Leviticus 16:34

34. For all their sins Though this day is appointed by God as the day for the forgiveness of sins, no such end can be reached except by true repentance and the firm determination not to sin any more. As is stated in Tr. Yoma, 85 b: “He who yieldeth to sin in the supposition that the day of atonement will bring him forgiveness, will find no forgiveness on this day. And only the sins committed by man against God can be atoned for on this day; as to the sins, however, between man and man, this day is powerless to remove them until the offender has appeased the offended.” Since there were many sins and “errors” (Greek, ignorances, Hebrews 9:7) for which there had been no specific expiation in the Levitical code, and many which had been neglected, there was need of one general expiation once each year. See Leviticus 16:9, note. “If the law were not spiritual, atonement would not be so absolutely necessary. That any one could keep the law, and thereby merit the favour of God, never entered the thought of the lawgiver. Its immediate purpose was only to excite a sense of the need of redemption. In this view, the law was only παιδαγωγος εις Χριστον ,” (a child-leader unto Christ.) Hengstenberg. For a reply to Baehr’s denial of the substitutional nature of the Mosaic sacrifices, see Numbers 15:0, concluding note. “To a God of infinite benevolence, justice, and holiness, nothing can compensate for sin save the removal of sinfulness from the heart of the sinner; nothing make room for forgiveness save the establishment of a principle of daily life actually operating and assuring that removal. Wherefore the willing self-sacrifice of the innocent for the guilty is admissible in God’s plan of salvation, not as an end satisfactory in itself, but as a means for effecting that real, practical removal of sin by the destruction of sinfulness, which will justify a just and holy God for pardoning and forgetting the sins of the past. To this principle nothing else in the whole Mosaic ritual so plainly points as does the feast of atonement. In the death of its victims it repeated the daily lesson of bloody sacrifices; while in its liberated offering it set forth the crowning truth, that even self-sacrifice can expiate sins committed only in so far as it removes ’sends away for Azazel’ the disposition to commit sins.” Geo. W. Cable.

And he that is, Aaron, to whom Moses was directed to communicate this command did as the Lord commanded. This bit of history must have been added at least seven months after the dedication of the tabernacle, when Nadab and Abihu were slain and the precepts of this chapter were given. The first day of atonement was after the rebellion at Kadesh-Barnea. Compare Leviticus 9:23; Leviticus 10:1, with Exodus 40:17, and Introduction to Numbers, (4.)