Exodus 29:1

Instructions for the priests’ ordination

1 Now this is what you should do to make them holy in order to serve me as priests. Take a young bull and two flawless rams.

Exodus 29:1 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 29:1

And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them
To Aaron and his sons: to "hallow" them; to sanctify them, set them apart, and consecrate them:

to minister unto me in the priest's office;
for which the Lord had appointed them, to which he had chose, called, and separated them:

take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish;
a young bullock was an heifer of three years old, according to Kimchi ^F20, and such an one was used in sacrifice in former times, see ( Genesis 15:9 ) though Maimonides ^F21 says it was one of two years, and so Abendana ^F23, whose words are,

``a bullock is a son of two years, and a ram is after he has entered into the second year thirty one days;''

and so Ben Gersom; the bullock was an emblem of the strength, laboriousness, and patience of Christ, and both of them being without blemish, were typical of his purity and perfection in his nature and life, and especially in his sacrifice.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Comment. in Psal. lxix. 32.
F21 Hilchot Zebachim, c. 1. sect. 14.
F23 Not. in Miclol Yophi in loc.

Exodus 29:1 In-Context

1 Now this is what you should do to make them holy in order to serve me as priests. Take a young bull and two flawless rams.

2 Take unleavened bread, unleavened flatbread made with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil. Make them out of high-quality wheat flour.

3 Put them all in one basket and present them in the basket along with the bull and the two rams.

4 Present Aaron and his sons at the entrance to the meeting tent and wash them with water.

5 Then take the priestly clothes and put them on Aaron: the tunic, the vest's robe, the vest itself, and the chest pendant. Put the vest on him with the vest's belt.