Exodus 29

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.

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.

6 Set the turban on his head and place the holy crown on the turban.

7 Take the anointing oil and pour it on his head to anoint him.

8 Then present his sons and put the tunics on them.

9 Tighten the sashes on them, on both Aaron and his sons. Wrap the turbans on their heads. It will be a permanent regulation that the duties of priesthood belong to them. In this way, you will ordain Aaron and his sons.

10 Present the bull at the front of the meeting tent. Aaron and his sons will lay their hands on the bull's head.

11 Then slaughter the bull in the LORD's presence at the meeting tent's entrance.

12 Take some of the bull's blood and smear it on the altar's horns with your finger. Pour out the rest of the blood at the altar's base.

13 Then take all the fat that covers the inner organs, the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys along with the fat that is on them, and burn them up in smoke on the altar.

14 Burn the rest of the meat of the bull, its hide, and the intestines with their contents with a fire outside the camp. It is a purification offering.

15 Choose one of the rams, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the ram's head.

16 Then slaughter the ram. Take its blood and throw it against all the altar's sides.

17 Cut up the ram into parts. Wash its inner organs and legs, and put them together with its parts and its head.

18 Then turn the entire ram into smoke by burning it on the altar. It is an entirely burned offering for the LORD, a soothing smell, a food gift for the LORD.

19 Take the second ram, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the ram's head.

20 Slaughter the ram. Take some of its blood and smear it on the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Throw the rest of the blood against all the altar's sides.

21 Then take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle them on Aaron and on his clothes and on his sons and on his sons' clothes. In this way, Aaron, his sons, and all their priestly garments will be holy.

22 Take the fatty parts of the ram: the fat tail, the fat around the inner organs, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys with the fat around them, and the right thigh (because it is a ram for ordination).

23 Add one loaf of bread, one flatbread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that was presented to the LORD.

24 Place all of these in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and lift them as an uplifted offering in the LORD's presence.

25 Then take them from their hands and turn them into smoke by burning them on the altar with the entirely burned offering as a soothing smell in the LORD's presence. It is a food gift for the LORD.

26 Take the breast of the ram for Aaron's ordination and lift it as an uplifted offering in the LORD's presence. It will be your portion.

27 Make holy the breast that was lifted for the uplifted offering and the thigh that was raised for the gift offering from the ram for the ordination. They belong to Aaron and his sons.

28 Those parts will be given to Aaron and his sons from the Israelites as a permanent provision, because they are a gift offering. They will be a gift offering from the Israelites, their gift offering to the LORD from their well-being sacrifices.

29 Aaron's holy clothes should be passed on to his sons after him. His sons should be anointed in them and ordained in them.

30 The son who is priest in his place should wear them seven days when he comes into the meeting tent to minister in the sanctuary.

31 Take the ram for the ordination and boil its meat in a holy place.

32 Aaron and his sons will eat the ram's meat and the bread that is in the basket at the meeting tent's entrance.

33 They alone should eat the food that was used to purify them, to ordain them, and to make them holy. No one else should eat it because it is holy.

34 If any meat for the ordination or any of the bread is left over until morning, then you should burn the leftovers with fire. It shouldn't be eaten because it's holy.

35 Treat Aaron and his sons just as I have commanded you. Ordain them for seven days.

36 Every day you should offer a bull as a purification offering for reconciliation. You should remove the sin from the altar through a ritual of reconciliation, and you should anoint the altar to make it holy.

37 Seven days you should perform the ritual of reconciliation for the altar and make it holy. In this way, the altar will become most holy, and whatever touches the altar will also become holy.

Instructions for daily entirely burned offerings

38 Now this is what you should offer on the altar: two one-year-old lambs regularly every day.

39 Offer one lamb in the morning and offer the other lamb at twilight.

40 With the first lamb, add one-tenth of a measure of the high-quality flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from crushed olives and a quarter of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

41 With the second lamb offered at twilight, again include a grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning as a soothing smell, a gift offering for the LORD.

42 This should be the regular entirely burned offering in every generation at the meeting tent's entrance in the LORD's presence. There I will meet with you, and there I will speak to you.

43 I will meet with the Israelites there, and it will be made holy by my glorious presence.

44 I will make the meeting tent and the altar holy. Likewise, I will make Aaron and his sons holy to serve me as priests.

45 I will be at home among the Israelites, and I will be their God.

46 They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I could make a home among them. I am the LORD their God.

Exodus 29 Commentary

Chapter 29

The sacrifice and ceremony for the consecration of the priests. (1-37) The continual burnt-offerings, God's promise to dwell among Israel. (38-46)

Verses 1-37 Aaron and his sons were to be set apart for the priest's office, with ceremony and solemnity. Our Lord Jesus is the great High Priest of our profession, called of God to be so; anointed with the Spirit, whence he is called Messiah, the Christ; clothed with glory and beauty; sanctified by his own blood; made perfect, or consecrated through sufferings, ( Hebrews 2:10 ) . All believers are spiritual priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices, ( 1 Peter. 2:5 ) priests, ( revelation 1:5 revelation 1:6 ) . They also are clothed with the beauty of ( 1 John. 2:27 ) Spirit of God is called the finger of God, ( ( Luke 11:20 ) , compared with ( Matthew 12:28 ) ,) and by him the merit of Christ is applied to our souls. This consecration signifies the admission of a sinner into the spiritual priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Verses 38-46 A lamb was to be offered upon the altar every morning, and a lamb every evening. This typified the continual intercession which Christ ever lives to make for his church. Though he offered himself but once for all, that one offering thus becomes a continual offering. This also teaches us to offer to God the spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise every day, morning and evening. Our daily devotions are the most needful of our daily works, and the most pleasant of our daily comforts. Prayer-time must be kept up as duly as meal-time. Those starve their own souls, who keep not up constant attendance on the throne of grace; constancy in religion brings in the comfort of it.

Footnotes

• [a]. One hin is approximately one gallon.

Chapter Summary

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.