Commentaria in Leviticum
Chapter 16. Synopsis of the Chapter
The rite to be observed on the feast of Kippurim, that is, of Expiation, is prescribed. The rite and order of this Expiation (which in this chapter is rather intricate) was as follows. First, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the High Priest came to the sanctuary, bringing his bullock for sin and a ram for a holocaust. Secondly, having washed his hands and feet, he put on the garments of the lesser priests, and presented the bullock and the ram to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. Thirdly, some of the elders of the people, in the name of the whole people, offered two goats for sin and one ram for a holocaust. Fourthly, the High Priest cast lots upon the goats, which should be offered and which should be the scapegoat. Fifthly, the lot being cast, the High Priest slew his bullock offered for sin, and the people’s goat upon which the lot had fallen to be the victim for sin. Sixthly, he took the mingled blood of this bullock and goat, and entering with a censer to burn incense in the Holy of Holies, sprinkled the blood seven times towards the propitiatory, and prayed for the sins both of himself and of the people; meanwhile the flesh, the skins and the dung, both of the bullock and of the goat, carried out by another beyond the camp, were burnt in that place. Seventhly, he returned from the Holy of Holies into the Holy Place, and expiated it by dipping the horns of the altar of incense in the same blood, and praying for himself and the people. Eighthly, coming back from the Holy Place to the court, or to the door of the tabernacle, he offered the scapegoat to the Lord, confessing and imprecating upon the head of the goat all the sins of the Israelites; then he sent the goat by a fit man into the desert. Ninthly, he laid aside his garments, washed his body, put on the pontifical vestments, and so sacrificed his ram and the ram of the people as a holocaust to the Lord: and thus he completed the ceremonies of the feast of Expiation.
1. And the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they were slain as they offered strange fire; 2. and he commanded him, saying: Speak to Aaron thy brother, that he enter not at all times into the sanctuary, which is within the veil before the propitiatory, with which the ark is covered, lest he die (for I will appear in a cloud over the oracle), 3. unless he first do these things. He shall offer a calf for sin, and a ram for a holocaust. 4. He shall be vested with a linen tunic, he shall cover his nakedness with linen breeches: he shall be girded with a linen girdle, and he shall put a linen mitre upon his head: for these are holy vestments: all which he shall put on, after he is washed. 5. And he shall receive from the whole multitude of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for sin, and one ram for a holocaust. 6. And when he hath offered the calf, and prayed for himself and for his house, 7. he shall make the two goats to stand before the Lord in the door of the tabernacle of the testimony; 8. and casting lots upon them both, one to be offered to the Lord, and the other to be the emissary goat, 9. that whose lot fell to be offered to the Lord, he shall offer for sin; 10. but that whose lot was to be the emissary goat, he shall present alive before the Lord, that he may pour out prayers upon him, and let him go into the wilderness. 11. When these things are duly celebrated, he shall offer the calf, and praying for himself and for his house, shall immolate it; 12. and taking the censer, which he hath filled with the burning coals of the altar, and taking with his hand the compounded perfume for incense, he shall go into the holy place within the veil; 13. that when the perfumes are put upon the fire, the cloud and vapour thereof may cover the oracle which is over the testimony, and he may not die. 14. He shall take also of the blood of the calf, and sprinkle it with his finger seven times toward the propitiatory to the east. 15. And when he hath killed the goat for the sin of the people, he shall carry in its blood within the veil, as he was commanded to do with the blood of the calf, that he may sprinkle it over against the oracle, 16. and may expiate the sanctuary from the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and from their transgressions, and all their sins. According to this rite shall he do to the tabernacle of the testimony, which is fixed among them in the midst of the filth of their habitation. 17. Let no man be in the tabernacle when the high priest goeth into the sanctuary, to pray for himself, and his house, and the whole congregation of Israel, till he come out. 18. And when he is come out to the altar that is before the Lord, let him pray for himself, and taking the blood of the calf and of the goat, let him pour it upon the horns thereof round about; 19. and sprinkling with his finger seven times, let him expiate and sanctify it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. 20. After he has cleansed the sanctuary, and the tabernacle, and the altar, then let him offer the living goat; 21. and laying both hands upon his head, let him confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their offences and sins: and praying that they may light on his head, he shall turn him out by a man ready for it, into the desert. 22. And when the goat shall have carried all their iniquities into an uninhabited land, and shall be let go into the desert, 23. Aaron shall return into the tabernacle of the testimony, and, putting off the vestments which he had on before when he entered into the sanctuary, and leaving them there, 24. he shall wash his flesh in the holy place, and shall put on his own garments. And after that he is come out and hath offered his own holocaust and that of the people, he shall pray both for himself and for the people; 25. and the fat that is offered for sins he shall burn upon the altar. 26. But he that hath let go the emissary goat shall wash his clothes and his body with water, and so shall come into the camp. 27. But the calf and the goat that were sacrificed for sin, and whose blood was carried into the sanctuary that the atonement might be accomplished, they shall carry forth without the camp, and shall burn with fire their skins and their flesh and their dung; 28. and whosoever shall burn them shall wash his clothes and his flesh with water, and so shall come into the camp. 29. And this shall be to you an everlasting ordinance: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and shall do no work, whether he be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you. 30. On this day shall be the expiation for you, and the cleansing from all your sins: before the Lord you shall be cleansed; 31. for it is a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls by a perpetual religion. 32. And the priest that is anointed, and whose hands have been consecrated to do the office of priesthood in his father’s stead, shall make atonement, and shall be vested with the linen robe and the holy vestments, 33. and shall expiate the sanctuary and the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar, the priests also and all the people. 34. And this shall be an everlasting ordinance to you, that you pray for the children of Israel, and for all their sins, once a year. Moses did as the Lord had commanded him.
1. AND THE LORD SPOKE TO MOSES AFTER THE DEATH OF THE TWO SONS OF AARON—as if to say: Immediately after the death and slaughter of the newly made priests, God ordained these things about the feast of Expiation, that by this example and punishment he might render the priests more careful thereafter in the discharge of their office, and in the law which he here lays down.
When, and why, was this feast of Expiation instituted?
The Hebrews, whom Lyranus and St. Thomas follow, think (in the Temple, chapter 11) that this feast was instituted in memory of the forgiveness of the idolatry by which the Jews had cast the golden calf, Exodus 32:4, and was therefore celebrated on the tenth day of September, because on that day Moses came down from Sinai, bearing the second tables of the law, and announcing to the people the forgiveness of the sin, and that God was now appeased towards them: for they themselves think that Moses was three times on the mount for forty days, so that in all he was there with God 120 days, and remained on the mount until the tenth day of the seventh month; for Moses went up into the mount on the seventh day of the third month, as I said on Exodus 24, and so you come to the tenth day of the seventh month.
This opinion is refuted, for it rests on a false foundation: for first, I showed on Exodus 34:28 that Moses was on the mount not three times but only twice for forty days, once before the first tables, and a second time before the second. The same will be clearer from Deuteronomy 9:25. Secondly, because long after Moses’ descent from the mount and the proclamation of pardon for the sin (which happened in the first year after the departure from Egypt, on the 28th day of the fifth month, as I showed on Exodus 34:28), the sons of Aaron were slain, the tabernacle being already built, at the beginning of the second year; but the institution of this feast took place after the slaying of these sons, as is said here.