Leviticus 9:12

The Burnt Offering for the Priests

9:12 He then slaughtered the burnt offering, and his sons handed the blood to him and he splashed it against the altar’s sides.


tn For smoothness in the English translation, “his” was used in place of “Aaron’s.”

tn The verb is a Hiphil form of מָצָא, matsa’, “to find” (i.e., causative, literally “to cause to find,” but here the meaning is “to hand to” or “pass to”; see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 117-18, and J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:581-82). The distinction between this verb and “presented” in v. 9 above (see the note there) is that in v. 9 Aaron’s sons held the bowl while Aaron manipulated some of the blood at the altar, while here in v. 12 they simply handed the bowl to him so he could splash all the blood around on the altar (Milgrom, 581).

tn For “splashed” (also in v. 18) see the note on Lev 1:5.