Tyndale Open Study NotesLeviticus 10

A fire was to burn all the time on the bronze altar. Its coals were to be used for burning incense (Leviticus 6:9; 16:12). Nadab and Abihu, perhaps careless because they had been drinking wine (10:8–11), took coals from another place. This broke God’s command, and they died as a result.

• Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu (Exodus 6:23): These were Aaron's oldest sons who had gone with Moses and the seventy elders to Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:1, 9). They also saw the great theophany (appearance of God) there. They died without male children (see also Exodus 28:1; Numbers 3:2–4; 26:60–61; 1 Chronicles 6:3; 24:1–2).

• censers: These were fire pans or trays for holding hot coals. They sprinkled incense on them (Exodus 30:34–38; see also Leviticus 16:12–13; 2 Chronicles 26:19; Revelation 8:3–4).

• unauthorized fire: The Hebrew phrase ’esh zarah means “strange fire.” This could mean “foreign,” and thus “unauthorized” (see Exodus 30:9) or even “pagan” (as in Psalm 44:20; 81:9).

  It seems that Nadab and Abihu used fire from a source not approved by God (Numbers 3:4; 26:61). It could have been even a pagan source. They might have offered incense not prepared according to God's instructions (Exodus 30:34–38). The text does not mention that though. They entered God’s presence in their own way, not his.

In Leviticus 9:24, the fire showed God's acceptance. Now, it shows his disapproval by causing the death of Nadab and Abihu. They had shown a careless attitude toward worshiping God (compare Acts 5:1–11).

God's holiness is central to his character, different from the world of creatures. By acting recklessly, Nadab and Abihu ignored God's holiness and did not honor him.

• Mishael and Elzaphan…uncle Uzziel: See Exodus 6:18, 22.

• carry the bodies of your cousins: Aaron, the high priest, and the priests Eleazar and Ithamar could not touch a dead person because it would make them ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 10:6; 21:10–12).

They carried the bodies by their clothes to avoid contamination.

• Eleazar and Ithamar were Aaron’s two remaining sons (Exodus 6:23).

• let your hair become disheveled: In biblical times, this and similar practices showed grief (see Genesis 37:29; 44:13; Deuteronomy 14:1; 2 Samuel 1:11; Job 1:20; Jeremiah 16:6; 47:5). As high priest, Aaron could not participate in these ceremonies or show his grief (Leviticus 21:10). This rule also applied to Eleazar and Ithamar. If God’s representatives had shown grief, people might have thought they disagreed with God’s justice. But the common people were allowed to mourn.

• Eleazar and Ithamar could not attend the funeral.

• the LORD’s anointing oil: They had recently become priests (see Leviticus 7:36), so they had to avoid any contact with the dead.

• The placement of this instruction suggests that Nadab and Abihu might have been drinking alcohol when they offered the "unauthorized fire" (Leviticus 10:1). Priests should not drink anything that could impair their judgment before serving in the tabernacle.

• the Lord said to Aaron: Previously, God communicated only with Moses, but now he accepted Aaron as the people's representative and spoke directly to him.

• The word common means "secular" or "ordinary."

• clean and the unclean: See Leviticus 7:19–21; 11:1–15:33.

God's decrees were laws given directly by God, not decided by a human court.

• the grain offering: This was part of the ordination ceremony (see Leviticus 8:26; Exodus 29:2, 23).

• without leaven beside the altar, because it is most holy: Moses wanted to be certain no fermentation had occurred in the priest's portion of the grain offering (Leviticus 6:14–18).

The priest's share of the grain, sin, and guilt offerings was "most holy" (see Leviticus 2:3; 6:29; 7:6). Only the males in the priest's family could eat it. They had to eat it in a holy place, like the tabernacle court. Yet, the priest's portion of the peace offering was only "holy." Any family member could eat it in any clean place (22:10–13).

The goat of the sin offering was the offering for the people (Leviticus 9:3, 15–17; compare 9:2, 8–11). On this special occasion, the priests did not take the blood into the Holy Place as usually required. After offering the parts meant for God, the priests should have eaten the remaining portion (see 6:29). But they burned the entire goat, even though its blood had not entered the sanctuary (10:18; see 6:30).

Since these things have happened to me: Aaron may have meant two things. He could have been saying that eating the goat of the sin offering would not have stopped the deaths of Nadab and Abihu. Or he may have meant that it was not right for him to eat it immediately after such a painful event.