Leviticuschapter 8
36 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Then the LORD said to Moses,
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Leviticus Overview.
The laws of the first seven chapters now become action, and Leviticus turns from instruction to narrative. This chapter carries out an order given at the mountain in Exodus 29, before the tabernacle stood. The whole congregation was gathered at the entrance of the tent to watch. Listen for the refrain that each act was done as the LORD commanded, for the order of water, garments, oil and blood, and for the three places on a man's body where the blood is put. It shows how Israel's mediators were made before they served anyone.
Context
- Who
- The whole congregation, called to the door so that no part of the making of a priest happened out of sight
- What
- The account of the seven day ordination of Aaron and his sons, carried out by Moses before the whole assembly.
- Where
- The entrance to the Tent of Meeting at Sinai, with the whole congregation gathered to watch.
- When
- About 1445 BC on the traditional dating, the seven days of ordination at Sinai in the first month of the second year after the Exodus.
- Why
- To show the priesthood installed exactly as the LORD commanded, and atoned for before it served others.
Historical context
This chapter is narrative rather than instruction. Moses runs the ceremony and the narrator reports it, and the voice of the LORD speaks only at verse 1.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
Everything done here was commanded in Exodus 29, before the tabernacle stood. Leviticus 8 is that order carried out, and the narrator marks it by saying the thing was done as the LORD had commanded at verses 4, 9, 13, 17, 21 and 29.
Moses installs an office he will never hold. It passes to his brother's line rather than to his own sons, and he produces his warrant at verse 5 before he begins.
A first hearer would have read the acts as a sequence with meaning in its order. Water comes before the garments. The washing at verse 6 is of the whole body, a different act from the daily washing of hands and feet at the laver that Exodus 30:19 to 30:21 requires.
The oil goes on the building before it goes on any man. The altar alone receives seven sprinklings, so the place where atonement is made is cleansed before it makes any.
The Hebrew verb behind the anointing at verse 12 is the root behind the noun messiah. The word rendered ordination at verse 22 means a filling of the hands, and verses 25 to 28 perform it, laying the offering on the men's hands before Moses takes it back and burns it.
Blood is put on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot. Leviticus 14:14 marks a cleansed man at those same three places with blood, and 14:17 marks them again with oil.
Significance
Israel watched its own mediators being made, and watched them receive the thing they would later hand out. Verse 34 says the purpose of the whole business was to make atonement for these men.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The warning of verse 35 was given before anything had gone wrong. The men were to stay at the entrance day and night for seven days so that they would not die, and chapter 10 shows what that warning was for.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter records the installation of the priesthood, and the tradition keeps the gestures. Moses poured oil on Aaron's head, then put a drop between his eyebrows and drew it with his finger from one place to the other (Rashi on Leviticus 8:12:1). Rashi is quoted from the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, which the corpus marks public domain. The golden plate hung from the turban by threads of blue, so that it lay on the forehead (Rashi on Leviticus 8:9:1). The Urim placed in the breastpiece is read as a writing carrying the Name of God (Rashi on Leviticus 8:8:1). Moses himself served at the altar through the seven days, in a white garment, although he held no priesthood (Rashi on Leviticus 8:28:1). The bread of the rite included a scalded cake made with as much oil as the cakes and the wafers together (Rashi on Leviticus 8:26:1). The rite belongs to the sanctuary, and no sanctuary has stood since AD 70, a break this site records on its feasts layer (src/lib/hebraic/feasts.ts).
How it is read
Two of the readings here answer questions a reader raises at once. The first is about the order of the books. Rashi holds that this section was spoken seven days before the Tabernacle was set up, so it belongs before the last chapter of Exodus. He states the principle plainly, that there is no earlier and no later in the Torah (Rashi on Leviticus 8:2:1). The second is about the crowd. The whole congregation is called to the entrance of the Tent, and Rashi carries from Leviticus Rabbah 10:9 the reading that the small space held them all (Rashi on Leviticus 8:3:1).
Rashi also lets a gap stand. On the sprinkling of the oil upon the altar he writes that he does not know where the command for it was given (Rashi on Leviticus 8:11:1). The word Moses speaks before he begins is read as a guard against a charge of nepotism. What the people are about to see was ordered by God, and neither the glory of Moses nor the glory of his brother is in it (Rashi on Leviticus 8:5:1). The name of the ram of installation is read from two verbs at once, the filling of the priests' hands and the completing of them in office (Rashi on Leviticus 8:22:1). The cleansing of the altar is read as clearing it of anything foreign to its purpose, so that it could pass into holiness (Rashi on Leviticus 8:15:1).
Ramban is quoted here from the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, 1971 to 1976, which the corpus marks CC-BY. He reads the account of the ram as shortened rather than complete. The flaying is left out because it was commanded already in the chapter on the burnt offering. The washing of the inwards is told after the burning to teach "that the pieces do not need washing" (Ramban on Leviticus 8:20:1).
Ibn Ezra stands six times in this chapter, on the sixth, seventh, tenth, seventeenth, twenty third and twenty seventh verses (Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 8:6:1, 8:7:1, 8:10:1, 8:17:1, 8:23:1 and 8:27:1). The corpus keeps no text of him, because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit it. Malbim stands four times, and Sefaria holds no English version of any of them (Malbim on Leviticus, Tzav 165:1, 168:1, 176:1 and 185:1).
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.
The midrashic locators outnumber the Talmudic ones here. Twenty six are midrashic. Midrash Lekach Tov carries nine, at Leviticus 8:1:1, 8:4:1, 8:8:1, 8:15:1, 8:16:1, 8:20:1, 8:21:1, 8:31:1 and 8:36:1, with a tenth entry on Lamentations at 1:3:1. Bamidbar Rabbah carries six, at 9:35, 18:2, 19:19, 19:9, 12:15 and 14:12. Bereshit Rabbah carries three, at 5:7 on the assembly, at 71:5 on the turban and at 100:7 on the seven days. Sifra stands twice in its section on the installation, at Tzav, Mekhilta DeMiluim I 5 and I 30. Midrash Tanchuma stands at Bamidbar 12:1 and, in the Buber text, at Tazria 12:3. The last three are Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 27:25:1, Seder Olam Rabbah 7:2, and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayera 35.
Fourteen Talmudic locators run beside them. The Jerusalem Talmud carries eight, three of them in Yoma, at 1:1:9, 1:1:12 and 1:1:13. The rest stand at Pesachim 5:10:2, Sotah 8:2:2, Kiddushin 1:2:32 and 1:7:1, and Challah 2:1:12. Four Babylonian locators stand at Horayot 12a:5 on the anointing, Arakhin 11a:7, Shevuot 12b:7 and Menachot 62a:2. Two more stand in the Introductions to Tanaitic Literature at Sifrei Numbers 356, and in Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 1:3.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Leviticus 8:2:1 to 8:28:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Leviticus 8:20:1, the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Leviticus 8:6:1, 8:7:1, 8:10:1, 8:17:1, 8:23:1 and 8:27:1, cited by ref because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit the text; Malbim, Malbim on Leviticus, Tzav 165:1, 168:1, 176:1 and 185:1, 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; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/leviticus/8.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.
Washed, robed, and anointed
Leviticus 8:1-3
Then the LORD said to Moses: Everything done in this chapter was commanded in Exodus 29, before the tabernacle stood. Leviticus 8 is that order carried out, and the narrator says again and again that it was done as the LORD had commanded.
Leviticus 8:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... The following section or paragraph, relating to the consecration of Aaron and his sons, was delivered, according to Jarchi, seven days before the setting up of the tabernacle; but to me it seems to have been delivered after the setting it up, since it was out of the tabernacle that the Lord said all those things recorded in the preceding chapters; and after he had given out the laws concerning sacrifices, then he renewed the order for the consecration of Aaron and his sons, that they might offer them: saying; as follows.”
the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread: The bull serves as the sin offering at verses 14 to 17, and the first ram is burned whole at verses 18 to 21. The second ram becomes the ram of ordination at verse 22.
Leviticus 8:2
“Take Aaron and his sons--The consecration of Aaron and his sons had been ordered long before (Ex 29:1-46), but it is now described with all the details of the ceremonial, as it was gone through after the tabernacle was completed and the regulations for the various sacrifices enacted.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The command reaches past the priests to the whole congregation. Cyril of Jerusalem connects the church's name, ecclesia or assembly, with this command. He notes that the word assemble first appears in Scripture where Aaron is installed as high priest.
Leviticus 8:3
Well is the church named ecclesia ["assembly"], because it calls forth and assembles all men, as the Lord says in Leviticus: "Then assemble the whole community at the entrance of the meeting tent." It is worthy of note that this word assemble is used in the Scriptures for the first time in the passage when the Lord established Aaron in the high priesthood. In Deuteronomy God says to Moses, "Assemble the people for me; I will have them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me."
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 18.24patristic
Leviticus 8:4-5
So Moses did as the LORD had commanded him: Moses runs the ceremony and installs an office he will never hold. It passes to his brother's line and not to his own sons.
Leviticus 8:4
“Because it was a solemn transaction between God and Israel; the priests were to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God, for the maintaining of a settled correspondence, and the negotiating of all affairs between the people and God; and therefore it was fit that both sides should appear, to own the appointment, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew Henry observes that Moses, for all his standing in Israel, set up nothing in the worship of God beyond what God had commanded. John Gill takes the congregation to be present as witnesses of the rites that follow.
Leviticus 8:5
“And Moses said unto the congregation,.... Having convened them, he opened to them the reason of their being called together, which was not done of himself, but by divine direction: this is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done; namely, what follows, concerning the consecration of Aaron and his sons to be priests, and the investiture of them with that office, attended with various rites and ceremonies to be performed, of which they were to be witnesses.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 8:5
“Moses, who was God's representative in this solemnity, produced his orders before the congregation: This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. Though God had crowned him king in Jeshurun, when he made his face to shine in the sight of all Israel, yet he did not institute or appoint any thing in God's worship but what God himself had commanded.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 8:6-7
Then Moses presented Aaron and his sons and washed them with water: Water comes before the garments, and the washing here is of the whole body. It differs from the daily washing of hands and feet at the laver that Exodus 30:19-21 requires of a priest.
Leviticus 8:6
“Washed them with water - Moses caused them to bathe entirely (compare Lev 16:4), not merely to wash their hands and feet, as they were to do in their daily ministrations. See the marginal reference. This bathing, which the high priest had also to go through on the day of atonement, was symbolic of the spiritual cleansing required of all 2Co 7:1, but especially of those who had to draw near to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people Heb 7:26; Mat 3:15.”
He put the tunic on Aaron: Each garment is named in the order it goes on, from the tunic next to the body out to the ephod. The woven band of the ephod, described at Exodus 28:6-8, is tied last to hold it in place.
Leviticus 8:8-9
he put the breastpiece on him: The Urim and Thummim go into the breastpiece, and Scripture never says what they were. They decide a question at Numbers 27:21 and give Saul no answer at 1 Samuel 28:6, but no verse describes their shape.
Leviticus 8:8
“He put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim - The Urim and Thummim are here supposed to be something different from the breastplate itself. See Clarke’s note on Exo 28:15, See Clarke’s note on Exo 28:16, See Clarke’s note on Exo 28:30.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the gold plate, the holy diadem: The gold plate on the turban is called the holy diadem, a word for a crown. Albert Barnes takes the name as the badge that marked Aaron as the consecrated high priest.
Leviticus 8:9
“See the notes at Exo. 28. Lev 8:9 The holy crown - The golden plate of the mitre was so called as the distinctive badge of the high priest’s consecration. See Lev 21:12.”
Leviticus 8:10-11
Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle: The oil goes on the building before it goes on any man. The altar alone receives seven sprinklings, so the place where atonement is made is cleansed before it makes any.
Leviticus 8:10
“Moses first anointed with the holy oil Exo 30:25 the tabernacle and all therein, that is, the ark of the covenant, the table of showbread, the candlestick and the golden altar, with all the articles that belonged to them.”
He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times: The anointing reaches the altar of burnt offering in the court, with its utensils, and the basin with its stand. Verse 10 anointed the furniture inside the tent, and this verse carries the oil to the furniture outside.
Leviticus 8:12-13
He also poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head: Aaron is anointed by pouring, and his sons are only clothed. The Hebrew verb here is the root behind the noun messiah, and Psalm 133:2 remembers the moment as oil running down Aaron’s beard. The sons receive the oil at verse 30, mixed with blood and sprinkled.
Leviticus 8:12
“You must know that this chrism [chrismation] is prefigured in the Old Testament. When Moses, conferring on his brother the divine appointment, was ordering him high priest, he anointed him after he had bathed in water, and thenceforward he was called "christ" ["anointed"], clearly after the figurative Chrism.”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 3.6patristic
tied headbands on them: The sons receive a tunic, a sash and a headband, the three garments Exodus 28:40 prescribed for them. Aaron also received the robe, the ephod, the breastpiece and the turban.
Leviticus 8:13
“Aaron’s sons - The common priests. Nothing is said here, or in Exo 29:7-9, of the anointing of the common priests, though it is expressly commanded in Exo 28:41; Exo 40:15, and is evidently implied as a fact in Lev 7:36; Lev 10:7; Num 3:3. It would seem that the anointing of the common priests consisted in some rite common to them and the high priest Exo 40:15, and this was the sprinkling mentioned in Lev 8:30. Compare further Lev 10:7 with Lev 21:12.”
The bull of the sin offering
Leviticus 8:14-15
Moses then brought the bull near for the sin offering: The first sacrifice at the new tabernacle is a sin offering for the men about to become priests. The blood on the horns purifies the altar, so the instrument of atonement is atoned for before it is used.
Leviticus 8:14
“Moses as the mediator of the covenant of the Law Gal 3:19; Heb 8:6 was called to perform the priestly functions, in consecrating those on whom henceforth those functions were to devolve, and in inaugurating the legal order of sacrifices. See Exo 40:23 note. The sin-offering was now offered for the first time. The succession in which the sacrifices followed each other on this occasion, first the sin-offering, then the burnt-offering, and lastly the peace-offering, has its ground in the meaning of each sacrifice, and became the established custom in later ages. The worshipper passed through a spiritual process.”
applied it with his finger to all four horns of the altar: The blood has two uses in the verse: a little on the horns and the rest poured out at the base of the altar. The pouring follows the rule for a priest's sin offering at Leviticus 4:7.
Leviticus 8:16-17
Moses also took all the fat that was on the entrails: The fat burns on the altar and the rest of the bull is burned outside the camp. Leviticus 4:11-12 sends a priest's own sin offering out of the camp, so these men receive nothing back from the animal brought for themselves.
he burned outside the camp: The hide, the flesh and the dung go out together, so the whole animal leaves the camp. The command this carries out is Exodus 29:14.
Leviticus 8:17
“But the bullock and his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp,.... Aben Ezra observes, that some say that he did this himself; and others, that it was done by orders, that is, he ordered others to do it, which seems probable enough: as the Lord commanded Moses; Exo 29:14.”
The ram given wholly to the fire
Leviticus 8:18-21
Then Moses presented the ram for the burnt offering: Chapters 1 to 5 list the burnt offering first and the sin offering fourth, and here the sin offering goes first. Guilt is dealt with before devotion is presented.
Leviticus 8:18
“And he brought the ram for the burnt offering,.... One of the two he was ordered to take, Lev 8:2. and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram; as they had done before on the head of the bullock, see Lev 8:14 their right hands, as the Targum of Jonathan, and that at the same time; not first Aaron and then his sons, as a famous grammarian, Aben Ezra makes mention of, thought; but, as he himself says, they laid them on together.”
sprinkled the blood on all sides of the altar: The blood of the burnt offering goes on all sides of the altar, the manner Leviticus 1:5 and 1:11 set for a burnt offering. The blood of the sin offering went on the horns.
Leviticus 8:19
“And he killed it,.... That is, Moses killed the ram, as the Septuagint version expresses it: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about; as he did the blood of the bullock, Lev 8:15.”
He cut the ram into pieces: The ram is cut into its pieces, and the head, the pieces and the fat are laid to burn, as Leviticus 1:6-8 directs. John Gill describes the cutting as taking off the head and quartering the body.
Leviticus 8:20
“And he cut the ram into pieces,.... Cut off its head and quartered it: and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat; even all of it, as the following verse shows.”
burned the entire ram on the altar: The entrails and legs are washed before they are burned, following Leviticus 1:9, so the parts that carried dung are cleaned first. The whole ram goes to the fire, and Moses, Aaron and his sons receive no portion of it.
Leviticus 8:21
“And he washed the inwards and the legs in water,.... The one being taken out, the other cut off: and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: it was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour, and an offering made by fire unto the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses; see Exo 29:18.”
Blood on the ear, the thumb, the toe
Leviticus 8:22-24
the other ram, the ram of ordination: Blood goes on the right earlobe, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot. Leviticus 14:14 marks a cleansed leper at the same three places.
Leviticus 8:22
“And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration,.... Or "filling" (b), or "fulnesses"; because, as Jarchi says, these filled and perfected the priests in their priesthood; this was the finishing and consummation of their consecration: what is said in this and the three following verses Lev 8:23 is the same as is ordered, Exo 29:19 and needs no further explanation; See Gill on Exo 29:19, Exo 29:20, Exo 29:21, Exo 29:22. (b) המלאים "plenitudinum", Montanus; "impletionum, vel potius completionum", Drusius; Heb. "impletionum", Piscator.”
put it on Aaron’s right earlobe: Moses kills the second ram himself and puts its blood on Aaron first, and his sons follow at verse 24. Adam Clarke refers the reader to his note on Exodus 29:20 for the meaning of the rite.
Leviticus 8:23
“Put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, etc. - See this significant ceremony explained in the note on Exo 29:20 (note). Calmet remarks that the consecration of the high priest among the Romans bore a considerable resemblance to the consecration of the Jewish high priest. “The Roman priest, clothed with a garment of silk, his head covered with a crown of gold adorned with sacred ribbons, was conducted into a subterranean place, over which there was a floor of planks pierced through with many holes.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
put some of the blood on their right earlobes: The sons receive the same three marks as their father, one after another. The rest of the blood is then sprinkled on all sides of the altar, the same handling given the burnt offering at verse 19.
Leviticus 8:25-28
The fat portions and the right thigh are put in the hands of Aaron and his sons. Then Moses took these from their hands and burned them, so the first thing a priest holds in office is what he gives away.
one cake of unleavened bread, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer: Three breads are taken from the basket named at verse 2, one of each kind. John Gill distinguishes them as a cake without oil, a cake mixed with oil, and a wafer spread with oil.
Leviticus 8:26
“And out of the basket of unleavened bread,.... Moses was ordered to take, Lev 8:2, that was before the Lord; being brought to the tabernacle, where now the Lord had taken up his residence: he took one unleavened cake; which had no oil in it or upon it: and a cake of oiled bread; which was mixed and tempered with oil: and one wafer; which was anointed with oil: and put them upon the fat, and upon the right shoulder; of the ram of consecration, which he took from it, and laid the cakes uppermost upon them.”
put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons: Moses places the portions on the priests' hands, and the waving is done before the LORD. John Gill, at verse 29, describes this waving as done with Moses' hands under the hands of Aaron and his sons.
Leviticus 8:27
“And he put all upon Aaron's hands, and upon his son's hands,.... The fat and the right shoulder, with the cakes upon them: and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord; See Gill on Exo 29:24.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 8:27
“And waved them for a wave-offering - See the nature of this and the heave-offering in the note on Exo 29:27 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
This was an ordination offering: The ordination portions are burned on top of the burnt offering already on the altar. The verse calls this offering a pleasing aroma, the same language used of the burnt ram at verse 21.
Leviticus 8:29-30
Oil and blood are mixed and sprinkled together on the men and on their clothes. The sons were not anointed by pouring at verse 13, and this is where the oil reaches them, carried with blood from the altar.
Leviticus 8:29
“And Moses took the breast,.... Of the ram of consecration: and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord; this Moses seems to have waved with his own hands, and not upon the hands of Aaron and his sons, putting his under them, as in the wave offering of the fat, shoulder, and cakes, and for which the following words seem to give a reason: for of the ram of consecration it was Moses's part; the breast of it was his: as the Lord commanded Moses; see Exo 29:26.”
sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments: The sprinkling consecrated the garments as well as the men. The clothes put on at verses 7 to 13 now belong to the office.
Leviticus 8:30
“And Moses took - the blood - and sprinkled it upon Aaron, etc. - Thus we find that the high priest himself must be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice; and our blessed Lord, of whom Aaron was a type, was sprinkled with his own blood. 1. In his agony in the garden. 2. In his being crowned with thorns. 3. In the piercing of his hands and his feet. And, 4. In his side being pierced with the spear. All these were so many acts of atonement performed by the high priest.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Seven days at the door of the tent
Leviticus 8:31-32
The consecration ends in a meal, eaten at the door where the congregation had been standing. Whatever is left by morning is burned, the rule the passover carries at Exodus 12:10 and the thank offering at Leviticus 7:15.
Leviticus 8:31
“The flesh - That which was left of the ram, and particularly the breast, which was said to be Moses's part, ver. 29, and by him was given to Aaron, that he and his sons might eat of it, in token that they and only they should have the right to do so for the future.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
burn up the remainder of the meat and bread: The rule for what is left applies to the bread as well as the meat, so the ordination meal ends with the fire. Exodus 29:34 gives the same command and adds that the remainder is holy.
Leviticus 8:32
“And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread,.... Until the next morning, which could not be eaten by Aaron and his sons: shall ye burn with fire; that it might not be corrupted, nor put to common nor superstitious uses.”
Leviticus 8:33-35
You must not go outside the entrance to the Tent of Meeting: The priests stay at the entrance for seven days. Verse 34 names the purpose, to make atonement on your behalf. The men who will make atonement for Israel had it made for them first.
Leviticus 8:33
“For seven days shall he consecrate you - This number was the number of perfection among the Hebrews; and the seven days’ consecration implied a perfect and full consecration to the sacerdotal office. See Clarke’s note on Exo 29:30.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 8:33
“Seven days - In each of which the same ceremonies were to be repeated, and other rites to be performed. He - Either God or Moses; for the words may be spoken by Moses, either in God's name or in his own; Moses speaking of himself in the third person, which is very common in scripture.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
in order to make atonement on your behalf: The verse names what was done today, and verse 33 has the same rites repeated on each of the seven days. Matthew Henry reads the repetition as a mark of the weakness of the legal sacrifices, citing Hebrews 10:1-2.
Leviticus 8:34
“This shows the imperfection of the legal sacrifices, which, because they could not take away sin, were often repeated ( Heb. x. 1, 2 ), but were here repeated seven times (a number of perfection), because they typified that one offering, which perfected for ever those that were sanctified.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
keep the LORD’s charge so that you will not die: The priests stay at the entrance day and night for the seven days, and the verse calls this keeping the LORD's charge. Adam Clarke reads seven as the number of a full and complete consecration.
So Aaron and his sons did everything: The chapter closes on obedience, giving the credit to the command. At 10:2 fire comes out from before the LORD and kills Nadab and Abihu. The priesthood installed here is tested within days of its ordination.
Leviticus 8:36
“So Aaron and his sons did all things - And thus the covenant of life and peace, Mal. ii, 5, was made with them. But after all the ceremonies used in their consecration, one point was reserved for the honour of Christ's priesthood. They were made priests without an oath; but Christ with an oath, Heb. vii, 21.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative, the carrying out of an order given earlier in Exodus 29, as 3 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The line the narrator repeats over the whole ceremony | As the LORD had commanded. Counted over the store's Berean rows, it falls at verses 4, 9, 13, 17, 21 and 29. Verse 36 then closes the chapter by saying Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD had commanded through Moses.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 8:4, Leviticus 8:9, Leviticus 8:13, Leviticus 8:17, Leviticus 8:21, Leviticus 8:29, Leviticus 8:36 |
| The vesting written garment by garment | The tunic, the sash, the robe and the ephod at verse 7, the breastpiece with the Urim and Thummim at verse 8, and the turban with the gold plate at verse 9. The order follows what Exodus 28 set down.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 8:7, Leviticus 8:8, Leviticus 8:9 |
| The three offerings made in turn | The bull for the sin offering at verse 14, the ram for the burnt offering at verse 18, and the ram of ordination at verse 22. Chapters 1 to 5 list the burnt offering first, and here the sin offering goes first.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 8:14, Leviticus 8:18, Leviticus 8:22 |
| The three places the blood is put | The tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot, on Aaron at verse 23 and on his sons at verse 24. Leviticus 14:14 marks a cleansed man at those same three places with blood, and 14:17 marks them again with oil.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 8:23, Leviticus 8:24 |
The word behind the word messiah
9 more paragraphs on the patterns
Aaron is anointed by pouring at verse 12 and his sons are only clothed at verse 13. The Hebrew verb used here is the root behind the noun messiah, so the title comes from the ceremony being performed in this verse. Psalm 133:2 remembers the moment as oil running down Aaron's beard and makes it the picture of brothers dwelling together in unity. The sons receive their share of the oil at verse 30, mixed with blood and sprinkled.
A filling of the hands
The Hebrew behind the word rendered ordination means a filling of the hands, and verses 25 to 28 perform it. The fat, the right thigh and three kinds of unleavened bread are laid on the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved before the LORD. Moses then takes it all back off their hands and burns it on the altar. The first thing a priest holds in his office is the thing he gives away.
The order the offerings are made in
Chapters 1 to 5 list the burnt offering first and the sin offering fourth. When the offerings are actually made here the sin offering goes first and the burnt offering follows. Guilt is dealt with before devotion is presented, and the same order governs Aaron's first service in chapter 9. Verse 21 calls the whole burnt ram a pleasing aroma, and verse 17 says nothing of the kind over the sin offering.
The New Testament's use
Hebrews 5:4 reaches back to this scene when it says that no one takes this honour on himself, but receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. Verse 34 says the purpose of the whole business was to make atonement for these men, so the priests who will make atonement for Israel had it made for them first. Hebrews 5:3 presses exactly that point. Verses 16 and 17 send the rest of the bull outside the camp, and Hebrews 13:11 to 13:13 sets the suffering of Jesus outside the gate beside that arrangement.
The warning given before anything goes wrong
Verse 35 tells the men to stay at the entrance day and night for seven days so that they will not die. The warning stands here before any fault has been committed. Leviticus 10:2 has fire come out from the LORD and kill two of Aaron's sons, so the priesthood installed in this chapter is tested within days.
Keep studying
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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, 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 design block of this lane, confirmed against the text, docs/lanes/leviticus-study-1-9/DESIGN-BLOCK.md, the section This book's own needs and The store's published exposition note on Leviticus 8:1 to 3, MannaFest exposition of Leviticus 8, citing Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, and Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible.
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; Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 18.24; 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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.