Leviticus6chapter 6

This speech opens the priest's instructions for the offerings, and the next verse is addressed to Aaron and his sons. Adam Clarke notes that the Jews begin the twenty-fifth section of the law at this verse. John Wesley, on verse 9, marks the turn in subject, since the chapters before prescribed the sacrifices and the verses that follow give the manner of handling them.

Leviticus 6:9-13

This is the law of the burnt offering: The offerings are now given from the side of the priest, and his first duty is the ashes, removed in his linen robe and carried outside the camp in other clothes. One command stands at verses 9, 12 and 13, that the fire must be kept burning. At Leviticus 9:24 fire came out from the presence of the LORD to consume the first offering on that altar.

The priest dresses in the linen robe and undergarments of Exodus 28:39-42 to take up the ashes, and he sets them down beside the altar before they are carried out. Matthew Henry reads the care as honour to the altar and to the sacrifices burnt on it. Even the ashes were kept, he says, to show the regard God had for the burnt offering.

Adam Clarke explains the change of clothes: the holy garments were used only in the holy place, so the priest put on others for the walk outside. He describes the clean place as ground where no carcasses, dung or filth lay, since the ashes were the remains of offerings made by fire. Leviticus 4:12 sends the remains of the sin offering bull to the same kind of place.

The morning wood is followed by the burnt offering arranged on the fire and then the fat of any peace offerings. John Wesley holds that the evening is also meant, and that morning is named because the altar was then cleared of its ashes. He reads the fat as laid upon the burnt offering, which was then consumed sooner to make room for other sacrifices.

The third statement of the command adds the word continually, so the fire burns through the day as well as through the night of verse 9. Matthew Henry supposes that extraordinary sacrifices were offered every day between the morning and evening lambs, which would keep the fire fed from morning to night. The daily lambs themselves are set out in Exodus 29:38-42.

Leviticus 6:14-18

A handful of fine flour and olive oil, with all the frankincense, goes up as the memorial portion, and the rest is eaten without leaven in the courtyard. Verse 17 gives the reason: I have assigned it as their portion of My offerings made by fire. Verse 18 ends with holiness passing by contact, Anything that touches them will become holy, and the clause returns at verse 27.

The handful burned is taken from an offering with a set minimum. Adam Clarke gives the smallest grain offering as an omer, a tenth of an ephah and about three quarts, usually brought with a log of oil of a little more than half a pint. The worshipper could bring more, and only the handful with all the frankincense went to the altar.

The courtyard of the Tent of Meeting is named as the holy place where the remainder is eaten. Matthew Henry treats the eating itself as a sacred rite by which the priests honoured God, so that carrying any of it out of the court was a great crime. The same courtyard is named for eating the sin offering at verse 26.

The ban on leaven repeats the rule of Leviticus 2:11, now applied to the portion the priests eat. The verse ranks this grain offering with the sin offering and the guilt offering as most holy, the class that Leviticus 6:25 and 7:1 give to those two. Matthew Henry, on verse 16, treats the priests' eating of it as a sacred rite held within the court.

Only the males of Aaron's line eat this permanent portion. Matthew Henry explains the limit. The daughters of priests could eat the less holy things, such as firstfruits, tithes and the breast and shoulder of the peace offerings, which could be carried out of the court, while the most holy things were eaten at the tabernacle by the sons alone.

Leviticus 6:19-24

Every other grain offering feeds a priest, and the priest's own feeds nobody: a tenth of an ephah, half in the morning and half in the evening, burned completely. Adam Clarke reads on the day he is anointed as the start of a standing duty, since verse 20 calls it a regular grain offering. A fourth speech of the LORD to Moses in this chapter begins at verse 24.

John Wesley reads the half in the morning and the half in the evening as joined to the morning and evening sacrifices. He counts it as an offering over and above the grain offering that accompanied those daily sacrifices. He also notes that this law of consecration was given earlier and is repeated here because of additions made to it.

The flour is prepared with oil on a griddle, brought well kneaded and presented broken in pieces, the way Leviticus 2:5-6 prepares a griddle offering. Like the other grain offerings, it rises as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. John Gill, on the next verse, sets it apart from a common grain offering, where only a handful was burnt and the rest went to the priest.

Albert Barnes renders the last clause literally as the offering ascending in fire as a whole burnt offering. John Gill identifies the priest anointed in Aaron's place as the high priest's successor, and he reads the permanent portion as a statute binding every high priest until the Messiah should come. The duty passes from Aaron to each son who takes his office.

The rule widens from the anointed priest's daily offering to every grain offering brought for a priest, and none of it is eaten. Adam Clarke explains that the priests were fed from the offerings of the people. If they ate their own offerings, he says, they would take back what they seemed to give to the LORD, as though they had offered nothing.

This speech introduces the law of the sin offering, the last of the priest's instructions in this chapter. John Gill reads the formula as the LORD continuing His discourse with Moses. The message is again passed to Aaron and his sons in verse 25, since the handling of the sin offering falls to the priests.

Leviticus 6:25-27

This is the law of the sin offering: The sin offering is slaughtered where the burnt offering is slaughtered, and the priest who offers it eats it. Leviticus 10:17 gives the reason, to take away the guilt of the congregation, and 10:16-20 records the one time the rule was broken, when Aaron's sons burned the goat. Verse 27 has holiness pass by touch, and spattered blood is washed out in a holy place.

John Wesley limits the eating to sin offerings for a ruler or for the people, since the blood of a priest's own sin offering was brought into the tabernacle and that flesh could not be eaten. Adam Clarke adds that the portion was also part of the priests' maintenance, as Ezekiel 44:27-30 records, and he notes that men later sought the office for that provision.

John Wesley takes the garment to be the priest's own, since he alone sprinkled the blood and might easily spatter himself. He gives two reasons for washing it in a holy place: reverence for the blood of the sacrifices, which kept it from a common touch, and the need for garments fit for sacred service.

Leviticus 6:28-30

A clay pot the meat was boiled in is broken, and a bronze pot is scoured and rinsed and kept, with no reason given. Verse 30 lifts one class out of the eating rule: where the blood was brought into the Tent of Meeting, the meat is burned. Chapter 16 applies it on the Day of Atonement, and Hebrews 13:11-12 sets Jesus suffering outside the city gate beside it.

Verse 26 gave the flesh to the priest who offered it, and this verse opens it to every male among the priests. John Gill reads the two verses together: the officiating priest shared the meal with his male children and with the other priests on duty in the court. The same males ate the most holy grain offering at verse 18.

The blood of the sin offering for the anointed priest and for the whole congregation was carried into the tent at Leviticus 4:5 and 4:16, so those two offerings fall under this rule. Albert Barnes identifies the Holy Place here as the outer room of the tabernacle. He points to Leviticus 10:18, where Moses applies the rule to a goat whose blood had stayed outside.