“Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and wash them with water.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting, and shall wash them with water.
- KJV And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.
- BSB Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.
- NASB Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
- NLT “Present Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and wash them with water.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses was to bring Aaron and his sons to the tent's entrance and wash them with water. The consecration of the priests began with cleansing.
Overview
Before being clothed and anointed, the priests were washed, signifying the purity required to serve a holy God. Washing marked the start of their ordination, teaching that those who draw near to minister must first be cleansed. It foreshadows the cleansing every believer needs and receives in Christ to serve God acceptably.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Lev 8:1–13Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
- Lev 9:1–24On the eighth day, Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel;
- Exod 29:1–35“This is the thing that you shall do to them to make them holy, to minister to me in the priest’s office: take one young bull and two rams without defect,
- Luke 1:35The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
- Gal 4:4But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
- Matt 3:16Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.
- John 3:34For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God gives the Spirit without measure.
- Rom 8:3For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
- Isa 61:1–3The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
- Isa 11:1–5A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 40:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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