Then the priest must take what is left of the bull and carry it outside the camp and burn it there, just as is done with the sin offering for the high priest. This offering is for the sin of the entire congregation of Israel.
Parallel translations
- WEB He shall carry the bull outside the camp, and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly.
- KJV And he shall carry forth the bullock without the camp, and burn him as he burned the first bullock: it is a sin offering for the congregation.
- BSB Then he is to take the bull outside the camp and burn it, just as he burned the first bull. It is the sin offering for the assembly.
- NKJV Then he shall carry the bull outside the camp, and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is a sin offering for the assembly.
- NASB Then he is to bring the bull out to a place outside the camp and burn it just as he burned the first bull; it is the sin offering for the assembly.
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 bull of the priestly sin offering is burned outside the camp because its blood was taken into the sanctuary. It shows sin's defilement must be removed from God's presence.
Overview
Like the bull offered for the high priest's sin (v. 11-12), the carcass of the community's sin offering is burned outside the camp rather than eaten, since its blood has been carried inside the Holy Place. The location signals that what bears the weight of sin cannot remain in the holy assembly. Hebrews 13:11-13 draws on this very pattern, noting that Jesus likewise 'suffered outside the gate' to sanctify His people by His blood.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Lev 16:15“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat.
- Lev 4:11–12The bull’s skin, all its meat, with its head, and with its legs, its innards, and its dung,
- Lev 16:21Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness.
- 2 Cor 5:21For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Matt 20:28even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- 1 Tim 2:5–6For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
- Ezra 8:35The children of the captivity, who had come out of exile, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats for a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to Yahweh.
- 2 Chr 29:21–24They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. He commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on Yahweh’s altar.
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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 4:21 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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