Leviticus 4:7

Lev 4:7 And the priest shall put [some] of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which [is] in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which [is at] the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

Ver. 7. Upon the horns of the altar.] To signify, saith one, that the preaching of the gospel concerning the blood of Christ, should be published and proclaimed to the four corners of the earth. To show, saith another, that by faith in the blood of Christ, our prayers are acceptable unto God, and our infirmities pardoned and purged.

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.

4:7 The altar for fragrant incense stood in front of the inner curtain, just outside the Most Holy Place (4:6). It had four protrusions resembling horns, as did the altar for burnt offerings (see study note on Exod 27:2). The priests burned incense on this altar to the Lord each morning and evening (Exod 30:1-10).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Which was in the court: meaning by the Tabernacle the Sanctuary: and in the end of this verse it is taken for the court.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(7) And the priest shall put.—That is, the high priest. With the finger thus dipped into it, he is to put some of the blood on each of the four horns of the golden altar on which the incense was offered.

This process, too, was peculiar to the sacrifice of the sin offering. The altar was placed in the holy place before the vail which separated off the holy of holies (Exo_30:1-6). According to the practice which obtained in the time of Christ, the priest began by putting the blood first on the north-east horn, then on the north-west, then on the south-west, and, lastly, on the south-east horn. He dipped his finger in the blood of the bowl at the sprinkling of each horn, and wiped his finger on the edge of the bowl between the separate sprinklings, as the blood which remained on his finger from one horn was not deemed fit to be put on the other.

And shall pour all the blood.—That is, all the remaining blood. The bulk of the blood which remained, after expending the small quantity on the horns of the incense altar inside the sanctuary, the priest poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering, which stood outside the holy place. At the time of the second Temple, there were at the southwest horn of this altar two holes, like two nostrils, through which the blood ran into a drain conveying it into the brook of Kedron.

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

7. The ‘altar of sweet incense’ does not appear in Exodus 27-29 (Pg). It must therefore be ascribed to a secondary addition (p[43]) to the groundwork of the Priestly Code. See App. on P, pp. 174 f.

[43] (secondary enactments) combined with the earlier strata. See further, pp. 174 ff.

before the Lord] The cloud was on the mercy-seat upon the ark in tie Holy of Holies; the sprinkling before the veil of the sanctuary was a sprinkling ‘before the Lord.’ The two phrases describe the same action.

at the base of the altar] The base (bottom A.V.) is mentioned only in connexion with pouring out the blood of the Sin-Offering in this ch., and in Lev_5:9, Lev_8:15 (= Exo_29:12), Lev_9:9.

the altar of burnt offering] A designation which marks ps[44]. In the legislation of Pg (see last note) there was no need for this distinction. There, accordingly, it was simply called ‘the altar’ (Lev_9:7-8 etc.) and so in Pt (ancient tôrôth; see App. on P, pp. 174 f.), e.g. in Lev_1:7 ff., Lev_2:2, Lev_3:2 ff. etc.

[44] (secondary enactments) combined with the earlier strata. See further, pp. 174 ff.

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 he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering,.... When the priest had killed the bullock, and sprinkled and poured the blood, as before commanded; he then cut up the bullock, and took out its inwards, and put them in a vessel, and salted them, and strowed them on the fires (z), and burnt them, and the fat of them, as he did with the sacrifice of the peace offerings; so that what is here said, and in the two next verses Lev 4:9, is the same with what is ordered concerning them in Lev 3:3; see Gill on Lev 3:3, Lev 3:4, Lev 3:5. Jarchi and Gersom both observe that they agree, that as one brings peace into the world, so does the other.

(z) Maimon. ib. (Maasch Hakorbanot) c. 7. sect. 2.

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

Pour - All the blood that was left after the sprinkling and the smearing should be disposed of in such a manner as to suit the decorum of divine service. It had no sacrificial significance.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The altar of sweet incense which is in the tabernacle; the altar of burnt-offerings was without the tabernacle.

All the blood; so also below, Lev 4:18,30,34, to wit, all the rest, as it is expressed Lev 5:9, for part was disposed elsewhere.

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

7. Blood… horns of the altar — These horns are not supposed to have been made of horn, but to have been projections from the four corners covered with the metal with which the altar was overlaid. Josephus describes the altars in use in his day as having these projections in the shape of horns. Others are of the opinion that the horns of the original altars were perpendicular cones rising from each corner of the altar to half its height. There is much discussion respecting their purpose. They could not, in the case of the altar of incense, have been for binding the victim before killing it, (Psa_118:27,) because no victim was ever burned on this altar. The horn is with the Hebrews a favourite symbol of power. Its presence on every altar may have been to suggest the glory of Jehovah’s omnipotence. Previous to the appointment of the six cities of refuge, the altar was the asylum for the accidental manslayer. Exo_21:14. The refugee was accustomed to lay hold of the horns of the altar. 1Ki_1:50. The horns were to be smeared with blood, perhaps to set forth the great truth that the blood of Christ is the only inviolable refuge, and that the penitent sinner can lay hold of the protecting power of God only as he lays hold of sacrificial blood. See Introduction, (6.)

Altar of sweet incense — This, being covered with gold, was called the golden altar, to distinguish it from the brazen altar of burnt offering. Exo_38:30; Exo_39:38. The Hebrew name for altar, signifying “the killing-place,” as applied to the altar of incense is not strictly appropriate. It is not here used in its etymological sense. For a description, see notes on Exo_30:1-10.

Before the Lord — This altar was situated in the holy place. In apparent contradiction to this, the writer to the Hebrews (Heb_9:4) enumerates it among the objects which were within the second vail, that is, in the holy of holies. In 1Ki_6:21-22, it is said to belong to “the oracle,” or most holy place. The best explanation is that suggested by Bleek and adopted by Tholuck, namely, that the author of the epistle “treats the holy of holies, irrespective of the vail, as symbolical of the heavenly sanctuary, and had also a motive to include in it the altar of incense, whose offerings of incense are the symbol of the prayers of the saints. See note on Heb_9:4.

Pour all the blood… bottom of the altar — In the temple there was a duct by which the blood was conveyed to the brook Kedron. There was doubtless some such way of disposing of the blood in the tabernacle, of which the temple was only an enlarged copy.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

All the blood - All the rest; for part was disposed elsewhere.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

ואת כל דם AND ALL THE BLOOD — i. e. all the remainder of the blood (since part of it had already been sprinkled) (Zevachim 25a).

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.