Leviticus 16:24

24 he shall wash his flesh in the holy place, and he shall be clothed in his own clothes, and after that he hath gone out, and hath offered the burnt sacrifice of himself, and of the people, he shall pray as well for himself, as for the people; (he shall wash his flesh in a holy place, and he shall be clothed in his own clothes, and after that he hath gone out, and hath offered the burnt sacrifice for himself, and for the people, he shall pray for himself, as well as for the people;)

Leviticus 16:24 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 16:24

And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place
In the court of the tabernacle of the congregation, where, as Aben Ezra says, they spread fine linen for him; Jarchi says, it was a place on the roof of the house of Parvah, where all the dippings and washings were made, except the first; (See Gill on Leviticus 16:4); and this washing was no other than the dipping of his whole body in water; and if our Lord was baptized on this day, as some have thought, before observed, whose baptism was by dipping, ( Matthew 3:16 Matthew 3:17 ) ; there will appear in this a great likeness between the type and the antitype:

and put on his garments and come forth;
put on his golden garments, and come out of the place where he had washed himself, to the court, where was the altar of burnt offering: all which may be an emblem of Christ's putting off the pure and spotless garment of the flesh, in which he appeared in a low estate, and made atonement for sin; and of his burial, which the washing of the flesh may point at, being what was used of the dead, and which washing in baptism is a figure of; and of his resurrection from the dead, when God gave him glory, and he appeared in a glorious body, signified by his golden garments put on again:

and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people;
his ram, and the people's ram, and the bullock of the people, and their seven lambs, as it is written, ( Numbers 29:8 ) ; so Aben Ezra, first his own, and then the people's, which order was before observed in the sin offerings:

and make an atonement for himself, and for the people;
which though properly made by the sin offerings, and the carrying the blood of them into the most holy place, yet these were the completing of it, being the last of the services peculiar to the day of atonement: the service performed by the high priest after the sending away the goat into the wilderness was this; he read this "sixteenth" chapter of Leviticus, and ( Leviticus 23:27-32 ) , if he read in linen garments, he washed his hands and his feet, he stripped himself, went down and dipped himself, and came up and wiped himself; then they brought him the golden garments, and he put them on, and washed his hands and his feet, and went out and offered his ram, and the people's ram, and the seven perfect lambs of a year old; then he washed his hands and his feet, and stripped and went down and dipped, and came up and wiped himself; then they brought him the white garments, and he put them on, and washed his hands and his feet, and went into the holy of holies to fetch out the incense cup and the censer; then he washed his hands and his feet, and stripped, and went down and dipped, and came up and wiped himself; then they brought him the golden garments, and he put them on, and he washed his hands and his feet, and went in (to the holy place) to offer the evening incense, and to him the lamps; and then he washed his hands and his feet, and stripped; and they brought him his own garments (what he usually wore when out of service), and he put them on; and they accompanied him to his house, where he made a feast for his friends, because he was come out of the sanctuary in safety F15: where, it seems, sometimes some died, and others became sick by getting cold through frequent shifting of their clothes and washing, and wearing thin linen garments.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Misn. Yoma, c. 7. sect. 3, 4.

Leviticus 16:24 In-Context

22 And when the goat buck hath borne all their wickednesses into (a) desert land, and he is let go there,
23 Aaron shall turn again into the tabernacle of witnessing (Aaron shall return to the Tabernacle of the Witnessing); and when the clothes be put off, in which he was clothed before, when he entered into the saintuary of God, and those clothes be left there,
24 he shall wash his flesh in the holy place, and he shall be clothed in his own clothes, and after that he hath gone out, and hath offered the burnt sacrifice of himself, and of the people, he shall pray as well for himself, as for the people; (he shall wash his flesh in a holy place, and he shall be clothed in his own clothes, and after that he hath gone out, and hath offered the burnt sacrifice for himself, and for the people, he shall pray for himself, as well as for the people;)
25 and he shall burn on the altar the inner fatness which is offered for sin. (and he shall burn on the altar the inner fat of the sin offering.)
26 Soothly he that let go the goat buck able to be sent out, shall wash his clothes and his body with water, and so he shall enter into the tents. (And he who drove the scapegoat into the desert, or into the wilderness, to Azazel, shall wash his clothes and his body in water, and then he shall return to the tents.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.