16 And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt: and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron which were left alive, saying,

17 Wherefore have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord?

18 Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place: ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded.

Moses examined the work of the priests’ first sin offering, and it appears that an error was made. A portion of the sin offering was to be burned upon the altar, and a portion given to the priests to eat. From the sound of it, Eleazar and Ithamar had burned the entirety of the offering and had not eaten any of it, and Moses was not pleased at all with this turn of events.

Interestingly, Moses here reinforces one of the symbols meant by the priest eating their portion of the sin offering: to bear the iniquity of the congregation. It is clear that eating the sin offering is eating the sin, it is taking the follies of others as your own burden, which is exactly what every great leader must do. They must bear the flaws of their people, to then find a way to atone and make things right again.

What is more, it sounds as though the blood was not spread upon the horns of the altar, as was also required. This was, no doubt, a tense moment, given the dramatic condemnation brought upon Nadab and Abihu for their earlier trespass. But as we will see in tomorrow’s verses, Aaron has an explanation that will calm the tension down.