Leviticus 6:12

Hebrew Bible

10 Then the priest must put on his linen robe and must put linen leggings over his bare flesh, and he must take up the fatty ashes of the burnt offering that the fire consumed on the altar, and he must place them beside the altar. 11 Then he must take off his clothes and put on other clothes, and he must bring the fatty ashes outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place, 12 but the fire which is on the altar must be kept burning on it. It must not be extinguished. So the priest must kindle wood on it morning by morning, and he must arrange the burnt offering on it and offer the fat of the peace offering up in smoke on it. 13 A continual fire must be kept burning on the altar. It must not be extinguished. 14 “‘This is the law of the grain offering. The sons of Aaron are to present it before the Lord in front of the altar,

Nehemiah 10:34

Hebrew Bible

32 We accept responsibility for fulfilling the commands to give one-third of a shekel each year for the work of the temple of our God, 33 for the loaves of presentation and for the regular grain offerings and regular burnt offerings, for the Sabbaths, for the new moons, for the appointed meetings, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the temple of our God. 34We—the priests, the Levites, and the people—have cast lots concerning the wood offerings, to bring them to the temple of our God according to our families at the designated times year by year to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as is written in the law. 35 We also accept responsibility for bringing the firstfruits of our land and the firstfruits of every fruit tree year by year to the temple of the Lord. 36 We also accept responsibility, as is written in the law, for bringing the firstborn of our sons and our cattle and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks to the temple of our God, to the priests who are ministering in the temple of our God.

 Notes and References

"... The sociopolitical divisions of ancient Israel are described by ēdâ, 'congregation'; môēd, 'national assembly'; maṭṭeh, 'tribe'; elep, 'clan'; nā, 'chieftain'; terms which cease being used after the 9th century. Even more compelling is the term ăbōdâ which in the Tetrateuch (Genesis-Numbers only means 'physical work' and is the occupation not of the priests but of the Levites, whereas in the post-exilic literature (e.g. Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles) it means 'cultic service', the occupation of the priests. However, these two meanings are mutually exclusive: Levites perform cultic service on pain of death. Thus, the fact the ăbōdâ is ascribed only to Levites in Numbers whereas in the Second Temple period priests alone are permitted to do ăbōdâ ineluctably leads to the conclusion that Levitic ăbōdâ is a preexilic phenomenon ... ḥallâ, 'loaf', which appears only in the Priestly texts and in 2 Samuel 6:19, is changed to the frequently attested kikkār when the latter passage is cited in 2 Chronicles 16:3, and leḥem tām, 'regular bread', leḥem pān, 'display bread' in the Priestly texts (e.g., Exodus 25:30; 35:13) and in the early narratives (1 Samuel 21:5; 1 Kings 7:48 [= 2 Chronicles 4:19]) is always referred to in post-exilic books by the term maăreket (e.g., Nehemiah 10:34; 2 Chronicles 2:3) ..."

Freedman, David Noel The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (pp. 6455-6456) Yale University Press, 2008

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.