Leviticus 9:1-12

Inauguration of Tabernacle Worship

9:1 On the eighth day ¹  Moses summoned ²  Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, 9:2 and said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both flawless, and present them before the Lord. 9:3 Then tell the Israelites: ‘Take a male goat ³  for a sin offering and a calf and lamb, both a year old and flawless, ⁴  for a burnt offering, 9:4 and an ox and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with olive oil, for today the Lord is going to appear ⁵  to you.’” 9:5 So they took what Moses had commanded to the front of ⁶  the Meeting Tent and the whole congregation presented them and stood before the Lord. 9:6 Then Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded you to do ⁷  so that the glory of the Lord may appear ⁸  to you.” 9:7 Moses then said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and make your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement on behalf of yourself and on behalf of the people; ⁹  and also make the people’s offering and make atonement on behalf of them just as the Lord has commanded.”

The Sin Offering for the Priests

9:8 So Aaron approached the altar and slaughtered the sin offering calf which was for himself. 9:9 Then Aaron’s sons presented the blood to him and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 9:10 The fat and the kidneys and the protruding lobe of ¹⁰  the liver from the sin offering he offered up in smoke on the altar just as the Lord had commanded Moses, 9:11 but the flesh and the hide he completely burned up ¹¹  outside the camp. ¹² 

The Burnt Offering for the Priests

9:12 He then slaughtered the burnt offering, and his sons ¹³  handed ¹⁴  the blood to him and he splashed ¹⁵  it against the altar’s sides.

[9:1]  ¹ sn This eighth day is the one after the seven days of ordination referred to in Lev 8:33-35.

[9:1]  ² tn Heb “called to”; CEV, NLT “called together.”

[9:3]  ³ tn Heb “a he-goat of goats.”

[9:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and a calf and a lamb, sons of a year, flawless”; KJV, ASV, NRSV “without blemish”; NASB, NIV “without defect”; NLT “with no physical defects.”

[9:4]  ⁵ tn The verb is either a prophetic perfect (“will appear to you”) as in the MT (cf. IBHS §30.5.1.e; so many English versions), or a futurum instans participle (“is going to appear to you”) as in the LXX and several other versions (see the BHS footnote; cf. IBHS 627 §37.6f). In either case, the point is that Moses was anticipating that the Lord would indeed appear to them on this day (cf. vv. 6, 22-24).

[9:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the faces of.”

[9:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “which the Lord commanded you shall/should do.”

[9:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the glory of the Lord will appear,” but the construction with the simple vav (ו) plus the imperfect/jussive (וְיֵרָא, vÿyera’; literally, “and he will appear”) suggests purpose in this context, not just succession of events (i.e., “so that he might appear”).

[9:7]  ⁹ tn Instead of “on behalf of the people,” the LXX has “on behalf of your house” as in the Hebrew text of Lev 16:6, 11, 17. Many commentaries follow the LXX here (e.g., J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:578; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 118) as do a few English versions (e.g., NAB), but others argue that, as on the Day of Atonement (Lev 16), the offerings of the priests also effected the people, even though there was still the need to have special offerings made on behalf of the people as reflected in the second half of the verse (e.g., B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 56).

[9:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “from.”

[9:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he burned with fire,” an expression which is sometimes redundant in English, but here means “burned up,” “burned up entirely.”

[9:11]  ¹² sn See Lev 4:5-12 and the notes there regarding the sin offering for priest(s). The distinction here is that the blood of the sin offering for the priests was applied to the horns of the burnt offering altar in the court of the tabernacle, not the incense altar inside the tabernacle tent itself. See the notes on Lev 8:14-15.

[9:12]  ¹³ tn For smoothness in the English translation, “his” was used in place of “Aaron’s.”

[9:12]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is a Hiphil form of מָצָא, matsa’, “to find” (i.e., causative, literally “to cause to find,” but here the meaning is “to hand to” or “pass to”; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 117-18, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:581-82). The distinction between this verb and “presented” in v. 9 above (see the note there) is that in v. 9 Aaron’s sons held the bowl while Aaron manipulated some of the blood at the altar, while here in v. 12 they simply handed the bowl to him so he could splash all the blood around on the altar (Milgrom, 581).

[9:12]  ¹⁵ tn For “splashed” (also in v. 18) see the note on Lev 1:5.