Leviticus 6:17
Ver. 17. It shall not be baked with leaven,.... Which, as it was a type of Christ, may denote his sincerity both in doctrine, life, and conversation; and as it may respect the offerer, may signify his uprightness and integrity, and his being devoid of hypocrisy and insincerity:
I have given it [unto thee for] their portion of my offerings made by fire; this was part of the provision made for the maintenance of the priests, as it was but just that they that ministered at the altar should live of it; and the rather, as the priests and Levites had no portion and inheritance in the land of Israel, and therefore must be supported in another way, which the Lord took care of:it [is] most holy, as the sin [offering], and as the trespass [offering]; as they, so this being devoted to sacred uses, what were not consumed upon the altar belonged to the priests, and were their perquisites, nor might they be appropriated to the use of any other. Leviticus 6:18Ver. 18. All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it,.... And they only, for none but they might eat in the holy place, and therefore these holy things that were to be eaten there, were only eaten by them; what might be eaten by the priests in their own houses, their wives and daughters ate of, but in the holy place only their males, and a male was one that was thirteen years of age:[it shall be] a statute for ever in your generations, concerning the offerings of the Lord made by fire; a statute to last till the Messiah should come, the true meat or bread offering; and the bread he gave was his flesh, and he that eats of it shall not die, but live for ever, Joh 6:27:everyone that toucheth them shall be holy; signifying, that no one ought to touch them but a holy person, one devoted to holy services, the priests and their sons; or "whatsoever" {o} toucheth them, the dishes they eat those offerings out of, or the knives they cut them with, were not to be used for anything else.{o} rva lk "quicquid", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius. Leviticus 6:19Ver. 19. And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time the above laws were delivered:saying; as follows. Leviticus 6:20Ver. 20. This is the offering of Aaron and his sons,.... That is, of such of them as succeeded him in the high priesthood, as appears from Le 6:22 so Aben Ezra, of him, or of one of his sons in his room; though some think the common priests offered the following oblation at the time of their initiation into their office, though they were not anointed as the high priest was, nor obliged as he to continue the offering daily:which they shall offer unto the Lord in the day when he is anointed; when he, or any of his sons in his stead, were anointed, for as yet he himself was not; see Le 8:2 some, as Aben Ezra observes, think that b, "in", is instead of m, "from", and that the sense is, that Aaron, or his successor, and every of them, were to offer the following offering perpetually from the time of their being anointed, and put into the office of the high priest, and which certainly was the case, as appears by what follows:the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual; which was an omer, and as much as a man could eat in one day; and this the high priest offered every day, as long as he lived, or was in his office, and that at his own expense, as Josephus says {p}, not altogether, but in the following manner:half of it in the morning, and half of it at night; so that this constantly returned as the morning and evening sacrifices did, and followed them. Jarchi says of this, that it was the common meat offering at the consecration of a priest, but the high priest offered it every day; and it appears from the Misnic writers {q} that this meat offering consisted of twelve cakes, the same number as those of the shewbread; the same phrase, a "perpetual statute", being used of one as the other; and six of these were offered in the morning, and six at evening; and this as the daily sacrifice had the same mystical meaning, and respected the continual efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ.{p} Antiqu. l. 3. c. 10. sect. 7. {q} Misn. Menachot, c. 6. sect. 5. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. Leviticus 6:21Ver. 21. In a pan it shall be made with oil,.... With oil olive, as the Targum of Jonathan; the pan in which it was made was a vessel that had no covering, nor hollow in the middle, nor any lip or edge, but was a plane, and extended, and the dough made on it was hard and stiff, that it might not run off {r}. In the temple was a chamber of those that made the cakes {s}, where, as Bartenora {t} observes, was prepared the meat offering, which the high priest offered, one half in the morning, and the other half in the evening:[and when it is] baked, thou shalt bring it in; not thoroughly baked, but very little, as says Josephus, hastily, so that it swells, and rises up in bubbles. Jarchi says, the flour was first mixed in hot water, and after that it was baked in an oven, and then fried in a pan:and the baked pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer [for] a sweet savour unto the Lord; or the meat offering cut in pieces shalt thou offer, as both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; the twelve cakes were broken each into two, and twelve halves were offered in the morning, and twelve at evening: the manner in which it was done was, the priest divided every cake into two by measure, so that he might offer half in the morning, and half in the evening; and he took the halves and doubled everyone of them into two, and broke them, until he found every broken piece doubled into two, and he offered the halves with half the handful of frankincense in the morning, and in like manner in the evening {u}: this may have respect to the body of Christ being broken for us, whereby he became fit food for faith, and an offering of a sweet smelling savour to God.{r} Misn. Menachot, c. 5. sect. 8. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. Maimon. Maasch Hakorbanot, c. 13. sect. 7. {s} Misn. Middot, c. 1. sect. 4. {t} In ib. {u} Maimon. Misn. Middot. sect. 4. Leviticus 6:22Ver. 22. And the priest of his sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it,.... The successor of the high priest:it is a statute for ever unto the Lord; which he by an everlasting statute appointed to be offered to him by every high priest, until the Messiah should come:it shall be wholly burnt; of a common meat offering only a handful was burnt, and the rest was the priest's; see Le 6:15. Leviticus 6:23Ver. 23. For every meat offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt,.... Wherefore the priest that offered this for the high priest got nothing by it: he served him gratis:it shall not be eaten; neither by himself, nor any other priest. The priests by eating the offerings of the people bore their iniquities, and made atonement for them, Le 10:17 but the priests might not eat their own sacrifices, to show that they could not bear their own sins, and make atonement for them; and this proves the insufficiency of the legal sacrifices, and the need there was for one to arise of another order to take away sin; and it is thought by some to be typical of the active obedience of Christ {w}, every day yielded to the law and will of God, and is perfect, as the word here signifies, and to be distinguished from hlwe, "a burnt offering".{w} Vid. Michaelis Observ. Sacr. Exercitat. 6. p. 57. & Mede in ib. p. 58. Leviticus 6:24Ver. 24. And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Continued his discourse with him:saying; as follows. Leviticus 6:25Ver. 25. Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, saying, this [is] the law of the sin [offering],.... Or the rules to be observed concerning that, besides what had been already delivered in Le 4:1:in the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin [offering] be killed before the Lord; and that was on the north side of the altar, see Le 1:11 and so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom observe, that the place of slaying every sin offering was the north; and some have observed that Mount Calvary, where our Lord was crucified, lay pretty much to the north of Jerusalem, see Ps 48:2:it is most holy; sacred to the Lord, offered up to him, and accepted by him, and typical of the most pure and holy sacrifice of Christ, who was made sin, and an offering for sin, in the room and stead of his people. Leviticus 6:26Ver. 26. The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it,.... Thereby signifying that he bore the sin of the person that brought the offering, and made atonement for it; as a type of Christ, who bore the sins of his people in his own body on the tree, and made satisfaction for them; see Le 10:17. This is to be understood not of that single individual priest only that was the offerer, but of him and his family; for, as Ben Gersom observes, it was impossible for one man to eat all the flesh of a beast at one meal or two; but it means, as he says, the family of the priest that then officiated, the male part;in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation; within the hangings, as Ben Gersom's note is, with which the court of the tabernacle was hung and made; in some room in that part of the sanctuary did the priest, with his sons, eat of the holy offerings that were appropriated to them; an emblem of spiritual priests, believers in Christ, feeding in the church upon the provisions of his house, the goodness and fatness of it. Leviticus 6:27Ver. 27. Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy,.... None but holy persons, such as were devoted to holy services, even the priests and their sons, might touch and eat of the flesh of the sin offering: all that did so were sacred persons; and even what were used in eating it, dishes and knives, were to be put to no other use, not to any common service, or for anything but holy things; which was done to keep up a veneration for the sacrifices, and especially for the great sacrifice they typified, the sacrifice of Christ, whose flesh is meat indeed; and whoever eats of that by faith dwells in Christ, and Christ dwells in him, Joh 6:55:and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment; the garment of the priest that slays and offers it:thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place; it was not to be carried out of the tabernacle, and washed elsewhere, but in the sanctuary; either at the laver, where the priests washed their hands and feet, or in some room in the court for that purpose. This was done to preserve an esteem and value for the blood of the sacrifice, as typical of the precious blood of Christ. Leviticus 6:28Ver. 28. But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken,.... That being porous, the liquor in which the sin offering was boiled might soak into it, and the smell of it be retained, and therefore, as such vessels were not very costly, they were ordered to be broken; but where the broken pieces were carried and laid, the Jewish writers are at a loss about; for, that vessels, which had served for holy uses, should be laid in an open public place and exposed, they thought was indecent; and as there might be in a course of time great quantities broken, it would look very disagreeable and unseemly to have them lie in heaps in the sanctuary; they therefore have framed a miracle, and conceit that they were swallowed up in the ground where they were laid {x}:and if it be sodden in a brazen it shall be both scoured and rinsed in water; brass, being more valuable, must not be destroyed; and besides the liquor could not soak into that, and whatever scent it retained was easily and soon removed by scouring and rinsing; the former was with hot water, and the latter with cold, as Ben Gersom affirms.{x} T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 21. 1. Leviticus 6:29Ver. 29. And all the males among the priests shall eat thereof,.... As of the meat offerings, Le 6:18 and this shows that not the single priest that offered only ate of it, Le 6:26 but his male children, and not those only, but those of other priests then upon duty, or in the court:it [is] most holy; See Gill on "Le 6:25". Leviticus 6:30Ver. 30. And no sin [offering], whereof [any] of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile [withal] in the holy place, shall be eaten,.... Every offering, and so every sin offering, was killed in the court of the tabernacle, on the north side of the altar; and the blood of some of them, as on the day of atonement, was carried within the vail and sprinkled on the mercy seat for reconciling the holy place, and making atonement for it; now the flesh of such sin offerings might not be eaten by the priests, though all others might:it shall be burnt in the fire. Ben Gersom says, it was burnt in its place in the court, in a place prepared there to burn things rejected, and sanctified; and I think, adds he, this place was on the east side, i.e. of the court; but it is clear from Le 16:27 where the above case is mentioned, that it was to be carried out without the camp, and burnt there. What use the apostle makes of this, applying it to Christ, see Heb 13:11.
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