For Teaching

Leviticus 16: What the Passage Says

105 claims across 34 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Leviticus 16 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

After the death of Aaron's two sons, the LORD tells Moses how Aaron may come into the holy place inside the curtain, and warns that he must not come at just any time. The chapter sets out the whole ritual: the linen clothes and washing, a bull for Aaron and his household, two goats chosen by lot for the people, blood sprinkled on and in front of the mercy seat, and cleansing for the tent of meeting and the altar. The live goat carries the people's wrongs into the wilderness, and the men who handle the goat and the burned carcasses wash before returning to camp. The day, the tenth of the seventh month, is set as a lasting yearly rule: no work, humbling of oneself, and atonement made once a year for all the people's sins.

Claim by Claim

16:1
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
- This speech came after the death of two of Aaron's sons.
- Aaron's two sons died when they drew near before the LORD.
16:2
- The LORD said to Moses to speak to Aaron his brother.
- Aaron is not to come at just any time into the holy place inside the veil.
- The holy place inside the veil is in front of the cover that is on the ark.
- If Aaron comes at just any time, he will die.
- The LORD appears in the cloud over the cover of the ark.
16:3
- Aaron is to enter the holy place in this way.
- Aaron is to bring a young bull for a sin offering.
- Aaron is to bring a ram for a burnt offering.
16:4
- Aaron is to put on a holy linen tunic.
- Linen undergarments are to be on his body.
- He is to gird himself with a linen sash.
- He is to wrap himself with a linen turban.
- These garments are holy garments.
- He is to bathe his body in water before putting them on.
16:5
- Aaron is to take from the congregation of the Israelites two male goats for a sin offering.
- Aaron is to take from the congregation one ram for a burnt offering.
16:6
- Aaron is to present the bull of the sin offering that is his own.
- By it he makes atonement for himself and for his household.
16:7
- Aaron is to take the two goats.
- He is to stand them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
16:8
- Aaron is to cast lots over the two goats.
- One lot is for the LORD.
- The other lot is for Azazel, a term that may name a recipient or destination or may mean the goat that is sent away.
16:9
- Aaron is to present the goat on which the lot for the LORD fell.
- He is to make that goat a sin offering.
16:10
- The goat on which the lot for Azazel fell is to be set alive before the LORD.
- That goat is used to make atonement.
- That goat is to be sent away to Azazel into the wilderness.
16:11
- Aaron is to present the bull of the sin offering that is his own.
- He makes atonement for himself and for his household.
- He is to slaughter the bull of the sin offering that is his own.
16:12
- He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD.
- He is to take his two hands full of finely ground fragrant incense.
- He is to bring these inside the veil.
16:13
- He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD.
- The cloud of the incense is to cover the cover that is over the testimony.
- If this is done, he will not die.
16:14
- He is to take some of the blood of the bull.
- He is to sprinkle it with his finger on the east side of the cover.
- He is to sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times before the cover.
16:15
- He is to slaughter the goat of the sin offering that is for the people.
- He is to bring its blood inside the veil.
- He is to do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull.
- He is to sprinkle it on the cover and before the cover.
16:16
- He is to make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleannesses of the Israelites.
- He is to make atonement for the holy place because of their transgressions in all their sins.
- He is to do the same for the tent of meeting.
- The tent of meeting dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.
16:17
- No person is to be in the tent of meeting when Aaron goes in to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out.
- He makes atonement for himself.
- He makes atonement for his household.
- He makes atonement for the whole assembly of Israel.
16:18
- He is to go out to the altar that is before the LORD.
- He is to make atonement for the altar.
- He is to take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat.
- He is to put it on the horns of the altar all around.
16:19
- He is to sprinkle some of the blood on the altar with his finger seven times.
- He is to cleanse the altar.
- He is to consecrate the altar from the uncleannesses of the Israelites.
16:20
- He is to finish making atonement for the holy place, the tent of meeting, and the altar.
- Then he is to present the live goat.
16:21
- Aaron is to lay both his hands on the head of the live goat.
- He is to confess over the goat all the iniquities of the Israelites.
- He is to confess over the goat all their transgressions in all their sins.
- He is to put those sins on the head of the goat.
- He is to send the goat away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task.
16:22
- The goat is to carry on itself all their iniquities to a land cut off from others.
- The goat is to be released in the wilderness.
16:23
- Aaron is to come into the tent of meeting.
- He is to take off the linen garments he put on when he entered the holy place.
- He is to leave those garments there.
16:24
- He is to bathe his body in water in a holy place.
- He is to put on his own garments.
- He is to go out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people.
- By these he makes atonement for himself and for the people.
16:25
- He is to burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar.
16:26
- The one who sends the goat away to Azazel is to wash his clothes.
- He is to bathe his body in water.
- Only afterward may he come into the camp.
16:27
- The bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering are to be carried outside the camp.
- The blood of those animals was brought in to make atonement in the holy place.
- Their hides, their flesh, and their dung are to be burned in fire.
16:28
- The one who burns them is to wash his clothes.
- He is to bathe his body in water.
- Only afterward may he come into the camp.
16:29
- This is to be a perpetual statute for you.
- In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you are to afflict yourselves.
- You are to do no work at all on that day.
- This applies to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.
16:30
- On this day atonement is made for you to cleanse you.
- You will be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
16:31
- It is a sabbath of complete rest for you.
- You are to afflict yourselves.
- This is a perpetual statute.
16:32
- The priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as priest in place of his father is to make the atonement.
- He is to put on the linen garments, which are the holy garments.
16:33
- He is to make atonement for the holy sanctuary.
- He is to make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar.
- He is to make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.
16:34
- This is to be a perpetual statute for you.
- Atonement is to be made for the Israelites for all their sins once a year.
- He did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

16:1: The two sons were Nadab and Abihu, whose deaths are told in Leviticus 10: they brought fire before the LORD that had not been commanded, and fire killed them. The whole chapter is framed as the answer to that disaster, the rules for approaching the innermost room safely.
16:2: The tent had two rooms. The outer one held the lampstand and incense altar; behind a heavy curtain lay the inner room, entered only on this one day of the year. The 'ark' was a gold-covered wooden chest, and the 'mercy seat' (Hebrew kapporet, from a root meaning to wipe clean or cover over) was its solid gold lid, with two winged figures on top. Older English 'mercy seat' is not a chair; it is the lid itself.
16:3: A 'sin offering' (Hebrew chatta't) was less about personal guilt than about cleaning up contamination: it purified the sanctuary and its objects. A 'burnt offering' (Hebrew olah, 'that which goes up') was burned whole on the altar, with no portion eaten by anyone.
16:4: On ordinary days the high priest wore elaborate colored robes with gold, jewels and bells. Here he strips down to plain white linen, the simple dress of an ordinary servant of the sanctuary. The 'shorts' are linen undergarments; the 'sash' a long cloth belt; the 'turban' a wound headcloth.
16:5: 'From the community' means these animals were supplied at the people's expense, not the priest's, the bull in verse 3 was his own. The Hebrew says literally 'two he-goats of the goats'; adult male goats, not kids.
16:6: 'Atonement' translates Hebrew kipper, which carries the sense of wiping clean, covering over, or paying a ransom. In this chapter it is done for places and objects as well as for people. 'Household' means Aaron's whole family, including the other priests.
16:7: The 'tent of meeting' was the portable sanctuary carried through the wilderness, the place where God was said to meet with Israel. Its 'entrance' was the doorway of the tent, facing the courtyard altar.
16:8: Lots were small marked objects (stones, sticks or tablets) drawn or shaken out to decide a matter without human choosing. The Hebrew behind 'the goat that is sent away' reads 'for Azazel', a word whose meaning is disputed: it may be a compound meaning 'the goat that goes away' (the sense Tyndale caught with his coinage 'scapegoat'), a place name for a rocky cliff, or the name of a desert power. The wording sets it in parallel with 'for the LORD'.
16:10: The goat is not killed. It is used alive: the ritual loads the people's wrongs onto it and removes them physically by driving the animal out of the camp into empty country.
16:12: A 'fire pan' or censer was a shallow metal shovel for carrying live coals. The incense was a prescribed blend of aromatic resins, ground to powder so it would flare into smoke at once.
16:13: The 'testimony' is the pair of stone tablets kept inside the ark; the same chest is elsewhere called the ark of the testimony. The smoke screens the lid from view, the same protective purpose as verse 2's warning.
16:14: Seven was the standard number for a complete ritual act. 'The east side' is the front: the tent faced east, so the priest entering from that direction sprinkled first toward himself, then seven times on the ground before the lid.
16:16: 'Uncleanness' here is a ritual state, not dirt or immorality, a condition contracted from things like childbirth, disease or contact with a corpse, which barred a person from the sanctuary until dealt with. The idea is that such impurity, along with deliberate wrongs, builds up in the sanctuary itself and must be cleaned out once a year.
16:17: "There shall be no man" means no other person. Even the other priests are cleared out; the high priest performs this alone.
16:18: 'The altar that is before the LORD' is the large altar in the open courtyard where animals were burned. Its four upper corners rose into projecting blocks called 'horns', the points at which blood was daubed in purification rites.
16:19: "Hallow" means to set apart as holy: to take something out of ordinary use and reserve it for God.
16:20: 'Setting right' translates the same verb family as 'make atonement': purging or decontaminating the three zones in turn (inner room, outer tent, courtyard altar) working outward from the most holy to the least.
16:21: Laying hands on an animal's head identified it with the person or group involved; here, with both hands and a spoken confession, it transfers the wrongs onto the goat. 'A man ready for the task' renders a Hebrew word of uncertain sense, traditionally a man appointed or standing by for the job, or one designated at the right time.
16:22: The Hebrew is literally 'a land cut off', territory severed from settled life. The point is distance: the wrongs are carried somewhere from which they cannot return.
16:23: The linen clothes are left inside the tent rather than taken home; having been used in the innermost room, they are not to be carried out into ordinary use.
16:24: "His garments" means his usual high-priestly robes. He wore plain linen only for the part of the ritual inside the curtain; now he dresses normally again for the public offerings at the outdoor altar.
16:25: The fat around an animal's organs was the portion always burned on the altar rather than eaten, in every sacrifice of this kind. Here it is the only part of these two animals burned at the altar; the rest goes outside the camp (verse 27).
16:26: Handling the loaded goat leaves the man in a state of ritual impurity, so washing is required before he can rejoin the camp. The same applies to the man who burns the carcasses in verse 28.
16:27: Carcasses of sin offerings whose blood had entered the sanctuary were never eaten by the priests; they were destroyed entirely outside the settlement, hide and dung included.
16:29: The seventh month of the Israelite year is Tishri, in autumn (September–October). This is the day later known as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. 'Humble yourselves' translates 'afflict your souls', a set phrase for self-denial, understood chiefly as fasting. A 'foreigner living among you' is a resident outsider settled long-term in Israel, bound by this rule as much as a native.
16:30: A priest was a man chosen to serve God at the tent. He brought the people's gifts to God for them.
16:31: The Hebrew is 'a sabbath of sabbaths', the strongest term for rest, the same one used of the weekly sabbath, meaning no work of any kind, not merely a lighter day.
16:32: 'Anointed' means having sacred oil poured on the head at installation; 'set apart' renders a Hebrew idiom, literally 'whose hand is filled', the standard phrase for ordaining a priest. The verse provides for Aaron's successors: the office passed from father to son.
16:34: The last sentence switches from instruction to report: the ritual just described was in fact carried out.

Read Leviticus 16