Leviticus 8 Summary and Study Guide

Moses put ram’s blood on Aaron’s right earlobe, then on his right thumb, then on his right big toe, and he did it with Israel assembled at the door of the tent to watch. This Leviticus 8 summary and study guide follows the seven days that turned Aaron and his four sons into Israel’s priests.

Setting the Stage

At Mount Sinai God told Israel He wanted a whole nation of priests (Exodus 19:6). He then called Moses up the mountain and gave him the design for the priests’ clothing and for the ceremony that would install them (Exodus 28 and 29).

While Moses was still on the mountain, Aaron was in the camp below making a gold calf for the people to worship (Exodus 32:1-6). Moses later wrote that God was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him (Deuteronomy 9:20).

A year on, the tent stood finished, Leviticus 1 to 7 had explained the offerings, and Israel still had nobody authorised to bring them. Chapter 8 is the day Aaron was handed the clothes. See also our Book of Leviticus Summary by Chapter.

Comprehensive Leviticus 8 Summary

God tells Moses to bring Aaron and his sons to the front of the tent along with the priestly clothing, the anointing oil, a bull, two rams and a basket of unleavened bread, and to gather the whole assembly to watch. Moses does it, tells the people this is what the LORD commanded, and begins.

He washes Aaron and his four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, with water. Then he dresses Aaron piece by piece: the tunic, the sash, the robe, the ephod with its woven band, the breastplate holding the Urim and the Thummim, and last the turban with a plate of gold fixed to the front of it, which the chapter calls a holy crown.

Moses takes the anointing oil and puts it on the tent and everything inside it, sprinkles the bronze altar seven times, anoints that altar along with its tools and the washing basin, then pours oil over Aaron’s head. Aaron’s sons are dressed next.

Three animals follow, in order. A bull dies as a sin offering, its blood goes on the horns of the altar, its fat burns there, and the rest of the carcass is carried outside the camp and burned. A ram dies as a burnt offering and goes up whole. A second ram, called the ram of consecration, dies last, and Moses puts its blood on Aaron’s right earlobe, right thumb and right big toe, then does the same to each of the sons.

Moses loads the fat, the right shoulder and three kinds of bread into their hands, has them lift it before God, takes it back and burns it. He sprinkles oil and blood over the men and over their clothing. Then he tells them to boil the meat, eat it at the door of the tent, and stay there for seven days without leaving. They do exactly that.

One Word Summary

• Consecration: the word the chapter itself keeps using.
• Clothed: every holy thing Aaron wore was handed to him.
• Filled: the Hebrew name of the ceremony is about filling hands.

In One Sentence

In front of the whole assembly Moses washes, dresses and anoints Aaron and his four sons, kills a bull and two rams for them, marks their right ear, thumb and toe with blood, and keeps them at the door of the tent for seven days, so Israel gains priests Aaron did not earn.

Theme of Leviticus 8

Leviticus 8 is about holiness that is given rather than achieved. Everything that makes these men holy arrives from outside them, and even the animals are brought at God’s instruction to Moses rather than carried in by Aaron (Leviticus 8:2). Two ideas run alongside that.

God installs His go-betweens in the open, so the office belongs to the people it serves rather than to the family that holds it. And the office goes to a man with a public failure behind him, which is why a week of daily ceremony, ending with Aaron simply doing as he was told, reads as mercy before it reads as ritual.

Leviticus 8 Outline

• Leviticus 8:1-3: God tells Moses what to bring and to gather the whole assembly at the door of the tent.
• Leviticus 8:4-5: Moses brings the people together and tells them this is what the LORD commanded to be done.
• Leviticus 8:6: Moses washes Aaron and his sons with water.
• Leviticus 8:7-9: Moses dresses Aaron in the tunic, sash, robe, ephod, breastplate holding the Urim and Thummim, and the turban with its plate of gold.
• Leviticus 8:10-12: Moses anoints the tent and its contents, sprinkles the altar seven times, and pours oil on Aaron’s head.
• Leviticus 8:13: Moses puts tunics, sashes and caps on Aaron’s sons.
• Leviticus 8:14-17: A bull is killed as a sin offering, its blood purifies the altar, and its body is burned outside the camp.
• Leviticus 8:18-21: A ram is killed as a burnt offering and burned whole on the altar.
• Leviticus 8:22-24: The ram of consecration is killed and its blood is put on the right ear, thumb and toe of Aaron and of his sons.
• Leviticus 8:25-29: The offering portions and three cakes are placed in their hands and lifted before God, then burned, and Moses keeps the breast as his own share.
• Leviticus 8:30: Moses sprinkles anointing oil and blood on the priests and on their clothing.
• Leviticus 8:31-32: Aaron and his sons are told to boil the meat at the door, eat it with the bread, and burn what is left over.
• Leviticus 8:33-35: They must remain at the door for seven days and keep the charge of the LORD so that they do not die.
• Leviticus 8:36: Aaron and his sons do everything the LORD commanded through Moses.

The Ordination of Aaron and His Sons

The whole chapter is one ceremony, and every part of it did a distinct piece of work.

Observations from Leviticus 8

Aaron Says Nothing in the Whole Chapter

Only two people speak in Leviticus 8. The LORD speaks in verse 1, and Moses speaks in verses 5 and 31. Aaron is brought, washed, dressed, crowned, anointed, marked with blood and sprinkled, and every one of those verbs has Moses as its subject.

Aaron does act, three times, and each time it is the same act: he and his sons lay their hands on the head of an animal that is about to die for them (verses 14, 18 and 22). Then the chapter closes on obedience: “So Aaron and his sons did all things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 8:36).

Aaron and his sons did everything God had told them, through Moses, to do. A chapter that hands a man the highest office in Israel gives him no speech to make and no case to argue for himself.

The Chapter Keeps Stopping to Say the Same Thing

“As the LORD commanded Moses” closes verses 9, 13, 17, 21 and 29, and verse 4 has the same note in a slightly different form. The line comes back after the clothing, after the sons are dressed, after the bull, after the ram, and after the wave offering.

The repetition adds nothing new, and that is what it is for. Moses was not deciding how a priest should be installed; he was following a plan he had been given, and the chapter says so five separate times.

The Altar Gets a Sevenfold Sprinkling Exodus Never Mentioned

Verse 11 has Moses sprinkle the altar with oil seven times before anointing it. Exodus 30:28 and Exodus 40:10 both tell him to anoint that altar, and neither one mentions seven times, or sprinkling at all. John Gill notes that the medieval Jewish commentator Jarchi, better known as Rashi, admitted he did not know where the instruction came from.

Seven is the number the chapter uses again for the days of the ceremony, so the sprinkling may mark the altar out as the most set-apart object in the courtyard. The text does not explain it, and it is honest to leave it there.

Moses Does Priestly Work Without Ever Being Made a Priest

Moses kills the animals (verses 15, 19, 23), handles the blood, and burns the portions on the altar. He also takes a share of the meat: “of the ram of consecration it was Moses’ part” (Leviticus 8:29). The breast of that ram was Moses’ own portion.

Nobody ever installed Moses as a priest. Israel’s priesthood began at the hands of a man standing outside it, which is one reason nobody could mistake the office for something the family of Levi arranged for itself.

Difficult Verses Explained

Why Did Moses Put Blood on an Ear, a Thumb and a Toe?

Blood on those three points marked the whole man, from the top of him to the bottom. The ear hears, the hand works, the foot goes, and putting the blood of the offering on all three said that Aaron’s hearing, his work and his movements now belonged to God.

The right side carried honour and precedence in Israel (Genesis 48:13-18) and stood for strength (Exodus 15:6), so the best of him was what got marked. The chapter does not explain the choice, but the same three points are touched with blood in Leviticus 14:14 when a healed leper is restored, which suggests the gesture stood for a person being made whole and returned to God’s service.

Were Aaron’s Sons Anointed or Not?

The chapter does not say they were, and other passages assume they were. Verse 12 pours oil on Aaron’s head alone, and verse 13 clothes his sons and stops. Yet Exodus 28:41 and Exodus 40:15 command their anointing, and Leviticus 7:36, Leviticus 10:7 and Numbers 3:3 all speak of them as anointed men.

The usual resolution is that verse 30 was their anointing, since Moses sprinkles oil and blood on the sons there along with their father. Jewish tradition preserved by Keil describes a difference in manner, oil poured on the high priest’s head and applied with a finger to the others, though Leviticus 8 itself never mentions it.

Why Was the Bull Burned Outside the Camp?

Nobody present was allowed to eat it. Leviticus 6:25-30 gives a sin offering to the priest who performs it, but Moses was not a consecrated priest and could not eat it, and Aaron and his sons were the ones the offering was made for, which barred them from eating an offering brought on their own behalf.

So the carcass had to go somewhere, and it could not go on the altar because it had carried their sin. It went out of the camp and burned on open ground (Leviticus 8:17). Hebrews 13:11-12 takes hold of that detail and applies it to the cross.

Why Did Moses Get the Breast?

Because he was the one officiating that day. The breast of a peace offering ordinarily went to the priests (Leviticus 7:31), and there were no priests yet, so it went to the man performing the priest’s work. Exodus 29:26 had assigned it to him in advance.

The right shoulder, which would also normally have been the officiant’s portion, was burned instead as part of the filling of the hands, so the breast was the portion that fell to Moses.

Could Aaron and His Sons Really Not Leave for Seven Days?

The command is about their work and their attention rather than about standing still. Leviticus 8:33 tells them not to go out of the door of the tent until the days of their consecration are finished, which means the week belonged to the ceremony and to nothing else.

Jewish commentators including Aben Ezra worried over the strictly literal reading, since the men still had to eat and sleep. What the words rule out is going back to ordinary business, not every step outside a doorway.

Common Misunderstandings

• That Leviticus 8 includes a trespass offering. It has three offerings: a sin offering, a burnt offering and the ram of consecration (Leviticus 8:14, 18, 22). The trespass offering is legislated in Leviticus 5:14 through 6:7 and does not appear here.
• That the text says the oil and the blood were mixed together. Verse 30 says Moses took of the anointing oil and of the blood and sprinkled it. Whether he combined them first is not stated in Leviticus 8, and Exodus 29:21 does not settle it either.
• That the ceremony left Aaron sinless. On the eighth day Aaron has to offer a sin offering for himself before he can offer anything for the people (Leviticus 9:7), and the Day of Atonement will require the same of him every year (Leviticus 16:6).
• That this week was Aaron’s promotion. God told Moses what to bring (Leviticus 8:2), the whole assembly was summoned to watch, and Hebrews 5:1 states the principle plainly: a high priest is appointed for other people, in the things that concern God.

Christ Connection

Leviticus 8:17 says the bull was burned outside the camp, and the writer of Hebrews takes that detail straight to the cross. “For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (Hebrews 13:11-12).

The bodies of these animals were burned outside Israel’s camp, and Jesus was killed outside Jerusalem’s wall for the same reason: He was carrying sin that could not stay where God dwells with His people.

Four other threads in the chapter run the same way.

• A priest who needed no offering for Himself. Leviticus 8 opens with a bull dying for the priest’s own sin. Hebrews 7:27 says Jesus “needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.” He had no sin of His own to deal with first, and He made the one offering once.
• A priesthood confirmed by an oath. Aaron was made a priest by ceremony and no oath was spoken over him. Hebrews 7:20-21 says “those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” God swore an oath when He appointed His Son, and He will not go back on it.
• Consecrated for ever, not for a week. The Hebrew name for the ram of consecration means fillings, from the way the priests’ hands were filled in verse 27. Many Bible teachers point out that the Greek Old Testament often renders that Hebrew word with the same word family Hebrews 7:28 draws on when it calls the Son “consecrated for evermore.” Seven days made Aaron a priest; the Son is set apart permanently.
• The anointing that makes a Messiah. The Hebrew verb for anointing in verse 12 is the root behind the word Messiah. Luke 4:18 has Jesus reading Isaiah over Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.” Acts 10:38 says God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost and with power.

A prophet gives us one more picture to set beside this chapter. In Zechariah 3:1-5 a high priest named Joshua stands before the angel of the LORD in filthy clothes, with Satan at his right hand to resist him.

Joshua is never told to clean himself up. The word comes to him instead: “Take away the filthy garments from him… I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.”

His guilt is taken away, new clothing is supplied, and a clean turban is put on his head. Leviticus 8 has the same shape, with the man who made the gold calf washed, dressed and crowned by hands that are not his own. Both scenes picture what God does for anyone He brings near through Christ.

When, Where, and Why

• When: Early in the second year after Israel left Egypt. Exodus 40:17 dates the raising of the tent to the first day of the first month of that year, Leviticus 9:1 opens on the eighth day after this chapter’s seven, and Numbers 9:1-3 puts the Passover on the fourteenth day of the same month, which points to the ordination week falling in the opening days of that month. A separate Jewish tradition recorded in the Targum of Jonathan puts the assembly a month earlier. Dates for the exodus itself are still argued and no single year should be treated as settled.
• Where: At Mount Sinai, and more exactly in the courtyard at the door of the tent, with one trip out of the camp to burn the bull. The courtyard is where the assembly could see what was happening, and outside the camp is where the sin offering had to end.
• Why: Almost everything else in Leviticus is law. This chapter is one of only two places in the whole book that stop and tell a story, the other being Leviticus 24:10-23, and Moses records it because Leviticus 1 to 7 had just told Israel what to bring to God and there was nobody in the nation authorised to receive it. The offerings needed priests, the priests needed installing, and the installation needed watching. This chapter closes that gap, and it also sets up the two that follow: Leviticus 9 is Aaron’s first day of work, and Leviticus 10:1-2 records what happened to two of the sons dressed in verse 13 when they offered fire the LORD had not commanded them.

Key Verses

And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

Leviticus 8:12. Moses poured the holy oil over Aaron’s head and set him apart for God. Things in the tent were sprinkled with that oil; Aaron had it poured over him, and this is the moment Israel gained a high priest.

And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons’ garments with him.

Leviticus 8:30. Moses took some of the holy oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled both over the men and their clothes. Oil and blood had been used separately all through the chapter. Here at the close they land together on the same men, and no other verse gathers up the whole ceremony as tightly.

Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD, that ye die not.

Leviticus 8:35. Stay at the entrance of the tent day and night for a week and do the duty God has given you, so that you do not die. The warning is the weight of the whole chapter, and Leviticus 10:1-2 will show what it meant.

Key Lessons from Leviticus 8

• Nobody in this chapter made himself holy, because Moses had to wash Aaron, dress him and pour the oil over him (Leviticus 8:6-12).
• Sin was dealt with before any service began, since the bull died before Aaron ever touched the altar as a priest (Leviticus 8:14-17).
• Blood was put on the ear that hears, the hand that works and the foot that walks, which many read as God laying claim to the whole man (Leviticus 8:23).
• The priesthood was installed in the open, in front of the assembly God told Moses to gather, so it was never a private honour for one family (Leviticus 8:3-4; Hebrews 5:1).
• God gave the highest holy office in Israel to a man who had led the nation into idolatry a year before (Exodus 32:1-6; Leviticus 8:12).
• What Leviticus 8 records of Aaron himself is not eloquence or achievement but obedience (Leviticus 8:36).

To go deeper into the lessons from this chapter, read our full study: Lessons from Leviticus 8.

Bible Study Questions

1. Read Leviticus 8:1-5. Why does God insist the whole assembly gather before anything else happens, and what would have been lost if the ceremony had been private?
2. Trace who performs the verbs in verses 6 to 13. What does Aaron do in those verses, and what does that suggest about how a person is made fit to serve God?
3. Leviticus 8:11 adds a sevenfold sprinkling that Exodus 30:28 never asked for. What else in the chapter happens seven times, and what might that link suggest about how the altar was regarded?
4. Compare Leviticus 8:23 with Leviticus 14:14. Why might God use the same three points on the body in both a priest’s ordination and a leper’s restoration?
5. Read Exodus 32:1-6 and then Leviticus 8:12. What does Aaron’s earlier idolatry add to the moment the oil is poured over his head?
6. Put Leviticus 8:17 beside Hebrews 13:11-13. What does the writer of Hebrews want his readers to do with that connection?
7. Verse 35 tells the priests to keep the charge of the LORD. What has God actually put in your hands to do, whether that is a task in a church, a household, a workplace or a friendship, and what would keeping that charge carefully look like this week?

When you have worked through the chapter, test what stuck with our Leviticus 8 Quiz with Answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Leviticus 8, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;

3 And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

4 And Moses did as the LORD commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

5 And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the LORD commanded to be done.

6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.

8 And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim.

9 And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the LORD commanded Moses.

10 And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them.

11 And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them.

12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

13 And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, and put bonnets upon them; as the LORD commanded Moses.

14 And he brought the bullock for the sin offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering.

15 And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar, and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it.

16 And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards, and caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burned it upon the altar.

17 But the bullock, and his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp; as the LORD commanded Moses.

18 And he brought the ram for the burnt offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.

19 And he killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.

20 And he cut the ram into pieces; and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat.

21 And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: it was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour, and an offering made by fire unto the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses.

22 And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.

23 And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.

24 And he brought Aaron’s sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs of their right hands, and upon the great toes of their right feet: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.

25 And he took the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder:

26 And out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before the LORD, he took one unleavened cake, and a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat, and upon the right shoulder:

27 And he put all upon Aaron’s hands, and upon his sons’ hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the LORD.

28 And Moses took them from off their hands, and burnt them on the altar upon the burnt offering: they were consecrations for a sweet savour: it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

29 And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before the LORD: for of the ram of consecration it was Moses’ part; as the LORD commanded Moses.

30 And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons’ garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.

31 And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of consecrations, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it.

32 And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye burn with fire.

33 And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you.

34 As he hath done this day, so the LORD hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you.

35 Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD, that ye die not: for so I am commanded.

36 So Aaron and his sons did all things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.