“Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: the burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning; and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 9. Holocaust. The regulations respecting it, as they regard the priests, are here given, as Calmet. 1 directions were given to those who represent the victims.—Morning. All the parts of the victim were not laid on at the same time. The like was observed during the day also, when no other sacrifices were to be offered on this altar.—Of the same, not strange, unhallowed fire, but such as was kept continually burning on the altar of holocausts, as the Hebrew intimates; “the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.” During the marches in the desert, it is not written how this fire was preserved. The Persians believed that their eternal fire came down from heaven, and the vestal virgins kept their sacred fire at Rome, with superstitious care. Theophrastus (ap. Euseb. præp. i. 9,) mentions the keeping of fire in the temples, as one of the most ancient rites of religion.