Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 16:4

He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen miter shall he be attired: these [are] holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and [so] put them on.

4. The linen garments here mentioned are the garments described in Exo 28:39-43. Cp. Lev 16:23-24.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The high priest when he changed his dress on this day was required to bathe himself. In his golden garments he had, on this day, and for the previous week, to offer the regular daily sacrifices, and to perform the other sacerdotal duties of the sanctuary, which were usually performed by a common priest. The dress of white linen, which he now put on, appears to have been like the ordinary dress of the common priests, except in the substitution of a linen mitre for the bonnet (or cap), and of a plain linen girdle for the variegated one (Exo 28:40-43 notes). In preparing to enter the holy of holies, he attired himself in spotless white as a token of the holiness without which none, in a spiritual sense, can enter the divine presence. He thus became a more distinct foreshadow of the greater high priest Heb 7:26; Heb 6:19-20. This significance belonged to the high priest only in his official capacity as mediator: in his own person he had infirmity, and was required to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the peoples. Heb 7:27. See the notes at Lev 9:7-14. On the same ground it was that, although as a mediator he had to enter the most holy place, as sinful man he needed the cloud of incense as a veil to come between him and the holiness of Yahweh. See Lev 16:13.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. He shall put on the holy linen coat] He was not to dress in his pontifical garments, but in the simple sacerdotal vestments, or those of the Levites, because it was a day of humiliation; and as he was to offer sacrifices for his own sins, it was necessary that he should appear in habits suited to the occasion. Hence he has neither the robe, the ephod, the breastplate, the mitre, c. these constituted his dress of dignity as the high priest of God, ministering for others and the representative of Christ: but now he appears, before God as a sinner, offering an atonement for his transgressions, and his garments are those of humiliation.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

It is observable that the high priest did not now use his peculiar and glorious robes, but only his linen garments, which were common to him with the ordinary priests. The reason whereof was, either because this was not a day of feasting and rejoicing, but of mourning and humiliation, at which times people were to lay aside their ornaments, Exo 33:5. Some conceive, that under the linen garments here named are comprehended his more glorious robes also by a synecdoche. But that doth not appear neither from hence, nor from other places alleged. Had only his holy garments been mentioned in general, all might have been understood; but when only the linen apparel is mentioned here, and after, Lev 16:23, and when that is so particularly expressed in four several parts of it, and not a word of the other either here or in the rest of the chapter, it seems presumptuous to add them here without any ground or evidence. Or because it was fit he should not exalt, but abase himself, when he was to appear before the Divine Majesty, and therefore he was to come in the meanest of his priestly habits. Or that it might be an evidence of the imperfection of this priesthood and of the great difference between the Levitical and the true High Priest Christ Jesus, whose prerogative alone it is to go into the true holy of holies with his glorious robes, when this must carry thither the characters of his meanness.

These are holy garments, because appropriated to a holy and religious use, for which reason other things are called holy. See Exo 29:31; 30:25; 2Ch 5:5.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

He shall put on the holy linen coat,…. Which he wore in common with other priests:

and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh; upon those parts of his body which are more secret, and less honourable flesh, meaning the same, as in Le 15:2:

and shall be girded with a linen girdle and with the linen mitre shall he be attired, as the other priests were; which were an emblem of the purity and holiness of Christ, whereby he became a proper and suitable high priest, to make atonement for sin, he having none in himself; and of his mean estate of humiliation afflictions, and sufferings, whereby he expiated sin, and made reconciliation for iniquity; the high priest on the day of atonement not appearing in his golden garments, as the Jews call others worn by him, because there were some gold in them, as being unsuitable to a day of affliction and humiliation, but in garments of flax, a meaner dress; and which also were an emblem of the righteousness of Christ, and his saints, called fine linen, clean and white; which is wrought out by him, as the author of it, is in him as the subject of it, and worn by him as the Lord our righteousness, and in which, as the instilled head and representative of his people, he entered into heaven to show it to his Father, and plead it with him:

these [are] holy garments; and to be used only in sacred service: there were four more holy garments besides these worn by the high priest, as the breastplate, the ephod, the robe, and the plate of gold, and which also were put on at certain times on this day, as at the offering of the morning and evening sacrifice, and at the slaying and offering of the several creatures on this day u, see Le 16:23:

therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and [so] put them on; by dipping, and that in forty seahs of water, as the Targum of Jonathan; and this he did as often as he changed his garments, which were no less than five times on this day. The tradition is w, no man goes into the court for service, even though clean, until he has dipped himself: the high priest dips five times, and sanctifies, i.e. washes his hands and feet ten times on that day, and all are done in the holy place, over the house of Parvah, excepting this only, that is, first here: Jarchi on the text observes, on this day, he (the high priest) is bound to dipping at every change, and five times he changes, and to two washings of his hands and feet at the laver: this washing may be either an emblem of Christ’s baptism, which he submitted to before he entered on his public ministry, and was, by dipping; or rather of his being cleared, acquitted, and justified from all sin, upon his resurrection from the dead, after he had made atonement for it, and before his entrance into heaven; as he had no sin of his own he needed not the washing of regeneration, or the water of sanctifying grace to be sprinkled on him, to cleanse him from it but inasmuch as he had sin imputed to him, and which he took upon him to make atonement for, it was proper and necessary, when he had made it, that he should be justified in the Spirit, that so he might enter into heaven without sin imputed, as he will appear without it when he comes a second time.

u Misn. Yoma, c. 3. sect. 4, 6. w Ib. sect. 3.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(4) He shall put on the holy linen coat.Better, a holy linen tunic. The four articles of clothing here mentioned, all of which were of white linen, constituted the sacerdotal white vestments, in contra-distinction to the golden garments. Of the white garments he possessed two sets, one of Egyptian linen, and the other of Indian and less costly linen. The community allowed the high priest thirty min to purchase these garments, and he could add as much as he liked from his own money if he wished them to be more costly, provided the material was linen made of six double twisted threads and of flax. It was the more costly vestments of Egyptian linen which the high priest wore on this occasion. The latter he put on in the after part of the day when he entered the Holy of Holies to bring out the censer. These garments were the same as those of the ordinary priests, except the turban, which was a little taller.

And he shall wash.He had to bathe his body every time when he changed his vestments.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

4. The holy linen coat This requirement, that Aaron should divest himself of his pontifical robes when he appears before the Lord as a penitent, teaches us that no worldly distinction, no ecclesiastical preferment, is of any avail to avert the wrath of God. When Aaron represents God to men he may well be clothed with splendour, but when as a sinner he stands before the divine holiness, that splendour pales. The day of atonement stained the glory of all flesh by the revelation of Jehovah’s holiness in contrast with man’s guilt.

Breeches Properly, drawers. See Lev 6:10, note. The high priest is required to appear in the apparel of a common priest, with the addition of a linen mitre, a distinctive badge of the pontificate. This change of raiment represents a humiliation as deep as does the wearing of sackcloth upon the common people.

Wash his flesh It became the typical high priest to be “holy, harmless, and undefiled,”

that he might fitly prefigure the spotless Son of God. It was customary to remove him from his own house to a chamber in the temple seven days before, lest he should contract any defilement which might entail an uncleanness during those seven days, and he be disqualified for his duty on the great day of atonement. During this time he was exercised in all the various parts of the service, though not entering within the veil. The law relating to his duties was read to him again and again, lest he should make any mistake in his office on that day to his own destruction and the detriment of the people. The elders of the Sanhedrin solemnly adjured him in these words: “We adjure thee, O high priest, our delegate, by Him that caused his name to dwell in this house, that thou alter not any thing of what we have spoken unto thee.”- Delitzsch on the Hebrews, Appendix.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments