For Teaching

Leviticus 8: What the Passage Says

124 claims across 36 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Leviticus 8 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Moses to take Aaron and his sons, the priestly clothing, the anointing oil, a bull, two rams, and a basket of bread without yeast, and to gather the whole community at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Moses washes and dresses Aaron and his sons, anoints the tabernacle, the altar and Aaron with oil, and offers the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the ram of ordination, putting blood on the right ear, thumb and big toe of each man and sprinkling oil and blood on them and their clothing. He tells them to boil and eat the meat with the bread at the entrance, to burn what is left, and to stay at the entrance seven days until the days of their ordination are finished, keeping the LORD's charge so that they do not die. Aaron and his sons do everything the LORD commanded through Moses.

Claim by Claim

8:1
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
8:2
- The LORD told Moses to take Aaron and his sons with him.
- The LORD told Moses to take the garments.
- The LORD told Moses to take the anointing oil.
- The LORD told Moses to take the bull of the sin offering.
- The LORD told Moses to take the two rams.
- The LORD told Moses to take the basket of unleavened bread.
8:3
- The LORD told Moses to assemble the whole congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
8:4
- Moses did as the LORD commanded him.
- The congregation assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
8:5
- Moses spoke to the congregation.
- Moses said that this was the thing the LORD commanded to be done.
8:6
- Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward.
- Moses washed them with water.
8:7
- Moses put the tunic on Aaron.
- Moses girded Aaron with the sash.
- Moses clothed Aaron with the robe.
- Moses put the ephod on Aaron.
- Moses girded Aaron with the woven band of the ephod.
- Moses fastened the ephod to Aaron with that band.
8:8
- Moses put the breastpiece on Aaron.
- Moses put the Urim and the Thummim into the breastpiece.
8:9
- Moses put the turban on Aaron's head.
- Moses put the gold plate on the front of the turban.
- The gold plate was the holy diadem.
- This was as the LORD commanded Moses.
8:10
- Moses took the anointing oil.
- Moses anointed the tabernacle and everything in it.
- Moses consecrated them.
8:11
- Moses sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times.
- Moses anointed the altar and all its utensils.
- Moses anointed the basin and its stand.
- Moses did this to consecrate them.
8:12
- Moses poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head.
- Moses anointed Aaron to consecrate him.
8:13
- Moses brought Aaron's sons forward.
- Moses clothed them with tunics.
- Moses girded them with sashes.
- Moses bound headdresses on them.
- This was as the LORD commanded Moses.
8:14
- Moses brought near the bull of the sin offering.
- Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering.
8:15
- The bull was slaughtered.
- Moses took the blood.
- Moses put the blood on the horns of the altar all around with his finger.
- Moses purified the altar from sin.
- Moses poured the blood at the base of the altar.
- Moses consecrated the altar.
- Moses did this to make atonement upon the altar.
8:16
- Moses took all the fat that was on the entrails.
- Moses took the lobe of the liver.
- Moses took the two kidneys and their fat.
- Moses burned these on the altar.
8:17
- Moses burned the bull with fire outside the camp, along with its hide, its flesh, and its dung.
- This was as the LORD commanded Moses.
8:18
- Moses brought near the ram of the burnt offering.
- Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
8:19
- The ram was slaughtered.
- Moses dashed the blood against the altar all around.
8:20
- The ram was cut into its pieces.
- Moses burned the head, the pieces, and the suet.
8:21
- The entrails and the legs were washed with water.
- Moses burned the whole ram on the altar.
- It was a burnt offering.
- It was for a pleasing aroma.
- It was an offering made by fire to the LORD.
- This was as the LORD commanded Moses.
8:22
- Moses brought near the second ram, the ram of ordination.
- Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
8:23
- The ram was slaughtered.
- Moses took some of its blood.
- Moses put the blood on the lobe of Aaron's right ear.
- Moses put the blood on the thumb of Aaron's right hand.
- Moses put the blood on the big toe of Aaron's right foot.
8:24
- Moses brought Aaron's sons forward.
- Moses put some of the blood on the lobe of their right ears.
- Moses put some of the blood on the thumbs of their right hands.
- Moses put some of the blood on the big toes of their right feet.
- Moses dashed the blood against the altar all around.
8:25
- Moses took the fat.
- Moses took the fat tail.
- Moses took all the fat that was on the entrails.
- Moses took the lobe of the liver.
- Moses took the two kidneys and their fat.
- Moses took the right thigh.
8:26
- The basket of unleavened bread was before the LORD.
- Moses took one unleavened cake from the basket.
- Moses took one cake of oiled bread from the basket.
- Moses took one wafer from the basket.
- Moses put them on the fat portions and on the right thigh.
8:27
- Moses put all of it on the palms of Aaron's hands and on the palms of his sons' hands.
- Moses waved them as a wave offering before the LORD.
8:28
- Moses took them from off their hands.
- Moses burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering.
- They were an ordination offering.
- They were for a pleasing aroma.
- It was an offering made by fire to the LORD.
8:29
- Moses took the breast.
- Moses waved it as a wave offering before the LORD.
- The breast of the ram of ordination was Moses' portion.
- This was as the LORD commanded Moses.
8:30
- Moses took some of the anointing oil.
- Moses took some of the blood that was on the altar.
- Moses sprinkled it on Aaron and on his garments.
- Moses sprinkled it on Aaron's sons and on their garments.
- Moses consecrated Aaron and his garments.
- Moses consecrated Aaron's sons and their garments.
8:31
- Moses spoke to Aaron and his sons.
- Moses told them to boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
- Moses told them to eat it there.
- Moses told them to eat there the bread that was in the basket of the ordination offering.
- Moses said this was as he had commanded.
- Moses said the command was that Aaron and his sons should eat it.
8:32
- Moses said they must burn with fire what remained of the flesh and the bread.
8:33
- Moses said they must not go out from the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days.
- They must stay until the day their days of ordination are completed.
- Moses said the ordination would take seven days.
8:34
- Moses said the LORD commanded that what was done this day be done.
- Moses said it was to make atonement for them.
8:35
- Moses said they must remain at the entrance of the tent of meeting day and night for seven days.
- Moses said they must keep the charge of the LORD.
- Moses said this was so that they would not die.
- Moses said he had been so commanded.
8:36
- Aaron and his sons did all the things the LORD commanded through Moses.

Words Worth Explaining

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

8:1: "LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants (YHWH). Where you see "Lord" in ordinary letters, the underlying word is the common noun "master."
8:2: The anointing oil was a specific blend of olive oil and spices (its recipe is given in Exodus 30); pouring or smearing it on a person or object marked that person or object as removed from ordinary use and reserved for worship. A "sin offering" (Hebrew chatta't) is often better understood as a purification offering: its stated function through Leviticus is to cleanse the sanctuary and its equipment of impurity. Bread made without yeast is flat, quick to make, and keeps well; it was the standard bread for offerings.
8:3: The tent of meeting was the portable tent-sanctuary Israel carried through the wilderness, standing inside a fenced courtyard. The "entrance" is the courtyard gateway, an open area where the altar stood and where a crowd could stand and watch.
8:6: A full-body washing with water, done in public as part of the ceremony, a formal preparation rite, not ordinary bathing.
8:7: These are the high priest's vestments, described in detail in Exodus 28. The ephod was a sleeveless, apron-like garment of linen worked with gold and colored thread, hung from shoulder pieces and held in place by a woven waistband attached to it.
8:8: The breastpiece was a folded square pouch of the same rich fabric, set with twelve engraved gemstones, one for each tribe, worn on the chest and tied to the ephod. The Urim and Thummim were two objects kept inside the pouch; what they physically were is never explained, and their names mean something like "lights" and "perfections." They were used to put questions to God and obtain a decision.
8:9: The gold plate was engraved "Holy to the LORD" and tied to the front of the turban with a blue cord (Exodus 28:36–38). The word rendered "crown" here (nezer) means a mark of consecrated status; the same word is used of the band worn by a king.
8:10: "Tabernacle" and "tent of meeting" are two names for the same structure. "Set apart as holy" translates a verb meaning to move something out of ordinary, everyday use into God's exclusive use; it describes a change of status, not a moral quality.
8:11: The basin was a large bronze bowl on a stand, placed between the tent and the altar, holding the water with which the priests washed their hands and feet before serving.
8:12: The Hebrew word for a person who has had oil poured on him this way is mashiach, which comes into English as "messiah"; the Greek translation of it is christos, which comes into English as "Christ." Both words simply mean anointed one, and here they describe a priest being installed.
8:13: "Bonnets" is the King James word for the priests' headgear, a wound cap or headband of linen. It has nothing to do with the modern sense of a bonnet.
8:14: Pressing both hands on the animal's head was the formal act by which the offerer identified the animal as his own offering. Here Aaron and his sons do it because the offering is being made on their behalf.
8:15: The altar was a square structure with an upward projection at each of its four top corners, called "horns"; blood was smeared on these highest, most prominent points. "Atonement" translates the Hebrew kipper, whose basic sense is to wipe clean or to cover over. Note that here the thing being cleansed is the altar itself.
8:16: The hard fat around the internal organs, the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver were treated as the choicest parts of the animal and were burned as God's portion; Israelites were forbidden to eat these particular fats.
8:17: Israel camped in a ring around the tent of meeting, so "outside the camp" meant beyond the whole settlement. It was where things removed from the sanctuary's sphere were taken and destroyed.
8:18: A burnt offering (Hebrew 'olah, "that which goes up") was the one sacrifice burned up entirely on the altar, with no portion kept back for the priests or the worshiper to eat.
8:21: "A pleasing smell" is a fixed sacrificial phrase, literally "a soothing smell." It is the standard way of saying an offering was accepted.
8:22: Hebrew calls this "the ram of filling." "To fill someone's hands" is the ordinary Hebrew expression for installing a person in priestly office, and verse 27 performs the idiom literally by loading the offering into Aaron's hands.
8:23: Ear, thumb and toe are the body's extremities; touching them with blood stands for the whole person. The only other place in the law where this same three-point rite appears is the ceremony restoring someone who has recovered from a serious skin disease (Leviticus 14).
8:25: The sheep of the region were a broad-tailed breed whose tail was a heavy mass of fat, counted among the prime portions. Where the King James has "right shoulder," the Hebrew word means the upper part of the hind leg, the thigh.
8:26: Three distinct kinds of bread, listed in Exodus 29: a plain flat cake, a cake kneaded with oil, and a thin wafer.
8:27: The Hebrew term (tenuphah) is traditionally rendered "wave offering," but the actual gesture is uncertain: it may have been a horizontal waving or a lifting up. Either way it publicly presented the portion to God before part of it was assigned to the priests.
8:29: The breast is normally the priests' share of this kind of sacrifice. It goes to Moses here because Moses is conducting the ceremony and Aaron is not yet installed.
8:31: The priests' portion had to be eaten on the spot, in the sanctuary courtyard, not carried away and eaten at home.
8:32: Sacrificial food carried a time limit. Whatever was not eaten within it was burned rather than kept or put to ordinary use.
8:33: The whole ceremony was to be repeated on each of seven days. Seven commonly marks a full and complete span of time.
8:34: "Atonement" translates a Hebrew word meaning to wipe clean or cover over. In Leviticus it usually describes removing impurity from a person or an object so that it can safely be used in the sanctuary.
8:35: "Keep the charge" is language borrowed from sentry duty: to stand guard over an assigned responsibility.
8:36: The King James says "by the hand of Moses." It means the commands came through Moses, who passed them on to the people.

Read Leviticus 8