“On this day atonement will be made”
Leviticus 16:30
Cultural referenceSettledGod
because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. (Leviticus 16:30 BSB)
* The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the one day a year the high priest entered the Most Holy Place; it remains the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
What it sounds like today
A line about a yearly religious observance.
The cultural key
This is the climax of Israel's calendar: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the single day each year the high priest passed through the veil into the Most Holy Place with sacrificial blood. The nation fasted and 'afflicted' itself while its accumulated guilt was purged and the sanctuary itself cleansed. It is still the most solemn day of the Jewish year. The book of Hebrews frames Christ's work against exactly this ritual: one priest, entering once, into the true sanctuary, with his own blood.
Recovered meaning
One day a year, one priest, behind the veil, made the whole nation clean. The New Testament reads the entire scene as a shadow of Christ, who enters the true holy place once and for all.
Parallels: Leviticus 23:27; Hebrews 9:7–12