Lev. 6:9 - priest secrets
the start of chapter 3
Great news — I finished Chapter 2. Now I owe 30,000 words on priestly service in Leviticus. But I’ve got a banger of a first insight, and I think we’re all in for a treat.
In Leviticus 1:1, Yahweh tells Moses what to say to the sons of Israel. Priests aren’t even mentioned in this discourse until v. 5, and even then they’re the fourth most important person in the narrative out of four. Then 1:1-6:8 characterise the five main sacrifices.
But starting in Leviticus 6:9, Yahweh tells Moses what to say to Aaron and his sons, and then he gives ‘special notes for priests’ on the same five sacrifices, up through 7:38. The good news for me is that no scholarly treatment of Leviticus really hones in on 6:9-7:38, so now I get to do it.
Here are my translation and notes after a close-read of 6:9-13 (MT 6:1-6). I’ll use the Hebrew verse numbers, which don’t exactly match the English ones.
6:1 — Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying:
This is all stock standard. Just means there’s a new section starting. Wilfried Warning pointed out Lev. uses this phrase 37 times to divide the book into speeches.
6:2 — Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the torah of ‘olah. The ‘olah, it is on the hearth upon the altar — all-night until-morning — and the fire on the altar is caused-to-burn on it.
“Command” (tzav) shows up for the first time in Leviticus. This is the word that has been used throughout the Tabernacle Narrative to describe Yahweh commanding Moses to build the tabernacle, and Moses building it ‘just as Yahweh commanded’ him. The word appears 54x in Exodus, then drops out until this verse. It remains prominent in ch 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14. This suggests to me that the appearance of tzav here means we’re resuming construction of the cult after a hiatus from Lev 1-6:8.
Burn is tuqad. It’s in the hofal stem, so I render it woodenly cause-to-burn.
6:3 — And the priest shall put his linen robe and his linen breeches on his body, and take up the ashes of the ‘olah of the altar which the fire has eaten, and he shall put them beside the altar.
The material ‘linen’ only appears here and then thrice in ch. 16. The article ‘robe’ only appears here. The article ‘breeches’ appears in Exod. 28, 39.
Eaten is hakal. It is otherwise translated devoured or consumed. Once it shows up here, it shows up 80x more in Leviticus. The priests ‘eat’ certain portions. God’s fire eats the ‘olah and Nadav&Avihu. Eating is sometimes celebratory (eg 7:16, 18), and not necessarily ritual. It always connotes finishing.
6:4 — Then he takes off his clothes and puts on other clothes and carries the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.
Being a priest is about changing clothes. Clothes is begged, and it’s a generic term. They’re trading robe and breeches for something else, doesn’t say what.
Being a priest is not just about handling blood (Lev. 1-5) but about handling ashes, too.
Clean is tahor. This is our first mention of outside the camp. Lev. 13-14 will resume the discussion of moving things into center and out from center.
6:5 — And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it — it shall not be put out — and the priest kindles wood on it, morning by morning, and arranges on it the ‘olah, and he shall smokify on it the fat of the shelamim.
Burning is, again, the hofal of tuqad. Nice to see a familiar word. In v. 2 we had tuqad and boqqer, or morning. This is forming a nice frame.
Arrange had appeared in the general instructions for the ‘olah at 1:7, 8, 12. Nice overlap.
This implies the wood offering and seems to make it really important. We will be paying attention to the wood in this dissertation.
I say ‘smokify’ because it is literally cause-to-smoke (hifil of smoke).
This is the first place the olah and shelamim are linked. Praise and thanksgiving. Feeding and being fed. The link between these two will also be a feature of this dissertation.
6:6 — A fire will continually burn on the altar — never shall it go out.
Okay, this is the main point of the section. Continually is tamid. We know that’s a key word. Albert Vanhoye argues the ‘eternal spirit’ of Hebrews is a call back to the continual fire. If this is right, then a Christian priest’s job is to keep the Spirit burning so people are always ready to offer daily sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise.
Thanks for putting up with this, y’all. I’ll write some funner stuff soon. Sunday, for example, I teach on the parable of the Prodigal Son. I’ll argue that the Father is cast as a priest, a la Lev 13-14, shuttling an unclean Israelite across zones — from outside the camp to inside it, and from the camp to the holy places — where he offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving. The Prodigal Son is a portrait of priestliness.