at the door of the tabernacle of 4 And he shall put his hand upthe congregation before the LORD. ech. 4. 15. and 3. 2, 8. 13. and 8. 14, 22. and 16. 21. (lerâtzon).' Rosenmuller adopts the same construction. At the same time, the sense given in our version does no positive violence to the origi nal, and is supported by respectable names, but we think the other deci dedly preferable.-¶ At the door of the tabernacle. Because here in the open space of the court the altar of Burntofferings was placed, upon which alone, even on pain of death, these oblations were to be made. Comp. Lev. 17. 3-7, The additional phrase, 'before the Lord,' has its usual import of before the Shekinah, the visible symbol of the divine presence. By thus bringing his offering to the place prescribed, the offerer acknowledged that the Lord dwelt there in a peculiar manner, and he moreover publicly, before all the people acknowledged himself a sinner, like unto his brethren, and needing mercy no less than the vilest of the human (i. e. a perfect male,) and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing,' where 'corrupt' is opposed to 'male.' This was a prefiguration of the perfect excellence of the sacrifice of Christ, who was 'a lamb without blemish and without spot.' 1 Pet. 1. 19. And not only so; it was doubtless designed to intimate that we are to offer to God the best of all we have; the best of our time and strength, the vigor of our days, and the utmost of our talents. Will he who would have nothing but the best of Israel's herds and flocks, be pleased with such poor remnants of our time and thoughts as may be left from the service of the world? Had the Jew brought an inferior beast, it would have been rejected by the priest, or the offering would have been void by law. Let us not suppose that the defectiveness of our spiritual oblations will be overlooked by him who searches the heart. What a man soweth, that shall he reap. Niggardly and unwilling 4. Shall put his hand upon the head, gifts, weary and distasteful services, &c. From Lev. 16. 21; it is probable hasty and perturbed devotions, will that by 'hand' here is implied both the find no more acceptance than the Is- hands. The act denoted that the vicraelite's blemished ox.-All the Burnt- tim offered was thereby wholly given offerings of beasts were to be males, over and devoted to God, being as it but this is not prescribed in regard to were henceforth solemnly manumitted the fowls. Of his own voluntary from the possession of the offerer, who will. Heb. lirtzono, to his (i. e. from this time ceased to claim any far. God's) good pleasure, or favorable ac- ther interest in it or control over it. It ceptance. Thus the phrase is rendered significantly intimated, moreover, the by the Gr. JEKTOV εvavтi Kupiov, accepta- offerer's desire that his transgression ble before the Lord, and the Lat. ad might be put upon the animal thus preplacandum sibi Dominum,' to render sented, and that the death to which he the Lord propitious to him, and thus now devoted it, might be instead of by the Chaldee,' that acceptableness that death which he had himself most may be to him before the Lord.' This justly deserved. The sinner who presense is moreover confirmed by v. 4 sented the victim thus disburdened him. following, and by Lev. 23. 11, And he self of the sin he acknowledged before shall wave the sheaf before the Lord God, and laid the weight of it upon the to be accepted for you, (lirtz- sacrifice. It thus taught the grand gos. onekem), and by Jer. 6. 20, Your pel doctrine of substitution. It burnt-offerings are not acceptable shall be accepted for him. race. לך .Heb 15 5 And he shall kill the hbullock before the LORD: iand the priests, and 16. 24. Numb. 15. 25. 2 Chron. 29. 23, 24. Rom. 5. 11 h Micah 6. 6. i 2 Chron. 35. 11. Heb. 10. 11. be covered, made safe, expiated, or nirtzâh lo, from the same root with rutzon, above v. 3, and confirming the interpretation there given. - To make an atonement for him. Heb. 33 lekappër âlauv. This was the great purport of the appointment. In hope of this the worshipper brought his offering; through it he sought pardon and reconciliation with God; and when he offered it rightly, it became an atonement for him, not for any value of its own, but by virtue of that great sacrifice which it prefigured. The original word kâphar signifies primarily to cover; not so much, however, in the sense of wrapping as with a garment, as in that of smearing or plaistering, it being applied, Gen. 6. 14, to the act of coating the ark with pitch. Its radical sense, therefore, is rather that of an adhesive than a loose covering. From this primary notion of covering, it came to be applied by metaphorical usage to the appeasing of anger, or to that act of an offending party by which he succeeds in procuring 5. And he shall kill the bullock, Heb. favor and forgiveness from the person ve-shâhat; in all probably an inor party offended. In this sense it is applied to the appeasing of an angry countenance, Gen. 32. 20, ' For he said, I will appease him, (Heb. will cover his face) with the present.' 2 Sam. 21. 3, 'What shall I do for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement (Heb. cover)? Prov. 16. 14, ' The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify it (Heb. will cover it). Its predominant usage is in relation to the reconciliation effected between God and sinners, in which sense atonement for sin is the covering of sin, or the securing the sinner from punishment. Thus when sin is pardoned, or its consequent calamity removed, the sin or person may be said to stance of the usage very common in Hebrew, where a verb is employed in a kind of impersonal sense, equivalent to the on dit,' one says of the French, or the 'man sagt,' id. of the German, both of which are evidently tantamount to the passive, it is said. The expression before us is not intended, we conceive, to assert that the offerer, or any one in particular, was to kill the victim, but simply to say that one, some one, shall kill it. In conformity with this idea, the Gr. preserves the indefinite form of the expression, by rendering it opušovoiv they shall slay. A similar phraseology appears in the following passages, Gen. 11. 9, Therefore is the name of it called Babel (Heb. one called Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, kand sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by k ch. 3. 8. Heb. 12. 24. 1 Pet. 1. 2. the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 6 And he shall flay the burntoffering, and cut it into his pieces. or soul was especially in the blood, so thesouls under the altar,' denotes the blood of the martyrs plentifully shed, the name of it Babel). Gen. 16. 14, 'Wherefore the well was called ( one called the well) Beer-lahai-roi.' Deut. 32. 37, And he shall say (and flowing as a sacrificial offering un one shall say it shall be said) where are their gods,' &c. Examples of this usage might be almost indefinitely multiplied, but those now adduced will probably be sufficient to confirm our rendering in the passage before us. It is highly probable that the offerer himself and the common Levites united in the act of slaughtering the animal. Indeed Patrick labors to show from Maimonides, that the killing of the holy things might lawfully be done by a stranger (one not of Aaron's seed), yea, of the most holy things, whether they were the holy things of private persons, or of the whole congregation.' This would appear to be confirmed by 2 Chron. 30. 17, where it is said that 'there were many in the congregation that were not sanctified; therefore the Levites had charge of the killing of the passovers for every one that was not clean;' implying that if they had been clean they would have been authorized to perform the service themselves. Sprinkle the blood round about, &c. This is doubtless the true sense of the original, but both the Gr. and the Lat. render it by the stronger term 'pour,' pour out.' The sprinkling may be supposed perhaps to have been very copious, as Maimonides tells us that the priest was to sprinkle the blood twice on the upper surface of the altar, and the rest of the blood was to be poured out at the bottom of the altar on the south side-a rite to which there is doubtless allusion, Rev. 6. 9, 'I saw under the altar (i. e. at the bottom of the altar) the souls of them that were slain for the word of God.' As the life der the altar. The act of sprinkling the blood was, during every period of the Mosaic economy, exclusively the prerogative of the priesthood. It was in the effusion of blood, which is the life, that the virtue of the sacrifice cousisted, it being always understood that life went to redeem life. It was calculated and probably designed to remind the offerer that he deserved to have his own blood shed for his sins, and alluded moreover to the pacifying and purifying of the blood of Jesus shed for us for the remission of sins. Every reader of the New Testament knows how much our salvation is attributed to the blood of Christ; and this great evangelical truth was thus taught in shadow to the Israelites under the Law. They were by this rite most impressively taught that without the shedding of blood there was no remission of sins; and however some of them might have dim and darkened views on this subject, while the veil was upon their minds, we at least know the truth. We know that the blood of all the animals shed at the altar of burnt-offering owed all its excellency to its being a type of that blood of Jesus by which he hath obtained eternal redemption for us. 6. He shall flay. Gr. δείραντες they having flayed, shall divide,' &c. The Heb. hiphshit, one shall flay, doubtless affords another instance of the impersonal form of speech illustrated above. The meaning is simply that those whose office it was to perform this part of the ceremony should strip the skin from the victim, and then cut up the body into its appropriate 7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire. 8 And the priests, Aaron's sons, 1 Gen. 22. 9. parts. This would seem from 2 Chron. 29. 34, to have been usually the duty of the priests; The priests were too few, and not able to flay all the burnt-offerings; therefore their brethren the Levites helped them.' The skin in such cases, it is to be remembered, was a part of the perquisites of the priest, Lev. 7. 8.- Cut it into his pieces. That is, into its natural, appropriate, suitable pieces, such as head, neck, shoulders, legs, &c., or as the Gr. renders it, kura pɛλŋ, according to its members. Chal.' He shall divide it by the members thereof. It was to be done in an orderly and systematic manner, and not confusedly. Why were not the greater members cut into small pieces ? Because it is written, He shall cut it into the pieces thereof, and not, Shall cut it into pieces.' Maimonides. It is doubtless in allusion to this that the apostle says, 2 Tim. 2. 15, 'rightly dividing (oporuμovvra) the word of truth.' shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire, which is upon the altar. 9 But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, 8. Shall lay the parts. Heb. hannethâhim. As the same word is rendered in v. 6. ' pieces,' it would have conduced more to the absolute precision which ought to be consulted in every translation of the Scriptures to have preserved that rendering in the present instance. Uniformity's sake alone is often sufficient to determine a translator in his choice of one out of two or more renderings. This regular dividing and laying on of the pieces of the sacrifice was observed in all cases of the Burnt-offering. Comp. Ex. 29. 17, 18. 1 Kings, 18. 23, 33. Lev. 8. 20, 21.-9. 13. 9. His inwards and his legs shall he wash in water. These parts, in order that no filthy adhesions might pollute the sacred offerings, were not to be burnt upon the altar until they had been thoroughly cleansed by washing in wa ter; a process which, according to Maimonides, was three times repeated before the ablution was thought to be complete. The typical import of this ceremony is distinctly intimated by the Apostle, Heb. 10. 22, 'Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.'-¶ The priest shall burn all on the altar. Heb. 7. Shall put fire. Heb. 1 nâthenu ish, shall give fire; by which is probably meant stirring up, cherishing, supplying fuel for, the fire that was originally kindled from heaven, and which was to be kept perpetually burning on the altar, as may be seen from Lev. 6. 11.- Lay the wood in order. Heb. âreku, implying, as rightly hiktir, shall burn as a perfume, rendered in our version, an orderly and methodical arrangement, and spoken of the setting or furnishing a table, and marshalling the ranks of an army, Judg. 20. 22; also metaphorically of the proper disposition of words in a prayer or discourse, Ps. 5. 4. Job, 32. 14.-37. 19 as the original properly implies. See the import of the term fully explained in the Note on Ex. 29. 13. It is not the usual word for consuming by fire, and consequently we lose in our translation the peculiar expressiveness of the origi nal, especially when taken in connex. ion with what follows. The burning to be a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a msweet savour unto the LORD. 10 And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt-sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish. 11 And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar: 12 And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: m Gen. 8. 21. Ezek. 20, 28, 41. 2 Cor. 2. 15. Eph. 5. 2. Phil. 4. 18. n ver. 3. ver. 5. and broiling of the beasts could yield no sweet savor; but thereto was added wine, oil, and incense, by God's appointment, and then there was a savor of rest in it. Our prayers, as from us, would never please; but as indited by the Spirit, and presented by Christ, they are highly accepted in heaven.'-Trapp. -¶An offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Heb. and the priest shall lay them in 14 T And if the burnt-sacrifice for his offering to the LORD be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of pturtle-doves, or of young pigeons. P ch, 5, 7. and 12. 8. Luke 2. 24. less wealthy, who could not so well afford to offer a bullock, would bring a sheep or a goat; and those who were not able to do that were expected to bring a turtle-dove or a young pigeon. Thus it appears that the parents of our Lord, from their humble circumstances in life, brought this latter kind of offering upon the purification of Mary, Luke 2. 23-25. Indeed it will be observed throughout, that the directions respecting the poor man's offering are as mi that God is no respecter of persons, and that his ministers are to be as anxious for the welfare, and as attentive to the interests, of the poorest of their flock, as of the most opulent. Nolah ishëh rëha nihovah, a fire-offering, an odor of rest; or as the Gr. renders it, 'a sacrifice of a sweet-nute and particular as any; intimating smelling savor,' which words the apostle plainly had in view in writing Eph. 5.2, Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.' See note on Gen. 8. 21. Hence we learn that the holocaust, or whole burnt-offering, which, with the exception of the skin, was entirely consumed, no part of it being left even for the food of the priests, typified the sacrifice and death of Christ for the sins of the world. Chal. Which shall be received with favorable acceptation before the Lord.' The Burnt-offering of the Flock. 10. If his offering be of the flocks. In the divine requirement of the various oblations, the circumstances of the offerers were kindly consulted, The 11. On the side of the altar northward. If the victim had been slain on the east of the altar, where the ashes were cast, it might have obstructed the entrance to the court; on the south was the ascent to the altar, and on the west, the tabernacle; so that the north was on all accounts the most convenient quarter for this purpose, not only for the slaughter of the sheep, but also of all the other animals offered. The Burnt-offering of Fouls. 14. Turtle doves or of young pigeons. From the Heb. tur (toor) comes the |