Leviticus 16

Leu. 16 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when 2 they drew near before the LORD, and died; and the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy-seat which is upon the ark: that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the 3 mercy-seat. Herewith shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin 4 offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with the linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: they are the holy garments; and he shall bathe his flesh in 5 water, and put them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two 6 he-goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself, and for his 7 house. And he shall take the two goats, and set them before the LORD at the door of the tent 8 of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the 9 other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat upon which the lot fell for the LORD, 10 and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell for Azazel, shall be set alive before the LORD, to make atonement for him, to send him away for Azazel into the wil- 11 derness. And Aaron shall present the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offer- 12 ing which is for himself: and he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the 13 veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense 14 may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: and he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat on the east; and 15 before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy- 16 seat, and before the mercy-seat: and he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins: and so shall he do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with them in the midst of their 17 uncleannesses. And there shall be no man in the tent of meeting when he goeth in to make atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made atonement for himself, and 18 for his household, and for all the assembly of Israel. And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, 19 and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it 20 from the uncleannesses of the children of Israel. And when he hath made an end of atoning 21 for the holy place, and the tent of meeting, and the altar, he shall present the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a man that

22 is in readiness into the wilderness : and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto 23 a solitary land : and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. And Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into 24 the holy place, and shall leave them there : and he shall bathe his flesh in water in a holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering and the burnt 25 offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people. And the fat of 26 the sin offering shall be burn upon the altar. And he that letteth go the goat for Azazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. 27 And the bullock of the sin offering, and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be carried forth without the camp ; and they 28 shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. 29 And it shall be a statute for ever unto you : in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the homeborn, or the 30 stranger that sojourneth among you : for on this day shall atonement be made for you, to 31 cleanse you ; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the LORD. It is a sabbath of solemn 32 rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls ; it is a statute for ever. And the priest, who shall be anointed and who shall be consecrated to be priest in his father’s stead, shall make 33 the atonement, and shall put on the linen garments, even the holy garments : and he shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar ; and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the 34 assembly. And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make atonement for the chil- dren of Israel because of all their sins once in the year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Lev. 23 26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Howbeit on the tenth day of this 27 seventh month is the day of atonement : it shall be an holy convocation unto you, and ye 28 shall afflict your souls ; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And ye shall do no manner of work in that same day : for it is a day of atonement, to make atone- 29 ment for you before the LORD your God. For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted 30 in that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. And whatsoever soul it be that doeth 31 any manner of work in that same day, that soul will I destroy from among his people. Ye shall do no manner of work ; it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your 32 dwellings. It shall be unto you a sabbath of solemn rest, and ye shall afflict your souls : in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye keep your sabbath.

Nu. 29 7 And on the tenth day of this seventh month ye shall have an holy convocation ; 8 and ye shall afflict your souls ; ye shall do no manner of work : but ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD for a sweet savour ; one young bullock, one ram, seven he lambs of the 9 first year ; they shall be unto you without blemish : and their meal offering, fine flour mingled 10 with oil, three tenth parts for the bullock, two tenth parts for the one ram, a several tenth part 11 for every lamb of the seven lambs : one he goat for a sin offering ; beside the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering thereof, and their drink offerings.

Though one day only of the entire year was devoted to the holy of holies, that one was the day of days of all the year. We have already seen that the idea of atonement is the foundation-thought in all the sacrifices and in all the services, both in the ritual of the altar and of the holy place. But there was one day of the year, and that the most sacred of all, when the great fact of atonement was presented alone and in the most solemn manner before the minds of the people ; and there was one department of the ritual, and that the most sacred of all, the ritual of the holy of holies, which was so arranged that the necessity and value of the atonement which God has provided for human sin should stand out in solitary grandeur, like the Matterhorn among Swiss mountains, before the eyes of Israel in the olden time, and of all God’s Israel to the end of the world. J. M. G.

The Day of Atonement stood forth alone among all the sacred days of Israel, distinguished by services altogether peculiar to itself, and unequalled in the clearness and impressiveness alike of its bearing on the past and of its typical relation to the future. All the lesser atonements of the year then reached their culminating point, while the holiness of God, the evil of sin, the completeness of the pardon offered to the sinner, and the blessed consequences of restoration to the Divine favor were exhibited and brought home to the people with a singular degree of distinctness and power. There is no sacred season of the Old Dispensation, too, whose “fulfilling” is more distinctly spoken of in the New Testament. Milligan.

The doctrine of the atonement holds no more central place in the Christian religious and dogmatic system than does the Day of Atonement in the Jewish ethical and ritualistic. There is not, for instance, an allusion to the ark with its peculiar covering—and there are more than twenty such references in Exodus and Leviticus—that does not recognize the one most conspicuous feature of the Day of Atonement. The title “mercy-seat” seems to have had no other formal or moral basis than the characteristic act of the high-priest in sprinkling there the blood of atonement. In the second temple there was no ark at all. E. C. B.

The Day of Atonement took its rise in the working out of the Law itself. Its ceremonial was a showing forth in distinct analytical detail of the truth which was compendiously expressed in the single rite of the sin-offering. Clark. —This is called by the sacred writer day of expiations or atonements, from its having been instituted for the expiation of all the sins, irreverences, and pollutions of all the Israelites, from the highest priest to the lowest people, committed by them throughout the year. It was observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, or Tisri, corresponding to a part of our September. Though called occasionally the “feast of Expiation,” yet its genuine character was rather that of a fast—a day for “afflicting their souls”—and is only called “feast” in the sense of a set solemnity. It was in all its services and ceremonies the fullest representation, the most perfect shadow, of the great work of redemption; the high-priest prefiguring in all he did that which Christ in the fulness of times was ordained to do. Bush.

The DAY OF ATONEMENT is the one single fast, or day of humiliation prescribed by the Mosaic Law; whence it is called the Fast (Acts 27:9), and by the Talmudists the Day. It was kept as a most solemn Sabbath, when all must abstain from work, and “afflict their souls” on pain of being “cut off from among the people.” Its ceremonies signified the public humiliation of the people for all the sins of the past year, and the remission of those sins by the atonement which the high-priest made within the veil, whither he entered on this day only. All the sacrifices of the day were performed by the highpriest himself. He first washed his body in the holy place, and put on his white linen garments, not the robes of state. Coming out of the tabernacle, he first brought forward the sacrifices for himself and his family: a young bullock for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering. This part of the ceremony set forth the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood, even in its highest representative. The high-priest then led forward the victims for the people’s sins: a ram for a burnt-offering, and two young goats for a sin-offering. Presenting the two goats before Jehovah at the door of the tabernacle, he cast lots upon them, the one lot being inscribed For Jehovah, the other For Azazel.

The victims being prepared, the high-priest proceeded to offer the young bullock as the sin-offering for himself and his family. Having slain it at the altar, he took some of its blood with a censer filled with live coals from the altar and a handful of incense: and entering into the most holy place he threw the incense on the coals, thus enveloping the ark in a fragrant cloud and partially shrouding it from his own eyes, and then sprinkled the blood seven times before the mercy-seat on the east side of the ark. The goat “of Jehovah” was then slain as a sin-offering for the people, and the high-priest again went into the most holy place and performed the same ceremonies with its blood. As he returned through the holy place he purified it by sprinkling some of the blood of both victims on the altar of incense. This completed the purification of the sanctuary, the second stage of the atonement.

Then followed the remission of the people’s sins by the striking ceremony of devoting the goat on which the lot had fallen “for Azazel.” The high-priest having laid his hands upon its head and confessed over it the sins of the people, the victim, loaded as it were with those sins, was led out by a man chosen for the purpose to the wilderness, into “a land not inhabited,” and there let loose. The simple meaning of the rite is the full remission of sins; and the animal who bore them away was thenceforth as free as the pardoned sinner. To trace it or to endeavor to identify it would be a profanation, just as the idea of remission is expressed by not inquiring for sins, not finding them, casting them behind the back. This idea of remission seems to be involved in the name to which the scapegoat was devoted; “for Azazel” signifying “for complete removal.” The great ceremony of the remission of sins being thus completed, the high-priest, after again washing his body in the holy place, and resuming his robes of state, completed the offering of the slain victims. P. S.

8. Cast lots.** This shows the perfect equality of the two goats as representatives, and intimates the unity of that which is represented. One lot for the Lord. The goat on which this lot fell was to be offered in sacrifice unto the Lord. And the other lot for Azazel. This is simply the goat that is to go away, escaping from death into the wilderness; a meaning which is suggested and sustained by the text. M.—The word Azazel occurs nowhere in the Old Testament except in this chapter. The best modern scholars consider its most probable derivation to be from a root in use in Arabic, but not in Hebrew, signifying to remove, or to separate. They are equally agreed as to the word expressing the destination to which the goat was sent, not (as in our version) the goat itself. The etymology suggested by Buxtorf and the earlier critics, according to which the word answered to our own “scape-goat,” is now almost universally rejected. Clark.—The general idea to be attached to the words “for Azazel” seems clear. It is for final and complete removal. A complete and satisfactory solution rests upon the general supposition that this whole observance was intended to concentrate and epitomize the ceremonial method of atonement. It is natural to suppose that the two goats were intended to be symbols of the same great doctrine, that of expiation, as consisting of two parts, substitution and removal, one of which is represented by the death of the first goat, and the other by the exile of the second, both together constituting a single undivided symbol of atonement, such as we know to have been wrought by Christ. J. A. A.

12-14. Within the veil . . . before the mercy-seat shall be sprinkle of the blood.** This inner shrine—the throne-room and presence-chamber of the Eternal—was trod by mortal foot but once a year, on that great Day of Atonement, when, protected by sacrificial blood, the high-priest entered to present the propitiation for the people, and returned to show that God was still good to Israel. Hamilton.—On this day alone, of the year, was the holy of holies, the symbol of heaven, opened for the entrance of the high priest. Yet the leading thought presented by the ritual for the day was not the opening of heaven with all its glories, but rather the solemn warning that “there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.” It is the old, old lesson pressed home once again, and more solemnly than ever, that “without holiness no man can see the Lord.” It will be time enough by and by to unfold the glories of the future, to tell of the golden city with its gates of pearl, its blessed company and joy unspeakable; but first there must be borne deep into the soul this abiding conviction, that before we are prepared even to see the kingdom, we must be saved from sin. It is not happiness first, but holiness. And it is only after holiness to the Lord has taken strong and abiding possession of the soul, that happiness from the Lord comes down on joyous wing from out the open heaven. Marvel not, then, that on the day on which the “holiest of all” was opened, the people were called to fasting and humiliation on account of their sin, nor wonder that, for the purpose of entering within the veil, the high-priest was directed to put on not his robes “of glory and beauty,” but plain linen garments, all of white, so that the thought of holiness should stand before the mind’s eye of the people quite alone. Still further, the festal offerings were excluded: no bread-offering, no joy-offering to-day; only the sin-offering and the burnt-offering, the great essentials. And even the burnt-offering sinks into an entirely secondary position, that the attention may be concentrated from beginning to end on the sin-offering, and on the great fact of atonement, which gave significance to the ritual and name to the day. J. M. G.

14-19. The first blood sprinkling was to cleanse the mercy-seat itself; the second, seven times, the holy of holies, from the sins of the priests. Gerl.—The sprinkling of the mercy-seat and of the floor in front of it was followed by a similar use of the blood in the holy place and at the altar of burnt-offering, “to hallow” the scene of worship and of sacrifice “from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.” J. M. G.—This significant type tells the Christian that there is nothing in itself so holy as not to need intercession and atonement. God’s own ordinances, as the preaching of his Word and the sacraments, ought never to be approached without the consciousness that only through the power of Christ’s atoning blood are they pure to us, and the channels of grace. Gerl.

21. This is the only passage in all Scripture in which the meaning of the ceremony of laying hands on the head of the victim is directly explained. Magee.

21,22. It was now, after the completion of the atonement by blood, that the high-priest confessed over the live goat still standing at the door of the tabernacle “all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions,”

and thereafter sent him away, laden with his awful burden, by a fit person into the wilderness, into a land of separation, where no man dwelt. The action with this second goat is to be regarded as the continuation of the action with the first, and its proper complement. Hence the second or live goat is represented as standing at the door of the tabernacle (verse 10), while atonement was being made with the blood of the first. And it is only after this process of atonement is accomplished that the high-priest returns to him, and, as from God, lays on him the now-atoned-for iniquities, that he might carry them away into a desert place. So that the part he has to do in the transaction is simply to bear them off and bury them out of sight as things concerning which the justice of God had been satisfied, no more to be brought into account. What took place with the live goat was merely intended to unfold and render palpably evident to the bodily eye the effect of the great work of atonement. Nor is it of any moment what became of the goat after being conducted into the wilderness. He went where “all death lives and all life dies;” and so exhibited a most striking image of the everlasting oblivion into which the sins of God’s people are thrown, when once they are covered with the blood of an acceptable atonement. P. F.

It was Jehovah’s act to choose one of the goats for his service in the way of ordinary sacrifice, the other for his service in carrying off the sins to Azazel. The idea to be set before the Israelites was the absolute annihilation, by the atoning sacrifice, of sin as a separation between Jehovah and his people, the complete setting free of their consciences. No symbol could so plainly set forth the completeness of Jehovah’s acceptance of the penitent as a sin-offering in which a life was given up for the altar, and yet a living being survived to carry away all sin and uncleanness. The truth of atonement was involved in every sin-offering; but it was only in the offering of the two goats in this great annual rite that the expression of it was carried out into complete detail. The declared object of the observance was that the Israelites might be “clean from all their sins before the Lord” (verse 30). This was expressed in later times by the Psalmist: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (103:12); and by the prophet: “He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19). Clark.

No symbol could give more precisely, more unequivocally, more forcibly, the great idea of taking away sins. You see them transferred to this second goat by means of hands imposed and formal declaration, “putting them [the sins] upon the head of the goat;” and then he is driven away, bearing his burden into an unknown, desolate land, never to be heard from again! These two goats therefore represent respectively the two great ideas which make up the atonement—the first signifying by what means God can testify duly against sin while yet he forgives the sinner; and the second certifying that—the innocent victim having been substituted for the sinner and slain in his stead—God does truly take sins forever away. In briefest phrase these coupled ideas stand out before us in the New Testament: “Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). H. C.

27. Shall be carried forth without the camp. To be a type and figure of the more perfect sacrifice of Christ the Messiah, who was to suffer “without the gate” (Heb. 13:11, 12). Pyle.—The holy of holies on earth represented the residence of the Deity in heaven. The service that was performed in it consequently represented the service that was to be performed in heaven. The high-priest under the Law, therefore, represented the person of our great High-Priest and Intercessor; and the blood which he sprinkled before the cherubim on the mercy-seat was the type of that blood the merits of which our great High-Priest, when “entered within the veil,” was afterward to plead before his Heavenly Father (Heb. 9:24). Each high-priest acted under a public character, each sustaining the persons of those whom he represented. The high-priest under the Law “offered for himself and for the errors of the people.” Our great High-Priest under the Gospel “appeared in the presence of God for us:” while the burning the sin-offering “without the camp” answers to Christ’s suffering “without the gate” of Jerusalem. And the particular service of this day was expressly calculated to leave a stronger impression respecting the nature of sin and the manner in which its effect was by Divine appointment to be done away, than if such ideas had been conveyed only by words. Daubeny.

What none but the high priest could do, under the Jewish economy, all God’s people may do now. And what even he could do but once a year, they may do at all times. They can “enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” The way to the mercy-seat lies open at all times, and “whosoever will” may come and find mercy and grace to help in time of need.

R. Newton. — The veil is rent to show that the Mediator made a passage into heaven, but in nothing does he act for himself alone. We rose with him; we ascended with him; and therefore is the rending of the veil as much a pledge of our admission as of his, who, by the efficiency of his sacrifice, provided for our being not only sons of God, but joint heirs with himself. The veil is rent. The door of heaven, the way of access to God’s glorified presence hereafter, as well as to his gracious presence now, is thrown open by the work of mediation. We may not only draw nigh to God now in prayer, but we shall draw nigh to him hereafter in person. We shall rise from the dust; we shall tread the firmament; we shall enter by the gates of pearl, and we shall walk the streets of gold. Blessed be God for this rent veil! Like a window opened in the sky, there have come forth through it the shinings of eternity, the promises of immortality, rich and lively visions of the inheritance of the saints in light. Melville.

25,24. And now that the great atonement has been made, the high-priest puts off the linen garments and puts on his gorgeous robes, the onyx stones upon his shoulders, the precious stones upon his breast again, and offers the burnt-offering for himself and for the people. Although the day was above all a day of atonement, so that the sin-offering takes the place of all the others, and stands out as it were alone; yet the opportunity cannot be allowed to pass of pointing out that atonement is in order to dedication and acceptance, the dedication of the people to God and the acceptance of the people by God; and this is kept before the mind by the presentation of the burnt-offering by the priest in his priestly attire as the representative of the now “reconciled” people. And accordingly, our great High-Priest, having laid aside his plain vesture of mortal flesh, reclothes himself with his garments of glory and beauty, and thus attired, in the fair form of his resurrection vesture, bearing upon his strong and conquering shoulders the weight, and in his warm and loving heart the names, of all his children, he leads the way as “the Forerunner” into the holy, blessed presence of our loving reconciled Father, God. J. M. G.

34. This shall be an everlasting statute. That is, through the whole period of that economy till Christ, the substance of the Levitical shadows, should come. Bush. — During the legal dispensation it was to continue among them: but Christ put an end to it and rendered the service useless, and the destruction of their temple rendered it unpracticable.

Bp. Kidder. — This great Day of Atonement was instituted for a perpetual observance—that is, while the Mosaic economy lasted. This remembrance of sins every year is now superseded by the offering of Christ once for all. The high-priest entered the most holy place “not without blood.” Christ “by his own blood” entered into heaven for us. Even in the midst of the throne his appearance is that as of a lamb that had been slain. T. C.

The law of the priestly service in the Old Testament is indeed a vivid parable of the needs, the aim, the benediction of human life. Day by day, morning and evening, the sweet lessons of atonement and consecration were read with simple and solemn emphasis; and once in the year on the great Day of Atonement, “the Day,” as it was called, the lessons were set forth in detail with every accessory of majestic ritual, so that the simplest worshipper could hardly fail to take to himself with intelligent faith the warnings and the consolations of the august ceremonial on that day. On that day, though but for a passing moment, Israel in their representation appeared before the presence of the Lord their God. On that day they received from him most directly the assurance of forgiveness and blessing, mercy, and grace to help in time of need. We can, then, all understand what must have been the consolation, the strength, the joy, with which that service inspired the faithful Jews; how it must have spoken peace in the name of Jehovah to the troubled conscience, and brought vigor to the trembling; how, in the power of that visible pardon, they could, within a few days, join in the feast of Tabernacles, the loveliest and greatest of all their festivals, and show, for a brief space, the gladness of social life fulfilled by the gift and in the sight of God. Westcott.

The great Day of Atonement, and the sacrifices and ceremonies prescribed for it, were commanded to be solemnized by the Jews through the whole of their dispensation; yet scarcely a shadow of these things remains. There is no longer a scape-goat nor a goat for sacrifice provided by them in any place. They are sinners and they are without an atonement. The true expiation, the Christ crucified, they refuse to receive, and are consequently without temple, altar, atonement, or any means of salvation! Who with the Jews and the Bible before his eyes can doubt the truth of that Bible as a Divine revelation! God has ceased to work among them because they have refused to receive and profit by the great atonement; and yet He preserves them in a state of complete separation from all the people of the earth, in all places of their dispersion! How powerfully does their preservation as a distinct people bear testimony at once to the truth of their own law, which they acknowledge, and the Gospel of Christ, which they reject! But while the Jews sit in darkness because of the veil that is on their hearts, in what state are those who profess to acknowledge the truth of the New Testament, and yet are living without an atonement applied to their souls for the removal of their iniquities? A. C.

The doctrines of atonement and incarnation, as Bishop Horsley says, reciprocate: the one supports and demands the other; nor was there ever a more beautiful congruity than in the parts of the sublime Scripture sentence: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” While this doctrine alone, with any sense of inward satisfaction, accounts for the appearance of Divinity in the field, it also explains the severe and all but overwhelming strain laid on our Lord’s humanity. For the only pure and loving One there is the bitterest cup and the most terrible baptism, and the nearest to God is the most forsaken. On the common theory this is explicable and profoundly impressive; but on what other? If judicial infliction, if doom, if curse be not here, why has the Church been awed, and even the world solemnized, by the bearing of such a burden? and why does the Man of Sorrows stand alone and unapproachable? With profoundest reverence also do we see here why if this sacrifice is rejected there remains no other, and how the urgent appeal should rise from the whole of Scripture in the light of issues which no other remedy could have averted or can avert, “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation!” Cairns.