Exodus 29:2

And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Unleavened bread.—Unleavened bread seems to have been required as purer than leavened, since fermentation was viewed as a species of corruption.

Cakes . . . tempered with oil.—Rather, cakes that have had oil poured over them. A tolerably thick cake is intended.

Wafers.—These were cakes, or biscuits, extremely thin and unsubstantial, as is implied by the etymology of the term used. Oil is commonly eaten with cakes of both kinds by the Orientals.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 29:2. Unleavened bread — To signify that both themselves and their services must be sincere, and free from all hypocrisy and wickedness. Cakes tempered with oil — Denoting that all their oblations and services must be under the influence of divine grace. Wheaten flour — The best part of the principal grain, to show that God must be served with the best.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

29:1-37 Aaron and his sons were to be set apart for the priest's office, with ceremony and solemnity. Our Lord Jesus is the great High Priest of our profession, called of God to be so; anointed with the Spirit, whence he is called Messiah, the Christ; clothed with glory and beauty; sanctified by his own blood; made perfect, or consecrated through sufferings, Heb 2:10. All believers are spiritual priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices,

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That they bear not iniquity and die - See Exodus 28:35, note; Exodus 28:38 note.

The consecration of the priests. See the notes to Leviticus 8-9.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 29

Ex 29:1-35. Consecrating the Priests and the Altar.

1. hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office—The act of inaugurating the priests was accompanied by ceremonial solemnities well calculated not only to lead the people to entertain exalted views of the office, but to impress those functionaries themselves with a profound sense of its magnitude and importance. In short, they were taught to know that the service was for them as well as for the people; and every time they engaged in a new performance of their duties, they were reminded of their personal interest in the worship, by being obliged to offer for themselves, before they were qualified to offer as the representatives of the people.

this is the thing that thou shalt do—Steps are taken at the beginning of a society, which would not be repeated when the social machine was in full motion; and Moses, at the opening of the tabernacle, was employed to discharge functions which in later periods would have been regarded as sacrilege and punished with instant death. But he acted under the special directions of God.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The unleavened bread was to show that the priests should be, and that Christ really was, free from all malice and hypocrisy, both which are compared to leaven, Luke 12:1 1 Corinthians 5:8, and that all the services offered to God by the priests were to be pure and unmixed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And unleavened bread,.... Such as used to be eaten at the time of the passover, and this being distinguished from cakes and wafers, after mentioned, shows that this was bread of a larger size, a loaf or loaves of bread, see Exodus 29:3.

and cakes unleavened, tempered with oil; these were made of flour mixed with oil, but without leaven, and were a lesser and thinner sort of bread than the former:

and wafers unleavened, anointed with oil; with oil olive, the best of oil, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so Aben Ezra; these were a thinner sort of bread still, somewhat like our pancakes; and they were anointed with oil after the baking of them, and in the form of the Greek "chi", as Jarchi says, or of a St. Andrew's or Burgundian cross:

of wheaten flour shall thou make them; of the finest of the wheat, for these were to be the food of Aaron and his sons, who were now to be invested with an high and honourable office, and were to live according to the dignity of it; and these being all unleavened, may denote that sincerity, simplicity, and integrity that ought to be found in them, in the discharge of their office, and which were in Christ in full perfection; as well as soundness in doctrine, life, and manners, being free from all leaven of false doctrine, hypocrisy, and malice; and likewise what is expected of the same kind in all the saints, who, under the Gospel dispensation, are all of them priests unto God, and whose food is the finest of the wheat, Christ the bread of life.

Geneva Study Bible

And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Three kinds of biscuit, for the minḥâh, or meal-offering (see on Leviticus 2.), accompanying the installation-offering: viz. (1) bread of unleavened cakes, see on Exodus 12:15; (2) perforated cakes (EB. i. 460) unleavened, mingled with oil, see on Leviticus 2:4; and (3) wafers (large, circular, very thin cakes: see EB. i. 605; L. and B. iii. 219 f.), unleavened, anointed with oil, see also on Leviticus 2:4.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2 - Unleavened bread was regarded as purer than leavened, since fermentation is a sort of corruption. See the comment on Exodus 12:15. Cakes tempered with oil. Literally, "mixed with oil," i.e., having oil as one of their ingredients, in contrast with the wafers, which had oil poured over them. Exodus 29:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Consecration of Aaron and his Sons through the anointing of their persons and the offering of sacrifices, the directions for which form the subject of vv. 1-35. This can only be fully understood in connection with the sacrificial law contained in Leviticus 1-7. It will be more advisable therefore to defer the examination of this ceremony till we come to Leviticus 8, where the consecration itself is described. The same may also be said of the expiation and anointing of the altar, which are commanded in Exodus 29:36 and Exodus 29:37, and carried out in Leviticus 8:11.