Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 4:12

"even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall it be burnt." — Leviticus 4:12 (ASV)

Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth. — This does not mean that the high priest himself had to carry the whole bullock all that distance. Instead, in accordance with the idiom so common in Hebrew, where the singular is used for the plural, or the indefinite or impersonal form, it denotes that those who assisted in doing the rough work of the altar are to carry the victim. Therefore, the ancient Greek Version (Septuagint) and the Samaritan rightly translate it as "and they shall carry," in the plural: that is, the whole bullock shall be carried forth. In Leviticus 4:24 of this very chapter, the Authorised Version properly translates the same idiom as "in the place where they kill the burnt offering," though the verb, as in the verse before us, is in the singular. (See also Leviticus 4:14.)

Without the camp. — During the time of the Second Temple, there were three places for burning:

• One place was in the court of the sanctuary, where they burned the sacrifices that were unfit and rejected.
• The second place was in the mountain of the house called Birah, where those sacrifices were buried that met with an accident after they had been carried out of the court.
• And the third place was outside Jerusalem, called the place of ashes.

It is this place to which the Apostle refers when he says, "for the bodies of those beast whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered without the gate" (Hebrews 13:11–12).

And burn him on the wood with fire. — While special wood was required for the burning of those victims that were consumed in the court of the sanctuary , the sacrifices that were taken outside the city could be burned with any wood, or even straw or stubble. All that was insisted on was that it should be burned with fire, as the text before us states, but not with cinders, coals, or lime.