Leviticuschapter 8
36 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Then the LORD said to Moses,
It stands in Washed, robed, and anointed, verses 1 to 13.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Aaron and his sons consecrated. Moses brings them to the door of the tabernacle; washes them with water; clothes Aaron with the coat, girdle, robe, ephod, breastplate (with Urim and Thummim), and mitre with the holy crown; anoints the tabernacle, its furnishings, Aaron, and his sons. Then the bullock of the sin offering; the ram of the burnt offering; the ram of consecration. Blood on the right ear, right thumb, right great toe of Aaron and each son. Seven days at the door of the tabernacle, day and night. ‘So Aaron and his sons did all things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.’ The seven-day pattern foreshadows all later high-priestly pattern.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- The whole congregation, called to the door so that no part of the making of a priest happened out of sight
- Where
- The entrance to the Tent of Meeting at Sinai, with the whole assembly gathered to watch
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, the seven days of the priesthood's ordination. 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
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.
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.
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.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 8 falls in Consecration of the priesthood (chapters 8–10). Aaron and his sons ordained; the first service; Nadab and Abihu's strange fire.
Before it: The five offerings, chapters 1–7. After it: Laws of clean and unclean, chapters 11–15.
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.
Washed, robed, and anointed
Everything done in this chapter was commanded in Exodus 29, before the tabernacle stood. Leviticus 8 is that order carried out, and the narrator marks it by saying as the LORD commanded Moses five times over. The first instruction is to gather the whole congregation to the door, so no part of the making of a priest happens where Israel cannot watch it.
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.”
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
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
Moses runs the ceremony and produces his warrant before he begins, telling the assembly this is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done. He installs an office he will never hold, and it passes to his brother's line rather than to his own sons. Hebrews 5:4 reaches back to this scene when it says no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
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
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
Water comes before the garments. The washing here is of the whole body, which is a different act from the washing of hands and feet at the laver that Exodus 30:19-21 requires of a priest daily, and Leviticus 16:4 has the high priest bathe his flesh again before he goes inside on the day of atonement. Aaron is then dressed one piece at a time, coat, girdle, robe and ephod, in the order Exodus 28 set down.
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.”
The Urim and the Thummim go into the breastplate and Scripture never says what they were. They appear seven times in the Old Testament, they decide a question at Numbers 27:21 and give Saul no answer at 1 Samuel 28:6, and no verse describes their shape, their material or how a priest read them. Adam Clarke takes them as objects distinct from the breastplate itself, and the text leaves a reader nothing to settle it with. The golden plate on the mitre carried the words Exodus 39:30 records, HOLINESS TO THE LORD, worn on the forehead where anyone could read it.
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
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.”
The oil goes on the building before it goes on any man. The tent was new and had never been used, and it is still treated as needing to be sanctified before the men who will serve in it are. The altar alone receives seven sprinklings, and Exodus 29:37 gives it seven days of atonement of its own, 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.”
Aaron is anointed by pouring and his sons are only clothed. The Hebrew verb used here is the root behind the noun messiah, so the word anointed comes from the ceremony being performed in this verse. Psalm 133:2 remembers the moment as ointment running down Aaron's beard and makes it the picture of brethren dwelling together in unity. The sons get their share of the oil at verse 30, mixed with blood and sprinkled rather than poured.
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
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
The first sacrifice offered at the new tabernacle is a sin offering, and it is offered for the men about to become priests. Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the head of the animal and Moses kills it, because the office is not theirs yet. The blood goes on the horns of the altar and the verse says the altar was purified and sanctified by it, so the instrument of atonement is atoned for before it is used, which Leviticus 16:18-19 does again on the day of atonement.
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.”
The fat burns on the altar and the rest of the bullock is carried outside the camp and burned there. Leviticus 6:26 gives the flesh of a sin offering to the priest who offers it, and Leviticus 4:11-12 sends a priest's own sin offering out of the camp instead, so these men receive nothing back from the animal they brought for themselves. Hebrews 13:11-13 takes up that arrangement, says the bodies of those beasts are burned without the camp, and sets Jesus suffering without the gate on the same ground.
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 firevv. 18-21
Chapters 1 to 5 list the burnt offering first and the sin offering fourth, and when the offerings are actually made here the sin offering goes first and the burnt offering follows it. Guilt is dealt with before devotion is presented, and later practice kept that order. Verse 21 calls the whole burnt ram a sweet savour where verse 17 said nothing of the kind over the sin offering, and the pattern holds across the book, since the phrase falls sixteen times in Leviticus and never once on a sin offering or a trespass offering.
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.”
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.”
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.”
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
The Hebrew behind consecration here means a filling of the hands, and the ceremony about to follow fills them. Blood is put on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the great toe of the right foot, on Aaron first and then on his sons. Leviticus 14:14 marks a cleansed leper at those same three places with blood, and 14:17 marks them again with oil, so the man restored from exclusion and the man raised to the priesthood are touched at identical points. Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke both read the three as what a priest hears, what he does and where he walks, and the text names the places without giving a reason.
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.”
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
The fat, the rump, the right shoulder and three kinds of unleavened bread are laid on the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved before the LORD. Their hands are filled with the offering, which is what the word for consecration says. Moses then takes it all back off their hands and burns it on the altar, so the first thing a priest holds in his office is the thing he gives away.
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.”
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
The breast is Moses' part, the only portion of the ram that goes to him, and waving it is the last priestly act he performs before the work belongs to Aaron. Oil and blood are then 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 taken 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.”
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
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. A priest eats from the offering he has just been part of, and he eats it in the one place he is now bound to.
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
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.”
Seven days at the door, day and night, with the sacrifices of the first day repeated on each of them. Verse 34 says the purpose of the whole business was to make an atonement for you, so the men who will make atonement for Israel had it made for them first, which is the point Hebrews 5:3 presses. Verse 35 gives the reason for staying, that ye die not, and the warning stands here before anything has gone wrong.
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
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
The chapter closes on obedience and gives the credit to the command rather than to the ceremony. What follows is the eighth day of chapter 9, when fire comes out from before the LORD, consumes the offering, and the people shout and fall on their faces. At 10:2 fire comes out from the same place and kills Nadab and Abihu, so 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
Keep studying
On this page
Studies3
On this chapter
On this book
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; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Sir Robert Anderson, Types in Hebrews.