And he said unto Aaron
In the presence of the people of Israel:
take thee a young calf for a sin [offering];
one not exceeding a year old, as in ( Leviticus 9:3 ) but this was not for the sin of making the calf only, to which the Jewish writers restrain it, but for all other sins of his, which it was necessary should be expiated before he offered sacrifices for the sins of others:
and a ram for a burnt offering;
being a strong and innocent creature, was a proper emblem of Christ, the Lamb of God, that takes away by his sacrifice the sins of men:
without blemish;
this character belongs, as Aben Ezra observes, both to the calf and ram, which were both to be without spot, and so proper types of Christ the Lamb without spot and blemish, free both from original and actual sin:
and offer [them] before the Lord;
on the altar of burnt offering, which stood in the court of the tabernacle near where Jehovah was, to whom every sacrifice for sin was to be offered, being committed against him, and whose justice must be satisfied for it.