EXPOSITION. bolioal of prayer, they lit their Cllllll8l'I CHAPTERX. from one of the fires which had been made THE DEATH 01!' NADAll AND A.Brau, THE for boiling the sacrificial fiesh, and, putting SONS 01!' AARON (vers. 1-7). The first day incense upon them, started forward, with the of Aaron's ministry had not yet closed. He intention of carrying the bnrniag incense he.d o1l'ered the sacrifices, and had entered to the golden altar of prayer in the holy into the holy place with Moses, and had place. They reached the door of the taber- returned to the conrt of the tabernacle, nacle, where Moses and Aaron were stand- where the people had been standing in mute ing, when they were met by a blnst of the expectation, and God had shown his ap- so.me fire whioh had already swept to the proval and his confirmation of him in his brazen altar, and they fell dead. They priestly acts by consuming the sacrifices, as had acted presumptuously. They had not, they lay on the altar, with a miraculous fire like Eleazar and Ithamlll', waited for the emblematio of himself, when a rash aot on Divine command, but, in their haste, they the part of his two eldest children changed had irreverently broken the custom, which the day from one of rejoicing to one of rested upon a Divine comlII.ILlld, of taking mourning. It would seem that Nadab and the fire for the altar of incense from the Abihu, being already in a state of exaltation altar of burnt so.orifice alone. The fact from the events of the day, in which they that this offence was the transgression of had taken so prominent a part, felt bound, a positive rather than of a morol precept, when the fire cnme forth from God, and the would have made the lesson the more people shouted and foll on their fnces, to complete and emphntic. They-the newly -take some step whereby to acknowledge on ordained priests-had, with whatever good the part of the people the graciousness intentions, done what God had not com• displ11yed so visibly by the Lord. Moses manded, and in doing it had done what he -and Aaron had been po.rled from them when had forbidden. Liko Uzzah afterwards they went into the tabemacle, and were (2 Sam. vi. 7), thoy died for it, that others -now facing the congregation, the ministers might fear to do the same. Will-worship xather of God to man than of man to God, (Col ii. 23) received thereby an emphatio .and Nadab anll Abihu appear to have re- condemnation, and priests and people were garded themselves as the representatives of taught, in a manner not to be forgotten, the people. Without waiting for instruc- that "to obey is better than saori.6.ce" tions, they rose from their prostration, and, (1 Sam. xv. 22). ,preparing to make a return to God for his Ver. 1.-Nadab o.nd Ahibu are said to ~ift of fire by the offering of incense sym- have eaoh taken hia oe111er, This ia th• THE DOOK OF LEVITICUS. [cu. x. 1-7.
first time thn.t the word nsed iu the original Ver. 5.-They went near, and cal'l'ied them is trnnslatcJ "censer." It means nny in their coats out of the oamp. Their coat~ vessel or pan that wiU hold e~bers or were tho tunics which they had put on ns tiuder (see Exod. xxv. 38; x~vu. 3, 23; their pl'icslly attire (eh. viii. 13). The xHiii, 3). They put fire therem, and put lightning flash which had struck tLem inoense thereon. No doubt they used the down had not injured their clothes. As incense ordered in Exod. xxx. 34. They Mishael and Elzaphan became cercmoninlly are not found fault with for the incense, defiled by contact with the corpses, and aa but for the fire that they used. They the Passover was now at hand, it has been oft'ered strange fire, that is, fire net taken thought thnt it was in reference to their from the altar of burnt offering, which tl:cy case that the concession wns made, that might ba'l"e feared to approach after the those de-filed by a dead body might keep miracle that had occurred. In eh. xvi. 12 the Passover ou the fourteenth day of the it is ordered that, on the Day of Atonement, second instead of the fu-st month (Numb. the incense fire should be taken from the ix. 6-11). The defilement caused by death brazen altar, and this was no doubt the ceased when Christ had died. rule on all occasions, though the law has Ver. 6.-Uncover not :,our heads. They not been reoorded. are to abstain from all the conventional Ver. 2.-And there went out fire from the signs of mourning, in order to show that Lord, and devoured. These are the exact they acknowledged the justice of the punish- words used in eh. ix. 2-1 of the fire that con- ment. The whole house of Israel, that is, Eumed the sacrifices. The fire was the same; the people m general, might mourn the its source was the same; its effect was the death of their priests, but the high priest Eame, and yet how different I The:, died and his remaining sons must prove their before the Lord; that is, they were struck submission to the Divine chastisement by dead at the door of the tabernacle. crushing their individual feelings of sorrow. Ver. 8.-This is that the Lord spake (see A murmur on their part would have brought Exod. :rlx. 22; xxviii. 41; xxix. 44; cb. God's wrath on themselves and on the- viii. 33 ). God will be aanotified either by whole congregation, which they represented the obedience or by the punishment of those (eh. iv. 3). Uncover not your heads may be that come nigh him, that ie, his priests. If otherwise translated, Let not your hair fall they have grllll,ter privileges, they have dishevelled (see eh. xxi. 10), greater perils (cf. Matt. :xi 21). Aaron held Ver. 7.-The priests are not to be taken his peace-in submission (see Ps. x:uix. 9; away from their duties at the door of the Job i. 22), acknowledging that ll'loses bad tabernaole, that is, the court in front of the justified the act of God m executing so tabernacle, even for the sake of burying terrible a judgment. their dead. They had now been in the Ver. 4.-Vzziel was the youngest brother court for eight days continuously, and they of Amram (see Exod. vi. 18-22). Hie had to remain there until, in the fulfilment 11ons, lllishael and Elzaphan, were therefore of their public function, thoy had eaten the second cousins of Nadab and Abihu, who sacrificial meal. Cf. Matt. viii. 21, 22, are here called their brethren. (Cf. the use "Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my of the term "brothers of the Lord," applied father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow probably to his first cousins in the New me." God's service collies before all things. Testament.)