Text -- Leviticus 16:14 (NET)
Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley: Lev 16:14 - -- seat - To teach us, that God is merciful to sinners only through and for the blood of Christ.
seat - To teach us, that God is merciful to sinners only through and for the blood of Christ.
Wesley: Lev 16:14 - -- ward, or upon the eastern part, towards the people, who were in the court which lay east - ward from the holy of holies, which was the most western pa...
ward, or upon the eastern part, towards the people, who were in the court which lay east - ward from the holy of holies, which was the most western part of the tabernacle. This signified that the high-priest in this act represented the people, and that God accepted it on their behalf.
@@ Before the mercy-seat __ On the ground.
JFB -> Lev 16:11-19
JFB: Lev 16:11-19 - -- The first part of the service was designed to solemnize his own mind, as well as the minds of the people, by offering the sacrifices for their sins. T...
The first part of the service was designed to solemnize his own mind, as well as the minds of the people, by offering the sacrifices for their sins. The sin offerings being slain had the sins of the offerer judicially transferred to them by the imputation of his hands on their head (Lev 4:4, Lev 4:15, Lev 4:24, Lev 4:29, Lev 4:33); and thus the young bullock, which was to make atonement for himself and the other priests (called "his house," Psa 135:19), was killed by the hands of the high priest. While the blood of the victim was being received into a vessel, taking a censer of live coals in his right hand and a platter of sweet incense in his left, he, amid the solemn attention and the anxious prayers of the assembled multitude, crossed the porch and the holy place, opened the outer veil which led into the holy of holies and then the inner veil. Standing before the ark, he deposited the censer of coals on the floor, emptied the plate of incense into his hand, poured it on the burning coals; and the apartment was filled with fragrant smoke, intended, according to Jewish writers, to prevent any presumptuous gazer prying too curiously into the form of the mercy seat, which was the Lord's throne. The high priest having done this, perfumed the sanctuary, returned to the door, took the blood of the slain bullock, and, carrying it into the holy of holies, sprinkled it with his finger once upon the mercy seat "eastward"--that is, on the side next to himself; and seven times "before the mercy seat"--that is, on the front of the ark. Leaving the coals and the incense burning, he went out a second time, to sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering the goat which had been assigned as a sin offering for the people; and carrying its blood into the holy of holies, he made similar sprinklings as he had done before with the blood of the bullock. While the high priest was thus engaged in the most holy place, none of the ordinary priests were allowed to remain within the precincts of the tabernacle. The sanctuary or holy place and the altar of burnt offering were in like manner sprinkled seven times with the blood of the bullock and the goat. The object of this solemn ceremonial was to impress the minds of the Israelites with the conviction that the whole tabernacle was stained by the sins of a guilty people, that by their sins they had forfeited the privileges of the divine presence and worship, and that an atonement had to be made as the condition of God's remaining with them. The sins and shortcomings of the past year having polluted the sacred edifice, the expiation required to be annually renewed. The exclusion of the priests indicated their unworthiness and the impurities of their service. The mingled blood of the two victims being sprinkled on the horns of the altar indicated that the priests and the people equally needed an atonement for their sins. But the sanctuary being thus ceremonially purified, and the people of Israel reconciled by the blood of the consecrated victim, the Lord continued to dwell in the midst of them, and to honor them with His gracious presence.
TSK -> Lev 16:14
collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Lev 16:11-25
Barnes: Lev 16:11-25 - -- It is important, in reference to the meaning of the day of atonement, to observe the order of the rites as they are described in these verses. ...
It is important, in reference to the meaning of the day of atonement, to observe the order of the rites as they are described in these verses.
A censer - See Exo 25:38 note.
The altar before the Lord - i. e. the altar of burnt-offering on which the fire was always burning.
The high priest must have come out from the most holy place to fetch the blood, leaving the censer smoking within, and then have entered again within the veil. He sprinkled the blood seven times upon the mercy-seat, on its east side (not "eastward"), and then seven times upon the floor in front of it. If the mercy-seat may be regarded as an altar, the holiest one of the three, on this one occasion in the year atonement was thus made for it, as for the other altars, with sacrificial blood.
Having completed the atonement in the holy of holies on behalf of the priests, the high priest had now to do the same thing on behalf of the people.
The "holy place"- Here the place within the veil, the holy of holies.
Tabernacle of the congregation - tent of meeting. atonement was now to be made for the tabernacle as a whole. The sense is very briefly expressed, but there seems to be no room to doubt that the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of each of the victims before the altar of incense, as he had done before the mercy-seat within the veil; and also to touch with blood the horns of the altar of incense Exo 30:10.
That remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness - Compare Lev 16:19. The most sacred earthly things which came into contact with the nature of man needed from time to time to be cleansed and sanctified by the blood of the sin-offerings which had been taken into the presence of Yahweh. See Exo 28:38 note.
The order of the ceremony required that atonement should first be made for the most holy place with the mercy-seat, then for the holy place with the golden altar, and then for the altar in the court. See Lev 16:20, Lev 16:33. The horns of the brazen altar were touched with the blood, as they were in the ordinary sin-offerings. Lev 4:25, Lev 4:30, Lev 4:34.
Of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat - Some of the blood of the two victims was mingled together in a basin.
Confess over him - The form of confession used on this occasion in later times was: "O Lord, Thy people, the house of Israel, have transgressed, they have rebelled, they have sinned before Thee. I beseech Thee now absolve their transgressions, their rebellion, and their sin that they have sinned against Thee, as it is written in the law of Moses Thy servant, that on this day he shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins, and ye shall be clean."
A fit man - literally, a timely man, or a man at hand. Tradition says that the man was appointed for this work the year before.
Unto a land not inhabited - Unto a place cut off, or (as in the margin) a place "of separation."
It is evident that the one signification of the ceremony of this goat was the complete removal of the sins which were confessed over him. No symbol could so plainly set forth the completeness of Yahweh’ 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.
Poole -> Lev 16:14
Poole: Lev 16:14 - -- He shall sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat to teach us that God is merciful to sinners only through and for the blood of Christ.
Eastward i.e. with h...
He shall sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat to teach us that God is merciful to sinners only through and for the blood of Christ.
Eastward i.e. with his face eastward, or upon the eastern part of it, towards the people, who were in the court, which lay eastward from the holy of holies, which was the most western part of the tabernacle. This signified that the high priest in this act represented the people, and that God accepted it on their behalf.
Before the mercy-seat on the ground.
Haydock -> Lev 16:13-14
Haydock: Lev 16:13-14 - -- The cloud. ---
The blood, &c. This is to teach us, that if we would go into the sanctuary of God, we must take with us the incense of prayer, and t...
The cloud. ---
The blood, &c. This is to teach us, that if we would go into the sanctuary of God, we must take with us the incense of prayer, and the blood, that is, the passion of Christ. Where also note, that the high priest, before he went into the holy of holies, was to wash his whole body; and then to put on white linen garments; to signify the purity and chastity with which we are to approach to God. (Challoner) ---
The Septuagint call this goat apopompaion, "the averter of evils, or the one sent away." Hazazel is taken by Spencer Julian, the apostate, (ap. St. Cyril. 9. and ep. 39,) to mean the devil; as if the goat was sent or sacrificed to him, which is very foolish. (Calmet) ---
East. That is, the forepart of the mercy-seat, which was not to be touched with the blood, (Menochius) no more than the veil. (Rabbins)
Gill -> Lev 16:14
Gill: Lev 16:14 - -- And he shall take of the blood of the bullock,.... When the high priest slew the bullock, the blood was received in a basin, and given to another prie...
And he shall take of the blood of the bullock,.... When the high priest slew the bullock, the blood was received in a basin, and given to another priest, that he might keep stirring it on a foursquare bench in the temple, that so it might not thicken and congeal n, but by a continual motion might become thin and liquid, and fit for sprinkling; and this was doing, while the high priest was gone into the most holy place to offer the incense; which being done, he came out again and took the basin of blood out of the hand of the priest, and went in a second time, and did with it as follows:
and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat, eastward; with his right finger, or forefinger, as the Targum of Jonathan; and the blood sprinkled with it did not fall upon the mercy seat, as our version seems to intimate, but it was sprinkled over against it, towards the upper part of it. Aben Ezra says, that according to their interpreters, "upon the face of the mercy seat", as the words may be literally rendered, signifies above, between the two bars, and here it was the high priest stood; for, according to the Misnah o, he went in to the place where he had gone in, and stood in the place where he had stood, and then sprinkled, that is, in the same place where he had been and offered the incense; See Gill on Lev 16:13; and here he stood, not with his face to the east, for then his back must have been to the mercy seat, but he stood with his face to the eastern part of the mercy seat, and there sprinkled the blood upwards:
and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times; besides the first sprinkling that was upward, and those downward; so says the Misnah p, he sprinkled of it (the blood) once above, and seven times below; the same Jarchi observes; and the tradition adds, and he did not look in sprinkling neither above nor below; that is, he did not look to the mercy seat, nor was there any need of it, since the blood did not reach the mercy seat, but fell upon the ground; it was enough that it was done before it, and over against it, and with a respect unto it; or otherwise, had it, fallen on it, it would have been besmeared with it, and would not have been so comely and decent: the mystery of this was to represent the blood of Christ, and perfect purification and atonement by it, and that mercy and justice are reconciled to each other, and agree together in the forgiveness of sinners; and that there is no mercy but in a way of justice, no remission of sin, no justification of persons, no salvation for any of the sons of men, but through the blood of Christ, and the complete atonement made thereby.