Leviticuschapter 1
17 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Then the LORD called to Moses and spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying,
It stands in A bull given whole to the fire, verses 1 to 9.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The burnt offering. The first of the five sacrifices and the most foundational. A bullock of the herd (or a sheep or goat or, for the poor, a turtledove or young pigeon), a male without blemish, offered at the door of the tabernacle. The offerer lays his hand on the head. Identification and transfer. Blood sprinkled round about the altar; the animal flayed, cut in pieces, and burned whole. ‘A sweet savour unto the LORD.’ Calvin reads the chapter as a picture of total consecration; Henry, as the gospel preached before the cross. Everything of the offering goes up in flame. Nothing for the worshipper, all for God.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- Freed slaves who had lived four hundred years beside Egyptian priests and had never been told how to approach their own God
- Where
- The tabernacle courtyard at the foot of Mount Sinai, at the bronze altar inside the one gate
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, the Tent of Meeting newly raised. c. 1445 BC on the traditional dating, in the first month of the second year after the Exodus. This site's published dossier carries a second position, that the priestly material was compiled later, with its holders named
Historical context
The chapter is speech. The LORD calls to Moses out of the Tent of Meeting at verse 1. Moses is told at verse 2 to pass the words to the Israelites, so the instruction reaches the whole nation rather than the priesthood alone.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
Exodus 40:34 and 40:35 had just filled the new tent with the glory and left Moses outside it. Leviticus opens with a voice calling him from inside, so the occasion is a people who now have God living in the middle of their camp and no stated way to come near.
Everyone in that world sacrificed animals. What a first hearer would have found unusual is that the rules were read aloud to everybody. In Egypt and Canaan the rites belonged to the priesthood and were kept close, and here an ordinary herdsman was told exactly what to bring and what would be done with it.
The courtyard was a fenced rectangle of linen screens with one gate on the east side. The worshipper walked in leading his own animal and did the killing himself, and the priests handled the blood and the fire. Laying a hand on the animal's head was a formal act of identification rather than a gesture of affection.
The word rendered offering in verse 2 is korban, built on a root meaning to come near, so the animal is named for what it is for.
Significance
To a people just told that God would live in a tent in the middle of their camp, the first practical question was how a person gets near without being destroyed. This chapter is the answer, and it begins with a gift that holds nothing back.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The grading mattered. Access to a god in Egypt scaled with what a worshipper could pay. Here the closing words over two pigeons at verse 17 are the closing words over a bull at verse 9.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 1 falls in The five offerings (chapters 1–7). Burnt, grain, peace, sin, trespass, the sacrificial vocabulary of Israel's worship.
The burnt offering. The first of the five offerings; whole consumption upon the altar.
After it: Consecration of the priesthood, chapters 8–10.
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.
A bull given whole to the fire
Exodus closes with the glory filling the tent and Moses unable to go in at Exodus 40:34-35, and Leviticus opens with a voice calling him from inside it. The books join at that seam, and what the voice says runs to the end of the book. The word rendered offering in verse 2 is korban, built on a root meaning to come near, so the animal is named for what it is for.
Leviticus 1:1
“The Lord - In the Hebrew text of Leviticus, Jehovah יהוה yehovâh is the name by which God is usually called. Where אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym occurs, it is generally with a possessive pronoun, so as to designate Him as the God of the chosen people (Lev 2:13; Lev 11:45; Lev 18:21; Lev 19:12, Lev 19:14, Lev 19:32, etc.). The tabernacle of the congregation - Rather, the tent of meeting. See Exo 22:21 note.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Leviticus 1:1
“A letter less than ordinary in the Hebrew word for called, the Jewish critics tell us, intimates that God spoke in a still small voice. The moral law was given with terror from a burning mountain in thunder and lightning; but the remedial law of sacrifice was given more gently from a mercy-seat, because that was typical of the grace of the gospel, which is the ministration of life and peace.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
No sin has been named and no occasion is given, so the first sacrifice in the book is one a man brings because he wants to. Verse 4 then lays his hand on the head of the animal and says it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him, which is substitution stated at the start of Leviticus in one sentence. Adam Clarke reads the laid hand as the offerer owning the victim as his own and asking that its life be taken in the place of his. The two verses stand together, a gift given freely and a death counted for the giver.
Leviticus 1:3
“Burnt-sacrifice - The most important of all the sacrifices offered to God; called by the Septuagint ὁλοκαυτωμα, because it was wholly consumed, which was not the case in any other offering. See on Leviticus 7 (note). His own voluntary will - לרצנו lirtsono, to gain himself acceptance before the Lord: in this way all the versions appear to have understood the original words, and the connection in which they stand obviously requires this meaning.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 1:3
“As the best and most profitable creatures, with which it is fit God should be served, and which we should be ready to part with, when God requires us to do so.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 1:4
“He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt-offering - By the imposition of hands the person bringing the victim acknowledged, 1. The sacrifice as his own. 2. That he offered it as an atonement for his sins. 3. That he was worthy of death because he had sinned, having forfeited his life by breaking the law. 4. That he entreated God to accept the life of the innocent animal in place of his own.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 1:4
“And although burnt-offerings were commonly offered by way of thanksgiving; yet they were sometimes offered by way of atonement for sin, that is, for sins in general, as appears from Job i, 5, but for particular sins there were special sacrifices.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The man who brought the animal is the one who kills it, and the priests take over at the blood. He also flays it and cuts it into its pieces, so his part runs from the hand on the head to the carcase laid open. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the pouring out of the blood as the essential part of the sacrifice and the sprinkling of it as the application.
Leviticus 1:5
“And he shall kill the bullock - Tradition states that before the laying on of the hand, the victim was bound by a cord to a ring on the north side of the altar; as the words of the prayer were ended, the throat was cut and the blood received into a bowl held by an assistant. Sprinkle the blood - Rather, throw the blood, so as to make the liquid cover a considerable surface. (The Christian significance of this typical action is referred to in Heb 12:24; 1Pe 1:2.)”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 1:5
“The blood being considered the life, the effusion of it was the essential part of the sacrifice; and the sprinkling of it--the application of the atonement--made the person and services of the offerer acceptable to God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 1:6
“He shall flay - Probably meaning the person who brought the sacrifice, who, according to some of the rabbins, killed, flayed, cut up, and washed the sacrifice, and then presented the parts and the blood to the priest, that he might burn the one, and sprinkle the other upon the altar. But it is certain that the priests also, and the Levites, flayed the victims, and the priest had the skin to himself; see Lev 7:8, and 2Ch 29:34. The red heifer alone was not flayed, but the whole body, with the skin, etc., consumed with fire. See Num 19:5.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Verse 7 is where the priests take up their own work, fire and wood laid in order, and from verse 8 they handle every piece. Then all of it goes up, the washed inwards and legs with the rest, and that is what sets the burnt offering apart from the other four offerings of chapters 1 to 7, where a priest or the offerer eats a portion. Sweet savour falls here for the first time in Leviticus and sixteen times in the book, and never once of the sin offering or the trespass offering. Ephesians 5:2 takes the phrase up for Christ, who gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Leviticus 1:7
“Put fire upon the altar - This must specifically refer to the first burnt-offering on the newly-constructed altar. The rule was afterward to be, “it shall never go out,” Lev 6:13.”
Leviticus 1:8
“The priests - shall lay the parts - The sacrifice was divided according to its larger joints. 1. After its blood was poured out, and the skin removed, the head was cut off. 2. They then opened it and took out the omentum, or caul, that invests the intestines. 3. They took out the intestines with the mesentery, and washed them well, as also the fat. 4. They then placed the four quarters upon the altar, covered them with the fat, laid the remains of the intestines upon them, and then laid the head above all.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 1:9
“The parts which were washed were the stomach, and bowels, and feet, divided from the carcass at the knee-joint. The priest shall burn - The verb here translated burn, is applied exclusively to the burning of the incense, to the lights of the tabernacle, and to the offerings on the altar. The primary meaning of its root seems to be to exhale odor. (See the margin of Lev 24:2; Exo 30:8).”
A sheep or goat on the altarvv. 10-13
The rite runs again at a lower price and loses nothing in the retelling. A sheep or a goat is handled as the bullock was, and the one new detail is the place of killing, on the side of the altar northward, which later chapters point back to as the place where they kill the burnt offering at 4:24, 4:29, 4:33 and 7:2. The text fixes the spot and gives no reason for it. Verse 13 closes in the same words as verse 9, so the smaller animal is a sweet savour on the same terms.
Leviticus 1:10
“Of the flocks - These directions are more brief than those for the bullock. The burnt-offering of the sheep must have been that with which the people were most familiar in the daily morning and evening service. Exo 29:38-42. Sheep were preferred for sacrifice when they could be obtained, except in some special sin-offerings in which goats were required Lev 4:23; Lev 9:3; Lev 16:5. The lamb “without blemish” is a well-known type of Christ. Heb 9:14; 1Pe 1:19.”
Leviticus 1:11
“Northward before the Lord - That is, on the north side of the altar. See also Lev 4:24, Lev 4:29, Lev 4:33; Lev 7:2. This was probably an arrangement of some practical convenience. On the west side of the altar stood the laver; on the east side was the place of ashes (see Lev 1:16 note); and the south side, where appears to have been the slope by which the priests went up to the altar, must have been left clear for a path.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 1:11
“Besides this might design the place of Christ's death both more generally, in Jerusalem, which was in the sides of the north, Psalm xlviii, 2, and more specially, on mount Calvary, which was on the northwest side of Jerusalem.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 1:12
“And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat,.... Or "his body", as the Targum of Jonathan; this was to be cut in pieces in the same manner as the bullock; see Gill on Lev 1:6, and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire, which is on the altar; See Gill on Lev 1:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 1:12
“Cut it into his pieces - See Clarke’s note on Gen 15:10.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The poor man's offering of birds
A bird is what a man brings when he has nothing else, and Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8 name it as the provision for one who cannot reach a lamb. Luke 2:24 has Mary and Joseph bringing a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons at the temple, which is that provision in use. Here the priest does the killing rather than the offerer, wringing off the head at the altar with his hands, so the poorest offering is the one its owner is not asked to butcher.
Leviticus 1:14
“Of turtledoves, or of young pigeons - The offering of a bird was permitted to one who was too poor to offer a quadruped. (Compare the marginal references.) But in certain rites of purification birds were appointed for all, whatever might be their circumstances. See Lev 15:14, Lev 15:29; Num 6:10. The limitation of the age of the pigeons may be accounted for by the natural habits of the birds.”
Leviticus 1:15
“His head - From the rest of the body; as sufficiently appears, because this was to be burnt by itself, and the body afterwards, ver. 17. And whereas it is said chap. v, 8. He shall - wring his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder, that is spoken not of the burnt-offering as here, but of the sin-offering.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The crop and the feathers are thrown east of the altar by the place of the ashes, the far side from the holy place. The bird itself is opened and left whole, cleft by the wings and not divided asunder, which is the restraint Abram kept at Genesis 15:10 when he divided every animal and left the birds. Verse 17 then ends in the words that ended the bullock at verse 9 and the sheep at verse 13, a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. The formula does not shrink with the price of the animal.
Leviticus 1:16
“With its feathers - Or, with its dung or filth, contained in the crop and in the guts. On the east - Of the Tabernacle. Here the filth was cast, because this was the remotest place from the holy of holies, which was in the west-end; to teach us, that impure things and persons should not presume to approach to God, and that they should be banished from his presence.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 1:16
“Pluck away his crop with his feathers - In this sacrifice of fowls the head was violently wrung off, then the blood was poured out, then the feathers were plucked off, the breast was cut open, and the crop, stomach, and intestines taken out, and then the body was burnt. Though the bird was split up, yet it was not divided asunder. This circumstance is particularly remarked in Abram’s sacrifice, Gen 15:10. See Clarke’s note Gen 15:10. See Ainsworth. We have already seen, on Lev 1:2, that four kinds of animals might be made burnt-offerings to the Lord.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 1:17
“He shall cleave the bird through the whole length, yet so as not to separate the one side from the other. A sweet savour unto the Lord - Yet after all, to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, is better than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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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; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.