all the rest of the bull—he must take outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place where the ashes are poured out, and there he must burn it on a wood fire on the ash heap.
Parallel translations
- WEB he shall carry the whole bull outside of the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire. Where the ashes are poured out, it shall be burned.
- KJV Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.
- NKJV the whole bull he shall carry outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out it shall be burned.
- NASB that is, all the rest of the bull, he is to bring out to a clean place outside the camp where the fatty ashes are poured out, and burn it on wood with fire; where the fatty ashes are poured out it shall be burned.
- NLT and carry it away to a place outside the camp that is ceremonially clean, the place where the ashes are dumped. There, on the ash heap, he will burn it on a wood fire.
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
The whole bull is carried outside the camp to a clean place and burned. The sin-bearing carcass is removed from the holy camp and consumed by fire.
Overview
Burning the body outside the camp removed the sin it symbolically bore away from God's dwelling among His people. This act of bearing sin outside the holy place is rich with meaning. Hebrews explicitly applies it to Jesus, who suffered outside the gate, bearing our sin away so that we might be made holy (Hebrews 13:11-13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Heb 13:11Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp.
- Lev 6:10–11And the priest shall put on his linen robe and linen undergarments, and he shall remove from the altar the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed and place them beside it.
- Exod 29:14But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
- Lev 16:27The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung must be burned up.
- Num 19:3Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
- Num 19:5Then the heifer must be burned in his sight. Its hide, its flesh, and its blood are to be burned, along with its dung.
- Lev 13:46As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.
- Num 5:3You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.”
- Num 15:35And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”
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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 4:12 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
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.