Leviticus 6:12 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 6:12
And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings.
fire (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + definite article + noun, common both genders singular absolute
altar
הַמִּזְבֵּ֤חַha.miz.Be.ach
H4196
an altar · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
burning
תּֽוּקַדtu.kad-
H3344
to burn · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
out
תִכְבֶּ֔הtikh.Beh
H3518
to expire or (causatively) to extinguish (fire · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
priest
הַכֹּהֵ֛ןha.ko.Hen
H3548
literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
burn
וּבִעֵ֨רu.vi.'Er
H1197
to kindle · conjunction + verb, piel sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wood
עֵצִ֖ים'e.Tzim
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
morning
בַּבֹּ֣קֶרba.Bo.ker
H1242
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
offering
הָֽעֹלָ֔הha.'o.Lah
H5930
a step or (collectively · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
order
וְעָרַ֤ךְve.'a.Rakh
H6186
to set in a row · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
burn
וְהִקְטִ֥ירve.hik.Tir
H6999
to smoke · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fat
חֶלְבֵ֥יchel.Vei
H2459
fat · noun, common masculine plural construct
offerings
הַשְּׁלָמִֽיםha.she.la.Mim
H8002
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 9:24 And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, t…
Exodus 29:38-42 Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.
Leviticus 1:7-9 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire:
Leviticus 3:3-5 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all…
Nehemiah 13:31 And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.
Leviticus 3:9-11 And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat thereof, and the whole rump, it sh…
Leviticus 3:14-16 And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat tha…
Numbers 4:13-14 And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 6:8-13
Hitherto we have had the instructions which Moses was directed to give to the people concerning the sacrifices; but here begin the instructions he was to give to the priests; he must command Aaron and his sons, Lev 6:9. The priests were rulers in the house of God, but these rulers must be ruled; and those that had the command of others must themselves be commanded. Let ministers remember that not only commissions, but commands, were given to Aaron and his sons, who must be in subjection to them.
In these verses we have the law of the burnt-offering, as far as it was the peculiar care of the priests. The daily sacrifice of a lamb, which was offered morning and evening for the whole congregati…
THE LAW OF THE BURNT OFFERING. (Lev 6:8-13)
Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This . . . law of the burnt offering--In this passage Moses received instructions to be delivered to the priests respecting their official duties, and first the burnt offering--Hebrew, "a sacrifice, which went up in smoke." The daily service consisted of two lambs, one offered in the morning at sunrise, the other in the evening, when the day began to decline. Both of them were consumed on the altar by means of a slow fire, before which the pieces of the sacrifice were so placed that they fed it all night. At all events, the observance of this daily sacrifice on the altar of burnt offering was a daily expression…
And put on other garments - The priests approached the altar in their holiest garments; when carrying the ashes, etc., from the altar, they put on other garments, the holy garments being only used in the holy place.
Clean place - A place where no dead carcasses, dung, or filth of any kind was laid; for the ashes were holy, as being the remains of the offerings made by fire unto the Lord.
John Gill on Leviticus 6:12
The Church Fathers
And the fire will burn on the altar from it and will not go out. This means that it will burn from that fire in which the holocaust was burned until morning. The Lord does not want the fire to go out in any case. The fire should not be extinguished even after burning the holocaust until the morning, once the remnants of the cremation were removed. It had to be renewed again from those ashes so that the other things that were put on top burned.
And then the text continues: The priest shall burn on it morning wood and lay the burnt offering on it, and put on it the fat of the saving sacrifice; and the fire will always burn on the altar, without extinguishing. It is necessary to investigate whether tomorrow means daily, so that no day could pass without the holocaust and the saving fat being present, or tomorrow means that on any day when the fire was set it should only be put on the morning. If we understood it as meaning "daily", what would happen if no one contributed with what? But if the priests sought the daily burnt offerings, bringing them either from the public goods or from their own goods, they placed on them the things that the Lord commanded to be put on the burnt offerings offered by the people for their sins, and there was no need to that he who offered sacrifices for sin would also offer the burnt offering on which it would be placed, except when offered a pair of turtledoves or two pigeon pigeons. Because there it is said in an absolutely clear way that it is necessary to offer a sacrifice for sin and another as a burnt offering, and first we must offer the sacrifice for sin and then the sacrifice as a burnt offering (Cf Lv 5,7). We can also ask if the holocaust that was ordered to be offered in the morning should also burn all night until the next morning, or if the burnt offering that is said to burn throughout the night is the evening holocaust and from there He begins to speak of the law of the holocaust, so that it starts from the evening holocaust, which would be striking if it were omitted and it was not said that those holocausts had to be offered in the afternoon.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Altar — (Heb. mizbe’ah, from a word meaning “to slay”), any structure of earth (Ex. 20:24) or unwrought stone (20:25) on which sacrifices were offered. Altars were generally erected in conspicuous places…
Burnt offering — Hebrew olah; i.e., “ascending,” the whole being consumed by fire, and regarded as ascending to God while being consumed. Part of every offering was burnt in the sacred fire, but this was wholly…
Festivals, Religious — There were daily (Lev. 23), weekly, monthly, and yearly festivals, and great stress was laid on the regular observance of them in every particular (Num. 28:1-8; Ex. 29:38-42; Lev. 6:8-23; Ex. 30:7-9;…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Priest — The Heb. kohen, Gr. hierus, Lat. sacerdos, always denote one who offers sacrifices. At first every man was his own priest, and presented his own sacrifices before God. Afterwards that office devolved…
Burnt Offering, The · The fat, &c of all peace offerings laid on, and consumed with the daily — The fat, &c of all peace offerings laid on, and consumed with the daily
Daily Sacrifice, The · Required to be: Slowly and entirely consumed — Required to be: Slowly and entirely consumed
Fire · Sacred: All burn offerings consumed by — Sacred: All burn offerings consumed by
Peace Offerings · The priest: Laid it upon the daily burnt offering to be consumed with it — The priest: Laid it upon the daily burnt offering to be consumed with it
Priests · Services of: Keeping the sacred fire always burning on the altar
And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out,.... There were three fires, or piles of wood for fire continually; the first was a large one, on which the daily sacrifice was burnt; the second less, and called the pile of the incense, because they took from it fire in a censer to burn the morning and evening incense; and the third was only for preserving the fire that it might not go out: and of this it is written, Leviticus 6:12 (x); and Maimonides (y) observes, that some say, the first of these is meant by the burning all night, Leviticus 6:9 and the second by the fire of the altar burning in it, Leviticus 6:12 but his own sense is, the third is meant by it; an…
Leviticus 6:8-15, 23-25, 30
8. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
8. Loquutus est etiam Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:
9. Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.
9. Praecipe Aharon et filiis ejus, dicendo, Haec est lex holocausti, (holocaustum est, quod aduritur super altare tota nocte usque mane, ubi ignis altari accensus fuerit in eo.)
10. And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering…
The fire of the altar was also to be kept burning "with it" (בּו, viz., the burnt-offering) the whole day through without going out. For this purpose the priest was to burn wood upon it (the altar-fire), and lay the burnt-offering in order upon it, and cause the fat portions of the peace-offerings to ascend in smoke, - that is to say, whenever peace-offerings were brought, for they were not prescribed for every day.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Leviticus 6:12-13
This passage cautions that the fire on the bronze altar must be constantly tended and never allowed to go out, perhaps anticipating the tragedy of the “wrong kind of fire” offered by Nadab and Abihu (10:1-2).
Rashi on Leviticus 6:11
כל זכר ALL THE MALES [AMONG THE CHILDREN OF AARON SHALL EAT OF IT] — all the males: even one with a bodily blemish. But why is this stated at all? If you say: for the purpose of permitting the eating of the meal-offering to such a priest, then it is redundant, for you see, this has already been stated, (Leviticus 21:22) “He (the priest with a blemish) may eat of the bread of his God, both of the most holy [and of the holy]”! But it is intended to include the priests with bodily blemishes in the right of apportionment alluded to in the preceding verse: I have given it to them as their portion (i.e. that they may not only eat holy food if such is given to them by their fellow priests, but they…
— Services of: Keeping the sacred fire always burning on the altar
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
