12 Then let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting; and after washing them with water,
And the Lord said to Moses, Take Aaron, and his sons with him, and the robes and the holy oil and the ox of the sin-offering and the two male sheep and the basket of unleavened bread; And let all the people come together at the door of the Tent of meeting. And Moses did as the Lord said, and all the people came together at the door of the Tent of meeting. And Moses said to the people, This is what the Lord has given orders to be done. Then Moses took Aaron and his sons; and after washing them with water, He put the coat on him, making it tight with its band, and then the robe, and over it the ephod, with its band of needlework to keep it in place. And he put the priest's bag on him, and in the bag he put the Urim and Thummim. And on his head he put the head-dress, and in front of the head-dress the plate of gold, the holy crown, as the Lord gave orders to Moses. And Moses took the holy oil and put it on the House and on all the things in it, to make them holy. Seven times he put oil on the altar and on all its vessels, and on the washing-basin and its base, to make them holy. And some of the oil he put on Aaron's head, to make him holy. Then he took Aaron's sons, clothing them with the coats, and putting the bands round them, and the head-dresses on their heads, as the Lord had given him orders.
This is what you are to do to make them holy, to do the work of priests to me: Take one young ox and two male sheep, without any mark on them, And unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and thin unleavened cakes on which oil has been put, made of the best bread-meal; Put these in a basket and take them, with the ox and the two sheep. And let Aaron and his sons come to the door of the Tent of meeting, and there let them be washed with water. Take the robes, and put the coat and the dress and the ephod and the priest's bag on Aaron; put the band of needlework round him, And let the head-dress be placed on his head and the holy crown on the head-dress. Then take the oil and put it on his head. And take his sons and put their robes on them; And put the linen bands round Aaron and his sons, and the head-dresses on them, to make them priests by my order for ever: so you are to make Aaron and his sons holy to me. Then let the ox be taken in front of the Tent of meeting: and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head. And you are to put the ox to death before the Lord at the door of the Tent of meeting. Then take some of the blood of the ox, and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, draining out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. And take all the fat covering the inside of the ox, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and let them be burned on the altar; But the flesh of the ox and its skin and its waste parts are to be burned outside the circle of the tents, for it is a sin-offering. Then take one of the sheep, and let Aaron and his sons put their hands on its head. Then let it be put to death, so that the sides of the altar are marked with its blood. Then the sheep is to be cut up into its parts, and after washing its legs and its inside parts, you are to put them with the parts and the head, And let them all be burned on the altar as a burned offering to the Lord: a sweet smell, an offering made by fire to the Lord. Then take the other sheep; and after Aaron and his sons have put their hands on its head, You are to put the sheep to death, and take some of its blood and put it on the point of Aaron's right ear, and of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet, dropping the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar. Then take some of the blood on the altar, and the oil, and put it on Aaron and his robes and on his sons and on their robes, so that he and his robes and his sons and their robes may be made holy. Then take the fat of the sheep, the fat tail, the fat covering the insides, and the fat joining the liver and the two kidneys with the fat round them, and the right leg; for by the offering of this sheep they are to be marked out as priests: And take one bit of bread and one cake of oiled bread and one thin cake out of the basket of unleavened bread which is before the Lord: And put them all on the hands of Aaron and of his sons, to be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. Then take them from their hands, and let them be burned on the burned offering on the altar, a sweet smell before the Lord, an offering made by fire to the Lord. Then take the breast of Aaron's sheep, waving it before the Lord; and it is to be your part of the offering. So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons; And it will be their part as a right for ever from the children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering lifted up to the Lord. And Aaron's holy robes will be used by his sons after him; they will put them on when they are made priests. For seven days the son who becomes priest in his place will put them on when he comes into the Tent of meeting to do the work of the holy place. Then take the sheep of the wave offering and let its flesh be cooked in water in a holy place. And let Aaron and his sons make a meal of it, with the bread in the basket, at the door of the Tent of meeting. All those things which were used as offerings to take away sin, and to make them holy to be priests, they may have for food: but no one who is not a priest may have them, for they are holy food. And if any of the flesh of the offering or of the bread is over till the morning, let it be burned with fire; it is not to be used for food, for it is holy. All these things you are to do to Aaron and his sons as I have given you orders: for seven days the work of making them priests is to go on.
And on the eighth day Moses sent for Aaron and his sons and the responsible men of Israel; And he said to Aaron, Take a young ox for a sin-offering and a male sheep for a burned offering, without a mark, and make an offering of them before the Lord. And say to the children of Israel: Take a he-goat for a sin-offering, and a young ox and a lamb, in their first year, without any mark on them, for a burned offering; And an ox and a male sheep for peace-offerings, to be put to death before the Lord; and a meal offering mixed with oil: for this day you are to see the Lord. And they took the things ordered by Moses, before the Tent of meeting, and all the people came near, waiting before the Lord. And Moses said, This is what the Lord has said you are to do; and you will see the glory of the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, Come near to the altar and make your sin-offering and your burned offering to take away your sin and the sin of the people, and make the people's offering to take away their sin; as the Lord has given orders. So Aaron came near to the altar and put to death the ox for the sin-offering for himself; And the sons of Aaron gave him the blood and he put his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, draining out the blood at the base of the altar; But the fat and the kidneys and the fat on the liver of the sin-offering were burned by him on the altar as the Lord gave orders to Moses. And the flesh and the skin were burned with fire outside the tent-circle; And he put to death the burned offering; and Aaron's sons gave him the blood and he put some of it on and round the altar; And they gave him the parts of the burned offering, in their order, and the head, to be burned on the altar. And the inside parts and the legs, when they had been washed with water, were burned on the burned offering on the altar. And he made an offering for the people and took the goat of the sin-offering for the people and put it to death, offering it for sin, in the same way as the first. And he took the burned offering, offering it in the ordered way; And he put the meal offering before the Lord, and taking some of it in his hand he had it burned on the altar, separately from the burned offering of the morning. And he put to death the ox and the sheep, which were the peace-offerings for the people; and Aaron's sons gave him the blood and he put some of it on and round the altar; And as for the fat of the ox and the fat tail of the sheep and the fat covering the inside parts and the kidneys and the fat on the liver; They put the fat on the breasts, and the fat was burned on the altar. And Aaron took the breasts and the right leg, waving them for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses gave orders. And Aaron, lifting up his hands to the people, gave them a blessing; and he came down from offering the sin-offering, and the burned offering, and the peace-offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the Tent of meeting, and came out and gave the people a blessing, and the glory of the Lord was seen by all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord, burning up the offering on the altar and the fat: and when all the people saw it, they gave a loud cry, falling down on their faces.
And there will come a rod out of the broken tree of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will give fruit. And the spirit of the Lord will be resting on him, the spirit of wisdom and good sense, the spirit of wise guiding and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And he will not be guided in his judging by what he sees, or give decisions by the hearing of his ears: But he will do right in the cause of the poor, and give wise decisions for those in the land who are in need; and the rod of his mouth will come down on the cruel, and with the breath of his lips he will put an end to the evil-doer. And righteousness will be the cord of his robe, and good faith the band round his breast.
The spirit of the Lord is on me, because I am marked out by him to give good news to the poor; he has sent me to make the broken-hearted well, to say that the prisoners will be made free, and that those in chains will see the light again; To give knowledge that the year of the Lord's good pleasure has come, and the day of punishment from our God; to give comfort to all who are sad; To give them a fair head-dress in place of dust, the oil of joy in place of the clothing of grief, praise in place of sorrow; so that they may be named trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and so that he may have glory.
And the angel in answer said to her, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will come to rest on you, and so that which will come to birth will be named holy, Son of God.
For he whom God has sent says God's words; and God does not give him the Spirit by measure.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Exodus 40
Commentary on Exodus 40 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
After the completion of all the works, the command was given by God to Moses to set up the dwelling of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month (see at Exodus 19:1), sc., in the second year of the Exodus (see Exodus 40:17), and to put all the vessels, both of the dwelling and court, in the places appointed by God; also to furnish the table of shew-bread with its fitting out ( ערכּו = לחם ערך Exodus 40:23), i.e., to arrange the bread upon it in the manner prescribed (Exodus 40:4 cf. Leviticus 24:6-7), and to put water in the laver of the court (Exodus 40:7). After that he was to anoint the dwelling and everything in it, also the altar of burnt-offering and laver, with the anointing oil, and to sanctify them (Exodus 40:9-11); and to consecrate Aaron and his sons before the door of the tabernacle, and clothe them, anoint them, and sanctify them as priests (Exodus 40:12-15). When we read here, however, that the dwelling and the vessels therein would be rendered “ holy ” through the anointing, but the altar of burnt-offering “ most holy, ” we are not to understand this as attributing a higher degree of holiness to the altar of burnt-offering than to the dwelling and its furniture; but the former is called “most holy” merely in the sense ascribed to it in Exodus 30:10 namely, that every one who touched it was to become holy; in other words, the distinction has reference to the fact, that, standing as it did in the court, it was more exposed to contact from the people than the vessels in the dwelling, which no layman was allowed to enter. In this relative sense we find the same statement in Exodus 30:29, with reference to the tabernacle and all the vessels therein, the dwelling as well as the court, that they would become most holy in consequence of the anointing (see the remarks on Exodus 30:10). It is stated provisionally, in Exodus 40:16, that this command was fulfilled by Moses. But from the further history we find that the consecration of the priests did not take place contemporaneously with the erection of the tabernacle, but somewhat later, or not till after the promulgation of the laws of sacrifice (cf. Lev 8 and Leviticus 1:1.).
On the day mentioned in Exodus 40:2 the dwelling and court were erected. As not quite nine months had elapsed between the arrival of the Israelites at Sinai, in the third month after the Exodus (Exodus 19:1), and the first day of the second year, when the work was finished and handed over to Moses, the building, and all the work connected with it, had not occupied quite half a year; as we have to deduct from the nine months (or somewhat less) not only the eighty days which Moses spent upon Sinai (Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28), but the days of preparation for the giving of the law and conclusion of the covenant (Ex 19:1-24:11), and the interval between the first and second stay that Moses made upon the mountain (ch. 32 and 33). The erection of the dwelling commenced with the fixing of the sockets, into which the boards were placed and fastened with their bolts, and the setting up of the pillars for the curtains (Exodus 40:18). “ He (Moses) then spread the tent over the dwelling, and laid the covering of the tent upon the top .” By the “covering of the tent” we are to understand the two coverings, made of red rams' skins and the skins of the sea-cow (Exodus 26:14). In analogy with this, את־האלל פּרשׂ denotes not only the roofing with the goats' hair, but the spreading out of the inner cloth of mixed colours upon the wooden frame-work.
Arrangement of the ark . “He took and put the testimony into the ark.” העדוּת does not mean “the revelation, so far as it existed already, viz., with regard to the erection of the sanctuary and institution of the priesthood (ch. 25-31), and so forth,” as Knobel arbitrarily supposes, but “the testimony,” i.e., the decalogue written upon the two tables of stone, or the tables of the covenant with the ten words; “the testimony,” therefore, is an abbreviated expression for “the tables of testimony” (Exodus 31:18, see at Exodus 25:16). After the ark had been brought into the dwelling, he “hung the curtain” (vail, see at Exodus 26:31; lit., placed it upon the hooks of the pillars), “and so covered over the ark of the testimony,” since the ark, when placed in the back part of the dwelling, was covered or concealed from persons entering the dwelling or the holy place.
Arrangement of the front room of the dwelling . The table was placed on the right side, towards the north, and the shew-bread was laid upon it. לחם ערך does not signify “a row of bread,” but the “position or placing of bread;” for, according to Leviticus 24:6-7, the twelve loaves of shew-bread were placed upon the table in two rows, corresponding to the size of the tables (two cubits long and one cubit broad). The candlestick was placed upon the left side, opposite to the table, and the golden altar in front of the curtain, i.e., midway between the two sides, but near the curtain in front of the most holy place (see at Exodus 30:6). After these things had been placed, the curtain was hung in the door of the dwelling.
The altar of burnt-offering was then placed “ before the door of the dwelling of the tabernacle, ” and the laver “ between the tabernacle and the altar, ” from which it is evident that the altar was not placed close to the entrance to the dwelling, but at some distance off, though in a straight line with the door. The laver, which stood between the altar and the entrance to the dwelling, was probably placed more to the side; so that when the priests washed their hands and feet, before entering the dwelling or approaching the altar, there was no necessity for them to go round the altar, or to pass close by it, in order to get to the laver. Last of all the court was erected round about the dwelling and the altar, by the setting up of the pillars, which enclosed the space round the dwelling and the altar with their drapery, and the hanging up of the curtain at the entrance to the court. There is no allusion to the anointing of these holy places and things, as commanded in Exodus 40:9-11, in the account of their erection; for this did not take place till afterwards, viz., at the consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests (Leviticus 8:10-11). It is stated, however, on the other hand, that as the vessels were arranged, Moses laid out the shew-bread upon the table (Exodus 40:23), burned sweet incense upon the golden altar (Exodus 40:27), and offered “the burnt-offering and meat-offering,” i.e., the daily morning and evening sacrifice, upon the altar of burnt-offering (Exodus 29:38-42). Consequently the sacrificial service was performed upon them before they had been anointed. Although this may appear surprising, there is no ground for rejecting a conclusion, which follows so naturally from the words of the text. The tabernacle and its furniture were not made holy things for the first time by the anointing; this simply sanctified them for the use of the nation, i.e., for the service which the priests were to perform in connection with them on behalf of the congregation (see at Leviticus 8:10-11). They were made holy things and holy vessels by the fact that they were built, prepared, and set up, according to the instructions given by Jehovah; and still more by the fact, that after the tabernacle had been erected as a dwelling, the “glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). But the glory of the Lord entered the dwelling before the consecration of the priests, and the accompanying anointing of the tabernacle and its vessels; for, according to Leviticus 1:1., it was from the tabernacle that Jehovah spake to Moses, when He gave him the laws of sacrifice, which were promulgated before the consecration of the priests, and were carried out in connection with it. But when the glory of the Lord had found a dwelling-place in the tabernacle, Moses was not required to offer continually the sacrifice prescribed for every morning and evening, and by means of this sacrifice to place the congregation in spiritual fellowship with its God, until Aaron and his sons had been consecrated for this service.
When the sanctuary, that had been built for the Lord for a dwelling in Israel, had been set up with all its apparatus, “ the cloud covering the tabernacle, and the glory of Jehovah filled the dwelling, ” so that Moses was unable to enter. The cloud, in which Jehovah had hitherto been present with His people, and guided and protected them upon their journeying (see at Exodus 13:21-22), now came down upon the tabernacle and filled the dwelling with the gracious presence of the Lord. So long as this cloud rested upon the tabernacle the children of Israel remained encamped; but when it ascended, they broke up the encampment to proceed onwards. This sign was Jehovah's command for encamping or going forward “throughout all their journeys” (Exodus 40:36-38). This statement is repeated still more elaborately in Numbers 9:15-23. The mode in which the glory of Jehovah filled the dwelling, or in which Jehovah manifested His presence within it, is not described; but the glory of Jehovah filling the dwelling is clearly distinguished from the cloud coming down upon the tabernacle. It is obvious, however, from Leviticus 16:2, and 1 Kings 8:10-11, that in the dwelling the glory of God was also manifested in a cloud. At the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11) the expression “the cloud filled the house of Jehovah” is used interchangeably with “the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.” To consecrate the sanctuary, which had been finished and erected as His dwelling, and to give to the people a visible proof that He had chosen it for His dwelling, Jehovah filled the dwelling in both its parts with the cloud which shadowed forth His presence, so that Moses was unable to enter it. This cloud afterwards drew back into the most holy place, to dwell there, above the outspread wings of the cherubim of the ark of the covenant; so that Moses and (at a later period) the priests were able to enter the holy place and perform the required service there, without seeing the sign of the gracious presence of God, which was hidden by the curtain of the most holy place. So long as the Israelites were on their journey to Canaan, the presence of Jehovah was manifested outwardly and visibly by the cloud, which settled upon the ark, and rose up from it when they were to travel onward.
With the completion of this building and its divine consecration, Israel had now received a real pledge of the permanence of the covenant of grace, which Jehovah had concluded with it; a sanctuary which perfectly corresponded to the existing circumstances of its religious development, and kept constantly before it the end of its calling from God. For although God dwelt in the tabernacle in the midst of His people, and the Israelites might appear before Him, to pray for and receive the covenant blessings that were promised them, they were still forbidden to go directly to God's throne of grace. The barrier, which sin had erected between the holy God and the unholy nation, was not yet taken away. To this end the law was given, which could only increase their consciousness of sin and unworthiness before God. But as this barrier had already been broken through by the promise of the Lord, that He would meet the people in His glory before the door of the tabernacle at the altar of burnt-offering (Exodus 29:42-43); so the entrance of the chosen people into the dwelling of God was effected mediatorially by the service of the sanctified priests in the holy place, which also prefigured their eventual reception into the house of the Lord. And even the curtain, which still hid the glory of God from the chosen priests and sanctified mediators of the nation, was to be lifted at least once a year by the anointed priest, who had been called by God to be the representative of the whole congregation. On the day of atonement the high priest was to sprinkle the blood of atonement in front of the throne of grace, to make expiation for the children of Israel because of all their sin (Lev 16), and to prefigure the perfect atonement through the blood of the eternal Mediator, through which the way to the throne of grace is opened to all believers, that they may go into the house of God and abide there for ever, and for ever see God.