Commentari biblici

INTRODUCTION TO Leviticus 24

This chapter treats of the oil for the lamps, and the ordering of them, Leviticus 24:1; of the making of the shewbread cakes, and the setting of them on the table, Leviticus 24:5; and an Israelite having blasphemed the name of the Lord, and inquiry being made what should be done to him, he, and so any other person guilty of the same, is ordered to be stoned to death, Leviticus 24:10; on occasion of which several laws are repeated concerning killing a man or a beast, or doing injury to any man, Leviticus 24:17.

And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... After he had delivered to him the laws concerning the purity of the priests, and the perfection of the sacrifices they were to offer, and concerning the feasts the people were to keep, he spoke to Moses of some other things which concerned both people and priests:

saying; as follows.

Command the children of Israel,.... Moses was the chief magistrate under God, and being clothed with authority from him, had power to command the children of Israel to do what the Lord required of them:

that they bring unto thee pure oil olive, beaten, for the light; this was to be at the public expense, and it belonged to the community to supply the priests with oil for the light of the candlestick in the temple, Exodus 25:6; and this oil was not to be any sort of oil, as train oil, or oil of nuts, almonds, &c. but oil of olives, and not any sort of that, but the purest, which was the first that was taken from them; it seems there were three sorts, the first of which was pure, and this beaten in a mortar, and not ground in a mill; See Gill on Exodus 27:20,

to cause the lamps to burn continually; the lamps in the golden candlestick, which were seven, Exodus 25:37; or "the lamp", in the singular number, as it is in the original text; the western lamp, which is said to be always kept lighted, from which the rest were lighted when out; though the oil was undoubtedly for the supply of the lamps, that they might burn always, night and day; or from night tonight, as Jarchi; and both on sabbath days and working days, as the Targum of Jonathan.

Without the vail of the testimony,.... That is, on the outside of the vail which divided between the holy and holy of holies, and which was before the ark in which the testimony or law was:

in the tabernacle of the congregation; which the apostle calls the first, namely, the holy place in which the candlestick, with its lamps, stood, Hebrews 9:2,

shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning, before the Lord continually, that is, the lamp or lamps, or candlestick, in which they were, or the light of them; his business was, and so every priest's that succeeded him, to supply the lamps with oil, to dress, him, and snuff them, that they might burn clear, and burn always, and that before the Lord, in the presence of the Lord:

it shall be a statute for ever in your generations; until the Messiah should come, the true light, which would put out all such typical ones, and by his Gospel spread light in all his churches throughout the world; See Gill on Exodus 27:20 and See Gill on Exodus 27:21.

He shall order the lamps on the pure candlestick,.... So called, as Jarchi suggests, for these two reasons, partly because it was made of pure gold, and partly because it was to be kept pure and clean, and free from ashes, by the priest; see Exodus 25:31,

before the Lord continually; which both respects the situation of the candlestick, and the work about it, which Aaron was to do continually before and in the presence of the Lord. Jarchi thinks this ordering respects the measure of oil for every night, which he says, according to the wise men, was half a log for every lamp, which was about a quarter of a pint of oil.

And thou shalt take fine flour,.... Of wheat, and the finest of it:

and bake twelve cakes thereof; answerable to the twelve tribes, as the Targum of Jonathan, which were typical of the spiritual Israel of God:

two tenth deals shall be in one cake; that is, two tenth parts of an ephah, which were two omers, one of which was as much as a man could eat in one day of the manna: so that one of these cakes was as much as two men could eat of bread in one day; each cake was ten hands' breadth long, five broad, and seven fingers its horns, or was so high (g).

(g) Menachot, c. 11. sect. 4.

And thou shalt set them in two rows,.... The twelve cakes:

six on a row; not by the side of each other, but six upon one another:

upon the pure table; the shewbread table, so called because overlaid with pure gold, and kept clean and bright, Exodus 25:24,

before the Lord; for this stood in the holy place, in the same place as the candlestick did, which has the same position, Leviticus 24:4; of the mystical and typical sense of these cakes; see Gill on Exodus 25:30.

And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row,.... Two cups of frankincense, in each of which was an handful of it, and which were set by each row of the cakes, as Jarchi observes:

that it may be on the bread for a memorial; or "for the bread", instead of it, for a memorial of it; that being to be eaten by the priests, and this to be burned on the altar to the Lord, as follows:

even an offering made by fire unto the Lord; not the bread that was after a time taken away, and eaten by the priests, but the frankincense.