Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 8:33
And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation [in] seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you.
33. shall consecrate you ] See R.V. mg. for Heb. idiom, meaning to institute to a priestly office. The reference apparently is to filling the hand (see on Lev 8:25) with the joint sacrifices, which they were to offer.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Lev 8:33
The days of your consecration.
Consecration and service
It seams singular and almost frivolous that the priests were commanded not to go out of the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation for seven days. This is our own practice. The accident has changed, but this is the philosophy of all calculated and well-set life. No priesthood is worth accepting that any fool may step into without notice, without preparation, and without thought. The great priesthoods of life are all approached by a seven days consecration. Does the medical priest run into his priesthood without consecration? is he not hidden for many a day in the tabernacle of wisdom–in the tent in which he meets all the authorities of his science? For a long time he may not prescribe; for a considerable period he has but to inquire and to give proof of capacity and industry. A whole week of time–meaning by that some perfect period–must elapse before he goes forth authoritatively to feel a pulse or to prescribe a remedy. Apply this to the preaching of the gospel. The preacher must be long time hidden, during which no man may suspect that he is a preacher; his silence may be almost provoking; people may be driven to inquire what the purpose of his life is: he says nothing; he never reveals himself; he looks as if he might be about to speak, but speak he never does; he is full of books and thoughts, and prayer seems to be written upon his transfigured face. What is the meaning of this? He is in the tent of meeting; he is in conference with the Trinity; he is undergoing consecration–in no merely ceremonial sense; in the sense of acquiring deeper knowledge of God, fuller communion with the truth, and entering into closer fellowship with all the mysteries of human life. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The spiritual application of this abiding of the priests seven days in the Tabernacle
1. Hesychius applieth it to the Pentecost, which was seven times seven days from the resurrection of Christ, and the apostles were commanded not to depart from Jerusalem till they had received the Holy Ghost, as these are not to go out of the door of the Tabernacle during the time of their consecration.
2. Lyranus would have understood by the seven days seven things from which the priests should abstain–long sleep, pleasure in eating, unprofitable actions, multiplicity of distraction, vanity of talking, variety of fiction, vileness of affection.
3. Some hereby would have signified that they which are to receive orders should exercise themselves with spiritual meditations in some retired place.
4. Some would have this a type of baptism, so such as were baptized did use to go seven days apparelled in white.
5. But these are fitter applications: That ministers should learn hereby to frequent the Church and to attend Divine things, or that these seven days may betoken all the time of this life, that we should not day or night, in prosperity or adversity, depart from the faith of the Church, or that the priests, as long as they live, should not depart from the observation of the Divine law, and should be admonished that all their life they are devoted to anothers service; and the staying in the Tabernacle showeth two principal duties of the priest–to learn somewhat of God or to teach the people; but he should teach what he hath learned out of Scripture, not out of his own brain. (A. Willet, D. D.).
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 33. For seven days shall he consecrate you.] This number was the number of perfection among the Hebrews; and the seven days’ consecration implied a perfect and full consecration to the sacerdotal office. See Clarke on Ex 29:30.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For seven days the same ceremonies were to be repeated, as the next verse implies, and other rites to be performed.
He consecrate you; either God or Moses; for the words may be spoken by Moses, either in Gods name, or in his own; Moses speaking of himself in the third person, which is very common in Scripture.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
33. ye shall not go out of the doorof the tabernacle of the congregation, &c.After all thesepreliminaries, they had still to undergo a week’s probation in thecourt of the tabernacle before they obtained permission to enter intothe interior of the sacred building. During the whole of that periodthe same sacrificial rites were observed as on the first day, andthey were expressly admonished that the smallest breach of any of theappointed observances would lead to the certain forfeiture of theirlives [Le 8:35].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation [in] seven days,…. Which was the time of their consecration, so long it lasted; and they had provision enough every day from the ram of consecration, whose flesh they were to boil and eat. The Jewish writers c are puzzled where they should ease nature, since the place was holy; but the orders are not to be considered as so strict but that they might go in and out, though they were not to stay long, or to attend to any other business; and it was always necessary there should be some upon the spot, keeping the Lord’s charge in their turns; and it was always requisite that they should also sleep alternately; for it cannot be thought that they should be all this time without rest, any more than without food:
until the days of your consecration be at an end; which were to continue so long:
for seven days shall he consecrate you; that is, Moses, who here speaks of himself in the third person, as appears from Ex 29:35. Aben Ezra observes, that the word “end” is wanting, and that the sense is, at the end of seven days he shall consecrate you, finish their consecration; all the seven days he was doing it, and at the end of the seventh concluded it.
c Aben Ezra, Hiscuni in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(cf. Exo 29:35-37). The consecration was to last seven days, during which time the persons to be consecrated were not to go away from the door of the tabernacle, but to remain there day and night, and watch the watch of the Lord that they might not die. “ For the Lord will fill your hand seven days. As they have done on this (the first) day, so has Jehovah commanded to do to make atonement for you ” (Lev 8:34). That is to say, the rite of consecration which has been performed upon you to-day, Jehovah has commanded to be performed or repeated for seven days. These words clearly imply that the whole ceremony, in all its details, was to be repeated for seven days; and in Exo 29:36-37, besides the filling of the hand which was to be continued seven days, and which presupposes the daily repetition of the consecration-offering, the preparation of the sin-offering for reconciliation and the expiation or purification and anointing of the altar are expressly commanded for each of the seven days. This repetition of the act of consecration is to be regarded as intensifying the consecration itself; and the limitation of it to seven days is to be accounted for from the signification and holiness of the number seven as the sign of the completion of the works of God. The commandment not to leave the court of the tabernacle during the whole seven days, is of course not to be understood literally (as it is by some of the Rabbins), as meaning that the persons to be consecrated were not even to go away from the spot for the necessities of nature (cf. Lund. jd. Heiligth. p. 448); but when taken in connection with the clause which follows, “ and keep the charge of the Lord, ” it can only be understood as signifying that during these days they were not to leave the sanctuary to attend to any earthly avocation whatever, but uninterruptedly to observe the charge of the Lord, i.e., the consecration commanded by the Lord. , lit., to watch the watch of a person or thing, i.e., to attend to them, to do whatever was required for noticing or attending to them (cf. Gen 26:5, and Hengstenberg, Christology).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(33) And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle.Better, and ye shall not go from the enclosure of the tent of meeting, that is, Aaron and his sons are not to go out of the court, as the consecration was not performed within but at the entrance of the tent of meeting. This is most distinctly stated in Lev. 8:35.
In seven days.Better, for seven days. As the ceremony of consecration lasted seven days, it was but natural that Aaron and his sons were enjoined not to quit the sacred enclosure for any secular transactions during the whole of this period.
For seven days shall he consecrate you.That is, on each of these seven days the same sacrifices are to be repeated, the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the consecration offering are to be offered up, and Aaron and his sons, as well as their garments, are to be sprinkled with the sacrificial blood and the anointing oil. (See Exo. 29:36.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
33. Seven days shall he consecrate you For the significance of the “seven” see Lev 4:6, note. The number was not in the Hebrew conception perfect till it had been repeated seven times. Men are not permitted to go forth into the priesthood at a step, without preparation and without thought. On each of the seven days the sin offering was made, (Exo 29:36😉 it is not said whether or not the other two offerings and the anointing were to be repeated. The rabbins assume anointing on each day. See Lev 8:11, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 8:33-34. Ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle Houbigant renders this very properly, Ye shall not depart from the door of the tabernacle for seven days; for it was at the door that the consecration was performed, Lev 8:3; Lev 8:31; Lev 8:35. Houbigant renders the 34th verse, in which it shall be done as it is done this day, that an atonement may be made for you: so the Lord hath commanded. The regard to the number seven is observable throughout the Scripture; and, possibly, so many days were appointed for the consecration of the priests, to denote their dedication to His service, who created all things in the space of six days, and rested the seventh. “This, however,” as Bishop Patrick remarks, shews the imperfection of all the legal sacrifices, which would not have been so often repeated, if they had been of greater efficacy; yet the continuance of them for seven days doth signify the complete consecration of these priests, according to the rites of those times. In conformity to which, our great High-Priest, the LORD CHRIST, who was perfected by one sacrifice of himself, spent seven days in his consecration to his office: for as Aaron is commanded to attend at the tabernacle so many days together, in like manner our Lord CHRIST did attend in the temple five days successively before his death; and having purged it on the first or second of those days from the profaneness which was exercised in it by merchandising, and afterward hallowed it by his doctrine, and by his Divine presence, which appeared in several miraculous cures, he went the sixth day into his heavenly sanctuary, into paradise itself, to purify and sanctify it with his own blood, as Moses at Aaron’s consecration did the material sanctuary and altar with the blood of beasts; and, having rested the seventh day, finished all by his resurrection early the next day in the morning.”
Note; 1. They who will serve the Lord must learn to endure hardships as good soldiers, and to disengage themselves from the affairs of this life. 2. They who have the charge of the Lord have an awful charge indeed. If through their neglect the sinner die in his iniquity, his blood will be required at their hands. 3. When we have once solemnly given up ourselves to God, we must never look back. 4. They who give themselves up to him shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of his house. God himself will be their portion and exceeding great reward.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Did not this detention in the tabernacle carry with it this signification, that the service of the LORD is a continual service? What a delightful view of this did Anna give, who departed not from the temple night and day? Luk 2:37 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Consecration and Service
Lev 8:33
IT seems singular and almost frivolous that the priests were commanded not to go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation for seven days. This is our own practice. The accident has changed, but this is the philosophy of all calculated and well-set life. We think we have escaped all these mechanisms, whereas we have not escaped one of them. God is one, his method is one, his providence is one. Any variety which may please our little fancy is a very transient delight; at the root and core of things there is a marvellous, an eternal unity. Men are not permitted to go forth into the priesthood at a step. No priesthood is worth accepting that any fool may step into without notice, without preparation and without thought. The great priesthoods of life are all approached by a seven days’ consecration. Men may rush at work, they may “rush in where angels fear to tread”; but looked at comprehensively and weighed wisely, the great philosophy covers all time that he who would accept any priesthood of life by which is meant any of its highest offices, leaderships and utilities must approach through a strait gate and go by a narrow way and obey the eternal law of consecration. This is not open to dispute; no theme of controversy is started by this suggestion. The practice of life is described almost literally even in this ancient text. There is no Old Testament in the sense of obsoleteness or exhaustion; there is an Old Testament in the sense of root, origin, first points, germs, authorities. Without the Old Testament we could have had no New Testament, as without eternity time would have been impossible. Does the medical priest run into his priesthood without consecration? is he not hidden for many a day in the tabernacle of wisdom in the tent in which he meets all the authorities of his science? For a long time he may not prescribe; for a considerable period he has but to inquire and to give proof of capacity and industry. A whole week of time meaning by that some perfect period must elapse before he goes forth authoritatively to feel a pulse, or to prescribe a remedy. Why this repetition of Old Testament technicality, of obsolete and most frivolous pedantry? There is no such thing. The Old Testament has a grip of life in all its departments and issues which is proof enough that it never wrote itself. Does the musical priest rush into his work quite suddenly without notice or preparation, without consecration and endorsement? Allow that in some conspicuous instances which could never be encompassed by mortal law there may have been bushes burning in wildernesses without the enkindling of the fire by human hands; allow for genius, for almost divine fulness of inspiration; still there remains the great common law of education, progress and influence; and seven days’ consecration, silence, study, inquiry, qualification must precede a forthcoming priest and the assertion of his power. The same law applies to the preaching of the Gospel. The preacher must be long time hidden, during which no man may suspect that he is a preacher; his silence may be almost provoking; people may be driven to inquire what the purpose of his life is; he says nothing; he never reveals himself; he looks as if he might be about to speak, but speak he never does; he is full of books and thoughts, and prayer seems to be written upon his transfigured face. What is the meaning of this? He is in the Tent of Meeting; he is in conference with the Trinity; he is undergoing consecration, in no merely ceremonial sense: in the sense of acquiring deeper knowledge of God, fuller communion with the truth, and entering into closer fellowship with all the mysteries of human life. Even when he seems to be doing things that other men could easily do, it is the other men who are making the mistake. When the medical priest, hoary with long years, touches your pulse, remember that half a century is listening to the ticking of that life-pendulum; and remember that when any well-qualified critic pronounces an opinion in a moment upon any performance it may be half a century that speaks in the brief and urgent sentence. Our judgments are not to be founded upon the mere flash of the moment; behind what appears to be easy there may be a lifetime of study, prayer, and consecration. What is true of all these regions is equally true of every other region in life that is worth occupying true of every workman, however humble his sphere of industry, true of every head of a business that requires care and thoughtful management, true of every man who attempts wisely to direct public opinion; there must be preparation, consecration, waiting, silence, and then the outcoming of the prepared man to do the work which God means him to execute. Thus life is no little trick, no momentary posture, no empirical venture; but a deep philosophy, a grand tragedy, a tremendous struggle. O! that men were wise, that they understood these things! In all thy ways acknowledge God, and he will direct thy path. Do not run before being sent. Remember that time spent in the wilderness is not time wasted. Never forget that there is a religious silence as well as a religious utterance; and let God fix the time of consecration and the place of concealment, and let him begin, continue and terminate the conference. After that all will be easy not because of any frivolity in itself, but because of the divine store of strength treasured up in the prepared and consecrated heart
“So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses” ( Lev 8:36 ).
Obedience is the best preparation for service. We cannot rule until we can obey. That was the motto of the great Napoleon. It is a philosophy expressed in the briefest terms. Aaron and his sons did not take a primary place; they did not rush upon their destiny; they waited, accepted the law, obeyed it to the letter, stood still like a commanded sun, and would not move until God bade them go forward. It is at this point that many of us lose much. We are impatient: we think we are prepared for action when we are not at all qualified to undertake it. The teacher knows better than the pupil; the master knows when we have been long enough in the wilderness or undergoing processes of spiritual education and religious chastisement. God is the time-keeper. To obey is to express in the form most suitable to modesty a spirit of genuine greatness. He who obeys, accepts discipline. To obey is to confess the power of others; to obey is to be willing to learn. How often is obedience masked! It has a look of complete surrender, though it is hooked and seamed through and through with subtle reluctance. In that case it is not obedience. None of the happy issues of obedience are secured by it; it is but a varied form of vanity, it is but a concealed expression of self-idolatry. The same rule holds good in Christian service. In the words of judgment we read, “Thou hast been faithful… I will make thee ruler.” The sense is even more clearly and graphically expressed by another word in the same judgment, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful… I will make thee ruler.” We should have more influence if we were more inspired by the spirit of obedience. Our word would go further if our character justified the assertion of our claim. It has come to a sad state when men undervalue what may be called, or rather miscalled, the negative virtues. We praise open heroism, military adventure, and in doing so we may within certain bounds be perfectly right; but we should not forget patience, obedience, modesty, uncomplaining resignation, the eyes that are weary with long watching, and the lips that are sometimes tempted to move to profanation and yet are recovered suddenly and shaped in prayer. It is no mark of progress that we undervalue negative virtues, passive qualities, simple waiting until we are told to go forward. A meek and a quiet spirit is, in the sight of God, of great price.
The time came when Aaron was to go forward to his work. “And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel,” and gave them their orders; and Aaron went forth and took the “young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.” There is something very pathetic about a man’s first action. We ought to look lovingly upon the young who try for the first time to realise the mystery of their vocation. It little becomes us to sneer. We ourselves, however old and skilled, had to begin. We should rather remember our own stumblings, and blunderings, and misadventures, and remembering these, should keep back the word of stinging criticism and bitter reproach, the utterance of which on the part of any man is an insult to the Spirit of Christ. Are any beginning the Christian race? We who are a mile or two on must pray that the new runners may run well; we remember where we slipped, where we well-nigh fell and should have fallen quite, but for friendly interposition and gentlest encouragement given by stronger men. He is not an able man who shows his ability in cynicism and in sneering. It is the curse of some families that they are always bitter. They mistake sneering for ability. It is the sting of a wasp, it is the fang of a serpent, it is the hoof of an ass, it is not ability. Ability sustains, comforts, encourages, builds up with gracious edification and speaks the word of encouragement when heart and flesh do fail. We owe everything to encouragement nothing to bitter cynicism. Encouragement was given in the case of the early priests.
“And Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded that ye should do: and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you.” Duty and glory not glory and duty must be the motto of life. Read the words, ponder them: “This is the thing which the Lord commanded that ye should do: ” The sentence is punctuated by a colon; the thing is supposed to be done, and on the other side of the colon we read “and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you”; harvest after seedtime, honour after service, heaven after earth, immortality after triumphant death.
Jesus Christ did all that is here ascribed to Aaron and his sons. Christ underwent preparation: for thirty years he was practically silent; he was being consecrated in a sense we cannot perfectly understand; he was being set apart, and in the end he brought all the completeness of his strength to bear in redeeming tenderness upon the awful situation of the world. He walked in long silence; no man dared ask him any question about his reticence. He might have spoken before so human impatience reasoned; but he was fulfilling a destiny; he was representing the most solemn mystery of life. Christ obeyed. In saying so, we are abiding strictly by the Scriptural line; we are not venturing upon some idle or poetic fancy. He accepted the position: he “became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross”; as a Son he served in the Father’s house. Study this aspect of the divine character of Jesus; his Deity suffers no loss by this stoop of his humanity. He is not the less God to the soul, but the more, and the more priestly and the more sympathetic, that he understands all the bending, all the condescension, all the service of life. There is no work of a permitted kind to which the hand can be put which Christ did not do long before he commanded us to attempt its execution. Jesus Christ also had his first work. We read such words as these: “Jesus began to preach.” They are tender words; they touch the heart with a most subtle pathos. Christ, who never himself began for he was Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last “began to preach” heard his own voice in public for the first time. What a beginning it was! How like a beginning when he began! He said “Repent!” It was a short discourse, yes, in words, but a discourse that filled all time with its meaning. Then we read “This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee.” He who began to preach began to work miracles did his first wonder. They say that to the true speaker the sentences he utters are greater surprises to himself than to his hearers. Was the miracle greater to Christ than to the observer? Was there any element of surprise in the Redeemer’s mind when he saw that the water had blushed into wine? We cannot tell. The human mind must wonder, and put reverent questions, and may do so without profaning sanctities divine. Have we begun? Have we begun to preach? Have we tried to do the first miracle? Have we never begun at all? It is high time to awake out of sleep: the night is far-spent, the day is at hand; redeem the time, buy up the opportunity, begin now. One man’s miracle may be the speaking of a gracious word, or the utterance of a forgiving declaration, or the offering of a hand long withheld, or the serving of the poor and the ignorant and those that are out of the way. Another man’s miracle may be begun in opening his lips for the first time in audible prayer. Each man must find out for himself the point at which he must begin his preaching and his miracle. Christ associated duty and glory; he said “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do,… glorify thou me… with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” He, too, would be glorified. Moses finished the work, then the glory of the Lord descended; Aaron did the things that were commanded, then the glory of the Lord appeared; Jesus Christ finished the work which was given him to do, and the glory was not withheld, a marvellous sentence; it seems to separate the coincident lines and divide them for ever.
“Aaron therefore went unto the altar, and slew the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself” ( Lev 9:8 ).
There the scene ends. We look for analogies and consummations, but where is the analogous line in this instance? There is a sentence in the New Testament which makes us quail bearing upon this very doctrine. In the Epistle to the Hebrews ( Heb 7:27 ), that sentence is recorded: “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, when he offered up himself.” All the meaning of that sentence no man may explain. Does it relate to the latter part of the previous sentence or to the entire declaration? Read again: “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 ” Which? “… first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” He was without sin, and therefore would need no sin-offering; a Lamb without blemish or spot or drawback, he had no sin to confess; but when he was baptized he said “… thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”; and when he was slain, what know I how much of his pure humanity was itself involved in the mysterious oblation? Silence is best. That he had no sin, he knew no sin, that he was spotless, pure, holy as God in himself we know; but representatively, humanly, fleshly, who can tell for the exposition must put itself into the form of a question the whole meaning of this ineffable mystery?
Thus stands the sublime appeal: a time of consecration, an act of obedience, glory crowning duty. To that programme of life and to no mean policy are we called, every one, by the Spirit of Christ and the vision of his Cross.
Note
The order of God for the consecration of Aaron is found in Exo 29 , and the record of its execution in Lev. viii.; and the delegated character of the Aaronic priesthood is clearly seen by the fact, that, in this its inauguration, the priestly office is borne by Moses, as God’s truer representative (Heb 7 ).
The form of consecration resembled other sacrificial ceremonies in containing, first a sin offering, the form of cleansing from sin and reconciliation; a burnt offering, the symbol of entire devotion to God of the nature so purified; and a meat offering, the thankful acknowledgment and sanctifying of God’s natural blessings. It had, however, besides these, the solemn assumption of the sacred robes (the garb of righteousness), the anointing (the symbol of God’s grace), and the offering of the ram of consecration, the blood of which was sprinkled on Aaron and his sons, as upon the altar and vessels of the ministry, in order to sanctify them for the service of God. The former ceremonies represented the blessings and duties of the man, the latter the special consecration of the priest.
The solemnity of the office, and its entire dependence for sanctity on the ordinance of God, were vindicated by the death of Nadab and Abihu, for “offering strange fire” on the altar, and apparently for doing so in drunken recklessness. Aaron checking his sorrow, so as at least to refrain from all outward signs of it, would be a severe trial to an impulsive and weak character, and a proof of his being lifted above himself by the office which he held.
From this time the history of Aaron is almost entirely that of the priesthood, and its chief feature is the great rebellion of Korah and the Levites against his sacerdotal dignity, united with that of Dathan and Abiram and the Reubenites against the temporal authority of Moses.
The true vindication of the reality of Aaron’s priesthood was, not so much the death of Korah by the fire of the Lord, as the efficacy of his offering of incense to stay the plague, by which he was seen to be accepted as an intercessor for the people.
Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
seven days. Aaron consecrated on the eighth day, after waiting seven days.
consecration = setting apart. consecrate. See note on Exo 28:41.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
seven days: Lev 14:8, Exo 29:30, Exo 29:35, Num 19:12, Eze 43:25-27
Reciprocal: Lev 9:1 – the eighth day Lev 15:13 – seven days Eze 42:14 – they not go
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 8:33. Seven days In each of which the same ceremonies were to be repeated, and other rites to be performed. He Either God or Moses; for the words may be spoken by Moses, either in Gods name or in his own.