Meaning of ATONEMENT (Day of)

It was kept annually, for the humiliation of the people and atonement for their sins.

That day the high priest offered sacrifices as a purification of the sanctuary, for the priests and for the nation (Lev. 16; 23:26-32; Num. 29:7-11).

The tenth day of the seventh month was kept by the suspension of daily work, by a holy convocation and by fasting, the only fast prescribed by the Law. Only on this day did the high priest enter the "most holy" place (Heb. 9: 7).

To do this he simply dressed in white linen and burned incense so that the smoke covered the mercy seat. Immediately he sprinkled, on the mercy seat and below, the blood of the bull that he had offered for his sins and those of the priests.

Then he re-entered with the victim offered for the sins of the nation and sprinkled his blood on the veil. By means of similar rites he made atonement for the holy place and the altar of sacrifices.

The Epistle to the Hebrews indicates that the entrance of the high priest into the most holy place once a year, and not without blood, prefigured the entrance of Jesus, the great High Priest, once for all in heaven, having acquired for us the salvation (Heb. 9:1-12; and 9:24-28), and with it the forgiveness of sins and the justification of the sinner, making atonement sacrifices useless.