Leviticus 9: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

On the eighth day Moses calls Aaron, Aaron's sons, and the elders of Israel, and tells them which animals and grain to bring, saying that the LORD will appear to them that day. Aaron goes to the altar and offers the sin offering and burnt offering for himself, then the sin offering, burnt offering, grain offering, and peace offerings for the people, and blesses them. Moses and Aaron go into the tent of meeting, come out and bless the people, and the glory of the LORD appears to everyone. Fire comes out from before the LORD and burns up the burnt offering and the fat on the altar, and the people shout and fall facedown.

Claim by Claim

1. 9:1
   • This happened on the eighth day.
   • Moses summoned Aaron and Aaron's sons.
   • Moses summoned the elders of Israel.
2. 9:2
   • Moses said to Aaron to take for himself a bull calf for a sin offering.
   • Moses said to Aaron to take a ram for a burnt offering.
   • Moses said both animals were to be without blemish.
   • Moses told Aaron to present them before the LORD.
3. 9:3
   • Moses told Aaron to speak to the Israelites.
   • The Israelites were to take a male goat for a sin offering.
   • The Israelites were to take a calf and a lamb for a burnt offering.
   • The calf and the lamb were to be a year old.
   • The calf and the lamb were to be without blemish.
4. 9:4
   • The Israelites were to take an ox and a ram for peace offerings.
   • The ox and ram were to be sacrificed before the LORD.
   • The Israelites were to take a grain offering mixed with oil.
   • The reason given was that the LORD would appear to them that day.
5. 9:5
   • They brought what Moses had commanded to the front of the tent of meeting.
   • The whole congregation drew near.
   • The congregation stood before the LORD.
6. 9:6
   • Moses said this was the thing the LORD commanded them to do.
   • Moses said the glory of the LORD would appear to them.
7. 9:7
   • Moses spoke to Aaron.
   • Moses told Aaron to approach the altar.
   • Moses told Aaron to perform his sin offering.
   • Moses told Aaron to perform his burnt offering.
   • Moses told Aaron to make atonement for himself and for the people.
   • Moses told Aaron to offer the people's offering.
   • Moses told Aaron to make atonement for the people.
   • Moses said this was as the LORD had commanded.
8. 9:8
   • Aaron approached the altar.
   • Aaron slaughtered the calf of the sin offering.
   • That calf was for Aaron himself.
9. 9:9
   • The sons of Aaron brought the blood to Aaron.
   • Aaron dipped his finger in the blood.
   • Aaron put the blood on the horns of the altar.
   • Aaron poured out the blood at the base of the altar.
10. 9:10
    • Aaron burned on the altar the fat, the kidneys, and the lobe above the liver from the sin offering.
    • This was as the LORD had commanded Moses.
11. 9:11
    • Aaron burned the flesh and the hide with fire outside the camp.
12. 9:12
    • Aaron slaughtered the burnt offering.
    • Aaron's sons handed him the blood.
    • Aaron dashed the blood against the altar on all sides.
13. 9:13
    • They handed the burnt offering to Aaron in its pieces, along with the head.
    • Aaron burned them on the altar.
14. 9:14
    • Aaron washed the entrails and the legs.
    • Aaron burned them on top of the burnt offering on the altar.
15. 9:15
    • Aaron presented the people's offering.
    • Aaron took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people.
    • Aaron slaughtered the goat.
    • Aaron offered it as a sin offering, as he had done with the first one.
16. 9:16
    • Aaron presented the burnt offering.
    • Aaron offered it according to the prescribed ordinance.
17. 9:17
    • Aaron presented the grain offering.
    • Aaron filled his hand with a portion of it.
    • Aaron burned that portion on the altar.
    • This was in addition to the morning burnt offering.
18. 9:18
    • Aaron slaughtered the ox and the ram as the sacrifice of peace offerings for the people.
    • Aaron's sons handed him the blood.
    • Aaron dashed the blood against the altar on all sides.
19. 9:19
    • The fat portions came from the ox and from the ram.
    • The fat portions included the fat tail.
    • The fat portions included the fat covering the entrails.
    • The fat portions included the kidneys.
    • The fat portions included the lobe above the liver.
20. 9:20
    • They placed the fat portions on the breasts.
    • Aaron burned the fat portions on the altar.
21. 9:21
    • Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh as a wave offering before the LORD.
    • This was as Moses had commanded.
22. 9:22
    • Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people.
    • Aaron blessed the people.
    • Aaron came down from performing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings.
23. 9:23
    • Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting.
    • Moses and Aaron came out.
    • Moses and Aaron blessed the people.
    • The glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.
24. 9:24
    • Fire came out from before the LORD.
    • The fire consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.
    • All the people saw it.
    • The people shouted.
    • The people fell on their faces.

Words Worth Explaining

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

9:1

The eighth day follows the seven days of the ordination ceremony described in chapter 8, during which Aaron and his sons stayed at the entrance of the tent. This is the first day they act as priests. The "elders" were the senior heads of families and clans, who represented the people as a whole.

9:2

A "sin offering" (Hebrew *chatta't*) was not about feeling sorry; it was the offering that cleansed the sanctuary and its objects of the defilement caused by wrongdoing and impurity. A "burnt offering" (*olah*, literally "the thing that goes up") was burned whole on the altar, with nothing kept back to be eaten. "Without blemish" meant physically unflawed, no injury, disease, or deformity. Where the King James prints LORD in capitals it stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud.

9:3

The King James "a kid of the goats" means a young male goat; "kid" is the ordinary English word for a goat's young, and the longer phrase reflects the Hebrew way of naming an animal by its herd.

9:4

"Peace offerings" (*shelamim*) were the one kind of sacrifice that produced a meal: fat portions were burned, certain cuts went to the priests, and the rest was eaten by the worshipers themselves. "Meat offering" in the King James does not mean flesh, in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind, and the offering was of flour and oil, a grain offering.

9:5

The "tabernacle of the congregation," more exactly the tent of meeting, was the portable sanctuary at the center of the camp, so called because it was the place where God met with Israel. "Congregation" here means the whole assembled community, not a religious group in the modern sense.

9:6

The "glory of the LORD" translates a Hebrew word whose root sense is weight or heaviness; it is used for the visible blaze or cloud that signaled God's presence, not for honor or reputation.

9:7

"Make an atonement" translates a verb (*kipper*) whose sense is to wipe clean, purge, or ransom. The picture is of a stain being removed rather than of a punishment being paid.

9:9

The altar had four upward projections at its corners, called horns; smearing blood on them was the way the offering was applied to the altar itself. The remaining blood was poured out at the base, since blood was never consumed or wasted casually.

9:10

The "caul above the liver" is the lobe or fatty flap attached to the liver. These interior fat parts (the fat, the kidneys, and this lobe) were regarded as the richest portions of the animal, and were the share burned for God rather than eaten.

9:11

The camp was the ordered Israelite encampment arranged around the tent of meeting. Whatever could not remain within it (refuse, and the remains of certain offerings) was taken outside and destroyed there.

9:12

The verb translated "sprinkled" is stronger in Hebrew: the blood was thrown or dashed from a basin against the sides of the altar, not flicked in drops.

9:13

The animal was cut into pieces first. Then the pieces were carried to the altar one at a time.

9:14

The King James "inwards" means the internal organs and intestines. They were rinsed before burning, since the burnt offering was meant to go up to God whole and clean.

9:16

"According to the manner" means according to the fixed procedure already set out for burnt offerings in chapter 1, the regulation, not a personal custom.

9:17

A handful of the grain offering was burned as the token portion representing the whole, and the rest went to the priests. The "burnt sacrifice of the morning" was the standing daily offering made every morning and evening, which continued alongside any special sacrifices.

9:19

The King James "rump" means the fat tail. The sheep of the region were broad-tailed sheep, whose tails stored a large mass of fat that was prized as food and counted among the portions burned for God.

9:21

A "wave offering" involved a ritual gesture, the Hebrew suggests either a waving or a lifting up, by which a portion was formally presented to God before being handed over to the priests to eat. The "right shoulder" is more precisely the right thigh, the choice hind leg.

9:22

Raising the hands toward the people was the standard posture for pronouncing a blessing. "Came down" reflects the fact that the altar was raised, approached by a ramp or ledge.

9:24

Falling face down on the ground was the ordinary gesture of homage before a king or a god in the ancient Near East; the shout was a loud collective cry, the customary public response to such a sight.