Leviticus 9:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 9:3
And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering;
a step or (collectively · preposition + noun, common feminine singular 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
Ezra 6:17 And offered at the dedication of this house of God an hundred bullocks, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all…
Leviticus 4:23 Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish:
Ezra 10:19 And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass.
Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye…
Revelation 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us…
Exodus 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:
Leviticus 12:6 And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offerin…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 9:1-7
Orders are here given for another solemnity upon the eighth day; for the newly-ordained priests were set to work immediately after the days of their consecration were finished, to let them know that they were not ordained to be idle: He that desires the office of a bishop desires a good work, which must be looked at with desire, more than the honour and benefit. The priests had not so much as one day's respite from service allowed them, that they might divert themselves, and receive the compliments of their friends upon their elevation, but were busily employed the very next day; for their consecration was the filling of their hands. God's spiritual priests have constant work cut out for the…
Take ye a kid - In Lev 4:14 a young bullock is commanded to be offered for the sin of the people; but here the offering is a kid, which was the sacrifice appointed for the sin of the ruler, Lev 4:22, Lev 4:23, and hence some think that the reading of the Samaritan and the Septuagint is to be preferred. Speak unto the Elders of Israel, these being the only princes or rulers of Israel at that time; and for them it is possible this sacrifice was designed. It is however supposed that the sacrifice appointed Lev 4:14 was for a particular sin, but this for sin in general; and that it is on this account that the sacrifices differ.
John Gill on Leviticus 9:3
And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak,.... That is, Aaron should speak to them, for being now high priest, Moses had no more to do with the sacrifices of the people, but it was incumbent on Aaron to call upon them to bring them to him such as the Lord by this law required of them:
saying, take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering; this creature fitly represented Christ as made sin, and an offering for sin, in the room of his people:
and a calf, and a lamb; both of them, as before observed, were proper emblems of Christ in his strength and innocence, sometimes called the fatted calf, and frequently the Lamb of God, Luke 15:23 John 1:29,
both of the first year, without blemis…
Moses says to Aaron: Speak to the senate of Israel, saying, "Take a goat from the goats for the sin offering and a ram and a bull and a one-year-old bull, without blemish, for the burnt offering; and a young bull of the oxen and a ram for the sacrifice of salvation before the Lord and fine flour mingled with oil; because today the Lord will appear to you ». The Scripture mentions here four species of animal sacrifices: the holocaust, the sacrifice for sin, the sacrifice of salvation and the sacrifice of consummation. But the sacrifice of consummation belongs to the sanctification of the priest. Therefore, the other three kinds of sacrifices are commanded here and this is said to the elders of Israel, so that it corresponds to all the people. In this text, the sacrifice for sin has three animals: the kid, the ram and the bull. The lamb of one year belongs to the holocaust. The bull and the ram belong to the sacrifice of salvation. Therefore, it is not necessary to distinguish, affirming that in the sacrifice by the sin it is only necessary to understand that a kid was offered, whereas the other three animals were offered in the holocaust, that is to say, the ram, the steer and the lamb of one year. Rather it is rather that the first three were offered in the sacrifice for sin. And for that, the words of the Scripture: Take a kid of the goats for the sacrifice for sin and a ram and a bull, they refer to the sacrifice for sin, and the lamb of one year for the burnt offering remains. The reason we have made this observation is that the following distinction can also be made: Take a goat from the goats for the sacrifice for sin. And the rest of the passage would refer to the holocaust. The words that are added later: without defect, can refer to all. Now, as there is doubt about which is the best way to separate the words, it comes to the solution that we have given that the first three animals refer to the sacrifice for sin, since before it was ordered to offer a kid for sin of the boss (Cf Lv 4,23). For the sin of each one of the people when they sin before the Lord doing something that should not be done, he ordered to offer a ram (Cf Lv 5,18). And for the sin of the whole assembly, a steer (Cf Lv 4,14). Therefore, it was advisable that, in telling the Senate what all the people had to offer, it would be logical that they should offer a goat for the chiefs…
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…
Bullock — (1.) The translation of a word which is a generic name for horned cattle (Isa. 65:25). It is also rendered “cow” (Ezek. 4:15), “ox” (Gen. 12:16). (2.) The translation of a word always meaning an…
Goat — (1.) Heb. ‘ez, the she-goat (Gen. 15:9; 30:35; 31:38). This Hebrew word is also used for the he-goat (Ex. 12:5; Lev. 4:23; Num. 28:15), and to denote a kid (Gen. 38:17, 20). Hence it may be regarded…
Lamb — (1.) Heb. kebes, a male lamb from the first to the third year. Offered daily at the morning and the evening sacrifice (Ex. 29:38-42), on the Sabbath day (Num. 28:9), at the feast of the New Moon…
Sheep — Are of different varieties. Probably the flocks of Abraham and Isaac were of the wild species found still in the mountain regions of Persia and Kurdistan. After the Exodus, and as a result of…
Calf, The · Offered in sacrifice — Offered in sacrifice
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).
John Calvin on Leviticus 9:1-5
And it came to pass on the eighth day We have here related how Aaron and his sons, after the time of their consecration was fulfilled, began to execute their office. It was necessary that He should be his brother's disciple, in order to follow the pattern laid down by God. And we must bear in mind that Moses, who was not appointed priest by a solemn rite, sanctified the others, in order that the authority and the efficacy of the outward sign should rest in God alone. This, therefore, is contained in the earlier portion of the chapter, how, after Aaron had been initiated in the priest's office for seven days, He commenced the work entrusted to him by God's command: the second part shews how t…
These sacrifices—the sin and whole burnt offerings for the priests and the sin, burnt, peace, and grain offerings for the people—were offered at the beginning of the priests’ ministry to make certain that all sin was atoned for and the covenant with God affirmed. Only the guilt offering was omitted.
Rashi on Leviticus 9:2
קח לך עגל TAKE THEE A CALF — This animal was selected as a sin offering to announce to him that the Holy One, blessed be He, granted him atonement by means of this calf for the incident of the golden calf which he had made (Midrash Tanchuma, Shmini 4)
