John Gill Commentary Leviticus 1

And the Lord called unto Moses
Or "met him", as the phrase is rendered in (Numbers 23:4) . The word (arqyw) , translated "called", the last letter of it is written in a very small character, to show, as the Jews ^F2 say, that he met him accidentally, and unawares to Moses: other mysteries they observe in it, as that it respects the modesty of Moses, who lessened himself, and got out of the way, that he might not have the government laid upon him, and therefore the Lord called him; or to denote the wonderful condescension of the Lord, whose throne is in heaven, and yet vouchsafed to dwell in the tabernacle, out of which he called to Moses, and from Mount Sinai, and out of the cloud ^F3 .

The word "Lord" is not in this clause, but the following, from where it is supplied by our translators, as it is in the Syriac version, and as the word "God" is in the Arabic version; the two Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it, ``the Word of the Lord called to Moses,'' by an articulate voice, though it may be it was a still small one; and which some think is the reason of the smallness of the letter before mentioned; and Aben Ezra says that Moses heard it, but all Israel did not hear:

and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation ;
from off the mercy seat, between the cherubim over the ark, where the glory of the Lord, or the divine Shechinah and Majesty took up its residence, and from where the Lord promised to commune with Moses, (Exodus 25:22) :

saying ;
what follows concerning sacrifices; which shows, that these were not human inventions, but of divine institution, and by the appointment of God.

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: Vid. Buxtorf. Tiberias, c. 15. p. 39.
• F3: R. Abraham Seba, Tzeror Hammor, fol. 92. 1. 2.

Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them
For to no other was the law of sacrifices given; not to the Gentiles, but to the children of Israel:

if any man ;
or woman, for the word "man", as Ben Gersom observes, includes the whole species:

of you ;
of you Israelites; the Targum of Jonathan adds,``and not of the apostates who worship idols.'' Jarchi interprets it of yours, of your mammon or substance, what was their own property, and not what was stolen from another ^F4 , see (Isaiah 61:8) :

bring an offering to the Lord ;
called "Korban" of "Karab", to draw nigh, because it was not only brought nigh to God, to the door of the tabernacle where he dwelt, but because by it they drew nigh to God, and presented themselves to him, and that for them; typical of believers under the Gospel dispensation drawing nigh to God through Christ, by whom their spiritual sacrifices are presented and accepted in virtue of his:

you shall bring your offering of the cattle, [even] of the herd, and
of the flock ;
that is, of oxen, and of sheep or goats.

The Targum of Jonathan is,``of a clean beast, of oxen, and of sheep, but not of wild beasts shall you bring your offerings.'' These were appointed, Ben Gersom says, for these two reasons, partly because the most excellent, and partly because most easy to be found and come at, as wild creatures are not: but the true reason is, because they were very fit to represent the great sacrifice Christ, which all sacrifices were typical of; the ox or bullock was a proper emblem of him for his strength and laboriousness, and the sheep for his harmlessness, innocence, and patience, and the goat, as he was not in himself, but as he was thought to be, a sinner, being sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and being traduced as such, and having the sins of his people imputed to him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Vid. T. Bab. Succah, fol. 30. 1. & not. Abendana in Miclol Yophi in loc.

If his offering [be] a burnt sacrifice of the herd
So called, because consumed by fire, see (Leviticus 6:9) even all of it except the skin, and therefore its name with the Greeks is "a whole burnt offering", as in (Mark 12:33) its name in Hebrew is (hlwe) , which comes from a word which signifies to "ascend" or "go up", because not only it was carried up to the altar by the priest, which was common to other sacrifices, but being burnt upon it, it ascended upwards in smoke and vapour; it was typical of Christ's dolorous sufferings and death, who therein sustained the fire of divine wrath, and his strength was dried up like a potsherd with it. Jarchi on (Leviticus 1:1) says, there were in the burnt offerings mysteries of future things:

let him offer a male ;
and not a female, pointing at the Messiah's sex, and his strength and excellency, the child that was to be born, and the Son to be given, whose name should be Immanuel:

without blemish ;
or [perfect], having no part wanting, nor any part superfluous, nor any spot upon it, see (Leviticus 22:19–24) denoting the perfection of Christ as man, being in all things made like unto his brethren, and his having not the least stain or blemish of sin upon him, either original or actual, and so could, as he did, offer up himself without spot to God, (Hebrews 2:17) (9:14) (1 Peter 1:19) :

and he shall offer it of his own voluntary will ;
not forced or compelled to it, or with any reluctancy, but as a pure freewill offering; so our Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life of himself, and freely gave himself an offering and a sacrifice, and became cheerfully and readily obedient unto death:

at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord ;
it was to be done openly and publicly, and in the presence of the Lord, to whom it was offered up; showing, that Christ's sacrifice would be offered up to God, against whom we have sinned, by which his law would be fulfilled, his justice satisfied, and wrath appeased, and that his death would be public and notorious; see (Luke 24:18–20) .

And he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt
offering
According to the Targum of Jonathan, it was his right hand; but it is generally thought by the Jewish writers that both hands were laid on; so Ben Gersom and Aben Ezra, with whom Maimonides

and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him :
that is, the burnt offering should be accepted in his room and stead, and hereby an atonement of his sins should be made for him, typical of that true, real, and full atonement made by the sacrifice of Christ, which this led his faith unto.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: agrees, who says, he that lays on hands ought to lay on with all his strength, with both his hands upon the head of the beast, as it is said, "upon the head of the burnt offering": not upon the neck, nor upon the sides; and there should be nothing between his hands and the beast: and as the same writer says ^F6 , it must be his own hand, and not the hand of his wife, nor the hand of his servant, nor his messenger; and who also observes ^F7 , that at the same time he made confession over the burnt offering both of his sins committed against affirmative and negative precepts: and indeed by this action he owned that he had sinned, and deserved to die as that creature he brought was about to do, and that he expected pardon of his sin through the death of the great sacrifice that was a type of. Moreover, this action signified the transferring of his sins from himself to this sacrifice, which was to be offered up to make atonement for them; so Gersom observes; see (Leviticus 16:21Leviticus 16:22) . This denotes the translation of our sins from us, and the imputation of them to Christ, who was offered up in our room and stead, to make atonement for them, as follows:
• F6: Hilchot Maaseh Hakorbanot, c. 3. sect. 8. Vid. T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 93. 2.
• F7: Ib. sect. 14.

And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord
That is, the man that brings the burnt offering, for no other is yet spoken of; and according to the traditions of the elders ^F8, killing of the sacrifice was right when done by strangers, by women, and by servants, and by unclean persons, even in the most holy things, provided that the unclean did not touch the flesh; and it is observed ^F9, that the service of the priest begins in the next clause, killing being lawful by him that was not a priest, according to the Targum of Jonathan, the butcher; but Aben Ezra interprets it of the priests, and certain it is, that the burnt offerings of the fowls were killed by the priests, (Leviticus 1:15) and the Septuagint version renders it, "and they shall kill".

However that may be, the burnt offering was to be killed in the court before the Lord; and this was typical of the death of Christ, who, according to these types, as well as to other prophecies, was to die for the sins of men, and accordingly did; and if this was the proprietor and not the priest that killed the sacrifice, it may denote that the sins of God's people, for whom Christ's sacrifice was offered up, were the cause of his death:

and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood :
in vessels or basins, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, into which they received it when slain:

and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation ;
which was the altar of burnt offering, and not the altar of incense, as appears by the situation of it, see (Exodus 40:5Exodus 40:6) and the blood was sprinkled all around the altar with two sprinklings: the rule in the Misnah is ^F11 ; the slaying of the burnt offering is in the north, and the reception of its blood into the ministering vessels is in the north, and its blood ought to have two sprinklings, which answer to four; which Maimonides ^F12 explains thus; because it is said "round about", it must needs be that the sprinklings should comprehend the four sides of the altar; and this is done when the two sprinklings are upon the two horns, which are diametrically opposite; and this is what is meant, "which are four"; the sense is, that those two should include the four sides, and the two opposite horns were the northeast and the southwest, as he and other Jewish writers observe ^F13 , and which he expresses more clearly elsewhere ^F14 :

When the priest took the blood in the basin, he sprinkled out of it in the basin, two sprinklings upon the two corners of the altar opposite from it; and he ordered it so to sprinkle the blood upon the horn, that the blood might surround the corners in the form of the Greek letter "gamma" ^F15 ; so that the blood of the two sprinklings might be found upon the four sides of the altar; because it is said of the burnt offerings, and of the peace offerings "round about"; and this is the law for the trespass offering, and the rest of the blood was poured out at the bottom southward:

Now this was always done by a priest, for though the bullock might be killed by a stranger, as Gersom on the place observes, yet its blood must be sprinkled by a priest; and it is the note of Aben Ezra, that this might be done by many, and therefore it is said, the "priests, Aaron's sons", when the slaying of it was only by one.

The "altar" on which the blood was sprinkled typified the divinity of Christ, which gave virtue to his blood, by which it made atonement for sin; and in allusion to this rite Christ's blood is called "the blood of sprinkling", (1 Peter 1:2) (Hebrews 12:24) which being sprinkled on the heart by the Spirit of God clears it from an evil conscience, and purges the conscience from dead works, and speaks peace and pardon there, (Hebrews 10:22) (9:14) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: Misn. Zebachim, c. 3. sect. 1. & Maimon. in ib. T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 27. 1. & Zebachim, fol. 32. 1. & Menachot, fol. 19. 1.
• F9: Bartenora in Misn. Zebachim, ib.
• F11: Misn. Zebachim, c. 5. sect. 4.
• F12: Perush in ib.
• F13: Jarchi, Bartenora, & Yom Tob, in ib.
• F14: Hilchot Korbanot, c. 5. sect. 6.
• F15: Vid. T. Bab. Zebachim, fol. 53. 2.