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Biblion Bible Commentary

Read the introduction to Leviticus · About this commentary

Within the Veil

Leviticus 16:11-22

11 “Aaron shall present the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bull of the sin offering which is for himself. · WEB

Blood is carried inside to cleanse the sanctuary itself, and only afterward are the confessed sins loaded on a goat and led away.

The order of the day is exact, and the order is where the meaning is.

First the incense. Aaron carries coals and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small inside the veil, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat... so that he will not die Leviticus 16:12–13. He does not look at what he approaches; a cloud goes in ahead of him.

Then the blood, twice. The bull's blood for himself, sprinkled on the mercy seat and seven times before it Leviticus 16:14. Then the goat's blood for the people, handled the same way Leviticus 16:15.

And then the verse that states what the day is actually for.

He shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins Leviticus 16:16.

The object of the atonement is the sanctuary. Not the people directly — the building. Through the year, every sin offering had brought blood to the altar or into the holy place, and the record of all of it had accumulated where God lived. This day clears the place itself.

The reason is added in the same verse, and it is the most poignant clause in the chapter: the tent dwells with them in the middle of their uncleanness. He lives in the camp as it is.

The altar is cleansed too, with blood from both animals Leviticus 16:18–19, and the whole is done with nobody else present: no one shall be in the Tent of Meeting when he enters Leviticus 16:17.

Only when he has finished atoning for the Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar is the live goat brought Leviticus 16:20. The sequence forbids a common misreading: the second goat does not make atonement. Atonement is complete before it is touched.

What it does is carry. Aaron lays both his hands on its head — the only two-handed laying on in the book — and confesses all the iniquities... and all their transgressions, even all their sins, and shall put them on the head of the goat Leviticus 16:21.

Then it is led away by a man appointed for the purpose, and released. The goat shall carry all their iniquities on himself to a solitary land Leviticus 16:22.

What is being pictured is removal. The blood dealt with the guilt; the goat takes the sins somewhere nobody will find them, and the last thing anyone in Israel sees of them is an animal disappearing over a horizon.

settled What this mark means