Leviticuschapter 9
24 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
It stands in Glory appears and fire falls, verses 22 to 24.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The eighth day. The first service. Aaron offers his own sin offering (a calf) and burnt offering (a ram) first; then for the people a kid for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb for burnt offerings, a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, and a meat offering. The glory of the LORD appears to all the people; fire comes out from before the LORD and consumes the burnt offering. The people shout and fall on their faces. The chapter is the book's joyful centre before the tragedy of chapter 10. Worship inaugurated with fire that descends from God, not fire that rises from man.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world of this chapter
- Who
- The whole congregation, present for Aaron's first service and for the appearing they had been promised that morning
- Where
- The altar in the tabernacle court at Sinai, with the whole congregation drawn near and standing
- When
- Israel encamped at Sinai, the eighth day after the seven of 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
The chapter is narrative. Moses gives the instructions, Aaron acts, and the narrator reports what happened.
The seven days of consecration ended at 8:35, and this is the morning after. Aaron's first act in the office is a sin offering for himself, and the animal named for it is a calf.
A first hearer would have heard the promise before the work. Verse 4 says that today the LORD will appear to you, and verse 6 repeats it, so the offerings answer a promise already made rather than earning one.
Moses stops sacrificing at verse 7 and hands the work over. He states the order twice in that one verse, atonement for Aaron himself before the offering of the people, and the whole congregation stands there while Aaron works.
Four of the five kinds of offering set out in chapters 1 to 7 are handled in one day, and the guilt offering is the one absent. Verse 17 adds that the grain offering was presented in addition to the burnt offering of the morning. The daily service of Exodus 29:38 to 29:42 kept its place on the greatest day the camp had seen.
Aaron blesses the people with lifted hands at verse 22, and Moses and Aaron bless them together at verse 23 after coming out of the tent. The glory appears after the second blessing.
Significance
For Israel this was the day the arrangement was shown to work. Fire came out from the presence of the LORD, consumed the offering, and the people shouted and fell facedown.
It was also the day the same fire became something to fear. The next event the book reports is 10:2, where fire came out from the same place and consumed two of Aaron's sons, told in nearly the same words.
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 9 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.
The eighth day: draw near
Seven days of consecration ended at Leviticus 8:35, and this is the morning after. Aaron's first act in the office is a sin offering for himself, and the animal named for it is a calf. Adam Clarke and Matthew Henry both pass on the reading of the Jewish writers that the calf was chosen to set Exodus 32 in front of him, and the text gives no reason of its own for the choice.
Leviticus 9:1
“Lev 9:1 On the eighth day - i. e., on the first day after the week of consecration. Lev 9:2 A young calf - A bull calf, which might have been what we should call a yearling ox. Lev 9:3 A kid of the goats - A shaggy he-goat. See Lev 4:23 note. Lev 9:6 The glory of the Lord - Compare Exo 16:7.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Leviticus 9:1
“On the eighth day - Namely, from the day of his consecration, or when the seven days of his consecration were ended. The eighth day is famous in scripture for the perfecting and purifying both of men and beasts.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 9:2
“Take thee a young calf, etc. - As these sacrifices were for Aaron himself, they are furnished by himself and not by the people, for they were designed to make atonement for his own sin. See Lev 4:3. And this is supposed by the Jews to have been intended to make an atonement for his sin in the matter of the golden calf. This is very probable, as no formal atonement for that transgression had yet been made.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The people bring a kid, a calf, a lamb, a bullock and a ram, with a meat offering, so four of the five kinds set out in chapters 1 to 7 are handled in one day and only the trespass offering is absent. Verse 4 states what the day is for, that to day the LORD will appear unto you. The promise is given before an animal is killed, so the offerings answer it rather than earn it.
Leviticus 9:3
“Take ye a kid - In Lev 4:14 a young bullock is commanded to be offered for the sin of the people; but here the offering is a kid, which was the sacrifice appointed for the sin of the ruler, Lev 4:22, Lev 4:23, and hence some think that the reading of the Samaritan and the Septuagint is to be preferred. Speak unto the Elders of Israel, these being the only princes or rulers of Israel at that time; and for them it is possible this sacrifice was designed.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 9:4
“The Lord will appear - Hebrew. He speaks of the thing to come as if it were past, which is frequent in scripture, to give them the more assurance of the thing.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The whole congregation draws near and stands, and it stands there for eighteen verses while Aaron works. Moses fastens the appearing to the obedience in one sentence, the thing the LORD commanded that ye should do, and then the glory shall appear. Exodus 40:34-35 had already filled the tent with that glory and left Moses outside it, and here the same glory comes out to where the people are standing.
Leviticus 9:5
“And they brought that which Moses commanded before the tabernacle of the congregation,.... That is, Aaron and his sons, and all the children of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it.”
Leviticus 9:6
“And the glory of the Lord shall appear - God shall give the most sensible signs of his presence among you; this he did in general by the cloud on the tabernacle, but in this case the particular proof was the fire that came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt-offering; see Lev 9:23, Lev 9:24.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 9:7-8
Moses hands the work over and stops sacrificing, and Aaron goes to the altar for the first time. The order is fixed and Moses states it twice in one verse, atonement for himself before the offering of the people. Hebrews 7:27 turns on that order, that the high priests offered first for their own sins and then for the people's, and John Calvin reads this verse as the place where the legal priesthood shows what it lacks.
Leviticus 9:7
“It is to be remarked that Aaron offers no peace-offering for himself. It was enough that he should participate in the peace-offerings of the consecration Lev 8:31, and in the two peace-offerings about to be sacrificed for the people. His sin-offering was probably regarded not so much as a sacrifice for his own actual sins as a typical acknowledgment of his sinful nature and of his future duty to offer for his own sins and those of the People.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 9:7
“And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar Here is repeated what was stated elsewhere, that the priest, as being himself a sinner, must first make entreaty for himself, before he propitiates God towards others. Hence the Apostle justly infers that the legal priesthood was weak and merely typical.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Leviticus 9:7
“Go and offer - Moses had hitherto sacrificed, but now he resigns his work to Aaron, and actually gives him that commission which from God he had received for him. For thyself and for the people - The order is very observable, first for thyself, otherwise thou art unfit to do it for the people.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Aaron offers first for himself
The blood goes on the horns of the altar in the court and none of it is carried inside the tent. That follows what Moses did at Leviticus 8:15 rather than the rule for an anointed priest's sin offering at 4:5-7, where the blood goes in before the vail. Aaron is entering the office in this chapter and has not yet acted inside the holy place. The flesh and the hide are burnt with fire without the camp, and Hebrews 13:11-13 takes up that arrangement and says Jesus suffered without the gate.
Leviticus 9:9
“Aaron did not act according to the ordinary Law Lev 4:5-7, Lev 4:16-18, but as Moses had done in the sin-offering of the consecration ceremony (Lev 8:15; compare also Lev 4:25, Lev 4:30, Lev 4:34). The probable reason of this was that he had not yet been formally introduced as the high priest into the holy place of the tabernacle. Brought the blood - They most likely held the basons in which the blood was received as it ran from the victim, and then handed them to their father. See Lev 1:5.”
Leviticus 9:10
“But the fat, and the kidneys, and the caul above the liver of the sin offering, he burnt upon the altar,.... The Septuagint version is, "he offered them": as the Lord commanded Moses; see Lev 4:8.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 9:10
“Add to this, that there is nothing said to be consumed by that heavenly fire, but the burnt-offering with the fat belonging to it, namely, that burnt- offering mentioned ver. 16, which therefore is not there said to be burnt, as it is said of the other burnt-offering, ver. 13, and of the rest of the sacrifices in their places.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 9:11
“And the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire without the camp. With common fire, for the fire from the Lord came only upon the altar, which perhaps may be the reason of this expression being used when anything was burnt without the camp, and not on the altar, see Exo 29:14. Jarchi observes, that we do not find a sin offering burnt without the camp but this; which is a great mistake; see Lev 4:11.”
Chapters 1 to 7 are the law and this is the law being done, in the same verbs and the same order, slew and presented and sprinkled and burnt. Aaron's sons hand him the blood and he does the rest with his own hands, so the division of labour that later priests keep begins here. The washing of the inwards and the legs at verse 14 is the instruction of 1:9 carried out to the letter.
Leviticus 9:12
“And he slew the burnt offering,.... The ram, which was for himself also; this he slew at the north side of the altar, Lev 1:11. and Aaron's sons presented unto him the blood: which they had received into a basin, when it was slain: which he sprinkled round about upon the altar; as he had seen Moses do before him, Lev 8:19.”
Leviticus 9:13
“And they presented the burnt offering to him,.... After it was cut in pieces, as the ram of the burnt offering was by Moses, Lev 8:20 and so it was done to this, as appears by what follows: with the pieces thereof, and the head, and he burnt them upon the altar; the Septuagint version is, "he put them on the altar".”
Leviticus 9:14
“And he did wash the inwards and the legs,.... As Moses also had done, Lev 8:21. and burnt them upon the burnt offering on the altar; upon the pieces, and the head, before mentioned, said to be burnt, or "after" the burnt offering, after they were burnt: the Septuagint version is as before.”
Then the offerings of the people
Aaron now repeats for the people what he did for himself, and the text says as the first instead of describing it again. The meat offering follows, a handful burnt on the altar, and verse 17 adds that all of it was beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning. The daily offering of Exodus 29:38-42 kept its place on the greatest day the camp had seen, so the extraordinary service was laid on top of the ordinary one.
Leviticus 9:15
“In this first complete series of offerings made by the high priest, the sacrifices take their appointed order; first, the sin-offering to make atonement; then the burnt-offering, to signify the surrender of the body, soul and spirit to Yahweh in heaven; and lastly the peace-offering, to show forth the communion vouchsafed to those who are justified and sanctified. See Lev 8:14 note.”
Leviticus 9:16
“And he brought the burnt offering,.... The calf and the lamb, Lev 9:3. and offered it according to the manner; judgment, ordinance, and appointment of God respecting that sort of offerings; see Lev 1:1.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 9:16
“The burnt-offering - Which also was offered for the people, as the last mentioned sin-offering was.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 9:17
“And he brought the meat offering,.... Made of fine flour, with oil and frankincense put upon it, see Lev 2:1. and took a handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar; see Lev 2:2. beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning; the daily morning sacrifice, which was not to be omitted on account of these extraordinary sacrifices, both for the priest and for the people; or "after the burnt sacrifice of the morning"; for no sacrifice was offered up before that: so Jarchi.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 9:17
“Besides the burnt-sacrifice - Which was to be first offered every morning; for God will not have his ordinary and stated service swallowed up by extraordinary.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The peace offerings come last, and by the rule of 7:15 these are the parts a worshipper eats. The offerer's list in chapters 1 to 5 puts the peace offering third and the priest's list at 6:8 to 7:38 moves it to the end, and Aaron's first service follows the priest's order. The breasts and the right shoulder are waved and become the portion of the priests, so a day that opened with Aaron's own sin closes with food on his table.
Leviticus 9:18
“He slew also the bullock and the ram, a sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the people,.... That they might feast, rejoice, and be glad that atonement was made for their sins, and their gifts and sacrifices accepted of God, see Rom 5:11. and Aaron's sons presented unto him the blood; of the peace offerings, the bullock and the ram, which they had received into a vessel as they were killing: which he sprinkled upon the altar round about; as he did with the blood of his own burnt offering, Lev 9:12.”
Leviticus 9:20
“And they put the fat upon the breasts,.... Both of the bullock and of the ram, while they were waving: and he burnt the fat upon the altar; after having been waved.”
Leviticus 9:21
“And the breasts and the right shoulder,.... The breasts of the bullock and the ram, and the right shoulders of them both: Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord; which was given to him as his part of the peace offerings, after they had been thus waved before the Lord; whereby an acknowledgment was made that he was Lord of all, and had a right to all they had; in token of which these parts were given to his priests towards their maintenance: as Moses commanded; see Exo 29:27.”
Glory appears and fire falls
Aaron blesses with lifted hands and comes down from the altar, and Adam Clarke takes the words to be the form written out at Numbers 6:23-27. Then Moses and Aaron go into the tent together, come out, and bless a second time, and the glory appears to all the people rather than to the two men who had been inside. Matthew Henry marks the sequence, that the appearing followed the blessing the lawgiver and the priest gave together.
Leviticus 9:22
“And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them - On lifting up the hands in prayer, see Exo 9:29. The form of the blessing we have in Num 6:23, etc.: “The Lord bless thee and keep thee! The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace!” See the notes on these passages Exo 9:29 (note), and Num 6:23 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 9:22
“Something of this sort has also been written about Aaron in the book of Leviticus, namely, that "he raised up his hands over the people and blessed them." I gather from this that the saying expresses a mystery, namely, that the one who blesses someone must be adorned with works that distinguish him from the many and raise him above them. For when he is going to bless the people, the hands of Aaron are raised on high. So if someone has his hands down toward earthly things, he does not intend to bless anyone.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· FRAGMENT ON THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 257patristic
Leviticus 9:22
“This was one part of the priest's work, in which he was a type of Christ, who came into the world to bless us, and when he was parted from his disciples, at his ascension, lifted up his hands and blessed them, and in them his whole church, of which they were the elders and representatives, as the great high priest of our profession.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 9:22
“Aaron lifted up his hand . . . and blessed them--The pronouncing of a benediction on the people assembled in the court was a necessary part of the high priest's duty, and the formula in which it was to be given is described (Nu 6:23-27). came down from offering--The altar was elevated above the level of the floor, and the ascent was by a gentle slope (Ex 20:26).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 9:23
“And Moses - Went in with Aaron to direct him, and to see him perform those parts of his office which were to be done in the holy place, about the lights, and the table of shew-bread, and the altar of incense, upon which part of the blood of the sacrifices now offered was to be sprinkled, chap. iv, 7, 16.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Fire comes out from before the LORD, eats the burnt offering and the fat off the altar, and the people shout and fall on their faces. That is the promise of verse 4 kept, and it is the high point of the book to this stage. The next event Leviticus reports is 10:2, where fire went out from the LORD and devoured two of Aaron's sons, told in nearly the same words. The same fire from the same place accepts an offering and kills two priests, and the narrator lays the two side by side and adds nothing.
Leviticus 9:24
“From before the Lord - Or, from the presence of the Lord, that is, from the place where God was in a special manner present, either from heaven or from the holy of holies. They shouted - As wondering at, rejoicing in, and blessing God for this gracious discovery of himself, and his favour. This also was a figure of good things to come.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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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 exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; 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.