice before he arrives. Verse 2 limits when he may come behind the veil and gives the reason as death, and verse 13 says the cloud of incense is to cover the mercy seat so that he will not die. The same warning stood three times in chapter 10, and this chapter is dated from those deaths. | Leviticus 16:2, Leviticus 16:13, Leviticus 16:1 |
| The linen put on and taken off | He bathes and puts on plain linen at verse 4, and the golden garments of Exodus 28 with the breastplate and the stones stay outside. At verses 23 and 24 the linen is taken off and left in the holy place, worn once, and he washes again and puts the golden garments back on to offer the burnt offerings where the people can see. The day has two halves and the clothes mark the change between them.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1831, on Leviticus 16:4. | Leviticus 16:4, Leviticus 16:23, Leviticus 16:24 |
| Himself, then his house, then the people | The people supply two goats and the priest supplies his own bull, and the order of use is fixed. Aaron makes atonement for himself and for his household 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.Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews, 1886, on Leviticus 16:5 to 6. | Leviticus 16:6, Leviticus 16:11, Leviticus 16:15, Leviticus 16:17 |
| Atonement made for the building | The word atonement stands thirteen times in thirty-four verses, counted over the Berean text in the store, and its objects include the Most Holy Place at verse 16, the Tent of Meeting, the altar at verses 18 and 19, the priests and the people. The instrument of atonement needs atonement, and the chapter states that without explaining it.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, on Leviticus 16:16 to 17. | Leviticus 16:16, Leviticus 16:18, Leviticus 16:19, Leviticus 16:33 |
The chapter is the hinge of the book. Everything before it has been about how to approach and what defiles, and Leviticus 15:31 has just given the reason for the purity laws as the danger of defiling the tabernacle that stands in the middle of the camp. This chapter is the answer to that danger, and it cleanses the building as well as the people. Chapter 17 then opens the Holiness Code and widens the audience from the priesthood to the whole nation.
14 more paragraphs on the patterns
The pattern the rite runs on is stated twice in miniature elsewhere in the book. The two birds at 14:4 to 7, one killed and one released alive over fresh water, are the same shape at small scale. The blood sprinkled seven times with a finger appears at 4:6 and again here.
The historical value
The date is fixed and has been kept continuously. The tenth day of the seventh month is Yom Kippur, listed among the appointed times at Leviticus 23:27, and it is the most widely observed day in the Jewish calendar to this day, although the rite of the goats ended with the temple in 70 AD. The Mishnah tractate Yoma, compiled around 200 AD, describes the day as it was kept in the Second Temple, including the lots, the scarlet thread and the goat led to a cliff.
The phrase rendered permanent statute occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and it is fastened to a rite that has to be done again every year.
The New Testament's use
The letter to the Hebrews argues from this chapter more than from any other passage in the Torah. Hebrews 9:7 describes verse 17, that only the high priest entered the second room, once a year, and never without blood. Hebrews 7:27 turns on the order of verse 6, the priest offering for himself before the people. Hebrews 13:11 to 13 describes verse 27, the bodies burned outside the camp, says that Jesus suffered outside the gate for the same reason, and then tells its readers to go out to him. Hebrews 10:3 reads the annual repetition of verse 34 as a reminder of sins made every year, and Hebrews 9:12 sets against it a high priest who entered once for all.
Isaiah 53:6 reaches for the picture of verses 21 and 22 when it says the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all, and the sins in this chapter are dealt with by distance rather than by destruction: the goat carries them into a solitary place and is released alive.
The debated point
What the Hebrew word behind scapegoat means is the chapter's standing question. The word azazel occurs here for the first time in Scripture, and this site's Leviticus dossier carries three readings with their holders. The first takes it as a place, a rugged cliff or precipice in the wilderness, held by the Mishnah at Yoma 6:6, which describes the goat pushed backward off a cliff, and followed by Rashi. The second takes it as a name, a wilderness demon or fallen being, attested in 1 Enoch 8:1 and 10:4 to 8 where Azazel is a leader among the fallen Watchers bound in the desert. The third takes it as a description, complete removal, held by medieval Jewish grammarians including Ibn Ezra, who read the word as a compound meaning the goat that goes entirely away.
The strongest objection to the place reading is that verse 8 sets the word in parallel with the LORD, which suits a recipient rather than a location. The strongest objection to the name reading is that the chapter nowhere makes an offering to the second party, and verse 10 says the goat is presented before the LORD. The strongest objection to the removal reading is grammatical, since the compound it requires is disputed. The King James translators chose the third, and a reader should know the word is argued.
The second debated point
Whether the live goat is a sacrifice is argued on the text itself. Verse 10 says it is presented before the LORD to make atonement, which reads as one offering with the goat that dies. Against that, the animal is never killed at the sanctuary, never has its blood applied, and is released alive, which has led readers to treat it as a disposal rite attached to the sacrifice rather than as part of it. The chapter's own language at verse 5, which calls the two goats a single sin offering, is the strongest evidence for the first reading.
Where to go deeper
The lid the blood is applied to is set out at the mercy seat, and the curtain the priest passes at the veil. The bodies burned beyond the boundary are set out at outside the camp. The office is set out at the priest and the blood at the blood. The Watchers reading of the disputed word is set out at 1 Enoch. The day itself and the two goats belong to the two owed pages on the Day of Atonement and on the scapegoat.
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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 form and classifications
Gordon Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, New International Commentary on the Old Testament, 1979, the partition this site's Leviticus dossier carries as proposed under his name, with 16:1 to 34 as its centre; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1864 to 1870, on Leviticus 16:1 to 2 and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews, 1886, on Leviticus 16:32 to 34.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Charles Spurgeon, The New Park Street Pulpit, Sermon No. 95: “The Day of Atonement” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews; Tertullian, AGAINST MARCION 3.7.7 and Theodoret of Cyrus, DIALOGUE 3.