Leviticus 6:11

11 Then he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes outside the camp to a 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 "Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.
10 And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and put his linen breeches upon his body, and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has consumed the burnt offering on the altar, and put them beside the altar.
11 Then he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.
12 The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not go out; the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it, and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.
13 Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually; it shall not go out.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.