Leviticus 6:11

11 Then he shall change his clothes and take the ashes outside the camp to a ritually clean place.

Leviticus 6:11 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 6:11

And he shall put off his garments
Those before mentioned, he is said to put on:

and put on other garments;
not common garments or lay-habits, what the priests wore when they were not on duty; for, as Ben Gersom says, these were priestly garments, though meaner than the first, or those that were put off: and so Jarchi says, they were worse than they were: it seems as if they were such that were spotted and dirty, and threadbare, almost worn out, and only fit for such sort of work as to carry out ashes: and so Maimonides F23 observes, that these other garments are not to be understood of common garments; but of such that are meaner in value and esteem, for both are holy garments; and, indeed, nothing belonging to the priestly office was to be performed but with the priestly garments, and they were only to be worn by the priests while in service:

and carry forth the ashes;
when these, gathered on a heap, were become large, as Jarchi says, and there was no room for the pile of wood, they carried them out from thence; and this, he observes, was not obligatory every day, but the taking of them up, as in the preceding verse ( Leviticus 6:10 ) , they were bound to every day: and these they carried

without the camp, unto a clean place;
for though they were ashes, yet being ashes of holy things, were not to be laid in an unclean place, or where unclean things were: as the burnt offering was a type of Christ in his sufferings and death, enduring the fire of divine wrath in the room and stead of his people; so the carrying forth the ashes of the burnt offering, and laying them in a clean place, may denote the burial of the body of Christ without the city of Jerusalem, wrapped in a clean linen cloth and laid in a new tomb, wherein no man had been laid, ( Matthew 27:59 Matthew 27:60 ) ( Luke 23:53 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F23 In Misn. Tamid, c. 5. sect. 3.

Leviticus 6:11 In-Context

9 to give Aaron and his sons the following regulations for burnt offerings. A burnt offering is to be left on the altar all night long, and the fire is to be kept burning.
10 Then the priest, wearing his linen robe and linen shorts, shall remove the greasy ashes left on the altar and put them at the side of the altar.
11 Then he shall change his clothes and take the ashes outside the camp to a ritually clean place.
12 The fire on the altar must be kept burning and never allowed to go out. Every morning the priest shall put firewood on it, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat of the fellowship offering.
13 The fire must always be kept burning on the altar and never allowed to go out.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.