Exodus 29:36-46

Instructions for Regular Offerings at the Tabernacle

36 "And you will offer a bull for a sin offering every day for the atonement; and you will offer a sin offering on the altar when you make atonement for it, and you will anoint it to consecrate it.
37 Seven days you will make atonement for the altar, and you will consecrate it, and the altar will be {a most holy thing}. {Anyone who} touches the altar will be holy.
38 "And this is what you shall offer on the altar: Two {one-year-old} male lambs {every day} continually.
39 The first lamb you will offer in the morning, and the second lamb you will offer {at twilight}.
40 And a tenth of finely milled flour mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine as a libation with the first lamb.
41 And the second lamb you will offer {at twilight}; you will offer a grain offering and its libation like that of the morning for a fragrance of appeasement, an offering made by fire for Yahweh.
42 [It will be] a burnt offering of continuity throughout your generations [at] the entrance of the tent of assembly before Yahweh, where I will meet with you to speak to you there.
43 "And I will meet with the {Israelites} there, and it will be consecrated by my glory.
44 And I will consecrate the tent of assembly and the altar, and Aaron and his sons I will consecrate to serve as priests for me.
45 And I will dwell in the midst of the {Israelites}, and I will be their God.
46 And they will know that I [am] Yahweh, their God, who brought them out from the land of Egypt in order to dwell in their midst. I [am] Yahweh their God.

Exodus 29:36-46 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 29

This chapter gives an account of the form and order of the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priestly office; preparatory to which Moses is ordered to take a young bullock, two rams, bread, cakes, and wafers unleavened, and bring them and Aaron and his sons to the door of the congregation, where the ceremony was to be publicly performed, and which began with washing them, Ex 29:1-4 and then proceeded by putting on the priestly garments directed to be made in the preceding chapter, first on Aaron, who also was anointed, Ex 29:5-7 and then upon his sons, Ex 29:8,9 after which the bullock and the two rams were to be slain, and orders are given what was to be done with their blood, and the several parts of them, as well as with the cakes and wafers, Ex 29:10-23 and directions are given to make these wave and heave offerings, Ex 29:24-28 and that the garments of Aaron's should be his son's that succeeded him, Ex 29:29,30, and that the flesh of the ram of consecration with the bread should be eaten by Aaron and his sons and no other, Ex 29:31-35, the altar also where they were to officiate was to be cleansed, sanctified, and an atonement made for it, Ex 29:36,37 after which two lambs every day, morning and evening, were to be offered on it in all succeeding generations, Ex 29:38-42, and the chapter is closed with a promise that the Lord would meet with the children of Israel at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and would sanctify the tabernacle, and dwell among them, and be their God, Ex 29:43-46.

Footnotes 9

  • [a]. Or "you will purify the altar"
  • [b]. Literally "a holiness of holinesses" or "a holy [thing] among holy [things]," a thing of utmost holiness
  • [c]. Or "anything that"; literally "all touching"
  • [d]. Literally "sons of a year"
  • [e]. Literally "for the day," or per day
  • [f]. Literally "between the evenings"
  • [g]. Literally "between the evenings"
  • [h]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
  • [i]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.