Imamat 4:7

4:7 The priest must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the bull’s blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Imamat 4:17-18

4:17 and that priest must dip his finger in the blood ¹  and sprinkle ²  some of the blood seven times ³  before the Lord toward ⁴  the front of the veil-canopy. ⁵  4:18 He must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar ⁶  which is before the Lord in the Meeting Tent, and all the rest of the blood he must pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of the Meeting Tent.

Imamat 4:30

4:30 Then the priest must take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar.

Keluaran 29:12

29:12 and take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar ⁷  with your finger; all the rest of ⁸  the blood you are to pour out at the base of the altar.

Keluaran 29:36-37

29:36 Every day you are to prepare a bull for a purification offering ⁹  for atonement. ¹⁰  You are to purge ¹¹  the altar by making atonement ¹²  for it, and you are to anoint it to set it apart as holy. 29:37 For seven days ¹³  you are to make atonement for the altar and set it apart as holy. Then the altar will be most holy. ¹⁴  Anything that touches the altar will be holy. ¹⁵ 

Yehezkiel 43:19-27

43:19 you will give a young bull for a sin offering to the Levitical priests who are descended from Zadok, who approach me to minister to me, declares the sovereign Lord. 43:20 You will take some of its blood, and place it on the four horns of the altar, on the four corners of the ledge, and on the border all around; you will cleanse it and make atonement for it. ¹⁶  43:21 You will also take the bull for the sin offering, and it will be burned in the appointed place in the temple, outside the sanctuary.

43:22 “On the second day, you will offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering. They will purify the altar just as they purified it with the bull. 43:23 When you have finished purifying it, you will offer an unblemished young bull and an unblemished ram from the flock. 43:24 You will present them before the Lord, and the priests will scatter salt on them ¹⁷  and offer them up as a burnt offering to the Lord.

43:25 “For seven days you will provide every day a goat for a sin offering; a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without blemish, will be provided. 43:26 For seven days they will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it, so they will consecrate it. ¹⁸  43:27 When the prescribed period is over, ¹⁹  on the eighth day and thereafter the priests will offer up on the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings; ²⁰  I will accept you, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Ibrani 9:18-23

9:18 So even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. ²¹  9:19 For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 9:20 and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded you to keep.” ²²  9:21 And both the tabernacle and all the utensils of worship he likewise sprinkled with blood. 9:22 Indeed according to the law almost everything was purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 9:23 So it was necessary for the sketches ²³  of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, ²⁴  but the heavenly things themselves required ²⁵  better sacrifices than these.

[4:17]  ¹ tn The words “in the blood” are not repeated in the Hebrew text at this point, but must be supplied in the English translation for clarity.

[4:17]  ² tn The Hebrew verb וְהִזָּה (vÿhizzah, Hiphil of נָזָה, nazah) does indeed mean “sprinkle” or “splatter.” Contrast the different Hebrew verb translated “splash” in Lev 1:5 (זָרָק, zaraq).

[4:17]  ³ tc The MT reads literally, “and the priest shall dip his finger from the blood and sprinkle seven times.” This is awkward. Compare v. 6, which has literally, “and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle from the blood seven times.” The MT appears to be corrupt by haplography (i.e., assuming v. 6 to be the correct form, in v. 17 the scribe skipped from “his finger” to “from the blood,” thus missing “in the blood”) and metathesis (i.e., this also resulted in a text where “from the blood” stands before “sprinkle” rather than after it; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 47).

[4:17]  ⁴ tn See the note on v. 6 above.

[4:17]  ⁵ tn See the note on v. 6 above.

[4:18]  ⁶ sn See v. 7, where this altar is identified as the altar of fragrant incense.

[29:12]  ⁷ sn This act seems to have signified the efficacious nature of the blood, since the horns represented power. This is part of the ritual of the sin offering for laity, because before the priests become priests they are treated as laity. The offering is better described as a purification offering rather than a sin offering, because it was offered, according to Leviticus, for both sins and impurities. Moreover, it was offered primarily to purify the sanctuary so that the once-defiled or sinful person could enter (see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB]).

[29:12]  ⁸ tn The phrase “rest of” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[29:36]  ⁹ tn The construction uses a genitive: “a bull of the sin offering,” which means, a bull that is designated for a sin (or better, purification) offering.

[29:36]  ¹⁰ sn It is difficult to understand how this verse is to be harmonized with the other passages. The ceremony in the earlier passages deals with atonement made for the priests, for people. But here it is the altar that is being sanctified. The “sin [purification] offering” seems to be for purification of the sanctuary and altar to receive people in their worship.

[29:36]  ¹¹ tn The verb is וְחִטֵּאתָ (vÿhitte’ta), a Piel perfect of the word usually translated “to sin.” Here it may be interpreted as a privative Piel (as in Ps 51:7 [9]), with the sense of “un-sin” or “remove sin.” It could also be interpreted as related to the word for “sin offering,” and so be a denominative verb. It means “to purify, cleanse.” The Hebrews understood that sin and contamination could corrupt and pollute even things, and so they had to be purged.

[29:36]  ¹² tn The construction is a Piel infinitive construct in an adverbial clause. The preposition bet (ב) that begins the clause could be taken as a temporal preposition, but in this context it seems to express the means by which the altar was purged of contamination – “in your making atonement” is “by [your] making atonement.”

[29:37]  ¹³ tn Once again this is an adverbial accusative of time. Each day for seven days the ritual at the altar is to be followed.

[29:37]  ¹⁴ tn The construction is the superlative genitive: “holy of holies,” or “most holy.”

[29:37]  ¹⁵ sn This line states an unusual principle, meant to preserve the sanctity of the altar. S. R. Driver explains it this way (Exodus, 325): If anything comes in contact with the altar, it becomes holy and must remain in the sanctuary for Yahweh’s use. If a person touches the altar, he likewise becomes holy and cannot return to the profane regions. He will be given over to God to be dealt with as God pleases. Anyone who was not qualified to touch the altar did not dare approach it, for contact would have meant that he was no longer free to leave but was God’s holy possession – and might pay for it with his life (see Exod 30:29; Lev 6:18b, 27; and Ezek 46:20).

[43:20]  ¹⁶ sn Note the similar language in Lev 16:18.

[43:24]  ¹⁷ sn It is likely that salt was used with sacrificial meals (Num 18:19; 2 Chr 13:5).

[43:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “fill its hands.”

[43:27]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and they will complete the days.”

[43:27]  ²⁰ sn The people also could partake of the food of the peace offering (Lev 3).

[9:18]  ²¹ sn The Greek text reinforces this by negating the opposite (“not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood”), but this double negation is not used in contemporary English.

[9:20]  ²² tn Grk “which God commanded for you (or in your case).”

[9:20]  sn A quotation from Exod 24:8.

[9:23]  ²³ tn Or “prototypes,” “outlines,” referring to the earthly sanctuary. See Heb 8:5 above for the prior use of this term.

[9:23]  ²⁴ tn Grk “with these”; in the translation the referent (sacrifices) has been specified for clarity.

[9:23]  ²⁵ tn Grk “the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”