Leviticus 16:1-34

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died.¹ The Lord said to Moses:

“Tell your brother Aaron not to come just at any time into the sanctuary inside the curtain before the mercy-seat that is upon the ark, or he will die;² for I appear in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering.³ He shall put on the holy linen tunic, and shall have the linen undergarments next to his body, fasten the linen sash, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy vestments.⁴ He shall bathe his body in water,⁵ and then put them on. He shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin-offering, and one ram for a burnt-offering.

Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin-offering for himself,⁶ and shall make atonement for himself and for his house.⁷ He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting;and Aaron shall cast lots⁸ on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.⁹ Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin-offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, so that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.¹⁰

Aaron shall present the bull as a sin-offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house; he shall slaughter the bull as a sin-offering for himself. He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and two handfuls of crushed sweet incense, and he shall bring it inside the curtain and put the incense on the fire before the Lord, so that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the covenant, or he will die.¹¹ He shall take some of the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy-seat, and before the mercy-seat he shall sprinkle the blood with his finger seven times.

He shall slaughter the goat of the sin-offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the curtain, and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the sanctuary,¹² because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel, and because of their transgressions, all their sins; and so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which remains with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. No one shall be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the sanctuary until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement on its behalf, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and of the blood of the goat, and put it on each of the horns of the altar. He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.

When he has finished atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities¹³ to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

Then Aaron shall enter the tent of meeting, and shall take off the linen vestments that he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there. He shall bathe his body in water in a holy place, and put on his vestments;¹⁴ then he shall come out and offer his burnt-offering and the burnt-offering of the people, making atonement for himself and for the people.¹⁵ The fat of the sin-offering he shall turn into smoke on the altar. The one who sets the goat free for Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards may come into the camp.¹⁶ The bull of the sin-offering and the goat of the sin-offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be taken outside the camp; their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be consumed in fire. The one who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards may come into the camp.

This shall be a statute to you for ever:¹⁷ In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall deny yourselves, and shall do no work, neither the citizen nor the alien who resides among you.¹⁸ For on this day¹⁹ atonement shall be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord. It is a sabbath of complete rest to you, and you shall deny yourselves; it is a statute for ever. The priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father’s place shall make atonement, wearing the linen vestments, the holy vestments. He shall make atonement for the sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly. This shall be an everlasting²⁰ statute for you, to make atonement for the people of Israel once in the year for all their sins.”

And Moses did as the Lord had commanded him.²¹

1 After a long interlude in which many different kinds of uncleanliness were described, the text picks up again where it left off with the events of Leviticus 10.

2 This appears to be in response to the death of Aaron's sons, and is clearly not an idle threat.

3 The first requirement for Aaron to enter into the “Holy of Holies” is that he have the appropriate sacrifice.

4 The second requirement for Aaron's entrance is that he be wearing the holy clothing.

5 The third requirement is that Aaron has bathed.

6 As noted earlier, the high priest must make sacrifices for his own atonement, in addition to the sacrifices for all of Israel.

7 The setting makes it appear that the atonement is related to the sin of his sons, but the conclusion makes it appear that this could be in response to any sin accumulated by the priests over the course of the year.

8 A manner of showing that God was in charge of the fate of the goats.

9 “Azazel”, according to my Study Bible, was probably an ancient desert demon.

10 This appears to be the only example of a animal involved in a sacrifice being sent away “to” someone else – in previous commands there were birds that were released, but not to a particular entity.

11 The fourth requirement for Aaron to avoid death is that he must cover the mercy-seat with a cloud of incense.

12 First atonement was made for the priests who served in the holy place, now atonement is made for the holy place itself.

13 Fascinating symbolism – the goat upon which all the sins of Israel have been confessed, called the “scapegoat” in some places, is sent out to the wilderness to carry Israel's sins away.

14 After having death with Israel's sins, Aaron must take off his holy clothes, cleanse himself, and then put on his regular priestly clothes.

15 Now atonement is made for all the people as well.

16 The man who helped send the goat off was in some sense made unclean until he washed again.

17 It is made clear that this is a statute “for ever”, though in our present day the Jews have not sacrificed for 1940 years since the loss of their temple in Jerusalem, and Christians interpret that Jesus completed all sacrifice with his death.

18 This special holy day is to be a Sabbath day, not only for the practicing Israelites but for all who are in their land.

19 It appears that all of these events, including the entrance into the Holy of Holies, are to occur only on this day.

20 After two uses of “for ever”, the eternal nature of the statute is again emphasized by the word “everlasting”.

21 As in many instances before, Moses is shown to be a rock of obedience.


Take-home: An annual Sabbath day and ritual sacrifice is designated to make atonement for the priests, the temple, and the people of Israel. Very explicit instructions are given, which must be followed exactly in order for the priest to enter the holiest place in the temple without dying. After all this was done, the sins that all Israel had committed over the previous year were considered to have been “bourne away”, and the temple and the priests were considered to have been cleansed.