Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Leviticus
Leviticus asks the hardest question in religion: how can a sinful people live near a holy God? Its answer is sacrifice and holiness, a system of offerings and a priesthood that are all shadows of the true and final answer, Jesus Christ. This commentary walks through it verse by verse.
About This Commentary
Leviticus stands at the center of the five books of Moses, and at its heart is one word: holiness. God had redeemed Israel out of Egypt and come to dwell among them; now He teaches them how a sinful people can come near, worship, and live as His own. The offerings, the priesthood, the feasts, and the Day of Atonement all show both the seriousness of sin and the grace of a God who provides a way.
This commentary covers Leviticus verse by verse, with the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, verified background, and an Apostolic reading that keeps Christ, the true sacrifice and High Priest, in view. Its shadows are fulfilled in Him (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10). References are given at the foot of each chapter.
This commentary is now complete: all twenty-seven chapters of Leviticus are available, from the offerings and the priesthood to the feasts, the Jubilee, and the closing vows. Every shadow of the book is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, our sacrifice, our High Priest, and our great Redeemer.
Author
Moses, by the historic testimony of Scripture.
Written
In the time of Moses, traditionally the 15th to 13th century BC.
Setting
At Mount Sinai, at the newly finished tabernacle.
Theme
Holiness: how a sinful people draw near to a holy God, and how God provides the way.
Translation
King James Version (KJV) throughout.
The Chapters
Leviticus Commentary
The chapters below are available now. The rest are being written and will open here as they are finished and verified.
Leviticus 1:1-17
The Burnt Offering
God calls out of the tabernacle and shows a redeemed but sinful people how to draw near: by an unblemished substitute that dies in the worshiper's place and ascends wholly to God as a sweet aroma.
Read Chapter 1 →Leviticus 2:1-16
The Meat Offering
A bloodless gift of fine flour, oil, and frankincense, brought in thanksgiving and passed through the fire without corruption. It pictures the sinless humanity of Christ and the life of devotion we offer to God.
Read Chapter 2 →Leviticus 3:1-17
The Peace Offering
The fellowship offering, the one sacrifice the worshiper ate from: peace made by blood opens into a shared meal with God. The fat, the best, belongs wholly to Him, picturing Christ our peace and our communion with God.
Read Chapter 3 →Leviticus 4:1-35
The Sin Offering
Atonement for sins of ignorance, graded from the anointed priest to the common person. The bullock burned outside the camp foreshadows Jesus, who suffered without the gate, and over every case falls the promise: it shall be forgiven him.
Read Chapter 4 →Leviticus 5:1-19
Confession and the Trespass Offering
Everyday guilt calls for confession; the offering is scaled so even the poor can be forgiven; and the trespass offering joins atonement to restitution. Christ came with the offering of the poor, bore our guilt, and repaid what we never could.
Read Chapter 5 →Leviticus 6:1-30
The Law of the Offerings
Wronging a neighbor is a trespass against the LORD that calls for restitution; the altar fire must never go out; those who serve the altar live from it; and the most holy offering makes whatever it touches holy, foreshadowing the holiness that flows from Christ.
Read Chapter 6 →Leviticus 7:1-38
The Law of the Peace Offering
The trespass and peace offerings completed: sin and trespass share one law, thanksgiving is eaten fresh, the fat and blood stay God's, and the wave breast and heave shoulder go to the priests, picturing the love and strength of Christ our peace.
Read Chapter 7 →Leviticus 8:1-36
The Consecration of the Priesthood
Aaron and his sons are washed, robed, and anointed, atoned for by sacrifice, and consecrated with blood on the ear, thumb, and toe, then set apart seven days at the door. Every step points to Christ our High Priest and the wholly consecrated life.
Read Chapter 8 →Leviticus 9:1-24
The Glory of the LORD Appears
On the eighth day Aaron offers for himself and the people, lifts his hands to bless, and the glory of the LORD appears to all as fire falls from heaven to consume the sacrifice. The goal of worship is the manifest presence of God, sealed by the fire of His acceptance.
Read Chapter 9 →Leviticus 10:1-20
Strange Fire
Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire and are consumed; Aaron holds his peace. God calls for reverence, clear-headed ministry that divides holy from unholy, and shows compassion to grieving Aaron. Holiness and mercy held together before a consuming-fire God.
Read Chapter 10 →Leviticus 11:1-47
Clean and Unclean
The clean and unclean animals, fins and scales, defilement by contact with death, and the closing call, "be ye holy, for I am holy." The food laws are shadows fulfilled in Christ, yet the holiness they served abides forever.
Read Chapter 11 →Leviticus 12:1-8
Purification After Childbirth
A mother's purification, the eighth-day circumcision, and the offerings that made atonement. The chapter teaches at the cradle that we are born into a fallen race, and points to Mary, who brought the offering of the poor while holding the true Lamb.
Read Chapter 12 →Leviticus 13:1-59
The Law of Leprosy
Leprosy, the Bible's picture of sin: deeper than the skin, spreading, isolating, beyond human cure. Hidden in the law is a gospel paradox, that the one wholly covered is pronounced clean, and a foreshadow of Christ, who touched the leper and made him clean.
Read Chapter 13 →Leviticus 14:1-57
The Cleansing of the Leper
One of the richest gospel pictures in the book: two birds, one slain and one set free, the blood and oil that consecrate the outcast like a priest, cleansing free to the poor, and the leprous house. Death and resurrection, and the far-off made nigh.
Read Chapter 14 →Leviticus 15:1-33
Uncleanness and Cleansing
Bodily discharges and the pervasive defilement of a fallen world, the cleansing in running water, and the woman with an issue of blood, healed when her faith touched Jesus. Its purpose: that a holy God might dwell among His people without ruin.
Read Chapter 15 →Leviticus 16:1-34
The Day of Atonement
The summit of Leviticus: once a year the high priest enters the most holy place with blood, sprinkles the mercy seat, and sends the scapegoat bearing all Israel's sins into the wilderness. Every part is fulfilled in Christ, who put away sin once for all.
Read Chapter 16 →Leviticus 17:1-16
The Life Is in the Blood
All sacrifice to the one altar and never to devils, and the great verse of atonement: "the life of the flesh is in the blood... it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." The oldest law of the altar is the gospel, fulfilled in the precious blood of Christ.
Read Chapter 17 →Leviticus 18:1-30
The Holiness of the Family
A people set apart from Egypt and Canaan, with boundaries of honor around the home and a rejection of the nations' corruptions. God's moral law endures and He judges every nation by it, yet grace washes the guilty clean: "such were some of you: but ye are washed."
Read Chapter 18 →Leviticus 19:1-37
Holy in Everyday Life
"Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy," lived out in love: harvest left for the poor, honest wages and scales, love for the stranger, and the second great commandment, "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Read Chapter 19 →Leviticus 20:1-27
Set Apart to Be His
The penalties that guarded holiness: against Molech and the occult, the seriousness of sin against the family, and the tender heart of it all, "I am the LORD which sanctify you... I have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
Read Chapter 20 →Leviticus 21:1-24
The Holiness of the Priests
The holiness required of the priests and high priest, and the without-blemish requirement for those who offer, a picture of the flawless Christ. Yet the blemished priest still ate the holy bread: in Christ the broken are welcomed to God's table.
Read Chapter 21 →Leviticus 22:1-33
A Perfect Offering
Reverence in handling holy things, the household bought and born that may eat of them, and the great requirement that the offering be "perfect to be accepted... no blemish therein." It all points to the Lamb without blemish, and to the God who says, "I am the LORD which hallow you."
Read Chapter 22 →Leviticus 23:1-44
The Feasts of the LORD
God's sacred calendar: the sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles. Read from this side of the cross, the feasts form a prophetic map fulfilled in Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.
Read Chapter 23 →Leviticus 24:1-23
The Light, the Bread, and the Name
The lamps kept burning continually on pure oil, the twelve loaves of shewbread set before the LORD, the man who blasphemed the holy name, and the law of measured justice for all alike. Christ our Light and Bread, and the holiness of the name.
Read Chapter 24 →Leviticus 25:1-55
The Sabbath Year and the Jubilee
The land's sabbath rest, and the year of Jubilee when the trumpet proclaimed liberty throughout the land: debts released, servants freed, and every family restored. The kinsman-redeemer and the great Jubilee of the gospel, fulfilled in Christ our Redeemer.
Read Chapter 25 →Leviticus 26:1-46
Blessing, Chastening, and Covenant Mercy
The two roads of the covenant: the blessing of obedience crowned by God dwelling among His people, the fatherly chastening of disobedience, the foretold exile fulfilled in history, and the mercy that remembers the covenant and will not cast His people away.
Read Chapter 26 →Leviticus 27:1-34
Vows, the Devoted Thing, and the Tithe
The book closes with the free and grateful giving of a redeemed people: vows and the valuation of persons, the dedication and redemption of property, the devoted thing that is most holy, and the tithe that is the LORD's. Leviticus ends on wholehearted consecration to God.
Read Chapter 27 →