Then 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.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar, and offer your sin offering, and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself, and for the people; and offer the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as Yahweh commanded.”
- KJV And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself, and for the people: and offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them; as the LORD commanded.
- NKJV And Moses said to Aaron, “Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Offer the offering of the people, and make atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.”
- NASB Moses then said to Aaron, “Come near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, so that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make the offering for the people, so that you may make atonement for them, just as the Lord has commanded.”
- NLT Then Moses said to Aaron, “Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to purify yourself and the people. Then present the offerings of the people to purify them, making them right with the Lord, just as he has commanded.”
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 commands Aaron to offer sacrifices to make atonement for himself and for the people. The priest must first be cleansed before he can mediate for others.
Overview
Aaron must atone for his own sin before serving as mediator, exposing the limitation of a sinful priesthood. This contrast highlights the superiority of Christ, the sinless High Priest who 'has no need, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices daily... for this he did once for all when he offered up himself' (Hebrews 7:27).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Heb 5:3That is why he is obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.
- Heb 5:1Every high priest is appointed from among men to represent them in matters relating to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
- 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.
- Lev 4:3If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the LORD a young bull without blemish as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.
- Lev 8:34What has been done today has been commanded by the LORD in order to make atonement on your behalf.
- Lev 4:16–20Then the anointed priest is to bring some of the bull’s blood into the Tent of Meeting,
- Lev 9:2He said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and present them before the LORD.
- 1 Sam 3:14Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, ‘The iniquity of Eli’s house shall never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’”
- Heb 7:27–28Unlike 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.
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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 9:7 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.