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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Leviticus 8:33 - 8:33
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(cf. Exo 29:35-37). The consecration was to last seven days, during which time the persons to be consecrated were not to go away from the door of the tabernacle, but to remain there day and night, and watch the watch of the Lord that they might not die. “For the Lord will fill your hand seven days. As they have done on this (the first) day, so has Jehovah commanded to do to make atonement for you” (Lev 8:34). That is to say, the rite of consecration which has been performed upon you to-day, Jehovah has commanded to be performed or repeated for seven days. These words clearly imply that the whole ceremony, in all its details, was to be repeated for seven days; and in Exo 29:36-37, besides the filling of the hand which was to be continued seven days, and which presupposes the daily repetition of the consecration-offering, the preparation of the sin-offering for reconciliation and the expiation or purification and anointing of the altar are expressly commanded for each of the seven days. This repetition of the act of consecration is to be regarded as intensifying the consecration itself; and the limitation of it to seven days is to be accounted for from the signification and holiness of the number seven as the sign of the completion of the works of God. The commandment not to leave the court of the tabernacle during the whole seven days, is of course not to be understood literally (as it is by some of the Rabbins), as meaning that the persons to be consecrated were not even to go away from the spot for the necessities of nature (cf. Lund. jüd. Heiligth. p. 448); but when taken in connection with the clause which follows, “and keep the charge of the Lord,” it can only be understood as signifying that during these days they were not to leave the sanctuary to attend to any earthly avocation whatever, but uninterruptedly to observe the charge of the Lord, i.e., the consecration commanded by the Lord. מִשְׁמֶרֶת שָׁמַר, lit., to watch the watch of a person or thing, i.e., to attend to them, to do whatever was required for noticing or attending to them (cf. Gen 26:5, and Hengstenberg, Christology).