Exodus 29:16

Exo 29:16 And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle [it] round about upon the altar.

Ver. 16. Sprinkle it.] See 1Pe 1:2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(16) Thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it.—Rather, scatter it. The act of throwing the blood from a basin against the lower part of the altar is intended. The verb is a different one from that rightly translated “sprinkle” in Exo_29:21. The LXX. render it by προσχεῖν, and the Vulg. by fundere.

Round about upon the altar.—Practically, this was done by casting it on two of the corners of the altar—the north-east and the south-west—thus moistening all the four sides (Middoth, 3:2).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. sprinkle] toss: viz. in a volume, out of a tossing-vessel or basin (see on Exo_27:3). ‘Sprinkle’ not only conveys an incorrect idea of the action meant, but also confuses it with an entirely different action, correctly represented by ‘sprinkle’ (Lev_4:6; Lev_4:17; Lev_5:9 &c.): it is to be regretted that the distinction, obliterated in AV., but correctly pointed out in the Speaker’s Commentary (1. ii. 499b) in 1871, should not have been preserved in RV. The reader who desires to understand correctly the sacrificial ritual of the Hebrew should correct on the margin of his copy of the RV. toss or throw for ‘sprinkle’ (with against for ‘upon,’ where altar follows: see the next note) here, v. 20, Exo_24:6, Lev_1:5; Lev_1:11; Lev_3:2; Lev_3:8; Lev_3:13; Lev_7:2; Lev_7:14; Lev_8:19; Lev_8:24; Lev_9:12; Lev_9:18; Lev_17:6, Num_18:17; Num_19:13; Num_19:20 (but vv. 4, 18, 19, 21 ‘sprinkle’ is correct), 2Ki_16:13; 2Ki_16:15, Eze_43:18, 2Ch_29:22; 2Ch_30:16; 2Ch_35:11; also Eze_36:25 and Exo_9:8; Exo_9:10.

upon] against. As the Jews expressly state, the blood was thrown not upon the altar, but against the sides of it, and in such a manner that with two movements of the ‘tossing-vessel’ the blood was thrown against its four sides (Zebâḥim v. 4 ff.; Rashi on Lev_1:5). So Lev_1:5; Lev_1:11, &c.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And thou shalt slay the ram,.... As he was ordered to slay the bullock, acting in this as a priest, as in that:

and thou shall take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar; the blood being received into a basin, it was not to be put upon the altar with the finger, as the blood of the bullock, but was to be sprinkled probably with a bunch of hyssop, round about upon the altar, on the top and sides: as the deity of Christ is the altar which sanctifies every gift, this may signify that his blood has its virtue and efficacy from that, to make atonement for the sins of men, and to cleanse them from them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

About, upon the altar, and at the foot of it. So the pagans did. (Eusebius, præp. iv. 9.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Which signifies, that not only our persons, but our very altars and sacrifices, and best services, need the sprinkling of Christ’s blood upon them to render them acceptable to God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it. Rather, "and cast it." The blood was to be thrown from a basin, not sprinkled with the hand or with hyssop. Rabbinical tradition says that it was so cast at two of the corners, and thus moistened all the four sides. This was regarded as casting it "on the altar round about."

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

וזרקת AND THOU SHALT SPRINKLE IT with a vessel: he held the basin and cast blood from it towards the horn in such a manner that it (the blood) showed on both sides of it. No offering except the sin-offering alone required that its blood should be smeared with the finger, but other sacrifices required neither “horn” nor “finger” (did not require that the blood should be placed on the horn of the altar by the fingers), for the sprinkling of their blood had to be upon the lower half of the altar, and he (the priest) therefore did not mount the ascent leading to the top of the altar but he stood on the ground and sprinkled the blood (Zevachim 53b).

סביב ROUND ABOUT — This is how it is explained in the Treatise on Slaughtering the Sacrifices (Zevachim 53b): that סביב, “round about” signifies nothing more than that there were to be two sprinklings so made that they should constitute four — one on this corner and one at that which was diagonally opposite it, and so that each sprinkling showed on both sides of the corner, on this and on that side; it followed therefore that the blood was placed on the four sides round about, and for this reason it is here termed סביב.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.