Exodus 29:9

29:9 and wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons ¹  and put headbands on them, and so the ministry of priesthood will belong to them by a perpetual ordinance. Thus you are to consecrate ²  Aaron and his sons.

Exodus 29:24

29:24 You are to put all these ³  in Aaron’s hands ⁴  and in his sons’ hands, and you are to wave them as a wave offering ⁵  before the Lord.

Exodus 29:35

29:35 “Thus you are to do for Aaron and for his sons, according to all that I have commanded you; you are to consecrate them ⁶  for ⁷  seven days.

Leviticus 8:1-36

Ordination of the Priests

8:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ⁸  8:2 “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, the sin offering bull, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, 8:3 and assemble the whole congregation at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.” ⁹  8:4 So Moses did just as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation assembled at the entrance of the Meeting Tent. 8:5 Then Moses said to the congregation: “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.”

Clothing Aaron

8:6 So Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. 8:7 Then he ¹⁰  put the tunic ¹¹  on Aaron, ¹²  wrapped the sash around him, ¹³  and clothed him with the robe. ¹⁴  Next he put the ephod on him ¹⁵  and placed on him ¹⁶  the decorated band of the ephod, and fastened the ephod closely to him with the band. ¹⁷  8:8 He then set the breastpiece ¹⁸  on him and put the Urim and Thummim ¹⁹  into the breastpiece. 8:9 Finally, he set the turban ²⁰  on his head and attached the gold plate, the holy diadem, ²¹  to the front of the turban just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Anointing the Tabernacle and Aaron, and Clothing Aaron’s Sons

8:10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it, and so consecrated them. ²²  8:11 Next he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and so anointed the altar, all its vessels, and the wash basin and its stand to consecrate them. 8:12 He then poured some of the anointing oil on the head of Aaron and anointed him to consecrate him. 8:13 Moses also brought forward Aaron’s sons, clothed them with tunics, wrapped sashes around them, ²³  and wrapped headbands on them ²⁴  just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Consecration Offerings

8:14 Then he brought near the sin offering bull ²⁵  and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the sin offering bull, 8:15 and he slaughtered it. ²⁶  Moses then took the blood and put it all around on the horns of the altar with his finger and decontaminated the altar, ²⁷  and he poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar and so consecrated it to make atonement on it. ²⁸  8:16 Then he ²⁹  took all the fat on the entrails, the protruding lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, ³⁰  and Moses offered it all up in smoke on the altar, ³¹  8:17 but the rest of the bull – its hide, its flesh, and its dung – he completely burned up ³²  outside the camp just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³³ 

8:18 Then he presented the burnt offering ram and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, 8:19 and he slaughtered it. ³⁴  Moses then splashed the blood against the altar’s sides. 8:20 Then he ³⁵  cut the ram into parts, ³⁶  and Moses offered the head, the parts, and the suet up in smoke, 8:21 but the entrails and the legs he washed with water, ³⁷  and Moses offered the whole ram up in smoke on the altar – it was a burnt offering for a soothing aroma, a gift to the Lord, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³⁸ 

8:22 Then he presented the second ram, the ram of ordination, ³⁹  and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram 8:23 and he slaughtered it. ⁴⁰  Moses then took some of its blood and put it on Aaron’s right earlobe, ⁴¹  on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe ⁴²  of his right foot. 8:24 Next he brought Aaron’s sons forward, and Moses put some of the blood on their right earlobes, on their right thumbs, and on the big toes of their right feet, and Moses splashed the rest of the blood against the altar’s sides.

8:25 Then he took the fat (the fatty tail, ⁴³  all the fat on the entrails, the protruding lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat ⁴⁴ ) and the right thigh, ⁴⁵  8:26 and from the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened loaf, one loaf of bread mixed with olive oil, and one wafer, ⁴⁶  and placed them on the fat parts and on the right thigh. 8:27 He then put all of them on the palms ⁴⁷  of Aaron and his sons, who waved ⁴⁸  them as a wave offering before the Lord. ⁴⁹  8:28 Moses then took them from their palms and offered them up in smoke on the altar ⁵⁰  on top of the burnt offering – they were an ordination offering for a soothing aroma; it was a gift to the Lord. 8:29 Finally, Moses took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before the Lord from the ram of ordination. It was Moses’ share just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Anointing Aaron, his Sons, and their Garments

8:30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. So he consecrated Aaron, his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him. 8:31 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the meat at the entrance of the Meeting Tent, and there you are to eat it and the bread which is in the ordination offering basket, just as I have commanded, ⁵¹  saying, ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it,’ 8:32 but the remainder of the meat and the bread ⁵²  you must burn with fire. 8:33 And you must not go out from the entrance of the Meeting Tent for seven days, until the day when your days of ordination are completed, because you must be ordained over a seven-day period. ⁵³  8:34 What has been done ⁵⁴  on this day the Lord has commanded to be done ⁵⁵  to make atonement for you. 8:35 You must reside at the entrance of the Meeting Tent day and night for seven days and keep the charge of the Lord so that you will not die, for this is what I have been commanded.” 8:36 So Aaron and his sons did all the things the Lord had commanded through ⁵⁶  Moses.

Numbers 3:3

3:3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed ⁵⁷  priests, whom he consecrated ⁵⁸  to minister as priests. ⁵⁹ 

Ezekiel 43:26

43:26 For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it. ⁶⁰ 

Hebrews 5:4

5:4 And no one assumes this honor ⁶¹  on his own initiative, ⁶²  but only when called to it by God, ⁶³  as in fact Aaron was.

Hebrews 7:28

7:28 For the law appoints as high priests men subject to weakness, ⁶⁴  but the word of solemn affirmation that came after the law appoints a son made perfect forever.

[29:9]  ¹ tc Hebrew has both the objective pronoun “them” and the names “Aaron and his sons.” Neither the LXX nor Leviticus 8:13 has “Aaron and his sons,” suggesting that this may have been a later gloss in the text.

[29:9]  ² tn Heb “and you will fill the hand” and so “consecrate” or “ordain.” The verb draws together the individual acts of the process.

[29:24]  ³ tn Heb “the whole” or “the all.”

[29:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “palms.”

[29:24]  ⁵ tn The “wave offering” is תְּנוּפָה (tÿnufah); it is, of course, cognate with the verb, but an adverbial accusative rather than the direct object. In Lev 23 this seems to be a sacrificial gesture of things that are for the priests – but they present them first to Yahweh and then receive them back from him. So the waving is not side to side, but forward to Yahweh and then back to the priest. Here it is just an induction into that routine, since this is the ordination of the priests and the gifts are not yet theirs. So this will all be burned on the altar.

[29:35]  ⁶ tn Heb “you will fill their hand.”

[29:35]  ⁷ tn The “seven days” is the adverbial accusative explaining that the ritual of the filling should continue daily for a week. Leviticus makes it clear that they are not to leave the sanctuary.

[8:1]  ⁸ sn Lev 8 is the fulfillment account of the ordination legislation recorded in Exod 29, and is directly connected to the command to ordain the tabernacle and priesthood in Exod 40:1-16 as well as the partial record of its fulfillment in Exod 40:17-38.

[8:3]  ⁹ sn For “tent of meeting” see the note on Lev 1:1 above.

[8:7]  ¹⁰ sn Here Moses actually clothes Aaron (cf. v. 13 below for Aaron’s sons). Regarding the various articles of clothing see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 111-12 and esp. J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:501-13.

[8:7]  ¹¹ sn The term “tunic” refers to a shirt-like garment worn next to the skin and, therefore, put on first (cf. Exod 28:4, 39-40; 29:5, 8; 39:27). Traditionally this has been translated “coat” (so KJV, ASV), but that English word designates an outer garment.

[8:7]  ¹² tn Heb “on him”; the referent (Aaron) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “girded him with the sash” (so NASB); NCV “tied the cloth belt around him.”

[8:7]  ¹⁴ sn The robe was a long shirt-like over-garment that reached down below the knees. Its hem was embroidered with pomegranates and golden bells around the bottom (Exod 28:4, 31-35; 29:5; 39:22-26).

[8:7]  ¹⁵ sn The ephod was an apron like garment suspended from shoulder straps. It draped over the robe and extended from the chest down to the thighs (Exod 28:4, 6-14, 25-28; 29:5; 39:2-7).

[8:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “girded him with.”

[8:7]  ¹⁷ sn The decorated band of the ephod served as a sort of belt around Aaron’s body that would hold the ephod closely to him rather than allowing it to hang loosely across his front (Exod 28:8, 27; 29:5; 39:5, 20).

[8:8]  ¹⁸ sn The breastpiece was made of the same material as the ephod and was attached to it by means of gold rings and chains on its four corners (Exod 28:15-30; 29:5; 39:8-21). It had twelve stones attached to it (representing the twelve tribes of Israel), and a pocket in which the Urim and Thummim were kept (see following).

[8:8]  ¹⁹ sn The Urim and Thummim were two small objects used in the casting of lots to discern the will of God (see Exod 28:30; Num 27:21; Deut 33:8; 1 Sam 14:41 in the LXX and 28:6; Ezra 2:63 and Neh 7:65). It appears that by casting them one could obtain a yes or no answer, or no answer at all (1 Sam 28:6; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 111-12). See the extensive discussion in J. Milgrom, Leviticus (AB), 1:507-11.

[8:9]  ²⁰ tn Although usually thought to be a “turban” (and so translated by the majority of English versions) this object might be only a “turban-like headband” wound around the forehead area (HALOT 624 s.v. מִצְנֶפֶת).

[8:9]  ²¹ sn The gold plate was attached as a holy diadem to the front of the turban by means of a blue cord, and had written on it “Holy to the Lord” (Exod 28:36-37; 39:30-31). This was a particularly important article of high priestly clothing in that it served as the main emblem indicating Aaron’s acceptable representation of Israel before the Lord (Exod 28:38).

[8:10]  ²² sn The expression “and consecrated it” refers to the effect of the anointing earlier in the verse (cf. “to consecrate them/him” in vv. 11 and 12). “To consecrate” means “to make holy” or “make sacred”; i.e., put something into the category of holy/sacred as opposed to common/profane (see Lev 10:10 below). Thus, the person or thing consecrated is put into the realm of God’s holy things.

[8:13]  ²³ tc The MT has here “sash” (singular), but the context is clearly plural and Smr has it in the plural.

[8:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “wrapped headdresses to them”; cf. KJV “bonnets”; NASB, TEV “caps”; NIV, NCV “headbands”; NAB, NLT “turbans.”

[8:14]  ²⁵ sn See Lev 4:3-12 above for the sin offering of the priests. In this case, however, the blood manipulation is different because Moses, not Aaron (and his sons), is functioning as the priest. On the one hand, Aaron and his sons are, in a sense, treated as if they were commoners so that the blood manipulation took place at the burnt offering altar in the court of the tabernacle (see v. 15 below), not at the incense altar inside the tabernacle tent itself (contrast Lev 4:5-7 and compare 4:30). On the other hand, since it was a sin offering for the priests, therefore, the priests themselves could not eat its flesh (Lev 4:11-12; 6:30 [23 HT]), which was the normal priestly practice for sin offerings of commoners (Lev 6:26[19], 29[22]).

[8:15]  ²⁶ sn Contrary to some English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT), Aaron (not Moses) most likely slaughtered the bull, possibly with the help of his sons, although the verb is singular, not plural. Moses then performed the ritual procedures that involved direct contact with the altar. Compare the pattern in Lev 1:5-9, where the offerer does the slaughtering and the priests perform the procedures that involve direct contact with the altar. In Lev 8 Moses is functioning as the priest in order to consecrate the priesthood. The explicit reintroduction of the name of Moses as the subject of the next verb seems to reinforce this understanding of the passage (cf. also vv. 19 and 23 below).

[8:15]  ²⁷ tn The verb is the Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to sin”) and means “to de-sin” the altar. This verse is important for confirming the main purpose of the sin offering, which was to decontaminate the tabernacle and its furniture from any impurities. See the note on Lev 4:3.

[8:15]  ²⁸ tn Similar to v. 10 above, “and consecrated it” refers to the effect of the blood manipulation earlier in the verse. The goal here was to consecrate the altar in order that it might become a place on which it would be appropriate “to make atonement” before the Lord.

[8:16]  ²⁹ tn Again, Aaron probably performed the slaughter and collected the fat parts (v. 16a), but Moses presented it all on the altar (v. 16b; cf. the note on v. 15 above).

[8:16]  ³⁰ sn See Lev 3:3-4 for the terminology of fat and kidneys here.

[8:16]  ³¹ tn Heb “toward the altar” (see the note on Lev 1:9).

[8:17]  ³² tn Heb “he burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”

[8:17]  ³³ sn See Lev 4:11-12, 21; 6:30 [23 HT].

[8:19]  ³⁴ tn Aaron probably did the slaughtering (cf. the notes on Lev 8:15-16 above).

[8:20]  ³⁵ tn Again, Aaron probably cut the ram up into parts (v. 20a), but Moses presented them on the altar (v. 20b; cf. the note on v. 15 above).

[8:20]  ³⁶ tn Heb “cut it into its parts.” One could translate here, “quartered it” (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:133; cf. Lev 1:6, 12 above).

[8:21]  ³⁷ tn Again, Aaron probably did the washing (v. 21a), but Moses presented the portions on the altar (v. 21b; cf. the note on v. 15 above).

[8:21]  ³⁸ tn See Lev 1:9, 13.

[8:22]  ³⁹ tn For “ordination offering” see Lev 7:37

[8:23]  ⁴⁰ tn Again, Aaron probably did the slaughtering (cf. the notes on Lev 8:15-16 above).

[8:23]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “on the lobe of the ear of Aaron, the right one.”

[8:23]  ⁴² tn The term for “big toe” (בֹּהֶן, bohen) is the same as that for “thumb.” It refers to the larger appendage on either the hand or the foot.

[8:25]  ⁴³ tn See Lev 3:9.

[8:25]  ⁴⁴ tn See Lev 8:16.

[8:25]  ⁴⁵ tn See Lev 7:32-34.

[8:26]  ⁴⁶ tn See Lev 2:4.

[8:27]  ⁴⁷ sn The “palms” refer to the up-turned hands, positioned in such a way that the articles of the offering could be placed on them.

[8:27]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “and he waved.” The subject of the verb “he waved” is Aaron, but Aaron’s sons also performed the action (see “Aaron and his sons” just previously). See the similar shifts from Moses to Aaron as the subject of the action above (vv. 15, 16, 19, 20, 23), and esp. the note on Lev 8:15. In the present translation this is rendered as an adjectival clause (“who waved”) to indicate that the referent is not Moses but Aaron and his sons. Cf. CEV “who lifted it up”; NAB “whom he had wave” (with “he” referring to Moses here).

[8:27]  ⁴⁹ sn See Lev 7:30-31, 34.

[8:28]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “toward the altar” (see the note on Lev 1:9).

[8:31]  ⁵¹ tn Several major ancient versions have the passive form of the verb (see BHS v. 31 note c; cf. Lev 8:35; 10:13). In that case we would translate, “just as I was commanded.”

[8:32]  ⁵² tn Heb “but the remainder in the flesh and in the bread”; NAB, CEV “what is left over”; NRSV “what remains.”

[8:33]  ⁵³ tn Heb “because seven days he shall fill your hands”; KJV “for seven days shall he consecrate you”; CEV “ends seven days from now.”

[8:34]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “just as he has done” (cf. the note on v. 33).

[8:34]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “the Lord has commanded to do” (cf. the note on v. 33).

[8:36]  ⁵⁶ tn Heb “by the hand of” (so KJV).

[3:3]  ⁵⁷ tn The verb מָשַׁח (mashakh) means “to anoint”; here the form modifies the “priests.” The service of consecration was carried out with anointing oil (Exod 30:30). The verb is used for the anointing of kings as well as priests in the OT, and so out of that derived the technical title “Messiah” for the coming ideal king – the “Anointed One.”

[3:3]  ⁵⁸ tn In this verse the expression is in a relative clause: “who he filled their hand” means “whose hands he filled,” or “whom he consecrated.” The idiomatic expression used here is from Lev 8; it literally is “he filled their hand” (מִלֵּא יָדָם, mille’ yadam). In the ordination service Moses placed some of the meat from the sacrifice in the hand of the ordinand, and this signified what he was going to be about – having his hand full, or being consecrated to the priesthood. There is some evidence that this practice or expression was also known in Mesopotamia. In modern ordination services a NT or a Bible may be placed in the ordinand’s hand – it is what the ministry will be about.

[3:3]  ⁵⁹ tn The form is an infinitival construction for the word for the priest, showing the purpose for the filling of the hands.

[43:26]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “fill its hands.”

[5:4]  ⁶¹ sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.

[5:4]  ⁶² tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”

[5:4]  ⁶³ tn Grk “being called by God.”

[7:28]  ⁶⁴ sn See Heb 5:2 where this concept was introduced.