Leviticus8chapter 8

Leviticus 8:14-15

The first sacrifice at the new tabernacle is a sin offering for the men about to become priests, and Moses slaughters it, because the office is not theirs yet. The blood on the horns is purifying the altar, so the instrument of atonement is atoned for before it is used. Leviticus 16:18-19 does the same again on the Day of Atonement.

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. Albert Barnes notes that this was the first sin offering ever made, and that Moses, as mediator of the covenant, performs the priestly work because no priest yet holds office.

Leviticus 8:16-17

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. Hebrews 13:11-13 takes up that arrangement: the bodies are burned outside the camp, and so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate.

The hide, the flesh and the dung go out together, so the whole animal leaves the camp. John Gill reports from Aben Ezra that some held Moses burned the bull himself and others that he had it done at his order, and Gill takes the second as likely. The command cited is Exodus 29:14.

Leviticus 8:18-21

Chapters 1 to 5 list the burnt offering first and the sin offering fourth, and when the offerings are made here the sin offering goes first. Guilt is dealt with before devotion is presented, and later practice kept that order. Verse 21 calls the burnt ram a pleasing aroma, where verse 17 says nothing of the kind over the sin offering.

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, where the blood of the sin offering went on the horns. John Gill notes that the Septuagint names Moses as the one who killed the ram. The office of priest has not yet passed to Aaron.

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 for a burnt offering. John Gill describes the cutting as taking off the head and quartering the body, and he notes that the next verse shows the whole animal was burned.

The entrails and legs are washed before they are burned, following Leviticus 1:9, so the parts that carried dung are cleaned first. John Gill points to Exodus 29:18 as the command this verse fulfils. The whole ram goes to the fire, and Moses, Aaron and his sons receive no portion of it.

Leviticus 8:22-24

The Hebrew behind ordination means a filling of the hands. Blood goes on the right earlobe, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot, and Leviticus 14:14 marks a cleansed leper at the same three places. Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke read the three as what a priest hears, what he does and where he walks.

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. He also repeats Calmet's remark that the Romans consecrated their high priest with a ceremony that bore a considerable resemblance to this one.

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. John Gill treats verses 22 to 25 as the order of Exodus 29:19-22 carried out, and he refers the reader there for the explanation.

Leviticus 8:25-28

The fat portions and the right thigh, with three kinds of unleavened bread, are put in 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 ordination says. Then Moses took these from their hands and burned them on the altar, so the first thing a priest holds in office is what he gives away.

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, and he says they were laid uppermost on the fat and the thigh. The bread and the meat are then handled as one offering.

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. Adam Clarke refers to his note on Exodus 29:27 for the difference between the wave offering and the heave offering.

The ordination portions are burned on top of the burnt offering already on the altar. The verse gives this offering three names, an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, and an offering made by fire to the LORD, the same aroma language used of the burnt ram at verse 21. Exodus 29:25 gives the command this carries out, and John Gill refers to Exodus 29:24 for the waving before it.

Leviticus 8:29-30

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.

The verse says the sprinkling consecrated the garments as well as the men, so the clothes put on at verses 7 to 13 now belong to the office. Adam Clarke notes that the high priest himself had to be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice. He reads Aaron as a type of Christ, sprinkled with his own blood in the garden, under the thorns and on the cross.

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. 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.

The rule for what is left applies to the bread as well as the meat, so the ordination meal ends with the fire. John Gill gives two reasons for the burning: that the food should not spoil, and that it should not be put to common or superstitious use. Exodus 29:34 gives the same command and adds that the remainder is holy.

Leviticus 8:33-35

Seven days at the entrance, day and night, with the sacrifices of the first day repeated on each. Verse 34 names the purpose, to make atonement on your behalf, so the men who will make atonement for Israel had it made for them first, the point Hebrews 5:3 presses. Verse 35 gives the reason for staying, so that you will not die, before anything has gone wrong.

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. He takes the number seven as pointing to the one offering that perfected for ever those who are sanctified, the single offering of Hebrews 10:14.

The priests stay at the entrance day and night for the seven days, and the verse calls this keeping the LORD's charge. John Wesley says the same ceremonies were repeated on each day, and Adam Clarke reads seven as the number of a full and complete consecration. Moses closes by saying this is what he has been commanded.

So Aaron and his sons did all things: 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.