Aaron is to present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.
- KJV And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
- NKJV “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.
- NASB Then Aaron shall offer the bull as the sin offering, which is for himself, so that he may make atonement for himself and for his household.
- NLT “Aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family, making them right with the Lord.
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
Aaron offers the bull as a sin offering for himself and his household first. The mediator must be cleansed before he can atone for others.
Overview
Before atoning for the nation, Aaron makes atonement for himself and his house with the bull. As a sinner himself, the high priest needed cleansing first. This contrast highlights the superiority of Christ, the sinless High Priest who needed no sacrifice for Himself and so could perfectly atone for His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Lev 9:7Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to make atonement for yourself and for the people. And sacrifice the people’s offering to make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded.”
- Heb 9:7But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
- Heb 7:27Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.
- Heb 5:2–3He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and misguided, since he himself is beset by weakness.
- Ezra 10:18–19Among the descendants of the priests who had married foreign women were found these descendants of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah.
- Ezek 43:19You are to give a young bull from the herd as a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are of the family of Zadok, who approach Me to minister before Me, declares the Lord GOD.
- Job 1:5And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
- Lev 8:14–17Moses then brought the bull near for the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.
- Ezek 43:27At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Lord GOD.’”
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 16:6 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.