لاويين ١٠

Nadab and Abihu took their censers (machtah, Exo 25:38), and having put fire in them, placed incense thereon, and brought strange fire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them. It is not very clear what the offence of which they were guilty actually was. The majority of expositors suppose the sin to have consisted in the fact, that they did not take the fire for the incense from the altar-fire. But this had not yet been commanded by God; and in fact it is never commanded at all, except with regard to the incense-offering, with which the high priest entered the most holy place on the day of atonement (Lev 16:12), though we may certainly infer from this, that it was also the rule for the daily incense-offering. By the fire which they offered before Jehovah, we are no doubt to understand the firing of the incense-offering. This might be called "strange fire" if it was not offered in the manner prescribed in the law, just as in Exo 30:9 incense not prepared according to the direction of God is called "strange incense." The supposition that they presented an incense-offering that was not commanded in the law, and apart from the time of the morning and evening sacrifice, and that this constituted their sin, is supported by the time at which their illegal act took place. It is perfectly obvious from Lev 10:12. and 16ff. that it occurred in the interval between the sacrificial transaction in ch. 9 and the sacrificial meal which followed it, and therefore upon the day of their inauguration. For in Lev 10:12 Moses commands Aaron and his remaining sons Eleazar and Ithamar to eat the meat-offering that was left from the firings of Jehovah, and inquires in Lev 10:16 for the goat of the sin-offering, which the priests were to have eaten in a holy place. Knobel's opinion is not…

Here is, I. The great sin that Nadab and Abihu were guilty of: and a great sin we must call it, how little soever it appears in our eye, because it is evident by the punishment of it that it was highly provoking to the God of heaven, whose judgment, we are sure, is according to truth. But what was their sin? All the account here given of it is that they offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not (Lev 10:1), and the same Num 3:4. 1. It does not appear the they had any orders to burn incense at all at this time. It is true their consecration was completed the day before, and it was part of their work, as priests, to serve at the altar of incense; but, it should seem, the whole service of this solemn day of inauguration was to be performed by Aaron himself, for he slew the sacrifices (Lev 9:8, Lev 9:15, Lev 9:18), and his sons were only to attend him (Lev 10:9, Lev 10:12, Lev 10:18); therefore Moses and Aaron only went into the tabernacle, v. 23. But Nadab and Abihu were so proud of the honour they were newly advanced to, and so ambitious of doing the highest and most honourable part of their work immediately, that though the service of this day was extraordinary, and done by particular direction from Moses, yet without receiving orders, or so much as asking leave from him, they took their censers, and they would enter into the tabernacle, at the door of which they thought they had attended long enough, and would burn incense. And then their offering strange fire is the same with offering strange incense, which is expressly forbidden, Exo 30:9. Moses, we may suppose, had the custody of the incense which was prepared for this purpose (Exo 39:38), and they, doing this without his leave, had none of the incense which should have been offered, but common…

10:1-20 A fire was to burn constantly on the bronze altar (6:9) to supply coals for burning incense (16:12). Perhaps careless from drinking wine (10:8-11), Nadab and Abihu took coals from another source. This violation of God’s instruction resulted in their deaths. 10:1 Aaron’s two older sons, Nadab and Abihu (Exod 6:23), had accompanied Moses and the seventy elders on Mount Sinai (Exod 24:1, 9) and had witnessed the great theophany (appearance of God) there. They died without male heirs (see also Exod 28:1; Num 3:2-4; 26:60-61; 1 Chr 6:3; 24:1-2). • The incense burners were fire pans or trays that held hot coals. Incense was sprinkled on them (Exod 30:34-38; see also Lev 16:12-13; 2 Chr 26:19; Rev 8:3-4). • The wrong kind of fire (Hebrew ’esh zarah, “strange fire”) could mean “foreign,” and thus “unauthorized” (see Exod 30:9) or even “pagan” (as in Ps 44:20; 81:9). Apparently, Nadab and Abihu used fire from a source not approved by God (Num 3:4; 26:61), possibly even a pagan source. It is also possible that they offered incense not prepared according to God’s specifications (Exod 30:34-38), although the text does not mention that. They did not enter God’s presence on his terms but on their own.