Leviticuschapter 1
17 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
Leviticus opens where Exodus closed, with God living in a tent at the centre of Israel's camp and the people outside it. The words come to Moses from inside that tent for every household in the nation. This chapter begins the answer to the question the whole book asks, how a sinful people can come near a holy God and live. It was first heard by herdsmen who knew the worth of their animals. Listen for the three sizes of gift, for what the worshipper does with his own hands, and for the sentence said over each gift alike. It opens the offerings of chapters 1 to 7.
Context
- Who
- Freed slaves who had lived four hundred years beside Egyptian priests and had never been told how to approach their own God
- What
- Instruction for the burnt offering, the whole gift burned on the altar, given in three grades from a bull down to a pair of birds.
- Where
- The courtyard of the tabernacle at the foot of Mount Sinai, at the bronze altar inside its one gate.
- When
- About 1445 BC on the traditional dating, at Sinai in the first month of the second year after the Exodus, while other scholars date the writing of the priestly laws later.
- Why
- To show an Israelite how to come near the God who now lived in the camp and be accepted by Him.
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No burnt offering has been brought since the Temple fell in AD 70. This site records that break on its feasts layer, where the Day of Atonement is kept as a fast instead (src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts). What the chapter asked of Israel while the house stood is set out in the rulings the corpus carries. Any Israelite could kill the animal, and every rite from the catching of the blood onwards belonged to the priests (Rashi on Leviticus 1:5:1). The place was the forecourt (Rashi on Leviticus 1:5:2). Fire came down from heaven onto the altar, and a priest still laid ordinary fire there by hand (Rashi on Leviticus 1:7:1). A priest served in the garments of his own rank, and service in another rank's garments was void (Rashi on Leviticus 1:7:2 and 1:8:1). Rashi is quoted here from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain.
How it is read
Rashi opens the book on its first word and reads the call as affection. He holds that every address of God to Moses was preceded by a call (Rashi on Leviticus 1:1:1). He compares the manner to the way the seraphim of Isaiah 6 call to one another. He sets it against the verb used of God meeting Balaam, which he ties to chance and to uncleanness. He then reads the call as private, saying the voice reached the ears of Moses alone (Rashi on Leviticus 1:1:2). In the same comment he explains why the book is broken into short paragraphs. The breaks gave Moses "an interval for reflection between one division and another" (Rashi on Leviticus 1:1:2). He makes the point again at the break before the flock offering (Rashi on Leviticus 1:10:1).
The offering of this chapter is read as a gift. Rashi takes the opening clause to speak of free will offerings (Rashi on Leviticus 1:2:1). On the word the verse uses for a man he carries a comparison from Leviticus Rabbah 2:7. The first man offered nothing taken by robbery, because everything was already his. The reader is told to bring nothing taken by robbery either (Rashi on Leviticus 1:2:2). The rest of the notes here are rulings drawn from Sifra, the halakhic midrash on this book. A male animal excludes one whose sex is indeterminate (Rashi on Leviticus 1:3:1). The laying on of hands covers the obligatory burnt offering as well as the free will one (Rashi on Leviticus 1:4:1). The bird offering stands outside that rule (Rashi on Leviticus 1:4:2). The burning must be done with the intention that the animal is a burnt offering (Rashi on Leviticus 1:9:1). Three further notes stand on the bird offering. They cover which fowls qualify (Rashi on Leviticus 1:14:1) and the sufficiency of a single bird (Rashi on Leviticus 1:15:1). The third reads the tearing of the bird as done by hand, proved from the verb used of Samson (Rashi on Leviticus 1:17:1).
Malbim's notes on the twelfth and thirteenth verses stand in the corpus without text. Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they are cited here and read in the Hebrew (Malbim on Leviticus, Vayikra 53:1 and 55:1).
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty Midrash and Talmud locators on this chapter and the text of none of them. Each is cited here rather than quoted, and what each teaches is reported as the teaching of the rabbis.
Sifra, the halakhic midrash on Leviticus, carries four, at Sifra, Tzav, Section 11 3, 4 and 5, and at Sifra, Vayikra Dibbura DeChovah, Chapter 5 3. The Talmudic locators cluster on slaughter and on fitness in an animal. Chullin carries nine of them. Five stand on the killing and the pieces, at 11a:6, 27a:14, 27a:15, 27a:17 and 27b:1. Four more stand at 90a:11, 21a:16, 22a:13 and 22a:14, the last three on the bird. Bekhorot carries four, at 41a:11, 41a:15, 41b:4 and 43b:12. Arakhin stands twice on the third verse, at 21a:6 and 21a:12. Menachot stands twice on the last verse, at 110a:14 and 110a:18. Six locators stand singly, at Bava Kamma 40b:16, Bava Metzia 91a:3, Berakhot 31b:21, Chagigah 11a:10, Bava Batra 120b:8 and Meilah 12a:2. Two come from the Jerusalem Talmud, at Megillah 1:12:2 and Yoma 2:2:2.
The midrashic locators run beside them. Bamidbar Rabbah carries four, at 14:19 and 20:5 on the opening verses, and at 2:5 and 7:4 on the laying on of hands and the burning. Bereshit Rabbah stands twice on the eleventh verse, at 22:5 and 34:9. Aggadat Bereshit stands once, at 31:1. Avot DeRabbi Natan stands at 4:1 and, in Recension B, at 2:6. Two entries of Ein Yaakov in the Glick Edition close the list, at Eiruvin 6:1 and Yoma 1:25.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 1:1:1 to 1:17:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Malbim, Malbim on Leviticus, Vayikra 53:1 and 55:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; MannaFest, the feasts layer, src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts, on the Temple's fall in AD 70 and the Day of Atonement kept as a fast; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/leviticus/1.json, the 40 Midrash and Talmud locators 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
Leviticus 1:1-2
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
The instructions are addressed to every Israelite, so any one of them may be the offerer. The verse names two sources for the animal, the herd and the flock, which verses 3 and 10 take up in turn. Adam Clarke, at verse 16, counts four kinds of animal that could be a burnt offering once the birds of verse 14 are added.
Leviticus 1:3-4
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. In verse 4 he lays his hand on the animal, so it can be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. Adam Clarke reads the laid hand as asking that its life be taken in place of his.
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
The verse names two results of the laid hand, acceptance on the man's behalf and atonement for him. John Wesley notes that burnt offerings were commonly given in thanksgiving, yet were sometimes offered for sins in general, as Job offered them for his sons at Job 1:5. Particular sins, he adds, had their own sacrifices, and chapter 4 sets those out.
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
Leviticus 1:5-6
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
Adam Clarke reports the rabbinic view that the man who brought the animal skinned and cut it himself, and he adds that priests and Levites also did this work, as 2 Chronicles 29:34 shows. The hide went to the priest who offered it, by the rule of Leviticus 7:8. Clarke notes that the red heifer of Numbers 19:5 was burned whole with its skin.
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
Leviticus 1:7-9
From verse 7 the priests lay fire and wood and handle every piece. All of it is burned, which sets the burnt offering apart from the other offerings of chapters 1 to 7, where a priest or the offerer eats a portion. Ephesians 5:2 takes up the pleasing aroma for Christ, given up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
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.”
Adam Clarke sets out the order in which the animal was laid on the fire. The four quarters went down first and were covered with the fat, the washed inward parts were laid on them, and the head was placed above all. The verse names the head and the fat because both were cut away from the body and still went up with it.
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
Albert Barnes notes that the verb for burn here is used only of the incense, the lamps of the tabernacle and the offerings on the altar, and he takes its root to mean giving off an odor. The word suits the close of the verse, where the smoke is a pleasing aroma to the LORD. The legs were washed with the entrails, cut from the carcass at the knee joint.
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 altar
Leviticus 1:10-13
The rite runs again at a lower price and loses nothing in the retelling. The one new detail is the place of slaughter, on the north side of the altar, which later chapters point back to at 4:24, 4:29, 4:33 and 7:2. Verse 13 closes in the words of verse 9, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
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.”
Albert Barnes suggests a practical reason for the north side, since the laver stood to the west, the place of ashes to the east and the path up to the altar to the south. John Wesley adds a reading of the place as pointing to the death of Christ on Calvary, which he describes as lying northwest of Jerusalem. The blood is handled as in verse 5.
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
The sheep or goat is cut up and laid on the fire in the same way as the bull of verses 6 and 8. John Gill notes the rendering of the Targum of Jonathan, his body, and sends the reader back to those verses for the method. Only the size of the animal has changed, and the head and the fat still go up on the burning wood.
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
Verse 13 adds that the priest brings all of it to the altar, so the whole animal passes through his hands before it burns. The washing of the entrails and legs applies to the sheep and goat as it did to the bull. Albert Barnes, at verse 9, identifies the washed parts as the stomach, the bowels and the feet.
The poor man's offering of birds
Leviticus 1:14-15
A bird is what a man brings when he has nothing else, and Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8 name it for one who cannot afford a lamb. Luke 2:24 has Mary and Joseph offering a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, which is that provision in use. Here the priest does the killing, so the poorest offerer is spared the slaughter.
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.”
John Wesley reads the verse as a full severing of the head, which was burned by itself before the body was burned at verse 17. He sets it beside Leviticus 5:8, where the bird of the sin offering has its head twisted without being severed. The blood of so small a bird is drained out on the side of the altar.
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
Leviticus 1:16-17
The bird is torn open by its wings, without dividing the bird completely, as Abram at Genesis 15:10 did not cut the birds in half. Verse 17 then ends in the words that ended the bull at verse 9 and the sheep at verse 13. The formula holds whatever 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
John Wesley reads the torn bird as split along its whole length with the two sides left joined. He then sets the closing words, a pleasing aroma to the LORD, beside the command to love God with all the heart and the neighbour as oneself, which he calls better than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.
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
How this psalm is built
The form: Ritual instruction, the law of a voluntary offering set out in three panels by the animal brought, as law classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The closing words that hold at every price | Verses 9, 13 and 17 each close their panel with a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. The bull, the sheep and the bird reach the same sentence.Counted for this lane over the store's Berean Standard Bible rows for Leviticus, 19 September 2026, Berean Standard Bible, Leviticus, read from the store. | Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:13, Leviticus 1:17 |
| The three grades of animal | The chapter names its cases in descending cost, the herd at verse 3, the flock at verse 10 and birds at verse 14. Each case opens on a conditional clause and runs the same rite through to the same close.Counted for this lane over the store's Berean Standard Bible rows for Leviticus, 19 September 2026, Berean Standard Bible, Leviticus, read from the store. | Leviticus 1:3, Leviticus 1:10, Leviticus 1:14 |
| The speech the book opens inside | Verse 1 has the LORD calling to Moses from the Tent of Meeting, and verse 2 sends the words on to the Israelites. The instruction is reported speech throughout, and the chapter never speaks in its own voice.Counted for this lane over the store's Berean Standard Bible rows for Leviticus, 19 September 2026, Berean Standard Bible, Leviticus, read from the store. | Leviticus 1:1, Leviticus 1:2 |
| The offering named for what it is for | The word rendered offering in verse 2 is korban, built on a root meaning to come near. The animal carries the name of the thing it accomplishes, so the vocabulary states the purpose before any rite is described.The store's published exposition note on Leviticus 1:1 to 2, MannaFest exposition of Leviticus 1, citing Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible. | Leviticus 1:2 |
The closing formula, counted
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The phrase rendered a pleasing aroma stands at the end of each of the three panels, at verses 9, 13 and 17. Counted over the store's Berean rows on 19 September 2026, the phrase stands in seventeen verses of Leviticus. They are 1:9, 1:13, 1:17, 2:2, 2:9, 2:12, 3:5, 3:16, 4:31, 6:15, 6:21, 8:21, 8:28, 17:6, 23:13, 23:18 and 26:31. Two of them, 2:12 and 26:31, use the phrase of an offering God refuses.
Substitution stated at the start of the book
Verse 4 has the offerer lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, so that it can be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. The store's exposition of this chapter reads Adam Clarke on that gesture. Clarke takes the laid hand for the offerer owning the victim as his own and asking that its life be taken in place of his (Commentary on the Bible). The Berean text of verse 4 states the acceptance and the atonement and describes no mechanism behind them, so the reading rests on the gesture and on what the verse says it achieves.
The New Testament's use
Ephesians 5:2 takes up the language of this chapter for Christ, who gave himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma. Luke 2:24 has Mary and Joseph bringing a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons at the temple. That is the provision of verses 14 to 17 in use, and Leviticus 5:7 and 12:8 name the same provision for anyone who cannot reach a lamb.
The one offering kept back from every table
What separates the burnt offering from the other four of chapters 1 to 7 is that nothing of it returns to anyone. The grain offering feeds the priests at 2:3, the sin offering feeds the priest who offers it at 6:26, and the peace offering feeds the household that brought it at 7:15. Here the washed entrails and legs go up with the rest. The only part held back from the fire is the hide, which 7:8 gives to the officiating priest.
Keep studying
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, cited in this site's published structure for Leviticus, src/components/book/dossier-content/leviticus.ts, this site's published book dossier for Leviticus, the chiasm entry The book's own concentric shape, centered on the Day of Atonement, carried at status proposed; The text's own summary line, Leviticus 7:37 and 7:38, Berean Standard Bible, read from the store and This site's published filing of Leviticus among the books of the law, src/lib/bible/book-sections.ts, the entry Leviticus: law.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.