When the priest had come out from the sprinkling the blood of the
bullock before the mercy-seat, 1. He must next kill the goat which was
the sin-offering for the people (v. 15) and go the third time into the
holy of holies, to sprinkle the blood of the goat, as he had done that
of the bullock; and thus he was to make atonement for the holy place
(v. 16); that is, whereas the people by their sins had provoked God to
take away those tokens of his favourable presence with them, and
rendered even that holy place unfit to be the habitation of the holy
God, atonement was hereby made for sin, that God, being reconciled to
them, might continue with them. 2. He must then do the same for the
outward part of the tabernacle that he had done for the inner room, by
sprinkling the blood of the bullock first, and then that of the goat,
without the veil, where the table and incense-altar stood, eight times
each as before. The reason intimated is because the tabernacle remained
among them in the midst of their uncleanness, v. 16. God would hereby
show them how much their hearts needed to be purified, when even the
tabernacle, only by standing in the midst of such an impure and sinful
people, needed this expiation; and also that even their devotions and
religious performances had much amiss in them, for which it was
necessary that atonement should be made. During this solemnity, none of
the inferior priests must come into the tabernacle (v. 17), but, by
standing without, must own themselves unworthy and unfit to minister
there, because their follies, and defects, and manifold impurities in
their ministry, had made this expiation of the tabernacle necessary. 3.
He must then put some of the blood, both of the bullock and of the goat
mixed together, upon the horns of the altar that is before the Lord, v.
18, 19. It is certain that the altar of incense had this blood put upon
it, for so it is expressly ordered (Exod. xxx. 10); but some think that
this directs the high priest to the altar of burnt-offerings, for that
also is here called the altar before the Lord (v. 12), because he is
said to go out to it, and because it may be presumed that that also had
need of an expiation; for too that the gifts and offerings of the
children of Israel were all brought, from whose uncleanness the altar
is here said to be hallowed.