Leviticus 8:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 8:2
Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
Aaron
אַהֲרֹן֙'a.ha.Ron
H175
Aharon · proper noun, a man's name
sons
בָּנָ֣יוba.Nav
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
garments
הַבְּגָדִ֔יםha.be.ga.Dim
H899
a covering · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
anointing
הַמִּשְׁחָ֑הha.mish.Chah
H4888
unction (the act) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
oil
שֶׁ֣מֶןShe.men
H8081
grease · noun, common masculine singular construct
bullock
פַּ֣רpar
H6499
a bullock (apparently as breaking forth in wild strength · noun, common masculine singular construct
offering
הַֽחַטָּ֗אתha.cha.Tat
H2403
an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
two
שְׁנֵ֣יshe.Nei
H8147
two · cardinal number, both genders dual construct
rams
הָֽאֵילִ֔יםha.'ei.Lim
H352
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
basket
סַ֥לsal
H5536
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
bread
הַמַּצּֽוֹתha.ma.Tzot
H4682
properly · definite article + noun, common feminine 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
Exodus 28:2-4 And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
Exodus 28:40-29:4 And for Aaron’s sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for be…
Exodus 39:1-31 And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron…
Exodus 39:41 The cloths of service to do service in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons’ garments, to minister in th…
Exodus 40:12-15 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.
Hebrews 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once…
Exodus 30:23-37 Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fift…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 8:1-13
God had given Moses orders to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priests' office, when he was with him the first time upon mount Sinai, Ex. 28 and Exo 29:1, where we have also the particular instructions he had how to do it. Now here we have,
I. The orders repeated. What was there commanded to be done is here commanded to be done now, Lev 8:2, Lev 8:3. The tabernacle was newly set up, which, without the priests, would be as a candlestick without a candle; the law concerning sacrifices was newly given, but could not be observed without priests; for, though Aaron and his sons had been nominated to the office, they could not officiate, till they were consecrated, which yet must not be done ti…
Take Aaron and his sons - The whole subject of this chapter has been anticipated in the notes, Exo 28:1 (note), etc., and Exo 29:1 (note), etc., in which all the sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies have been explained in considerable detail; and to those notes the reader is referred. It is only necessary to observe that Aaron and his sons were not anointed until now. Before, the thing was commanded; now, first performed.
John Gill on Leviticus 8:2
Take Aaron, and his sons with him,.... That is, order them to come, or send a message to them, that they appear at such a time at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, where the ceremony of consecration was to be performed, and was performed, Leviticus 8:3 which is observed and recorded by Moses, to show that he had a divine warrant for what he did, and that it was not from favour and affection to his brother, and because of the relation he and his family stood in to him, that he invested him and them with the priestly office, but it was by a command from the Lord; nor did Aaron take this honour to himself, but was called of God to it, Hebrews 5:4,
and the garments; the garments f…
When the Scripture spoke before the sacrifices for sins, he said that a bullock had to be offered for the sin of the priest who had caused the people to sin. Later also, when the Scripture describes how the things that the Lord commanded with Aaron and his sons, he says that a bull was offered for sin (Cf Lv 8,2). But first he commanded that the horns of the altar of incense should be anointed with the blood of the bullock, that it should be sprinkled with that same blood in the direction of the holy veil, and that the rest of the blood be poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offerings. . But later, when Aaron is consecrated, nothing is said of the sprinkling of the blood in the direction of the veil. Of the horns of the altar it is spoken, but it is not added of the incense. It is said that the blood spills next to the base of the altar (Lv 8,15). The text does not say: next to its base, as if it were necessary to think that it was that altar, whose horns had been anointed with blood. Therefore, although the text is expressed ambiguously, however, it is one free to think that it was done as it had been ordered before about the bull for sin. And so we are not forced to think that the horns of that altar were anointed at whose base the blood was spilled, but the horns of the altar of incense were anointed, and the blood was spilled next to the base of the sacrificial altar. Previously, the Scripture ordered that, if the priest sinned, the anointed and consecrated priest himself, who undoubtedly must be understood that he refers to the high priest, offered these sacrifices, because the Scripture then spoke in a general way. Now, when Aaron is consecrated, Moses offers and he himself receives the breast of the imposition, which, as the Scripture said before, had to be given to the priest (Cf Lv 8,29). I think it is called the breast of imposition, because he put on his fat, as the Scripture recalled before, when speaking of the sacrifice of salvation (Cf Lv 4,10). Well, since it seems that the high priesthood began with Aaron, what do we think Moses was? If he was not a priest, how could he do all those things? If so, how do we claim that the high priesthood began with his brother? Although even that psalm, in which Moses and Aaron are said to be among his priests (Ps. 98,6), remove the doubt that Moses was a priest, yet Aaron and his successors, the…
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
Aaron — The eldest son of Amram and Jochebed, a daughter of Levi (Ex. 6:20). Some explain the name as meaning mountaineer, others mountain of strength, illuminator. He was born in Egypt three years before…
Basket — There are five different Hebrew words so rendered in the Authorized Version: (1.) A basket (Heb. sal, a twig or osier) for holding bread (Gen. 40:16; Ex. 29:3, 23; Lev. 8:2, 26, 31; Num. 6:15, 17,…
Leaven — (1.) Heb. seor (Ex. 12:15, 19; 13:7; Lev. 2:11), the remnant of dough from the preceding baking which had fermented and become acid. (2.) Heb. hamets, properly “ferment.” In Num. 6:3, “vinegar of…
Basket · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
Leviticus 8:1-3
1. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
1. Loquutus est deinde Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:
2. Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;
2. Tolle Aharon et filios ejus cure illo, et vestes, et oleum unctionis, et juvencum sacrificii pro peccato: et duos arietes, et canistrum azymorum.
3. And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
3. Atque omnem coetum congrega ad ostium tabernaculi conventionis.
1. And the Lord spake. It is well known that in conjunction with the sacrifices there was an offering, wh…
Consecration of the Priests and the Sanctuary (cf. Ex 29:1-37). - The consecration of Aaron and his sons as priests was carried out by Moses according to the instructions in Ex 29:1-36; Exo 40:12-15; and the anointing of the tabernacle, with the altar and its furniture, as prescribed in Exo 29:37; Exo 30:26-29, and Exo 40:9-11, was connected with it (Lev 8:10, Lev 8:11).
Lev 8:1-4
Lev 8:1-5 contain an account of the preparations for this holy act, the performance of which was enjoined upon Moses by Jehovah after the publication of the laws of sacrifice (Lev 8:1). Moses brought the persons to be consecrated, the official costume that had been made for them (Ex 28), the anointing oil (Exo 30:2…
These items are also mentioned in Exod 29:1-3, 7. • sacred garments: See Exod 28. • The anointing oil consisted of special ingredients to give it a unique scent. These included myrrh, cinnamon, cane, and cassia (dried flowers from the cinnamon tree) mixed into olive oil (see Exod 30:22-33). • bull for the sin offering: See Lev 4:3-12. • The first of the two rams was to be a whole burnt offering (8:18), while the second was a special ordination sacrifice (8:22). • basket of bread made without yeast: See 6:19-23.
Rashi on Leviticus 8:2
קח את אהרן TAKE AARON — This section was spoken seven days before the final erection of the Tabernacle and so should have been placed before Exodus XL., but a transposition of this kind is quite customary in the Bible, because there is no “earlier” or “later” (no chronological order) in the Torah.
קח את אהרן means win him over with fine words and draw him on (cf. Rashi on Exodus 14:6) (Sifra, Tzav, Mechilta d'Miluim 1 2)).
ואת פר החטאת וגו' AND THE BULLOCK FOR THE SIN OFFERING [AND THE TWO RAMS] etc. — These are the sacrifices mentioned in the section containing the command about the installation ceremony — in the Scriptural Reading beginning with the words, ואתה תצוה (see Exodus 29)…
