Leviticus 10:16

The Problem with the Inaugural Sin Offering

10:16 Later Moses sought diligently for the sin offering male goat, ¹  but it had actually been burnt. ²  So he became angry at Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, saying,

Leviticus 10:6

10:6 Then Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar his other two sons, “Do not ³  dishevel the hair of your heads ⁴  and do not tear your garments, so that you do not die and so that wrath does not come on the whole congregation. Your brothers, all the house of Israel, are to mourn the burning which the Lord has caused, ⁵ 

¹ sn This is the very same male goat offered in Lev 9:15 (cf. the note on Lev 10:1 above).

² tn Heb “but behold, it had been burnt” (KJV and NASB both similar).

³ tc Smr has “you must not” (לֹא, lo’) rather than the MT’s “do not” (אַל, ’al; cf. the following negative לֹא, lo’, in the MT).

⁴ tn Heb “do not let free your heads.” Some have taken this to mean, “do not take off your headgear” (cf. NAB, NASB), but it probably also involves leaving one’s hair unkempt as a sign of mourning (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:608-9; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁵ tn Heb “shall weep [for] the burning which the Lord has burned”; NIV “may mourn for those the Lord has destroyed by fire.”